Preaching the Simple Gospel

Facebook Friday is a weekly column where we share posts, articles, and words of encouragement and admonition from various sources.

Today’s post is from gospel preacher Bill Robinson, via Max Dawson. It offers an exhortation for preachers, pastors, and Bible class teachers. Religious writers and all Christians.

We offer it without any additional comments.

Preaching the Simple Gospel

There is a growing tendency among some disciples to chase the complex while neglecting the clear. They spend their energy on the periphery of Scripture, treating obscurity as the mark of maturity and sophistication as the measure of discipleship. In doing so, they unintentionally drift toward a modern form of Gnosticism—where only the “deep,” the academic, or the elite seem worthy of attention. Yet the very truths that sustain faith, strengthen hope, and form Christlike character are the simple, foundational teachings of the gospel.

What every believer—including ME—needs for a strong, stable faith is conviction in the basics. But some consider such truths too primitive, too unsophisticated, or too plain to emphasize. This is not a new problem. First-century Christians were repeatedly urged to return to the fundamentals of their faith:

• Jesus called the church in Ephesus to remember their first love (Rev. 2:5).
• Peter reminded believers of truths they already knew and were firmly established in (2 Pet. 1:12).
• Paul charged Timothy to remember Jesus Christ—risen, reigning, and central (2 Tim. 2:8).
The prophets of the Old Testament bore the same message. When God’s people drifted, He did not call them to discover something new—He called them to return to what they already knew:
• Seek the ancient paths and find rest for your souls (Jer. 6:16).
• Remember the God who saved you and return to Him (Isa. 1:3, 18–20).
• “Return to Me, and I will return to you” (Mal. 3:6–7).

In every age, God’s remedy for drifting hearts is the same: go back to the basics.

And how we need that today. People are hurting. Hearts are exhausted. Minds are confused. Even believers have frustrated themselves with their own sophistication. What the world—and the church—needs is not novelty, complexity, or academic cleverness. We need the simple gospel. We need to see Jesus—the resurrected Lord of all—through the plain, powerful teaching of the New Testament.

Luke wrote his Gospel so believers could have certainty about the things that matter most (Luke 1:1–4). Luke reminds us that his writings consist of “all that Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1–3). Hebrews warns us to pay even closer attention to the message first delivered by the Lord, lest we drift from it (Heb. 2:1–4). None of these foundational truths are difficult to understand, but all of them are essential for a confident, living, and enduring faith.

We must build our lives on what we do know—not on what we don’t. And we do that by teaching, living, and treasuring the simple gospel of Jesus Christ.