What Kind Of A Pastor Do Sinners Need?
Tullian Tchividjian Blog | January 31, 2012
Sinclair Ferguson answers this question from his Marrow Controversy Lectures:But when your people come and have been broken by sin and have fallen into temptation and are ashamed to confess the awful mess they have made of their life, it is not a Calvinistic pastor who has been sanctified by vinegar that they need. It is a pastor that has been mastered by the unconditional, free grace of God. It is a pastor from whom ironclad orthodoxy has been torn away and the whole armor of a gracious God has been placed upon his soul--the armor of one who would not break the bruised reed or quench the dimly burning wick.
You see, my friends, as we think together in these days about a Godly pastor we have to ask, what is a Godly pastor? A Godly pastor is one who is like God, who has a heart of free grace running after sinners. The Godly pastor is the one who sees the prodigal and runs and falls on his neck and weeps and kisses him and says, "This my son was dead, he was lost and now he is alive and found."
Pastors, when sinners are drowning, don't tell them to paddle harder and kick faster. Throw them the life-line of amazing grace.
Comments:
February 6, 2012 at 02:25 AM
"What Kind Of A Pastor Do Sinners Need?"
One who will tell them the truth about themselves (to kill off that self-righteous pretender).
And then one who will hand over the goods...free of charge.
.
February 4, 2012 at 07:27 AM
Good reminders for sure. :)
February 4, 2012 at 01:21 PM
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February 3, 2012 at 04:31 PM
WOW Amy, thats good preaching...as we use to say in the south...your post makes me think of the multitude of Grace I have received and overwhelms me again and again. God Bless
February 28, 2012 at 01:58 AM
[...] Tchividjian’s blog and really loved this quote from Sinclair Ferguson on the post What kind of a pastor do sinners need?: But when your people come and have been broken by sin and have fallen into temptation and are [...]
February 23, 2012 at 02:56 PM
Thanks...I have never run into a Pastor he has done that....to paddle harder..etc....most of the Pastors I have been influenced by have been those who are Pastoral and gracious...Thanks for the post...
February 2, 2012 at 09:50 AM
Pastor Tullian,
I am a wife and a mother to many children and the burden of everything that must be done and worries about whether I am doing it right and whether or not I am acceptable to other people, let alone God, are many days more than I can bear.
Your sermons are sweet water that wash over me with the power of the Gospel. I listen and I feel the Joy and Peace of God within me. It was never about what I have done, or do, or will do. Jesus did it ALL, Jesus paid it ALL, Jesus took ALL my burdens on Him!
This truth is working its way deeper and deeper into my unbelief, and your teaching is part of this process. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.
February 10, 2012 at 08:26 AM
Hi Pam!
The quote above is not mine; it is Sinclair Ferguson's (a Calvinist). The point he's making is not against Calvinism, it's against a rough-edged, legalistic, insensitive approach to pastoral ministry. Hence, "sanctified by vinegar." I hope that helps.
Tullian
February 10, 2012 at 06:17 AM
Pastor Tullian, honestly, I don't get the part about the vinegar of Calvinism?? What exactly is that? Do you think that it is "cruel" to present the Gospel from that viewpoint? Are you advocating the Arminian approach? Are you asssociating Calvinism with legalism?? Just not clear about what is being said here.
Your clarification would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
February 1, 2012 at 12:36 PM
Beautiful, pastor Tullian! AMEN.
McNeely, Nouwen isn't someone I'd be looking to for sound teaching.
February 1, 2012 at 12:06 AM
A pastor ought tell that sinner just what he or she needs to hear if they are laying on their deathbed.
('get busy', 'work harder', 'exhibit the fruits of the spiirit'...hardly)
The truth of the matter is that we are all on our deathbeds.
February 1, 2012 at 11:48 AM
Thankyou, Tullien. For showing me Jesus, for showing me the gospel. It has freed me, and is changing my heart. I lived with the ladder my whole life and desperately wanted God's approval. When I thought I was gaining on it, I was a self-righteous, judgemental...and miserable person. But how else can you know you are gaining unless you compare yourself with others, looking down on those who fair worse, and resenting those who seem to be doing better? But there was always a rung I couldn't reach, and so I would chuck the whole thing. There were no answers there, either, so I kept coming back to climb the ladder once again, vowing to try harder.
