THE GOSPEL: SIMPLE YET NOT SIMPLISTIC

By Christian Research Network contributor Jon Cardwell
This is a repost of an original article on Justification By Grace

And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples.“ —Mark 4:33-34

The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple; yet, it is not simplistic. In other words, although it is fundamentally simple and easily understood, Jesus Christ is the “Lamb slain” from before the beginning of the world.

Everything that there is comes forth from the gospel and therefore, the gospel is as infinite and eternal as God Himself. Why?

Jesus Christ is the gospel. As eternally in Christ, and infinitely glorious thereby, there are elements of this gospel truth that we will not grasp, do not comprehend, and cannot apprehend.

To emphasize the simple grace of Christ, and Him crucified, at the expense of its superlative goodness is to disgrace the power and majesty of the gospel.

To emphasize the unrivaled magnitude of Christ, and Him crucified, at the expense of its uncomplicated message is to defame the preciousness and mercy of the gospel.

If preachers of the gospel in pulpits, even today, will by God’s grace submit to these two very true aspects of the gospel, we will see in our lives as ministers, and in the lives of God’s people, a more harmonious sanctification as the eternal truth of heaven is poured forth from earthen vessels sojourning in the temporal plain of this mortal coil until Christ return or calls us home.

The original appears right here

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