Is the Gospel too simple?

An Old Testament pagan king had leprosy. His wife’s Jewish servant girl told him he should go see Elisha, the prophet. Naaman expected his cure would be costly or require some great act. Imagine his surprise when Elisha sent a messenger saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.” (2 Kings 5:10)

This simple solution was beneath Naaman. He was furious. However, his servants gave wise counsel: “If the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”

Looking back, it was not necessarily washing in the Jordan that made the man clean; but believing that God spoke through this prophet, believing that whatever God said would be the right thing to do, believing that this cure would work, even if it seems foolish or small. Naaman could not be saved from his leprosy by paying big bucks nor by doing grand things. He could only be saved by faith in what the man of God told him — wash in the Jordan seven times.

Christians know we are “saved by faith, not by works” or by anything else we can do, but we must remember that genuine faith is not a passive thing. It always asks us to do something. God might say jump in a river, or sit waiting on the bank. Faith does whatever God commands because faith believes what He says is the thing to do, no matter what it is.

“Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” Is that too simple? For many people it is. They want to do some great thing to earn or deserve their salvation, but God says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

It might not be a great thing that God asks, just some little thing, but if He asks it, faith says it is the right thing, and obedience is faith's automatic and correct response.