It was at Shepherds' Conference 2025, Proclaiming Christ to the Ends of the Earth, that it became clear John MacArthur was on his final lap. He said as much in a video shown to attendees explaining his absence from the conference. Clothed in a black shirt and oversized jacket, John MacArthur expressed his regret, updated on his health, and revealed he was nearing the end. He looked and sounded frail. It was hard to watch. Here was a man I esteem, a ministerial hero, a pastor of conviction, courage, and strength---succumbing to death's decay. I felt a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes. I was not alone. When the video ended and the lights came on, the atmosphere was heavy. What was normally a loud, rushed and chaotic dash from the Worship Center to the lunch tents was a quiet, somber shuffle.
We were going to lose John MacArthur. Soon.
On the evening of July 14th, 2025, what I had long dreaded came to pass. John MacArthur had died. Along with many, I had seen Pastor Tom Patton's announcement that MacArthur was hospitalized with pneumonia and not expected to recover. That news weighed heavily on me throughout the rest of the day into the next. When I read that MacArthur had died, it deeply grieved me.
It was hard for me to wrap my mind around. For decades, John MacArthur has been for me a constant companion and a reliable interpreter of Scripture. I was a teenager, when I received in the mail my first MacArthur sermon on CD from Grace to You. Since that time, MacArthur has been present in my life through his writings and sermons. His influence on my life is inestimable. His teaching has permeated my comprehension of Scripture, my theological convictions, my understanding of biblical ministry, and my methodology for preaching.
Meditation upon MacArthur's influence on me has been helpful in processing the loss. For believers, death is not ultimate (1 Thess. 4:14-17). It is conquered (1 Cor. 15:50-57). Through Christ's resurrection we have a guarantee of our future resurrection (1 Cor. 15:35-49). We do not grieve like those without hope (1 Thess. 4:13). We are "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" (2 Cor. 6:10). Reflection helps rejoicing.
Salvation
Annual revival meetings, camps, and youth conferences served to undermine the assurance of my salvation. Boisterous evangelists would preach against sex, secular music, drinking, Seinfeld, and Grand Theft Auto. At the end of a message, with "Just As I Am" playing, they would employ the altar call, pleading with us to walk down the aisle. Some of the speakers were Keswick in their theology, embracing a higher life theology. The altar calls were so broad, that I felt I had not truly surrendered to God, and as such I could not truly be saved. There were many times I stayed in my seat, begging God to save me again (just in case I wasn't). This expression of fundamentalist Christianity was marred by revivalism. Whereas revival is the surprising work of God using the ordinary means of grace to save, revivalism is scheduled meetings where pressure and emotion are used to move nonbelievers to salvation and believers to "full surrender" to God.
"Revivalism" writes Ian Murray, "contains no real element of mystery: psychological pressure, 'prayer' used to create expectancy, predictions of impending results, the personality of the 'revivalist' pushed to the fore, the 'appeal'--these, and kindred things, are generally enough to account for the extraordinary in its success."1 Raised in revivalism, my youth was marked by incessant fretting over the assurance of my salvation.
That's when Grace to You sent me a free copy of John MacArthur's The Gospel According to Jesus. In this book, MacArthur works his way through and explains Jesus' teaching on salvation. What I read forever changed my life. I learned about true repentance, how repentance connects to faith, and what it means to submit to the lordship of Christ. Seeing these truths explained in the Bible gave me assurance. I had a bedrock foundation to stand upon. That bedrock was Christ--not me, not my prayers, not my performance--Christ alone. Since then, I have never doubted my salvation.
MacArthur's biblical description of authentic faith in The Gospel According to Jesus has been dubbed Lordship Salvation. A succinct statement of Lordship Salvation is found in the distinctives of Grace Community Church:
The gospel that Jesus proclaimed was a call to discipleship, a call
to follow him in submissive obedience, not just a plea to make a
decision or pray a prayer. Jesus’ message liberated people from the
bondage of their sin while it confronted and condemned hypocrisy. It was
an offer of eternal life and forgiveness for repentant sinners, but at
the same time it was a rebuke to outwardly religious people whose lives
were devoid of true righteousness. It put sinners on notice that they
must turn from sin and embrace God’s righteousness.
