The Wednesday Word ~ 26 November, 2025 A.D.

The Gospel and Authentic New 

Testament Ministry, Part V


by D G Miles McKee  
 

The heart and passion of authentic New Testament ministry is the good news of Jesus Christ. For this reason Paul wrote to the Church at Rome saying, “And I am sure that, when I come unto you, I shall come in the fullness of the blessing of the Gospel of Christ” (Romans 15:29).

 

In Paul‘s apostolic mind, his visit would be for the purpose of bringing the Gospel to the Roman believers. Paul, unlike many today, did not discount the Gospel as being something un-necessary for believers. In fact, in Paul’s inspired thinking when it came to edifying and establishing the church, the Gospel was an inescapable essential. To grow in grace, we walk by faith ... faith in that which has already been accomplished in and by Christ Jesus.

 

Fellowship with God does not rest on an inward process of supposedly being made holy and mature. Our inward condition cannot mediate between us and God.  Christ Jesus is the only mediator and way to the Father. 

 

Authentic New Testament ministry, therefore, does not focus believers on themselves and their supposed progress towards perfection. The truth is that perfection is not something which God requires at the end of our Christian life: He demands perfection before any right relationship can begin and this perfection is legally found in Christ alone. Furthermore, concerning authentic New Testament ministry, Paul tells the Ephesians, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8).

 

Notice how the riches of Christ are unsearchable! This means they are so plentiful that they can not be numbered. In a sense, Paul is telling us that there is no one sufficient for the task of being a Gospel minister. The subject of Christ is so vast and deep we can only, as it were, scratch its surface. Yet many of our modern preachers want to by-pass Christ in favour of ‘principles ‘, ‘keys to life’ ‘deeper life’ and other assorted man centered fancies. It is as if they see no beauty in Jesus (Isaiah 53:2). The following verse is not on their top ten list,

“Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ,

Wealth that can never be told!

 Oh, the unsearchable riches of Christ!

 Precious, more precious than gold.”

 

An authentic New Testament minister, however, is absorbed with the person, work and offices of the Lord Jesus. Paul, 38 years after his conversion, still yearned to both win and know Christ (Philippians 3:8, 3:10). When he speaks of ‘winning Christ’ he’s not speaking of gaining Christ’s righteousness. He already has that!

 

What he means is, in much the same way that an unsaved man may seek to gain the whole world, the follower of the Lamb wants to gain all there is to have of Christ. That is why Paul spent his Christian life looking unto Jesus and continually mining gems from His unsearchable riches.

 

Ah, but I think I hear that voice again.  Which voice? The voice of dissent which continually says that we need to move on from and not into the Gospel. This time, we should let Andrew Bonar answer that rascal voice. In his sermon on ‘Winning Christ” Bonar says,

 “If ever we begin to think that we have seen all that we need to see in the Person of Christ, we have made a very great mistake - a mistake that will affect all our after-growth. No; through eternity we shall be exploring the person of Christ. For in that person everything that is wondrous meets. There you have the Creator and the creature in one, the finite and the Infinite, the visible and Invisible. There you have humanity married to Divinity. A most wondrous mystery, the person of Christ, God-man! Let us always take Christ's person with us, whatever subject in connection with Him we are about to explore.”

 

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Putrid Cup of Tolerance: When Evil Poses as Progress

"Ye that love the LORD, hate evil: He preserveth the souls of His saints; He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked." -Psalm 97:10 [KJV] "Tolerance becomes a crime when applied to evil." Thomas Mann's chilling words pierce through the fog of modern moral relativism like a shard of ice. It's a warning that echoes through the blood-soaked pages of history, a truth we ignore at our peril. The Seduction of False Neutrality We live in an age where tolerance is held up as the supreme virtue, the golden idol before which we must all bow. We're told to accept everything, question nothing, and embrace a faux-unity that sacrifices truth on the altar of political correctness. But what happens when this tolerance becomes a blindfold, obscuring the stark reality of evil lurking in our midst? Like a ravenous wolf, evil doesn't care for our carefully crafted social constructs. It doesn't respect boundaries, it doesn't play fair, and it ce...
Read more

LORD JESUS, Be Merciful...

" LORD, be merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee." -Psalm 41:4 [KJV] Is this the language of the man after God’s own heart? Was David a saint when he uttered it? Yes, he was a holy man of God. This confession and prayer shew it. His heart was not hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, nor blinded by self-righteous pride, so as to say, “I have no sin.”   Self-righteous hearts cannot away with this, that all the Lord’s saints are yet in themselves miserable sinners; that they daily see need to confess this; and to sue for mercy and healing from the Lord. Here is a confession, a plea, and a prayer.  (1st.) A confession, “I have sinned against Thee.” Thus we must come and confess to the Lord to-day, to-morrow, and every day, till the sun of life sets. Sense of sin, whether fresh contracted, or long since committed, abides with us. It wounds and pains a gracious soul. Here grace discovers itself. That soul waits not for time to efface the m...
Read more

Great Encouragement in Christ JESUS ~ 19 October, 2025 A.D.

"Behold, he prayeth!"   -Acts 9:11 [KJV] In many trades, it is customary to shew samples or patterns. By these men judge of the goodness or quality of the whole. St. Paul sets himself forth as a sample, or pattern, of the free, distinguishing, sovereign, unmerited grace of God, that we should judge of its nature by its efficacy upon him. “I obtained mercy, for this cause, that in me first   (-a first rate sinner) Jesus Christ may shew forth His all long suffering, for a pattern to them who should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting”   (I Timothy 1:16.) Thou hast seen this pattern of free grace. What dost thou think of it?  The whole is alike with the pattern. It cometh alike upon elect sinners. It finds no more prerequisites, fitness, qualifications, or conditions in any, than it did in St. Paul. Whenever it takes place upon any, it produceth the same effects as it did in him. Grace and mercy from Jesus, makes Saul pray to Jesus. There is the ...
Read more