489 years ago today, on October 6, 1536, in the small Flemish town of Vilvoorde, a man was led from his prison cell to a wooden stake where he was strangled and burned. His crime? Translating the Word of God into English.
William Tyndale was born around 1494 in Gloucestershire, England, and studied at Oxford and Cambridge. There, his soul caught fire with one conviction: every plowboy in England should have access to the Word of God. In fact, Tyndale’s conviction on this was so strong that when a clergyman once told him that it would be better to be without God’s law than the pope’s, Tyndale replied:
“I defy the Pope and all his laws. If God spare my life, ere many years, I will cause the boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than thou dost.”
Denied permission to translate Scripture in England, Tyndale fled to continental Europe. In 1525, his English New Testament, translated directly from the Greek, was printed in Germany and smuggled into England in barrels and bales of cloth. The authorities burned every copy they could find, but they could not stop the spread of the Word.
Over the next decade, while in exile, Tyndale revised his New Testament and translated much of the Old Testament, including Genesis through Deuteronomy and parts of Joshua and Chronicles. However, in 1535, he was betrayed by a false friend, Henry Phillips, and was arrested near Brussels, where he was imprisoned for over a year. Even in confinement, he continued to study and write. When the sentence of death was pronounced, he stood firm.
At the stake, before the strangler’s cord tightened, he cried out:
“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
And God answered that prayer. While the Lord did not radically save Henry VIII, He opened the King’s eyes, causing him to use his power to advance the Word rather than suppress it. Only three years later, Henry VIII authorized the publication of the Great Bible, the first English Bible to be placed in every parish church in England, a translation based mainly on Tyndale’s work. Even the plowboy could now read the Word.
The Meaning of Tyndale’s Prayer
Tyndale’s dying words reveal more than frustration or bitterness. They display a profound theology of God’s sovereignty, illumination, and the unstoppable advance of Christ’s Kingdom.
1. He Believed in the Power of the Word
Tyndale’s great burden was not for his own name, but for the Word of God to run free. He was convinced that Scripture is the ordinary means by which the Holy Spirit opens spiritual eyes. His final prayer was not for release, but for the Word’s triumph.
2. He Believed in God’s Sovereignty over Kings
Rather than curse Henry VIII, Tyndale prayed for him. He understood that the hearts of rulers are streams in the hands of God (Prov 21:1). His prayer was an act of faith in the Lord who governs nations, reforms churches, and bends empires to accomplish His perfect will.
3. He Believed That the Kingdom of Christ Would Prevail
In Tyndale’s day, it seemed impossible that England would ever have a Bible in her own tongue. But faith sees beyond impossibility. His prayer looked past the flames to the future, to a day when even the plowboys would know God’s Word in their heart language.
Lessons for the Church Today
The church of our generation stands in the long shadow of William Tyndale’s pyre. His example calls us to courage, conviction, and confidence in the Word of God. And we can learn a few lessons today:
1. We Must Treasure the Word
Tyndale gave his life so we could hold a Bible in our own language. Yet in our day, Bibles gather dust while screens glow bright. The Word that cost him everything often costs us nothing. Let us return to a reverent, joyful knowledge of Scripture by reading, meditating on, and obeying it as the voice of the living God. Part of this lesson is that God’s Word must not only be available but also obeyed. We do not honor Tyndale’s memory merely by possessing many Bibles. We honor him by being people of the Book. We are to be people who read, teach, and apply the truth of the Bible in every sphere of life.
2. We Must Proclaim the Word
Tyndale’s work was evangelistic to its core. He wanted every man, woman, and child to hear the gospel clearly. The church must recover this passion, not for clever phrases or cultural applause, but for clarity of truth. We need men and women who will speak the Word plainly, even when it offends.
3. We Must Pray for the Powerful
Tyndale’s final prayer was not for revenge, but for repentance. “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” We should pray that kings, presidents, and magistrates would see the truth of Christ and govern under His lordship.
4. We Must Endure for the Long View
Tyndale never saw the fruit of his labor. The Great Bible, the Reformation in England, and eventually the King James Version all came after his death. Faithfulness sometimes means sowing seeds whose harvest you will not live to see. The Word of God is not bound; our calling is simply to obey and trust God with the fruit.
