Today's quotes about the Gospel, come from the prince of preachers, C.H. Spurgeon.

"Never lose heart in the power of the gospel. Do not believe that there exists any man, much less any race of men, for whom the gospel is not fitted." (CHS)

"Let this be to you the mark of true gospel preaching - where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing; where it is salvation all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Jesus." (CHS)

"If God does not save men by truth, he certainly will not save them by lies. And if the old gospel is not competent to work a revival, then we will do without the revival." (CHS)

"On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul also hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine shall be. And if you are lost trusting in Christ, I will be lost with you and will go to hell with you. I must do so, for I have nothing else to rely upon but the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, and still lives and pleads for sinners at the right hand of God." (CHS)

And one quote, not from Spurgeon, but which fits will with this last thought:

"I acknowledge myself to be a sinner in the sight of God, justly deserving his displeasure and without hope, except in his sovereign mercy." (from the Presbyterian vows of church membership)

Yesterday I started a series of great quotes about the Gospel, from some giants of Christian ministry. We continue piling on the gems in this post.

"The gospel is a glorious declaration of the mighty acts of God when he invaded this earth in the person of his eternal Son, the Lord Jesus Christ." (John Blanchard)

"The gospel is not 'God loves us,' but 'God loves us at the cost of his Son.'" (Derek Thomas)

"As there is only one God, so there can be only one gospel." (James Denney)

"The church is the fruit of the gospel." (Hywel R. Jones)

"We have an unchanging gospel, which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay; but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah." (C.H. Spurgeon)

"The gospel begins and ends with what God is, not what we want or think we need." (Tom Houston)

Mark, great post on C.J. as Bunyan. So true. His message at T4G continues to pastor me daily.

Mark and I have been together at a Pastor's meeting in Chicago this week, and I've enjoyed fellowship with Mark, as well as benefitted from Mark's wisdom. It was also good to talk to you by phone tonight, C.J. Wish you were here! And happy anniversary - late.

Now, I've still not answered C.J.'s Gospel question, and I'm waiting with abated breath to hear about the non-laser-building bears in Al's woods, but I'll ramp up to my Gospel post by feasting you with a series of great quotes about the Gospel, from some giants of Christian ministry.

"If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don't like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself." (Augustine)

"The whole gospel is contained in Christ." (John Calvin)

"Whenever the gospel is preached it is as if God himself came into the midst of us." (John Calvin)

"There is nothing attractive about the gospel to the natural man; the only man who finds the gospel attractive is the man who is convicted of sin." (Oswald Chambers)

"A gospel that elevates man and dethrones God is not the gospel." (Will Metzger)

"The world has many religions; it has but one gospel." (George Owen)

"The man who does not glory in the gospel can surely know little of the plague of sin that is within him. (J.C. Ryle)

"The revelation of the gospel is to a world that is already under indictment for its universal rejection of God the Father." (R.C. Sproul)

"If the Lord's bearing our sin for us is not the gospel, I have no gospel to preach." (C.H. Spurgeon)

"The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ." (C.H. Spurgeon)

"When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed." (C.H. Spurgeon)

I still haven't answered CJ's questions, but I'm working my way towards a post. Menawhile, I thought these seminal summarizing thoughts from F.F. Bruce, on the Gospel, were worthwhile as a starting point of reflection (though certainly not beyond improvement) regarding the shape of the NT teaching on the Gospel. Bruce says:

The NT use of Gk. euangelion, “joyful tidings,” “good news,” has an OT background in Is. 40-66, where the LXX verb euangelizomai, “bring good news,” is used of the declaration of Jerusalem’s deliverance from bondage (Is. 4:9; 52:7) and also of a wider announcement of liberation for the oppressed (Is. 61:1, 2). This last passage provided the text of Jesus’ inaugural preaching at Nazareth: he gave notice that it had been fulfilled as he spoke (Lk. 4:17-21). Jesus’ message was otherwise described as the gospel of the kingdom of God. Its contents are set out in his parables, where the Father’s loving bestowal of mercy and free forgiveness on the undeserving and the outcasts is presented with vividness and warmth.

With Jesus’ death and resurrection a new phase of the gospel begins. The preacher becomes the preached one: his followers, whom he commissioned to preach the gospel after his departure, proclaimed him as the one in whom the Father’s pardoning grace had drawn near. “The gospel of God. . . concerning his Son” (Rom. 1:1-3) tells how, in the coming and redemptive work of Christ, God has fulfilled his ancient promise of blessing for all nations.

For the first generation after Christ’s ascension the gospel was exclusively a spoken message; the earliest written record of the gospel appeared in the 60s.

Only one saving message is attested by the NT. The “gospel to the circumcision” preached by Peter and his colleagues did not differ in content from the “gospel to the uncircumcised” entrusted to Paul (Gal. 2:7), though the form of presentation might vary according to the audience. Paul’s testimony is, “Whether therefore it was I or they [Peter and his colleagues], so we preach, and so you believed” (1 Cor. 15:11).

The basic elements in the message were these: 1. the prophecies have been fulfilled and the new age inaugurated by the coming of Christ; 2. he was born into the family of David; 3. he died according to the Scriptures, to deliver his people from this evil age; 4. he was buried, and raised again the third day, according to the Scriptures; 5. he is exalted at God’s right hand as Son of God, Lord of living and dead; 6. he will come again, to judge the world and consummate his saving work.

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