The Gospel Mountain Is More Than Its Summit

by G.S. Augustine

A Message to Young Preachers

In listening to young preachers for the last 50 years, I have noticed a problem. In their desire to get to the part where they “preach the gospel,” they undermine the power of their sermon. They hammer away at the fact that we are sinners and that Jesus paid for those sins on the cross. Without realizing it, they have left the passage they are preaching from to preach the four spiritual laws or the Roman road or some variation on how to get saved. This heavily overshadows the passage under consideration, if not losing it for good.

Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Africa

It is true that the cross is the pinnacle moment in the history of God’s plans for redemption. But consider a mountain. We properly appreciate a mountain top by seeing the magnitude of the mountain as a whole. Geographers say that Mount Kilimanjaro is the most striking example. It is the only stand alone mountain in the world rising above the Tanzanian plains at 19,341 feet. The peak is spectacular simply because on a clear day, the entire mountain can be viewed without obstruction.

God’s Kingdom Pictured As a Mountain

In Daniel’s interpretation of Nebuchanezzar’s dream, God kingdom is a “huge mountain that covers the whole earth” (Daniel 2:35). I want to suggest that the summit of that mountain is the cross of Christ, but the Bible is a book describing the whole mountain that makes the summit majestic. When we preach, we must resist the temptation to hurry to the top. Part of the value of climbing a mountain is the journey. We can keep the top in view, but we must not miss the intricacies of the terrain along the way. Tourists might want to ride a tram up to the summit to take a few pictures and then go home. But preaching is about getting people to take up residence on that mountain.

What Exactly Is the Gospel?

The first problem we need to deal with is the notion of what we evangelicals like to call “the gospel.” What exactly is “the gospel?” A good baptist might say it is “Jesus dying for our sins.” This isn’t wrong, but it leaves out far too much. The word “gospel” translates the Greek word, euangelium which is literally “good message” or “good news.”

Forgiveness of sins is “good news’ for sure, but the early church made resurrection the focus of their preaching. Peter says about the healing of a lame beggar “It is by the name of Jesus of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man is healed” (Acts 4:10 emphasis mine). Resurrection is the content of Peter’s first sermon in Acts 2. The resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth was Peter’s first inclination when preaching the gospel. This makes sense. Christ’s conquest of death is good news indeed.

The More of the Gospel

But is that all? Wasn’t God calling Abraham in Genesis 12 as the one through whom God would bless all the families of the earth “good news?” Wasn’t God’s promise to rescue Israel from captivity good news? Or Jeremiah 29, where it says God plans for his people is to give them a hope and future. Isn’t that good news? And what Malachi’s promise that Elijah would come to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children? Or even God’s concerns for the people and animals of Nineveh in Jonah? Aren’t all these just sides of the mountain of God’s good news? Aren’t they worthy of spending time appreciating so that we get a more majestic view of the summit?

But there is more. The word “gospel” is a Latin word that is probably better translated as “God’s Story.” The Bible from beginning to end is “God’s Story.” I suggest that the whole story of the Bible is “the Gospel.” And preaching any part of is already the preaching of the gospel.

But How Does That Get People Saved?

One might argue: “But not every part by itself will get someone saved! You need to preach the blood of Christ!” There is a certain truth to this, but it is also true that preaching anything at all by itself won’t “save” anyone. Salvation requires the Father’s work through the Holy Spirit to draw someone and build faith into them. Without it, no amount of preaching will win the day. Of course God uses his word to draw people, but it is an important distinction to bear in mind. My preaching isn’t the deciding factor!

If we don’t believe this, all we need to do is look at the Pharisees who rejected Jesus. Not only did Jesus preach more effectively than we do, he added miraculous signs to his words. They still didn’t believe. If that happened to Jesus preaching, it most certainly will happen to us. Faith is not something that God drops on us like foufou dust (don’t ask me where I got that word—I honestly don’t know). And, faith is never something I boot strap up myself.

How Exactly Does Faith Develop?

