Basics 2008 – Session #3, Alistair Begg

Begg, spoke out of 2 Cor 4 for our third session. In this chapter, he maintains that Paul is not commending himself but setting his ministry in contrast to other ministries the Corinthians had exposed themselves to. The purpose of the letter is to warn the Corinthians that false teachers were in their church. These false teachers were apparently promoting themselves by criticizing Paul. Apparently some of the Corinthians were listening to the criticism. Paul writes to demonstrate the substance of the true gospel so that the Corinthians can determine when a false one is being preached. Paul is exhibiting Pastoral concern for his flock in Corinth.

Paul's ministry (and ours) – the source of ministry is "Divine Mercy", evangelical ministry emerging from evangelical mercy. There is no gospel apart from mercy nor grace. The substance of that ministry is God's righteousness. In Chapter 3, Paul contrasts old covenant glory with new covenant glory. New covenant glory outshines all other glory in that it reveals God's righteousness which is the point and substance of ministry. The obedience of Christ has been reckoned to the sinner while the sinner's disobedience has been reckoned to Christ. In other words, He died for our sins. This is the doctrine of 'Penal, Substitutionary Atonement. It is absolutely essential to the gospel. In ministry, we must reveal the fullness of the gospel, telling exactly what it is but also making sure that our listeners also know what it isn't. Anything else, other than the whole, complete gospel, including the Atonement, is 'another gospel'. The gospel is not the sovereignty of God, regeneration, spiritual maturity or any other single issue. Those are part of the gospel but none of them are the gospel themselves so, we need to be careful not to treat them as such. The story of the gospel is the story of 'Substitutionary Atonement', someone died for us.
2 Cor 5:11. The basis for our persuasion of other people (ministry) is Christ's love. Our persuasion should be a personal, passionate plea. Calvin said, "When a person is brought under conviction (by our ministry to them), we have shown them that the only safe haven for them is in the mercy of God as shown in the willing sacrifice of His Son."

Part 2 of this message will come this evening.