A Blog Fast: Going Somewhere Warm with Wifey

Since Em and I will be going somewhere warm, the blog will be on hold for a week or so. We're going to spend some time seeking the Lord's face for the new year ahead, and we're going to practice a good bit of covenant renewal (that's code for lots of lovemaking). We're calling our time away "honeymoon round two." Isn't marriage good? Who thought this thing up? All praise, glory, and honor be to him.

Still Pressing on with Pilgrim by Faith

Pressing on in the journey we set about weeks back with Christian through our reading plan, we've come to rockier road. This has happened, strangely, after Christian lost his load (about which I posted). Many a Christian is surprised at this, thinking that the unburdened abundant life would bring earthly comforts and ease. But it is not so for the one who has embraced the cross, as Christian has found out and is teaching us in his trek.

And yet, whatever cross-bearing or trials and temptations the pilgrim faces, these all are wonderfully overcome by looking to the cross, not our cross. And so it happens as it did at the first: all burdens and loads along the way are loosened and laid on the the living Lord who was crucified. He continues to bear them in his body. And his cross-work continues to provide power for persevering.

So we read this when Christian was at the house of Discretion (he's relating his experience to Piety):

I saw one, as I thought in my mind, hang bleeding upon the tree; and the very sight of him made my burden fall off my back (for I groaned under a very heavy burden) but then it fell down from off me. 'Twas a strange thing to me, for I never saw such a thing before; yea, and while I stood looking up . . . three shining ones came to me: one of them testified that my sins were forgiven me; another stript me of my rags, and gave me this broidered coat which you see; and the third set the mark which you see in my fore-head, and gave me this sealed roll . . . (p. 53).

Of course here he's referring to when his load was first taken from him. And the "three shining ones" testify to the pilgrim's pardon, imputed perfection, and secure election. At that time, they also hand him a book to remember these things, needful because the journey's just begun.

A little further on, still at Discretion's house, Christian tells how "annoyances" (afflictions, trials, and temptations) along the way, after the load was loosened, are sometimes vanquished. Prudence had asked him, "Can you remember by what means you find your annoyances at times, as if they were vanquished?" Christian replies,

Yes, when I think what I saw at the cross, that will do it; and when I look upon my broidered coat, that will do it; and when I look into the roll that I carry in my bosom, that will do it; and when my thoughts wax warm about whither I am going, that will do it (p. 54). 

Prudence then queries Christian further, "And what is it that makes you so desirous to go to Mount Zion?" Christian beams and says,

Why, there I hope to see him alive, that did hang dead on the cross; and there I hope to be rid of all those things, that to this day are in me an annoyance to me; there, they say, there is no death, and there I shall dwell with such company as I like best. For to tell you truth, I love him, because I was by him eased of my burden, and I am weary of my inward sickness . . . (p. 54).

So, thus instructed, we too press on with Christian just as we started our journey at the very first. That is to say, we continue by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us; we continue to look to him who bore our burdens and robed us with his righteousness; we move onward and forward in the hope of glory held forth in the Gospel preached to us in the beginning; we are borne along by a weariness of inward sickness which reaches for the remedy and rest purchased and promised; and more, and most of all, seeing him dimly but still seeing him truly, we press on for love of our Lord toward the goal of seeing and knowing and enjoying fully him who bled and died in our stead, him who is our everlasting rest and refreshment at journey's end.

Father, Here's Our Commendation Amid Temptation

A Lutheran prayer commending all against temptations:

Heavenly Father, may we commend to you all who strive and work against great and many temptations. Strengthen those who still stand. Restore those who have fallen and given up. Grant all of us your grace in a miserable and uncertain life, and though surrounded constantly by so many enemies, may we persistently fight with a valiant and firm faith and finally obtain the eternal crown. Amen. 

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 37.