You have helped me to see that the ladder needed to be thrown into the ocean. Jesus death and resurrection is my approval from God, how can I ever thank Him?
But, wonder of wonders, it's back. I'm constantly tempted to think I am actually becoming a better person. My addiction to alcohol is gone (4+yrs), I love more, I resent less, my wife and I are enjoying our marriage more today than ever before (35yrs), I don't need to win every argument. I mean, wow, how could I not be impressed? And then I realize that it is the old Adam in me that wants to get back on that ladder and believe that God is justified in justifying me.
So my question following your last 2 posts is this. Am I, after following Jesus for 4 years or 40 years, to see myself as just as sinful a person as that struggling prodigal? He struggles with open sins, and all of society and especially the church, says he has serious problems. I struggle with (well, Isaiah says even the best stuff I do is infected with filth) all kinds of self-approving pursuits. I'm forgiven, and as yet, the prodigal is not. But the goodness in me is Christ,right? The holiness in me is Christ, right? The old Adam still calls, and is as corrupt as ever. Is this true?
Every morning, I wake a legalist. Fifty-seven years of pounding will drive it deep. But praise God, the gospel finally found me.
Thankyou, thankyou!
February 1, 2012 at 10:47 AM
The self-righteous man inside me struggles with this. There always seems to be something inside me that wants to do something (for myself) or demand something from someone else. Learning to rightly divide Law & Gospel was something I thought I had learned in seminary, but real world ministry demands more than papers that answer hypothetical questions. Walther was right, it is the "most difficult and highest art of Christians" and it is only taught by the Holy Spirit and experience. Real people are much messier than hypothetical situations in seminary papers. Real sin is much more serious, and real grace is much sweeter!
I had to learn to apply this radical grace to myself before I was able to proclaim it to my church or anyone else. I have found that the deeper I go into myself, the greater I see my need for Jesus! This helps to curb my pride and prepares me to humbly point to Jesus as the only answer for sinners like me.
Thank you for not being afraid to let grace be grace!
February 1, 2012 at 10:42 AM
I am in perfect agreement with such a gracious attitude towards sinners because we are all in the same boat – we are sinners and nobody is able to save himself by fulfilling God’s perfect law in order to be justified or sanctified. None of us is able to pull himself up by his own bootstraps when he has fallen into temptation and is fully covered with sin. The only helpful thing to do is loving those who have fallen and giving them a leg-up, be it a liar, a thief, an adulterer or a murderer. The reason why I enumerate these certain kinds of sin is not to accuse anyone, but to show that any sin we might see outside of ourselves actually is inside of us. It is just hidden as long as we trust in the Holy Spirit who will show us our deep depravity.
We can only succeed in loving others unconditionally (through Agape – 1 Cor 13) if we precisely know about our own sinfulness. As long as there is only one man on earth whom we judge for he appears to be worse than we think we are, until then we have a blanketing log in our eye that makes us blind. Self knowledge is crucial for everyone because no one may say that he knows or even loves God, when he fails loving his brother (1 John 4:20). Love alone can open blind eyes who finally see God in every human creature.
Jesus died for any sin we ever could commit. Do we really believe that this is true?
I’m not sure about it, but I hope and pray that we all realize God’s overwhelming and infinite love for every sinner who ever lived, lives and will live. Nobody is excluded though not every person believes. God alone knows why He draws some people nearer towards Him than others, and why some people have an indurated heart.
Not only pastors who deeply know God’s amazing grace, but every Christian should reflect Christ’s approach towards mankind, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Lk 23:34)
An elderly German theologian recently said that his approach towards sinners changed when he advanced in age. He realized that it’s not his duty to judge people, who remain in sin, but to understand them deeper and love them. If we want to gain hearts for Jesus, we’ll have to give our own hearts to others, because love is an irresistible, attracting God-driven power and a life changing experience.
February 1, 2012 at 09:55 AM
What a great analogy and we all (as sinners) need doctoring...
I originally came to your blog from the church relevant site top 200 list, but I’m coming back because of what I see.
“Never Fail - What I mean by that, is fail a lot!”
I write it for encouragement and motivation daily.
http://i-never-fail.blogspot.com
Thanks for sharing.
February 1, 2012 at 08:45 PM
Good read Steve Cornell. Thanks for the article.
