SPURGEON'S PRIMARY BURDEN WASN'T TO CONTEXTUALIZE THE GOPSEL ...but to proclaim it!

UPDATED

Current evangelicalism is vibrant with the latest of buzz words - contextualization. It is a central theme to Bible conferences; it is the focus of books, blogs, pulpits and preachers. We tend to forget that It's not the audience what is sovereign but the message that is sovereign.

At its most base level, contextualization is about proclaiming the gospel to a specific audience group without violating the truth claims of Scripture. To some, it is the attempt to make Jesus relatable by making the gospel germane; to others it is about more effectively making those truth claims lucid and salient.

For example: some missionally minded (cultural in scope, unique in literary apprehension, and operating with concinnity and concision without diluting gospel content) have asserted that even reformers like Calvin experienced explosive church growth and saw thousands of souls regenerated through evangelism because he contextualized the gospel. Considering the religious and political climate of Calvin's day, this conclusion may not be entirely inaccurate, but has some merit to it.

I understood that Calvin's consolidation of Geneva and the creation of The Consistory dramatically changed Geneva and France, so we shouldn't be surprised to see great numbers. But also, the massive growth in Huguenot churches had as much to do with southern French provincialism and the refusal to join the growing nation states as it did with the power of reformed teaching and the spreading of the gospel. To be clear, Calvin had a tremendous burden for missions, church planting, and evangelism; but he remained a faithful contender for the truth of the gospel until his death.

Beloved, the gospel does not benefit from our programs, methods, target specific agendas, cultural analysis, when those programs are do not uphold gospel truth at its core. We must lead with theology in our evangelism and not with methodology. Scripture affords no luxury for such human pragmatics when it comes to the salvation of lost souls. The gospel IS the power of God unto salvation (Roms. 1:16-17); and it is the Lord who adds to the church daily (Acts 2:42ff)--not us.

Paul combats an early rise of sectarian views of ministry when saying,

"So, what is Apollos? And what is Paul? They are servants through whom you believed, and each has the role the Lord has given. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth" (1 Cor. 3:5-7).

Paul never sought to primarily contextualize the message by being culturally relevant, but "sought to nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). He contextualized himself and became all things to all men so that he might win some for the gospel. But he never once watered-down the truth the gospel in order to adapt to his culture. That is why the gospel message remained constant in all of his epistles and did not change from one cultural distinctive to another.

In this same vain, it has been asserted today that the church should strive to have a "humble orthodoxy" out of concern that civility must lead the day in the proclamation of Christianity. Truth by definition is exclusive; truth is commanding; it is bold; and it is unwavering. Christian doctrine and theology contained in the pages of Holy Scripture (the 66 books of the O.T. and N.T.) is objective truth; it is unbending, unyielding, uncompromising, and it asks not for man's approval, but demands obedience to its claims. It is... God's Word and He does not negotiate with His creatures as to what is acceptable or not. His Word silences all other "truth assertions" by taking "every thought captive to the obedience in Christ" (2 Cor. 10:1-5). There is nothing humble about truth, about orthodoxy; however, the truth does humble its listeners.

In the same vain, what we do need in the proclamation of a "bold orthodoxy" are "humble servants" of Christ proclaiming a bold orthodoxy; not watering down the offense of the cross (1 Cor. 1:18ff); but in and of ourselves, we are not to be the offense (2 Cor. 6:1-3). Paul was such a man: "For they say, 'His letters are weighty and strong' (a bold orthodoxy), 'but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible'" (a humble servant) (2 Cor. 10:10). There was the perfect marriage of humility and orthodoxy.

Again, Paul represented a bold orthodoxy and yet remained a humble bond-servant of Christ.

"For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I may win more. To the Jews I became as a Jew, so that I might win Jews; to those who are under the Law, as under the Law though not being myself under the Law, so that I might win those who are under the Law; to those who are without law, as without law, though not being without the law of God but under the law of Christ, so that I might win those who are without law. To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some. I do all things for the sake of the gospel, so that I may become a fellow partaker of it" (1 Cor. 9:19-23).

