Thursday, June 25, 2009

Preaching the Gospel To Yourself...


"Preach the gospel to yourself." This is a mandate among many reformed churches to this generation. It has come from the lips of men like CJ Mahaney, John Piper, and Jerry Bridges--all great theologians of today. It is part of a modern movement to recapture the truths of the reformation and the doctrines of grace. "We must stop listening to ourselves and start talking to ourselves" says Mahaney (pictured above) who is quoting Dr. Martin Loyd-Jones. This is great advice to a world that loves self above all else.

Why are you cast down o my soul?
Hope thou in God.


The words of the Psalmist are deep and anguished. He is depressed and is talking to himself and saying "Stop despairing. Stop believing your own lies. Put your trust and hope in God." This is sound advice. We must constantly remind ourselves of the reality of Christ atonement for us. But I am afraid that this message will be misunderstood, especially by those churches who already struggle with becoming outward because they only look inward. "Preach the gospel to yourself--so that-- you will able to peach the gospel to others who also desparately need it." This is a good reason or ground for why we should indeed preach to ourselves. The Christian does not live for self but is the servant of all. Sanctification is part of the inward daily struggle we have with sin but we cannot stop there. We are messengers.

Imagine if Paul Revere thought himself too unworthy of the task of warning the colonists that the Redcoats were coming. If he had taken time for self-reflection we'd all still be speaking the Queen's English (some of you wouldn't mind). The message is what is important--not the messenger. As Christians we cannot let inward reflection on the gospel be a prerequisite to sharing it with others. While it is necessary for the nourishement of our own souls, it accomlishes nothing in the lives of others until it is spoken out. I know that men like Piper and Mahaney think it is a given that Christians are sharing the gospel with others, but it is a real problem for churches where we have become adept preachers to ourselves but do not take it beyond that. The gospel is not only to be treasured and understood more deeply everyday, but perhaps even more importantly it is to be shared with the entire world daily.

It's like when one of your good friends buys that perfect gift you didn't even know you wanted, but now it's your favorite thing in the world and you find excuses to wear it as much as possible; a new blouse, a gold ring, a really cool jacket with elbow patches on the sleeves (ok that's just me). But you know what I'm talking about. The first thing we want to do is show it off to others, put it on display. This pleases not only the one wearing it, but the gift-giver even more. The analogy is obvious. We must share the precious gospel with everyone we meet. And unlike a jacket or ring, there is plenty of gospel truth for everyone in the entire world.

Deep and wide... Deep and wide.
There's a fountain flowing deep and wide


Remember those words from that children's Sunday school song? The gospel is both deep and wide. It is deep enough for the weightiest theologian to plunge the depths of and yet wide enough to fill the whole earth 100 times over. The best thing we can do with a gift is to put it on display for all to enjoy. We must preach the gospel to ourselves so that we can preach it to others.

06/02/11

I would like to add something to this post here. I would just like to say that preaching the gospel to yourself is a biblical mandate.

"Therefore there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." Romans 8:1

This is the Apostle Paul answering the question "Who can save me from this body of death?" Jesus can! And has indeed if you are in Christ. So whenever we here accusations from the world, our flesh or the Devil himself, we can put forward the shield of faith that says "this soul is saved not by my own works but by the righteousness of Christ my Savior!" This is a most important truth that cannot be emphasized enough. Too often is there a sorry Christian walking around with his head down as if he has no hope. "Hope in God!" King David would say as he told himslef on many occasions in the Psalms.

The reason I must add this exclamation is that I dont want anyone to get the impression that preaching the gospel to oneself is in any way unbiblical or even could be unbiblical. It is God's message to the church. With that said, I still do think that we must also remind ourselves that the souls of men are at stake. And because of this urgent need, we need to not keep this amazing truth to ourselves. There could be no greater motivation to preach the gospel than to have recieved yourself.