What is the Whole Counsel of God?

Paul Ellis

Nov 2

Tell people the good news of God's unconditional love, and I can guarantee that some will chide you for not preaching the whole counsel of God.

Tell people about the goodness of God, and some concerned person will say: "You've got to preach the whole counsel of God, brother."

What they mean is, "You should tell people to do stuff – repent, confess, turn from sin, work, etc. – to earn the free gifts of grace."

Earn the free gifts of grace?!

What a strange thing to say. How can you compensate God for his priceless gifts?

I am a big fan of repentance, but repentance may not be what you think it is.

I'm also a big fan of confession, but confession may not be what you think it is either.

And turning from sin? Well any time you turn to Jesus you will turn from sin. It's inevitable.

Sidebar: The issue is not what you are turning from but Who you are turning to. The Pharisees turned from sin every day but they never turned to Jesus. Turning from sin doesn't make you righteous, just religious.

What is the whole counsel of God?

Paul told the Ephesians "I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27). Some translations say, the whole will or whole purpose of God.

The whole counsel and the whole purpose are synonymous with the whole gospel because God's will is always good news.

What is the whole counsel of God that Paul proclaimed? He tells us three verses earlier:

I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace. (Acts 20:24)

The whole counsel of God is the gospel of his grace. Period.

"Just grace?!" says the serious man.

Grace and nothing but. Not grace-plus-your-confession, nor grace-plus-your-works – just grace.

"I can't accept that," says the serious man.

Well, you wouldn't be the first person to have a problem with grace:

The Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God… (Luke 7:30)

Isn't that interesting. Those who loved the law rejected God's counsel. Who else did the Pharisees and law-teachers reject? Jesus (see Mark 8:31)!

What is the whole gospel? Jesus is. He is the whole counsel and the complete will and the eternal purpose of God.

If you want to know what God is like or what he thinks, look to Jesus.

If you want to preach the counsel, the whole counsel, and nothing but the counsel of God, then preach Jesus and nothing else. He is both the will of God made flesh and the means by which God's will comes to pass.

Jesus is the Good News.

How not to preach the gospel

I have written else on how to teach the gospel of grace, but let me finish by showing you how not to preach the gospel: Add stuff to it.

If you take all the blessings of God – his love, favor, forgiveness, acceptance, healing, provision, deliverance, etc. – and tell people they must do stuff to merit them, then you are diluting the gospel of grace. You're preaching a mixed gospel of grace-plus-works.

Grace is no longer the whole gospel; it's only part of some horrendous frankengospel.

Whenever we add things to the gospel of grace we dilute its strength and empty the cross of its saving power.

What do these gospel additives look like?

I am sure you know them. They are called prayer and fasting, Bible study, the spiritual disciplines, tithes and offerings, Christian duty, the virtues, works of service, ministry, self-sacrifice, helps, missions, outreach, submission, sowing, etc. In the hands of graceless religion these good things become death-dealing burdens.

If you think you must do them before God will bless you, you have fallen from grace as hard as any Galatian.

Religion is cruel

Imagine a thirsty man crawls out of the desert and you say to him, "Drink this pure spring water." That's good news for the thirsty man. He doesn't need to do anything except receive what you are offering.

But if you ask that man to run a marathon before you give him the drink, it's no longer good news. It's torture.

Telling a thirsty man he must pray for an hour before he can drink is not good news. Nor is telling him that he must keep the rules, play the game, and do what he's told. This isn't good news; it's bad news. It's a form of bullying that hammered the Galatians, the Ephesians, the Laodiceans and many other believers since.

And telling the thirsty man he may drink provided he pays later is no different. In fact it's worse because you given him a taste of freedom before binding him with obligation.

Want to see change in your life and the lives of others? Then follow Paul's lead and preach the whole gospel of grace without adding anything to it.

This emphasis on what we must do before God will bless us is a doctrine of demons. It's poison in the water. The true gospel is additive-free. It's grace from start to finish.

If you would preach the whole gospel then preach Christ alone.

Jesus is all you need.

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