Return to Reality: Preaching the Gospel of Christ

Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles. I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise, So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith (Rom. 1:13–17).

During World War II when supplies became scarce in central Europe, German authorities offered the people substitutes of all kinds which went by the name of ersatz. Wives coming to the stores had to buy flour substitutes, meat substitutes and so many other kinds of substitutes that their souls came to loathe the unbearable ersatz.

The time seems to have come when there is a return from the ersatz sermon to the real sermon—the preaching of the gospel of Christ. Many church members realize that any substitute for gospel preaching not only fails to give them abiding spiritual values but also insults their Christian convictions. In the present crisis when hearts are longing for spiritual security, famished multitudes are flocking to pulpits that are consecrated to the message of salvation in Christ Jesus. When Dr. Graham held revival services in New York, a prominent liberal theologian remarked that when Billy Graham tells the people “Thus saith the Lord!,” nothing that the liberal has to say counts. It is always so. God’s saints will listen when he speaks to them; they are interested only in the theology of Jesus Christ and his free and full salvation.

By means of the gospel of Christ, Paul conquered the pagan world of his day and founded the Christian Church. To the self-righteous Jews that Gospel was a stumblingblock, something that incited them to fury and moved them to persecute the Apostle wherever he preached. To the cynical Greeks, the Gospel was stupidity, something so ridiculous that it deserved contempt. Among the Roman graffiti, the ancient pagan drawings or writings scratched on the walls, there is one that shows a donkey nailed to the cross with the added explanation: “Alexander worships his god.” That was the sardonic derision that early Christians had to endure for worshiping Christ.

Paul was not ashamed to preach the gospel of the crucified and risen Christ. He says: “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.” He preached him as the divine Saviour in Asia and Europe no matter how fiercely he was hated, ridiculed, and persecuted for doing so. He preached the divine Lord in his many glorious letters which to millions are still the richest treasure-trove of profound theology. He preached Christ as soon as he was converted and until he penned his last epistle before being beheaded outside the walls of Rome. The gospel of Christ was his first message as a Christian and it was his last testimony as a Christian martyr.

Today the Christian pulpit again needs dedicated preachers who are not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. To be ashamed of Christ means to be ashamed of his undying love, his vicarious atonement, his glorious resurrection, the divine inspiration of the Scriptures which testify of him from beginning to end, and the Church’s Christian creed for which martyrs have died. It means to regard the Word of God less than the deceitful opinions of unbelieving men. It is a subtle form of idolatry that repudiates the sovereign God and in his place substitutes errant, conceited reason. It is a traitorous disposition of the perverted mind that fears God so little because it fears ungodly man so much. It is religious treason which—unless there is sincere repentance—imperils the preacher’s own salvation and that of those who hear him. It is a servile kowtowing to liberal pseudo-theology that blasphemes this gospel of Christ. The truly converted Christian preacher who has experienced the power of the Gospel in his heart is never ashamed of it.

PAUL EXPERIENCED THE GOSPEL’S POWER

It was Paul’s personal experience of the gospel’s divine power in his conversion and sanctification that made him a fearless, unashamed, consecrated gospel preacher. He writes: “For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Paul’s experience of the power of the triumphant Christ and his Word on the Damascus road is of course well known. We know what Paul was before that supernatural, spiritual experience; and we know what he was after that. The self-righteous Pharisee, hating Christ and his Church, became the greatest Christian missionary among the Gentiles. Loving Christ with all his heart, he suffered cheerfully the greatest afflictions to glorify Him.

And the Apostle saw in others to whom he preached that strange divine power of the Gospel unto salvation to every one that believeth. He was always hated and persecuted for preaching the message of Christ’s salvation; yet no matter where he preached it, among Jews or Gentiles, the elect of God were gathered into God’s kingdom of grace. Soon there was a chain of Christian congregations extending from Jerusalem to Rome, all holding fast to the same Christ and the same Gospel. His preaching always bore fruit, always glorified Christ, always harvested saved souls.

Truly converted and consecrated preachers are still the most needed gifts of God for the pulpit today. The Christian pulpit cannot use any Sauls; it needs Pauls, that is, twice-born believers who first give themselves to Christ and then devote all that they are and have to the proclamation of Christ’s free and full salvation. It is the grievous mistake of many modern theological professors and preachers that they approach the Gospel mysteries from the intellectual point of view and try to search out infinite divine wisdom by their finite, rebellious minds. They want to understand and not believe. Like Thomas, they want to see the risen Lord before they trust him.

