Social media often provides a unique vantage point from which to observe and evaluate beliefs and behaviors. And, since it is such a public, voluntary thing — this posting of every position, thought and feeling — it should not be regarded as odd or out of bounds when others weigh in on what has been offered up.
Last week, I came across a social-media post from Tully Tchividjian, grandson of the late Billy Graham (under whose ministry my own mother came to know Christ), taking issue with some of the preaching of the recently deceased John MacArthur. Tchividjian gained a bit of ignominy when he admitted to adultery and was removed as the pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, followed by the South Florida Presbytery of the PCA deeming him unfit for Christian ministry. An investigation then revealed another extramarital affair in addition to the first.
Tchividjian still pastors a church. But he also took time on X to post what I referred to above, saying, “Someone tagged me earlier in a clip from John MacArthur who, with characteristic confidence, declared, ‘Spiritual growth is marked by the decreasing frequency of sin.’ He repeated the line twice more, each time with greater emphasis.
“That only works if you have a shallow, behavioristic definition of sin,” Tchividjian responded. “Because here’s the truth: Our sin runs so deep, so wide and so constant that ‘sinning less’ isn’t just unlikely — it’s impossible. Even the so-called obvious sins — lust, lying, gossip, greed — aren’t rare slip-ups. They’re constant: a quick glance, a subtle half-truth, a careless word spoken about someone in their absence, a quiet coveting of what someone else has. And Jesus doesn’t make sin smaller — he makes it bigger. He tells us lust is adultery, anger is murder and that even the thoughts and motives we hide are guilty before God. Our sins run far deeper than we dare to admit.”
Skipping down in the lengthy post, he went on to say, “The idea that maturity means sinning less? Fantasy. True maturity is knowing you will never stop sinning — and being wrecked by a grace that never stops forgiving.”
Full disclosure here: Brother MacArthur was a staunch Calvinist, and I am not even remotely Calvinistic. So I am not some MacArthur acolyte trying to defend my hero. But as a biblically literate observer of this battle between a living Tchividjian and a dead MacArthur, I can call this one pretty easily:
MacArthur in a runaway blowout.
Even if their very different lives did not tell the story, Scripture would and does. And I weigh in on this, not because I have an ax to grind with any person, but because poison kills, even when it is very polished poison.
In spite of the fusing of old Gnosticism and new technology that somehow spiritualizes sin to the point of being unavoidable and reconfigures grace into a Hallmark card, we most certainly can avoid sinning and are expected to do so. Mind you, our flesh will never be sinless, but our flesh certainly can sin less. Mr. Tchividjian says that grace “wrecks us” by constantly forgiving. The Bible, though, lays out something very different that grace does.
Titus 2:11-12 says, “For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.” Jude warned against the perverting of grace, saying that ungodly men would “turn the grace of our God into lasciviousness.”
Psalm 119:11 says, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” Do you know what that is? Spiritual maturing: it is knowing the Scripture better and better so that we sin less and less. And 1 Thessalonians 4:3 says, “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication [sexual sins].”
In Romans 6:1-2, Paul famously told the church at Rome, “What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” As 1 Peter 1:15-16 says, “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation [every part of your lifestyle]; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”
Romans 6:13 says, “Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.” It is a choice. You either choose to yield your body to sin, or you choose to yield your body to God so that you do right. In John 8:11, no less an authority on the subject than Jesus himself told the woman taken in adultery, “Go, and sin no more.” How I wonder, did Jesus miss the fact that in Mr. Tchividjian’s view, what he was asking the woman was “fantasy” and could not be done?
Sin is not some vague, esoteric concept. Galatians 6:7-9 lays out a clear choice: You can either sow to your flesh or to your spirit. You can either do right or do wrong. And you will either be blessed or blistered accordingly.
Do right.
Bo Wagner is pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, North Carolina, a widely traveled evangelist and the author of several books available on Amazon and at wordofhismouth.com. Email him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.