Conclusion
The story of Tyndale’s life is not just history. It is a testimony to the power of the Word of God and the courage of those who love it. The Reformation was not simply a theological debate. It was a war over authority: Who speaks for God? The church of Tyndale’s day claimed that only the clergy could rightly handle Scripture. Tyndale declared that the Bible itself speaks with divine authority, and that every Christian has the right and responsibility to hear and obey it. That conviction cost him his life, but it also changed the world.
Five centuries later, the prayer of a dying translator still echoes:
“Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
It was a plea for illumination, for the Word to govern hearts, homes, and thrones. And God answered according to His will. May He answer again in our day. May He open the eyes of our leaders to truth. May He open the eyes of His church to obedience. May He open the eyes of our nation to Christ. And may He open our own eyes, to see that the same Word still speaks with living power, calling us to repentance, courage, and joy in the King who reigns forever.
In a few days, my wife and I will pack up our three small children and move to Ennis, Montana, where I will serve as the Pastor of Madison Valley Baptist Church. For the first time in my life, other than when I moved to college a few miles south of the Alabama border in Florida, I will be moving outside of Alabama. As we shared this news, many people asked, “Why?” On the surface, their question makes a great deal of sense. Why would we pack up our family to move to the other side of the continent, away from family and friends to an area that is as cold as it is remote? The simple answer is that we know God has called us to this ministry. However, I wanted to take some time to provide a long-form answer on why we are moving to Montana and how you can get involved.
So Why Montana?
The Calling:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer is famously quoted as saying, “When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.” The calling to follow Christ is a call to serve Him and surrender our lives to His perfect, providential plan, even if that plan is hard for us to understand. In January of 2024, I was happily pastoring in Gadsden, Alabama. I served alongside a great staff, had a very comfortable home, loved our community, and had zero intention of ever leaving. After returning from an anniversary trip with my wife in late January 2024, it became almost immediately apparent that we would have to leave due to serious ministry challenges and disagreements beyond my control. Suffice it to say that my resignation as Senior Pastor was one of my life’s most difficult days and came with much pain and confusion. On that day in March 2024, everything changed. The staff I loved working with was gone, the home we loved was on the market, I had no idea where the Lord would call me to serve next, and on top of it all, on the same day I resigned, Roselyn informed me that she was pregnant with our third child. Our lives had been turned upside down almost instantly.
Today, exactly a year after my resignation, we are preparing to move across the country to begin a new ministry. But the year in between was challenging, sanctifying, and clarifying in many ways. To begin, the question of where we would serve next was wide open. Of course, the church would need to share critical convictions (more on that later), but the size, shape, and location of the church were things that we were open to exploring. We talked with churches all over the country, big churches, small churches, urban churches, rural churches, and everything in-between. However, the Lord kept closing doors. All the while, we moved in with family in Huntsville, Alabama, to plug into Providence Baptist Church, a healthy, Gospel-preaching church. I cannot express enough how thankful we are to our Providence Baptist family. God used the church as a balm for our soul in a critical time. Their prayerful support and kindness have been a tremendous grace to us.
Throughout this time, Roselyn and I prayed more than ever. We cried more than ever. Yet, God’s grace to us shone brighter than ever. He faithfully provided for our every need, including providing a buyer for our home and the safe delivery of our third child, Josiah. Through every heartbreaking moment we waited, we knew that the Lord had a perfect plan for us. The Lord used that year to refine our desires regarding the type of church, ministry, and community we wanted to serve. Throughout the year, Roselyn and I repeatedly returned to the topic of Montana and the idea of serving the Lord there in some capacity, whether through church planting or established church ministry. The one thing we knew for sure was that God had called me into pastoral ministry. This calling drives me. The call to preach the Gospel sometimes means moving your family across the country. But with that calling, comes the reminder that God’s perfect plan is just that, perfect. So we are excitedly trusting and walking in faith in God’s gracious plan for us to Montana.
The Convictions:
As I mentioned earlier, for fruitful ministry, churches must be convictionally aligned. Between leaving my previous church, plugging into a healthy church, and moving to a new ministry, I became convicted of the importance of convictional alignment. The concept of theological triage is beneficial in understanding the degrees and needs of doctrinal alignment for churches. Naturally, our new place of ministry would need to agree on the nature of the Gospel as being by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. We must agree on the nature of God, the inerrancy, authority, and sufficiency of the Bible, and the importance of missions and evangelism.