Our Lord’s words about eternal life were
invariably accompanied by warnings to those who might be tempted to take
salvation lightly. He taught that the cost of following him is high,
that the way is narrow and few find it. He said many who call him Lord
will be forbidden from entering the kingdom of heaven (cf. Matthew 7:13-23).
Some years after reading The Gospel According to Jesus, "Free Grace" Theology would nearly tear my church apart. An influential Sunday school teacher had led his sizable class to embrace the idea that Jesus could be the savior of your life, but not lord of your life, that repentance was a work, and that John's Gospel took priority over every other New Testament writing. He eagerly handed out Zane Hodges' book, The Hungry Inherit to anyone who would take it. Though some of my friends bought into Free Grace Theology, (one finding it as license for his secret homosexual practice) The Gospel According to Jesus had already equipped me against these errors. My pastor, Dan Mauldin, bravely removed him from leadership and addressed the church, correcting this grave error. Several families left, but the biblical Gospel was defended.
In my first pastorate, the issue of Free Grace Theology vs. Lordship Salvation would once more surface. The church was transitioning to be elder-led. One of the prospective elders was a Free Grace guy. Once again, armed with what I had already learned from MacArthur, I was able to articulate the biblical descriptions of authentic faith.
As a pastor, the issue of assurance comes up often. People are weighed down with guilt, struggling with sin, and pestered by persistent shame. Naturally, they doubt their salvation. I frequently parrot John MacArthur at this point: "It is not the perfection of one’s life but the direction of a life that provides evidence of regeneration." Every time I repeat that mantra, visible relief flashes across their face. If we're not secure in our salvation, then our Christian lives will be stunted. MacArthur has been a great help to many to stand secure in faith.
Discernment
John MacArthur has often stated that:
The biggest problem in the church today is the absence of discernment.
It’s a lack of discernment. It’s the biggest problem with Christian
people. They make bad choices. They accept the wrong thing. They accept
the wrong theology. They are prone to the wrong teaching. They’re unwise
in who they follow, what they listen to, and what they read.
He describes the need for discernment:
Nothing is more desperately needed in the church right now than a new movement to reemphasize the need for biblical discernment. Without such a movement, the true church is in serious trouble. If the current hunger for ecumenical compromise, pragmatic sanctification, and numerical success continues to gain a foothold within evangelicalism, it will result in an unmitigated spiritual disaster. 2
What is discernment?
Discernment is the ability to understand, interpret, and apply truth skillfully. Discernment is a cognitive act. Therefore no one who spurns right doctrine or sound reason can be truly discerning. 3
The Apostle Paul gives the essential, biblical text for discernment, "test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil." (1 Thess. 5:21-22)
To the Philippian Christians, Paul gives the purpose for discernment:
And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. (Phil. 1:9-11)
Not all who claim to be Christian are Christian. False teachers abound (1 John 4:1), so we must always be on guard (Acts 28:28-30). Like the Bereans, we must test teaching for conformity to Scripture (Acts 17:11). One qualification for pastoral ministry is holding firm to the word, instructing in sound doctrine, and rebuking those who contradict it (Titus 1:9).
John MacArthur grew up independent, fundamental Baptist, and so did I. John MacArthur attended Bob Jones University, and so did I. John MacArthur was shaped by fundamentalism, and so was I. Essential to fundamentalism is not only discernment but separation: separation from the world (1 John 2:15-17), false teachers (2 John 1:9-11), and disobedient brothers (2 Thess. 3:6, 14-15).
I spent eight years at Bob Jones, and when I graduated from the seminary with my Master of Divnity, I was disillusioned with fundamentalism. The kind of fundamentalism with which I was familiar majored on minors, elevating secondary matters to primary levels. Issues like Bible translations, music, dress, drinking alcohol, secondary separation (separating from Christians who don't separate from disobedient Christians), and associations have characterized this kind of cultural fundamentalism. The fundamentalism I was associated with was the Fundamentalist Baptist Fellowship International, now the Foundations Baptist Fellowship International. Its resolutions reveal a heritage of schismatic separatism. My disillusionment led me to serve as a pastor at a church that didn't give much thought to why it did what it did. In turn, this gave rise to pragmatism in ministry. It would be reading Ashamed of the Gospel and attending my first Shepherds' Conference that renewed in me the need for principled ministry, the need to stand on biblical conviction, and the need to sing songs that were deep enough to actually convey truth about Christ (Col. 3:16). That would set me down a path that would culminate in my being fired from that church.