Notice in these verses above that there is not one instance where Paul ever "contextualized" the truth claims of the gospel to adapt to any cultural setting - not once. He simply sought to remove any offense of his own person, or cultural barriers, so that "he might win some." Should we seek to understand the times in which we live; understand the people we are ministering to? Yes. Should we do all we can to remove any offense of ourselves and without compromising the Word of God, be all things to all men so that by all means some may be saved? Absolutely.

But Paul never comprised or yielded ground on the message of the cross, the gospel, the truth claims of Scripture, or even by redefining the gospel to his listeners. On the contrary, if that were the case, they would have never sought to persecute him or kill him for his ministry in the gospel.

"As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed! ¶ For am I now seeking the favor of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a bond-servant of Christ" (Gal. 1:9-10).

Paul was not seeker sensitive; he opposed relativism and never sought to be relevant. He was not a man pleaser in any fashion, but a bond-servant of Christ--an ambassador in chains. Like Paul, one man in his day who stood against the pragmatics of the gospel was Charles Spurgeon. Please read these quotes below by Spurgeon on the gospel. My prayer is that it will impact you as greatly as it has so impacted myself.

And may we always remember: though He calls us to be His witnesses and to herald His gospel and truth to all people everywhere, that the fruit of it and the efficaciousness of it and the results of it belong to and are caused solely by God the Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit - and not to us.

May we be spectators of His grace, going into all the world empowered with His Spirit to do the work that He has sovereignly prepared for us in advance to do. And as we go, may we go armed with nothing by the truth of His life-changing gospel; proclaiming it plainly to every man's conscience, calling all men everywhere to repent.

Shipwrecked on His grace; for apart from Him—we can do nothing!
Steve
2 Cor. 4:5-7

Spurgeon Quotes on The Gospel

"If the professed convert distinctly and deliberately declares that he knows the Lord's will but does not mean to attend to it, you are not to pamper his presumption, but it is your duty to assure him that he is not saved. Do not suppose that the Gospel is magnified or God glorified by going to the worldlings and telling them that they may be saved at this moment by simply accepting Christ as their Savior, while they are wedded to their idols, and their hearts are still in love with sin. If I do so I tell them a lie, pervert the Gospel , insult Christ, and turn the grace of God into lasciviousness." -Charles Haddon Spurgeon

"The hearing of the gospel involves the hearer in responsibility. It is a great privilege to hear the gospel. You may smile and think there is nothing very great in it. The damned in hell know. Oh, what would they give if they could hear the gospel now? If they could come back and entertain but the shadow of a hope that they might escape from the wrath to come? The saved in heaven estimate this privilege at a high rate, for, having obtained salvation through the preaching of this gospel, they can never cease to bless their God for calling them by his word of truth. O that you knew it! On your dying beds the listening to a gospel sermon will seem another thing than it seems now." -C.H. Spurgeon

"Do you know, my dear unsaved hearer, what God’s estimate of the gospel is? Do you not know that it has been the chief subject of his thoughts and acts from all eternity? He looks on it as the grandest of all his works. You cannot imagine that he has sent his gospel into the world to be a football for you to play with–that you may give it a kick, as Felix did when he said to Paul, "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee" (Acts 24:25). You surely cannot believe that God sent his gospel into the world for you to make a toy of it, and to say, as Agrippa said to Paul, "Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian" (Acts 26:28), and then put away all thought of it out of your souls. You cannot even speak of it irreverently without committing a great sin." -C.H. Spurgeon

"Avoid a sugared gospel as you would shun sugar of lead. Seek the gospel which rips up and tears and cuts and wounds and hacks and even kills, for that is the gospel that makes alive again. And when you have found it, give good heed to it. Let it enter into your inmost being. As the rain soaks into the ground, so pray the Lord to let his gospel soak into your soul." -C.H. Spurgeon

"Jesus is the Truth. We believe in Him, —not merely in His words. He Himself is Doctor and Doctrine, Revealer and Revelation, the Illuminator and the Light of Men. He is exalted in every word of truth, because He is its sum and substance. He sits above the gospel, like a prince on His own throne. Doctrine is most precious when we see it distilling from His lips and embodied in His person. Sermons [and songs] are valuable in proportion as they speak of Him and point to Him. A Christ-less gospel is no gospel and a Christ-less discourse is the cause of merriment to devils." -C.H. Spurgeon

