The Gospel According to Paul # 1

The Gospel According to Paul # 1

Preface

We are living in a time when many great changes of complexion are taking place in every realm. It is certainly no time to stagnation. Not only has the face of things greatly changed in half a life-time, but there is in these immediate days a tremendous acceleration in this change, so that we do not know what the world situation may be from one day to another.

What obtains in general is no less true - perhaps more true - in Christianity. Everything is in a realm of question and uncertainty - that is, so far as the framework, the form, the work, the way and the earthly prospect are concerned. We can go further and say that - most probably in the sovereignty and providence of God - conditions (already so far advanced in the East) are literally compelling Christians to reconsider their foundations, and driving responsible people to face the whole question of demanded reorientation.

If we are nearing the consummation of this age, then that is exactly what we may expect. Only truth in its very essence will stand the test which will be forced upon everything by God Himself, and this "judgment must begin at the house of God." All the accessories, appurtenances, accompaniments, paraphernalia and "etceteras" of Christianity will be stripped off, and only stark reality remain at the last.  There is mentioned in Scripture a "fiery trial which shall come upon all the inhabited earth, to try the dwellers thereon." The tragedy of our time is that so many responsible leaders either are too busy and preoccupied with work or are so superficially optimistic that they are not aware of the real emergency implicit in world developments.

There is a growing need for such a stock-taking in many connections, but not least in the matter of the Gospel itself. Let us hasten to make clear that we are not implying that there is any need whatever for a reconsideration of the essence of the Gospel. No, emphatically NO! It, in its essential nature and constituents, remains, "The everlasting Gospel." But there is a very real need for a fresh apprehension of what that Gospel really is. The very word or term "Gospel" has come to imply something less than "the whole counsel of God", and to be applied almost exclusively to the beginnings of the Christian life.

When the Apostle who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews had set forth the transcendent greatness of Christ, God's Son, in every realm, whether of Patriarchs, Prophets, Angels, or whom you will, he summed up everything - a vast everything - in one phrase: "so great salvation"; concerning which salvation he declared that even to neglect it - not necessarily to oppose or resist it - would involve in an inescapable doom.

In the pages of this little volume we have sought to serve this need of recovering, or re-presenting, something - only something - of the greatness of the Gospel, and to show that everything for life, service, progress, and victory depends upon our real grasp of its greatness.

~T. Austin-Sparks~
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In His Letter to the Romans

"...the gospel which I preach ..." (Gal. 2:2).
"Now I made known unto you, brethren, the gospel which I preached unto you..." (1 Cor. 15:1).
"For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man" (Gal. 1:11).

"The gospel  which I preach". "The gospel which was preached by me".

There are in the New Testament four main designations for the basic matter with which it deals, the vital truth with which it is concerned, and those four designations are The Gospel, The Way, The Faith, and The Testimony. That which has now come to be known as "Christianity" was then expressed by one or other of those designations. Of these four, the one used more than any other is the first - The Gospel. That title for the inclusive message of the New Testament occurs there at least one hundred times, but unrecognized by us, because it is translated by several different English words. The verb form of this very same Greek word appears in our translation as "to declare", "to preach", to preach the gospel." It would sound very awkward if you were to give a literal translation to this verb form. It would be just this - "to gospel", "to gospel people", "to gospel the kingdom", or, to take the meaning of the word, "to good news", "to good-tidings", and so on. That sounds very awkward in English, but in Greek that is exactly what was said. When they preached they conceived themselves as a"good-newsing" everything and everybody. To preach the gospel was simply to announce good tidings.

It is impressive that this word, this title, for the Christian faith - "the gospel" - abounds in twenty of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The exceptions are the Gospel by John, where you will not find it, nor will you find it in the three letters of John. You will not find it in Peter's second letter, nor will you find it in James or Jude. But these writers, had their own titles for the same thing. We mentioned among the four, "The Testimony": that is John's peculiar title for the Christian faith - often, with him, "The testimony of Jesus". With James and Jude it is "The Faith". But you see how preponderating is this  title of "the good news," "The Gospel."

The Range of The Term "The Gospel"

So we have to take account quite early of a most important fact. It is that this term, the good news, covers the entire range of the New Testament, and embraces the whole of what the New Testament contains. It is not just those certain truths which relate to the beginning of the Christian life. The gospel is not confined to the truths or doctrines connected with conversion and in that limited sense, salvation - the initial matter of becoming a Christian. The gospel goes far beyond that. I repeat, it embraces all that the New Testament contains. It is as much the gospel in the profound letters to the Ephesians and the Colossians as it is in the letter to the Romans - perhaps no less profound a document, but often regarded as being mainly connected with the beginnings of the Christian life.

No, this term, the "good tidings", covers the whole ground of the Christian life from beginning to end. It has a vast and many-sided content, touching every aspect and every phase of the Christian life, of man's relationship to God and God's relationship to man. It is all included in the good tidings. The unsaved need good news but the saved equally need good news, and they constantly need good news. Christians constantly need some good news and the New Testament is just full of good news for Christians. The servants of the Lord need good news. They need it as their message, the substance of their message. They need it for their encouragement and support. How much the Lord's servants need good news to encourage them in the work, and support in all the demand and cost of their labors! The Church needs good news for its life, for its growth, for its strength, for its testimony. And so the gospel comes in at every point, touches every phase.

Now as to our present method in the pages which follow. I would ask you to follow me carefully, and to grasp what I am trying to say by way of the foundation of this word. We are going to pursue what I am going to call the "resultant" method: that is, to elicit the conclusion of the whole matter, rather than the particular aspect of any one portion of the New Testament.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)