I was asked this question with an attachment, “What is essential knowledge unto salvation?” or “How much must a person have to know to have a sure foundation in salvation?” The English word ‘Gospel’ is from the Anglo-Saxon word god-spell, in other words, God’s story. William Tyndale, the English reformer and Bible translator said “It signifies good, merry, glad and joyful tidings that make a man’s heart glad and make him sing, dance and leap for joy.” This is true when the manifestation of the message comes into the soul with power. The Gospel is called a mystery and it remains so until revealed by the Spirit. Tyndale gives a good definition, but it’s experiential rather than explicative. The message of the Gospel is the proclamation of the redemptive activity of God. That is the work that God went about to accomplish through the Person of His Son Jesus Christ, the God-man mediator of the New Covenant. That work involved the activity of a substitute going about to make satisfaction for a people. God’s justice, law, and holiness must be honored and satisfied, and His wrath abated if those particular people are to enjoy peace with God. The message that proclaims that this work was perfectly accomplished and stands as a completely finished work is the message of the Gospel. This message declares that salvation for sinners was made certain in a finished work, not merely possible with no absolute guarantees. Therefore how much knowledge is essential to salvation? A person must have enough inward revelation to come to the miserable conviction of his utter ruin and total lostness without the Savior. In other words he is brought out of his inward blindness by the power of the Spirit, (not the persuasive power of men) to see his darkness and to lie at the feet of sovereign mercy as a poor beggar until He upon whom “…help has been laid…” and who is “…mighty to save…” comes and delivers. The poor blind man in John nine did not know much, but he did know this, “…Whereas I was blind, now I see.” The Psalmist cried in Psalm 106:4, “O visit me with thy salvation.” He wants a visit from God. He wants God to come and dwell with him, to take up His abode in his heart, to discover Himself to him, to manifest and reveal Himself, to sit down with him, to eat with him, to walk with him, and to dwell in him as his God. A living soul can be satisfied with nothing short of this, he must have a visit. It profits him little to read in the word of God what God did for others; he wants something for himself that shall do his soul good. He wants something that shall cheer, refresh, comfort, bless, and profit him. Therefore he desires that a permanent lodging of God in His power, mercy, and love be established in his heart.
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