"Never lose heart in the power of the gospel. Do not believe that there exists any man, much less any race of men, for whom the gospel is not fitted." -C.H. Spurgeon

"I do not come into this pulpit hoping that perhaps somebody will of his own free will return to Christ. My hope lies in another quarter. I hope that my Master will lay hold of some of them and say, 'You are mine, and you shall be mine. I claim you for myself.' My hope arises from the freeness of [sovereign] grace, and not from the freedom of the will." -C.H. Spurgeon

"Let this be to you the mark of true gospel preaching - where Christ is everything, and the creature is nothing; where it is salvation all of grace, through the work of the Holy Spirit applying to the soul the precious blood of Jesus." -C.H. Spurgeon

"On Christ, and what he has done, my soul hangs for time and eternity. And if your soul also hangs there, it will be saved as surely as mine shall be. And if you are lost trusting in Christ, I will be lost with you and will go to hell with you. I must do so, for I have nothing else to rely upon but the fact that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, lived, died, was buried, rose again, went to heaven, and still lives and pleads for sinners at the right hand of God." -C.H. Spurgeon

"We have an unchanging gospel, which is not today green grass and tomorrow dry hay; but always the abiding truth of the immutable Jehovah." -C.H. Spurgeon

"The heart of the gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ." -C.H. Spurgeon

"When we preach Christ crucified, we have no reason to stammer, or stutter, or hesitate, or apologize; there is nothing in the gospel of which we have any cause to be ashamed." -C.H. Spurgeon

THOUGHT OF THE DAY...contextualization and the cross of Christ

this is worth repeating

MIND YOUR FAITH: Using the vernacular of the day isn't contextualization; it is speech, communication (cp, 1 Cor. 9:18-23). But when the message gets altered within a certain methodology to appeal or fit within a specific cultural paradigm, then that is no longer just communication, but contextualization. Example: Communication: "Jesus was born of a Virgin named Mary. She was a woman who found favor with God. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel."" Contextualization: "Jesus' mom was a poor, unwed teenage girl who was often mocked for claiming she conceived via the Holy Spirit. Most people thought she concocted the crazy story to cover the fact she was knocking boots with some guy in the backseat of a car at the prom." One communicates truth; the other... fabrication.   Which one do you prefer?

"A shallow and worldly leadership

would modify the cross to please the entertainment-mad saintlings

who will have their fun even within the very sanctuary;

but to do so is to court spiritual disaster

and risk the anger of the Lamb turned Lion."

-A.W. Tozer

Contextualization.

It is the latest buzz word adopted by emerging/emergent/missional adherents who want to be contemporary and cool, yet biblical both at the same time thinking they have found something new that will revolutionize evangelism and redefine the church of the 21st century.

This missional arrogance has its roots in what is known as Sociolinguistics. "It is the study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context on the way language is used. Sociolinguistics overlaps to a considerable degree with pragmatics." (source)

What is of significant importance to note, is that the most vocal of contextualizationists elevate this application of language to the place of equating effectiveness of the gospel message in regards to its ability to effectively contextualize itself in any given culture. IOW, if you preach and proclaim the gospel message as it is given in the fullness of biblical truth, you may not garner the fruit and/or numbers of converts you desire for the kingdom if you fail at contextualizing those same truths. Therefore, the "success" of the gospel transforming lives then becomes directly linked to ones association with sociological pragmatics; rather than to God.

Young, pomo-pastoral 'Chicken Little's" are crying that the "gospel sky" is falling and that there is a crisis of evangelism going on in the world because not as many souls are being saved as we once were; that this maybe the last Christian generation; that most converts occur before the age of 18; and if we don't somehow employ new methods and techniques in our outreach programs then the growth of the church, the faith, and belief in the gospel are straight-jacketed and doomed.

I guess the Lord's promise and declaration is outdated and has lost its meaning today when He said, "I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH..."

