This recording is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison archive, part of the “Lectures” series, delivered November 1, 1995.

I’d like to begin this evening by saying I’m happy to see as many as are here tonight. I should perhaps say a little bit about the occasion so that we understand what we hope to accomplish tonight and how this fits in with what has become at the seminary something of a tradition. Perhaps some of you have been before in the fall of the year to one of these presentations by someone we’ve invited to Mid-America Reform Seminary to deliver what we call the faculty lectures. I won’t bother you with all the details of how that is arranged and so on, but in the course of having someone speak to our students on a subject in the area of their study, we also invite him to speak to the general public, and that’s the purpose for our meeting tonight. I’d just like to say I’m very happy to see you, as I said before, here tonight. I trust the Lord’s blessing will rest upon us as we meet together.

Before I open with prayer and say a little bit more about our speaker and the subject that he’s going to address, I’d like to begin by reading from the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 11, verses 2 through 15. It’s a passage that Rev. Denison has asked me to read with you at the beginning tonight, Matthew 11, verses 2 through 15.

When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else? Jesus replied, Go back and report to John what you hear and see. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John.

What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in king’s palaces. Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, I will send my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way before you. I tell you the truth.

Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Yet he who is leased in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it. for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Let’s seek the Lord’s blessing in prayer. Our Father in Heaven, we thank you, Father, that you have called us together this evening, that we may come together as your people to be instructed by one of your servants that we may be taught through your word and through his words of instruction to understand the gospel, to understand something of the riches of your work of grace and the history of your people, both in the Old Covenant and in the New Covenant.

May all of your promises find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ, whose way was prepared by the prophets of old and by John the Baptist. We pray, Father, that as we come tonight we may truly receive your blessing. We ask for your strength, your wisdom, that you would provide for the needs of Reverend Dennison as he speaks to us. We pray that we may be properly instructed in the truth of your word, in the understanding of the gospel, so that we might be more faithful as living members of your Church, so that we might also be those who bear testimony to the world about us of the gospel as it is in Jesus Christ. We pray, Father, for your blessing upon each one who is here tonight, upon the work of Mid-America Reform Seminary as she seeks to train young men for the ministry of your word among the Churches. We thank you for those who have supported the school and for those also who have come to join us this evening.

We pray, Father, that in all things we may look to you and to your word, and we may experience together the fellowship that we have in Christ Jesus. and that nothing that is said or done may be displeasing in your sight, but that it may all redound to your praise and to your glory, and to the greater extension and advancement of the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. Hear our prayer and grant us your blessing, for we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Perhaps before introducing our speaker, I should say just a word about the faculty lectures at the seminary. For several years now, as I indicated or suggested earlier, we have invited someone to speak to the students on a particular subject. This year, Rev. Charles Denison, who is with us, is addressing the students in three consecutive lectures on the history of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, of which Rev. Denison is a minister. is addressed this evening to us is on the subject, What is the gospel? The question he’s going to ask with us is, What is the gospel? Now, to introduce Reverend Dennison, I’m sure there are those who could say a great deal about him.

I only just met him today. I don’t know him that well, but I believe the important things that I do know about him are these. He is a minister of the gospel. He’s a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. He serves a congregation. in a place called Sewickley, Pennsylvania. You’ve probably never heard of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, but you may know the city that it’s close to, and that’s Pittsburgh. He’s a minister there in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and he’s a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and he also has the distinction of being the official historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

So we’re very privileged and happy to have him with us tonight. At this time I would welcome him to address us on the topic, What is the Gospel? be wired up with these things. These haven’t come to Pittsburgh yet. I will say, this is a better looking audience than the one I faced this morning. I hope you’ll bear with me. Christian Reform audiences are very erudite when it comes to matters of theology, so they don’t have to be embarrassed about using big words. So it’s different than the way it is in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

I’m a little nervous about this, that’s why I’m hesitating. is quite directly the definition of the gospel. This won’t be an effort at something of an exhaustive treatment of that subject, but I’m especially interested in relating this matter to the heavenly truth aimed at in the gospel. So the definition of the gospel and the heavenly truth aimed at in the gospel. Am I getting a feedback from this? Most especially, I’m interested in what is so good about the Good News. My thesis is this.

