Preaching & Believing (part 1)

…this is the way we preach and this is the way you believed. – 1 Corinthians 15:11b (NET)

Belief in the message of the Gospel is fundamental. Of course, this belief is wrought through the gift of faith. Belief in the Gospel is what brings change. Belief in the Gospel is what brings transformation. Belief in the Gospel, and a trust that the Gospel contains the power for these things, is what conforms a man or woman into the glory reflecting image of Himself that God desires for His children. This is something that is accomplished by preaching, as the hearing of the Gospel is fundamentally associated with the gifting of faith, which brings belief, which unleashes the transformative power of the Resurrection and the age to come in the believer.

So this begs the question as to what it is that should be preached. What message---whether we are a writer, or a teacher, or a preacher, or simply a person seeking to daily be a light and vessel for God’s use---should we preach? This, of course, is a question with which the preacher should wrestle regularly. A pastor, most especially, should desire to see changed lives amongst those to whom he has been called to serve and to teach. Because of this desire, a pastor should always want to preach a message that, without fail, produces belief in his hearers. This makes sense, since belief, rooted in faith that comes through hearing, is the vehicle for transformation. It is wonderful to know that there is a message that has never failed, and which will never fail, to do this. What is it?

The Apostle Paul provides a useful guide in this area, here in the fifteenth chapter of the first letter to the church at Corinth. In it, he writes, “this is the way we preach and this is the way you believed,” so what comes before that must be of some importance. The chapter begins with Paul writing, “Now I want to make clear for you, brothers and sisters, the Gospel that I preached to you, that you received and on which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message I preached to you---unless you believed in vain” (15:1). Right away, we learn that Paul is referring to the Gospel.

Now, some might say that “preaching the Gospel” is an obvious answer to the question as to what message never fails to produce belief and subsequent transformation. Along with that, it would probably be said that, as long as a pastor is preaching from the Bible, or preaching about God, or preaching about God in Christ, that he is preaching the Gospel. However, that may not necessarily be true. Preaching the “Gospel” is not simply preaching from the Bible, or about God, or even about Jesus. “Gospel,” as was well understood in the day in which Jesus lived and Paul wrote, had a specific meaning related to proclamations about the Caesar. Therefore, the use of “Gospel” by Jesus, Paul, or any of the other New Testament writers, would have a direct reference to proclamations about a King, that being Jesus. It is with this context, of Jesus as King, with claims on men and the world and power superior to that of Caesar, that Paul goes on to provide a basic definition of what it is that he means when he writes about his preaching of the Gospel.

Before going further, it is worthwhile to examine what Paul means when he speaks of “being saved.” As a Jew, when Paul uses this term he has a specific point of reference and definition. For Israel, God’s salvation was being delivered from bondage and exile, which represented God’s curse. Therefore, being “saved” implies a deliverance from cursing and exile. When God delivered Israel from Egypt and brought them into the land of promise, they were saved. When He repeatedly delivered them from oppression in the days of the Judges and made them to regain control of their promised land, each time, they would think of themselves as being saved. When Judah was spared from Assyria, maintaining self-rule under God’s anointed kings, they thought of themselves as being saved.

Whenever God entered in to defeat Israel’s enemies, ending cursing or staving off exile, that deliverance is spoken of as salvation. When God would save Israel, it would be related to being saved from the curses that are set forth in Deuteronomy, the culmination of which was exile from their land and subjection to foreign destruction and domination. Paul’s Jewish readers would have this in mind. In addition, they would have in mind the entire narrative of their Scriptures, and therefore, also take into consideration the cursing of all mankind that began with Adam.