All faith in anyone or anything develops the same way: knowledge and experience. A friend who I’ve watched act in a trustworthy way builds confidence in me to risk trusting him in small ways. If, after time of knowing and trusting him in small things, my experience bears out his trustworthiness, my faith in him grows. And if by chance, that experience stretches out over a lifetime, my faith can become unshakable. God follows the same pattern.

I know there will be good Calvinists who would say, “No, that’s making faith a work. We are saved by grace, not works! God simply provides faith without us doing a thing!” I would simply point to the fact that God worked with the people of Israel in stages, first in the words of Moses, then in the ten plagues, then in the rescue from Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, manna and water in the wilderness, and the defeat of the Amalekites in Exodus 17. God then told Moses and the people to remind themselves regularly of his faithfulness in things like the Passover and recounting what God had done for them, and thanking God for his provisions (see Deuteronomy 8). Faith would be something they would have to participate in.

We Can Chose Not to Participate in Faith

By Numbers 14, even after all God had done for them, the people refused to believe God. They failed to participate in their own faith because they spent their time complaining about what God hadn’t yet given them instead of thanking him for what he had. God did everything to convince them of his trustworthiness but they were unwilling to allow that faith to grow. Their lack of thankfulness and their stubborn hearts kept faith from fully developing. And as the writer of Hebrews puts it: “They were unable to enter because of their unbelief” (Hebrews 3:19).

But the second generation after the Exodus did believe. Joshua led them by meditating on the Book of the Law day and night (Joshua 1:8). And what did the Book of the Law contain? The whole of God’s story up to that point. And that story was “good news” and able to bring them into the promised land. And if they were to continue in it, it would eventually lead them to the kingdom of God. But it didn’t last. A later generation decided that God wasn’t providing the things they wanted. They turned to the idols of the nations round about them because those idols promised wealth and pleasure. That generation forgot the story of what God had done for them.

The Whole Story is Necessary To Faith

It is still true that Israel would not be able to keep God’s law. It would still take the work of Christ and the process of a new birth. But, the whole story of God is necessary for that work. If it were not so, God would have only needed to recount Jesus death and resurrection. But even here in the Gospels, God tells the story his Son’s life, not just his death for sins.

Our trust in Jesus death and resurrection for the forgiveness of sins is just the beginning of our journey with Christ. It’s just the birth. There is much more that we need to learn and many skills we need to develop. The whole of the Bible story is not only to lead us to Christ. It is designed to transform us into his likeness—into becoming fully human as God had always intended. This would come in the stories of the Bible of men and women who not only:

“…through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the fames, and escaped the edge of the sword, whose weakness was turned into strength, who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies” (Hebrews 11:33-34)

But also:

… were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. (Hebrews 11:35)

Coming to faith in Jesus isn’t about buying a ticket to heaven to be kept in a drawer till the end of our dotage. It’s about living in daily allegiance to one who is the true King of the human race—even at the cost of our very lives—with absolute confidence in a “better resurrection.”

The Danger of Being “Stuck” At the Beginning

The writer of Hebrews says that his readers were “stuck” at the beginning of salvation. In Hebrews 6, 10 and 12, he warns that they are on the verge of “throwing away their confidence.” Failing to persevere was jeopardizing their ability to receive what God promised (Hebrews 10:35-36). However we wish to interpret these verses in light of our theology, they still constitute a strong warning.

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need to someone to teach you the elementary truths of God word. You need milk not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk being still an infant is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Hebrews 6:1-3

Unbelievers In Our Midst

But what about the one or two in the church service who haven’t yet come to faith? Don’t they need to hear the nuts and bolts of the Gospel? Let me suggest this: Our nuts and bolts of the Gospel—however clear we can make them—are not the same thing as inspired Scripture. We may use Scriptural words but we are adding our own. It is God’s word that is living and active, not our words. Sticking closely with God’s Bible message is better than turning to a canned set of spiritual laws.

