Where In The Bible Will I Find:

Christ The Man, But Not The Plan?

How so very often is displayed those blasphemous bumper stickers that read, "GIVE ME THE MAN BUT NOT THE PLAN," or "GIVE ME CHRIST BUT NOT THE CHURCH." These reveal a positive proof of ignorance of the Scripture on the part of the originator of these stickers. One cannot positively teach or preach Jesus without including His great gospel plan of salvation and those obeying this plan being added by the Lord to his church (Acts 2:47). Evidence of this is shown in the eighth chapter of Acts where Philip was invited by the Ethiopian nobleman to ride with him in the chariot and explain to him the Scriptures. It says that the eunuch was reading a portion of the Scriptures that says, "... He was led as sheep to the slaughter, and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgment was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? For his life is taken from the earth... " The nobleman was confused as to whom the Scripture had reference to, therefore, he asked Philip, " …I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus" (Acts 8:34-35).

The nobleman had never heard of Jesus, and the Scriptures does not record the words that were preached to him by Philip but the results of Philip’s preaching indicate that in "preaching Jesus," he taught ALL the things that Jesus did and said, "And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized" (vs.36). Now how did the eunuch learn about baptism, how did he learn that one must be baptized in order to be a Christian? The Old Scriptures (which the eunuch was reading) had nothing to say about the baptism of Christ. The only way that he could have learned about New Testament baptism, the great gospel plan of salvation and the church of Christ was by Philip "preaching unto him Jesus.”

After the eunuch made the good confession "... I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God" (Acts 8:37), "they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went away rejoicing" (Acts 8:38-39). Being obedient to the gospel plan of salvation, the eunuch was added by the Lord to his church (Acts 2:47). This is positive proof to preach Christ is to preach Him as our Savior. He is the Savior of the body, which is His church (Eph. 1:22-23). To preach about His love for the church and that He gave His life for it (Eph.5:25), and to teach about the blood of Jesus is to teach that His blood was the purchase price of His church (Acts 20:28).