THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR
"Protestants!
Recover the Biblical Gospel!”
Rev.
|
prca.orgDear radio friends,
Nothing is more
important in any generation than the maintenance of the truth of the
gospel. We read in Roman
1:16 this statement of the apostle:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel.”
Why? He goes on to say, “For it
is the power of God unto salvation.”
“I’m not ashamed of the gospel—for there is nothing in it to be ashamed
of. The gospel is the power of God unto
salvation.”
By gospel we refer
today to the doctrine of justification by faith alone. The word “gospel” in the Bible can be used in
a broader sense and can include all of the good news revealed in the sacred
Scriptures. It is called the gospel of
God, the gospel of grace, the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of the
kingdom, the gospel of peace. The full-orbed good news of God, His works, His purposes, and His
glory—that is the gospel.
But we mean today
the gospel in its most basic sense—the good news of how the holy God has made
the way by which sinners can be made right with Him. The answer is the gospel, the gospel of
justification, to be made right with God by grace for Christ’s sake, through
faith as an instrument, not the cause, and apart from the works of the
law.
The gospel is
beautifully stated in Romans
3:24, we are “justified freely by his grace.” God has made us righteous by His grace, by
His own unmerited favor, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is the legal basis of our
justification—the redemption, the purchase that was made by Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ purchased us upon the
cross, we are justified freely by His grace.
The church refers
to this as the glorious truth of the imputed righteousness of Jesus
Christ. The Bible teaches that the
righteousness of Jesus Christ, that is, what He did—His perfect work on the
cross, His innocence—has been legally reckoned to our account, to the account
of His elect. God has imputed that
righteousness to me legally, so that (and now I am using the words of a very
beautiful creed called the Heidelberg Catechism—Lord’s Day 23) the perfect
righteousness of Christ, without any merit of mine, out of mere grace, is mine
so completely as if I never had nor had committed any sin; yea as if I had
fully accomplished all obedience to the divine law.
That is the
gospel. The gospel is: Jesus has made me righteous before God on the
basis of His work on
It was this truth
of the gospel that both Martin Luther and John Calvin called the article on
which the entire church would stand or fall.
Martin Luther, in a preface to forty-five theses that he wrote in 1537,
wrote the following:
The article of justification is
the master and prince, the lord, the ruler, and the judge over all kinds of
doctrines. It preserves and governs all
church doctrine and raises up our conscience before
God. Without this article the world is
utter death and darkness.
John Calvin agreed
with that. In his reply to a Roman
Catholic clergyman named Sadoleto he wrote:
Whenever knowledge of it [he is
referring to justification] is taken away, the glory of Christ is extinguished,
religion is abolished, the church is destroyed, and the hope of religion
utterly thrown down.
But
why? Why is this gospel so
important? I began by saying that there
is nothing more important in any generation than the maintenance of the truth
of the gospel. Why is that? Because the gospel is the exclusive divine
remedy for man in his sin and lostness. Romans
1:16 stands as a beacon light, reminding us of this basic truth: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel … for it
[the gospel] is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth.” The gospel, it alone, is the
answer to man in his sin and damnworthiness. So nothing is more important than the
maintenance of the gospel. For it alone
is the power of God unto salvation.
Apart from this gospel no one can be saved.
It is for this
reason that the apostle Paul says in Galatians
1:8, when there were those who would tamper with the gospel that he
preached: “But though we, or an angel
from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached
unto you, let him be accursed.”
That word is “anathema.” The
apostle uses a holy invective: Let him
be damned if he dare tamper with the gospel!
Why is Paul so
severe? Because only the gospel,
undiluted in its truth, maintained in all of its truth, is the power of God
unto salvation.
The Protestant
church, which is the heir of the gospel, the heir of the Reformation, is called
to maintain that gospel of justification by faith alone. We are called to maintain it as the holy
deposit from Jesus Christ. In the words
of Paul in II
Timothy 1:13, “Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of
me.” It is urgent.
Why is it so
urgent? Because, in the words of another
Reformed creed, there is abroad today a too gross
blasphemy. The other creed to which I am
referring now is the Belgic Confession, another
beautiful Reformed creed. I am referring
to Article 22 of that confession. Let me
read to you a few words:
For it must needs follow,
either that all things which are requisite to our salvation are not in Jesus
Christ, or, if all things are in Him, that then those who possess Jesus Christ
through faith have complete salvation in Him.
