Outlined Transcript:
Hi everyone,
I want to round out the biblical response to how we share and communicate the gospel in a pre-Christian culture, especially among people for whom the claims of Christianity may not yet seem plausible.
In previous videos, I talked about methodologies that try to get people to begin obeying Jesus and walking like disciples before they are converted. I discussed some of the pitfalls of that approach, and I may return to those issues in future lectures.
For this video, I want to share two passages that continue to inform my thinking about the centrality of the Word of God as it is proclaimed for the salvation of sinners, not only for their conversion, but also for their discipleship.
Born Again Through the Word of God
First Peter 1:23 says:
since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God;
Peter describes believers as having been born again. This happened in the past with ongoing consequences. That is the verb tense. It is perfect.
It is also passive. Peter does not say that we caused ourselves to be born again. We have been born again. God did it for us.
We did not contribute anything to our natural birth, and we did not contribute anything to being born again. That is the point. We contributed nothing to our conversion. It was a miracle of God.
We received salvation through faith alone, but we had the capacity to believe because faith itself is a gift. Ephesians 2:8-9 teaches that faith is a gift of God. We also see in Acts and Philippians that repentance is granted by God.
The whole package of salvation is wrapped up in grace. It is all of grace. Even our response of faith and repentance is grace. God grants it.
Peter says that we have been born again through imperishable seed, through the living and abiding Word of God.
We were not born again through false seed, through seed that withers and dies, or through seed that ultimately proves useless. We were born again through seed that bears real fruit and never dies.
That seed is the living and abiding Word of God. It is the unbreakable, indomitable Word of God.
The Word of God Remains Forever
Peter continues:
for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you.
False gospels come and go. Movement methodologies and slick strategies for getting people saved quickly come and go. They are often simply the latest marketing niche for exhausted missionaries.
But the Word of God remains.
It is living. It is not dead. It is alive, and it abides. It remains from generation to generation.
In every generation, there will be demonic threats attempting to stamp out, silence, or suffocate the Word of God. But the Word of God persists across the generations.
Peter then explains that this enduring Word is the good news that was preached to them.
How did they receive this imperishable Word, this good news of the gospel?
It was preached to them.
The context in which they received the good news of the written Word of God was the proclamation of the Word of God. Somebody had to stand up and announce it to them.
We see this throughout the book of Acts. Peter preached a great gospel sermon, and many people were added to the church. The apostles, evangelists, and prophets went throughout Jerusalem and the surrounding regions proclaiming the gospel, teaching the Word, and giving people a clear understanding of the good news.
How Will They Believe?
Now consider the familiar words of Romans 10:14-15:
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!”
Paul begins by asking how people can call upon the Lord if they have not believed in Him.
Calling upon the name of the Lord is one of the biblical marks of a true believer. All the way back in Genesis, the true people of God were described as those who called upon the name of the Lord. That description continues throughout Scripture.
In Acts, the early Christians were also described as those who called upon the name of the Lord. This was not merely an Old Testament spiritual description. It continued into the New Testament as a marker of the true people of God.
They were people who prayed to the God of Heaven. Their God heard them. They were a praying people.
Paul is asking how people can call upon God, live as Christians, access God through prayer, and boldly draw near to the throne of grace if they have not first believed.
They must believe before they can live Christianly.
This is a direct rebuke to the pre-discipleship methods found in some disciple-making movements. How can people obey God and live as Christians if they have not believed?
Hearing God Speak
Paul then asks how people can believe in the One they have never heard.
Some English translations say that they have never heard “of” Him. That may sound more natural in English, but the preposition “of” is not present in the original wording.
The sense is that they have never heard Him.
There is a theological reason for that distinction. The following sentence explains the point. How can they believe in God if they have never heard Him speak?
How does that happen?
They hear God through someone preaching.
This is simple, but it is profound. People will not believe if they have not heard God speak.
It is true that they must hear information about God. Faith requires knowledge. There are three parts of saving faith: knowledge, assent, and trust.
First, we must know the truth. We must know doctrine and understand the propositions of the gospel.
Second, we must assent to that truth. We must agree that it is true.
Third, we must trust in it. We must rely upon it, rest in it, and believe in the One whom the gospel proclaims.
But in order to do that, people must hear God speak.
It is not enough merely to hear about God. They must hear God, and they hear God through the faithful proclamation of the Word of God.
As Martin Luther said, the church is the mouth-house of God.
When the law and the gospel are rightly distinguished, rightly divided, rightly applied, and faithfully taught week after week, people hear God speak through the proclamation of His Word.
The Gospel Must Come Before Christian Obedience
Teaching people to live the Christian life, obey Jesus, or pray to Jesus before they are converted is tampering with the Word of God.
It does not give them the open statement of the truth.
If they do not hear the law clearly proclaimed and the gospel freely offered, they are not hearing the whole message of Scripture. If they hear only law, they are not hearing the good news.
We must be clear about everything the Bible says, especially when proclaiming the gospel.
We cannot proclaim a gospel of faithfulness and hope that people will eventually become believers after they have learned how to be faithful. It does not work that way.
Paul’s order is clear. People cannot call upon the name of the Lord if they have not believed in Him.
In other words, they cannot live as Christians or possess the identifying marks of Christians before they believe.
Prayer is often incorporated into Discovery Bible Studies and similar methods. Participants are encouraged to begin doing what God commands. But how can they truly call upon God if they have not believed?
They will not believe unless they hear God speak through the proclamation of His Word.
Nothing Less Than the Word Will Do
This is why missionaries must give themselves to the clear and confident proclamation of the Word of God.
This is especially necessary for missionaries who are churchmen, missionaries involved in church planting, pastor training, doctrinal instruction, apologetics, or defending the gospel.
Nothing less will do.
We must have a backbone of steel. We must faithfully lay down the law and freely offer the healing balm of the gospel.
We must clearly, openly, and boldly proclaim the good news of the grace of God and the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Thank you.