09/07/2026
This is an important quote, and it speaks to what we preach at Grace Church. Please take the time to read:
James Gidley on preaching Christ and not moralism:
"I have maintained at the outset that redemptive-historical preaching depends on the faithful exercise of church discipline and cannot be maintained without it. But I also maintain that faithful church discipline cannot be sustained over the long haul without the support of redemptive-historical preaching. Why? Because
it is always a fatal error to suppose that the purity and piety of the church can be maintained by preaching morality.
The power of godliness is the mighty acts
of God in history. We have come back once more to 1 Timothy 3:16: Do not miss the significance of that text! Paul tells us “great is the mystery of godliness” (eusebeia = godly life, religion). Godliness, the practice of the Christian life! And the mystery of it is that it is all about Christ: “manifested in the flesh, justified
in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory.” If you would have a godly church, then preach Christ, and the mighty acts of Christ. For if you take aim at godliness directly by preaching godliness, you will not attain it.
Now I am not advocating that the congregation
should never be addressed in the imperative mood. The New Testament is replete with proper commands to the people of God —… But what I am saying is that the gravitational
pull of moralism is very strong, all the stronger because it acts on us unawares. We live in the very environment of moralism."
--James Gidley
