I want to pause from outlining the Anglican Service of Holy Communion and examine the question of the preaching the Gospel in this service. Sometimes it can be too easy for preachers to re-tell a bible story and with that re-telling intersperse a number of moral exhortations.
However entertaining this action may be, it is not preaching the gospel.
It is presenting a moralistic discourse with lots of ethical crumbs which don't add up to the solid food of the whole Word of God. Ethical urgings are just a form of law after all.
Nor by that comment am I disparaging the law. 'The law is holy and the commandment is holy, righteous and good' (Rom 7.12). To be opposed to the Law is to fall into the error of antinomianism (anti-, nomos [law]). But keeping the law cannot save us. The law simply arouses our sinful desires (Rom 7.5).
Hence, although the law is part of the Word of God unless the gospel of free grace (Eph 2.8, 9) is also preached the congregation will go away believing that it should rely on its own strength to remedy its shortcomings. When that happens, a tragedy has occurred. In other cases, more humble hearts come to believe that there is no hope for them because they simply can't fulfil what the law demands.
And these souls are not far from seeing the kingdom of God's grace because it only remains for them to hear the gospel of grace. The preaching of the gospel of grace is sweet nectar to fallen sinners because what we cannot do Christ has already done (Gal 2.13) in his death and resurrection. But then we have to ask,
so what is the gospel?
Different Gospel Definitions?
One gospel issue that makes things difficult given that when one
reads the first three gospel accounts and then the Pauline letters it's not hard to see that
the former speak more about 'the gospel of the Kingdom' (e.g., Mk
1.14-15) of Heaven/God and the latter about gospel of salvation (Eph 1.13) understood as justification (e.g., Rom 3.21-26; 4.25) of the ungodly (Rom 4.5).
More variety than even the above can be found in the New Testament. For example, the fourth gospel account
only mentions the Kingdom 5 times but more especially highlights 'eternal
life' (e.g., Jn 3.16). Hence, even among the gospel accounts differences occur. And we could go on to talk about other NT books that raise issues about the writer's view of the gospel (e.g., James).
The Gospel Message and Its Redemptive Effects
One evangelical error about the gospel that they are accused of making according to some writers is that what evangelicals define as the gospel is not really the gospel at all but the plan of salvation! As one blogger puts it: 'the gospel and personal salvation are not the same thing. And that the gospel isn’t a “plan” as much as it is a Person'.
Now in one respect this blogger is correct. The gospel is embodied in the person of Jesus but to stop there is not to fully resolve the issue between the message and its salvific effects.
An Attempt at Resolution
First, I think a resolution of some of the confusions about the different approaches by the NT writers is to remember that all the presentations are focussed on the Person of Jesus the Christ and Saviour as has been said. When we speak of the Gospel we are talking about the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ for the Gospel doesn't have any content unless one realises that it's good news about Jesus the One born in Bethlehem.
But in addition to that focus, Jesus' coming was/is good news because His incarnation was the climax of all the Old Testament hopes for salvation. Luke in particular emphasises this salvation theme through the songs of Mary (Lu 1.46-55), Zechariah (Lu 1.67-79), and Simeon (Lu 2.29-32). Also the angels' words to the shepherds (Lu 2.10-11) and the words of John the Baptist (Lu 3.4-6) mention this salvation theme. This salvation show the faithfulness of the God of Israel.
In Luke (4.18f) Jesus preaches in the synagogue that the hope-filled words of Isaiah's prophecy (Isa 61.1) are now fulfilled in his arrival! This focus on Jesus the Saviour continues throughout Luke's gospel account. And of course, Jesus' very name means 'God saves'.
All this says that we shouldn't become hung up on exaggerating the distinction between the gospel and its effects (salvation) because the gospel as salvation is embodied in Christ as the 'saviour of the world' (Jn 4.42); the two go together like love and marriage once did.
