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"Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach
the gospel . . ." - 1 Corinthians 1:17
Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what
Paul means by “the gospel,” namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus
Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul
refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of
the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification— we
are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (see John 12:32). It is an injustice to
say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ
labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole
and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience
redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a
byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired
He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our
sanctification. We burden His energies from morning till night asking for things
for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we
finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we
will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
The one passion of Paul’s life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed
heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason— these things
kept him unmovable in his devotion to the gospel of God.
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