One might argue, “But didn’t Paul say ‘I determined to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified’ (1 Corinthians 2:2). Doesn’t that mean when should exclusively preach the crucifixion?” In 1 Corinthians 2 Paul, is referring to focusing on Jesus rather than the “wisdom of this age.” But he doesn’t leave it there. He also says he does “speak a wisdom among the mature.” That wisdom allows us to understand all the ramifications of Christ’s sacrificial death going back to before the creation:

No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of rulers of this age understood it, for if they had they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. However it was written: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. (1 Corinthians 2:7-10)

The Wisdom Behind The Cross

The secret wisdom Paul is speaking about isn’t just the sacrifice of the Son, but why it was necessary. An important part of the gospel is understanding God’s secret wisdom regarding Christ’s sacrificial death. Paul gains this wisdom in seeing the Law and Prophets from the perspective of Christ death and resurrection. And this causes him to see that the problem of sin was greater than he imagined as a Pharisee. He came to see God’s wisdom as amazing.

Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-35)

This same understanding of God’s wisdom is available to us. And we find that wisdom between Genesis 1:1 and Revelation 22:21. Jesus seems to indicate this when he asks Nicodemus “Are you the teacher of Israel and you do not understand these things?” Jesus seems to feel that someone as familiar with the Law and the Prophets as Nicodemus was should have been already able to draw the conclusions Jesus was painstakingly laying for him.

Preaching the Whole Story

All of Scripture is gospel and has the power to draw someone to Christ without reverting to overused vocabulary. In fact, it was a Scriptural talk on dating that initially drew me to the gospel. It was hardly a gospel message as most describe it. But how do we understand and utilize a passage in Scripture that allows the passage to draw someone?

Before we answer that question, we need to convince ourselves that God word doesn’t need an intervention. In fact, our interventions too often weaken the message. Telling someone he’s a sinner in need of a Savior is not the same things as convincing them of it. First of all, it sounds condescending. After all, I’m the preacher and I’m the one smart enough to have already embraced it! There is also a natural tendency for people to resist a full frontal attack on their character. Our minds will naturally go to, “Wait a minute, I do a lot of good things!”

This doesn’t mean that God can’t still work to convict under these conditions. Some folks, especially teens or college kids have truly messed up their lives enough. The wreckage is staring them in the face. But I think it’s God’s grace in these cases effecting the result in spite of our interventions.

Some Helpful Rules in Studying the Bible

However, If we keep a few rules of effective Bible study in mind, we can avoid diluting the message of any particular passage.

