What Modern Preaching Gets Wrong about the Gospel, Pt 1
No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more. Jeremiah 31:34 (ESV)
For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands…but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly… But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Hebrews 9:24-26 (ESV)
In this two-part video series, Pastor John shares comments about how modern evangelical preaching has the tendency to turn the gospel into law—presenting Jesus as another lawgiver, “raising the ante” for his followers to seek a righteousness that exceeds that of the pharisees. But even the liberal notion of what Christianity’s gospel is, set forth by some early twentieth-century theologians, still focused on adherence to law—loving God with all our hearts and our neighbors as ourselves. It’s easy to focus on this when speaking of Christ as he is presented in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but then Paul reminds us, “none is righteous, no not one” (Rom. 3:10). John’s gospel, on the other hand, presents Jesus as someone else entirely—namely, the Word become flesh, our Redeemer and Savior of the world through his atoning death on the cross once for all eternity. “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25, ESV).
Correction: John began his ministry in Windsor Locks in 1963 (not 1947/48) as stated in the video.