The Gospel.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 40, No. 7, July 1901.
3. What the gospel is designed to accomplish. If we can ascertain what the gospel is not designed to accomplish it will aid us in determining what it is designed to accomplish. It is evident that it is not designed to accomplish what it does not accomplish, and that God has never used it for a purpose that it has always failed to subserve. What it never has done it never was designed to do.The gospel has no creating power, and has never been used to accomplish the work of creation. In Hebrews 11:3, it is said that "through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God." No one believes this means that God had the gospel preached in order to the framing of the worlds, or that he preached it himself to accomplish that end, and yet this verse is sometimes quoted by those who teach what is termed the Means doctrine in supposed proof of their position. This passage teaches that we can only understand the creation of the worlds through faith, that it is so mysterious that we cannot conceive of it by actual knowledge, and that this creation was accomplished by God simply calling the worlds into existence. This word of God, therefore, is not the gospel, it is simply God speaking as no other being can. As the gospel has no creating power it is not designed to create the children of God anew in Christ and make them new creatures in him, for they are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus by him. See Ephesians 2:10. As it has no creating power it is not designed to raise the dead. When Jesus says that the "hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live," he does not teach that the Son of God has the gospel preached to the dead to make them live, or that he preaches it to them to accomplish that end. The dead hear his voice, not the voice of preachers, and all that hear live. When Paul was sent to the Gentiles to "open their eyes," he was not given power to impart sight to the blind. In Isaiah 42:6,7, God speaks to Christ, saying, "I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles; to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house." This is Christ's work - a work assigned to no one else. Paul was to open the people's eyes, but not blind eyes. He was to open the eyes of those who had sight to see.
The gospel is not intended to give spiritual hearing to those who are deaf to its sweet teaching. The preaching of Jesus himself failed to do this. He said to the Jews, "Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my words." In another verse he tells them that none hear God's words (gospel) except those who are of God; that is, those who are born of him. Those who are born of God, then, did not hear the gospel in this sense before they were born of him. Hence the gospel was not a means by which they were born of God.
The gospel is not the saving power, it only points to him who does save. Its purpose is to proclaim Christ as a sufficient Saviour, one that is able to save all them that come to God by him. The ungodly sinner is told by this that there is no other way to God except through Christ; the heart-broken mourner is told that he alone has power on earth to forgive sins; the christian, who has been brought to trust in him, is fed upon the truth as it is in Jesus, and instructed in the duties of his holy religion. The gospel, like the warm rain, revives the living, while its effect upon the dead is the very opposite. Thus Paul teaches that it is the savor of death unto death to them that perish, and of life unto life to them that are saved. II. Corinthians 2:16.
It is commanded to be preached in all the world as a witness. A witness cannot make other witnesses. Thus the gospel discovers other witnesses who have learned its precious truths by experience. For this reason it separates the people of God from the world. Wherever it is preached it is believed by some, who are thus distinguished from unbelievers. This is the fan that John the Baptist said was in the Saviour's hand. It is used to gather in the wheat and drive away the chaff. It is not used to make wheat, but to separate it from the chaff.
It does not depend upon the schools of men to give it success. The illiterate rejoice in it, their lack of learning being no obstacle to its teaching. We once heard a learned preacher say, in addressing the body of teachers, that the gospel could not accomplish much until the teachers prepared the minds of the people by educating them. He believed that the gospel is the means God uses to save sinners. Then according to his statement, only educated sinners can be saved. The sinner must be educated in order to understand the gospel, then he must hear the gospel in order to be saved. Some people are very religious, who do not know the simple rudiments of language, who do not even know the letters of the alphabet. According to this learned man, their religion is all in vain, they, being unlearned, and being unable to understand the gospel, have never been regenerated. "Where is the wise? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God."
It is said that "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." Also that it is "the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth." From this we learn that it saves the believer in some sense. It is never said to save the unbeliever, or to be the power by which God saves the unbeliever. Paul said to Timothy, "Take heed to thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee." I. Timothy 4:16. Timothy is here told that he could save himself and others by taking heed to himself and continuing in the doctrine. He was to save others in the same sense that he was to save himself. He was already regenerated, and saved in that sense, hence he could not save himself in that sense. As he was not to save himself in that sense, he was not to save others in that sense. The only sense in which he could save himself and others was in keeping himself and them in the true doctrine, by which he and they would be saved from false doctrine and practice. It is in this sense that the gospel saves believers. The gospel often saves the believer from darkness, doubts, and fears.
Those who have eyes to see and ears to hear are made glad by the joyful sound, and seeing their need of just such a Saviour as the gospel proclaims, they are caused to rejoice with unspeakable joy when they hear the glad tidings. It is food to the hungry and drink to the thirsty. None but the living hunger and thirst, and food and drink can revive and strengthen the living only. Peter was commanded to feed the sheep and the lambs. He could only do this by preaching the gospel to them. The soil was not prepared by the sowing of the seed. The stony, way-side, and thorny ground remained the same, but the good ground was productive. Regeneration prepares the soil, the seed sowing follows.
J. R. D.
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