The Christmas Spirit

From J. I. Packer's classic Knowing God (pp. 63-64):

We talk glibly of the "Christmas spirit," rarely meaning more by this than sentimental jollity on a family basis. But . . . the phrase should in fact carry a tremendous weight of meaning. It ought to mean the reproducing in human lives of the temper of him who for our sake became poor at the first Christmas. And the Christmas spirit itself ought to be the mark of every Christian all year round.

It is our shame and disgrace today that so many Christians—I will be more specific: so many of the soundest and most orthodox Christians—go through this world in the spirit of the priest and the Levite in our Lord's parable, seeing human needs all around them, but (after a pious wish, and perhaps a prayer, that God might meet those needs) averting their eyes and passing by on the other side. That is not the Christmas spirit. Nor is it the spirit of those Christians—alas, they are many—whose ambition in life seems limited to building a nice middle-class Christian home, and making nice middle-class Christian friends, and bringing up their children in nice middle-class Christian ways, and who leave the submiddle-class sections of the community, Christian and non-Christian, to get on by themselves.  

The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christmas snob. For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor—spending and being spent—to enrich their fellow humans, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others—and not just their own friends—in whatever way there seems need. 

There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of the things he will do will be to work more of this spirit in our hearts and lives. If we desire spiritual quickening for ourselves individually, one step we should take is to seek to cultivate this spirit. "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich" (2 Cor. 8:9). "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5).

May the Spirit of this spirit be given to all who love the real Christmas, not the cultural accretions that have accumulated in our tidy little Middle American culture. May God be pleased to revive his churches to bear the likeness of the incarnate Christ who gave away his glory to give us glory, who became poor to make many rich.

The Son Took Flesh and Bone to His Person

Anselm on the person of Christ ("On the Incarnation of the Word" in Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998):

For one who correctly understands the Son's incarnation believes that the Son assumed a human being into the unity of his person and not into the unity of his substance. And my adversary foolishly thinks that the Son assumed a human being into the unity of his substance rather than into the unity of his person (p. 249).

The glorious doctrine of the person of Christ is worth celebrating with all the might: and so it also one of those doctrines worth fighting over when it is under attack.

Why December 25th?

Tim Challies links to a Christianity Today article written by Elesha Coffman that answers this question.

Update: See also Justin Taylor's post on this question, which provides an article from Andreas Köstenberger's website.

Guard Us, O God, from Greed

A Lutheran prayer against greed and cosmic treason:

Preserve us from a corrupt desire and greed for the wealth of the world. Guard us from seeking the power and glory of this world and succumbing to its views. Protect us from the treachery of the world, so that its deception and wealth may not entice us to follow it. Amen. 

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 36.

Atomism and Authoritarianism in Scholarship

In his excellent discussion on textual criticism in Interpreting Galatians, Moisés Silva says that "the textual discussions one finds in a commentary amount to little more than a guess or a mildly informed opinion" (43). And the central problem, he says, is atomism:

When NT scholars cite the reading of a manuscript, they almost never assess that reading in the light of the scribal peculiarities of that manuscript as a whole. As a result, statements about whether one type of change is more likely than another are usually based on very general and vague principles (such as "the shorter reading is preferred," a valid criterion that must however be used with awareness of some important qualifications), not on familiarity with the scribal tendencies found in specific manuscripts. Moreover, variants are most often evaluated without attention to parallel variations in other passages (44). 

I've often wondered why I'm supposed to submit to these general principles (such as "the shorter reading is preferred," or "the more difficult reading is preferred"). While there may be some validity in such principles, as Silva points out, I still often find myself asking, "Why?" "On whose authority?" "Why should I bow to these principles?" "Are they inspired?" Textual criticism is not a hard science like chemistry, and no set of principles can infallibly guide one through textual difficulties.

So in addition to the problem of atomism, I'd add the problem of authoritarianism. And I'm glad that a solid scholar like Silva has given us permission to ignore much of what the scholars have to say. But I confess, I probably would have done the ignoring without that permission. Scholars are getting easier and easier to ignore. And most should not give a second thought to what the mass of them thinks.