Therefore, for any to assert that Christ is not sufficient, but that
something more is required besides Him, would be too gross a blasphemy; for
hence it would follow that Christ was but half a Savior.
Therefore we justly say with Paul, that we are justified by faith
alone, or by faith without works.
That “too gross a blasphemy,”
namely, that something more is required besides Jesus Christ,
that Jesus Christ is not sufficient—that “too gross a blasphemy” is
living in Protestantism today.
But you might say
to me, “Wait a minute. Isn’t all well in
Protestantism on that issue? Isn’t
justification by faith alone synonymous with Protestantism? Surely every Protestant, at least every
Reformed, Calvinistic Protestant, though they may differ on the spectrum of the
truth of sovereign grace, surely they all know that justification by faith is
the Protestant gospel, the gospel of God.
What soul in their right mind,” you ask me, “would want to go back and
to teach that salvation is based upon one’s own works or based upon the merits
of a priest or a dead saint or the virgin Mary? Yes,” you might say, “there are differences
among Protestant churches. There are
differences among Reformed churches.
There are differences on the idea of creation, whether it is six days or
long periods of time. There are
differences on liturgy and how God is supposed to be worshiped. There are “user-friendly” services, and all
the rest. But surely, Presbyterian,
Reformed, Protestantism is one here, aren’t they? Don’t we all sing with enthusiasm, ‘On Christ
the solid Rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand’? Do we not all recite with emotion the words
of Toplady:
‘Not the labor of my hands could fulfill Thy law’s demands; could my
tears forever flow, could my zeal no respite know, these for sin could not
atone; Thou must save and Thou alone’?
Is not Protestantism one here?”
The answer is: No.
If we take the
approach that all is well here, and if we willfully bury our heads in the sand
and cry, “Peace, peace, this is all a matter of semantics, a matter of
understanding,” then we will have to answer in the last day to the Lord of the
church for treason. Then the blood of
our generation will be upon our hands because we did not defend and teach the
gospel.
Yes, in
Protestantism, gaining in its impetus, is the teaching
that a man is justified by faith and works; that faith-produced works
add to one’s righteousness; that the grace of justification can be lost; and
that the covenant, the fellowship of God, is after all a matter of keeping
conditions. It is a bargain between God
and the sinner.
These voices have
come forth in Protestantism. In the
1990s there was the movement called “Evangelicals and Catholics Together,” in
which a statement was arranged among evangelicals according to which we may say
that we are accepted of a holy God without personal merit or we may believe at
the same time that we are accepted as a result of a meritorious cooperation of
the sinner with grace. This was followed
up with a statement that says that a purely gracious declaration based upon an
imputed righteousness is not central to a true understanding of the
gospel. Evangelicals said to the Roman
Catholic Church that a right understanding of imputed righteousness, of a
righteousness that Christ gives solely of grace, reckoned to the account of the
elect sinner, is not central to the true understanding of the gospel. That was selling out the gospel of grace to
the gospel of works. And under the
gospel of works no soul can find a moment’s peace.
There is also today
a movement among those who call themselves Reformed Protestants, who have in
their history a glorious creed called the Heidelberg Catechism. In the Heidelberg Catechism there is
question/answer 80 in Lord’s Day 30 that asks:
“What is the difference between the Lord’s Supper and the popish mass?” In its answer, the Heidelberg Catechism calls
the popish mass a denial of the one sacrifice and suffering of Jesus
Christ and an accursed idolatry. Now
there are many Reformed Protestants who are expressing great concern whether
the catechism actually is correct and whether or not the catechism is being too
severe and whether or not that question and answer should be removed.
Still
more. There is the movement
called “Neo-legalism.” This is the idea
that one’s works, or the deeds of faith, the works of the child of God, the
obedience of the child of God as he is renewed by the grace of the Holy Spirit,
that his works of obedience affect his legal standing with God; that how God
then views the sinner is in some way influenced by the sinner’s obedience, by
the sinner’s faith, by the sinner’s work.
In other words, that the works of the child of God, as he is renewed in
Jesus Christ, add to and form part of his basis of pardon for sin.
The teaching of the
Scriptures is that the works of the child of God do not add to his standing
before God; that our standing with God is based solely upon the work of Jesus
Christ; and that the works of the child of God are the response of thankfulness
to the grace of God in Jesus Christ. But
now it is being taught that the works of the believer become the instrumental
cause [I’m quoting] of justification.
