23 Jan 2024
Christians have sometimes been guilty of preaching and teaching a Gospel that is not “fully dressed”. What do we mean by this? We may have focused properly on the central features of God’s atoning work on the cross, faithfully preached Christ crucified for sinners, celebrated the resurrection as proof that Christ’s self-offering for our sins has been accepted, and urged hearers to be reconciled to God, In other words, we have been right about the essence of the Gospel; the key facts have been there in what we have said.
However, at the same time, we have missed some of the critical implications and applications of the Gospel in daily living. We have neglected, perhaps, to explore how the same cross that reconciles us to God reconciles us also to one another in Christ (Eph. 2:11-22). Perhaps we have not fully emphasised that if God has loved us to the point of giving His only Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins then surely we ought to without limit love one another (1John4:10-11).
Perhaps we have even failed to point out that as God has loved us even while we were His enemies (Rom.5:8), then we must act with justice and mercy toward all our neighbours and love even our enemies (Matt.5:43-48). Perhaps we have not exhorted the believers to work out their salvation in an obedient fear of the saving God who is at work within us (Phil. 2:12-13). Perhaps we have not urged that regular communion with the Father and the Son, good works, and kingdom service are meant to be the outcome of the new birth.
When we fail to conduct ourselves in line and in step with the truth of the Gospel, we are in serious error (Gal. 2:14). The problems we see among believers and in the church may be traced to this failure in the critical application and implication of the Gospel in daily living, in the community, and in the church. We are to live in such a way as to make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive to our neighbours (Titus 2:10) and to win their respect by responsible and godly living (1 Thess. 4:11-12). Our preaching and teaching of the Gospel must include teaching the godly manner of living that accords with the sound doctrine of the Gospel (Titus 2:1).
The Gospel is to be adorned by both sound sound doctrine and godly living. To set the Gospel before believers and the public without these is to preach and teach an unclothed Gospel. Our salvation does not end at new birth. We need a full and wholesome doctrine of salvation and a “fully clothed” presentation of the Gospel; otherwise we have fallen short.
But, we need also to guard against an unhealthy and disjointed view of things and swing to a reaction that champions a full-fledged return to social concern. Such a reaction is understandable – however it comes with serious risks. The new “emerging churches” and newer evangelicals may well be in danger of substituting the implications and applications of the Gospel for the Gospel itself. As one of the emerging leader puts it, “The good news is not that Jesus died, but that the kingdom has come.” Such a statement, of course, puts him directly at odds with Paul’s statements in 1 Corinthians 15:1-5. As a consequence of such thinking the atoning death of Christ on the cross is being pushed, bit by bit, to the margins of the message and ministry of many churches today. In fact, it is actually denying the work of Jesus Christ as our redeemer, who did all that had to be done to save us from hell, in favour of Jesus the teacher, model, and pioneer of godliness. Liberalism keeps reinventing itself and luring Christians from their heritage.