2000.10.1.02 So You Think You Can Preach The Gospel? Created by James3 on 6/28/2019 7:59:38 PM So You Think You Can Preach The Gospel?
"Go out into all the world, and preach the gospel".(Mark 16:15)
It seems to be taken for granted in our churches that every true born-again Christian automatically knows what the gospel is. After all, he couldn't be a born-again Christian if he didn't, could he?
Well indeed, most of us know that the word "gospel" means "good news". But let us imagine just for a moment that we were to conduct a research poll of all the genuine Christians in our own church, asking them this one simple question:-
What exactly IS the Gospel that Jesus told us to preach?
How would they answer us, do you think? Something like this perhaps?
"The gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, and rose again from the dead so that we could have everlasting life."
Now there's not much wrong with that, is there? That was a good, sound, answer. It probably came from the vicar (or the priest, the pastor, or from one of the elders, depending on our denomination). It is undeniably true that Jesus did die for our sins, that He did rise again from the dead, and that we who believe in Him do indeed have everlasting life. All these things are very good news, and we should all be lost were they not true. But all the same that response, however sound, does not constitute "the gospel". Even a very cursory reading of the scriptures will show us this, for it is plainly written that, right at the beginning of His ministry,
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God ... (Mark 1:14,15)
So that didn't have anything to do with his dying for our sins, did it? There were then still three years to go before Calvary, and although Jesus himself certainly knew from the very beginning that the cross lay ahead of him, he sent out his apostles to preach "the gospel" long before they had even glimpsed that a cross was going to come at all, let alone had gained any understanding of what was to be done there (Matt.10). So what did their preaching of the gospel have to do with Jesus' dying for our sins and rising again from the dead?
Nothing.
We can be sure of this: they certainly weren't preaching "Christ Jesus and him crucified", because he hadn't been. (And what's more, they didn't want him to be either).
So again I ask, What was the gospel that Jesus preached?
"Well, were Jesus and His apostles perhaps announcing that people could have their sins forgiven if they repented? Was that the good news they were preaching?"
No it wasn't. People already could have their sins forgiven if they repented. The law of Moses made full provision for it (Lev 4 et seq), and the prophets, up to and including John the Baptist, preached repentance and forgiveness under the old covenant. So if forgiveness of sins had been the gospel there would have been nothing "newsy" about it, and Jesus need not have bothered to come at all. Repentance and forgiveness were an essential prerequisite to the gospel (Mark 1:15), but they were not the gospel itself.
"Ah, but now wait a bit... That was just for the Jews wasn't it? But what about us Gentiles? Was the good news perhaps that Gentiles as well as Jews could now have their sins forgiven and receive eternal life?"
No it wasn't. With just one or two brief exceptions, all Jesus' time and energy were devoted to the children of Israel, and in fact he specifically instructed his apostles not to go to the Gentiles at all, until well after his death and resurrection. (Matt 10:5,6)
"Well then, how about this ... The gospel must surely have something to do with life after death, and our chances of going to heaven when we die?"
No, it wasn't that either. Jesus himself made it clear (Matt. 22:32) that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had already survived death and were still alive, even though they had died centuries before He came to preach the gospel. Moses and Elijah were actually seen talking with Jesus shortly before his crucifixion, so they were obviously still alive as well. In His parable about the rich and the poor (Luke 16:19-31) Jesus spoke of them both as being alive after death (albeit in very different circumstances), but he said nothing about either of them ever hearing the gospel. And when the rich young ruler came to Jesus and asked what he should do to to have eternal life, Jesus actually told him to "keep the commandments" (Matt 19:16,17).
Now, I venture to suggest that if that same young man were to come up to us after one of our Sunday evening services and ask "What shall I do to inherit eternal life?", few pastors today would answer him with a swift "Keep the commandments, young man!" Goodness gracious! What sort of a New Covenant Gospel answer was that then, brethren? Keep the commandments? Oh dear, Oh dear! The Lord Jesus wouldn't get voted an elder in our church after an answer like that, now would He? He wouldn't get ordained, and be called the Reverend Jesus, put on a dog-collar and hang a posh certificate on the wall. Oh, dear me no! "Keep the commandments" indeed! Ha! That's Law brother; We're under Grace!
So had the Lord Jesus got his theology all wrong then? God forbid! Of course he hadn't. But plenty of us have! Think back now to all the "gospel" sermons you've ever preached or heard over the years; we have just shown (and quite easily too) that in the light of scripture the kind of message now generally received and preached among us as being "the gospel" is actually nothing of the sort. (And for good measure too, while we're about it, nor is there either any Biblical warrant for exhorting folk to Decide For Christ, Make A Commitment, Give Their Hearts To The Lord, Put Their Hands In The Air, Stand Up, Go Forward, Fall Over, or do any other un-scriptural thing in order to be born again).
Perhaps an example will help to clarify the question we are considering? Imagine please that you are a Jewish shepherd, living in a Galilean village two thousand years ago. One day, two men you've never heard of turn up at your village and are given lodging by one of the elders of the synagogue. As the evening draws on, word goes round that the strangers have got some important news to tell everybody, and will be holding a public meeting after sunset. So when you've had your evening meal you make your way over to the elder's house, and sure enough the two men are there. When a good crowd has assembled they introduce themselves by saying that they are members of a larger group of seventy men, chosen by a new prophet to go from place to place and tell everybody some good news .... Well, much later that evening, when the meeting has ended, you make your way back home. Your family gather round and ask you, "What was it that the two strangers had to say?"
It's my question too. What was the gospel that Jesus preached for the three years before Calvary? What was the good news that he sent His apostles to preach? And what therefore is the gospel that we are all supposed to be preaching now?
You don't know, do you! (John 3;10)
We preach ABOUT Jesus, but we don't preach what Jesus preached.
The writer to the Hebrews makes the powerful point, from Old Testament scripture, that the promised Messiah was to be God's actual begotten son, and not just a created being like the angels. Then he continues,
Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken through angels (the law of Moses) was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation; WHICH AT THE FIRST BEGAN TO BE SPOKEN BY THE LORD, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him...? (Heb 2;1-4)
The Lord Jesus did NOT go about Galilee preaching about Calvary, and neither did he go about asking people to make "decisions for Christ" as if he were a grubby politician after their votes. Our eternal salvation depends upon our giving earnest heed to that which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, but for twenty centuries the church has done exactly what the scripture warns us against: we have neglected and let slip completely that "which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord". To fill-up the vacuum we have substituted a man-made gospel message instead, and nobody even questions it! For all that I've been able to discover to the contrary in over twenty years of asking this question, nobody seems to know any longer, or even to care, what the real Good News was that the Lord Jesus actually taught and which we are therefore now supposed to be preaching too. The whole thing is plainly written for us in the Bible but few now bother to read it, fewer still bother to think about what they have read, a growing number simply can't read it because they've never been taught to read anything, and most people prefer just to watch television anyway.
To be content now with an imaginary gospel means we must be content at the end with an imaginary salvation.
If you CAN give a short, scriptural, one-sentence answer to the question What is the Gospel?, please tell your neighbour. But if you can't, then for your sake, your family's sake, and your neighbour's sake too, PLEASE TELL ME!
Ian H Thain, 20 Hightown Road, Banbury, OX16 9BY, England. ian@thain.com
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