As Per Your Promise, Father, Silence All Slander

A Lutheran prayer in the face of false accusations:

As you have promised, give us your goodness in place of our wickedness. Silence all cruel slanderers and accusers, those who magnify our faults, and the devil. Do so now and whenever our conscience is worried. Keep us from all backbiting and from exaggerating the sins of others. Judge us not by the evidence of the devil and by our own depressed consciences. Hear not the cry of our enemies who accuse us day and night before you, just as we would not listen to the slandering and accusing of others. Take from our souls the heavy burden of all our sins, so that with a clear, joyful, and sincere conscience we may endure and do all things, and live and die fully confident of your mercy. Amen. 

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 35-36.

The Temple Motif in Ezekiel

The temple motif pervades Scripture. And I am willing to argue that it is one of the main theological realities that holds the whole together. If one understands the biblical theology of the temple, one really does understand a great deal of how Scripture, how history, and how theology are unfolding.

Ezekiel's prophecy provides no small witness to that biblical theology. The temple teaching in Ezekiel, however, cannot be understood solely on its own terms (which approach would be hermeneutically unsound, since that's not the way Scripture works). Unless one already grasps a good deal of the sweep of the Bible's temple teaching, one will likely simply be befuddled by Ezek. 40-48, or just flatly misunderstand it and do damage to the glory of Christ.

Consider the broad-brush painting of Ezekiel produced by the palette of William Dumbrell, a man who has labored in the canon for many years and understands its interconnectedness.This portrait gives only a hint of the scope of the temple teaching in the Bible, but one can hear and see Genesis to Revelation in this brief word focusing on Ezekiel:

Yahweh is depicted in Ezekiel 1 as enthroned and accompanied by ministrant attendants. . . . They function only as bearers of the throne. Yahweh is moving from his heavenly palace, in judgment against the Jerusalem temple. The book thus commences with Jerusalem and her temple under imminent judgment. Yet the covenant faithfulness of Yahweh has led us to expect a movement beyond judgment. So the book of Ezekiel concludes with the magnificent conception of Yahweh enthroned in what must be the New Jerusalem, permanently located among his people in a new city from which, in Eden terms, the waters of life flow.

—The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 153.

Dear Father, Grant Grace for the "Three Tempters"

A Lutheran prayer for the Father's assisting grace against the "three tempters":

We have the three tempters: the flesh, the world, and the devil. Therefore, dear Father, we ask you to give us the grace to expel the lusts of the flesh. Help us to avoid excessive eating, drinking, and sleeping, and to resist laziness.

Grant that by fasting, careful eating, and proper clothing and care for the body we may watch and toil to become useful and fitted for good works. Help us to kill and to crucify with Christ's help all evil inclinations and lusts of the flesh, with all its cravings and temptations, so that no one will concede to its temptations or follow them. 

Help that when we see a beautiful person or creature we may not be led to temptation but to admiration and to praising you through your creation. Grant that when we hear something pleasant and perceive something lovely we may not seek lust in it but rather praise and glory. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 34.

Christ Plus Nothing Equals Everything: Enough!

Today's New Covenant Church sermon was simply stellar. Pulling back the cosmic curtains with Col. 1:15-20, Pastor Andrew Fulton unveiled the glory of the Son of God in a sermon entitled Enough. My wife and I said to each other that it was one of the best Christmas sermons we've ever heard.

Like a master workman with great God-given skill, Andrew weaves the infinitely glorious Christology of Colossians into the twenty-first century fabric of fallen Naperville lives. Bringing the Word of God to bear upon our contemporary culture and concerns by bringing us face to face with Infinity incarnate, what can we do but respond with faith, joy, and worship? Christ plus nothing equals everything! Christ is all, and all is ours!

Emily and I feel so liberated and satisfied by the cosmic Christ of this preached word. You may listen to it at NCC's website. Enjoy. Marvel. Believe. Rest. And have a very Merry Christmas!

Would Make for a Good Study

Follow this link for a table comparing the Westminster Confession of Faith (1646) and the London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689). These two confessions are very similar, the latter dependent on the former: but the differences, even at a glance, are telling. Probing those differences, and asking why they are there and where they are going, would make for a good study.

