© May 9, 2001 by Bernie L. Gillespie All Rights Reserved.¹

        We move to another important question we must ask concerning the plan of salvation. Is the biblical focus concerning the plan of salvation on God’s glory and what great things He has done through Christ? Or is it on what we must do to deserve or receive salvation?  This is the larger question in the issue of the plan of salvation and one’s understanding of Biblical theology (the over-arching theology of the Bible). We need to ask, “How does one’s Biblical theology shape one’s view of soteriology?” (the theology of salvation). I don’t intend to “snow” the reader with high sounding terminology. My intent is to share concepts that will help us to grasp the deeper issues and problems. What I mean is: How one perceives the meaning and flow of the doctrines of salvation throughout the whole of Scripture will directly determine how one defines New Testament salvation. It will also regulate how one interprets each particular (favorite) passage used in constructing one’s definition of salvation.   

Reenactment is By Our Works 

            For example, if one understands that, from the Old to the New Testament, salvation consists of following certain qualifications to achieve acceptance with God, then New Testament texts, such as Acts 2:38, would be interpreted as “steps” of obedience in order to gain salvation. On the other hand, if one sees that the coming of Christ was a radical shift in God’s approach to salvation (John 1:29). And if one sees that Humanity’s attempt to achieve salvation through obedience to the Law was a failure (Romans 3) until God came and lived the Law perfectly in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19). And if one sees that only Christ is qualified before God (Matthew 3:17; John 8:29) through obedience to the Law (Romans 10:3-11). Then, salvation will be understood as a work performed by Christ (Hebrews 9:2-28; 10:10) and offered to Humanity out of the grace of God (Ephesians 2:5-9), and it must be received by faith alone (Romans 4, 5). The focus will be on the greatness of the gift offered and not on the status, conditions or responses of the receiver of the gift. One will then interpret Acts 2:38 more as responses of gratitude than as “how to get saved.” It is a confession or recital of what Jesus has accomplished, rather than a reenacting of some portion of Jesus’ life that we accomplish through our obedience.  

            The idea that Acts 2:38 is our death, burial and resurrection, as suggested by some,² implies that the plan of salvation consists of our reenacting the work of Christ, rather than our trusting in the plan which Jesus followed. It is said that one “obeys the Gospel” by obeying Acts 2:38 because one repeats in one’s own life the  death, burial and resurrection of Jesus through repentance, water baptism and Spirit baptism: 

Obedience to the gospel is absolutely essential to salvation. It is impossible for a man to be saved unless he obeys the truth. . . . Just as disobedience ends with judgment and death, so obedience to the gospel results in eternal life. . . . It is impossible to be in Christ unless we are willing to be obedient to the gospel. There is only one gospel which will save a soul. There is only one way which was provided at Calvary. There is the clear choice of either accepting and obeying this one message of truth, or continuing on down the broad road to a lost eternity. There is no neutral ground. There is no way to have peace with God except by surrendering, and submitting our wills to His and obeying.³

             Certainly, I do not assert that the UPCI teaches that Jesus dies, is buried, and is resurrected every time Acts 2:38 is followed. That would be foolish. They would say that Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection are finished and past events. However, the UPCI does not believe that it is sufficient to merely look in faith to Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection as for one’s acceptance before God. They say that, although Jesus made salvation available, we must still appropriate or apply (these words are red flags) it through obedience to Acts 2:38. This makes following Acts 2:38 just as necessary for salvation as what Jesus did. It is a reenactment of Christ’s work because the steps of Acts 2:38 are considered part of the saving work of Jesus 

Obeying Acts 2:38 is not salvation by works. Repentance, water baptism, and the Holy Spirit baptism are not works of man that earn salvation, but works of God that accomplish salvation in us.⁴ 

            Is this biblically sound? Many, including this writer, would say not: 

The church in every age is in danger of confusing the ‘gospel’ of reenactment with the gospel of rehearsal. ⁵ 

Reenactment Impossible 

            Reenactment is impossible because Jesus died once to sin. He rose only once. We do not repeat or reenact Jesus’ death, burial or resurrection. We, on an individual level, simply trust in, confess and rehearse it. We rehearse it in water baptism. We rehearse it in the Lord’s Supper. We rehearse it in the preaching of the Gospel every week.  We rehearse it in worship by exalting the work of Christ rather than focusing on our own actions or experiences. We rehearse it in living lives dead to sin, but alive to God through Jesus Christ. In repentance we turn from what we could not do, to accept and claim what God has done for us. Water baptism is not an application of the death of Jesus but a recital that shows forth the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord. It was done for us two thousand years ago. We cannot distort or pervert holy baptism by making it a way to qualify people for salvation. Water baptism is the telling of the Gospel of Jesus in visual, tangible language, not the means of obtaining salvation.  Our salvation was obtained by Jesus on that Cross long ago. 

