daddy4ms

Christ Alone. To God Alone Be the Glory. Here are quotes from the final chapters of The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson: Jesus Christ alone is the hope, treasure, joy, and purpose of pastoral ministry...Let everything be a means to this end: the treasuring of Christ and the enjoying of his glory. Because only Jesus transforms, the focus and message of our ministries must be only Jesus. The exclusivity of Christ is not just a test of Christian orthodoxy; it is a test of Christian orthopraxy. Faith is not our rock; Christ is our rock. We do not get faith by having faith in our faith or by looking to faith, but by looking to Christ. Looking to Christ is faith...If we start qualifying our faith, we destroy the gospel...Far too often we are prone to look to the quality of our faith, the quality of our conviction of sin, the quality of our evangelical repentance, the quality of our love for the brethren for confirmation of our justification, forgetting that it is Ch...

Grace Alone. Faith Alone. Here are some quotes from The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson: People need to know what God's law says, but we need to remember that the law cannot produce obedience to itself. The pastoral imperative, then is to get the gospel indicative into every nook and cranny of church life as we can. We want to be seeding grace in every space.  We are not automatically set to gospel mode, so we all need help in constantly resetting to grace. Sola fide is not just for justification, but also for the working out of our justification in the ongoing work of sanctification. It is not as though what has begun by faith is now continued by works. We are not to find life in the Gospel and then nourish it by the Law. We are not to begin in the Spirit and then seek to be made perfect by the flesh, or by confidence in man--we must continue to walk by the simple faith which rests only upon God... Faith is convicted trust...Another simple way of ...

I loved Jared C. Wilson's chapter "The Pastor and the Bible."  I highlighted a lot!  Often we can let good things become too important in the church and in life.  This chapter is a reminder that our absolute authority is God's Word and how important the Bible is in our preaching.  most gospel-centered preachers have an aversion to "how-to" sermons to begin with...Do these things and thereby reap these rewards is in essence legalistic..."How-to" sermons are specifically designed to help people become better Christians. The long and short of it appears to be that an entire ministerial enterprise dedicated to meeting felt needs, supplying biblical advice, and providing top-notch production values has quietly become a huge success at drawing crowds but a huge failure at what the Bible actually calls the church to do. Our words ought to stand under Scripture, not vice versa. When we come to the biblical text, it is meant to shape us: we are not to...

I would highly recommend The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson to all people in ministry.  It is also very relevant the Christian in general. Here are quotes from the chapter, "The Justified Pastor" Left to my own devices and trusting in my own power, I can never be the pastor God has called me to be or the pastor my church needs. But the message of our faith is not "I am justified because I obey," but "I obey because I am justified." Embedded in the gospel is the power to fulfill its implications. To be hidden with Christ in God is to be as secure as Christ is. but there's great contentment to be had in finally realizing that the salvation of the souls of those in the pastor's care is not ultimately up to him. It is liberating to realize that the spread of God's kingdom in not ultimately dependent on the work of the pastor. Herein is the justification for the sin-prone pastor: because of Christ's perfect work on your beh...

I am continuing to read through The Pastor's Justification by Jared C. Wilson.  It has been a very helpful book and there is much in the book that applies to more than just pastors.  Here are some quotes from chapters on being confident and watchful: But we forget now that Jesus is for losers and for losers only. This is good news for you... So the law cannot empower obedience to itself. It stands over us, accusing. Only the gospel empowers its own implications. God uses sinners so that he will get the glory and so that he will get the glory in vivid, repeating imagery of turning ashes to beauty.  There is someone (Satan) who wants you and your church dead.  Very few things discourage a pastor more than anonymous criticism...The pastor should give no harbor to "about" talk that avoids "to" talk. We divide when we place our preferences above community with people who differ from us. We divide when we are more interested in what we want than...