Lecturing at the Dabney Center on Ephesians and Paul’s perspective therein, I had to deal especially with Ephesians 3.6: “This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” My message, following Ridderbos was that the “mystery” was the Gospel. Contextually there is no escaping that basic point. However, obviously there has to be a different sense to the term “gospel.” in the verse lest it become nonsensically redundant. In Ephesians 3.1ff, Paul is speaking of Gospel as administration whereas many times (as in the end of v. 6) it can have a narrower meaning of story. Since the story is about the death and resurrection of Jesus which tells and explains to us the present Lordship of Christ, they are quite compatible.

But I discovered just before flying down to Louisiana that the story and the administration are more closely related than I had realized. In order to come up with a quick example of the story aspect of the Gospel, I put First Corinthians 15.1ff into my notes. I was quite startled:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me…

Did you catch that? The story of the Gospel included an administration in history, and the connection is not only on the Lordship of Christ. In witnessing to the Gospel message Paul moves seemlessly from the death and resurrection of Jesus to the witnessing of that resurrection. According to Paul the Gospel proclamation included the explanation of the Gospel proclamation: “…and that he appeared to Cephas…”

(I think the fact that Paul skips the women who were in fact the first to witness Jesus is confirmation that he is singling out the ministers of the Gospel, the Apostles and Presbyters. The point is not simply that someone somewhere saw Jesus but that this was the beginning of the Church.)

Needless to say this gave me a lot more to talk about in relating the story of the Gospel to the Gospel administration. It has been bouncing around in my head ever since. I have wondered if there was any additional confirmation to be found.

Yes there is.

Pastor Balthrop’s web log had this excellent insight, which I repeat in full:

The Insufficiency of “Jesus Is Lord” in Evangelism

I hear people decrying how small a voice the church has in the world today. Most of the people I live around want lots and lots of evangelism, so they come up with programs for teaching people to evangelize. Some even provide “certification” that one has completed the course and, ostensibly, is now ready to do it. Evidence demands a verdict: they still don’t do much of it. Why is this?

I think it’s because they have enough experience to know that the likelihood of success is very low. They come up then with verbal formulations of all kinds to explain why a canned, formulaic “gospel” presentation is so ineffective. Why doesn’t the message “Jesus is Lord” work?

I’ve come across a little verse that stopped me in my tracks when I read it. 2 Corinthians 4:5,

For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.

How many churches, how many preachers, how many everyday believers preach this? I mean, sure, we all know to preach “Jesus is Lord,” but how many preach, “Jesus is Lord and I am your servant”? I wonder if this is why the church’s voice is so small in the world. Perhaps our voice will be as large as our service to those the world would count as a bad investment.

We preach not ourselves but Christ and ourselves as servants for his sake. This fits well with First Corinthians 15.