However, one of the critical areas for me as we sought a new church to serve was ecclesiology and specifically, elder-led congregationalism. God desires churches to do things “decently and in order.” (1 Cor. 14:40). I am also convicted that God desires for churches to be led by a plurality of elders. This article is not a defense of elder-led congregationalism, although I am happy to do so and many others have done an exceptional job showing the veracity of this argument from Scripture. This is simply to say, that I was seeking out elder-led churches who shared critical convictions and desired to grow in the Word. Furthermore, I am a convictional proponent of expository preaching, God-honoring congregational worship, and doctrinal discipleship. I was seeking a church that embraced these convictions and was excited about a pastor who would lead in this direction.
The Church:
I have a calling to preach the Gospel. I was seeking a place to do that in which I could honestly live out my convictions. When I saw the listing for Madison Valley Baptist Church, I was immediately intrigued. MVBC is an elder-led SBC church nestled in the Madison Valley of Southwest Montana. The church is a unique combination of people who have relocated from elsewhere around the United States and people whose families have been in Montana for generations. The church has a profound love for the Word, an attitude of quickness to prayer, and a deep desire to see the people of the Madison Valley come to know Christ.
Upon our first conversation with the search committee, Roselyn and I knew that the Lord was moving in this direction. The Lord had knit our hearts together with the people on the committee in a very quick and real way. He had given us a profound love for the church and its community that can only be described as a supernatural leading. What we found was that the church shared convictions with us on things even beyond those in my earlier list. We had similar convictions on philosophy of children’s ministry, parenting, and education. We shared lifestyle views and political views. On top of that, the people were among some of the most genuinely friendly and welcoming people I’ve ever been around. All of this is to say that the Lord gave us the desires of our heart in allowing us to serve Him at Madison Valley Baptist Church. We believe the church and its context in Montana (more in a moment) uniquely position us to be effective and fruitful in ministry there for a long time.
The Context:
The context of Ennis, Montana is an interesting thing in and of itself. For personal context, Roselyn and I had both been on mission trips to Montana to support church planting there alongside my friend, Darryl Brunson, the founding pastor of Expedition Church in Livingston, Montana. Through our work with Darryl, the Lord gave me a tremendous burden for the people of Montana. One of the tasks Darryl gave us was to do site assessments, prayer, and evangelism for prospective church plant locations. The more we drove around the state and met people, the more we saw the pervasive lostness and the need for healthy churches. According to the Montana Southern Baptist Convention:
“Montana is considered a new work state, meaning that it is a largely unreached mission field. Southern Baptists in Montana represent less than 1% of the population and Evangelicals number less than 10%. The geography itself is one of our greatest challenges as many communities, churches and pastors and their wives are isolated and are often measured by the hours it takes to travel to the closest Walmart. The climate is also challenging with temperatures as low as 35 below in the winter and exceeding 100 degrees in the summer.”
In short, there is a critical need for healthy churches that preach the Gospel. While Montana is politically conservative, their conservatism is largely separated from Christ. Furthermore, the rugged individualism of the Rocky Mountain West allows for a “pull myself up by my bootstraps mentality,” that when applied to spiritual matters is dangerously close to a works-based gospel. Finally, with the abundance of natural beauty in Montana, many people are tempted to follow in the footsteps of those in Romans 1 who exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshipped the creation rather than the Creator.
There is tremendous need for healthy church work throughout the state. This need makes serving a church like Madison Valley even more appealing because we are helping to meet that need and prayerfully becoming a launching point for further Gospel ministry in Southwest Montana. Rural ministry in this setting is particularly attractive to me because of the importance of relationships and shepherding. It is my desire to know my congregation on an intimate level and truly come alongside them to shepherd them in the Word. To summarize, Montana is a largely unreached and lost state. We need more Gospel ministry in the state. When presented with this opportunity, we had no choice but to say, “Here we are Lord, send us.”
