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The Address of the Gospel (3)

Because questions come up so often which involve the more general question of what can be called, "the address of the gospel," I have decided to devote a few articles to that general subject.


In the last issue, I talked about the contents of the gospel. What I said in that article is hardly unknown, or is hardly disputed by any one who knows and loves the Reformed faith.

But now we come into more controversial material. I want to face now the question: To whom is the gospel addressed?

* * * *

In a certain sense of the word it can be said that the gospel is addressed to God's people because the Scriptures are written for the sake of God's people. These Scriptures have sometimes been called, with justification, Christ's love letter to His bride.

I well recall the story of a minister who was publicly lecturing on the truth of the infallible inspiration of Scripture. In the course of his speech he was suddenly interrupted by a college student who mockingly opposed the speaker's thesis on the grounds that Scripture contained many contradictions. The minister calmly replied: "I would not expect you to understand. You have been opening some else's mail."

Even such passages as are often claimed to refer to all men refer instead to God's people.

When Isaiah calls the thirsty to come to the waters, that Word of God is addressed to God's people who alone are thirsty (Isaiah 55:1, 2). When Jesus calls the laboring and heavy laden to come to him, He is specifically and concretely directing that call to His own people because they are the only ones who labor and are heavy laden (Mt. 11:28). And so, Scripture very often defines the people addressed in the gospel as being God's people -- although they are given spiritual names which identify them according to their spiritual characteristics.

If it is true that Scripture is the infallibly inspired record of the revelation of God in Jesus Christ as the God of the salvation of His people, and if all preaching is absolutely limited to the sacred Scriptures, then preaching is primarily directed towards God's people.

Let that be understood, first of all.

* * * *

But the fact of the matter is that the contents of Scripture are, in a certain sense, indeed addressed to everyone who hears.

Only Hyper-Calvinists deny this obvious truth and insist that the gospel must be addressed in all its parts, only to the elect.

We want no part of such a view.

That the gospel is addressed to all who hear is obvious from many considerations.

In the first place, it is preached widely and broadly so that everyone within hearing hears this preaching. This wide hearing of the gospel is true in the church where are found many unbelievers (who may very well be hypocrites); but it also, necessarily, takes place on the mission field where the gospel is proclaimed to all the nations.

Yet, it is not only an unavoidable by-product of the preaching that all hear. God wants many more than the elect to hear the gospel.

And this hearing of the gospel is not just simply a certain auditory phenomenon such as happens when the janitor in a college happens to step into a classroom and hears a professor lecture on the theory of relativity. When men hear the gospel, they are confronted by Christ Who is proclaimed in the gospel.

And when they are confronted by Christ Who is proclaimed in the gospel, they are confronted with the demands of the gospel.

God wants it that way. It is necessary and important for God to do this. To deny this truth is really to deny an important part of God's plan and purpose.

Last modified on 27 March 2013
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Additional Info

  • Volume: 5
  • Issue: 13
Hanko, Herman

Prof. Herman Hanko (Wife: Wilma)

Ordained: October 1955

Pastorates: Hope, Walker, MI - 1955; Doon, IA - 1963; Professor to the Protestant Reformed Seminary - 1965

Emeritus: 2001

Website: www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakeronly=true&currsection=sermonsspeaker&keyword=Prof._Herman_Hanko

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  • City
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  • State or Province
    MI
  • Zip Code
    49428
  • Country
    United States
  • Telephone
    616-667-6033

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