A Reformed Pastor is a Justified Pastor

Last Summer I began reading Richard Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor. I realise I should have read it long ago, but like many things I just never got around to it. Regrettably, my first attempt failed. I was blessed by what I was reading, but like many things distractions won the battle. Therefore, The Reformed Pastor is on my must read list for this Summer. Despite not having much time today I thought I’d bite into a few pages to wet my appetite again.

Baxter begins by pointing out something that should be obvious; a Reformed pastor is a justified pastor. Well, a Reformed pastor should be a justified pastor. Here is a snippet from Baxter’s exhortation to all those in the ministry and all those training for the ministry:

Believe it, brethren, God never saved any man for being a preacher, nor because he was an able preacher; but because he was a justified, sanctified man, and consequently faithful to his Master’s work. Take heed, therefore, to yourselves first, that you be that which you persuade your hearers to be, and believe that which you persuade them to believe, and heartily entertain that Savior whom you offer to them.

And Baxter continues…

It is a fearful thing to be an unsanctified professor, but much more an unsanctified preacher. Doth it not make you tremble when you open the Bible, lest you should there read the sentence of your own condemnation? When you pen your sermons, little do you think that you are drawing up indictments against your souls! When you are arguing against sin, that you aggravating your own! When you proclaim to your hearers the unsearchable riches of Christ and his grace, that you are publishing your own iniquity in rejecting them, and your unhappiness in being destitute of them!

I’m sure this will be the first of many posts inspired by Baxter’s The Reformed Pastor.