What is also of tremendous significance, is that this mode of ministry is being embraced by reformed people across the board as being essential to the mission of the church (missional if you're post-modern). Beloved, the message of the cross is not bound by cultural peccadilloes or idiosyncrasies. And though we are to go to a lost world understanding the times and to become all things to all people without violating the command or standard of Scripture, a simple reading of Paul's epistles reveals the same gospel message absent of distinct cultural moorings and modifications from book to book. His instructive words to the church at Corinth was this: "I sought to know nothing among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified."

This simple model for ministry must be asininity (that's foolishness for those of you in Ballard) to the architects of today's contextualized evangelism. How "old school" of Paul to think that proclaiming Jesus Christ and Him crucified would have any real or lasting impact at Corinth. To suggest that the gospel ITSELF is the power of God unto salvation is mere nonsense in light of the seeker-sensible-relevant times of our advanced society.

So what really matters for evangelism to be effective? Demographics? No, doctrine. Contextualization? No, content. Sociolinguistics or strategery? No, sola fide, sola gratia, solus Christus. Tactics? No, truth. Technique? No, theology. Methods? No, message. Culture? No, Christ.

Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, with all of your mind and with all of your strength; and love your neighbor as yourself. Live out the great truths of Matthew 5-7; love the brethren, worship the Lord in spirit and in truth, go into all the world and make disciples, and preach the whole counsel of God and the genuine, authentic, biblical, gospel, of grace. And if along the way you meet a few trendy contextualized-missional-emerging/emergent-seeker sensitive-seeker sensible- "trying so hard to bend over backwards to be culturally relevant" types - pray for them, extend Christian charity to them, point them to the real Mars Hill, and humbly show them a more biblical way. And tell them plainly to repeat three times: we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord; we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord; we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord.

From the context of the Bible,
Steve
Acts 20:24

Your Weekly Dose of Gospel...it's the folly of what we preach (not contextualize) that saves

There has been a well spirited and vigorous discussion on this blog and others about the postmodern notion of contextualization of the gospel. Without being redundant (for you can read the other articles and the metas on this subject here at COT if you choose) I am concerned about this latest trend in evangelicalism to make our methods in how we do evangelism and the messenger in who does it seemingly more important than simply the message it self.

As the Apostle Paul says in a very powerful clarification of the cross and the prohibiter inherent to the message of the cross:

"Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men." -1 Corinthians 1:20-25 (emphasis mine)

There is an offense to the cross beloved: "a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles." But to the elect of God (those who are called of both Jew and Greek) "Christ [is] the power of God and the wisdom of God." And no amount of cultural identification, relevantism, or analysis will add to, increase, make or produce one more convert to Christianity. It is the gospel we proclaim - "we preach Christ crucified..." that saves. And notice, this pleased God to design effective evangelism by the preaching of the cross to save. It is this "folly" - proclaiming Jesus Christ the Lord to those who are perishing that honors God. Not calling in the latest marketing gurus; Barna pollsters; contextualized techniques; seeker sensible and relevant services.

The words of Paul in Philippians 1:21

serve as convicting commentary

on this situation at hand when he says:

"all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ."

The gospel IS relevant in and of itself beloved; and it needs no dressing up, or propping up to make inroads into the depraved sinful hearts of unregenerate men or women today in any culture. It alone is the power of God unto salvation...

This is what is needed in evangelical circles today. Not to contextualize the truth, but to reclaim the purity of the gospel message and to lovingly, boldly, uncompromisingly, unapologetically, and accurately herald its life-saving message.

My friend and mentor, Dr. John MacArthur, has really captured this burden in a recent interview on this subject. I commend his timely remarks to you highly:

You have no doubt heard the arguments: We need to take the message out of the bottle. We can't minister effectively if don't speak the language of contemporary counterculture. If we don't vernacularize the gospel, contextualize the church, and reimagine Christianity for each succeeding generation, how can we possibly reach young people? Above all else, we have got to stay in step with the times.

Those arguments have been stressed to the point that many evangelicals now seem to think stylishness is just about the worst imaginable threat to the expansion of the gospel and the influence of the church. They don't really care if they are worldly. They just don't want to be thought uncool.

