In evangelical circles the danger that the Gospel may be equated with the mere rudiments of the Word of God has become almost a disaster, for these rudiments are only the beginning of the Good News. There are profounder things by far in the Bible than what is called ‘the simple Gospel’, although they issue from it. Indeed, in a sense, those who proclaim almost exclusively forgiveness of sins and justification, only make known the preliminaries to the best Good News, which is not that our sins are put away and that we are justified in God’s sight, wonderful though that is, but that God wants us for Himself and to that end brings us to the birth in Christ. After all, the death of Jesus, for all its wonder, is a means to an end, which is not merely that we may be right and clean but that we may be His, which involves personal relationship in love...To those who fear (and they are many) that the simple Gospel will get lost in the process, let me say that evangelism is not merely a matter of words. There is the Spirit, and if He is present in the Word, do you not think He will use the Word to deal faithfully with all who hear, so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed? Therefore, as you teach and preach your way through the Word, your people will hear many things, both good news and bad, that they never dreamt were in the Bible at all. 

The Work of the Pastor - William Still