Partial or Full Gospel: Believer or Born-Again?

I laugh with our preacher sometimes at the charismatic church near town which proclaims itself, the full gospel church. I ask our preacher, "Are you preaching only half the gospel?" It is no laughing matter but yet it is funny. By definition, the full gospel are the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John but our Pentecostal friends are referring to the book of Acts. They are right on one issue though:

2 Corinthians 4:3 ... if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

My preacher does preach most of the gospel. I say, "most" because in a few areas, we don't see eye-to-eye. Of course, it could be me who doesn't see all his preaching as gospel, but my point is that he does a fine job preaching about the importance of the identity of Jesus, the new birth, and the resurrection. He does preach the full gospel.

However, this commentary is not on the gift of tongues or it's manifestation of the Holy Ghost.  It is on the reception of truth. A preacher can present the gospel day and night, year after year but those with blinded minds will not respond or respond only half-way. The full gospel is preached, but half the gospel is comprehended.

Paul spoke experientially of spiritual blindness. Let's take a look at his life:

Galatians 1:13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: 14 And profited in the Jews' religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.

Paul (or Saul), was zealous for God, but the wrong view of God. His spiritual vision was so bad that he destroyed what he professed. Of course, Saul was a legalist Jew but his new identity was Paul the Christian. However, there is but one gospel. Saul, failed to see the gospel in Holy Scripture because with eyes wide open he was blind to truth! His eyes saw clearly but his mind was blind. Then Saul's spiritual eyes were opened as the full gospel dawned on him:

Acts 9:3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? 5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutes... 6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do. 7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man. 8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.

Saul, the old person, was blinded by Jesus Christ with a bright light from heaven.  Who or what was the bright light?

John 8:12 ...I (Jesus) am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Saul had walked in darkness, and Jesus abruptly changed him. The new creature, Paul, received "the light of life". It is a privilege when Jesus opens ones eyes to the truth. Saul was a zealot for God, but failed to see all the truth about God. God whom he believed in religiously,  was the One he persecuted. Saul "kicked against the pricks" (part of verse 5 which I removed above to avoid confusion). That Greek proverb was used by Jesus to ask, why do you fight a losing battle by being defiant?  It took that accusation for light to be revealed to Saul. At that instant, although Paul remained the zealot, he became a change person - a zealot for Jesus! Paul was the clay remolded from Saul during those three days of blindness.

This time period paralleled Jesus's in the tomb. Jesus died, was symbolically blind for three days, and arose a new creation. He was the resurrected Jesus. Jesus was reborn!  In the gospel, the Son of Man (called Jesus), did all the work ever required to be done for salvation (created a new earth), and then rested three days in the darkness. There alone in the darkness, God's Light shined on Him. Then after three days, Jesus became a new creature: the Son of God. Note, that Jesus changed but it was for us. All our sins were bearing a heavy cross for mankind. Jesus bore them and lost much of his virtue, and had to recuperate. It took Almighty God to bear that burden of sin, and the soul of Jesus felt the loss of some of that Almightiness! That flowing of goodness was mentioned in the gospels:

Luke 6:19 And the whole multitude sought to touch him: for there went virtue out of him, and healed them all.

When Jesus healed anyone, virtue (dynamis) left him.  That virtue was divine power - Almightiness!

That was with a few people. Even with one person, Jesus felt virtue leaving him (Mark 5:30).

When Christians think of the death of Jesus, we think of the injustice of a man being humiliated, beaten, disfigured, and crucified but fail to empathize with the "drainage" of His power from Him. When Jesus cried out, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me" (Matthew 27:46)? He was feeling God's divine power weakening Him spiritually. With so much virtue being spent to cancel out all the evil of mankind, Jesus was weakened.

When he died and went to the tomb, God shined Light on Jesus right there in the darkness, and Jesus was both physically and spiritually resurrected. The Son of Man remained but the Son of God was restored. What happened to Saul was a symbolic of what occurred on the cross with Jesus. Paul became a zealot for Christ because he understood the crucifixion of Christ. It was God who died on the cross that day, and gave not only his blood, but spiritual death so that we might live forever in spirit.

What Christians receive is only a portion of the gospel because they are blind with eyes wide open. If we study being born-again as explained to Nicodemus, rebirth is becoming blind to the things of the world, and having Light shine forth in our minds.

John 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

These passages point toward salvation. John 3:16 is half the story: one must believe (trust-in) to have the hope of salvation. However, being reborn entails change: The flesh must be submitted and we must be revived in spirit. That transformation is our own change from son of man to son of God. In order to be transformed, we must welcome the light. If we shield our vision from reproof, we deny the Light of God to shine. God spiritually hides the world from our vision, and its pleasures, so that we allow light to enter. That light shines in the mind's eyes of the spiritually dead, and manifests truth, thus making one spiritually alive.

Those who look back at the pleasures of sin as Lot's wife did, will be left dead. She believed what God said, and fled, but failed to turn her eyes away from a sinful life.

Christians today are much the same. We believe but continue to look on at the pleasures offered to the flesh. In other words, when believers are unable to give up the flesh, the transformation is not accomplished - it is half the gospel they follow!

If I believe, then I am still Larry the believer. However, I must put that belief into practice. I must put the sins of the flesh in God's bright Light, and let him burn them up. I can't hang onto them, and expect to be a new person. It took a spiritual transformation for the Son of Man to be also the Son of God. It takes our own sacrifice to God to make the change from son of the flesh to son of the Spirit. The darkness in which the believer still walks is only partial gospel.

The reason that Christians seem to be merely church-going sinners, is because they have never truly been born-again. They walk around clinging to the flesh - the old person, and unless the old dies, one cannot be made anew. Hence, believers who still live in the flesh are spiritual zombies. We must be born-again!

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Look at Jesus's requirement: He says, truly, truly a man must be born-again! Not half-way delivered from the earth's womb but all the way - crowned by the King as the babe's spiritual head senses the Light!  Seeing the kingdom of God is the divine Light in which the new-born Christian is delivered. Before, the seed of Adam lived in darkness, but the offspring of Jesus lives in the Light.

Jesus emphasized that with:

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

When one is born-again, the flesh is crucified, leaving a spiritual birth. "The flesh" is the sinner's receptor for sin. We must leave sin behind. By grace, if we allow the Light to shine by looking for truth, God wipes clean the sin in the rebirth.

1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. 

"Seed" is the DNA of antiquity. Our DNA is not to be of Adam which Satan corrupts, but with the spiritual DNA of Jesus Christ whose DNA is incorruptible! His DNA is "the Word". John 1 says that in the beginning Jesus was "the Word". Now "the Word" has been made flesh and is called Jesus!

The incorruptible is "the Word of God" - Jesus Christ. It is by the seed of God that we are born-again. It is pure seed, unmutilated DNA from which those born-again are recreated - in the likeness of God!

When we look at others, do we see sons of God or is it sons of men? When we see ourselves in our spiritual mirrors, do we see corruption or do we see virtue. I submit that if we're not blind, most of us most often see corruption in our spiritual mirrors. I don't like what I see, and daily ask God to deliver me from spiritual abortion. Ironically, it is me who kills me!

My entire point is to ask, are you truly born-again? I know - you believe but have you become a new person, or are you really a pillar of salt as Lot's wife was? It is imperative that one be born-again. That experience is measured by obedience. What is it that the new person has? A new heart - one that loves God and others. In faux Christians I just can't see that! Sometimes in myself I can't see that. Jesus can fix the broken Spirit. Go for it!