GOSPEL AND GRACE, DIFFERENCE BETWEEN.

BY DAVID LIPSCOMB

What is the difference in meaning between gospel and grace?

Grace means favor. Grace prompts all the favors of a ma-

terial or spiritual nature that God shows to man. The high-

est and greatest act of favor God ever bestowed on man was

to send Christ on his mission to man. This mission consti-

tuted the gospel. The gospel is the highest manifestation of

the grace, or favor, of God to man. Hence, it is called " the

grace of God." (Tit. 2: 11.) Luke (2: 40) says that the

grace of God was upon the child Jesus. God's favor rested

upon him. Christians are said to be " good stewards of the

manifold grace of God" (1 Pet. 4: 10) that is* they are to

dispense the various boons and trusts bestowed on them for

the good of others. Grace properly means the disposition to

do kindness and to favor others. The acts which grow out

of this disposition are acts of grace. Gospel, by itself, means

good news. The gospel of Christ is the good news that he

came to earth to save the world. This was an act prompted

by his and his Father's love for man, and hence an act of grace.

GOSPEL, HOW REACH THE PEOPLE WITH THE?

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How shall we reach the people with the claims of Jesus Christ?

Manners and customs and methods of living often change.

But human nature is essentially the same in all ages and

among all peoples, Jesus in the days of his flesh gave an

Gospel, How Reach the People with the? 195

example of true wisdom in the work he came to do, that of

reaching the lost with the truth of God and so saving them.

He was born among the humble and lowly; he was reared

and trained to labor among the common laboring people ; and

after he was anointed by the Holy Spirit and began the work

of preaching the gospel, he lived among the poor and humble,

commingled with them in their homes, and was one of them

in all his feelings and sympathies. He went among the pub-

licans and sinners, showed sympathy for them in their weak-

ness, temptations, and sins, and by personal contact with them

showed his love for them and his desire to help them. This

class learned to love him, and the common people heard him

gladly. We cannot improve on his methods. Then, as now,

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there were self-righteous Pharisees and scribes who felt it was

contamination to go near these weak, sinful classes, and even

refused to countenance Jesus when he was working signs and

wonders, because he went among these weak and sinning

classes. It was a serious charge they made against him, that

" he eateth with publicans and sinners." His response is wis-

dom and instruction to us if we will hear and be guided by it:

" I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

Jesus did not seek the rich or the fashionable, the learned or

the elite, but he came to call sinners to repentance. To those

who felt and acknowledged themselves to be sinners he went,

and they heard. " Many publicans and sinners " sat with him

at meat. The self-righteous asked : " Why eateth your Mas-

ter with publicans and sinners?" "The publicans and the

harlots go into the kingdom of God before you." " The pub-

licans and the harlots believed " on the preaching of John,

while the respectable religious class refused both John and

Jesus. Among his chosen twelve was a publican ; among his

most beloved and faithful followers was a woman out of whom

seven demons had been cast. The apostles followed the ex-

ample of the Master and went to the lost, the poor, the out-

casts of earth, and suffered hunger and nakedness, and with

tears and entreaties from house to house besought the people

to serve the living God. This is God's way of reaching and

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converting men and women. These classes converted make

the most active and faithful servants of God and are efficient

in saving others. The poor and industrious of one generation

are the leaders and rulers of the next. If a preacher is a true

follower of Christ and the apostles, when he goes into a com-

196 Gospel, How Reach the People with the?

mimity to preach the gospel, he will go to the poor and the

humble, and he will seek to save these, and in saving these he

will save all others willing to be saved. The rich, especially

those whose heart is set on riches and who pride themselves

on their riches, more often than otherwise prove a hindrance

and not a help to the gospel. " Not many wise after the flesh,

not many mighty, not many noble, are called." (1 Cor. 1 : 26.)

Go to the common people. See Evangelize, How To.

GOSPEL, WHAT IS THE?

What is the gospel? Some preachers who make it clear that man

should obey the gospel do not give a clear definition as to what is the

gospel. I am greatly surprised that preachers give different answers.

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It is nothing strange that persons should give answers to

the questions that differ in form and in words. Possibly fifty

answers may be given to the question differing in words, but

meaning the same things. " God so loved the world, that he

gave his only begotten Son [to die], that whosoever believeth

on him should not perish, but have eternal life " (John 3 :

16), is one form of telling the gospel. Another is: " Even so

must the Son of man be lifted up ; that whosoever be-

lieveth may in him have eternal life." (Verses 14, 15.)

The gospel is often presented in a series of statements and

illustrations showing that Jesus came into the world to

save sinners, as in the case of the woman of Samaria. Then

the Holy Spirit preached the gospel on P.entecost, the same

things expressed in different words. There are many exam-

ples of the preaching of the gospel in Acts, hardly ever pre-

sented in exactly the same words, but always giving the same

ideas. Paul gives a definition of the gospel. (1 Cor. 15:

1-10.) Gospel means good news. The good news is that,

when man was a sinner, God so loved him as to give his Son

to die to save him from his sins. In the development of that

gospel the conditions on which that salvation could be enjoyed

are given. The gospel can be appropriated and enjoyed in

complying with the conditions laid down. All these things

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enter into the gospel as opened to man. So in one sense the

mission of Christ to the earth with all his teachings and re-

quirements constitute the gospel, and to fully preach the gos-

pel is to preach Christ and all the teachings and requirements

be made to save man. It would be strange if men now did

not give answers differing in word and form, but agreeing in

thought, when Jesus and the Holy Spirit expressed it in so

many varied ways. When we restrict meanings to terms to

which God has not restricted, we do violence to God's order.

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