Hidden In The Gospel

Zack Ford

hidden in the gospelPreach the Gospel to yourself!

Is that something that you’ve ever been told to do? Maybe you’ve heard a preacher say it, read it in a book somewhere, or heard it on the radio. Maybe you’ve never heard it in your life and you’re not quite sure what it means. What does it mean to “preach the Gospel to yourself,” how would you go about doing it, and what would be the benefits of doing so.

The answer to these questions is the subject of William P. Farley’s new book, Hidden in the Gospel: Truths You Forget to Tell Yourself Every Day. Farley says of his new book: “This is a book about basic Christian doctrines, with an emphasis on practical application” (5). This idea that Farley writes about, “Preaching the Gospel to Yourself,” is not a new concept, and Farley freely recognizes that. He is unapologetic about building on the likes of Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Jack Miller, and Jerry Bridges. Where his book differs, though, is that it not only speaks of what it means to preach the Gospel to yourself, but functions as a “tutorial” on how to actually going about doing it.

Definitions

So what is “Preaching the Gospel to yourself”? Farley allows Jerry Bridges to answer:

“To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you” (11).

So, in essence, it is to remind yourself — through the good and the bad, the blessed times and the tragic times, the successes and failures — what the Gospel is and how it applies to your own, personal, life.

What exactly is the “Gospel” though? That, in itself, has been the source of quite a bit of discussion, debate, and full-length books. Well I agree completely with Farley here. He is not limiting the Gospel to refer only to Jesus’ death & resurrection, with an exclusive emphasis on His substitutionary atonement. It is that, for sure. But the Good-News, the Gospel, is much more. Farley is using “The Gospel” to speak about what he refers to as the “wide-angle” Gospel. He says:

“The gospel is good news about all that God has done in Christ to save sinners and redeem the cosmos from the effects of sin. It includes our election before the foundation of the world, Christ’s incarnation, his active obedience, his substitutionary death, his resurrection and ascension, Pentecost, and the final judgment. It also includes the hope of a new creation purged of sin and infused with the active presence of God” (12).

Amen! The Gospel is all of that. It is all that God has done in Christ to save sinners and redeem the cosmos.

Structure

So what does the structure of the book look like? Each chapter looks at a crucial aspect of the Gospel. The 8 crucial aspects of the Gospel that Farley looks like are:

  1. Election
  2. Incarnation
  3. Active Obedience
  4. Penal Substitutionary Death
  5. Resurrection
  6. Ascension
  7. Return & Final Judgment
  8. New Creation

After explaining the particular aspect of the Gospel, Farley moves to answer the question, “So What?” How does this particular aspect of the Gospel impact and affect my life? How does preaching this aspect of the Gospel to myself benefit me and help me?

Next, each chapter concludes with an example of what it would look like to preach that aspect of the Gospel to yourself. Finally, the end of each chapter has some discussion questions that could be used to facilitate a small group study.

Benefits

So why should you read this book? Why is it important for you to cultivate this discipline of preaching the Gospel to yourself? Farley offers 7 incredibly important reasons (14-17):

  1. It regularly and repetitively exposes us to the glory of God.
  2. It will help you grow in humility
  3. You will be the most likely to gain deliverance from that three-headed monster — guilt, inferiority, and low self-image
  4. It will accelerate your sanctification
  5. You will be increasingly “abounding in thanksgiving” (Col 2:6)
  6. You will be increasingly hopeful
  7. It will culminate itself in worship

Conclusion

This is an excellent book, and one that I would absolutely recommend you getting for yourself and/or for those around you that you are able to minister to. From a pastoral perspective, I think that Don Whitney puts it best when he says of this book: “Pastors would have to engage in very little counseling if Christians prioritized what Bill Farley exhorts his readers to do … [and this] would transform the lives of Christians, their homes, and their churches.” Amen! Grab a copy today and being preaching the Gospel to yourself today.

In accordance with FTC regulations, I would like to thank P&R Publishers for providing me with a review copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

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