John MacArthur had a complicated relationship with fundamentalism. While he distanced himself from the fundamentalist movement and disparaged it, he was a fundamentalist. He was a classic, historic fundamentalist. MacArthur regularly preached on and practiced separation. Before it was cool, John MacArthur was warning against Mark Driscoll and separating from him. His relationship with John Piper even soured for a season over Driscoll. MacArthur's critiques and separation made him a legalistic dinosaur in the eyes of many young, restless, and reformed guys. Years later, Driscoll would be exposed as a plagiarist and as pugnacious, and would be removed from the pastorate. As was often the case, time vindicated MacArthur.
For the majority of his ministry, MacArthur was a member of the Independent Fundamental Churches of America, now IFCA International. IFCA's distinctives include being biblical, fundamental,
dispensational, complementarian, cessationist, and committed to expository preaching.
My return to embracing fundamentalism is directly tied to John MacArthur. I was
exposed to the IFCA through its annual Shepherds' Conference
fellowship. Hearing Richard Bargas cast his vision was compelling to me. Here was a fundamentalism that was not marred by the schism, triviality, and legalism of the FBFI. Here was a fundamentalism that continued to fight for the fundamentals of the faith, for orthodox Christianity. Recently, Bargas through IFCA Press oversaw the publication of Fight the Good Fight: Reclaiming Biblical Fundamentalism, a book that issues a call to cast away cultural fundamentalism and to reclaim classic fundamentalism.
The church I planted, Higher Ground Church, is part of the Southern Baptist Convention. While the SBC has many strengths, its passion for evangelism chief among them, it has many weaknesses. One glaring weakness is association and doctrinal identification. While the Baptist Faith and Message is a strong confession, it isn't strong enough. At one time, Calvinist Albert Mohler, Egalitarian Rick Warren, and pragmatist Steven Furtick were not only part of the SBC, but were among its most well known voices. Those three men, miles apart doctrinally, were all under the umbrella of the SBC. Being part of the SBC didn't mean all that much for theological identification and association. Consequently, I saw the need for meaningful doctrinal identification and like minded association. I formally joined the IFCA a few years ago. Through the IFCA, I have received pastoral counsel and have been able to write. I contributed an article on the goal of apologetics as well as a chapter on being doctrinally resolved in the book, Vital Signs of a Healthy Pastor.
John MacArthur has been a stalwart of discernment. He has taken the right stands. His example contributed to me planting a church and returning to the fundamentalist fold.
Courage
Discernment leads to conviction. Conviction acted upon is courage. Conviction and courage go hand in hand, for without conviction of something, one has nothing to stand for. MacArthur embodied courageous conviction. He not only believed, he acted upon those beliefs.
He successfully defended believer's baptism against R.C. Sproul's infant baptism. He called every Calvinist to be premillenial in eschatology. After all, dispensational hermeneutics (literal, historic, grammatical interpretation) is the heir of Reformed Theology because it is most faithful to Sola Scriptura.
Against threats to the Gospel, MacArthur stood in the tradition of C.H. Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He earnestly contended for the faith when fellow Christian leaders lacked the discernment or the courage to fight. With D. James Kennedy and R.C. Sproul he courageously stood for justification through faith alone by grace alone in Christ alone against Charles Colson, J.I. Packer and their Evangelicals and Catholics Together. With Ashamed of the Gospel, he took on pragmatism and seeker sensitive Christianity. Clarifying the biblical gospel against easy believism, so called "Free Grace Theology," MacArthur wrote a torrent of books: The Gospel According to Jesus, The Gospel According to the Apostles, Hard to Believe, Slave. Against Charismatic theology with its misguided pneumatology and undermining of Scripture's sufficiency, MacArthur wrote Charismatic Chaos and Strange Fire, as well as led the explosive Strange Fire Conference. The New Perspective on Paul would be countered by The Gospel According to Paul. One of the greatest threats against the Gospel came with reformed evangelicalism's embrace of critical race theory, wokeness, and social justice. T4G 2018 would be MacArthur's last as the conference embraced social justice. Perhaps that was most exemplified in David Platt's address, "Let Justice Roll Down Like Waters: Racism and our Need for Repentance." Not only did he practice biblical separation, MacArthur preached a series on social justice and the Gospel. He contributed to and was an original signer of The Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel.