This is to say that the works of the believer add to their righteousness
with God.
There is the need, Protestants, there is the need to maintain the gospel of the
grace of God. There is the need to
maintain the gospel of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ. There will always be that need because man,
by nature, always seeks to earn with God.
The theology of merit is inbred.
We come by it naturally. What I am
saying is that it is a spiritual problem.
When the teaching of justification by faith and by works is
suggested; when the truth of the gospel is played with and compromised, it is a
spiritual problem. It is not an
intellectual problem. It is a deep spiritual
problem.
What was the devil’s inner conviction as found in Isaiah
14? “I will ascend.” What was Cain’s offering? “I will pay with the fruit of my own
efforts.” Always it is in the heart of
the sinner, in your heart and in mine, that the relationship between the
sovereign and the creature is of merit.
Fallen man hates to hear the gospel of grace alone because we are proud. And it is too much for our proud nature to be
told that we are nothing, can do nothing, deserve
nothing. Grace, saving grace, must first
come and bend our knee. It must humble
us. Saving grace brings this word to
your heart (a beautiful word): Not only
do you not merit with God, but forever you cannot merit with God,
because you are a creature; and the creature cannot earn something from
the Creator, period!
What will you bring
to Me, says God, that I have not first given to
you?
So, Protestants,
there will always be the calling to maintain the glorious gospel of
justification by faith alone. We
maintain that gospel by knowing it, by being associated with it, by coming
under the preaching of it, by having the wonder of it burn within our hearts. We maintain it by knowing it the way the apostle
knew it: I am not ashamed of the
gospel. Why? For therein is revealed the righteousness of
God from faith to faith. In the gospel
is revealed the righteousness that God has provided, with which He is pleased.
How do we maintain
the gospel? We must maintain the gospel
by knowing that gospel. We must maintain
it by preaching it. That is the means
that God has given. We read in II
Corinthians 5:19-21 that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath
committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Now we beseech you, in God’s name, be ye
reconciled to God. The apostle says,
“For we preach Christ and Him crucified.
The gospel of God’s grace, the gospel of justification by faith, the
gospel that the sinner is made right only upon the work of another (Jesus
Christ), is maintained in the church by the faithful preaching of that
gospel. We live in a day of
gospel-acting troops, of gospel bands, of gospel crowns, of gospel
circus-plays. Has God determined how the
gospel shall be embraced, how the gospel shall be promoted? Yes, He has.
Through the preaching of His Word.
We maintain the
gospel by defending it. That means that
the church must have creeds. The church
must know her creeds. And the church
must be faithful to her creeds. Creeds
are the statements, taken from the Scriptures, of what the Scriptures
teach. Creeds are the statements of the church
throughout the ages as that church has had to fight the same arguments that are
being raised today concerning the gospel.
We must maintain those creeds.
We must maintain
the gospel by living in its comfort.
Only those who experience the comfort of the gospel will ever defend
it. Only those will ever defend it who
know personally and profoundly that their salvation is a matter of God’s grace
and that none of their works can be the basis of their salvation and that, when
they go to heaven, it shall be Jesus:
all hail to His name and not to me!
Only those who know all of that profoundly in the depths of their soul
and in the depths of their being, only they shall stand up to defend the
gospel.
Do not think that
the gospel’s battle is going to be lost.
It will not be lost. For this
truth is unassailable. This truth is
God’s truth. God’s truth is this: He has redeemed for Himself by His grace a
people in Jesus Christ. He has done this
entirely by His own power. And that is
comfort.
I cannot stand for
a moment without the gospel. I have no
reason to live without the gospel. But
with the gospel I have a reason every day to live and to praise God. He has redeemed my soul from death. He is my Savior. Jesus is my righteousness alone, a righteousness
that shall stand before God.
That is the
gospel. Protestants, it is time to arise
and to defend the gospel. It is time to
arise and to herald the truth, the only truth in a world of misery and woe. And that truth is the gospel of Jesus Christ,
of the perfect and finished work of Christ in the behalf of elect sinners,
which has surely secured salvation.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy
word. Give us that humility. Give us that comfort in the gospel. And give us zeal for the glory of Thy name,
to defend the precious gospel. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Last modified: 15-nov-2006