I have sometimes wondered if enthusiasm for Christ-centred preaching can lead to a neglect of God-centred, or, indeed, a fully-rounded Trinitarian approach.

This is touched on by Sidney Greidanus, in chapter 5 of Preaching Christ From the Old Testament.

Greidanus agrees that ‘christological preaching’ can indeed sometimes slide into ‘Christomonism’, the preaching of Christ isolated from God.  Some, such as Wilhelm Vischer, held that

‘the theological exposition of the [Old Testament] writings within the church can be nothing other than Christology.’

When the gospel is reduced to ‘receiving Christ as my personal Saviour’ the revelation and redemption of God in Christ has been all but lost.

The problem is may be underlined in churches where the Psalms are not sung, and gospel songs focus exclusively on Jesus.

The New Testament way is to emphasise that Christ is not to be separated from God.  He was sent by God, he accomplished the work of God and he sought the glory of God.

Pau’s preaching was centred on Christ, but never isolated from God.

1 Cor 1:23 – ‘We preach about a crucified Christ, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. 1:24 But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. 1:25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.’

2 Cor 4:4 – ‘…the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God. 4:5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your slaves for Jesus’ sake. 4:6 For God, who said “Let light shine out of darkness,” is the one who shined in our hearts to give us the light of the glorious knowledge of God in the face of Christ.’

2 Cor 5:18 – …’God who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and who has given us the ministry of reconciliation. 5:19 In other words, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting people’s trespasses against them, and he has given us the message of reconciliation. 5:20 Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making His plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” 5:21 God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God.’

Although when the New Testament refers to ‘God’, it usually means God the Father, at times the references is to God in his Trinitarian fullness:

1 Cor 15:24 – ‘Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power…15:28 And when all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.

Jesus in his preaching aimed at his Father’s glory:

Mk 1:14 – ‘Now after John was imprisoned, Jesus went into Galilee and proclaimed the gospel of God. 1:15 He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”’

Mt 6:9 – ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored,
6:10 may your kingdom come,
may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’

John highlights Jesus’ mission as revealing the Father:

Jn 1:18 – ‘No one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship with the Father, has made God known.’

Jn 6:44 – ‘6:44 No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him,’

Jn 12:44 – ‘Jesus shouted out, “The one who believes in me does not believe in me, but in the one who sent me, 12:45 and the one who sees me sees the one who sent me.”‘

Jn 14:6 – ‘“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7 If you have known me, you will know my Father too. And from now on you do know him and have seen him.”’

Jn 14:13 – ‘I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’

Jn 17:1 – ‘“Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you—17:2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him. 17:3 Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent. 17:4 I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. 17:5 And now, Father, glorify me at your side with the glory I had with you before the world was created.’

James Dunn:

‘The Christian gospel has to do first and last and foremost with God …. Christian faith is primarily faith in the one God, Creator, Savior, Judge …. The writers [of the New Testament] had no thought to present Christ as an alternative to God, as an object sufficient in himself of Christian worship …. Worship which stops at him and does not pass through him to God, the all in all, at the end of the day falls short of Christian worship.’

It follows that Christ-centered preaching must aim at the glory of God.

Writing in Rom 10:14-15, Paul says:

’10:14 How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? 10:15 And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news.”’

According to Isa 52:7, the good news is: ‘Your God reigns’.

John Piper quotes Cotton Mather, who declared that:

‘The great design and intention of the office of a Christian preacher [is] to restore the throne and dominion of God in the souls of men.’

Piper asks:

‘Is this what people take away from worship nowadays — a sense of God, a note of sovereign grace, a theme of panoramic glory, the grand object of God’s infinite Being? Do they enter for one hour in the week … into an atmosphere of the holiness of God which leaves its aroma upon their lives all week long?’

What then of the Holy Spirit in connection with preaching?  Should we not advocate and practice Trinitarian preaching?

Johann Le Roux contends that

‘Every sermon should bear witness to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit as the one singular God, who while being one, is at the same time three distinguishable Persons.’

Certainly, we should acknowledge the role of the Spirit in the inspiration of Scripture, in illumining preachers and their hearers, in effecting salvation in regeneration, conversion, faith and sanctification.  But this is not to say that the preacher should give more or less equal time to each member of the Trinity.  This would be to privilege systematic theology over exegetical and biblical theology.  The sermons and letters of the New Testament do not do this, and we are not required to either.

If a congregation is judged to required more teaching on the Holy Spirit, then select preaching texts where he is prominent.  Do not import pneumatology into a context in which it does not rightly belong.

Our priority should be to glorify Christ and the Father.

Jn 16:13 – ‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. For he will not speak on his own authority, but will speak whatever he hears, and will tell you what is to come. 16:14 He will glorify me, because he will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you. 16:15 Everything that the Father has is mine; that is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what is mine and will tell it to you.’

Comment

I think that Greidanus is right to warn against Christological monism.

However, I am not quite convinced by his stance on Trinitarian preaching.  A commitment to such preaching does not imply that the preacher should feel compelled to find all three persons of the Godhead in each and every preaching, still less that he should give equal time to each of those persons.

I have a hunch that there is more to be said about the nature and necessity of Trinitarian preaching.  I hope to come back to the topic after further reading and reflection.  For the moment, I will just offer the thought (I’m not sure where it came from), that the role of the Holy Spirit in preaching is honoured, not so much by talking about him, but by relying on his illuminating and sanctifying presence as the word is proclaimed and heard.