            The means of salvation is humble faith IN Christ, not obedience TO baptism. We do not baptize out of fear of falling short of salvation. We baptize, not to recreate or reenact Christ’s work, but to symbolically show what He has done. Christians go wrong when they turn from reciting the Gospel to reenacting the Gospel through baptism. This is where “salvation is not said to be by God’s act outside us in Christ, but by its reenactment in us.”⁶ We are commanded to baptize because, it shows that we fell far short by our sin, but Jesus saves us to the uttermost through his freely taking away our sins on the Cross. He ever lives to make intercession for us! 

            Receiving the Holy Spirit is not something that we do to get saved. It is a gift, given to those who trust in the finished work of Christ alone. Instead of laboring in prayer at an altar for days and weeks trying to “get the Holy Ghost” so that one can know they are saved, the Bible teaches that we are given the Holy Spirit when we trust in Christ. We “get” the Spirit when we “get” Christ (Ephesians 1:13). How could it be otherwise? It is impossible to have Christ and still be missing something essential to our salvation. The “fulness” is in Christ. 

From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. (John 1:16 NIV) 

[W]hich is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:23 NIV) 

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, (Colossians 1:19 NIV) 

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority. (Col. 2:9, 10 NIV) 

            When we truly trust in Jesus Christ, we receive the fullness of the Spirit just as much as we receive the fullness of cleansing for our sins. Jesus said that by believing on Him He gives us the Spirit: 

He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) John 7:38, 39 KJV 

            Notice very carefully: The Spirit comes not through believing in or for the Spirit. It does not come by seeking the Spirit. God does not give the Spirit directly to those who meet certain conditions.  This is what Jesus taught us: We believe in Him; He gives the Spirit to us. This is the Scriptural relationship between Christ and the Spirit. This is what we do to receive the Holy Ghost. No arduous labor of praying, seeking, struggling and striving in order to experience the Spirit or to speak in tongues. Instead, one rejoices because Jesus ascended to Heaven in power and victory to poured out His Spirit on those who trust in Him. As His children we have been given the Spirit of Adoption through faith in Him. (More about this in “What Does It Mean to be ‘Born Again’?” and “Can the Gospel Be Fractured?”)  

“Finished Work” of Christ Cannot Be Reenacted 

            We must realize that the work of Christ on this earth is finished. It cannot be repeated or reenacted: 

When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. (John 19:30 KJV). 

So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:28 KJV). 

            The phrase “it is finished” comes from the single Greek word tetelistai, which means to fulfill, accomplish or complete. If there is anything we can say about the work of Christ on Calvary, it is complete, it is perfect. It cannot be repeated. It cannot be undone. It does not need anything else added to it to make it more complete. 

God’s act in Christ is absolutely unique and unrepeatable. God Himself cannot repeat or add anything to what He has done. Christ, the Intercessor at God’s right hand, does not reenact his doing and dying. He Himself rehearses it.⁷ 

            Those who seek to reenact the work of Christ are unconsciously saying that His work is not perfect. Believing in the “reenacted gospel” moves the attribution of glory from the finished work of the Cross, to the actions of the Christian done in response to Christ’s work. The appeal is less to the glory of what Christ has done for us in His infinite grace, and is more to get people to follow a series of steps. The preoccupation with Acts 2:38 is evidence of this very mistake. With this thinking, a church (or Christian) makes the mistake of thinking that IT is responsible for recreating the gospel. The stages of Acts 2:38 are acting out in the church service in such a way that the church is integral to recreating each step. The altar for repentance, the baptistery for baptism, and the laying on of hands of the ministry (and laity) to affect Spirit reception.   

            In this way, a church begins to see itself as responsible for recreating the Gospel when: 1) the Lord’s Supper is turned into a recreation of the bloody sacrifice of Jesus; 2)  Baptism is the act which takes away sin, rather than the work of Jesus on the Cross; 3) the “new birth” Jesus spoke of is turned into the redemptive act itself (rather than the moment faith is created);4) We think that Christian testimony is telling of new-found joy, love and peace, rather than telling the work of Christ for us (outside of us in history); 5) People are excited about a new personal experience, but are uncomfortable with hearing about the righteousness of God imputed to them.