Machen: According To Christ, The Gospel Is About Christ

But what was this gospel which Jesus proclaimed. this gospel that is now to replace the gospel about Him which has been proclaimed by the Apostle Paul and the historic Church? Our only knowledge of it is obtained from the works of Jesus that are recorded in the New Testament. But those words as they stand make it abundantly plain that they gospel which Jesus proclaimed was also, at its very centre, a gospel about Him; it did far more than set forth a way of approach to God which Jesus Himself followed, for it presented Jesus as Himself the way which could be followed by sinful men. According to the New Testament our Lord even in the days of His flesh presented Himself not merely as Teacher and Example and Leader but also, and primarily, as Savior; He offered Himself to sinful men as One who alone could give them entrance into the Kingdom of God; everything in His teaching pointed forward to His redeeming work in His death and resurrection; the culmination of Jesus’ gospel was the Cross. The significance of redemption could not, indeed, be fully pointed out until redemption had actually been accomplished; and our Lord therefore pointed forward to the fuller revelation which was to be given through His apostles: but, although only by way of prophecy, yet clearly enough, He did, even when He was on earth, tell men what He had come into the world to do. “The Son of Man,” He said, “came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

J. Gresham Machen | What Is Faith? (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1946), 107–08.


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  • Tony Phelps
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    Tony grew up in Rhode Island. He was educated at BA (University of Rhode Island) and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He worked in the insurance industry for ten years. He planted a PCA church in Wakefield, RI where he served for eleven years. In 2015–18 he pastored Covenant Reformed Church (URCNA) in Colorado Springs. He is currently pastor of Living Hope (OPC). Tony is married to Donna and together they have three children.

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