The Wednesday Word ~ 04 March, 2026 A.D.

The Gospel and Authentic 

New Testament Ministry, Part IX

by D G Miles McKee

 

Preaching the Gospel and instructing believers how to live are not two separate unrelated things. Mark it down, believers will not be empowered to live as Christians if there is no Gospel ministered to them.

 

Why not? Simply because the Gospel of Christ is the power of God unto salvation (see Romans 1:16).

 

For example, there’s the matter of forgiveness. Have you ever heard a sermon on forgiveness? I wish I had a dollar for every teaching I’ve heard on that subject. However, merely telling people to walk in forgiveness does not make them do so.

 

Why not? Again, it’s because there is usually no Gospel along with the exhortation. But here’s how the apostle Paul taught on this matter, “And be kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Ephesians 4:32.) “--forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3:13).

 

See how once more; to empower his hearers to live the Gospel lifestyle of forgiveness, he brings them back to the Gospel. Paul points out that God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven us.  

 

Did God forgive us just because He was kind?

 

Did He forgive us because His wrath against sin had mellowed?

 

No, God has forgiven us for Christ’s sake. We therefore are to forgive in just the same way.

 

Another marvellous example of how Paul used the Gospel to teach lifestyle is demonstrated all the way through the book of Hebrews. Remember, the goal of Hebrews was to dissuade some Jewish Christians from departing from the faith and going back to Temple worship. 

 

These Hebrew Christians were suffering persecution, trials and hardships. Their faith was being shaken. As we read Paul’s mighty exhortation to these believers, we notice that once more, he does not merely tell them what they should and should not do. If Paul was your average modern-day preacher, however, he would simply have said something like: “Brothers, what else do you expect. It’s a hard road and we all go through tough times. Now then lads, straighten up and fly right!” 

 

However, although Hebrews is a strong exhortation to do just that, this is not how the great apostle approaches things. Paul rather, unfolds to them the glory of the very centre of the Gospel, the great High Priest. He takes them to the Christ who was crucified. He tells them to “consider Him.” 

 

He presents the cross, the blood and the identity and superiority of the Lord Jesus. He takes them to the heavenly sanctuary and shows them the very fruit of the Gospel, how Christ Jesus is our representative and perfection and that in Him there is no more remembrance of sin. As he establishes the entire superiority of the New Covenant over the Old, he once more, like the true apostle he was, unleashes the power of the Gospel of Christ upon his hearers.

 

And that’s the Gospel Truth!

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