I have so had it with all the puritan-reading hi-falutin' the-pastoral-ministry-is-a-high-calling-therefore-pastors-must-always-be-on-some-kind-of-spiritual-high types. Thank God for the Second Helvetic Confession, particularly the paragraph in chapter one which says, "Wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very Word of God is proclaimed...: and that now the Word itself which is preached is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches; for even if he be evil and a sinner, nevertheless the Word of God remains still true and good."
Not "if." I be evil and a sinner. Nonetheless, the Spirit of God makes my preaching of the Word an efficacious means of convincing and converting sinners. If my confidence in my work rested on my own personal piety, I'd have none. Since it rests not on me at all, but on the Spirit himself, it is boundless.
Not personal charisma. Not profound eloquence. Not exciting schemes for saving western civilization. The Holy Spirit. The reformed, not the pentecostalists or the other enthusiasts, are the genuinely Spiritual.
Not "if." I be evil and a sinner. Nonetheless, the Spirit of God makes my preaching of the Word an efficacious means of convincing and converting sinners. If my confidence in my work rested on my own personal piety, I'd have none. Since it rests not on me at all, but on the Spirit himself, it is boundless.
Not personal charisma. Not profound eloquence. Not exciting schemes for saving western civilization. The Holy Spirit. The reformed, not the pentecostalists or the other enthusiasts, are the genuinely Spiritual.
1 comment:
Amen.
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