As a retired PCA pastor, I have heard many sermons across the PCA, and as a preacher, I have to restrain my urge to critique sermons. But there is one issue that deeply concerns me: a deficit of gospel preaching.
We PCA pastors sincerely desire to promote God’s glory in the gospel of his Son. We are ordained to the gospel ministry. Preaching and living out the gospel are fundamental to our calling, as they are for all pastors in Bible-believing and Reformed churches. But the gospel, the very heart of our faith, is not just a word to use in sermons, but a truth to thoroughly explain and apply.
The Gospel Deficit
I have never heard a Reformed preacher who did not repeatedly use the word “gospel” in a sermon. But I have noticed that the word “gospel” is rarely explained and applied. We preach about the gospel while failing to preach the gospel itself.
Generically, “gospel” means good news, but when the writers of the New Testament used it, they gave a robust definition. The good news is that God provided a way to save man from the just penalty of sin through sending his Son, Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity. While remaining God, Jesus took on human flesh and a nature like ours, yet without an inherited sinful nature. He did this to live and die in our place.
Jesus was our representative substitute, our Second Adam. He lived a perfect life and died a sacrificial death, taking the punishment we deserve, and his righteousness is imputed to us. He rose bodily from the dead on the third day, gaining victory over sin, death, and the devil, so that believers would receive eternal life and the sure promise of resurrected bodies.
He then ascended to heaven and reigns on behalf of his people. This salvation is applied by the Holy Spirit, who unites believers to Christ and all his benefits. This gospel is offered to all who repent of their sins and place their faith in the person and work of Christ.
There is a lot to explain in that brief summary, but the above summary is the minimum. Many sermons contain a deficient gospel presentation. When I a gospel explanation, it is usually a reference to Christ’s substitutionary atoning death (passive obedience) to satisfy God’s judgment, with little, if any, emphasis on his substitutionary life of righteousness (active obedience) to satisfy God’s holy requirements in his law.
Why this deficit? When I was regularly preaching, I was tempted to think the congregation had already heard these truths or that the gospel specifics were not really in the text. These reasons may be why some preachers use the word “gospel” without explaining it. However, it is crucial for preachers to delve deeper into the gospel, to understand its nuances and implications, and to convey this understanding to our congregations.
Gospel Preaching
Jesus provides the pattern for good biblical exposition in Luke 24. As Jesus walked with the men on the road to Emmaus, he taught how the Christ needed to suffer to enter his glory. Luke 24:27 says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.”
When Jesus revealed himself to them in breaking bread and then vanished, the men exclaimed, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32).
The Bible is a unified story of God’s redeeming work through Christ. Each text has a place in this redemptive narrative, and preaching the Word of God means interpreting the Scriptures in light of their fulfillment in Christ. This approach is faithful to how the passage functions in God’s redemptive plan and connects the needs and sins addressed in the text to the provision of God’s grace in the gospel.
God’s ordinary means of bringing people to faith is through the faithful preaching of his Word, which includes the whole gospel. Gospel preaching must consist of man’s greatest need in light of God’s requirements of perfect righteousness and judgment for sins. These can only be satisfied by the person and work of Christ through his passive and active obedience. For unregenerate people to be saved, they must be confronted with these truths and the offer of salvation for those who repent and believe in the gospel.
Christians need to hear the gospel, too, as it is necessary for sanctification. In his epistles, Paul shows tremendous passion for teaching and preaching the whole gospel to the regenerate and the unregenerate. In Romans, he first goes to great lengths to fully explain the gospel to the church and only then makes application. This pattern is prevalent in God’s Word, where it typically teaches the indicatives of God’s gracious work, then the imperatives of God’s commands.
Preaching the commands in Scripture without providing the motivation and power of the gospel only leads to despair, legalism, or self-righteousness. Yet many preachers call people to some form of Christian obedience without giving the critical why and how. As a result, listeners hear that they fall short and need to do better without the encouragement that brings actual change.
What Christians need is a message of hope and confidence in what Christ has done for them and who they are in Christ. The gospel benefits of union with Christ, along with the inner working of the Holy Spirit, provide the only transforming motivation and power to put sin to death and live righteously.
Conclusion
When you call people to repent and believe, what precisely are you calling them to believe? Without the full presentation of the gospel, hearers can conclude that salvation and sanctification are at least in part based on works, contributing to a form of moralism, despair, or self-righteousness.
Don’t just preach about the gospel. Preach the gospel. Do not just use the words “gospel” or “in Christ” and assume people know what you mean. Reminded them week after week. Explain these terms and how believing these truths brings salvation to the lost and hope, joy, and sanctification to believers.
Pray for God to renew in you what should be the necessity and burden of each gospel preacher: “Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Corinthians 9:16).
Doug Griffith is a retired PCA pastor. He spent 42 years in ministry, including 32 years as senior pastor of the church he planted.