How You Can Get Involved:
If you are reading this, I covet your prayers. This will be a big transition for my family and a big undertaking for MVBC as we seek to faithfully live for Christ and see the Gospel advance in the Madison Valley and to the ends of the Earth. Many people have reached out asking how they can come alongside us to see the Gospel go forward in Montana and how they can be involved. If you are interested in getting involved, here are some ways you can help:
Pray
As my grandmother used to say, “Prayer is something we can do for each other that doesn’t cost us a thing.” We covet your prayers in many ways. First, you can pray for a smooth moving process as we will drive cross-country with our stuff and three children, ages three and under. Second, you can pray for an easy transition as we settle into Montana culture, new ministry and life rhythms, and in building new relationships with our congregation and the community. Third, you can pray for the Gospel ministry of MVBC. My prayer for the church comes from Paul’s prayer for the Ephesian church in Ephesians 1:18-19. I pray that the church would know “the hope to which He has called” us, “the riches of His glorious inheritance,” and “the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe.” If we know these promises and the nature of God, we will be bold and zealous in evangelism, grow in deeper discipleship, and grow in conformity with God’s Word and will for our church. Furthermore, you can pray that God would raise up faithful, qualified men to serve as elders at MVBC. Above all else, pray that the Lord’s will be done at MVBC and that everything we do would glorify Him.
Come Help
The Lord used mission trips to Montana to prepare us for His calling to serve in full-time ministry there. While He may not be calling you to move to Montana, you and your church can definitely impact the Treasure State for the Gospel by partnering with faithful churches in Montana to do short-term mission trips or financial partnership. We would love to connect you with opportunities to come to Montana and come alongside faithful churches in cooperative Gospel ministry. However, like us, some of you may be future Montanans. You may be wondering how you can serve the Lord. Maybe you are retired, you can work remotely, or you are interested in moving to see the beauty of the Gospel proclaimed in one of the most beautiful places on earth. Montana needs faithful Christians willing to boldly live their lives for Christ. This is not just for pastors or church planters, but also for faithful lay elders, deacons, church members and volunteers. Whether through short-term trips, relocating, or even praying or giving, there are so many opportunities for you and your church to impact Montana for the Gospel. I would challenge you to prayerfully consider how the Lord might be leading you in this regard.
In closing, we are moving to Montana to faithfully proclaim the Gospel by God’s grace at a church that shares our convictions and desires to see the glory of God displayed in Montana. . you are interested in following along with our journey and ministry in Montana keep your eyes open and check back here for an upcoming newsletter sign-up.
Isaiah 6:8 (LSB): “Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
There is perhaps no greater horror than that of dementia. The pain that this disease wreaks upon families, loved ones, and caregivers is incalculable. As Christians, we recognize this awful physical and mental disease as an unfortunate part of living in a fallen world. Unfortunately, pain is a part of life. Whether it is an affliction of the mind and body like a sickness, the emotional pain of broken relationships, or interpersonal sin, painful circumstances and trials are ordinary experiences.
Another unfortunate ordinary experience is a spiritual sickness that often goes undiagnosed. The illness in question is something I call spiritual senility. Spiritual Senility, like its physical counterpart, consists of memory loss and decreased cognitive ability. Spiritual senility is when a person forgets the truth of God’s Sovereign reign over all things for His glory and our good and, therefore, has a diminished ability to think clearly about their situation.
Spiritual senility has affected a wide swath of people across history. We see the sickness and its symptoms among God’s people in scenes such as the golden calf, the spies’ report, and the Exodus account. Why did the Israelites balk at taking the promised land when they had just seen God bring Egypt to its knees? Why did they complain about food and water when God had provided Manna from Heaven and water from the rock? Their momentary afflictions and circumstances made them forget Who God is and what He had done.
They are focusing on the seen rather than the unseen. This directly contradicts the instructions of Paul in 2 Corinthians 4:17 (ESV): “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.” Rather than remembering the eternal, they are focused on the momentary, and this has consequences.
Among those consequences are forgetfulness of God and His providential care. Instead of counting it all joy as James 1:2-4 instructs, they are counting it all sorrow. And we are no different. God instructs us to count it joy specifically because He knows our weak frame and the inevitable temptation to despair. One reason for this is that pain is a massive distraction. Our old sin nature will often rear its ugly head whilst in pain to distract us from the truths of Scripture. When walking through trials, or even unpleasant, difficult, and downright painful circumstances brought about as a product of living in a sinful world, most people, including Christians, just want the trial to end. We quickly forget the goodness of God and His tender, providential care demonstrated throughout the entirety of human history.