The message preached by Jesus and the Apostles was good news because it announced the fulfillment of Old Testament expectation in the coming of God himself from heaven. And in the arrival of the Messianic Kingdom, And in this, the restoration of God’s intention for his creation unto its heavenly goal. Further, and in the second place, Jesus and the apostles preach a message which is good news, because it announced the presence of an antidote through grace, an antidote to divine judgment in the forgiveness of sins, in preparation for the coming of the kingdom’s consummation. And third and finally, the message was good news because it announced present participation. for believers, through Christ and by the Spirit, in the blessed realities that belong to the kingdom in its consummate state.

One thing I want to do is review this definition that I’ve given you tonight. of the difficulties the Church has had in doing justice to it, but particularly I want to build on this definition in the interests of concentrating on the particular aspect with which the Church has had problems, namely the heavenly dimension of the definition that I’ve given you. In fact, it is this one dimension that in large measure has created difficulties through the Church, but no less for those who were around Jesus at the time of his ministry, and even for Jesus’ forerunner, John the Baptist. To the extent the Church continues to be confused about this essential gospel component, she remains more proximate to John than to Jesus, more Jewish than especially Christian. You will observe right at the beginning that Our definition has a threefold focus, something of a Trinitarian formulation.

This is convenient because the gospel is, after all, the good news about what God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, has done. We can see especially the Father’s role in the history of redemption. His sovereignty at work as the era of promise ends and the era of fulfillment commences. The role of the Father’s sovereignty is at the center of what the Apostle Paul has in mind when he says, when the fullness of time has come, God sent forth his Son, Galatians 4. and most definitely at the center of things when Jesus himself said, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel. The second dimension of the definition that I give here of the gospel sets before us the work of the Son.

The Son has that one who has come to earth from glory, who is himself the fully sufficient antidote for divine wrath, the answer to our sin. Of course, there are any number of texts that we can point to in this regard. Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. The writer to the Hebrews says, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of the many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

And the Holy Spirit is clearly in view in the third part of the definition that we gave The Spirit communicates to us the benefits of redemption which are nothing less than lasting, that is, eternal, that is, heavenly blessings. After all, the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, that is, it is not things that perish, but rather righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, we have in this setting out for us threefold reflex to the definition relating each of the aspects to one of the persons of the Trinity, a systematic structure that in its full exposition gives us a great range of matters to consider and think about. Lest we think these matters, as they begin to develop, are meant for esoteric reflection, abstract reflection, we should realize, of course, that these statements and these formulations are clearly derived from and subordinated to the historical category. For after all, the gospel announces not an idea, not a concept, not a great new religious thought, but an event. Something has happened. Before the event, such and such was not the case. But now it is.

The subject of the gospel, then, is properly the mighty act of God. And this act must be kept central to the explication of the gospel at every point. So that even when we’re talking about ideas and thoughts and concepts, we keep that act central and foundational. Now, about this historical grounding for the gospel, Joe Besson Murchin has this to say. Christian doctrine depends on history, he writes. But, of course, it must depend upon history, if it is to be a gospel. For gospel means good news, and news means an account of something that has happened.

I must add at this point, Voss wasn’t known for being succinct. His paragraphs go on for pages, as do his sentences, but on this occasion he was brief. That’s good news for you, isn’t it? I don’t know whether I will be, but Voss was. Voss said the historical was first. than the theological. The historical was first, then the theological. I want to say something else at this point about the definition that we’ve given of the gospel, recognizing threefold formulation, relating that to the Trinity, systematic structure, and so on and so forth. the fact that we understand that beneath it all is this historical reality, foundation.

