My Ministry Debt to Andrew Fuller – A Tribute on the 200th Anniversary of His Death

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Andrew Fuller was born in Wicken, Cambridgeshire, England on the 6th of February, 1754 and died on May 7th, 1815. Two hundred years after his death, the shadow of the great English Baptist pastor and missionary-theologian still casts wide, and I pray it will loom larger still in the days ahead. Andrew Fuller’s work, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation (1785) influenced William Carey and others and can be rightly considered the foundational document that launched the modern missionary movement. Fuller helped found the Baptist Missionary Society and was its leading advocate, fundraiser, and organizer.

No historical author outside of the Bible has influenced my thinking as significantly as Andrew Fuller. What draws me to Fuller’s life and writings is that he addresses everything with the sober-minded clarity of a working pastor. His work as a theologian, apologist, and missionary never lost sight of Jesus, his church, and his gospel. No topic Fuller addresses is treated in an abstract and hypothetical way, but rather, he treats it as having concrete implications for week-by-week gospel preaching, congregational worship, pastoral care, and church governance.

When I first read through Andrew Fuller’s Complete Works, I was struck by a repeated phrase that I believe is an excellent way to summarize the distinctiveness of Fuller’s life and ministry, and we would do well to have it summarize ours: “the truth as it is in Jesus.” He writes concerning this phrase:

With the idea of all Divine truth bearing an intimate relation to Christ agrees that notable phrase in Eph. 4:21, “The truth as it is in Jesus.” To believe the truth concerning Jesus is to believe the whole doctrine of the Scriptures. Hence it is that in all the brief summaries of Christian doctrine the person and work of Christ are prominent. (Andrew G. Fuller, “Plan proposed to be pursued,” in The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller: Memoirs, Sermons, Etc., ed. and revised Joseph Belcher, 3 vols; (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle, 1988) vol. 1, 691.)

Fuller was gospel-centered and missional well before that verbiage become vogue in evangelicalism. He exhorted, “The army of the Lamb is composed of the whole body of Christians. Every disciple of Jesus should consider himself as a missionary” (Fuller, “Conformity to the death of Christ,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 315.). The commitment of Fuller’s life and ministry to the “the truth as it is in Jesus,” enabled him to challenge biblical-theological, ecclesial, and missiological errors from all directions. In 1780, he covenanted before the Lord, “thou hast given me a determination to take up no principle at second-hand; but to search for every thing at the pure fountain of thy word” (Fuller, “Memoir of Mr. Fuller, Complete Works, vol. 1, 20.). Fuller opposed the error of his day not as an end in itself, but it was always as a means to the end of honoring Jesus and summing up all things in him (Eph 1:10).

Fuller vigorously rebutted man-centered Arminian theology on one hand, and the doctrinally serious, but evangelistically sterile, anti-missions High Calvinism of his day on the other. He defended the faith against Socinianism (which denied the full deity of Christ, penal substitutionary atonement, and moral inability of man to convert himself), Sandemanianism (which argued that saving faith reduces to mere intellectual assent to a fact or proposition), and Antinomianism (a belief that Christians are under no obligation to obey the laws of ethics and morality) as well. These theological errors have contemporary heirs among Modern theological liberals and no-Lordship salvation adherents.

Fuller’s Christ-centered focus was also a repudiation of a pseudo Christ-centeredness as represented in the contemporary red-letter Christianity movement, which pits the words of Jesus against the rest of the Bible. According to Fuller, the truth as it is in Jesus, is how the entire Bible should be understood because to pit the words of Christ against other parts of the Bible would constitute a rejection of the authority of Jesus who taught “Scripture cannot be broken” (John 10:35). Fuller explains,

Every Divine truth bears a relation to him: hence the doctrine of the gospel is called “the truth as it is in Jesus.” In the face of Jesus Christ we see the glory of the Divine character in such a manner as we see it nowhere else. (Fuller, “The uniform bearing of the Scriptures on the person and work of Christ,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 704.)

For Fuller, the truth as it is in Jesus, meant that evangelical doctrine must be defended but that doing so was a matter of the mind and heart. He warned pastors, “Beware that you do not preach an unfelt gospel” (Fuller, “Ministers should be concerned not to be despised,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 489–490.). He exhorted pastors,

The gospel is a feast, and you are to invite guests. You may have many excuses and refusals. But be you concerned to do as your Lord commands. And when you have done your utmost, there will still be room. Dwell on the freeness, and fullness, and all-sufficiency of his grace, and how welcome even the worst of sinners are, who, renouncing all other refuges, flee to him. (Fuller, “Preaching Christ,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 503.)

