The short hand version of modern American evangelism is “believe in Jesus and He will save you from your sins.”  Whereas this statement is true in a sense, it is untrue in another sense.  John MacArthur dealt with this in his book The Gospel According to Jesus . Critics call it “Lordship salvation” because it affirms  “Jesus is Lord” i.e., king, and that it is a call to obedience, while critics say:  “all you have to do is believe.”  A short-hand version of MacArthur’s position is:  there is no place for “easy believism.”

Modern evangelism appears to be shaped more by our culture than the Bible.  I do not mean to be uncharitable to others for I know I have been guilty of this to a degree—we almost seem to be apologetic in our evangelism style.  This seems to require self-examination on my part, which brings to mind my paraphrase of Martin Luther’s first of ninety five theses:  life is all about repenting, and this is my confession.

My confession is that I really did not appreciate the power of the “kingship” approach; however, I am fully converted, and I believe the following discussion on Luke 18 and 19 will show why I am a believer.  In any case, the “believe in Jesus and He will save you from your sins” gospel falls short of the gospel preached by Jesus.  I will begin by showing that Jesus really does not follow the modern formula. Next, I will endeavor to show that the gospel according to Jesus is preached from the perspective of His kingship.

Jesus preaches the gospel as king, and as such He is the sovereign lord who demands obedience from His servants.  It is telling that the gospel according to Jesus does not say “believe in me and I will save you from your sins.”  It is strange to modern hears to hear Jesus speak about obedience in connection with salvation—maybe this is why the church fathers seemed to focus more on obedience than grace, per se.  Interestingly, Jesus often connects faith with healing, with not being afraid of the circumstances of life, with acts of faith, i.e., the mountain will be cast into the sea, etc., but the preponderance of Jesus’ mention of faith is in healing, which is fascinating.  I do not find a significant difference when I search for the word “believe” in lieu of faith.  I find it interesting that Mark 16:16-17 (“whoever believes and is baptized will be saved”) comes the closest to the modern day formula—and these verses are not in the earliest manuscripts.  The gospel according to John comes close in 3:18 when Jesus says:  “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God”—see John 6:29 for a similar statement.  Strange as it may sound to the modern ear, the reality is that in the gospel according to John, Jesus spends most of his time talking about their lack of belief, such as 4:48:  “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”  My point is that Jesus did not use our formula; rather, his method tended to go to the heart of where people were missing the kingdom of God—Jesus seems to lack the modern sense of desperation in presenting the gospel, i.e., we paint a picture of God practically begging people to enter the kingdom, whereas Jesus seems to be at least mildly confrontational with prospects.

Jesus comes at evangelism from a different perspective than most modern Americans, which is to say:  Jesus comes to evangelism as a king coming into his kingdom.  What does this even mean?  The gospel according to Luke expresses it well in chapters 18 and 19.  Bear in mind that Luke is taking factual stories out of the life of Jesus and making a theological point via how the stories are arranged.

We begin with Luke 18:18 and the story of the rich young ruler. The context of Luke 18 and 19 is that Jesus has been giving the Pharisees and the disciples object lessons on the new covenant. The rich young ruler story is a prime example of my proposal.  Let us examine the formula that Jesus uses when the rich young ruler askes him “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Does Jesus respond:  “believe in me and everything will be okay?” If Jesus were using the modern formula, he certainly would not have responded as he does in verse 20:  “you know the commandments…”  In this case, Jesus goes to the heart of the man’s issue:  his love of money.  In Luke 16:13, Jesus declares to the Pharisees that “you cannot serve both God and money” and this idea is rolled forward to the rich young ruler story.

As the story goes, the young man states that he has kept the commandments and Jesus doesn’t dispute with him; however, Jesus goes on to say:  “believe in me and you will have everlasting life”…except he doesn’t say that.  Rather, he says:  “One thing you lack.  Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”

This type of salvation formula sounds nothing like the modern, American version.  Jesus did not beat up the young man, but he did point out that he was in violation of the first commandment.  Why?  He loved money more than he loved God. The man’s lack of faith was put on public display as he refused to follow the command of the king.

What a strange way to recommend salvation!  “Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor.”  How would such a formula sell in modern America?  I don’t know, but it does give one pause.