We want to say also, as we reflect upon the definition, that the gospel is, and with Christian Reformed people tonight I can use this big word, The gospel is eschatological at every point. Where I am when I use that word out there in western Pennsylvania, people immediately get up out of their seats and they walk out the door. I’m glad to see that no one has done that this evening. Eschatology relates to the last things, of course.

The message of what God has done puts before us the conclusive matters with regard to God’s plan and purpose. God has acted climactically. The end times have commenced with the action of God in Christ. The time of waiting is over, for God in Christ has come. He has entered into history and time. The kingdom has arrived.

But God’s appearance and his kingdom’s appearance presently are preliminary and veiled, and as such they are preparatory for a greater day still, the day of judgment, the day of glory. And currently we live in the kingdom, to be sure, but short of its fullness, its consummate glory. While that is true, and in keeping with the definition that we have given, we do partake of the blessings and power of that kingdom in its consummate state. This gospel which we have embraced is particularly defined by the good news that we already have in our possession, the very realities of glory.

Eternal life is ours by faith. It does not begin on the day we die or on the day that Christ returns. It has begun already. There is a crisis that has overtaken the Church. I’m sure you are aware of that fact. And that crisis has necessitated discussions about the historical dimension of the gospel specifically, because you see, that’s being challenged. There are those who have endeavored to separate fact from faith, who have contended that we can do away with the facts and yet retain the faith.

That is, in fact, the heart of liberalism. What need have we of a virgin birth? What need have we of a bodily resurrection? Faith remains the same if we believe that God is the one who is offered to achieve purposes of his own and to grant us a spiritual life The meaning of resurrection then reduces itself to a positive outlook on existence. That’s what liberalism said.

And the specialized discussion about eschatology, that big word, it also has been necessitated because of the crisis that has overtaken the Church. because people are not willing to admit anymore that anything substantive had occurred in the first century in the personal work of Jesus Christ.

And they’re certainly not willing to relate that to anything that is beyond the boundaries of this creation in another world. The specialized discussion has then developed, and through that specialized discussion there have been some advantages in pinpointing various aspects of the gospel, helping us understand a little bit more fully its intention. But even though we have been helped by the specialized discussion, that does not mean that the Church in its strength has not from the beginning spoken accurately about the gospel and about its truth.

There has been confusion. There have been periods of decline. In the ancient Church, for instance, the historical dimension is kept alive by the great interest in the Incarnation. God had come in the flesh, and everything is different. was kept alive also because of an apologetical interest, the interest that many of the early apologists had in defending the faith in an appeal to Old Testament prophecy. The prophecies had been fulfilled. The historical interest kept alive that way, too.

But of course in the early Church there was the threat of moralism. there was the threat of mysticism, there was the threat of institutionalism, all of which were working against the conviction with regard to the historical dimension of the gospel. And these threats also affected conviction with regard to hope, eschatology.

But there are the bright spots, appearing in various I think of one sermon by Melito of Sardis, for instance. I think also of certain statements of origin, although he was a man who slipped off into his own world in many respects. But he identified Christ as the kingdom in himself. And of course I think of Augustine and his classic work, The City of God. became the loss of urgency with regard to the gospel, as moralism rose, as mysticism took over, as institutionalism grew.

It was the rise of millennialism, so that any contact with the realities of glory was delayed. Red out of the current experience of the people of God. It was the postponement of all blessings seemingly into a future world. And this wound of weakness in the Church was a harbinger of dark days to come. It could be argued that in the Middle Ages There was a near loss of historical consciousness altogether.

Do you like those big coffee table books of art? Very interesting. I’ve always been fascinated with books of art from the Middle Ages, but do you know what I used to think? You ever notice those pictures? In those medieval collections where the artist is portraying what you know to be an ancient scene, say a scene from scripture, and everybody is dressed in medieval attire, and you were saying to yourself, like I did, you were saying to yourself, Boy, that’s an interesting way to make this whole thing relevant. Let’s put them in current dress so it looks like a current event.” Then I found out that people in the Middle Ages thought that the way they dressed was the way people always dressed. They never dressed any differently.

