What does First B Jackson teach about gospel basics?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on the gospel basics starts with grace. Brad Yates has been direct about this: grace is unmerited favor, kindness from God that nobody earns and nobody deserves. Brad has used his own story to press the point, describing how in 2010 he would have rated his confidence of going to heaven a seven out of ten and assumed his good deeds would outweigh the bad ones, until a friend sat him down with Romans 6:23 and Ephesians 2:8-10 and the whole picture changed. The order matters, the teaching insists: grace comes first, faith follows, and works come last. Reversing that order, or imagining that church attendance and moral living are what bring a person into the kingdom, puts a person further from the truth, not closer to it.
Faith, as Brad has described it, is what happens when grace wakes a person up to the facts of the gospel. He has used the parable of the prodigal son to show what that looks like: the son comes to his senses in the pigsty, recognizes that his father has what he needs, and turns back. That recognition is faith. The bodily resurrection of Jesus is treated as the load-bearing fact underneath all of it. Pastor Jason worked through Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15 to show that the resurrection is not a decorative addition to the Christian message but the whole thing. If Christ has not been raised, then every promise is empty, every person who has died trusting him has simply perished, and there is nothing to say at a graveside. The resurrection either stands as a historical event or everything else falls with it.
Works come third, and only third. The teaching at First B Jackson is careful on both sides of that line. Brad has been clear that a person is not saved by the fruit they produce, but that a healthy branch cannot help producing it. Pastor Jason's predecessor in the 1 Corinthians 15 series, Pastor Carl, put it plainly: Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised on the third day, and that is what is most important, whatever any of us happen to be feeling on a given Sunday. That fact does not change, and it is the ground on which everything else in the Christian life stands.
Taught from Ephesians 2:8-10 · Romans 6:23 · 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 · 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 · John 15
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 5
1 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2 You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3 For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4 In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ,
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- June 1, 2025 Grace, Faith, Works Brad Yates walks through Ephesians 2:8-10, showing why grace comes first, faith follows, and good works flow from both rather than earning what God freely gives.
- January 8, 2023 Apart From Me, You Can Do Nothing Brad Yates opens John 15:5 to show why Jesus alone is the vine, what it truly means to abide in Him, and how that rooted life produces lasting fruit.
- February 8, 2015 But in Fact, Christ Has Been Raised Paul's "if-then" logic in 1 Corinthians 15 shows what falls apart if Christ stayed dead, then flips it: since He rose, our faith, hope and forgiveness stand firm.
- January 25, 2015 Christ Is Risen: Stand Firm on the Gospel Pastor Carl walks through 1 Corinthians 15 to show why the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus is the firm foundation on which Christians can stand firm in any circumstance.
Mentioned along the way
- January 13, 2019 Retain, Guard, Be Strong, Entrust, Suffer Pastor Jonathan preaches through 2 Timothy, drawing on five commands Paul gave Timothy about holding fast to the gospel of grace and enduring hardship for Christ.
- September 27, 2015 The Love of Christ Compels Us A Wyoming pastor walks through 2 Corinthians 5:11-17, explaining what compels Christians to share the gospel and what it means to see people through God's eyes.
- April 12, 2015 When It Pleased God Paul's autobiography in Galatians shows how God's grace transformed a zealous persecutor into an apostle, and why the gospel needs no additions or subtractions.