I called in to the show Stand to Reason recently, to ask a question about the meaning of “the gospel of the kingdom” in Matthew 4:23, 9:35, and 24:14. It was prompted by some comments made by a guest speaker at the Monday-night class at my church. He said that the gospel is more than justification & sin management, and pointed to the phrase “the gospel of the kingdom”. As he expanded on that, I agreed with what he was meant, but I was hesitant about the phrasing. I was hesitant about actually saying, “The gospel is about more than justification.” I know there’s something right about that, but something seemed wrong, too. I had to think it through… What can we say is the focus of the gospel?
Note: I was sensitized to this question by Mark Dever’s message the Together for the Gospel 2008 conference, “Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology“. It’s a great mp3.
I really appreciated Greg Koukl’s response to my question. He did a great job of giving a balanced answer. If you’re interested, you can listen to the mp3. (Go to ~25:00. It lasts about 20 minutes.)
I’ll just add one comment: I am amazed at how often I said “uh” or “um” during that call. My parents have told me that I do this, after some of my phone conversations with them. Now I’ve heard a recording. Yikes! I’ll have to keep working on that.
Tags: Audio, Gospel, Greg-Koukl, Stand-to-Reason
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wow…we should have thought of recording you!
um, uh, are precursors to talking to yourself when you get oder. Connected to random thoughts of a youthful mind, they are actually sorting points in the great file extension ini.spk.exe. When you get older, those thoughts will be translated into actual conversation. The only problem, or perhaps the greatest attribue and benefit, will be that then you will not need any one present for the conversation to procede.
But mother, secret phone recordings would have been inadmissible in court.
Thomas,
But how can you have a conversation like that? Don’t you need someone else to speak, while you’re waiting for your chance to say something again? Talking to myself would totally throw off my conversational rhythm!