A couple of weeks ago was the 125th anniversary of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones’s birth (Dec.20, 1899). While “the Doctor” has now been with the Lord for almost 44 years, his influence lives on among “Reformed” evangelicals.* Lloyd-Jones was a medical doctor who as a young man rose to the rank of assistant to Sir Thomas Horder, the Royal Physician to Kings Edward VII, George V, and George VI. For several years Lloyd-Jones struggled with his medical practice because, having fully embraced his Christian faith, he wrestled with a call to preach. Eventually he surrendered to God and took a pastorate in his home country, Wales. His giftedness was on display early, and he eventually came to Westminster Chapel in central London, as the assistant pastor to (the great) G. Campbell Morgan. After several years of mentoring and sharing pastoral duties, Morgan in 1943 handed the reigns of Westminster’s ministry to the Doctor. He served in the pulpit at Westminster until he retired in 1968, leaving a legacy of gospel-driven exegesis that will never be forgotten.
I recently came across a quote from one of Lloyd-Jones’ daughters that I’d never seen before. It knocked me back, and it’s been buzzing around in my head all day today. The writer of a book my elders and I are reading relays the conversation he had with the daughter, asking her what was the key to the Doctor’s long ministry. He then shares,
“In typical pointed clarity, she answered: ‘I don’t think he ever got over his salvation. He never stopped being surprised by it.’ That,” says the writer, “is what we want for our congregations.”**
Indeed it is. You’ve sang John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” countless times throughout your life. But is God’s grace truly amazing to you? That God would save someone like you, and by such a glorious gospel in which he creates and allows the fall so that he can demonstrate his mercy and let grace reign for eternity (Rom.5:21)? Then draw folks by his mysterious, gentle, patient leading, so that you who’ve believed in him will only in the end be able to claim, “He loved me first” (cf. 1 Jn. 4:19)?
I’m not the Doctor—more like the janitor of the doctor’s office! But the longer I journey with Jesus the more convinced I am that salvation is of the Lord. That he’d have his hand on me my whole life—slowly but surely drawing me, calling me, providing for me, and being long-suffering toward me, all so that I’d share his grace with those whom he’s given me to serve—all of this is the height of filial kindness from my Lord who loved me and gave himself for me (cf. Gal.2:20). I’m more and more realizing how miraculous it is that I belong to Jesus. Surprising, indeed.
May you also never stop being surprised by your salvation!
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*I don’t mean to demean the “Reformed” label, to which I even ascribe. I just have come to believe that it has such a range of meaning among those who use it that it is almost meaningless now.
**Jamie Dunlop, Mark Dever, Compelling Community, 182.
