THE MAN OR THE PLAN ?

When it comes to the preaching of the Gospel of Christ, many say, “Preach the Man, not the Plan,” implying that Jesus should be preached without preaching any conditions of obedience for salvation. They may mention 1 Corinthians 2:2: “For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified;” but what all is implied in Paul’s statement, and what do other verses tell us? Did the Gospel preachers of the first century preach the Man, the Plan, or both?

Preachers like Paul preached more than just the life of Christ and His death. Of course it should be stated that the life and death of Christ is of great importance to us because He lived without sin and died as a sin offering for our transgressions (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Isaiah 53:5). However, if the Gospel is no more than His crucifixion, we would be completely destitute of hope, because we depend on the hope of His resurrection: “…if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14). Paul preached the Gospel of Christ, which includes the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ:

Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

Paul understood that not only are the facts of the Gospel important, but also the obedience to the Gospel: “…the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels, In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, 8); “But they have not all obeyed the gospel…” (Romans 10:16). Peter also stressed the importance of obedience to the Gospel: “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17).

Paul gave us the facts of the Gospel when he wrote that it is the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (mentioned above). If we must obey the Gospel, then we must obey the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Paul told us exactly how to do this: “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3, 4). In subsequent verses of this same chapter, Paul wrote that once we obey that form of doctrine we will be free from sin: “Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:16-18). It is clear that Paul preached the necessity of obeying a “form of doctrine,” which is a pattern, or plan.

When Philip preached Jesus to the Ethiopian eunuch, it is interesting that the first reaction of the Ethiopian was to be baptized in water: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?” (Acts 8:35, 36). When Philip preached Christ, he preached baptism; therefore when he preached the Man, he preached the Plan.

If one is preaching Christ like Paul, Peter, and Philip did, part of his preaching will be the necessity of obedience to the Gospel Plan of Salvation. Therefore one cannot properly preach the Man without preaching His Plan!

Jason Hilburn