That way of thinking has been around at least since modernism began its aggressive assault on biblical Christianity in the Victorian era. For half a century or more, most evangelicals resisted the pragmatic thrust of the modernist argument, believing it was a fundamentally worldly philosophy. They had enough biblical understanding to realize that "friendship with the world is enmity with God. Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God" (James 4:4).

But the mainstream evangelical movement gave up the battle against worldliness half a century ago, and then completely capitulated to pragmatism just a couple of decades ago. After all, most of the best-known megachurches that rose to prominence after 1985 were built on a pragmatic philosophy of giving "unchurched" people whatever it takes to make them feel comfortable. Why would anyone criticize what "works"?

Whole churches have thus deliberately immersed themselves in "the culture"--by which they actually mean "whatever the world loves at the moment." We now have a new breed of trendy churches whose preachers can rattle off references to every popular icon, every trifling meme, every tasteless fashion, and every vapid trend that captures the fickle fancy of the postmodern secular mind.

Worldly preachers seem to go out of their way to put their carnal expertise on display--even in their sermons. In the name of connecting with "the culture" they want their people to know they have seen all the latest programs on MTV; familiarized themselves with all the key themes of "South Park"; learned the lyrics to countless tracks of gangsta rap and heavy metal music; and watched who-knows-how-many R-rated movies. They seem to know every fad top to bottom, back to front, and inside out. They've adopted both the style and the language of the world--including lavish use of language that used to be deemed inappropriate in polite society, much less in the pulpit. They want to fit right in with the world, and they seem to be making themselves quite comfortable there.

(source: Jim at Old Truth)

Piper says it too: The Gospel Doesn't Need Contextualization ("barely any")...a spot on video, check it out!

It's what I've always said: the gospel DOESN'T need to be contextualized to be effective; it just needs to be proclaimed! Piper also says the same thing here. Don't let the emerging/emergents - missional experts fool you folks: salvation is of the Lord. Genuine evangelism isn't that complicated nor is it made efficacious by anyone's methodology. Whether you are in Nashville, Seattle (the world's toughest city to minister in), Bangladesh, London, Cairo, LA or NYC - it is the same gospel that must be heralded without compromise. Cultural contextualization doesn't determine the how, why, what, when, where, or who of conversion. That is why I resolutely affirm that:

salvation is solely determined by:

the sovereign electing love of God the Father;

the particular redemptive once for all propitiatory

sacrifice and resurrection of God the Son;

and the regenerating ministry of God the Holy Spirit.

-and-

"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? 

And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? 

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? 

And how are they to preach unless they are sent? 

As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet 

of those who preach the good news!” 

But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, 

“Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?” 

So faith comes from hearing, 

and hearing through the word of Christ." 

-Romans 10:14-17

Contextualize this:

"And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." -Ephesians 2:1-3

"But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." -Titus 3:4-7

Updated Professor John Murray spoke out against this trend of relevance, found in his "Collected Writings of John Murray, v1": __________________ "A great deal is being said nowadays about the necessity of relevance, and in certain circles it is being asserted that the scripture as it was understood by Christians in the first century is not relevant to modern man; that, conditioned as he is to the scientific worldview, it is impossible to accept the framework in which the New Testament is cast. It is not to be denied that the gospel proclaimed must be relevant, that it must be presented to men where they are, and meet their needs in the situations in which they find themselves. But one thing must be said. It is only by the proclamation of the whole counsel of God, particularly regarding sin, misery, and the judgment of God, that men will discover where they are and begin to assess their need. Much of the plea for relevance proceeds on the premise that what men assess as their need, and demand for the satisfaction of this need, is that to which the gospel must be adjusted. The result is that the solution proposed and the message proclaimed are accommodations to humanly conceived and framed demands. There is the basic fallacy that men apart from the conviction created and conditioned by law and gospel are able to know what their real situation and needs are. It is God's judgment respecting sin and misery that must be brought to bear upon men where they are and where they find themselves. When this priority is not observed, then all presumed relevance is a distortion of the gospel. ... We must unashamedly and uncompromisingly declare the whole counsel of God, so that men, in conviction, will be made relevant to the gospel. This is the relevance Reformation requires and it is the relevance that Reformation will bring." HT: Jim at Old Truth.com