Throughout this essay I have italicized and underlined each time I quote Fuller using the phrase “the truth as it is in Jesus” in an attempt to highlight his use of the phrase and to reveal how foundational it is to his biblical-theological vision and ministry practice. Below I have added some heading and organized some examples of the way this phrase is a continual touchstone in the Fuller corpus.

We must preach the truth as it is in Jesus  

The subject-matter of the apostle’s preaching is variously described: it is called “the faith”—“the truth”—“the truth as it is in Jesus”—“Christ crucified”—“the gospel”—“the word of reconciliation,” &c. In these descriptions, we see our work. (Fuller, “The Christian ministry a great work,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 515.)

Every sermon, more or less, should have some relation to Christ, and bear on his person or work. This is the life of all doctrine, and it will be our own fault if it is dry. Do not consider it as one subject among others, but as that which involves all others, and gives them an interest they could not otherwise possess. Preach not only the truth, but all truth, “as it is in Jesus.” However ingenious our sermons may be, unless they bear on Christ, and lead the mind to Christ, we do not preach the faith of the gospel. (Fuller, “Faith in the gospel a necessary prerequisite to preaching it,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 516.)

We must understand and know doctrinal truth as it is in Jesus

Be concerned to understand and to teach the doctrine of Christianity—“the truth as it is in Jesus.” Be careful, particularly, to be conversant with the doctrine of the cross; if you be right there, you can scarcely be essentially wrong any where. Cut off the reproach of dry doctrine, by preaching it feelingly; and of its being inimical to good works, by preaching it practically. (Fuller, “Ministers and churches exhorted to serve one another in love,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 544.)

Truth, we may be certain, is the same thing as what in the Scriptures is denominated “the gospel”—“the common salvation”—“the common faith”—“the faith once delivered to the saints”—“the truth as it is in Jesus,” &c.; and what this is may be clearly understood by the brief summaries of the gospel, and of the faith of the primitive Christians, which abound in the New Testament. Of the former, the following are a few of many examples:—“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.—The Son of man came to seek and to save that which is lost.—I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father but by me.—To him gave all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. We preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God.—I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified.—Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by which also ye are saved, if ye hold fast what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain; for I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.—This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.—This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.—Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” (Fuller, “An essay on truth,” Complete Works, vol. 3, 525–526.)

Apologetics is explaining and defending the truth as it is in Jesus

In the First Epistle to this church, Paul generously waved a defense of himself and his brethren; being more concerned for the recovery of those to Christ who were in danger of being drawn off from the truth as it is in Jesus, than respecting their opinion of him; yet when the one was accomplished, he undertook the other; not only as a justification of himself and his brethren, but as knowing that just sentiments of faithful ministers bore an intimate connexion with the spiritual welfare of their hearers. (Fuller, “The gospel worthy of all acceptation,” Complete Works, vol. 2, 354.)

It becomes those who may be the most firmly established in the truth as it is in Jesus, to consider that a portion of the errors of the age, in all probability, attaches to them; and though it were otherwise, yet they are directed to carry it benevolently towards others who may err: “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.” (Fuller, “An essay on truth,” Complete Works, vol. 3, 537.)

Is not this a plain proof that neither of these systems is evangelical? That, I say again, is the true gospel which gives to every part of Scripture its fair and full meaning; and if the views we have hitherto entertained will not do this, we ought to conclude that, whatever we may have learned, we have yet to learn “the truth as it is in Jesus.” (Fuller, “Remarks on two sermons by W.W. Horne of Yarmouth,” Complete Works, vol. 3, 583.)

It teaches us to defend nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus. It also affords presumptive evidence in its favor; for if Christianity itself were false, there is little doubt but that you, or some of your fellow laborers, would be able to prove it so; and this would turn greatly to your account. Your neglecting this, and directing your artillery chiefly against its corruptions and abuses, betray a consciousness that the thing itself, if not invulnerable, is yet not so easy of attack. If Christianity had really been a relic of heathenism, as you suggest, there is little reason to think that you would have so strenuously opposed it. (Fuller, “The gospel its own witness,” Complete Works, vol. 2, 8.)

