2 Comments

1. 

   Dan King on February 16, 2011 at 9:41 pm

   Indeed, this is an insightful post by Challies. I think his reason, i.e., to reduce the offense of sin and the cross, is probably the primary cause of this softening of the gospel.Another reason for the softening of the gospel (which may be a corollary to the first reason or it may stand on its own) is that many have diminished the role of the gospel in the life of the believer. In this scenario, the gospel is one truth among many truths from Scripture and its importance lies primarily (only!) in the context of the conversion of the lost. The result is that the church espousing this kind of position can be focused on a number of things such as eschatology 9the study of end times), charismatic gifts, politics, apologetics, social justice, holiness (independent of the gospel), etc., and not really give the gospel its central role.I would contend that the gospel is diminished both when the offense of the gospel is minimized (per the Challies post) and when the gospel is relegated only to the conversion of the lost. I would even go a step further to say this: When the gospel is maximized in the life of the believer and becomes instrumental in both our justification and our sanctification, it will be more effective and important in the proclamation of the gospel to the lost.To the praise of his glorious grace,Dan

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2. 

   Deni on February 17, 2011 at 5:28 pm

   I enjoyed this post, too, from Challies. I also always enjoyed his contributions to Tabletalk magazine.

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