Some have questioned the idea of preaching the gospel to yourself, because it has no biblical basis. Paul, they say, never preached the gospel to himself. Others (such as Jay Adams) have critiqued the discipline as having a “kind of Monkish mysticism” to it. As if by preaching the gospel to ourselves we will be magically sanctified.
I believe there is validity to these criticisms. I have seen the “Monkish mysticism” that Adams is talking about. But when I’ve seen these things it has been from a complete misunderstanding of what it really means to preach the gospel to oneself. And to those who say the term isn’t biblical, fair enough, I could care less what you call it…but the admonition to remember truths of God and His gospel is all over the Scriptures.
It is because this term is often misunderstood and misapplied that I was happy to see William Farley’s latest book, Hidden in the Gospel, hit the shelves. In this book Farley explains that preaching the gospel to yourself is simply reminding yourself of precious gospel truths on a daily basis.
But what does he mean by “gospel”? Using a more broad definition than those that have gone before him, Farley defines the gospel as, “the good news about all that God has done in Christ to save sinners and redeem the cosmos from the effects of sin” (12).
Farley then spends the remainder of the book exploring eight precious doctrines from election to the new creation. Essentially he shows how from before the foundation of the world into our eternal home of the new creation, God redeems sinners. In each of these chapters he explains the doctrine and then closes with giving an example of how to preach the gospel to yourself.
I love way that Farley has structured this book. He shows how to take big doctrines–like the penal substitutionary death of Christ—and from these work that truth into every day life. It’s an excellent model that I believe shows that this discipline of preaching the gospel to yourself isn’t some magical incantation but it is an attempt to remember what the Lord has accomplished on our behalf and respond accordingly.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to know how to make the precious truths of the gospel practical in their own life.
You can buy it here.
Everything in the Bible, including “preaching the Gospel to yourself” is much better understood in the grand scheme of redemptive history. We need a million reminders in a thousand different ways that the Bible is not about us.