Reading Romans the other day, I thought that if the authors of the New Testament had written it in the same style in which it is often preached, it would hardly have survived more than two readings. How many sermons are intoned with a dry monotony (which is also indicative of an even drier preparation). But the Scriptures were written with passion and heart, and even the eminently theological and Christological dissertations of Romans are imbued with zeal, fire, logic, certainly, but also with an overflowing passion.
And what passion there is in this epistle, every page vibrates with the apostle's passion for the wonder of redemption, for the centrality of Christ, and the breathtaking ability of faith in Christ to effect salvation where the law, with its many provisions, proves insufficient. He expounds at length and with emotion on the future of his people and their position in God's plan. He calls the church to gratitude by living worthy of God in the face of his extraordinary work on the cross.
Yes, logic, truth, heart, emotion and passion are interwoven in the Epistles and reveal to us people who feel deeply about the things of God, people convinced of the logic and Truth of God in Christ, revolutionaries who take radical stands for the gospel and who communicated it with originality, imagination, vigor, energy, spirit, passion, and with their whole being. Each letter contains both heat and fire. Therefore they should be communicated as they are written, with logic, and also with passion, with fire, with hope, joy, with tears, with life; the 'words of this life,' spoken with life.
I would add this further: what is true of preaching in church is true of all communication of the gospel. What God is, what God has done in Christ, is immense to the point of defying description. How then, when His people speak of it, in whatever context, at dinner with friends, at work, on the street, will they not do so with the same passion, the same energy, the same joy with which it should be announced in church? It is very likely that it will be your attitude, what you feel and what you express about Jesus that will first serve as a catalyst for interest in the gospel before people begin to examine its content.
Constant prayer – passion for the gospel, being so blown away, amazed, overwhelmed by the beauty of Christ and His message that I will always communicate it as I should.
Shalom!
