We are living in a time
when many great changes of complexion are taking place in
every realm. It is certainly no time of stagnation. Not
only has the face of things greatly changed in half a
life-time, but there is in these immediate days a
tremendous acceleration in this change, so that we do not
know what the world situation may be from one day to
another.
What obtains in general
is no less true - perhaps even more true - in
Christianity. Everything is in a realm of question and
uncertainty - that is, so far as the framework, the form,
the work, the way and the earthly prospect are concerned.
We can go further and say that - most probably in the
sovereignty and providence of God - conditions (already
so far advanced in the East) are literally compelling
Christians to reconsider their foundations, and driving
responsible people to face the whole question of demanded
reorientation.
If we are nearing the
consummation of this age, then this is exactly what we
may expect. Only truth in its very essence will stand the
test which will be forced upon everything by God Himself,
and this "judgment must begin at the house
of God". All the accessories, appurtenances,
accompaniments, paraphernalia and 'etceteras' of
Christianity will be stripped off, and only stark reality
remain at the last. There is mentioned in Scripture a
"fiery trial which shall come upon all the inhabited
earth, to try the dwellers thereon". The tragedy of
our time is that so many responsible leaders either are
too busy and preoccupied with work or are so
superficially optimistic that they are not aware of the
real emergency implicit in world developments.
There is a growing need
for such a stock-taking in many connections, but not
least in the matter of the Gospel itself. Let us hasten
to make clear that we are not implying that there is any
need whatever for a reconsideration or reorientation of
the essence of the Gospel. No, emphatically No! It, in
its essential nature and constituents, remains 'The
everlasting Gospel'. But there is a very real
need for a fresh apprehension of what that Gospel really
is. The very word or term "Gospel" has come to
imply something less than "the whole counsel of
God", and to be applied almost exclusively to the
beginnings of the Christian life.
When the Apostle who
wrote the Letter to the Hebrews had set forth the
transcendent greatness of Christ, God's Son, in every
realm, whether of Patriarchs, Prophets, Angels, or
whom you will, he summed up everything - a vast
everything - in one phrase: "so great
salvation"; concerning which salvation he declared
that even to neglect it - not necessarily to oppose or
resist it - would involve in an inescapable doom.
In the pages of this
little volume we have sought to serve this need of
recovering, or re-presenting, something - only something
- of the greatness of the Gospel, and to show that
everything for life, service, progress, and victory
depends upon our real grasp of its greatness.
T. AUSTIN-SPARKS
FOREST HILL,
LONDON, 1954.