The historical consciousness, you see, had been short-circuited. They couldn’t see back beyond their own time. They had no clear sense of history, and they most certainly had no clear sense of the history of redemption. Think of the death of Christ. There may be some vague grasp after the fact that Christ lived long ago and that he died outside a city in the Middle East. But by and large, the thought that overwhelmed the middle of the Church was this, Christ’s death was as current as this morning’s Mass. It’s a current event.

And as it was with regard to the historical dimension, so it was with the matter of hope. or the eschatological nature of the gospel, it too being eclipsed. By this I mean the gospel no longer carried any sense of an intrusion of heavenly reality and blessing into the lives of believers. Eternal blessing was removed from their experience They had no sense of belonging to God, really or truly, they had no confidence with regard to it. You can see how this would throw the Christian populace into confusion and into crisis. It is precisely here that the issues at stake in our definition of the gospel begin most definitely to come into view. We might well ask of the medieval Church what remained of the gospel.

There was no real appreciation that the turning point in history had arrived, that the end times had commenced in God’s gift of his Son, There existed no sense of the definite intrusion in God’s Son of an antidote to divine wrath. And specifically, there was no grasp of the fact that the work of Christ meant present participation for believers in heavenly blessing.

It’s gone. To be sure, the Reformation would evidence its own weaknesses. We cannot be blind to that. As much as we love our Reformed heritage, our Reformation heritage, the Reformation itself would evidence its own weaknesses, even with respect to the historical categories in relationship to the gospel, and even the eschatological categories in relationship to the gospel. There is, in fact, in the Reformers, something of a lack, an immaturity when it comes to a full-blown history of salvation consciousness. There is even an ambiguity about the gospel’s relationship to heavenly blessing presently. The Reformers did think about eschatology.

They didn’t speak of it in that term. But they did think about eschatology, but they thought about it exclusively in terms of the return of Christ and what lay beyond. And there is some evidence that they viewed the gift by which glory is gained as not of the heavenly realm, but unto it. Not a piece with it, but unto it.

But even having said that and recognizing some of the criticisms that do rise. With the Reformers, undoubtedly, the gospel resurfaces in its power. It resurfaces in its historical particularity, even in its eschatological definiteness. Think about Luther. Luther’s rediscovery of the finality of Christ’s sacrifice, accessible by faith. This is nothing short of a revolution to the medieval world. A greater revolution even than the discovery by Columbus. Luther’s rediscovery of the finality of Christ’s sacrifice, accessible by faith.

His awakening to the certainty of the gospel. Since by it he has grasped hold of glory itself. This heralds a new day, a new day for the Church. So however naively Luther is feeling after the lost dimensions of the gospel’s definition, he is indeed asserting with power the truth about that gospel and laying the foundation for a better definition to come.

And Calvin himself likewise contributes to the same end. What about Rome now? Sixteenth-century Rome, heir of the medieval system, view of the world, view of God in his relationship to the world. For Rome now, in this circumstance, the gospel has been thoroughly, completely institutionalized. and formalized.

The Church is inundated by moralism, and where it’s not inundated by moralism, it’s overwhelmed by mysticism. Moralism and mysticism don’t need history, they just need principles and methods. The gospel is known to the people in the Roman Church only as a reading from one of the four Gospels in the Liturgy of the Mass.

With respect to the salvation which the Scripture is attached to the gospel, Rome taught that But God’s work in Christ was to supply supernatural sanctifying grace to fallen humanity through cooperation in the rite of baptism, thus restoring humanity from its corruption through original sin to its original state.

Do you see what God is doing in the institutionalized form of their view of salvation? At its best, all that Rome can claim is that it is placing man back in the garden, and that even prior to the Fall. Furthermore, Rome taught that humanity so renewed is able through the means of grace, which are found in the Church, to restrain its natural concupiscence and capitalize on its restored right to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Do you understand the force of that?

