Friday 25 January 2008

The preaching of Jesus

“Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith to God, alone wise, be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” - Romans 16v25-27

I just couldn’t skip over this beautiful doxology and summary of the amazing book of Romans. There is so much there that I don’t really know where to focus, but I do think there is one vital phrase that a vital application for us. “To him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ…”

I want to centre on the phrase, my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ.” It is God alone Who is able to establish us, Him and Him alone. He does that one way, through personalising the gospel and preaching of Jesus Christ. For the gospel to be efficacious it must become “my gospel” and for it to go forth we must preach of Jesus Christ. Everything else is sinking sand. Today there is such a focus on relevance that Jesus is too often forgotten or His message is adapted to make it fit our society. There are some today who say that we really can’t know all the truth and meaning behind the gospel. There are others who cloud the gospel with man-made rules and regulations.

Later, after explaining the history of the gospel he uses the phrase “according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith of God.”

We need to worry less about trying to adapt the gospel to our culture. Our culture needs to be adapted to the gospel. We need to stop trying to making the preaching of Jesus relevant somehow to society and show society that it must become relevant to Jesus. We need to stop trying to figure out how the message of faith suits the 21st century and teach the 21st century society that it needs to walk in obedience to the faith.

Preach of Jesus, teach obedience to the faith. Its that simple, it is as relevant today as it was when it was written.

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