In The Whole Christ, Sinclair Ferguson uses the Marrow Controversy, an ecclesiastical squabble in the early eighteenth century, that surrounded a two-volume book, The Marrow of Divinity, published in 1645 and 1649, and republished in 1718. The controversy involved answering the question of how the gospel should be preached and what is the relationship between law and gospel in the Christian life. Ferguson explains, “It is an extended reflection on theological and pastoral issues that arose in the early 18th century, viewed from the framework of the present day” (19).
Ferguson highlights Thomas Boston (1676-1732), who was one of the principal figures in the Marrow Controversy, he had long struggled with issues of the law and the gospel, but through reading The Marrow of Modern Divinity, his ministry was transformed in a way that gave his sermons a gospel tincture. This post is not a review of Ferguson’s book (buy it and read it!), but rather my reflection on what I consider 5 important takeaways from the book for Christian preachers. I have added headings, and provided some of my thoughts before providing a series of quotes from the book. Today we will look at the second takeaway:
2. We must not turn the gospel on its head in our preaching–The love of God for us is the reason for the death of Christ, and we must preach Christ to all men, without condition or exception.
“One of the dangers
This comes to expression when the gospel is preached in these terms: God loves you because Christ died for you! How do these words distort the gospel? They imply that the death of Christ is the reason for the love of God for me. By contrast the Scriptures affirm that the love of God for us is the reason for the death of Christ.” (65-66) “The subtle danger here should be obvious: if we speak of the cross of Christ as the cause of the love of the father, we imply that behind the cross and apart from it he may not actually love us at all.” (66) “True, the father does not love us because we are sinners; but he does love us even though we are sinners. He loved us before Christ died for us. It is because he loves us that Christ died for us!” (66) “Confessional orthodoxy, coupled with a view of a heavenly father whose love is conditioned on his son suffering, and further conditioned by our repentance, leads inevitably to a restriction in the preaching of the gospel. Why? Because it leads to a restriction in the heart of the preacher that matches the restriction he sees in the heart of God.” (72) “What if [the preacher’s] narrow heart pollutes the atmosphere in which he explains the heart of the Father? When people are broken by sin, full of shame, feeling weak, conscious of failure, ashamed of themselves, and in need of counsel, they do not want to listen to preaching that expounds the truth of the discrete doctrines of their church’s confession of faith but fails to connect them with the marrow of gospel grace and the Father of infinite love for sinners. It is a gracious and loving Father they need to know. Such, alas, were precisely the kind of pastors who gathered around for Job and assaulted him with their doctrine and that God was against him. From their mouths issue some of the most sublime discrete theological statements anywhere to be found in the pages of the Bible. But they had disconnected them from the life-giving love of God for his needy and broken child Job. And so they too ‘exchanged the truth of God for the lie.’ this will not do in gospel ministry. Rather, pastors need themselves to have been mastered by the unconditional grace of God. ” (72-73)Ferguson Quotes from The Whole Christ:
[…] 5 Takeaways for Preachers from Sinclair Ferguson’s The Whole Christ—Part 2 | David Prince “We must not turn the gospel on its head in our preaching–The love of God for us is the reason for the death of Christ, and we must preach Christ to all men, without condition or exception.” […]