February 1, 2012 at 07:38 PM
[...] What Kind Of A Pastor Do Sinners Need? – Tullian Tchividjian [...]
February 1, 2012 at 06:20 PM
T.
I think you'll appreciate this in view of the emphasis you've been giving...
The God you might not expect
I still remember how intriguing it was at the end of the 2003 movie, Bruce Almighty, to see God portrayed as a janitor. Something resonated. I immediately thought of Jesus’ words to his prideful disciples, “I am among you as the one who serves” (Luke 22:27). I think that many people will be surprised by what God is like. Our vision of God is too easily clouded by wrong images from religion and from our own hearts.
For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about what it will be like to meet God. What will He be like? I have friends who are with God and I know that my time will come sooner than I realize.
see: http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/the-god-you-might-not-expect/
February 1, 2012 at 05:24 PM
We are , by nature, just as sinful as we ever were.
We are NOT getting better.
But, we do NOT need to get better. "We are to consider ourselves dead to sin." The old sinful self has been put to death for Jesus' sake...on the cross, and in our baptisms (Romans 6).
But we have "put on Christ (Gal. 4:4)in our baptisms" (paraphrased)
We are never going to be a better Christian than at the moment Jesus' baptized us (in our baptisms).
That's the gospel.
February 1, 2012 at 05:22 PM
Woe to those unfaithful hirelings who beat and terrorize the sheep with the Law, and in so doing attempt to revive what Christ through mortal travail destroyed in nailing to his cross (Eph 2:15, Col 2:14).
Grace can never be suckled out of the sharp steely blade of the Law.
Praise God for his unsearchable redeeming Grace as revealed to us in Christ and him crucified, a righteousness revealed completely apart from the Law!
February 1, 2012 at 04:42 AM
Pastor
like the Bishop in Les miserable?
February 1, 2012 at 03:30 PM
[...] Tullian Tchividjian had a quote from Sinclair Ferguson on his blog in an article What Kind Of A Pastor Do Sinners Need. There’s a line in there that really hit me and caused me to start thinking about how it [...]
February 1, 2012 at 01:56 AM
Love the picture! Henri Nouwen's book based around this painting is so classic. You have to think that Rembrandt was really catching the grace message towards the end of his life. What a treasure.
You cannot believe how grace is taking hold in our church now! This quote is so true! I am only an assistant pastor but I am seeing the entire church turn around and catch this message. It's unbelievable! One lady came up to me after I did a sermon last Sunday on the pearl of great price, and how we are the pearl He sold everything for, in tears, and told me that from her father on through her ex-husband, no one had ever told her she was desirable up until that point. She comes to everything now, with such a beautiful heart. How could you tell her anything else? There are lots of stories now. It's wonderful!
Grace really is the miracle, it is so amazing to see it take hold of people. This quote is right on.
February 1, 2012 at 01:36 PM
Paula,
I think you can glean all kinds of things from people without being exactly like them. God can speak through a donkey, and He can certainly speak through some catholic guy. It doesn't mean I'm a catholic. Didn't Augustine and Aquinas lift heavily from the Greek philosophers? I think Augustine called it plundering the Egyptians. There are incredible truths in nouwen's book on the return of the prodigal son. I can like it without becoming some mystic Catholic. Paul the Apostle quoted Greek non-christian heathen poets. I have had some excellent catholic friends.
In fact, I frequent this site and I'm not even calvinist. BOO!!! :-)
Matthew Lorfeld
February 8, 2012 at 11:12 PM
As a Lutheran pastor I delight in the near scandal of our teaching and practice on confession and absolution. It is a glorious comfort and assurance to the sinner who is utterly crushed by their sin (even if they struggle to put that sin behind them in the midst of their repentance) to speak declaratively and performatively "in the stead and by the command of my Lord Jesus Christ, I forgive you all your sins."
Confession has two parts, we teach: contrition and absolution. That is we confess our sins and receive the forgiveness of sins from the pastor as from God Himself (Matthew 18:18)... for it is the Lord's forgiveness that we proclaim.
The key here is that forgiveness is not withheld from a person in the midst of their struggle. Just as Jesus did not wait for the sinners of the world to clean up their act before proclaiming "Father forgive them." It is then this very Gospel which motivates obedience and love... and not hanging forgiveness like a carrot while beating already crushed sinners with the stick of the law.