"But the Gospel is not only news. It is first news, and then it is doctrine. Doctrine means teaching, explaining, clarifying. Doctrine is part of the gospel because news can't be just declared by the mouth of a herald - it has to be understood in the mind of the hearer. If the town crier says, "Amnesty is herewith published by the mercy of your Sovereign," someone will ask, "what does 'amnesty' mean?" There will be many questions when the news is announced, "What is the price that has been paid?" "How have we dishonored the King?" When the gospel is proclaimed, it must be explained. ...Unintelligible news is not even new, let alone good.
Gospel doctrine matters because the good news is so full and rich and wonderful that it must be opened like a treasure chest, and all its treasures brought out for the enjoyment of the world. Doctrine is the description of these treasures. Doctrine describes their true value and why they are so valuable. Doctrine guards the diamonds of the Gospel from being discarded as mere crystals. Doctrine protects the treasures of the Gospel from the pirates who don't like the diamonds but who make their living trading them for other stones. Doctrine polishes the old gems buried at the bottom of the chest. It puts the jewels of the Gospel truth in order on the scarlet tapestry of history so each is see in its most beautiful place.
And all the while, doctrine does this with its head bowed in wonder that it should be allowed to touch the things of God. It whispers praise and thanks as it deals with the diamonds of the King. ... and on its knees Gospel doctrine knows it serves the herald. The Gospel is not mainly about being explained. Explanation is necessary, but it is not primary. A love letter must be intelligible, but the grammar and logic are not the point.
The Gospel is good news. Doctrine serves that."
From John Piper's book 'God is the Gospel'.
"Among certain Christians it has become quite the fashion to cry down creed and cry up experience as the only true test of Christianity. The expression "Not creed, but Christ" (taken, I believe, from a poem by John Oxenham) has been widely accepted as the very voice of truth and given a place alongside of the writings of prophets and apostles. When I first heard the words they sounded good. One got from them the idea that the advocates of the no-creed creed had found a precious secret that the rest of us had missed; that they had managed to cut right through the verbiage of historic Christianity and come direct to Christ without bothering about doctrine. And the words appeared to honor our Lord more perfectly by focusing attention upon Him alone and not upon mere words. But is this true? I think not. Now I have a lot of sympathy for the no-creed creedalists for I realize that they are protesting the substitution of a dead creed for a living Christ; and in this I join them wholeheartedly. But this antithesis need not exist; there is no reason for our creeds being dead just as there is no reason for our faith being dead. James tells us that there is such a thing as dead faith, but we do not reject all faith for that reason. Now the truth is that creed is implicit in every thought, word or act of the Christian life. It is altogether impossible to come to Christ without knowing at least something about Him; and what we know about Him is what we believe about Him; and what we believe about Him is our Christian creed. Otherwise stated, since our creed is what we believe, it is impossible to believe on Christ and have no creed."
From A.W. Tozer's book 'That Incredible Christian'.
1 comment:
Thank you for the compliment about my new layout, it was the product of two very late nights. The impetus was actually your and Ryan's blogs that made we want to update... especially the little tabs on Puritanical. But the tabs just wouldn't work for the longest time on mine... turned out to be a glitch in Blogger itself.
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