But this perverse craving for intellectual comprehension of faith’s mysteries is not only foolish in that the finite cannot comprehend the infinite but condemnable because it amounts to nothing less than crass unbelief. “Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” There will never be converted congregations unless first there are converted pastors; and there will never be consecrated congregations unless preachers are consecrated. The preacher, to be abidingly successful in his ministry, must first have experienced in his own heart the paramount truth that the gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. That must be his starting point. From there he must press forward in pulpit and parish to reach the lost.

There was another experience that Paul had on the Damascus road which taught him that his own righteousness could not avail before God. Paul, so strict a Pharisee, could boast that “touching the righteousness which is in the law (he was) blameless” (Phil. 3:6). But as the divine voice from heaven condemned his hatred of the Christian Church, so also did He condemn Paul’s righteousness which was by the law. From that time on, he proclaimed the worthlessness of man’s own righteousness for salvation both in his pulpit and in his epistles. He writes, “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”

NEED OF CHRIST’S RIGHTEOUSNESS

The Gospel offers man the perfect righteousness of the atoning Christ which is apprehended by the believer in faith to Christ. Paul had laid hold of Christ’s perfect righteousness by faith, and ever after he abhorred his own valueless righteousness as he testifies: “And I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith” (Phil. 3:8, 9). That was the inward incentive of the great Apostle for preaching the gospel of Christ: he trusted in Christ’s perfect righteousness for eternal life, and through the preaching of the Gospel he wanted to make many people rejoicing believers having this same divine righteousness.

That is the kind of consecrated preacher the pulpit needs today, the preacher who honestly repudiates his own merits and glories in Christ’s righteousness for salvation; the preacher who says: “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling.… Thou must save and Thou alone.” Believing congregations are not created by Pelagians who trust in their own works for salvation. True, there must be preaching of the law for the knowledge of sin, but we know that divine law can only condemn. We must hear, side by side with the law, the saving Gospel of Christ whose righteousness to us is by faith. A code of ethics may be of superficial help to some people in this life, but in the end there is only one Way, one Truth, and one Life—that is Christ, as set forth in the Gospel.

Preachers who preach the gospel of Christ boldly and unashamedly, in dynamic outpouring from their own conviction of its divine truth, will not fail to impart to their hearers the greatest of all spiritual blessings—the assurance of eternal life in Christ Jesus. But first the preacher must have experienced the preciousness of the Gospel before he can convince others of its ineffable preciousness. He must be a Christian before he can win others for Christ. And he must speak of salvation not merely with the mouth but with his heart.

There is in this text mention of a last experience which moved the Apostle to preach the gospel of Christ unfailingly. When he wrote his letter to the Christians at Rome, he was at Corinth where he had more than enough work to do in the ministry of Jesus Christ. But he was eager to preach the Gospel also at Rome in order that he might have some fruit in that great metropolis. What moved him to undertake this mission? He writes: “I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and the unwise. So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.” Paul regarded himself as a debtor to the whole world to repay the great debt which he owed the Lord Jesus for having saved his soul. This feeling of indebtedness; this constant, moving awareness of his responsibility to rescue perishing sinners; this overwhelming sense of gratitude toward Christ drove him to proclaim orally and in writing the precious Gospel of Christ’s salvation. He had experienced the Gospel’s saving power, the Gospel’s justifying righteousness, the Gospel’s holy prompting to pay off the debt he owed to his Lord; and that made him the greatest evangelist of the New Testament.

The kind of preachers the pulpit needs in this crisis are those in whose hearts reside the uppermost thought, “This is what Christ had done for me; what can I do not for money, not for glory, not for applause, not for anything that is of this world, but merely because God has made me a changed man and turned my heart to gratitude?” Such preachers will help revive the modern pulpit, will rejuvenate the Church, and will seek and save that which was lost. May God in mercy grant to the modern pulpit such Pauline preachers!

Jacob J. Vellenga served on the National Board of Administration of the United Presbyterian Church from 1948–54. Since 1958 he has served the United Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. as Associate Executive. He holds the A.B. degree from Monmouth College, the B.D. from Pittsburgh-Xenia Seminary, Th.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and D.D. from Monmouth College, Illinois.

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