Dear friends,
Please note that the passages of Scripture being quoted refer to the gospel in its objective, formal import. If some deny it, I do not. In my preaching I have sought first and foremost to proclaim the historical Jesus, to set forth "the faith," and to require acceptance and belief in doctrine. If people do not know about Christ they certainly do not know Christ Himself. But all this is the "form of doctrine." The gospel is not only an historical fact; it is also to be personally appropriated. The form of doctrine is be obeyed from the heart by the grace of the living God. By means of the work of the Holy Spirit the elect are given the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, i.e., the external word becomes an inward reality. The faith to be believed becomes the faith by which we believe. The form of sound words, WHAT is believed, properly relates to its substance, and the soul knows WHOM it has believed. Any preacher who confines the gospel to historical fact is distorting the gospel as equally as the person who denies the gospel is historical fact.
I am sorry that a sound phrase is being perverted by others. But by your own admisssion, the very word "gospel" is being perverted also; are you going to insist that we relinquish that term? If not, then I see no reason why a sound phrase like "living the gospel" should be disowned, especially when it expresses something essential to the nature of the gospel which is being undermined today.
Please note that the passages of Scripture being quoted refer to the gospel in its objective, formal import. If some deny it, I do not. In my preaching I have sought first and foremost to proclaim the historical Jesus, to set forth "the faith," and to require acceptance and belief in doctrine. If people do not know about Christ they certainly do not know Christ Himself. But all this is the "form of doctrine." The gospel is not only an historical fact; it is also to be personally appropriated. The form of doctrine is be obeyed from the heart by the grace of the living God. By means of the work of the Holy Spirit the elect are given the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, i.e., the external word becomes an inward reality. The faith to be believed becomes the faith by which we believe. The form of sound words, WHAT is believed, properly relates to its substance, and the soul knows WHOM it has believed. Any preacher who confines the gospel to historical fact is distorting the gospel as equally as the person who denies the gospel is historical fact.
I am sorry that a sound phrase is being perverted by others. But by your own admisssion, the very word "gospel" is being perverted also; are you going to insist that we relinquish that term? If not, then I see no reason why a sound phrase like "living the gospel" should be disowned, especially when it expresses something essential to the nature of the gospel which is being undermined today.