ESG Chapter Three Update (?)

To Connie and anyone else who was following our study in Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God:

 My apologies!  I didn't realize how far behind I had got in posting our studies.  I will try to remember the basics of what we studied since I last updated and provide at least a truncated version of what we have done.  I will try to be more faithful in updating, both for anyone who is interested and for myself! 

First of all, even though I inaccurately titled my last post  "Chapter Three, Conclusion, it was only the conclusion of the first section of Chapter Three:  "What is Evangelism?".  The next two or three weeks we met together, we discussed two articles, Puritan Evangelism by J. I Packer and Evangelism in a Postmodern Age, by Don Matzat .

 After we finished with those, we picked back up with the chapter. 

The last few weeks we have completed the next section:

Section Two:  What is the Evangelistic Message?

The Evangelistic Message (aka as the Gospel!) is:

• about God

        emphasizes the need to go back to creation when teaching the gospel .  God is our Sovereign Creator.

• about sin 

        emphasizes the need to know our guilt before God.  Made the clear distinction between guilt and                 remorse--they are not the same.  We must see ourselves as God sees us and think of ourselves as God thinks of us.   Key point:  sin is not a social concept; it is a theological concept and we must treat it as such.  Also developed the necessity of conviction of sin, what is is and what it is not.

Conviction of sin is

• an awareness of a wrong relationship with God;  not just with one's neighbor or one's conscience

• includes a conviction of sins in particular

• includes a conviction of one's sinfulness (complete corruption in God's sight and need for a new heart)
  

• about Christ

    it is His message
        We must not present the Person of Christ apart from His saving work     
        We must not present the saving work of Christ apart from His Person 

Next, beginning on page 66, we discussed the fact that the extent of the atonement has no bearing on the content of the evangelistic message.  Whether you believe in a limited or unlimited atonement, it does not change the evangelistic message.  Our job is to proclaim Christ and call the hearer to come to Christ. 

This past Thursday we finished the last subsection in Section Two:  What is the Evangelistic Message?:

• about faith and repentance 

Briefly, faith and repentance are contrasted with credence and regret and the differences defined.  ". . .faith is not a mere optimistic feeling, any more than repentance  is a mere regretful or remorseful feeling."  Packer develops the twin truths that the demand is for faith as well as repentance and repentance as well as faith. In other words, it is not enough to feel guilty and make promises.  Our faith has an object--it is an objective faith.  Our faith is in Christ.  If we never put our faith in Christ alone, then our repentance is only as good as we are able to keep it up and then it becomes a matter of our subtle dependence upon our ability to repent rather than Christ that we have faith in.  By the same token, faith without repentence.  Repentance says that God has claim on our lives; there is a cost to our faith.
Next Thursday we will continue with Section Three:  What is the Motive of Evangelism?

I will try, God willing and time permitting, to be more faithful to post notes in the future.