Let the passage speak for itself: Skimming a passage to look for ways to preach the gospel is a bad idea. Even having this mindset is disruptive. It causes us to emphasize words or phrases in the passage the author may not be emphasizing. This can really distort what the author wanted us to gain from hearing this passage. Let the passage speak for itself! Do everything we can to keep from leaving the message it is conveying. And be careful, many of our tendencies to leave the passage for our version of the gospel are unconscious. We must keep asking ourselves about our conclusions: Is this what the author wants us to know here?
Keep the whole context of the passage in view: We’ve heard this many times but few preachers ever look wide enough. Analyzing the flow of the complete argument of an author usually takes looking back several chapters as well as a couple chapters ahead. We need to see where the argument came from and where its going. Additionally, the historical context of the passage can be a huge factor in understanding what the author is getting at. For instance, one cannot properly understand Isaiah 40-66 without keeping in mind at all times that God’s people are hearing it in light of their captivity in Babylon. Though Isaiah is looking forward to the coming of the Messiah as the ultimate Savior, we will distort the message if we fail to understand that what the people are understanding is salvation from their captivity—not about going to heaven when they die. Leaving that understanding out of the picture to jump exclusively to the cross of Christ is a mistake in understanding Isaiah—even in a passage such as Isaiah 53. Only after knowing what Isaiah was saying to God’s people in Babylon in the sixth century B.C. will we be able to accurately understand what he was foreshadowing in the coming of Christ.
Pay attention to the structural clues the author is giving you: Bible writers did not have the unlimited paper and ink resources the modern world has. They didn’t put out an addition of the New York Times every day (once estimated at 50,000 trees of pulp!). Every word they wrote had to count. The ancient world used structural devises to guide the reader to understanding—especially in narrative or poetic passages, but it is also true in the letters of Paul and the general epistles. Listed below is a chart of some of these devises and examples of how the Bible uses them. But look at repeated and contrasting phrases. For instance, Isaiah will use the phrase: “This is what the Sovereign Lord says” and then somewhere down the line he will write: “But you say.” These clues not only divide the passage in sections but they help identify what the author is trying to get us to see.
Write out the entire passage with a sentence diagraming approach: I know. We hated diagraming sentences in middle school, but I can’t emphasize enough the necessity of doing this. Following the logic of any message over any significant portion of Scripture requires careful attention to the contextual flow. Apart from dividing the sentences into its important assertions and its modifying assertions, this is difficult to see. If we emphasize the modifiers at the expense of the important assertions we will distort the passage. And we must do this diagraming not just with individual sentences but with whole paragraphs and even whole teaching sections. This will take practice to do well, but over time it will become an invaluable tool in clearly focusing the power of the passage for your hearer.
Observe, observe, observe! Many Bible teachers jump to interpretation far too soon. The observation part of the process should take up the bulk of our preparation time. We need to put on our Sherlock Holmes deer stalker hat when we sit down to study the Bible and get out our magnifying glass. We are solving a mystery where the smallest clue may contain the answer to the riddle. And as we observe, we must compare and contrast everything we see. For instance, in Isaiah 48:17-18 God says: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you and who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river …” Then just two verses later in Isaiah 48:20, God says: “Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians!” Now if we keep in mind that God’s people are captives in Babylon and that God’s prophet predicts God will rescue them from Babylon by a Persian King name Cyrus (Isaiah 45), and that only obeying God’s commands brings us peace, God’s command to leave Babylon has heightened force. When Cyrus granted God’s people freedom to go home, most didn’t go. What? How’s that possible? Only a small remnant returned to the land (see Ezra 2:64-65). Why? Did the Israelites just get comfortable with living in the world? Have we?
Give yourself lots of preparation and mediating time: The diagraming part of the process will likely require you to diagram a chapter or two before and possibly a chapter or two after the passage you are studying. That can be a lot of work! But if we are going to rightly divide the word of truth, we must do the work. On top of that we need meditating time. Once we’ve done our work, we need a day or two just to let the ideas and flow of the passage marinate in our thinking. Then, when we come back to it with fresh eyes and observe again, we will see the passage in greater depth. And in truth, we could do this many times and still never plumb the depths of a passage. Furthermore, if you came back to this passage a year later, you will find things that didn’t even occur to you the last time you studied it simply because you are a different person now than you were a year ago. In this process, you will develop a more accurate understanding of the message of the passage. But more importantly, you will grow confident that the passage is enough by itself to draw someone to Christ. That someone may still need help from you in completing the process of coming to faith, but their need for Christ will come by the Holy Spirit’s use of the specific message in that passage.

These aren’t the only tools we might use in studying the Bible. We could mention the use of the original languages, commentaries, geography, and the overlays of theological constructs we develop over time, and even sitting at the feet of good bible teachers, but these six things I have listed will go a long way to keep us on track and keep our interventions to a minimum. It takes practice to do anything well, and this will too, but even beginning at this process will greatly improve our understanding and preaching of the Bible.

Appendix

There are other literary techniques that Bible writers use that are similar to writers of all ages, but these below are the most commonly used in the Bible which modern readers are often not aware.