HT: Justin Taylor

Be Killing Sin, Or Else

An important word to remember from Tim Challies and John Owen on the importance of mortifying sin.

Teach, Preserve, and Protect, O LORD

A Lutheran prayer for instruction, preservation, and protection of the home:

Teach us by your Spirit to manage our homes well and to rule our households in a Christian manner, to your service, praise, and glory. Preserve our children and all in our household from sin and shame, as well as from danger and harm to body and soul. Protect the fruits of the fields and all cattle from lightning, poison, wild beasts, and every possible injury. Amen.

 —Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 34.

Separation of Church and State?

How does our notion of the separation of church and state stand up to Jer. 50:14 (and countless other places in the prophetic word)? Does the word of the Lord care what we think? Does it care what we've got enshrined in law? Consider also Jer. 51:5. Is the political arena neutral? Are not even the pagan politicians and potentates (and parliaments and congresses) held responsible to YHWH?

Preacher: Have Something to Say

C. H. Spurgeon's counsel on being interesting enough to be heard:

Your subject must weigh so much upon your own mind that you dedicate all your faculties at their best to the deliverance of your soul concerning it; and then when your hearers see that the topic has engrossed you, it will by degrees engross them.

And,

Romaine used to say it was well to understand the art of preaching, but infinitely better to know the heart of preaching; and in that saying there is no little weight. The heart of preaching, throwing of the soul into it, the earnestness which pleads as for life itself, is half the battle as to gaining attention. . . . Have something to say, and say it earnestly, and the congregation will be at your feet.  

—“Attention,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 146.

Give Grace to Preach, to Lead, to Hear

A Lutheran prayer for preachers and hearers alike, and for all in authority: 

Give grace to all preachers to proclaim Christ and your Word in all the world profitably and gladly. Grant that all who hear your Word preached may learn to know Christ and actually improve their lives through him. Exclude from your holy church all strange doctrines and preaching in which Christ is not made known. Be merciful to all bishops and ministers and all in authority, that they may be enlightened by your grace and rightly teach and lead us by good word and good example. Protect all who are weak in the faith that they may not be misled by the wickedness of any in authority. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 33.

What to Expect at a CREC Church

Here you may find Pastor Wilson's ongoing explanation (who knows how much longer he'll go) of what to expect at a CREC church. As I've said before, this is a growing communion that has impressed me a great deal. And you should probably consider visiting one if one has been planted in your area.

Supping with the Savior One Day; Sinning with Satan by Monday?

At my local church, we sat done with Jesus yesterday at his table. We partook of his body and blood together, and we renewed fellowship with him and with one another. And I have one question, mainly for myself, before the Lord himself, as I begin this week, but also for all who regularly sit down to sup and cup with the living Lord Jesus:

We just sat down at supper with Jesus yesterday: how then can we dine with the devil today?

Loosening the Load and Bearing It No More

Journeying along with Christian through our reading plan is proving to be steadying and stabilizing, or at least reminding me, when not steady and stable, of the need for perseverance. I'm enjoying Buynan's masterpiece immensely. Through the first bit of reading, however, I've had a quibble with the dream. Christian carries quite a load on his back for quite a way before he reaches the burden-bearer. Along the way, he's not directed straightaway to his relief. Even Evangelist seems to be too slow to lighten Christian's load. And Goodwill urges Christian to "be content to bear it, until thou comest to the place of deliverance . . . (31).

Yet finally, after Christian had encountered a number of poor traveling companions, Interpreter sends him on his way toward his deliverance. Still burdened, Christian runs, not without difficulty, up the highway called Salvation. Ascending he sees a place with a cross and, a little below, a grave. Approaching the cross, the load loosens and shortly falls from his back, tumbling into the mouth of the grave, so that he saw it no more. We then read: "Then was Christian glad and lightsome, and said with a merry heart, 'He hath given me rest, by his sorrow; and life, by his death'" (41). Christian then looked and wondered awhile, "for it was very surprising to him, that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden" (41).