When we forget the glorious truth of Who God is and what He has done, our ability to think clearly about our situation and circumstances is diminished. Rather than remembering that God is sovereignly controlling all things for His glory and our good, we only think in terms of our own abilities and emotional responses. This manifests perhaps most evidently in the all-too-often desire for a “sign that it will all be okay.”
Spiritual senility and sign-seeking go hand in hand. God has given us the Scriptures, which contain everything needed for the man of God to be complete and equipped for every good work. (2 Tim. 3:16-17). However, when we forget God and His promises, we sinfully desire something more. Rather than relying on the rock-solid promises of the Word to tell us that God is working all things out according to His good and sovereign purposes, we tend to beg God for some vague sign that everything will turn out as we desire. This sound is often echoed by the refrain of “Lord, if you care about me, You will…” These are sinful and emotional responses that spring forth from forgetting God and His Word. None of us are immune. I write this, having had to repent of this particular sin in the past. Whilst walking through challenging times, I have found myself too quickly looking to God with a “what have you done for me lately” attitude that neglects to remember that God has providentially guided every second of history and has given me infinitely more than I deserve in the Gospel.
All the while, sign-seeking cannot satisfy our anxiety or pain anyway. If we are prone to wander and forget or take for granted the massive demonstrations of God’s grace and love, such as the crucifixion and resurrection, how will some small sign we seek ever sustain us? It won’t. Thus, we must be rooted in and stand firm upon a healthy remembrance of God’s truth. We do not need to be shown some new small victory or sign that everything will be okay. Rather, we need to remember the Promise that God has already made and the ultimate victory He has already won.
When considering the promises and victory of God, 1 Corinthians 15 is an excellent reminder. 1 Corinthians 15:20-23 (ESV) says: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”
Brothers and sisters, Christ’s resurrection is the ultimate sign that everything will be okay. He is the firstfruits of the resurrection. In other words, He is the first to be resurrected, and the promise and surety that those who are in Christ will be resurrected as well. Our resurrection will surely follow. Furthermore, Scripture reveals to us that we will not be resurrected for nothing or a similar situation but rather resurrected for all eternity in a glorified body on the New Earth, eternally enjoying the presence of God. Along with this is the promise that God will judge all wickedness and bring an end to sin and its effects.
In other words, through Christ’s death and resurrection, we have a sure promise that all will be made right in the end to the praise of God’s glory. This is the substance of the teaching in 2 Corinthians 4:17-18 quoted earlier. We are in a light, momentary affliction but are moving toward an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison. So, we fix our eyes not on the transient, seen things but on the eternal things. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, His victory, and sure fulfillment of all His promises.
What is the solution to spiritual senility and sign-seeking? Do not get caught up looking at the momentary. Instead, rest in the eternal. Focus not on circumstances but on Christ. Focus less on the right now and more on the resurrection. We must do as the old hymn says and stand “on the promises that cannot fail.” There is no greater sign than the Gospel, so remember and retell it rather than forget it.
Nicknamed the “Prince of Preachers,” Charles Spurgeon is frequently recognized as one of the greatest preachers in history. When asked about the secret to his successful ministry, Spurgeon responded that his people prayed for him. Spurgeon went so far as to call the prayer gathering of the Metropolitan Tabernacle the “power plant” or “boiler room” of his church. There was no doubting the connection between prayer and successful ministry in the mind of Charles Spurgeon.
One of the great needs of the modern church is men and women who fervently pray for the faithfulness of the church. The church’s faithfulness is most often seen in the content of the preaching that flows from its pulpit. Therefore, church members should spend time praying over the preaching of the Word. In the letter to the Colossian church, Paul instructs the believers there to be in prayer for him and those working alongside him as they preach the Word.
