Woe Unto Me If I Preach Not The Gospel

Woe Is Unto Me If I Preach Not The Gospel

Recently, while in route to a Bible class, I tuned into a Christian radio station, and listened to one of the best explanations I’ve ever heard of the “seventy weeks” of Daniel (Dan. 9:24-27). The preacher—who, by the way, is one of the most revered and respected Bible expositors around—rightly attributed the passage as prophecy to Israel and his explanation of what the “weeks” mean, and the mathematics of it were absolutely right on, but there was something missing: the gospel.

The entire point, in my opinion, of expositing any scripture is to use it to showcase “the gospel of Christ,” which is, “the power of God unto salvation.” (Romans 1:16) The title of this tract, “woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:16), is taken from the section of the Bible—the 13 epistles of the apostle Paul—in which this gospel is exclusive. Paul understood and taught throughout his epistles, that it is the words of the gospel that people must hear and believe in order to be saved. Assuming that people will “figure out” what the gospel is by exposition from other areas of Scripture, or that everyone in the audience is saved, is the height of presumption. In Romans chapter ten it says, “faith come by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17), and faith must begin with salvation; and salvation cannot occur unless one hears the gospel of their salvation, i.e., “that Christ died for our sins…that he was buried…that he rose again the third day…for our justification” (1 Cor. 15:1-4; Romans 4:25).

So why didn’t this preacher preach this? (I happen to know he knows it, because I’ve heard him preach it on other occasions.) I really don’t know. Maybe it was an oversight, but that is no excuse. If we, those of us who are called to preach, fail to preach the gospel of Christ, according to the title verse, we’ve utterly failed in our calling—“woe” be unto us. Folks may be intellectually stimulated by a skilled presentation, or emotionally moved by the passion of the speaker, but if the gospel isn’t preached, nobody can be saved, and God’s will (1 Tim. 2:4) is not advanced.

This gentleman is not the only preacher guilty of not preaching the gospel; the practice seems to be pandemic in the contemporary church. I listen to quite a bit of preaching on radio and television, and rarely ever hear it preached. Oh, I don’t doubt that a lot of preachers think they’re preaching it by calling on people to “repent,” or to “ask Jesus into your heart,” or “give your life to the Lord,” or “pray this prayer with me.” Some of these things should be preached to those who are saved. If you are saved you most likely need to repent of a lot of things you do and believe. This is all a part of the edification process and coming “unto the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4); but it won’t get anybody saved–only the gospel can accomplish this.

In the first chapter of the letter to the Corinthians Paul said, concerning the gospel, “for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18) “The preaching of the cross” is the gospel of Christ, and it says here that it is “foolishness” to them that perish, i.e., the unsaved.

I believe in this statement lies the primary reason why it (the gospel of Christ) isn’t preached anymore by the Christian establishment: because the vast majority of their audiences (which, if you’ve noticed, are getting larger all the time), aren’t saved, and would therefore be “put off” by the preaching of it. The unsaved, in order to keep them in the pews, must be appealed to on a temporal basis, because it says later on in that same letter to the Corinthians that, “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him…” (1 Cor. 2:14). This “natural man” doesn’t want to hear about all this “cross” business; what he (she) wants to hear is: “what can Jesus do for me now?” He’s broke, or sick, or depressed (or all three), and he wants these things “fixed,” and preachers are all to eager to accommodate him with what they call “the gospel,” which usually goes something like this: “Jesus loves you, and has a wonderful plan for your life. He wants you to be prosperous and healthy and happy. Ask Jesus into your heart today.” This isn’t “the gospel of Christ.” Nowhere does the gospel of Christ offer anyone any of these things. It says to: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,” ((Acts 16:31)) by committing your trust to Him and the sacrifice He made on your behalf at Calvary. To be “saved” means to be delivered from the wrath of God, and assured of eternal life with him in heaven. (1 Thessalonians 1:10; 4:13-18)

The usual response (if there is one at all)to this from “prosperity” gospel preachers is: “If I were doing the wrong thing, or preaching something contrary to God’s will, would I be prospering (with ever larger congregations and followings) the way I am?”

The fallacy in this statement is in claiming God (almighty) to be the one doing the prospering. These large followings are built, not by telling people the truth (that they are dirty, rotten, lowdown, hell-bound sinners in need of salvation; that Christ came to die for their sins, not to stuff their pockets with money, or give them perfect health), but rather by finding out what they want to hear, and then preaching it to them. The result of this is a plethora of huge congregations, full of religious (but unsaved) junkies who show up every Sunday and Wednesday to get their “fix.” Saved folks, who happen to be in these churches are spiritually starved, because there is little or no spiritual meat being dispensed there.

I believe one of the inner evidences of salvation is, when someone who is truly saved hears the gospel of Christ–the gospel of their salvation–they are comforted by it, and there is rejoicing in their hearts; they never tire of hearing it. Why? Because every time they hear it they are reminded of their own salvation: that time in their lives when they recognized their lost condition, and threw themselves on the mercy of the Lord, trusting him to save them.

In the same token, I believe it is a sure sign that one is probably not saved when they become annoyed or uneasy at the preaching of the cross. May I ask you, friend, is that you? Are you religious but lost? Can you look back and recall that day you trusted Christ for your salvation? Do you rejoice in your heart at the preaching of the cross?

Whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever you’ve done or not done, you can be saved eternally, right now, by simply trusting the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, believing that he died for your sins and was raised again for your justification. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…and….sealed unto the day of redemption.” (Acts 16:31; Ephesians 4:30)

Mike Schroeder

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All Scripture is taken from the King James Bible