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Preaching Christ (3)

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Preaching Christ (3)

10 minuten leestijd Arcering uitzetten

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

Calvin, Ursinus, and Comrie

If you would like to know what place the law had in Calvin’s preaching, then I would direct you to his sermon on Genesis 15:6, where he states with emphasis that the Lord “places the law before us so that everyone should personally admit to and agree to his being wicked and feel himself completely condemned and that the sentence which has been pronounced upon him is righteous and just.”

“Behold and see how the law causes us to examine and take stock of our entire life, that we have nothing but despair of self, and that we through these means are stirred up to seek the Lord Jesus Christ” (Voices from Geneva, volume l).1 This was how Calvin preached to bring sinners to Christ. No one, therefore, should dare to contend that Calvin was not a preacher of Christ.

Zacharias Ursinus, who can well be called the main author of our Catechism, speaks with emphasis about the necessity of the knowledge of misery out of the Law of God and, specifically, that misery is foremost (The Book of Treasures, volume l).2 He then states that the knowledge of misery is necessary to awaken in us a desire for deliverance. “The people are not suitable hearers of the gospel unless they rightly know their sin and misery. The proclamation of the law must—whereby misery becomes known—go before the proclamation of the gospel.”

It should now be quite clear what Ursinus’ thoughts were about the preaching of the law. It is in this manner that we want to preach the law. Comrie also wanted the law preached in this manner. When Comrie, in an earlier-mentioned citation, speaks about the “thundering of the law,” then he warns about a one-sided preaching of the law. Our eyes should be open for that danger. I do not want to keep from you what Comrie subsequently says: “I can recall that in a certain important city there was a minister who was very solemn and in addition to that had a wonderful ability to allegorically present his message. After he on a certain occasion had preached for a while, he began to call out with a loud voice and to move his hands as if he really had such things with him, ‘Now I shall cast among you the coals of hell.’ Great was the soul-chilling and terrifying anxiety among the hearers, but there was no melting of the heart. Zion dries the fountain of tears, but that happens unforced and without pressure. The Sun of Righteousness melts, but Moses comes as from the cold north which freezes and hardens everything” (Heidelberg Catechism).3

Not only the law

Comrie here makes it very clear that the “thundering of the law” by itself does not have any salutary effect. By such means the heart is left passionless and cold. By such means the heart is brought in distress, but a person is not brought to the feet of the Lord with a sorrow for sin.

The preaching of the law must be joined “with the loving invitation of the gospel” (Rev. A. Vergunst). Not only must the law be preached, not only the gospel, but law and gospel both. A hard and legalistic preaching only awakens anxiety and according to Comrie “only causes the heart to withdraw.” On the other hand, a superficial “evangelical” preaching leads to a false rest. Therein lies the great danger that a person appropriates Christ to himself without ever having learned to know himself as lost before God and without that brokenness of heart and the danger of building a hope of salvation upon false grounds. The law makes us guilty and makes us accursed. The law places us in the midst of our lost state, and the gospel opens to us the way of salvation in Jesus Christ. The law wounds, and the gospel heals. The law makes us despair of self, and the gospel makes the broken heart hope upon Christ. The law prepares the way for the gospel. In this manner place is made in the heart for Christ. When the law is preached, then that must be done with the understanding that sinners will thereby learn their lost condition, and in this manner they are driven out to Christ who is the great content of the gospel. “The pure biblical relationship between law and gospel must be continuously maintained and spoken about in the preaching” (Rev. A. Vergunst, Keep the Watch of the Lord).4 In this manner Christ will begin to shine against the dark background of our total bankruptcy. Then Christ will receive the glory in the heart of lost sinners.

A willing Saviour

One can never speak too dreadfully about a sinner as he appears in the light of God’s holy law, but over against that, a person can never speak too highly about Christ. Christ must be preached as an all-sufficient Saviour. For Him no one is too wicked, no one has sinned too much; no one has sunk away too deeply. His blood cleanses from all sin. We can be too good for the Saviour but never too wicked. This should always be emphasized in the preaching. Christ is also a willing Saviour. We saw earlier that Comrie speaks about “the readiness of Christ to save.” That brings us to the question for whom has Christ died. That is an important question when we speak about the preaching of Christ.

