Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

The Gospel
Apr 1st, 2016
CommentaryA.W.Tozer
Categories: Exhortation

It is a fact that the New Testament message of good news, “Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures,” embraces a great deal more than an offer of free pardon.

Surely it is a message of pardon - and for that may God be praised - but it is also a message of repentance!

It is a message of atonement - but it is also a message of temperance and righteousness and godliness in this present world!

It tells us that we must accept a Saviour - but it tells us also that we must deny ungodliness and worldly lusts!

The gospel message includes the idea of amendment - of separation from the world, of cross-carrying and loyalty to the kingdom of God even unto death! 

These are all corollaries of the gospel and not the gospel itself; but they are part and parcel of the total message which we are commissioned to declare. No man has authority to divide the truth and preach only a part of it. To do so is to weaken it and render it without effect!

Tozer said this some fifty years ago. It seems to me that if there is a single point at which we, the Evangelical Church, have gone astray, this is the point. It also seems to me, that if we are ever to recover that which we have obviously lost, the above exhortation must be the starting point.

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Matthew 28:19-20).