The glorious gospel of Jesus Christ! Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead! So Jesus was crucified. The wonder-child, born of Mary, born under the law, was delivered to the cross because of our offenses. And God raised Jesus from the dead because of our justification. Because at the cross he paid the debt of our sins, made satisfaction to God, and obtained all the blessings of salvation for his elect, God raised Jesus, declaring him to be the Son of God with power by the Spirit of holiness.

So the gospel declares Jesus Christ to be the only way of salvation. The command of the gospel to all is to repent and believe in Jesus Christ and to call on him for salvation. The promise of the gospel is that all who do will certainly be received of God in mercy. The threat of the gospel is that all who turn from Christ in unbelief will be damned.

A beautiful word! Declaring that salvation is found in no other name than Jesus Christ.

A powerful word. For by that gospel the Word of God comes. The Word of God by which he commanded the heavens and earth to be. The Word of God revealed in Jesus Christ as the God of our salvation!

The Word that effectually carries out the will of God. By the gospel the Word of God comes to save his own people; to summon them out of darkness into God’s marvelous light; to turn them, so that they are turned; to call them, so that they come; to open their hearts; to renew their wills; to work faith, so that they believe; to justify, sanctify, and glorify all those and those only whom God has ordained to eternal life.

The Word that also hardens all those whom God has appointed to destruction.

Awesome Word of God that comes by the gospel to build the heavens and to tear down the kingdom of Satan! Unbound in everything to which God sends it. Irresistible to accomplish God’s purpose. Never returning to him void.

What a contrast! The apostle suffered great trouble in the gospel. As the servant of the Lord called to preach the gospel, he could never be separated from that gospel. In their treatment of him, men showed what they thought of the gospel he brought, of the Christ he proclaimed, and of the Word of God himself!

“An evil doer,” they said! They maligned the apostle as one who stirred up trouble in the world; a destroyer of laws and customs; a worker of division and licentiousness! How did they slander his gospel in order to turn all men against it? “He teaches that we should sin that grace may abound! Antinomian!”

What did he say about his ministry? Beaten, whipped, and stoned; in peril of his own countrymen, in peril of the heathen, and in peril among false brethren; even now languishing in prison, in peril for his life!

One can bind an apostle—or any minister of the word—but the word of God is not bound! It cannot be. It is the word of God. Its power is of itself. Its purpose is irresistible. It overcomes bonds, imprisonments, even death. For surely that is the gospel. What man wickedly crucified and buried God raised. The Word of God is not bound!

So it is always. The sovereign God uses even the hatred and opposition of men to accomplish his purpose to gather his church, comfort his people, and destroy the kingdom of darkness.