Far too often I hear men and women who have grown weary of hearing the
gospel of Christ make this statement. The statement implies that the gospel is
not practical, and the people of God need someone to act as their conscience,
someone to tell them what to do and how to behave in any given situation. Such
talk reveals a lack of spiritual discernment.
What
can be more practical than the gospel of God's love, grace, mercy, and
righteousness revealed in the substitutionary work of our Lord Jesus Christ? If
the message of free-grace in Christ inspires any man to licentiousness, the
fault is not in the message of grace but in the heart of the man. Such a vile
man is without spiritual life. Do we love him because we are commanded to love
him, or because we have experienced his love? Such a question is absurd.
"We love him because he first loved us." Since we are born of God,
our knowledge of his love for us revealed in the gospel begets love in our
hearts for him. What can be more practical than the plain preaching of the
gospel, which inspires love for Christ in the hearts of God's elect?
Do
the people of God need a man to act as their conscience, telling them how to
behave? Certainly not. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they
are the sons of God." If you need the whip of the law to keep you in line,
it is because you have not the Spirit of God. You are a slave in bondage, not a
free born son.