This episode stands at the head of a number that recount the loosened load and the cross's continuing freeing influence in Christian's journey. For example, on page 43, "Christian gives three leaps for joy, and went on singing":

Thus far I did come loaden with my sin,
Nor could ought ease the grief that I was in,
Till I came hither: what a place is this!
Must here be the beginning of my bliss?
Must here the burden fall from off my back?
Must here the strings that bound it to me crack?
Bless'd Cross! Bless'd sepulchre! Bless'd rather be
The man that there was put to shame for me.

A little later in the journey, being a weary traveler, Christian seeks and finds rest at "a pleasant arbour, made by the Lord of the hill, for the refreshing of weary travellors" (46):

Thither therefore Christian got, where also he sat down to rest him. Then he pull'd his roll out of his bosom, and read therein to his comfort; he also now began afresh to take a review of the coat or garment that was given him as he stood by the cross.

Here we see Christian, post-conversion, pulling out of his chest (probably Bible memorization, but perhaps just a Bible itself) the good news of a garment (no doubt Christ's righteousness) given to him when he first looked to Christ on the cross. This is walking, traveling by faith, pressing on in the journey in the same way it began.

And so must be the whole of our journey to our heavenly homeland. We walk by faith, not by sight. And, as Buynan eloquently reminds us, that faith pre-eminently eyes the Christ of the cross, risen and exalted, Lord of all, interceding for his own, mediating in heaven as the Christian's robe of righteousness. "Bless'd Cross! Bless'd sepulchre! Bless'd rather be / The man that there was put to shame for me."

The Fathers and Pistis Iēsou Christou

It is probably of no interest to most to know how much ink has been spilled over the Greek phrase pistis Iēsou Christou (πίστις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ). So I'll just say it's been a lot. But it is probably of interest to many what that phrase means, since it comes in crucial texts, such as Gal. 2:16, that expound how we are justified.

Until the 1970s, the universal view took it as an objective genitive: "faith in Jesus Christ." But since then many have taken it as a subjective genitive: "the faithfulness of Jesus Christ." Since Greek genitival constructions are inherently ambiguous, how can one know which is in view? (Before pressing on, let it be said that, theologically speaking, both are true. We are saved by faith in Christ and by the faithfulness of Christ.)  Well, the way to get at the meaning in a given context is to heed the flow of thought and compare the same or similar constructions in the near and more distant contexts. 


However, there is another consideration as well, like asking how native Greek speakers took the phrase. Fortunately, in this instance, we know the answer. As  Moisés Silva points out in Interpreting Galatians, the Greek fathers of the early church oftentimes, like exegetes of today, had differing opinions about the rendering of a word or construction. In discussing this, he uses Chrysostom as an example (p. 30):

When Chrysostom is aware of a problem—that is, a difference of opinion about the meaning of a word or a construction—we should take his opinion as only that, an opinion to be weighed and evaluated. However, in cases where we are aware of an ambiguity, while Chrysostom simply assumes that one of the possible meanings is the right one, that fact can become highly significant. In other words, his use of Greek at that point is very strong evidence for the way a native speaker would naturally understand the language.

He then discusses the bearing of this phenomenon on how we take pistis Iēsou Christou:

A recognition of this phenomenon can have substantive implications. Chrysostom and the other Greek fathers, for instance, evidently assume that πίστις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ is an objective genitive ("faith in Jesus Christ," rather than "faith/faithfulness of Jesus Christ"), but the commentaries fail to point out the significance of that fact. Surely, very weighty arguments are needed to counter this evidence. In spite of it, however, some scholars argue that a subjective genitive is the more "natural" interpretation.

So maybe one of the lessons we might learn from Silva is not to be too impressed by scholarly statements like "the natural reading is thus and such." We probably also ought to be slow to move away from the way the Church has traditionally interpreted a text because of some recent scholarly innovation unless we really do have sufficient reason for doing so.