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Concerning the Gospel
It is of importance to be accurate in our language on this
subject; but it is still more important to be accurate in our
ideas. Much confusion prevails, not only among private Chris-
tians, whose mistakes can be accounted for from want of instruc-
tion or from the neglect of inquiry, but also among those who,
being appointed teachers of others in faith and verity, prove
blind leaders of the blind. There are not a few of the latter
class who are as ignorant of the true distinction between the Law
and the Gospel as any of their hearers; who, accordingly, con-
found them together, and while they profess to preach Christ,
teach a doctrine in which he holds only a subordinate place. It
is necessary that a minister should be able rightly to divide the
word of truth, to distinguish things which in themselves are dif-
ferent, to state them in their order and connexion, and to apply
them to the purposes which they are respectively intended to
serve. Nothing is more disgraceful to him, than to mistake one
thing for another, and by his bungling manner of handling the
word of God, to render it of no effect.
Men may preach the grace of God, but not preach the Gospel.
The phrase may occur often in their discourses and writings; and
thus the simple may be led to believe that they are reading and
hearing evangelical doctrine, while those declaimers are in truth
labouring to subvert the Gospel of Christ. However loud and elo-
quent may be his praise of Divine grace, if a person make it con-
sist in giving us a milder law, in lowering the terms of accep-
tance, and admitting our sincere endeavours, instead of perfect
obedience, as the condition of future happiness; if he represents
it as grace given to all indiscriminately, to enable them to work
out their salvation; or a grace which it is left to ourselves to
receive or reject at our pleasure, which may be lost, and will
prove ineffectual unless we lend our aid to it; it is evident,
that he knows neither what he says, nor whereof he affirms.
Again, A man may preach salvation by faith, and not preach
the Gospel of Christ. His doctrine is orthodox in sound, but is
erroneous in sense. For what is the faith which he teaches? Is
it a humble dependance upon the righteousness of Christ, to the
exclusion of our own? No; it is what he calls believing obe-
dience; not faith alone, but faith and obedience conjoined; the
name of the cause being given not only to itself, but to its ef-
fect, out of compliment to Scripture, and to please fastidious
ears. You will find that, in this manner, some teachers of faith
explain their own meaning. We are saved by faith, not solely as
it receives Christ, but as it works by love; or, in other words
we are saved not simply by a living faith, which proves its genu-
ineness by good works, but by faith which includes good works,
and derives its efficacy from them. And thus, while sinners are
told that they are justified by faith, and so far the doctrine
seems to be Scriptural, they are in reality led to believe that
they are justified by works.
Farther, Ministers may preach the atonement, and yet not
preach the Gospel of Christ. They may admit that Christ died for
our sins; that his sacrifice was acceptable to God; that, for his
sake, he pardons us; and that to his mediation we are indebted
for all the blessings of salvation; but, while they give goodly
words, they may hold sentiments which render them in a great
measure nugatory. If they teach that our Redeemer died, not ac-
tually to reconcile God to us, but to render him reconcilable;
that he died to procure the making of a new covenant with us, the
terms of which are to be fulfilled by ourselves; that he died to
give efficacy to our repentance, meaning that somehow it becomes,
through his death, a sort of satisfaction for our sins; in all
these cases, they misrepresent the nature, and extenuate the
value, of the atonement of the cross. They take away with the
one hand what they had given with the other. According to their
doctrine, it is not true that the blood of Christ cleanses us
from all sin, that through it we have redemption, that by it he
has made peace: because there still remains something to be
done by us, to render his blood effectual for our deliverance
from something to be added to it as the conjunct causes of our
pardon.
In the next place, Men may preach the privileges of be-
lievers, and not preach the Gospel of Christ. They may talk of
justification, without referring to Scriptural faith by which
alone it is enjoyed; of sanctification, without assigning the
grace of the Divine Spirit as its only efficient cause; of pro-
tection by the power of God, and peace and joy; while the pro-
tection depends upon our own dutiful conduct, and may be for-
feited if we are not careful to deserve its continuance; the
peace arises, not from the application of the blood of Christ to
the conscience, but from our own fidelity in the performance of
our duty; and the hope is not founded on the promises of God, and
the righteousness of Christ, but on the recollection of our own
meritorious deeds. The privileges enumerated are conferred by
the gospel, and are exhibited in its declarations; but as soon as
you disjoin them from Christ, and ascribe the enjoyment of them
to any other cause than his mediation, they cease to be gifts of
grace, and are changed into the rewards of the law. It is in
Christ, in a state of union to him, and solely for his sake, that
God blesses us with all spiritual blessings.
Lastly, Men may preach the happiness of heaven, and yet not
preach the Gospel of Christ. They may be chargeable with doing
so on two accounts, either because they misrepresent the nature
of that happiness, or because they do not truly state the means
of obtaining it. To affirm that we are indeed pardoned through
the atonement of Christ, but that we must ourselves establish a
right to eternal life by our obedience, is to preach something
very different from the Gospel; although an attempt should be
made to qualify the doctrine, and to give it an evangelical form,
by subjoining that it is the grace of God which enables us to
obey. This is plainly to set even grace in opposition to Christ,
as if it were intended to help us to preform a part of the work
of salvation, which he claims as exclusively his own. Nor is the
Gospel preached when heaven is described as a place of rest and
enjoyment, without a reference to the presence of Christ in it,
as constituting the chief source of its glory and blessedness.
We all condemn the grossness of the Mahometans, who expect a
sensual paradise; but even professed Christians are by no means
united in their views of the world to come. The notions of many
are altogether undefined; but, if it is not considered as a holy
as well as a happy place, and if its happiness is contemplated
under any view which excludes the love and service of the
Saviour, or allows to these only a subordinate place, it is a
heaven of imagination, and not of the Scriptures. As Christ is
the life and glory of the Gospel, so he is associated with all
just conceptions of future felicity. He is the sum of the celes-
tial world.
It is of the utmost importance that private Christians, and
especially ministers of religion, should have accurate notions of
the Gospel. Truth is one, but error is multifarious. It is
truth alone that will promote the salvation of the soul; every
modification of error is injurious in a greater or less degree.
"If ye know the truth, the truth shall make you free" (John viii.
32). 1
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1 John Dick, _Lectures on Theology_ (Cincinnati: J. A. &
U. P. James, 1850), pages 453-454.