Texts mined for imperatives outside the context of the grace principles that enable obedience deprive listeners of the means to do what they are required to do. Grace principles are on the scene (because God is always driving us to dependence on Him) and to ignore the elements of this scene is to deprive God’s people of the agency of their motivation and enablement.

NOT ARBITRARY

At this point, you are probably noting that the pentad ratios of narrative can be applied to preaching in numerous ways. I conclude not by trying to define or exhaust all the ratios, but rather to indicate the ratios are not simply arbitrary. Just because not all the elements of the ratios require equal weight or categorization does not mean that the story of Scripture is up for grabs or has no normative elements.

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The Bible does not allow merely arbitrary ratios of act, scene, agent, agency and purpose. Jesus is the agent of our salvation. Our acts are not the agency of our redemption. God is never off the scene. His glory is always our highest purpose. If we do not feel the weight of these ratios, then we cannot tell the story of the Gospel and cannot preach its truths even if we say many true things about isolated texts.

Not Mutually Exclusive, But Always Inclusive

This means that not only is there a Gospel ratio always operative in the pentad of a biblical message, but also the pentad is always present in all its elements. For there to be communication and persuasion, there must always be act, scene, agent, agency and purpose. But here’s the freedom and beauty of our preaching: the elements only vary in ratio; they do not exclude one another. We can, for example, note that a text’s main focus is on action (i.e., imperative). Our error in expounding this text is not in emphasizing the imperative action, but in removing the imperative from its scene or purpose. We would err if we failed to see the imperative in the context of the story in which the commanded action has a role.

Thus, an expository sermon properly focuses on what the text focuses on. Still, the exposition fails to communicate the Bible’s message if the material of the text does not find its context in the larger story. Thus, the pentad comes to our aid by enabling us to make sure that we have not neglected key story elements. Have we emphasized action — even human action? Fine and good. But the story will remain incomplete if there is not accompanying exposition of Gospel act, scene, agent, agency and purpose.

The necessity of the Gospel pentad in all preaching that is true to the Bible’s story leads to a basic question that all must answer to affirm that they are preaching the message of Scripture: “Do I preach grace — has the story of God’s provision in some way or ratio made its way into my message?” Is it possible that your sermon is so devoid of the Gospel story or its critical elements, that the message would be perfectly acceptable in a synagogue or mosque? If you are only encouraging better moral behavior that any major religion would find acceptable, what distinguishes your story from theirs?

The answer to these questions should remind us that the way we remain true to God’s purpose of making His people more like His Son is not through preaching any less of Scripture, but rather through preaching more. Do not stop preaching until all the children of the Gospel pentad have come out to play. For when we “suffer the children” — all the children of the Gospel story — to come into our messages, then the people to whom we preach will delight in their Savior and His joy will be their strength.

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Bryan Chapell is President of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. He is a Contributing Editor of Preaching.