Christian living is walking in the truth as it is in Jesus

Heartily desiring that every blessing may attend us all, and that we may each be led into the truth as it is in Jesus.(Fuller, “Letter XIII,” Complete Works, vol. 2, p. 560.)

I have no objection to allowing, however, that if we believe the very truth as it is in Jesus, there can be nothing wanting in the manner of believing it. But though this be true, and though an inquirer after the way of salvation ought to be directed to the saving doctrine of the cross, rather than to the workings of his own mind concerning it, yet there is in the workings of a believer’s mind towards it something essentially different from those of the merely nominal Christian; and which, when the inquiry comes to be, “Am I a believer?” ought to be pointed out. He not only believes truths, which the other does not, but believes the same truths in a different manner. In other words, he believes them on different grounds, and with different affections. That which he knows is, in measure, “as he ought to know it.” He discerns spiritual things in a spiritual manner; which is the only manner in which they can be discerned as they are. (Fuller, “ Strictures on Sandemanianism,” Complete Works, vol. 2, 587.)

If “the truth as it is in Jesus” be impressed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whether it be by reading, or hearing, or thinking—whether by any particular passage of Scripture or by some leading truth contained in it occurring to the mind—it will operate to produce humility. To be impressed, for instance, with a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, with the love of God in the gift of his Son, with the love of Christ in dying for the ungodly, with his all-sufficiency and readiness to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him, or with the freeness of his grace to the most guilty and unworthy, is the same thing as to be made to feel the influence of that gospel which lays low the pride of man. (Fuller, “On antinomianism,” Complete Works, vol. 2, 741.)

“O my God, (let not the Lord be angry with his servant for thus speaking,) I have, thou knowest, heretofore sought thy truth. I have earnestly entreated thee that thou wouldest lead me into it; that I might be rooted, established, and built up in it, as it is in Jesus. I have seen the truth of that saying—‘It is a good thing to have the heart established with grace;’ and now I would this day solemnly renew my prayer to thee, and also enter afresh into covenant with thee.” (Fuller, “Memoir of Mr. Fuller,” Complete Works, vol. 1, 19.)

The aim of a true missionary is to direct attention to the truth as it is in Jesus

The truth is, if we wish to convert heathens to ourselves, we must do as the Church of Rome does, set up for infallibility, and withhold the Scriptures from the people, lest they should read and judge for themselves. But if we wish to convert them to Christ, we shall put the Scriptures into their hands, as the only standard of truth, and teach them to consider all other writings as in nowise binding on their consciences, nor even as claiming regard any further than they agree with them. By this rule let them form their judgments of us, and of our differences, should they deem it worth while to inquire into them; but the aim of a true missionary will ever be to divert their attention from such things, and to direct it to “the truth as it is in Jesus.” (Fuller, “An apology for Christian missions,” Complete Works, vol. 2, 826–827.)

If “the truth as it is in Jesus” be impressed upon our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whether it be by reading, or hearing, or thinking—whether by any particular passage of Scripture or by some leading truth contained in it occurring to the mind—it will operate to produce humility. To be impressed, for instance, with a sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, with the love of God in the gift of his Son, with the love of Christ in dying for the ungodly, with his all-sufficiency and readiness to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him, or with the freeness of his grace to the most guilty and unworthy, is the same thing as to be made to feel the influence of that gospel which lays low the pride of man. (Fuller, “On antinomianism,” Complete Works, vol. 2, 741.)

Andrew Fuller’s combination of a keen critical mind, love for the church, pastoral heart, global gospel burden, clarity of insight, gospel-centered practicality, intensity of affections, power of expression, and commitment to spiritual friendships, which are all rooted in the truth as it is in Jesus, has captivated by mind, stirred my affections, and spurred me on in gospel ministry. I thank God for Andrew Fuller and for leading me to his writings. He has become a vital and constant conversation partner for me in life and ministry

By |May 7th, 2015|Categories: Blog|Tags: |

About the Author:

David E. Prince is pastor of preaching and vision at Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky and assistant professor of Christian preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the author of In the Arena and Church with Jesus as the Hero. He blogs at Prince on Preaching and frequently writes for The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, For the Church, the BGEA and Preaching Today