Gospel

[blitzkreig]

This too from Volume 7 of Sparry Lewis Chafer's 8 volume "Systematic Theology" ...


GOSPEL


The word εὐαγγέλιον means ‘good news’ and was fully appreciated when all the news of the day had to be carried by couriers. To bear good news was a high honor. Four different messages of good news have been rightly identified and set forth by Dr. C. I. Scofield:


(1) The Gospel of the kingdom. This is the good news that God purposes to set up on the earth, in fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant (2 Sam. 7:16 …), a kingdom, political, spiritual, Israelitish, universal, over which God’s Son, David’s heir, shall be King, and which shall be, for one thousand years, the manifestation of the righteousness of God in human affairs. …

Two preachings of this Gospel are mentioned, one past, beginning with the ministry of John the Baptist, continued by our Lord and His disciples, and ending with the Jewish rejection of the King. The other is yet future (Matt. 24:14), during the great tribulation, and immediately preceding the coming of the King in glory.

(2) The Gospel of the grace of God. This is the good news that Jesus Christ, the rejected King, has died on the cross for the sins of the world, that He was raised from the dead for our justification, and that by Him all that believe are justified from all things. This form of the Gospel is described in many ways. It is the Gospel “of God” (Rom. 1:1) because it originates in His love; “of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:14) because it flows from His sacrifice, and because He is the alone Object of Gospel faith; of “the grace of God” (Acts 20:24) because it saves those whom the law curses; of “the glory” (1 Tim. 1:11; 2 Cor. 4:4) because it concerns Him who is in the glory, and who is bringing the many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10); of “our salvation” (Eph. 1:13) because it is the “power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth” (Rom. 1:16); of “the uncircumcision” (Gal. 2:7) because it saves wholly apart from forms and ordinances; of “peace” (Eph. 6:15) because through Christ it makes peace between the sinner and God, and imparts inward peace.

(3) The everlasting Gospel (Rev. 14:6). This is to be preached to the earth-dwellers at the very end of the great tribulation and immediately preceding the judgment of the nations (Matt. 25:31 …). It is neither the Gospel of the kingdom, nor of grace. Though its burden is judgment, not salvation, it is good news to Israel and to those who, during the tribulation, have been saved (Rev. 7:9–14; Luke 21:28; Ps. 96:11–13; Isa. 35:4–10).
(4) That which Paul calls, “my Gospel” (Rom. 2:16 …). This is the Gospel of the grace of God in its fullest development, but includes the revelation of the result of that Gospel in the outcalling of the church, her relationships, position, privileges, and responsibility. It is the distinctive truth of Ephesians and Colossians, but interpenetrates all of Paul’s writings.

… There is “another Gospel” (Gal. 1:6; 2 Cor. 11:4) “which is not another,” but a perversion of the Gospel of the grace of God, against which we are warned. It has had many seductive forms, but the test is one—it invariably denies the sufficiency of grace alone to save, keep, and perfect, and mingles with grace some kind of human merit. In Galatia it was law, in Colosse fanaticism (Col. 2:18, etc.). In any form its teachers lie under the awful anathema of God.—Scofield Reference Bible, p. 1343


Strong objection is offered by Covenant theologians to a distinction between the gospel of the kingdom as preached by John the Baptist, Christ, and the other disciples and the gospel of the grace of God. One of them states that to make such a distinction is “unfortunate” and “dangerous.” He with others contends that the kingdom gospel is identical with the gospel of divine grace. Here nevertheless will arise an absurdity which does not deter this type of theologian, namely, that men could preach the grace gospel based as it is on the death and resurrection of Christ when they did not believe Christ would die or be raised again (cf. Luke 18:31–34).


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[Clouds]

I agree with your assesment of the Covenant theologians' methods.
They insist that Christ's Church is just a continuation of "corporate" Israel. This requires that the NT gospel also has to be just a continuation of the "same OT gospel", which is absurd. I think Nicodemas would have also called such a conclusion "absurd".

Covenant theologians can be like a bunch of stubborn smart kids that got a piece wrong in a jigsaw puzzle. Instead of just changing the wrong piece, they keep trying to figure out ways to get the all of other pieces to fit. It sometimes means forcing other pieces in the wrong spot, or just throwing the "wrong" pieces away and inventing new pieces to fit.

[HeIsEnough]

A reminder of the rules which govern this forum.


[04] Defend God's infallible Word not the ways of the world, liberalism, false translations, false theologies, or false cults. We believe in only one true gospel of saving grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone in His shed blood for our atonement, Old Testament looked forward to God's provision of the sacrifice, New Testament looks back to God's provision of the sacrifice. Do not promote, two gospels, hyper Dispensationalism, or hyper Calvinism Do not play 'devil's advocate' for the sake of argument.



Article V. THE DISPENSATIONS & COVENANTS

The dispensations are stewardships by which God administers His purpose on the earth through man under varying responsibilities. The changes in the dispensational dealings of God with man depend on changed conditions or situations in which man is successively found with relation to God, and that these changes are the result of the failures of man and the judgments of God. Different administrative responsibilities of this character are manifest in the biblical record, that they span the entire history of mankind, and that each ends in the failure of man under the respective test and in an ensuing judgment from God. Three of these dispensations or rules of life are the subject of extended revelation in the Scriptures, viz., the dispensation of the Mosaic Law, the present dispensation of grace, and the future dispensation of the millennial kingdom. They are chronologically successive.

The dispensations are not ways of salvation nor different methods of administering the Covenant of Grace. They are not in themselves dependent on covenant relationships but are ways of life and responsibility to God which test the submission of man to His revealed will during a particular time. If a person trusts in his own efforts to gain the favor of God or salvation under any dispensational test, because of inherent sin his failure to satisfy fully the just requirements of God is inevitable and his condemnation sure.

According to the eternal purpose� of God (Eph. 3:11) salvation in the divine reckoning is always by grace through faith,� and rests upon the basis of the shed blood of Jesus Christ. God has always been gracious, regardless of the ruling dispensation, but that man has not at all times been under an administration or stewardship of grace as is true in the present dispensation (1 Cor. 9:17; Eph. 3:2; 3:9, asv; Col. 1:25; 1 Tim. 1:4, asv).

It has always been true that without faith it is impossible to please� God (Heb. 11:6), and that the principle of faith was prevalent in the lives of all the Old Testament saints. It was historically impossible that they should have had as the conscious object of their faith the incarnate, crucified Son, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), and that it is evident that they did not comprehend as we do that the sacrifices depicted the person and work of Jesus Christ. They did not understand the redemptive significance of the prophecies or types concerning the sufferings of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:10-12); therefore, we believe that their faith toward God was manifested in the promise of a redeemer as is shown by the long record in Hebrews 11:1–40. We believe further that their faith thus manifested was counted unto them for righteousness (cf. Rom. 4:3 with Gen. 15:6; Rom. 4:5-8; Heb. 11:7).