In a brief article at the Covenant Seminary website, Bryan Chapell says: “In our day, two opposing forces challenge the effective proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The first well-documented foe of the gospel is the erosion of authority. The philosophies of subjectivism have joined hands with the skeptics of transcendent truth to create a cultural climate antagonistic toward any authority. Yet as the apostle Paul saw long ago, this release from biblical standards inevitably makes persons slaves to their own passions and victims of each other’s selfishness.
“Our culture and the church are desperate for dependable truths that address the brokenness of the world that this loss of authority accentuates. Such dependable truth flows from the Word of God as it is searched for the timeless principles that address the issues of our day, the concerns of our lives and the destinies of our souls. As obvious as this solution may seem, its widespread adoption faces large challenges. Durinig the past two generations, seeking truth in Scripture has been stigmatized (not always unfairly) as a blind retreat behind dogmatic defenses of doctrinal distinctives removed from ordinary life. The time has come for the redemption of biblical expression from tradition-bound attitudes and communication-naive practices that needlessly burden God’s people.
“Simply reacting to the secularization of church and culture with moral instruction and pleas for societal reform is not the answer. If we act as though the cure for our world’s sickness is simply human character correction or cultural criticism, we inadvertently promote a message contrary to the gospel. Fundamentally and pervasively, Scripture teaches the inadequacy of any purely human effort to secure divine approval. We are entirely dependent on the mercy of God to be what He desires and to do what He requires. Grace rules!” (Click here to read the entire article.)