God Preached and God Not Preached

I have been reading Gerhard Forde’s book “Theology is for Proclamation”. Essentially, he makes the case that the point of good theology is good preaching. Theology has value only if it can be brought to the here and now in the form of the proclamation of the gospel to ourselves and others. Otherwise it is merely history or data which has no bearing on the present day.

Within the book he discusses one of the ideas of Martin Luther which I have been exposed to but never really understood; the idea of the preached God and the not preached God. They are the same God, but revealed in two different ways. The God not preached is the abstract God of omnipresence, omnipotence, having control of all things. He is the electing God, the predestining God, creating God, a God of mystery and awe and judgment whom humankind naturally fears, despises, misunderstands and rejects. I think of the words of God from Isaiah; my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways (55:8). The natural man is not capable of comprehending the terrifying God not preached.

This is a good part of the reason why we cannot be saved through being taught about God. The more we learn about God (theology) the more inconceivable and horrific the God not preached becomes. It is only the preached God – the one who sent his son as a sacrifice for our sins – that we can intimately comprehend. The preached God is no God of history but a God of the present; one who breaks through our fear and hostility toward the God not preached with the comforting good news. Understanding the preached God, we can accept the God not preached without having to have every question answered. The preached God makes us secure despite the fact that we know that the God not preached is a reality.

I have seen people start down the correct road to intimately knowing the preached God and then get totally sidetracked by theology as they try to wrap their minds around the God not preached. They become bitter deniers of the truth of scripture because the God not preached, as revealed by the scripture, will not fit into their box. Eventually, we can get to a point where we will not accept the truth of the preached God – that He sent his son to meet all of the conditions of the law on our behalf – because we have focused too intently on the God not preached. Knowledge of this God not preached puffs us up, but love of the preached God builds us up in our faith.

This is another reason why a preacher is so important to us. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:14 ESV) Why does Paul not say “how are they to hear without someone instructing?” Because preaching is not instruction; true preaching is sharing good news. True preaching reaches beyond the human reasoning that defends against the God not preached and introduces the hearer to the preached God - a God in whom he can finally trust – and creates faith. That is the gospel truth.

God Bless