Colossians 4:2-4 (ESV) says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison – that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.” These instructions on praying for preaching inform the way we pray for those preaching the Gospel today in a few specific ways:
1. We Pray for Open Doors for the Word
Paul tells the Colossian church to pray for the Lord to open a door for the Word. Naturally, this means we should pray for opportunities for the Gospel to be proclaimed. Furthermore, we should pray that the Lord would open hearts, minds, and ears to hear and understand the Gospel as it is preached. Just as God must open the door to preach, He must open the heart to hear the preaching.
Over the last year, the Lord has reminded me never to take a preaching opportunity for granted. Each door the Lord opens is part of God’s providential plan to carry the Gospel to the nations and redeem His people. Thus, we pray for preaching opportunities for faithful preachers not to build the preacher’s fame and platform or to stroke his sinful ego but that the kingdom of God may be built up through the clear preaching of the Gospel and the fruits of conversion. We pray this prayer not only for our own preacher at our local church but also for those preaching the Gospel on the mission field. We pray that God would give faithful Gospel witnesses the opportunity to speak and proclaim the Word of God into the lives of those around them.
2. We Pray for the Gospel to be Preached.
This seems like an elementary thing that should go without saying. And yet, it must be said. An unfortunate element of our sin nature is that there is no shortage of temptations for preachers to preach ineffective things such as self, opinion, works, prosperity, pragmatism, pleasure, or politics. Rather, we must pray for our preacher to stand firmly on the side of biblical faithfulness by God’s grace and proclaim the mystery of Christ, which is the Gospel.
We must pray that our preacher be a Gospel preacher determined to know nothing except Christ and Him crucified. (1 Cor. 2:2) We pray that our pastors have the courage to preach the Gospel even when it may cost them prison and death as it did Paul. We pray that our pastor dares to preach the Gospel even when it is unpopular. We need the pure preaching of the Gospel, that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Rather than preaching the poverty of man’s wisdom or preaching for self-glorification, pray that the preacher will preach the riches of Christ and for the glory of God.
3. We Pray that the Gospel is Clear
Paul concludes his exhortation to prayer by asking the Colossians to pray that he would make the Gospel clear as he ought to speak. We should pray that every sermon is clear. In Nehemiah 8:8, we read, “They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.” This should be the goal of the faithful expositor: to give the sense of the Scriptures in a clear way so that the hearers understand the meaning of the text. The aim is not to impress academics, entertain audiences, or insult the ignorant. The aim is to clearly communicate the plain meaning of the text. Therefore, we should pray that the preacher would have clarity of mind and speech by God’s grace so that they may communicate clearly.
Naturally, there are innumerable things we should be praying over regarding our pastors. However, when it comes to their preaching, we must pray that the Lord opens the doors, the preaching is Gospel saturated, and the preaching is clear.
Within the world of church music lies a specific style known as Sacred Harp music. Sacred Harp music is a form of hymn-singing that is a capella and relies on shape notes. A few years ago, I fell in love with a Sacred Harp hymn known as Antioch 277. The chorus rings out: “Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”
“Shout on, pray on, we’re gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah! The dead’s alive and the lost is found. Glory, Hallelujah!”
Antioch 277
On the surface, the idea of gaining ground seems foreign, if not wrong, to many Christians in the 21st century. After all, isn’t the culture and the world around us snowballing downhill, face-first into greater and greater depravity? Is not the moral compass of our current culture more confused than ever on things like the sanctity of life, sexual ethics, recreational drug use, and social justice? The clear manifestation of the sins of the world leaves many Christians wondering in what sense we are “gaining ground.”
Yet, Scripture is clear in telling us that we are gaining ground in undeniable ways. In Colossians 1, the apostle Paul writes to the Colossian church, rejoicing with thanksgiving that the Gospel had come to them “as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and increasing.” (Col. 1:6) Furthermore, Paul says that even amongst the Colossian church, he prays that the Gospel would bear the fruit of sanctification and increase the believers’ knowledge of God. At the very moment when Paul wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the Gospel was gaining ground, he was imprisoned in Rome, the city of Colosse was in economic decline, and dangerous heresy was running amok. This setting hardly sounds like gaining ground. And yet, Paul tells us that even then, and even now, the Gospel is gaining ground.
