- The Divinely Ordained Duty of Gospel Preaching

7. The Divinely Ordained Duty of Gospel Preaching

When I say that ‘Word’ does not mean the ‘Gospel preaching’, I am in NO way denying the importance of the divinely ordained means of preaching the gospel. Preaching of the gospel, the ministry of the word is very important and most necessary, Act 6:4. The Great Commission puts the church generally, and the ministers of the gospel particularly, under divine obligation and necessity to preach the gospel to all creatures. Even believers need to hear the gospel, Rom 1:7,15.

The gospel is to be preached to all sinners without distinction. “And He said to them, Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” All who hear are to be commanded, reasoned and pleaded with to repent, and persuaded to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. All who believe, as the Scriptures declare, HAVE eternal life – i.e., their faith in Christ evidences that they have been given, and are in possession of, eternal life. All who believe shall be saved! But shall be saved in what sense? We need to rightly divide the revealed word of God. Apostle Paul states that our salvation is nearer now than when we believed. Does this mean he will be saved someday but he was not yet and that even though he has believed?

Lu 9:24 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Mk 8:35 “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.” John 12:25 “He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

It is self-evident that the life that is saved or lost cannot be the eternal life, for eternal life cannot be saved or be lost by the acts of man. Eternal life is a free unconditional gift. It is quite unlike the ‘free gifts’ offered by the world. Sadly many think of the free gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ in that term – you will get it by meeting certain conditions! Nothing a man does can gain him eternal life, or cause him to lose the eternal life that has been freely bestowed upon him. Eternal life is the CAUSE of a life of faith; a life lived for the Lord and His gospel’s sake. It is the redeemed life lived out here and now. It is the just that shall live by faith, faith being the evidence that they have been bestowed with eternal salvation. The life that a believer will save as a RESULT of faith in Christ, cannot possibly be the same as the eternal life bestowed by free grace BEFORE faith, to enable the exercise of faith. A redeemed life lived by faith in Christ is indeed a blessed life that shall be saved from this perverse generation that is guided by the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. A redeemed life lived by faith for Christ’s sake and the gospel’s is a life that is saved – not wasted and squandered, like that of the prodigal son. It is not a wasting and squandering away of a life redeemed by Christ. It is sad to see a redeemed life not lived for the Lord and the gospel’s sake, but wasted and squandered away because of the fear of losing out! O the crippling ‘kia-su’ disease.

Nowhere do the Scriptures attribute the begetting of eternal life to the preaching or the believing of the gospel. There are favourite passages that might be thought to lend credence to such a notion. They can be raised and we can study them together. Here’s an example. 2Th 2:13-14 speaks of ‘…belief in the truth to which He called you by our gospel.’ It is by the gospel ministry that God called the people to belief in the truth. It is not by the gospel ministry that God called the people to eternal life. The former is exegesis – drawing out what the text says; the later is eisegesis – reading into the text what’s not there. Those who have been definitively sanctified unto eternal salvation at effectual calling – justification, regeneration and adoption – are brought to belief in the truth through the gospel call. Effectual call unto eternal life is the prerequisite and the basis for responding to the gospel call to the belief in the truth. Distinction is the essence of sound theology.