Device	Use	Example
Inclusio Verse or verses that are repeated before and after a section	Used to bracket a section so that it can be all seen together as a single unit much like quote and end quotes or like parenthesis and end parenthesis. This device is used extensively throughout the Bible to group several chapters or simply a paragraph or two. Used a lot in Proverbs 10-23.	Matthew 4:23 and 9:35 (with only slight variation) “Jesus went throughout Galilee (towns and villages), teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness (among the people).” This verse precedes the famous Sermon on the Mount and is repeated after 9:34. Matthew wanted us to see the whole of chapters 5-9 as a single unit. This means that we need to see the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount in 5-7 as connected to the Miracles of chapters 8-9 either as an expression of the teaching or as a logical outcome of the teaching.
Parallelism Often consecutive verses that say things in similar ways but also help to narrow the definition of terms as the writer intends us to see them.	Used in the poetry of the Psalms and Proverbs but also found in bible narratives and is extensively used in Parables (which also uses chiasms, personification and inclusios). The parallels can be synonymous (like each other), antithetical (against each other), formal (both lines express a single thought), synthetic (second line builds on the first) or emblematic (figure of speech in first line illustrates content of the second)	Synonymous: Psalm 19:1 The heavens declare the glory of God The skies proclaim the work of His hands Antithetical: Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the Lord adds length to life But the years of the wicked are cut short Formal: Psalm 2:6 I have installed my King On Zion, My holy hill. Synthetic: Psalm 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart The Lord would not have listened Emblematic: Proverbs 25:14 Like clouds and wind without rain Is a man who boasts of gifts he does not give
Chiasm also called Inverted Parallel Named after the Greek letter Chi (X). Verses are parallel in X-like pattern: _A ____B ______C ____B’ _A’	Writers use this pattern to build up ideas around a central thought. The center of the Chiasm (C) is the author’s most important idea. The pattern can vary in structure using a few verses or in the case of Luke’s travel narrative, the pattern has 19 levels from Luke 9:51-19:48 centered in 13:22-35. Used extensively in Biblical literature with many variations.	Luke 15:8-10 Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins A And loses one B Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house, seek till she finds it and finding it C She calls together her friends saying rejoice with me B’ For I found the coin A’ Which was lost Even so, there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents. (Simple example, others are more complicated.)
Cruciality The turning point in a narrative or discourse that the beginning built up to and the end recedes away from	Used in a similar manner as a Chiasm though not with the same strict form. It can simply be the high or crucial point that drives the narrative or discourse	2 Samuel 11 David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah From 2 Samuel 1-10, the writer chronicles David’s unparalleled successes everywhere he turns. After chapter 11, the writer chronicles one disaster after another in David’s family with baby, Tamar and Amon, Absalom’s rebellion, estrangement of Joab, etc. The writer wants us to see David’s sin with Bathsheba and Uriah as the turning point of his life.
Parable Literally “To place or cast along side.” A vivid story told to emphasize a singular point	Used to avoid speaking directly about a subject that might not be welcomed and to allow the hearer to place themselves in the story and repent. All over the Bible not just in the gospels. Takes practice to achieve careful analysis. See works of Kenneth E. Bailey	2 Samuel 12:1-4 “There were two men in a certain town, one rich, the other poor.” (The rich man had large herds, the poor man had only one ewe lamb that was like a daughter to him. The rich man took the poor man’s lamb to cook for a guest.) The rich man was David, the poor man was Uriah, the lamb, Bathsheba. The point was to get David as King to see he and we, no matter our position, are not above God’s law and repent.
Recapitulation Telling a story a second time with new characters reliving or recapitulating previously told events	Used to compare one event with another either to show same or opposite results. Often to show recurring tendencies in people of different eras	Genesis 16:3-4 “Sarai, his wife took her Egyptian maidservant Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. He slept with Hagar and she conceived.” Recapitulates Gen. 3:6 “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food and able to make one wise, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate it.” The verses in Genesis 16 recapitulate the fall in Genesis 3. The author wants us to relate these stories together and in Hebrew, the same wording is used for the woman taking and giving to her husband. The point being that Abraham, though called to be the one in whom God would reunite the world in peace is also part of the problem that needs to be solved. He is a true son of Adam.