GRACE AMBASSADORS
MINISTRY UPDATE

Start with the Gospel

People ask me, “How do I epxlain right division to a __________ ?”

Inserted in the blank are Calvinists, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, and even Atheists.

(You say, “Why would an atheist need to know right division?” Simply because the failure to rightly divide has created some atheists by the resulting Bible confusion.)

My most frequent response is, “Start with the gospel.”

If they have a clear understanding of the gospel, then they have already chosen to believe the preaching of the cross, and not the gospel of the kingdom, even if they don’t understand that difference.

Most likely, however, you will hear a muddled, incomplete, missing, or distorted gospel.

At this point you have the opportunity to testify to the clear gospel of grace and ask if they trust Christ’s finished work and nothing more and nothing less for their salvation. (This is called evangelizing.)

Now you have created an easy platform for a good conversation about the gospel of salvation: the most important doctrine to a dying world, and to learning the Bible rightly divided.

The gospel is not a trivial issue and most every abberant teaching affects the gospel in some way. Fix the gospel, then the aberrant doctrine will go away.

Right division clarifies the gospel. To introduce right division to your friends, start with the clarity of the gospel.

For His glory,

Justin “gospel first” Johnson