Quest for Godliness # 8

The Puritan View of Preaching the Gospel

For the Puritans the proclamation of the gospel and the salvation of souls involved certain fundamental elements of biblical teaching. First, there must be a recognized awareness that humans because of their fallen state are unable to respond to God on their own. It is only through the power of the Spirit whereby fallen men and women are able to respond to Christ’s gospel call. Therefore, the power of the gospel and bringing souls to Christ does not rest of the persuasion or passion of the evangelist but on the purpose and power of the Holy Spirit.

There are two major problems which face today’s evangelism that may prove correctable by taking a careful look at the Puritan’s own method. First, there is a minimizing approach to the teaching of Christian truth. The minister seeks to get by preaching and teaching his congregation the essentials of the faith and no more. Likewise, the congregation often seeks to get by with just listening to the bare essentials of the faith rarely seeking more than a few sips of the milk of the Word, passing by the meat. Second, there is a widespread uncertainty about the nature of Reformed evangelism. Due to a poor understanding of the Reformed Faith many today fear that such theology will bring about the demise of missions and evangelism. However, such a return to a proper biblical understanding of Reformed theology will not diminish missions and evangelism but serve to strengthen and encourage it.

What then is the sum of the Puritan gospel? First, they taught a comprehensive gospel. It included the whole teaching on the doctrine of grace and saw salvation as an act of all three persons of the Godhead. Salvation was a Trinitarian act. To preach gospel sermons was to teach the totality of the whole Christian worldview. “Gospel preaching centers always upon the theme of man’s relationship to God, but around that centre it must range throughout the whole sphere of revealed truth, viewing the centre from every angle of vision that the Bible provides” (169). Knowledge of grace presupposes knowledge of sin and likewise knowledge of sin presupposes knowledge of the holiness and majesty of the Lord.

Second, there are various aspects of emphases of the gospel. They brought out the plight of man being dominated and daily destroyed by sin. They taught the issues of sin in relation to the goodness and holiness of God. They also stressed the goal of grace which was the glory and praise of God and Christ. Then they encouraged the sufficiency of Christ that men and women were to place their faith and trust in him alone. They also stressed the condescension of Christ in that the Son of God came down to save lowly sinners.

Third, they recognized the demands of the gospel. Sinners were summoned to faith in Christ and there is a distinct ought-ness in the gospel. Sinners are called to Christ and while it is a pleading to believe in Christ it is also a command that they must repent and believe in Christ or suffer the eternal punishments of hell. They also recognized that repentance is a fruit of faith. Faith only comes about through regeneration, but such working of the Spirit on the hearts of sinners brings about a desire to cast away all sin and to cling to Christ. Faith then must express itself in a life of continual belief, trust and obedience to the demands of the gospel.

While Puritan preaching of the gospel sought to bring glory to God and sinners to Christ it also sought to magnify Christ. He was to be exalted in their preaching. Christ, being the focal point of gospel preaching, was to be honored and exalted in all true preaching which sought to lift up the gospel to poor and needy sinners. His glory was to be declared in all its force and glory to those poor and needy sinners who needed nothing more than to hear of the greatness and worthiness of Jesus Christ and his free gospel of salvation.