Whitefield: The Method of Grace
Jeff Fuller October 26th, 2006
As Paul eluded to in yesterday’s post (Hellfire Preaching), when presenting the gospel, it is unreasonable to discuss divine retribution in great detail without also speaking about why unregenerate humankind deserves to go to hell. Furthermore, it is unreasonable to discuss in lengthy detail the grace that is found in the cross of Christ without also discussing why we need a pardon as lawbreakers.
When talking about Reformed theology and evangelism, many people bring up great preachers of the past such as Rev. George Whitefield. He indeed was a wonderful preacher and evangelist, used of God to present the gospel to many lost souls. There is no reason we cannot learn from the example he has left us and model both his method and message. In our discussion of the “Ordo Salutis” our goal has been to equip modern evangelists for the task of soul winning. May we bring God the glory in our faithful ministry to sinners and saints.
For the next few Thursday discussions, I’ll be drawing from Whitefield’s Sermon number 58, titled “The Method of Grace“. Whitefield was a master at presenting law and gospel.
This is what I design at present, that I may deliver my soul, that I may be free from the blood of those to whom I preach — that I may not fail to declare the whole counsel of God. I shall, from the words of the text, endeavor to show you what you must undergo, and what must be wrought in you before you can speak peace to your hearts.
But before I come directly to this, give me leave to premise a caution or two. And the first is, that I take it for granted you believe religion to be an inward thing; you believe it to be a work in the heart, a work wrought in the soul by the power of the Spirit of God. If you do not believe this, you do not believe your Bibles. If you do not believe this, though you have got your Bibles in your hand, you hate the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart; for religion is everywhere represented in Scripture as the work of God in the heart. “The kingdom of God is within us,” says our Lord; and, “He is not a Christian who is one outwardly; but he is a Christian who is one inwardly.” If any of you place religion in outward things, I shall not perhaps please you this morning; you will understand me no more when I speak of the work of God upon a poor sinner”s heart, than if I were talking in an unknown tongue. I would further premise a caution, that I would by no means confine God to one way of acting. I would by no means say, that all persons, before they come to have a settled peace in their hearts, are obliged to undergo the same degrees of conviction. No; God has various ways of bringing his children home; his sacred Spirit bloweth when, and where, and how it listeth. But, however, I will venture to affirm this, that before ever you can speak peace to your heart, whether by shorter or longer continuance of your convictions, whether in a more pungent or in a more gentle way, you must undergo what I shall hereafter lay down in the following discourse.
First, then, before you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be made to see, made to feel, made to weep over, made to bewail, your actual transgressions against the law of God. According to the covenant of works, “The soul that sinneth it shall die;” cursed is that man, be he what he may, that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them. We are not only to do some things, but we are to do all things, and we are to continue so to do; so that the least deviation from the moral law, according to the covenant of works, whether in thought, word, or deed, deserves eternal death at the hand of God. And if one evil thought, if one evil word, if one evil action, deserves eternal damnation, how many hells, my friends, do every one of us deserve, whose whole lives have been one continued rebellion against God! Before ever, therefore, you can speak peace to your hearts, you must be brought to see, brought to believe, what a dreadful thing it is to depart from the living God. And now, my dear friends, examine your hearts, for I hope you came hither with a design to have your souls made better.
Whitefield, as any good preacher should, makes his intentions clear to his audience. The same should be true for all those who seek relational or friendship evangelism — if you are going to somehow build a “friendship” with those you are seeking to press upon for conversion then make your intentions clear from the start. And for open air preachers, let your crowd know, in some manner, that you are an ambassador for Christ and you mean to talk to them about spiritual matters.
Next, Whitefield sets his groundwork for the law by establishing a right understanding of the character of God. He discusses the inward call of the Spirit of God through the means of regeneration. Following this theological groundwork, Whitefield begins to expound on depraived man’s offenses against God’s law. Notice that he doesn’t dive into a discourse of the terrors of hell! Yet he also doesn’t jump right to the cross. Whitefield understood the function of the law — how it shows a sinner the reasonableness of God’s Judgments and the necessity of the pardon found in the atoning work of the cross of Christ!
Next week, we’ll further examine Whitefield’s sermon and how he defines sin and makes the issue of sin personal to his hearers.
Whitefield, a man used mightily of God. The issue and depth of sin to some extent is a mystery (the mystery of iniquity). But as I read your post it occurred to me that the Holy Spirit communicates Spiritual truth to each individual on his or her level. So in essence the Spirit personally contextualizes God’s truth to each individual, and when we try and contextualize the written Word we are taking the Holy Spirit’s place.