That fight against wokeness and social justice was a costly one. It left MacArthur alone at the end. Longtime friends and fellow leaders of the Young, Restless, Reformed movement, Albert Mohler, Ligon Duncan, and Mark Dever publicly argued against Phil Johnson when he articulated MacArthur's position in a Shepherds' Conference Q&A. Those men would never speak at a Shepherds' Conference again. Not long after the infamous Q&A, in a chapel message, MacArthur lamented lost friends along the way in ministry.
MacArthur not only took courageous and unpopular stands against doctrinal threats, he was a thundering voice for Christ in the culture wars. He frequently appeared on Larry King Live. He rightly identified, labeled, and preached against the Democratic Party as the campaign for immorality. Following the Obergefell decision which made same-sex marriage legal, MacArthur responded by preaching a landmark sermon, "We Will Not Bow."
Like the Covenanters before him, MacArthur embodied Scottish strength. In his 80's, he courageously called California Governor Gavin Newsom to repent, and took on the government, arguing for the church's essential status and right to meet. MacArthur and Grace were victorious in that fight, told in the gripping documentary, The Essential Church
John MacArthur was courageous. His biblical convictions led him to fight for the faith (Jude 3) and to be salt and light in this world (Matt. 5:13-16). From him, I saw the need to be bold. Standing for truth will make enemies. The greatest threat to the church is always from inside not outside the church. Courageous conviction will be costly. Protecting God's people from destructive error, oppressive governments, and sinister wolves is principled pastoral ministry.
Ministry
John MacArthur began his ministry at Grace Church in February of 1969 and remained the Pastor-Teacher until his death in July of 2025. In a time when disqualifying scandal is all too common, fifty six years of pastoral ministry at one church is almost mythic. During that time, God providentially grew Grace Church from a small congregation meeting in a chapel to a multi-thousand congregation that now meets in a large auditorium. From the church has come a family of ministries that has a global reach impacting millions.
In ministry, a constant temptation for pastors is pragmatism: doing what works to get a crowd. In a pragmatic ministry three "b's" are ever present: building, budget, butts in the seat. Instead of laboring for the congregation's holiness, pastors look to methods and programs to increase the size of their congregation. When numerical growth becomes the goal, Christ becomes a sideshow.
John MacArthur took a different approach. He understood that the labor of pastoral ministry is Christlikeness in the lives of his people. What is needed is not dynamic programs, but faithful, deep, expository preaching. Why? Because the pastor is just a steward, and a steward's job is to be faithful. The pastor's task as steward is faithfully communicating the message of the Lord Jesus. Paul expressed this truth to the Corinthians writing, "This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful" (1 Cor. 4:1–2).
John MacArthur put it like this, "You take care of the depth of your ministry, and let God take care of the breadth of it.
You work on the quality of your shepherding and let God take care of the quantity of the sheep." 4
As a young pastor, I took these words to heart. They have helped me keep perspective in the thick of ministry. My job is not to grow the church. My job is to be faithful. My job is to study hard and to preach accurately. My job is to ensure to the best of my ability that I'm rightly dividing the word (2 Tim. 2:15). It is Christ's job to grow his church (Matt. 16:18). "Unless the LORD builds the house," said Solomon, "those who build it labor in vain" (Ps. 127:1).
Pastoral ministry is not trying to be cool, or trying to win the world by being like the world. Pastoral ministry is loving your people well and feeding them God's word. Every time I have gone to Grace Community Church, I have been struck by the kindness and hospitality of the people. There has not been a single time I've attended a service, where I have not been warmly greeted or have had the person next to me initiate and engage me in conversation. Congregations mirror their pastor. If he's cold and disengaging, they'll be cold and disengaging. If he's warm and engaging, they'll be warm and engaging.
John MacArthur is a gracious, loving pastor. Since his death, tributes about him have poured out all across the internet. Common among those who knew him are testimonies of his kindness, love, and care. I can attest to this as well. At a Shepherds' Conference I got to meet him. What struck me was how humble he was. If you only knew MacArthur from the pulpit, you would think him to be intense and intimidating because his sermons are bold and blunt. In person, however, he was gentle and kind. When I met him, he took an interest in me. He asked who I was and where I was serving. Talking to him felt like conversing with your grandpa who wanted to know what you were up to. They say never meet your heroes because they'll surely disappoint--but that was not my experience with MacArthur. His tincture was Christlike.