Rome’s message, then, is not that in the gospel you might find salvation, but in what we call the gospel, the mere possibility of salvation is answered. Hope is found in the sacramental ministry of the Church by which humanity is informed that it might once more, as Adam in his innocence had previously, avail itself of the opportunity of glory, the prospect of glory. What kind of a gospel is that? I mean, does that sound like good news? What has been procured for us? What has been given for us? What has been done for us? The best that you can say is that you are back in the position where you have the prospect of salvation, the opportunity for glory.

The Reformers went and saw that Rome’s gospel was not good news at all. Not only did it not save, but consistent with that fact, it offered no comfort of assurance. You had no assurance at all. The Roman Catholic, therefore, could not claim salvation as his own, only the hope to it through his own merits by root of his own works in the Church. Such a position left the Church wallowing in despair, and to the extent that assurance of salvation was expressed within the Roman system, it was built upon human device and presumption.

And Luther went after that in his Ninety-Five Theses. Further, against this travesty and attack upon the gospel, Luther would write, To him that believeth in Christ, sin is pardoned, and righteousness imputed. This trust and this confidence maketh him the child of God and heir of the kingdom. For in hope he possesseth already everlasting life, assured unto him by promise. Through faith in Christ, therefore, all things are given unto us—grace, peace, forgiveness of sins, salvation, and everlasting life.

Present possessions, not just the hope of such things, but within one’s graft. Calvin was nonetheless assured He argued against the Council of Trent and its contention that assurance of the forgiveness of sins and the certainty of eternal life are sure signs of heresy. That’s what the Council of Trent said. If you have the assurance of the forgiveness of sins and the certainty of eternal life, identifies you, unmistakably, as a heretic. Calvin writes, Paul makes full assurance, the perpetual attendant of faith. What is faith asks Calvin, but that which appropriates the salvation which Christ procured.”

There is then this instinct for the gospel in its full definition that is obviously pressing its impact upon the Reformers, their thinking, their consciousness. Many have suggested that Luther’s instinct for these things was much better than Calvin’s. Still, Calvin and his followers, better than Luther and his, saw the implications of the gospel in their widest application. and most specifically for the doctrines of God’s eternal election and the preservation of the saints.

And this meant the door was open for the development by Calvinism of the conviction that gospel faith brought the leaders into direct contact with the permanent eschatological state. Do you see what it means for us? who are Calvinists, to believe in the perseverance of the saints, and the eternal election that undergirds that. In the perseverance of the saints, we are in effect being brought into direct contact with the permanent state of glory. We can’t lose it. the gospel. And I judge that from the tone of those definitions, some of them purporting to be Calvinist, others openly Arminian, there is a similar emphasis that is found in these definitions.

That similar emphasis is that the gospel makes The Gospel makes a view of what, in fact, Christ has procured, but it doesn’t actually confer what Christ has procured. Terms like salvation and new life become limiting notions, quite nebulous, without any specific content. The Gospel, therefore, focuses on a preparatory stage for entrance into salvation and new life. It doesn’t actually confer it.

Listen to this definition from Edmund’s Handbook of Christian Belief, a book edited by Adam Hewitt. Here is the definition of the gospel. The gospel is the good news of what God has done through Jesus, and especially his death and resurrection. He has made available to us forgiveness on new birth. He has made available to us forgiveness and rebirth in the Holy Spirit. It is through hearing the gospel that people can come to receive Jesus and find new life.

In this definition of the gospel, we are not here concentrating on what then is actually conferred, what is actually given. We are dealing with what is offered. The gospel, therefore, focuses on a preparatory stage for entrance into salvation and into life, not the experience of salvation and new life. Negatively, the gospel insulates against the judgment and the unsavory nature of the old life.

