Accountability: I was looking around for something to write about and, without anything particular in mind, began scanning through some recent messages on SermonAudio. One of them caught my attention simply because of the title: A Bride for the Son, from Genesis 24:1-21, with the subtitle Preparing to Meet God. I listened to several portions of the sermon, downloaded the transcript afterward, and although there are numerous things I could comment upon, one particular section near the end is really all I want to consider.
I never even checked what kind of church the preacher represented. After reading the transcript, I might simply describe it as a rather confused one and leave it there. What interests me is something far more specific. Throughout the message the preacher repeatedly describes himself as having a responsibility to prepare and protect Christ’s bride, to cultivate her beauty, and finally to present her to the Son. Then, while appealing to Hebrews 13:17, he says plainly, “I’m accountable for your soul.” A few moments later he asks, “How can I present a trashed-out bride before my Savior?” At that point I think we have moved well beyond a poor choice of words. We have begun to uncover a very serious misunderstanding of what a minister is responsible for, and perhaps more importantly, what Christ alone is responsible for.
I want to quote a larger portion of the message because the problem becomes clearer as he continues. The issue is not merely one isolated statement about pastoral accountability. There is an entire understanding of the church, the ministry, and ultimately salvation being expressed here:
“I’ll call this out because I often reflect on this passage and I want you to turn here. Don’t shortchange me. Check this out. Go to Hebrews 13. Same concept is communicated in Acts 20 verse 28. The leader in the church, the steward, the servant that has been granted overwatch over the bride, we have to give an account. See the fear in my eyes. I have to give an account for the bride of Christ. I’m accountable for your soul. Who’s adequate for this? Hebrews 13 verse 17, Obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account so that they will do this with joy and not with groaning. Why? Because this would be unprofitable for you. And I tip my hat, I do groan. I do. I would have you open your Bibles and do what it says for my own sake and yours. How can I present a trashed out bride before my Savior. It’s unprofitable for you and it’s misery for me. He is worthy. He is worthy…. I would have you be conformed to the image of Christ, bride, church, beautiful, willingly, with a good spirit, desiring it, so that He can present you with joy and not unsullied. Please. Well, in some sense, that trepidation and anxiety on my part is unwarranted because Christ will have a perfect bride, and not because of me, not because of you. He will have that perfect bride. He is going to bring that work about by virtue of His Spirit. It would be cool if we could do this willingly. Participate willingly. Desire it. Anticipate it.”
There is a great deal packed into those few sentences, and I find almost all of it troubling. The first problem is obvious enough: no preacher is accountable for my soul in the sense that my final standing before God somehow rests upon the faithfulness of his ministry. He may be accountable for what he teaches me, for whether he handles the Word faithfully, for whether he warns, feeds, and serves as he ought. But my soul does not belong to him, and my salvation is not his work. The moment a minister begins speaking as though he must somehow deliver a fit bride to Christ, the line between servant and Savior has already begun to disappear.
But I think the problem becomes even more serious toward the end of the quotation. We are told that Christ will indeed have a perfect bride, but that He is going to “bring that work about by virtue of His Spirit,” followed immediately by an appeal for the believer to “participate willingly.” At that point the perfection of Christ’s bride is no longer being located simply and entirely in what Christ has accomplished for her. It has become a process in which the Spirit is supposedly working to make the bride sufficiently beautiful while the believer is urged to cooperate in that preparation.
That is not a small mistake in terminology. That strikes at the heart of the Gospel. Christ does not receive a bride made acceptable through the combined efforts of the ministry, the Spirit, and the willing participation of the believer. He receives a bride whom He Himself has loved, redeemed, sanctified, cleansed, and perfected. Whatever exhortations may properly be given to believers concerning their conduct, those exhortations must never be allowed to become part of the ground upon which the bride is made fit for the Bridegroom. The moment they are, the finished work of Christ has ceased to be finished.
So let us look more carefully at the passage being appealed to: “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.” Hebrews 13:17.
There is nothing light about the seriousness of this passage. Someone who undertakes to teach, counsel, warn, and care for Christ’s people should do so with the knowledge that his own service will one day be brought into account. Those who minister among the flock watch, teach, warn, and care for the people of God, and they will give account before Him for the manner in which they have done so.
But notice what the verse does not say. It does not say that they will give account for the salvation of the souls entrusted to them. It says that they themselves “must give account.” The accountability belongs to the servant concerning his own stewardship; it does not transfer responsibility for another man’s standing before God into the hands of the minister.
That distinction seems almost embarrassingly simple, but it changes everything. A shepherd will answer for how he shepherded. A teacher will answer for how he taught. A watchman will answer for whether he faithfully sounded the warning entrusted to him. But none of those things makes him the keeper, savior, sanctifier, or final presenter of another man’s soul. The account he gives is an account of his service, not an account of whether Christ succeeded in saving those for whom He died.
The language “they watch for your souls” does not alter that. To watch for another is not to possess responsibility for the final outcome of that person’s salvation. A minister watches because the people among whom he serves are precious to God. He watches precisely because they are not his own. They belong to Another. And the solemnity of his position consists not in the thought: “Their souls have been placed in my hands,” but rather: “I am serving among people whose souls belong to Christ, and I will answer to Christ for how I treated them.”
That seems to me a much healthier way of understanding the fear involved in ministry. The fear is not: “How will I ever get these people into heaven?” Nor is it: “How can I possibly prepare a bride beautiful enough for Christ?” The fear is that a servant might mishandle what belongs to his Master – teach falsely, dominate consciences, neglect the weak, burden the sheep, or draw attention to himself rather than to Christ. That is surely enough to make anyone tremble, without imagining that the eternal destiny of Christ’s people rests upon his shoulders.
And the surrounding chapter reinforces this. Earlier we read: “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.” Hebrews 13:7. Their ministry is connected with the Word they have spoken. They are servants of the Word, and their faith is to be followed as they themselves look to Christ. Indeed, only a few verses later the writer immediately directs our attention away from changing men and back to the One who does not change: “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever.” Hebrews 13:8.
That seems especially important. Hebrews ends by fastening the believer’s confidence exclusively upon Christ. And when Hebrews speaks elsewhere of the ONE who truly bears responsibility for bringing His people safely to God, it does not point us toward any human intermediary at all: “Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.” Hebrews 7:25.
There is the Keeper of the soul. There is the ONE upon whom salvation rests. There is the ONE whose continuing ministry guarantees the final salvation of His people. Christ’s bride is not being made acceptable to Him by the anxious labor of a preacher, nor by some cooperative process in which the believer helps complete what Christ supposedly began. She is His because He loved her, gave Himself for her, redeemed her, and will bring her safely home. The preacher watches for souls; Christ saves them to the uttermost. Those two statements ought never to be confused. MPJ