Wednesday, February 6, 2019

The Gospel - Central To All We Do

The Gospel should permeate everything we think, say, and do. Regardless of how great our creeds, confessions, catechisms, constitutions, etc., are, we always need to keep the Gospel central. Problem is, our churches tend to take our eyes off of Jesus and lose focus of the Gospel and start turning our doctrines and traditions into legalism, something we should be on guard against.

The moment our creeds, confessions, catechisms, constitutions, etc., crowd out the Gospel, we are on a slippery slope on dangerous ground. We should always be comparing our creeds, confessions, catechisms, constitutions, etc., against Scripture, and where these fall short of Scripture, they need to be rejected. Nothing is higher than Scripture!

No denomination has a monopoly on truth or right doctrine (some are more right than others, but none are 100% right), so we need to be aware that some of the things we believe and practice are wrong and not in tune with Scripture, and therefore need to be conformed to Scripture.

Remember, godly men from the past had personal opinions, too, and placed experience above sound exegesis (e.g., Romans 7). Everything they touched was not gold. As a famous quote goes, "The least deviation from truth will be multiplied later." Men following men following men will eventually and inevitably result in error. We need to be following Jesus by following His Word.