This book uses the phrase obey the gospel — Scripture’s own language — when describing how a sinner responds to the good news of Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:8; 1 Peter 4:17; Romans 10:16; Romans 6:17). For the reader who has never encountered the phrase, or who has heard it but never seen its content laid out in one place, this appendix gathers the pattern Scripture itself sets down.
What the gospel is
The word gospel means good news. The apostle Paul gives the content of that news plainly:
For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
1 Corinthians 15:3–4 (NASB)
That is the gospel. Christ died for our sins. He was buried. He was raised. Three historical facts that together constitute the news God has sent into the world for the salvation of sinners.
What it means to obey it
The gospel is news, but it is news with a response built into it. Scripture speaks of those who obey the gospel and those who do not:
…dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. — 2 Thessalonians 1:8 (NASB)
For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? — 1 Peter 4:17 (NASB)
To obey the gospel is to respond the way God has appointed in His Word. It is not bare mental agreement. It is not merely feeling moved. It is doing what the Lord and His apostles instructed when men asked them, what shall we do? (Acts 2:37). What follows is the pattern Scripture itself lays out — what one must hear, believe, do, and continue to do.
1. Hear the gospel
Faith does not begin inside us. It begins outside us, in the message about Christ:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Romans 10:17 (NASB)
Before anyone can believe, repent, confess, or be baptized, he must hear the gospel. The Word of God is the door through which everything else enters.
2. Believe
Belief is more than acknowledging that Jesus existed. It is taking Him at His word as the Son of God — who came in the flesh, died for our sins, was buried, and was raised:
Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins. — John 8:24 (NASB)
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. — Hebrews 11:6 (NASB)
Belief is the receiving of the message as true and binding.
3. Repent
Repentance is a change of mind that produces a change of life. It is turning from sin toward God:
I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. — Luke 13:3 (NASB)
Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent. — Acts 17:30 (NASB)
Repentance is not perfection achieved. It is the decisive turning of the heart and will away from sin and toward Christ.
4. Confess Christ
The believer is called to confess Christ openly:
…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. — Romans 10:9–10 (NASB)
Therefore everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. — Matthew 10:32 (NASB)
The one who has come to believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, declares it openly. The mouth confesses what the heart has come to know.
5. Be baptized
In the New Testament, baptism is the appointed point at which the believer is united with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection — the same death, burial, and resurrection that is the very content of the gospel (1 Corinthians 15:3–4):
Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” — Acts 2:38 (NASB)
Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name. — Acts 22:16 (NASB)
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. — Romans 6:3–4 (NASB)
This is the step most contested in modern teaching. For the reader who wants to see the full New Testament case worked out — every conversion account in the book of Acts, what the Lord and His apostles taught, and a careful examination of the common objections raised from tradition — see the companion volume Why Do You Delay? Baptism, Salvation, and What the Bible Actually Says, available at noblemind.study. That work walks through the texts in depth so they need not be repeated here.
6. Remain faithful
Obeying the gospel is not finished at the moment of baptism. The new life entered there is to be lived out to the end:
…Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. — Revelation 2:10 (NASB)
For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. — Hebrews 3:14 (NASB)
The Christian life is not a single moment. It is a walk. The same Lord who calls a sinner to begin in obedience calls him to continue in obedience for the rest of his days.
A closing word
If you have not done these things, the love of God described in this book is held out to you in Jesus Christ. The same Lord who lays down for the believer the standard of love in 1 Corinthians 13 has also laid down the way that standing becomes possible — through obeying the gospel of His Son. The door is open. The blood that closes the ledger has already been shed. There is no reason to wait.
Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.
Acts 22:16 (NASB)