Dear Pastor Tullian

“There is no fear in love; 

instead, 

perfect love drives out fear, 

because fear involves punishment. 

So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.”

1 John 4:18 

I found out today that one of my favorite preachers, and by favorite I mean one that God used to help weather me through many moments of darkness and essentially led me to where I am today, had recently admitted to cheating on his wife.  Some details regarding the matter are that his wife was first found cheating on him and continued to do so, which obviously affected him as a pastor and as a person, and he evidently reached out for people to meet the need that his wife was meant to meet and ended up having an affair himself.  Was his decision to put himself in temptations way by opening up to another woman at this vulnerable time wrong?  Yes, wisdom would say so.  Is he wrong for having an affair even though his wife had one first and did not stop?  Yes, he is wrong.  She is wrong.  They're both EQUALLY wrong.  No one is more responsible for the others' actions than another.  Each acted and caused one another to do what was morally wrong and hurtful.  What is the biblical response then as brothers and sisters of one Father to be?  

I have personally never met pastor Tullian, but he responded to a comment I made on his blog once about how I liked the movie "the Giver."  Besides that, I have never seen, spoken to, or known pastor Tullian personally, but the way God used him in my life is evident to me.  And I'm sure he has helped so many other people who struggled with drinking from the fountain of grace.  Grace and love were fed to me by pastor Tullian (among others), because I am depraved in my head and God used him to show me that.  So now, what am I to expect when he, too, finds that depravation in his mind in this way?  I want to give him the same gift of grace and love that he fed me, because that is the definition of grace and love.  There are not only no conditions, meaning even if his wife never first cheated on him it wouldn't matter, but also that all the more after this incident I love him as my own kin.  

So, if anyone here has been impacted by pastor Tullian in a way that has brought them closer to that sweet unrelenting river of grace and love as I have been, then make no mistake that what has happened here was all a part of God's sovereign plan for higher purposes that we are called to believe in faith.  How do we believe?  By trusting that God is good, and He is concerned about his children, so he lets things happen for THEIR GOOD.  I'm not saying having an affair is good, but that the affair happened and so long as both Pastor Tullian and Kim hold strongly to their faith that they are God's children, and not condemned for their sin-actions, then what happened was meant for their good.  They fight the fight of faith as all of us do.  

“There is no fear in love; 

instead, perfect love drives out fear, 

because fear involves punishment. 

So the one who fears has not reached perfection in love.”

1 John 4:18

May God continue to shape both Pastor Tullian and Kim to be drinkers of His unconditional love and His unfathomable grace.  

There is no punishment for their sins, because Christ knew it would happen, loved them, and owned it as his burden when he went to the cross and forever satisfied all justice in Himself.  There is no punishment because there is no sin for the one who believes in Jesus.  

“Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus,”

Romans 8:1

“If then there is any encouragement in Christ, 

if any consolation of love, 

if any fellowship with the Spirit, 

if any affection and mercy, 

fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, 

having the same love, 

sharing the same feelings, 

focusing on one goal.”

Philippians 2:1-2

My goal is to lift the name of Jesus above everything and make God most beautiful to the eyes of all who will drink from the fountain of grace and love.  He is worthy to be praised.

So finally, I would like to say to Pastor Tullian that I am praying and interceding to God for you to fight the fight of faith, to not be discouraged or shaken by the sorrow and suffering you now probably face, and that God gives grace to the humble.  May you find the robe of humility and join all the saints who lift the name of Jesus for sinners like us!  As for your family, it will no doubt look and feel impossible to "win" or be made "right," again, but what is impossible with man is possible with God. 

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with man is possible with God." -Luke 18:27

You are already there, at the winner's circle.  I know it because I believe it.  I believe it because God said it.  For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son.  That whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.  -John 3:16

Pastor Tullian, I love you with the love that is of God.  We fall because we are fallen, but we rise because He is risen.  I just can't emphasize this enough, that my hope in Jesus remains for you and for me.  

“Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now going to be made complete by the flesh?

Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because the righteous will live by faith.

for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Galatians 3:3, 11, 26

I'm certain that what God says is the truth, and it is the only truth that will be the light that leads us deeper into that epic love of God every time we think things are bad.  

Grace and love,

Jmegrey