The gospel is central to Christianity. Protestants and Roman Catholics have been reflecting on and debating the gospel’s content for centuries. However, Matthew Bates argues that most of Western Christianity to date—Protestant and Roman Catholic—has completely misunderstood the gospel.
In Beyond the Salvation Wars: Why Both Protestants and Catholics Must Reimagine How We Are Saved, Bates, professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary, claims that the traditional Protestant view of justification by faith alone and the traditional Roman Catholic view of justification by imparted righteousness, distributed through the Roman sacramental system, are thoroughly mistaken understandings of salvation. He attempts to set everyone straight.
Bates’s counterproposal is what he calls the “king Jesus model” or “gospel allegiance model.” In this paradigm, he argues salvation is by faith but redefines faith as allegiance to Jesus, which is primarily about our commitment to Christ as well as social and political action. Although belief must play some role in Bates’s articulation of faith, the emphasis is squarely on our works of allegiance to Christ as the way to receive gospel benefits. Bates’s gospel and his arguments for it have several significant flaws.
Harrison Perkins | “Don’t Buy into a Revisionist Gospel” | March 11, 2025
RESOURCES
- Resources On Spiritual, Physical, And Sexual Abuse In The Church
- Subscribe To The Heidelblog!
- Browse the Heidelshop!
- Download the HeidelApp on Apple App Store or Google Play
- The Heidelblog Resource Page
- Heidelmedia Resources
- The Ecumenical Creeds
- The Reformed Confessions
- The Heidelberg Catechism
- The Heidelberg Catechism: A Historical, Theological, & Pastoral Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2025)
- Recovering the Reformed Confession (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2008)
- Why I Am A Christian
- What Must A Christian Believe?
- Heidelblog Contributors
- Support Heidelmedia: use the donate button or send a check to
Heidelberg Reformation Association
1637 E. Valley Parkway #391
Escondido CA 92027
USA
The HRA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization
Harrison Perkins
Harrison Perkins (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC), a member of the of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a Senior Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, associate online instructor in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary, a visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction.
More by Harrison Perkins ›
So another version of justification by faithfulness.
Excellent warning, particularly given the would-be evangelical publishing houses carrying some of Professor Bates’ material (I peeked at his Northern Seminary faculty page). And helpful bottom line: is this even “a gospel at all?” Frankly, any self-described attempt to “reimagine” paleo orthodoxy (his appeals to Justin Martyr notwithstanding) more often than not are really truth-in-advertising problems… apparently latent Arminianism in this case.
I’ve known patristics scholars who take a similar “we-need-to-throw-out-centuries-of-doctrinal-accretions-and-start-over” tack. I wonder sometimes if verses like John 16:13 show, rather than driving the remnant church into a ditch, the HS is preserving the faithful in each generation into GREATER doctrinal truth, not LESSER, particularly with respect to the content of the good news. Thanks again for the wonderful review.
I recall Will Timmins, from the land down under, took his definition of faith to task. Bates apparently hasn’t received the memo that he is DoA.
Another confusion of law and gospel that starts with claiming our obligation to obey God’s requirements to obey the law, and ends with a denial of the sufficiency of what Christ has done on our behalf. The claim is that our allegiance is required to receive the benefits of the gospel, for final justification.
The Heidelberg Catechism answers it best. Question 30: Do those who look for their security and salvation in the saints, themselves or elsewhere, really believe in the only Savior, Jesus? Answer: NO! Although they boast of being his, by their deeds they deny the only Savior and deliverer, Jesus.
Either Jesus is not a perfect Savior, or this who in true faith accept this Savior, have in him ALL they need for their salvation.
Bates would have us believe that Christ has not done enough!
He suddenly has “answers” that his historical betters never knew to produce?
And why “must” we reimagine the gospel? Towards what ends? To achieve social and political projects?
No thanks. I think I will stick to the Protestant consensus.