Meditations

August 1 – LD 31, Day 3: The Wonderful Power of the Preaching of the Gospel to Open the Kingdom

Read: John 3:16- 36.

How wonderful from a positive point of view is the power of the Gospel! The power of the gospel is the power of Jesus Christ. It is not the power of a mere man, not even that of a preacher of the gospel. The statement “According to the command of Christ” Is mentioned twice this Lord’s Day. The key power of the kingdom is the power of the declaration and preaching of the Word of Christ, the sovereign king of His kingdom. 

The wonderful positive power of the key of the kingdom is this. “When according to the command of Christ it is declared and publicly testified to all and every believer, (by the preaching) that whenever they receive the promise of the gospel by a true faith, all their sins are really forgiven them of God, for the sake of Christ’s merits.” 

All men are by nature born as sinners. There is none righteous, no, not one. Because of this awful reality, all men stand condemned before the just and holy God, the sovereign of heaven and earth. They have no part in thekingdom of God. Any man who does not repent, no matter who he or she might be, no matter how great he might imagine himself to be, no matter how popular and honorable he might be before the men of this world, before God he stands condemned. For this reason, he has no place in God’s kingdom.

When we are living according to the Word of God, it matters not what men may say of us. But what does matter, what should be the absolutely most important concern of our life, is what God says concerning us. 

The gospel is God’s good news that declares that all those who repent and believe in Christ by a true faith will be saved. They will be saved because their sins are forgiven them through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. As long as a person is an impenitent sinner, he stands condemned. He is in danger of being thrown into everlasting hell. The gospel promises that all those who truly believe in Jesus Christ, will immediately receive life from God in Jesus Christ. The gospel declares that those who truly believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God, the Savior who sacrificed Himself on the cross for the sins of His people, will become heirs of His everlasting and glorious kingdom. This is what it means that the preaching of the gospel is the key power of the kingdom!

The duty of the church through her ministers is to preach the gospel of Christ in all its truth, power and glory. She may not ever compromise the truth of the gospel. The church may not say something to men that Christ has not said. The church has the solemn obligation through her ministers to be faithful ministers of Christ, and official heralds of His truth, bringing nothing but the Word of Christ in all its power, beauty and holiness. The church must declare the truth of God and also the perfect demands of His holy law.

Whenever the church preaches the gospel, she must sound forth the serious call to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Without repentance, there can be no salvation. But to the penitent sinner, the gospel declares the hope of salvation and the inheritance of the glorious kingdom of Christ.

The preaching of the gospel is the power of the Spirit of God to bring about repentance in the hearts of God’s people and to give them hope, assurance and comfort with regard to their citizenship and blessing in the gloriouskingdom of Christ, in spite of the shame, persecution and suffering they experience in this present world.

den Hartog, Arie

Rev. Arie denHartog (Wife: Sherry)

Ordained: October 1974

Pastorates: Wyckoff, NJ - 1974; Foreign Missionary, Singapore - 1979; Randolph, WI - 1987; Redlands, CA - 1990; Minister-on-Loan, Singapore - 2001; Southwest, Grandville, MI - 2005

Website: www.southwestprc.org/

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