The series closes in Paul’s epistles, where Dennison traces the same true gospel already seen in Christ’s own words, using Machen’s classic definition as his guide. Against the modern liberal view of Paul, he argues that Jesus and Paul preach one and the same gospel, however far the church has since wandered from it.
How would John the Baptist have understood Christ’s use of Isaiah 61? Dennison finds there a vision of true, heavenly freedom rather than earthly deliverance, and traces how Christ consistently redirects attention from temporal blessings to eternal ones.
Dennison draws on Geerhardus Vos and J. Gresham Machen to examine the OPC’s own struggle to define the gospel rightly, using Christ’s response to the imprisoned John the Baptist as his test case. True evangelism is not an end in itself, he argues, but exists to lead people unto worship, prizing spiritual healing over the merely physical.
John the Baptist expected Christ to bring immediate judgment along with blessing. Leaning on J. Gresham Machen’s defense of the true gospel, Dennison shows that Christ’s blessings exceed even Isaiah’s prophecy, and, crucially, come before judgment rather than after it.
The series opens with John the Baptist’s preparation, ministry, and imprisonment, building toward Jesus’ pointed answer to John’s disciples in Matthew 11. That answer defines the gospel itself, Dennison argues: not a promise deferred, but blessings already given now in Christ.
