Physician Of Souls

Physician Of Souls

He went from healing the physical to healing the spiritual.

DAVID MARTYN LLOYD-JONES was born in Wales in 1899 and at twenty-two earned a medical degree under the most renowned physician in England. But Lloyd-Jones believed that there was a soul sickness that ran far deeper than any physical ailment. Shortly after becoming a physician, he became convinced that the real root of his patients’ ailments went beyond the physical or psychological. He concluded that to live apart from God was death and what humanity needed most was life from God.

As he came to understand that through Christ’s death on the cross people could have eternal life, Lloyd-Jones was born again. This experience changed his life—and its direction, from medicine to the pastorate. His theological education came from great theologians like John Owens and Jonathan Edwards. “I devoured these volumes and just read them and read them,” Lloyd-Jones wrote. “It is certainly true that they helped me better than anything else.” In 1927 he was ordained in George Whitefield’s London Tabernacle as a Calvinistic Methodist.

After eleven years as an evangelist and preacher in south Wales, Lloyd-Jones was invited by the aging G. Campbell Morgan to become copastor at London’s Westminster Chapel in 1938.

Spending the next thirty years preaching at the church, Lloyd-Jones saw it through the difficult war years, becoming the sole pastor when Morgan retired in 1943. Under his leadership, Westminster Chapel became recognized as the leading evangelical pulpit of England. Careful exposition of the Bible and uncompromising Reformed theology characterized his ministry there. At the same time, he was known for his genuine piety, thriving family life, sense of humor, skill as a counselor, and deep desire for renewal in the evangelical church. Thousands found Christ and grew in their faith under Lloyd-Jones’s preaching.

In 1968 illness forced him to end his ministry at Westminster Chapel. But Lloyd-Jones was later convinced that God removed his preaching ministry so that he could write. He began editing his sermon transcripts for publication and wrote many books that still remain in print.

Lloyd-Jones was a student of church history, and among his most treasured thoughts was a statement by John Wesley, who said of the early Methodists, “Our people die well.” Lloyd-Jones knew the power behind those words. Physical death did indeed lose its sting for those who were confident of their life in eternity.

His own turn to die came in the waning days of the winter of 1981. On Thursday evening, February 26, 1981, in a trembling hand, Lloyd-Jones wrote a note to his dear wife and children: “Do not pray for healing. Do not hold me back from glory.” His request was honored. The next Sunday, Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones entered glory to meet face-to-face the God he so cherished.

Reflection

God brought about a change of direction in the life of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, from physician to pastor. Has God ever opened up a new door of opportunity in your life that you didn’t expect? If he hasn’t yet, be open to the possibility that he might!

Lead me in the right path, O Lord, or my enemies will conquer me. Tell me clearly what to do, and show me which way to turn.

Psalm 5:8