In chapter 2 of the Canons of Dort, we read that the saving power of the precious death of Christ extends to all the elect—unto all of them, and only to them. Our Reformed confessions do not teach a universal redemption. The preaching of Christ as it is in Scripture and the confessions may never place before the congregation that Christ has died for all people. That was the doctrine of the Remonstrants, which was so soundly condemned by the Synod of Dort but which also today is very much alive among a wide circle of people.

How must Christ then be preached? We must make a distinction between the all-sufficiency and the intent of the offer. It is intended only for the elect, but we do not know who the elect are. That belongs to the hidden things of God. We must proclaim Christ to the entire congregation as an all-sufficient and ready Saviour to whom everyone who hears the word is invited to go. In this regard we can learn much from the Scottish preachers such as the Erskines and Thomas Boston. They have preached to the congregations that a crucified Christ who is accessible for each and every one is offered. His readiness and willingness to save is unspeakably great. The faithfulness of the gospel is unconditional.


The faithfulness of the gospel is unconditional. At the same time we have to proclaim that salvation becomes reality in the way of a wonder. In the way of that wonder, the Lord makes place for His own work and for His own Son. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.


At the same time we have to proclaim that salvation becomes reality in the way of a wonder. In the way of that wonder, the Lord makes place for His own work and for His own Son. The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.

In connection with this I am thinking of an example of Thomas Boston. There is a doctor who opens an office in a village. Everyone is welcome to come to him. But who goes to see the doctor? Only those who feel that they are sick. You may be carrying a deadly illness inside of you, but if you have no symptoms, you will not go to the doctor. Well, in this manner Christ is the great Physician, available to all, and everyone is welcome to come to Him. But who comes? Only those who realize that they have been condemned to death because of the sickness of sin. They learn to flee to the Saviour. For them it becomes true, “Nothing in my hand I bring, simply to the cross I cling; naked, come to Thee for dress; helpless, look to Thee for grace.” Christ Himself has said that only those who are sick need a physician (Matthew 9:12, Mark 2:17, Luke 5:31).

In Psalm 65 we read that the river of God is full of water. The salvation of the Lord which is available is as an ocean, so full and so deep. There is no lack in that river of God, the water of life, full and free. But how will that river moisten the field of my life? David sings in the same psalm, “Thou visitest the earth and waterest it: Thou greatly enrichest it with the river of God” (Psalm 65:9a). In the promise of salvation the emptying is included; otherwise, there is no room for it. The Holy Spirit makes the heart desirous for it. It is precisely therein that the operation of the law has a place. □

(To be continued)


1Stemmen uit Geneva, deel 1, Meeuwen 1967, blz.35.

2Het Schatboek, Dordrecht 1977, deel 1, blz. 27,28.

3Heidelbergsche Catechismus, Barneveld 1976, blz. 47.

4Neem de wacht des Heeren waar, Houten 1983, blz. 168.


What Death Is for God’s Children as Fruit of Christ’s Death

It is an abolishing of sin. This abolishing begins with the new birth. Sin then receives a deadly wound but does not yet die. The abolishing of sin is furthered by afflictions and crosses that God sends His children. Afflictions and crosses are for God’s children bitter but blessed medicines for every ill, such as pride, vanity, conniving with sins, slander, fleshly lusts, etc. Afflictions may break the power of these sins, but we cannot get rid of them in this life. This process of abolishing sin is completed in death. Then the Lord delivers His child from it at once. Here there is a continual sighing: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death,” but at death that sighing stops. Therefore, death is a blessing for God’s children. There is more. It is also a passage into eternal life. Go in thought to the death-bed of Jacob and hear that old pilgrim, “I have waited for Thy salvation, O Lord.” Hear David rejoice, “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for Thou art with me,” etc. Hear the old Simeon, “Now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace, according to Thy word.” And hear Paul, “I have fought a good fight.” I ask you, “Is that dying?” No, that is not dying. He that believes in Christ shall never die. He departs, he may go Home. And what is death, then? That is the gate of the Lord into which the righteous shall enter.

— Rev. G. Van Reenen

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