This passage reveals two distinct ways that the Gospel is gaining ground. The first is the literal spread of the Gospel and more and more people coming to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ by the grace of God. Right now, throughout the world, the Gospel is going forward through the faithful and sacrificial work of Bible preaching missionaries and pastors. As R.A. Torrey notes, the verse is not talking about more Bibles being printed. Rather, Paul is saying that throughout the world, the truth of the Gospel is being believed by God’s grace and people are being “delivered from the domain of darkness and transferred” into the Kingdom of God. (Col. 1:13)
It is so easy for us to get trapped in only thinking about our area, our political landscape, our country, and our view of the world, which can easily color our thinking about the advance of the Gospel in a negative way. Growing up in South Alabama, in the politically conservative Bible Belt, I was truly and sincerely shocked to find out that there were actually Christians in California when I got older. Much less in places like China, Syria, and Chile, and the Congo. Yet, throughout the world, whether I believed it or not, faithful brothers and sisters were preaching the Gospel and the Gospel was bearing fruit and increasing by the grace of God. We need to shift from a self-centric viewpoint that only sees what is right in front of us to a church-centric viewpoint that views the world through the lens of the church universal. In other words, we should not only think about the advance of the Gospel and the fruit of that advance in terms of our life, or even our local church, but we should see that what God is doing is bigger than just us. God is moving all over the world, calling His people to salvation, and sanctifying His people to greater holiness. So, when we are tempted to be discouraged that we may be in a drier season in terms of fruit in our personal life or in our local church’s ministry, we should remember that God is working all over the world. We should speak with our mission partners and hear their stories. We should remember that God is accomplishing His perfect plan, and that not even the gates of hell can prevail against His church.
How do we respond to this glorious truth? We shout on and we pray on. We rejoice in the work that God is doing. We rejoice in the work of faithful churches, missionaries, and missions sending agencies. We rejoice that God is not still, sleeping, or slumbering. We pray for the work to be done, that God would raise up faithful missionaries, break the hearts of the lost, and draw people unto Himself. Additionally, we pray that our own personal efforts in sharing the Gospel would be effective.
However, the passage has more to tell us. The second way that we are gaining ground is in terms of the sanctification of believers in Christ. If we are truly saved by the grace of God, we are being sanctified by the grace of God. In other words, all true believers are gaining ground in their pursuit of holiness by God’s grace. Paul clearly states that the Gospel has continued to bear fruit in the Colossian church from the moment they “heard and understood the grace of God in truth.” (Col. 1:6) Paul continues by praying for the Colossian church that they would be sanctified. In Colossians 1:9-12, Paul outlines key areas where he is praying for their sanctification. He prays that the church would bear fruit, increase in the knowledge of God, be strengthened for endurance and patience, and be thankful for the grace of God to them.
In the same way, we can rejoice that God is sanctifying us, as true believers, as well. Just as the Colossian believers were growing in grace from the moment they heard and believed the Gospel, so too are we who believe today. Therefore, each day, as we press on in the Christian life, we are gaining ground. As John Newton, the former slave ship captain and author of Amazing Grace, once wrote: “I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”
“I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I want to be, I am not what I hope to be in another world; but still I am not what I once used to be, and by the grace of God I am what I am.”
John Newton
Newton rejoiced that he was no longer the callous slave ship captain and rested in the amazing grace that saved such a wretch as him. Newton realized that though he still failed, he had gained ground by God’s grace. While our story is likely different from Newton’s, we too have gained ground from when we first believed. We are not where we want to be or where we will be when we enter eternity, but we are not where we were and that deserves rejoicing and prayer. Shout on. Rejoice in the work that God has done in your life. Pray on. Pray that God would draw you ever nearer to Him and that He would shape you into greater holiness.
These are two undeniable ways that Christians are gaining ground. God is adding to our number daily through the advance of the Gospel by His Grace. God is sanctifying us day by day by His Grace. In both cases, we can and must say, “Glory, Hallelujah!” I am not arguing for some pie in the sky optimism. But I am arguing for Gospel rejoicing over the fact that God’s Word is accomplishing its purpose, that dead hearts are raised to life by the grace of God, and that we are growing in grace. We must always keep perspective by seeing the big picture of God’s work throughout the world. So, shout on, pray on. We are gaining ground. Glory, Hallelujah!
Colt Hudson 