But we should be clear that these definitions signal the weakening, if not the demise, of Protestantism. Not only are we moving back towards a medievalism, but we are even moving towards a pre-Christian state if we understand things redemptively historically.

John the Baptist knew about the futurity of the kingdom. He knew that the kingdom was coming. He was looking for the fulfillment of all of God’s promises, that was certain within his mind. He knew that when God acted, that would mean the end of the Age of Promise, the commencement of the Age of Fulfillment. He also knew that his ministry was preparatory. The prepared people for the eventuality of the coming of that King, for his ministry of baptism for repentance of sins. It was preparatory for the coming wrath and the impending judgment.

He knew that as well. What John had trouble with was the fact that in the coming of the kingdom, future heavenly blessing should precede judgment. That is what he could not understand. How could that happen? How could heavenly blessings precede the judgment itself?

Rather, there are both formal and material similarities between John’s position and that of contemporary Protestantism. They both believe God’s message prepares them to enter another condition and protects them from harm. The difficulty is that there seems to be an ignorance of, if not a denial of, the present reality of glory and its blessings. Actually, given the choice between John and contemporary Protestants, I would choose John. At least he has asked him the question, and presumably understanding the answer, it is returned to him in his prison cell. At least for John, the issue clearly centers in the certainty of the coming wrath and questions about eternal blessing.

One gets the impression, however, that contemporary Protestantism’s talk about salvation and rebirth has more to do with productive, positive, moral, reconstructed, restored, renewed, revived, balanced, socially, politically alert lives in this world and for its sake, rather than anything that has anything to do with the world to come.

We want to express our thanks to you, Rev. Dennison, for giving to us a very challenging message on how to think about elements of the gospel that are so often covered over in contemporary church life and ministry today. As I was thinking about your address when you were talking about history, it seems to me every time we say the Apostles’ Creed, were simply reciting the facts of history. The Father created, the Son came into this world, suffered, died, was buried, rose again and is coming again to judge, and all the blessings that are not simply in the future but also that accrue to us now, the forgiveness of sins and the new life, which is not set before us with the possibility of us taking it. are actually given to us, and that’s something that we can already enjoy now.

Thank you again. You’ve given us much to think about and to reflect on. Let’s close in prayer. Father in heaven, we thank you for the fact that you have loved this world so much that you gave your only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.

We thank you, Father, that we have a message which is news, that there are certain life and death facts in it, that it is good news. It is a news that has the quality of being good and wonderful and amazing. We sing of that amazing grace, the sweet sound of the message that Jesus actually forgives us our sins. that the Lord Jesus actually gives us his Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit does turn hearts of stone into hearts of flesh, and that you, through the proclamation of the gospel, continue to build your church wherever that gospel goes. For in the gospel, of which we are not ashamed, your righteousness, O Lord, is revealed from faith to faith, so that the just shall live by faith. We thank you, Father, for giving to us this wonderful deposit that you have entrusted to the Church, the message which we must proclaim.

And we pray, Father, that you will help us as churches that stand in the Reformed heritage will be faithful, be found faithful with that heritage that has come to us, and that that message may not receive any dilution. or pollution from our schemes or from our ways of thinking, that the gospel in all of its purity, but also in all of its power, will continue to be proclaimed and to be received by us with grateful hearts. We ask, Heavenly Father, that all of the churches that are represented here and all of the churches of Jesus Christ around the world will also continue to love the gospel, that they will love your word that they will not seek to reduce the message of good news to some small message, but that from the opening pages of Genesis to the close of Revelation, that all of that together is bound up as that most wonderful story in which we see how you, the God and Creator of all things, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, have worked in our history, have sent your Son into our flesh in order that we will be and might be able to experience life in your presence forever. And already now we taste of that age to come. So, Heavenly Father, we pray that you will bless us as we return to our homes and continue to bless us as we are involved in the life of the Church. Help us, Heavenly Father, to hold high that gospel for the sake and the honor and the glory of Christ.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.