How is a church's character trained to be godly in its graciousness? The word of God. Paul told Timothy, "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." (2 Tim. 3:16–17)
The best way to ensure that you're faithfully preaching God's word is expository preaching. To exposit means to explain. Expository preaching is explaining the biblical text. Expository preaching is ensuring that the point of the sermon is the point of the text. Expository preaching usually takes the form of verse by verse sermons through whole books of the Bible.
When the Bible is your authority (not your creativity), and when you are working through whole books of the Bible, you will preach hard portions of the Bible that are normally avoided. Offensive doctrines, identifying and rebuking of sin, and uncompromising calls to holiness will be preached when you are committed to expository preaching. Paul's command to preach is ever timely for us:
I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. But as for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (2 Timothy 4:1-5)
What is the result of this kind of preaching? In a sermon on a expository preaching, John MacArthur tells us what will happen:
Hard, convicting, biblical preaching makes soft people because it breaks
down their pride, breaks down their selfishness, breaks down their
self-centeredness, brings them in to submission, brings them into
worship, makes them desire to glorify God. You might say hard preaching
makes soft people. On the other hand, soft preaching makes hard people.
Preaching that is intended only to superficially wound feeds people’s
self-centered preoccupations and in the end, produces people that are
self-centered, don’t know what it means to make sacrifices, either for
God or for each other.
John MacArthur has been an exemplar of expository preaching for me. Since my teens, he has been a friend from afar through his sermons. Even now that's the case. If Val and I are going on a trip, we're going to be listening to MacArthur sermons. (If she stays awake, Val takes those occasions to point out how MacArthur does a better job than me in pacing or explanation or in cross referencing, and how I need to improve in those areas. Thanks, Babe 😘). Speaking of Val, John MacArthur played a role in us getting married. When I met her, she was reading out of a MacArthur Study Bible. That was a green flag to pursue her. ✅ I later saw Slave on her reading stack of books. ✅ My wingman, Rey Sosa, interrogated her on her theology, asking her what she thought of lordship salvation. She passed the test. 💯 We married a couple of years later. This year, Val gave birth to Jane who at three months old has already watched many MacArthur sermons. When I take my border collies, Java and Breve, on our daily walks at Berg Park I'm listening to a MacArthur sermon.
When I listen to his sermons, I'm not only listening to his explanation and application of Scripture, but how he explains and applies Scripture. I've intentionally internalized how he handles the word. I'm not seeking to imitate his style, vocal inflections or the like. It would not serve Higher Ground Church if I was an off brand MacArthur. What I seek to imitate is his approach to the Bible, his manner of engaging with the biblical text. When I graduated from seminary, my parents gifted me with the entire The MacArthur New Testament Commentary set, which is a resource I use every week in sermon preparation.
One of the members of our church calls me Josh MacArthur. I laugh every time she does because it is an absurd thing to say. However, she usually clarifies what she means: I preach like MacArthur preaches in that my preaching is serious, expository preaching, verse by verse through books of the Bible. My preaching is intentionally text driven. The text drives the teaching and the tenor, the focus and the feel. My preaching is direct. I want to say what the Bible says. I don't ever apologize for the Bible. I'm not embarrassed by the Bible. My job is to stay out of the way of the passage. That all came from listening to hundreds of MacArthur's sermons.
In a tribute to MacArthur, Albert Mohler captures what makes John MacArthur's preaching special. Describing MacArthur's preaching, Mohler writes, "It was just disciplined by the text and the task. He rarely told
stories, and he didn’t use what other preachers would call 'illustrations.' He explained one text by another text, and he
constantly connected texts."
Disciplined, text-driven, biblical theological, bold, expository preaching--Mohler has referred to John MacArthur as a "Lion in the Pulpit." That sums him up!Legacy
For years, I would call John MacArthur my greatest living pastoral hero. It had always been him and John Piper. I cherish Piper because of his revealing to me Christian Hedonism. I cherish MacArthur for pretty much everything else. I cannot overstate his influence on my life personally and pastorally. Apart from my own pastors: Dan Mauldin, Dave Deets, Jim Welch and Tim Castillo, John MacArthur has been my greatest pastoral influence.It's going to be hard not to look to MacArthur's leadership for pressing issues to come. I will miss his voice of clarity and his courageous conviction. I will miss his bold stances. I will miss his biblical guidance to the church at large.
