Preaching Christ (1)

Rev. J.J. Van Eckeveld, Zeist, the Netherlands

What is meant by preaching Christ? How is the preaching of Christ related to the preaching of the Law? Can we rightly be accused of preaching the Christian more than Christ? What is the place of a separating preaching when preaching Christ? What is understood when we speak of the way leading to Christ? What is the place of Christ in each of the three parts: misery, deliverance, and gratitude? In a few articles we hope to answer questions such as these from Scripture.

Paul as a preacher of Christ

Christ is the grand content in the preaching of the gospel. It was in this manner that Paul was a preacher of Christ. Immediately after his conversion and after he had been visited by Ananias in the street called Straight, we read of him in Acts 9:20, “And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that He is the Son of God.” His epistles testify of how he has preached Christ. To the Corinthians he wrote, “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2). Paul, therefore, was a preacher of Christ. Calvin says of this text: “Here we have a beautiful passage, from which we learn what it is which faithful ministers ought to teach, what it is that we must, during our whole life, be learning, and in comparison with which everything else must be ‘counted as dung’” (Philippians 3:8). [Commentary upon 1 Corinthians 2:2]. Paul, therefore, should be the example for every preacher.

All the grounds outside of Christ whereupon a person may rest, such as his tears, his prayers, his experiences, his emotions, and whatever else, will be exposed in the preaching as unstable ground.

Christ alone

What is now exactly meant by the preaching of Christ? It is nothing more than the preaching of Christ as He is portrayed in God’s Word. Ultimately, all of Scripture is full of Christ. Even though in the Old Testament it was in the shadow service, also there one finds Christ. You find Him in the mother promise in Genesis 3. You can find Him in the history of the patriarchs. You can find Him in the sacrifices, the ceremonial cleansings, the service of the priests in the great feasts, and in the great Day of Atonement. You can find Christ in the Psalms and the prophets. The promises pointed to Him ever more clearly as the history of salvation progressed. The Old Testament in its entirety speaks of Him. The saints of old have looked for Him.

In the preaching of Christ, there will also be an eye open for those sinners who, in their need and lost state, are looking for Him. The saints of old did not only look for Him, but they have also seen Him (John 8:56). The believers in the days of old did not receive the promises, but they have seen Him from afar (Hebrews 11:13). They saw Him, therefore, from afar in the promises, for it was still in the days of the shadow service. In the New Testament the full light shines upon Christ. There we can follow the Mediator not only in His humiliation wherein He has merited salvation but also in His exaltation wherein He has applied salvation. How gloriously Christ is pictured in the New Testament as the only Name given under heaven for salvation, as the only ground of hope, as the only way of reconciliation with God, as the One who has made complete satisfaction and in whom the wrath of God’s anger has been appeased, in whom God’s holy justice is satisfied, and who has expunged the guilt of His people out of the book of God.

In Colossians 3 the Apostle Paul describes the riches of Christ. In the fourth verse he says of Christ, “Who is our life,” and in the eleventh verse he, as it were, binds it all together when he says “Christ is All, and in all.” That is the great content of the gospel: Christ is All, and in all.” It is He alone, it is He completely. Outside of Jesus there is no life but an eternal perdition of soul. The preaching of Christ will never be exhausted in commending Him and pointing to Him as the only One who can reconcile us with God. Such preaching will never be able to give sinners any rest outside of Christ. All the grounds outside of Christ whereupon a person may rest, such as his tears, his prayers, his experiences, his emotions, and whatever else, will be exposed in the preaching as unstable ground. People who will build upon these things will be displeased with such preaching, but troubled sinners who have run into a dead end and who have run stuck in their lives, who no longer have any ground to stand upon before a holy God, receive new courage and new hope thereby. For when I no longer have anything to stand upon before God and may then hear that I also do not need to bring anything because the Lord has found satisfaction in the offering of His Son, oh, then it is still possible for me to be saved.

Not the labor of my hands,
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears for ever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

If I had to add one sigh to my salvation, all would be lost. My best works are but filthy rags and are all transparent before a holy God who can only be satisfied with perfect works, but now He does not need my works because He has found complete satisfaction in the offering of His Son. Herein lies the essence of the preaching of Christ. In this manner Christ will be proclaimed to the congregation as a complete Savior who is heartily willing to save sinners.

In this manner the preaching of Christ will allure and draw prostrate sinners to Him, but Christ is not only preached to prostrate sinners. He is also proclaimed and portrayed to the entire congregation, according to the word of Paul. In 1931, our denomination affirmed that there is an earnest offer of Christ and all the covenant benefits in the gospel. We should take that seriously. How terrible it would be if the congregation could rightly say of its minister, “He has preached to me the terrible condition of being lost, but he has not preached Christ to me.” How necessary it is that the minister himself may live out of Christ, that He may be Christ’s possession so that he can repeat after Paul, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20b). The congregation will sense that. Then the tears of Jesus over an unrepentant Jerusalem shall drop down upon the congregation; then the compassion of Christ shall be visible in His servants.

The preaching of Rev. G.H. Kersten

Once more I will place the question: What does it mean to preach Christ? It is good after the 100th anniversary of the Netherland Reformed Congregations to pay attention to the manner of how Rev. G.H. Kersten spoke about the preaching of Christ. Rev. M. Golverdingen in his book Rev. G.H. Kersten: Facets of His Life and Work devoted an entire chapter to his preaching. The principal content of his preaching was that Christ was the only way to salvation. Rev. Kersten was of the opinion that a so-called experiential preaching that was silent about Christ may not be called gospel preaching. From the sermons of Rev. Kersten it can be seen, also, when he preached about the knowledge of misery that he did so with the understanding that place would be made for Christ. In his sermon on John 14:24&25 he says in this connection the following: “Where the conviction of guilt and sin is lacking, place has not yet been made for the revelation of Christ”1 (The Handwriting Blotted Out, Utrecht, no year noted).

The Lord allures cast-down sinners through His promises, of which Christ is the great content. These promises are embraced by faith. The opening of the gospel, the urgent invitation of grace, “he that has no money, come ye, buy and eat,” understood through faith, overcomes all fear and opposition and draws the soul to God so that they come, completely prostrate, yet they come to seek the favor of God through Christ. It is never in any way other than through faith, leaning upon the merits of Christ, that the sinner comes to God so that he might be accepted by Him2 (More than Conquerors). It is clear that Rev. Kersten preached Christ as He is revealed in the gospel but also that he preached how that sinner comes to Christ. Formerly, it was said that the content of the preaching should be a rich Christ and a poor sinner and how these two are brought together.

(To be continued)

1Kersten; Het handschrift uitgewist, Utrecht, zonder jaar; page 119

2Meer dan overwinnaars Utrecht, 1953 pps. 50,51

Glorifying God

The essence of faith consists in a due ascription of glory to God (Romans 4:20). This we cannot attain unto without the manifestation of those divine excellencies unto us wherein He is glorious. This is done in Christ alone so that we may glorify God in a saving and acceptable manner. He who discerns not the glory of divine wisdom, power, goodness, love and grace, in the Person and office of Christ, with the way of salvation of sinners by Him, is an unbeliever.

— John Owen

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