"Why Do You Even Need to Hear the Gospel Every Sunday?"

Upon hearing this, I actually started tearing up. I don't know if it was due to lack of sleep or because I was emphatically heartbroken over the horrifying non-reformedness of my father.

Just kidding. Not really, though.

I'm home for the summer, and you know what that means: enjoying showers without shoes on and using the stove any chance I get. There is, however, an aspect of being at home that's been a definite challenge for me. Attending my old church!

Most parents worry their kid will go to college and become a raging liberal or avid drunkard. To my Southern Baptist family's surprise, I instead came home during Christmas break asking about election and posing trick questions such as, "How do you live out the gospel?". God gave me a wonderful (reformed Baptist but that's another discussion) church in Canyon that introduced so many Biblical aspects of the church to my eyes. They have things like elders? They take Communion more than two to four times a year? The sermons are an hour long, the preaching exegetical? All of this was so new to me, and now that I have seen the beauty in liturgy, in church order, I don't want anything else!

I made this meme and find it very funny

The church my parents attend, although filled with many sincere Christians who have undoubtedly poured into me and others, is your classic mainline, Baptist church. No, that label itself does not make it a "bad church"; but in practice, I have problems with it. I miss hearing the gospel every Sunday. Not "here's the thirty second gospel after the sermon over a random book in the Old Testament now walk to the front and respond". I truly miss gospel-centered church. It was when I was explaining this to my family one Sunday afternoon that my father exasperatedly threw that fateful question at me, "Why do you even need to hear the gospel every Sunday?".

It sounds dramatic and a tad cage-stagey but at the time, I was appalled. Angered, even. How could he not understand? What is church without the gospel? Does he think the gospel is only for the lost? How could he be so ignorant? I pondered his question for weeks. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that I was in his shoes a year ago. I am not better, I am not more spiritual than my father because I read The Holiness of God or listen to CityAlight. His question made me dive deeper into learning why preaching the gospel is so vital.

"For if I preach the gospel, that gives me no ground for boasting. For necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!" - 1 Corinthians 9:16

In the prior verse, Paul says he would rather die than be deprived of the opportunity to boast in the gospel. Christ compels Paul to preach the gospel; he feels as if he has no choice but to do so. Paul acknowledges he has no room to boast in himself when preaching the gospel because it is Christ who works in him for good works. He even announces woe upon himself if he refrains from preaching the gospel. Woe is not merely a twinge of sadness or regret. Throughout the Old and New Testament, "woe" signifies the incredible wrath of a holy God.

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain." - 1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Here, we see Paul is reminding his brothers in Christ of the gospel. We have received, stand in, and are being saved by the gospel. Note that Paul did not say, "Now, brothers, since you have already received the gospel and are already saved, I feel no need to remind you of the hope you have. Why should I retell the story of how Jesus took God's wrath that you deserved by dying on the cross for you? Why should I remind you that Jesus rose three days later, proving His power over death and God's satisfaction in His Son's sacrifice? What's the use in recalling how you were once dead in sin, then refreshing your ears with the story of beautiful grace, of how righteousness is being bestowed to you through Christ? You're already going to heaven!".

Paul reminds Christians of the gospel. Period.

Simply put, we will never stop needing the gospel because we will never stop sinning on this side of heaven. The gospel is the "power of God for salvation to everyone who believes" (Romans 1:16). The gospel is for sinners. So, when the church is gathered on Sunday, why are we avoiding the gospel? Why are we giving thirty minute motivational speeches? As Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:16, there is no room to boast of oneself when preaching the gospel. What does that mean when a pastor is giving a sermon and not preaching the gospel? Who is he boasting in? Just a thought. Upon the occasion the pastor decides to speak of Jesus, he avoids the "offensive" parts. We need the whole gospel.

I also made this meme and also find it very funny

"No man can be said to preach the whole gospel of God if he leaves it out, knowingly and intentionally, one single truth of the blessed God." - Charles Spurgeon, "Preach the Gospel" (1855)

Charles Spurgeon has a beautiful sermon about preaching the gospel. He explains that preaching the gospel "is not to talk about what the gospel is, but to preach it into the heart, not by your own might, but by the influence of the Holy Ghost—not to stand and talk as if we were speaking to the angel Gabriel, and telling him certain things, but to speak as man to man and pour our heart in to our fellow's heart." I 1000% recommend you read the sermon, especially if you don't understand the ever-present importance of the gospel in our lives as Christians.

I could go on about this for a while but I think I'll close it here. To answer my dad's question, we don't just need the gospel every Sunday. We need it every day, every second, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Through this gospel we are saved and are being saved.

https://www.spurgeon.org/resource-library/sermons/preach-the-gospel/

Soli deo Gloria!!! Jadyn

DISCLAIMER: I do not claim to know everything about the Bible. If you find anything heretical and/or questionable with my writing, don't hesitate to holler at me! In grace and truth, of course ;)