In preaching Christ, the first thing that strikes us is that we preach a Person. In all Old Testament history we behold God; not Deity, an abstraction, not a Divine Power, but the living God; not God hidden in impenetrable darkness, but God in condescending love seeking and saving, and making Himself known.

In the New Testament, the same supreme, central, and all-pervading position which is given to Jehovah in the Old is assigned to a Person, whose nome is Jesus.

If we preach a Person, and indeed a Divine Person, we cannot truly understand Christ except by Divine revelation, of which Scripture is the outward record and the Holy Ghost the illumination within. To preach Christ means to preach Christ according to the Scriptures.

If Christ is to be preached according to the Scriptures, that means to preach Christ crucified. The death o Christ as an atoning sacrifice is the very heart of preaching Christ. The Cross of Christ is the meaning of all; the central point from which radiate justification, sanctification, and the future glory. God has given to us a ministry of reconciliation; and by reconciliation nothing else is meant but the expiatory substitutive death of Christ. This is the gospel.

To the world our message is: Christ crucified; to the believer: Christ risen. The crucifixion took place before the world; the resurrection, in secret. It is perfectly true that if Christ had not risen, the gospel would neither be true, nor would it be a living and vitalizing power; but the gospel itself is — Christ died for the ungodly. The significance of the resurrection is that Jesus, the Christ, our Substitute, was raised. He lives and sees His end, because His soul was made an offering for sin.

Preachig Christ crucified is the only way in which His life and ministry can be understood. The glory of Christ's life was, that for the glory of the Father and the salvation of sinners He became man, and having become man, went in the path of humility; always looking forward to, and at last enduring, the death of the cross. In this light alone we truly behold the Lamb without spot and blemish. Thus we are to preach Christ crucified; not to the exclusion of His life, but to the inclusion and true possession of all that is in Christ.

For we preach not the crucifixion of Christ, but Christ Himself. Christ, yesterday, today, and forever. Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King; Christ in His humiliation, and Christ is His glory; Christ the Lamb foreordained before the foundation of the world, foretold by the prophets, welcomed by the godly in Israel — a Person, true man and yet true God, in whom we possess the Father, and from whom we receive the Spirit.

In preaching Christ, three things are to be borne in mind; Christ is absolutely necessary; Christ is absolutely sufficient; Christ is absolutely accessible. Modern preaching lacks power mainly in this fundamental point — that Christ is absolutely necessary. The grandeur of the remedy cannot be seen, unless we know something of the depth of the Fall.

Christ died not the death of a martyr; but He felt death in its penal connection with sin. The severity and love of God were revealed in the Old testament, but made bright and intense in the New. It is from the lips of Jesus we are taught the judgement of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.

Christ is sufficient both for the present and the future. Our adoption is not merely legal, but real. Everything is given us with Him, and each believer has an everlasting and blessed existence.

Christ is accessible. What appears easy in theory, however, is difficult in practice. There is the difficulty of taking in the idea of free grace- the dread of contact with God; shrinking from having anything definitely concluded between God and us.

There is no difference between Jesus on His heavenly throne and Jesus when on earth. This is the glory of Jesus at the right hand of God, that He receives sinners. He is now a merciful and compassionate High Priest. The name He bears, Jesus, means, in the words of David, “He shall redeem Israel from all their iniquities”. Christ is absolutely essential; He is all-sufficient; He is willing to receive sinners.

Adolph Saphir, Council Magazine, Nov-Dec 1992