The Sowing and Reaping essays that follow are dedicated to the millions of believers in Christ who are seeking to live a righteous life even though the theology of their church, and the footnotes of their edited Bible, assure them that they are saved by "grace" and therefore righteous behavior, while always desirable, is not an absolutely necessary part of their salvation.

When the writer in his preaching and writing emphasizes godly behavior, people sometimes respond by stating that a more balanced presentation of the Good News should be given. This is to say, it is necessary to stress that we are to live righteously, but we must balance this stress by pointing out the grace and mercy of God.

While Gospel preaching and teaching must be balanced if it is to produce good fruit, a problem arises when we attempt to "balance" our emphasis on righteous behavior with the reminder that God's love, mercy, and "grace" are part of the Gospel message.

Gospel Preaching Must Be Balanced

The goal of Gospel preaching is to produce men and women, boys and girls, who place their trust in the Lord Jesus. First they must trust the Lord for their salvation, their preservation in the day of God's wrath. Second they must learn to look to the Lord Jesus for every aspect of their life on the earth. Learning to obey the Lord and to depend completely on Him, which is another way of saying learning to live by faith, is as much a part of the program of salvation as is preservation in the Day of Wrath.

Sound, balanced Gospel teaching and preaching produces disciples, that is, people who lay down their own life, take up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus wherever He leads them.

Teachers and preachers are to feed God's sheep by taking portions of the Scriptures, explaining them and applying them to the decisions and problems of daily life. Perhaps we do not see enough of this kind of preaching in these days.

But let us think for a moment about balance and the principle of balance in Christian teaching and preaching. If the minister of the Gospel is emphasizing living the victorious Christian life he must balance this emphasis by teaching the believers how to rest in the Lord's strength and wisdom. If the minister is emphasizing resting in the Lord's strength and wisdom, then he must balance this by stressing the importance of doing all in our power to obey the instructions of the Apostles and to keep on pressing forward in the Lord.

If the preacher overemphasizes pressing forward in the Lord, some of the believers will become discouraged because of their slow progress. If resting in the Lord's finished work of redemption is overemphasized, as it is today on such a large scale, then the believers do not grow in the Lord.

To be continued.