MacArthur joins the ranks of those heroes long dead who thundered God's word and who remained faithful to the end. He will go down in the halls of church history as one of the greatest of the pastor-theologians. He joins the ranks of Augustine, Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Owen, Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield, John Wesley, C.H. Spurgeon, J.C. Ryle, and Martyn Lloyd-Jones. He was the Spurgeon of our time. More than any other preacher in the modern era, he embodied expository preaching.
Though he faithfully contended for the faith, John MacArthur will most likely be remembered as a servant of the word. He faithfully unleashed God's word one verse at a time. He worked verse by verse through the entire New Testament, a project that took forty two years. Those sermons have been put reformatted and printed in thirty three volumes, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary. Before his death, he oversaw the production of two inauguratory volumes of The MacArthur Old Testament Commentary: Zechariah, and Jonah & Nahum. Daniel is forthcoming. With the Master's Seminary, MacArthur led the revision of the NASB, producing the Legacy Standard Bible. The LSB is the most literal translation of the Bible in English today. It is unique in its preservation of God's name, Yahweh, as well as its consistent rendering of slave as slave. (Though I'm an ESV man, the LSB is my wife's preferred translation ✅ ). The MacArthur Study Bible has been an incredible tool for pastors and laymen alike. It has been distributed all around the world.
Though he's gone, he will still be preaching for decades to come through his sermons and writings. Thanks to Grace to You, John MacArthur's thousands of sermons have been preserved and are accessible free of charge. The impact of his preaching is felt on my congregation. Grace to You has generously provided my church with a resource library of MacArthur's Know Your Bible booklets. They refill those booklets four times a year. I consult MacArthur's commentary every week in sermon preparation. Every high school graduating senior at our church is given a MacArthur Study Bible. Every college graduate is given MacArthur's systematic theology, Biblical Doctrine.
I admire John MacArthur. I look up to him. As a pastor, I want to love people like he did and I want to faithfully preach like he did. I want to be courageous like he was, and take stands like he did. The author of Hebrews said,"Remember
your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the
outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith" (Heb. 13:7).
I'm thankful for John MacArthur because he opened up God's word to me and has pointed me again and again to the all glorious Christ. Preaching Christ was the drive of MacArthur's life. Whenever he signed something, he included a biblical reference next to his name. That reference is 2 Corinthians 4:5-7:
For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
John MacArthur's legacy is his unfaltering commitment to preach Jesus Christ as Lord. There is nothing greater than glorying in and glorifying the all glorious Christ.
We preach Christ.
Who is the eternal Son.
One in Nature with the eternal Father, and the eternal Spirit-the Triune God.
Who is the creator and life-giver as well as the sustainer of the universe, and all who live in it.
Who is the virgin born Son of God and Son of Man— fully divine and fully human.
Who is the one whose life on earth perfectly pleased God, and whose righteousness is given to all, who by grace through faith, become one with Him.
Who is the only acceptable sacrifice for sin that pleases God, and whose death under divine judgment paid in full the penalty for the sins of His people, providing for them forgiveness, and eternal life.
Who is alive, having been raised from the dead by the Father, validating His work of atonement, and providing resurrection for the sanctification and glorification of the elect, to bring them safely into His heavenly presence.
Who is at the Father's throne interceding for all believers.
Who is God's chosen prophet, priest, and king, proclaiming truth, mediating for His church, and reigning over His kingdom forever.
Who will suddenly return from heaven to rapture His church, unleash judgment on the wicked, bring promised salvation to the Jews and the nations, and establish His millennial reign on earth.
Who will after that earthly reign, destroy the universe, finally judge all sinners and send them to hell, then create the new heavens and new earth where He will dwell forever with His saints in glory, love, and joy.
This is the Christ we preach.
- John MacArthur
________________
1 Ian H. Murray, Revival and Revialism: The Making and Marring of American Evangelicalism 1750-1858 (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1994), 380.
2 John MacArthur, ed., Fool's Gold: Discovering Truth in an Age of Error (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2005), 14.
3 John MacArthur, Developing Your Discernment (Panorama City, CA: Grace to You, 2023), 1.
4 MacArthur has often repeated variations of this phrase in many sermons and interviews. This specific one can be found here.
What a legacy John MacArthur has left for us! Your tribute is so powerful, personal, and clear. May Christ be glorified!
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