Luke clarifies the kingship approach as he continues into chapter 19. Luke will continue to build the case that Jesus approaches evangelism from His perspective as king, and, as we all know, a king makes laws that his servants are to follow.

Luke follows up the rejection Jesus receives at the hands of the rich young ruler with 18:31-34, which foreshadows the murder of Jesus.  By placing this story next to the rich young ruler, it serves the literary purpose of foreshadowing that the rulers of Israel are to be the ones to murder Jesus.

Luke continues his tight literary arrangement by bringing the kingship of Jesus to our attention in the story of the healing of the blind beggar—18:35-43.  How does this man address Jesus?  “Son of David, have mercy on me.”  “Son of David” is a kingly title and it is Luke’s way of rolling forward the Davidic covenant.  While this is a story of healing, it also speaks to us of salvation. There is no mention of salvation in this story, but it can be seen metaphorically (I once was blind, but now I see…) for blindness is a biblical metaphor for sin.  This is one of those examples mentioned above where Jesus uses the word “faith” in the context of healing:  “recover your sight, your faith has made you well.”  There is no question that faith and healing go together, but in the context, i.e., salvation stories of the rich young ruler and Zacchaeus, faith is shown to be a necessary condition of salvation (though faith is not always a necessary condition to healing–see John 5 and the story of the man at the pool of Bethesda).  This intermediary story does not fit the modern formula for evangelism, after all, it involves a healing by the king as a sign of the kingdom of God; however, when this story is read in connection with the greater passage of Luke 18 and 19, we can see it for what it is:  a statement that faith in the king is necessary for salvation.

Luke closes the loop on the story of the rich young ruler by giving us a comparison in contrast beginning in 19:1-10—otherwise known as the story of Zacchaeus.  Following the literary flow of the three stories, we have a rich man who declares himself to be good but isn’t, a blind man (metaphorically representing a sinner) in extreme poverty who has faith, and Zacchaeus who is an admitted sinner repenting of his evil ways.  The young man and Zacchaeus are both rich but their response to King Jesus is radically different.  Jesus commands the young man to sell everything and give it to the poor, but who actually does it?  Zacchaeus.  Jesus declares in 19:9:  “Today salvation has come to this house.”  Strangely, there is no mention of faith in the Zacchaeus story—again, a clear deviation from the modern gospel.  What we do find in the Zacchaeus story is obedience to the king–shorthand for faith.  In other words, Zacchaeus believed in Jesus and that is why he says:  “I am giving away half of all my goods to the poor.”  There is a sense in which these two factual stories roll forward the parable of the prodigal son and the older brother—Zacchaeus is the prodigal and the rich young ruler is the older brother.

Luke removes all doubt as to Jesus and his approach to salvation.  We find this immediately after the story of Zacchaeus in 19:11-27 as Jesus tells a parable about his incarnation:  “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return.”  This is the story of the incarnation–this is Jesus’ story.  It is fascinating that there is no mention of the Passion in this story, though in fairness, Luke has just mentioned it in 18:31-34.  Luke introduces the parable as an explanation of the reality that this first advent is not for the earthly reign of Jesus.  Luke clarifies in verse 15 that the nobleman will be coming back, i.e., the Second Advent, in a visit that is dramatically different from the first.

In the first visit, the newly crowned king faces rebellion from his servants in verse 14 AFTER he has issued commandments regarding what they were to do, i.e., to manage his assets.  Note that ten servants and ten minas can be interpreted spiritually–ten being the biblical number for law and judgment.  In other words, the giving of the minas in the parable serves as a commandment given to test their obedience. This parable echoes John 1:11 which says:  “He came to his own, but his own people did not receive him.”  In the parable,  verse 19:14 makes clear that the servants hate him and do not want him to reign over them; however, this does not appear to be a wise response to the King for:  “as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.”  This is a picture of the judgment of the wicked at the end of the present age when King Jesus returns to earth to rule.

Interestingly, Luke follows this story with the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem where they say in 19:38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”

The gist of Jesus’ presentation of the gospel is that he expects faith to be accompanied by obedience, and he, as king, has every right to expect it.  Note that these are not works that earn salvation for salvation is always by faith; rather, this concept rolls forward Genesis 22 where Yahweh commands Father Abraham to sacrifice Isaac as a test of Abraham’s faith.  Jesus always goes to the heart of the problem by rooting out our idols that stand between us and him.