The issues of life and death, heaven and hell, are involved in the preaching of the gospel. This gives a peculiar solemnity to its proclamation. “We are unto God,” says the Apostle, “a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death; and to the other the savor of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?” (2 Cor. 2:1516). This weighty and solemn truth is known to all Christians, and it should lead all to watch and care for the salvation of immortal souls. True, all are not evangelists in the sense of being public preachers, but all may evangelize by saying a word for the heart or conscience as the Lord gives opportunity. All that is needed for such a work is love for souls — a love which acts in harmony with the heart of Christ. This is the best gift of the evangelist. Millions of souls will be in heaven at last, and swell the song of the redeemed, who were brought to know the Lord by a word fitly spoken, by personal conversation and prayer. All-important as the ministry of the word to Christians most surely is, it is never a question of life and death.
A Work for All to Do
The Lord has His special workers for the different departments of His service, yet ALL may seek to win souls for Christ. He who said, “Feed My lambs” and “Feed My sheep,” also said, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” And the great Apostle, who cared for the flock of Christ as none since have done, could say, “Neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.” And again, “Woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.” And, with his last epistle, he exhorts his son Timothy to be a “partaker of the afflictions of the gospel” and charges him to “do the work of an evangelist” (Acts 20:2424But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24); Luke 14:2323And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. (Luke 14:23); 1 Cor. 9:16; 2 Tim. 1:8; 2 Tim. 4:5).
An Unhealthy Symptom
“It is an unhealthy symptom,” says one, “when the simple gospel is not relished. It shows that the mind is at work, rather than the conscience exercised before God or the affections engaged with Christ. The Spirit, who leads into all truth, connects everything in His teaching with those great primary truths, the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.” There are not a few, alas, in our own day who are affected with this unhealthy symptom. “It is only the gospel,” say some, especially those who assume a high tone of spirituality and who speak slightingly of earnest gospel workers.
A Healthy Zeal
But whatever may be our individual thoughts of the gospel, we are bound to think of it according to the word of the Lord and for the sake of the unsaved. “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8: 36). Here the blessed Master assures all His servants that one human soul is of more value than the whole material world. And can it be a light thing in His eyes for any of His servants to be indifferent to the means of the eternal well-being of that which is so precious to Him? Did He not commend, in the highest way, the zeal of the four men who brought, in spite of every difficulty, the palsied man and laid him at His feet? “When Jesus saw their faith” — not his — “He said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven” (Mark 2). We want such zeal now, in connection with all our preaching — earnest hearts that would bring, in faith, poor palsied souls to the place where the Spirit of God is working. Such zeal is sure to meet its bright reward. In no other way can a preacher be so helped and encouraged. He who honored the faith of the four then is unchanged and honors such faith now.
A Great Responsibility
A great responsibility thus rests with all who know the gospel — the glad tidings of salvation to the lost. To hold back this truth, or in any way to hinder its full and free proclamation, is to rob the sinner of his only hope of heaven, and Christ of His special glory as the Saviour. “It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” What dignity and glory this gives to the gospel! It is nothing less than the power of God — “the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.” Such are the marvelous results of the blessed mission of the gospel of the grace of God. It raises all who receive it from the depths of their guilt and misery, and sets them in the presence of God, pardoned and accepted in the Beloved.
This is the gospel which the Lord has committed to His servants, or, as Paul expresses it, “According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust” (1 Tim. 1:11). Unspeakable privilege! Solemn responsibility! To be commissioned by the Lord Himself to proclaim that gospel, far and near, which is the highest display of the divine glory in the richest display of sovereign grace to man.
May He in mercy grant that both reader and writer may be found faithful to this sacred trust. And may His name alone have all the praise and the glory.
A. Miller, adapted from
Choice Meditations on the Gospel