The Man Whose Name Was "Help"

Recalling the man named "Help" in Pilgrim's Progress, C. H. Spurgeon has a wonderful chapter in his Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress on how to be a "Help." You'll perhaps remember that Help found Christian in the Slough of Despond, and he compassionately stooped to help Christian out of the muck with his wise counsel.

Spurgeon tells of how he himself knew "about that awful Slough of Despond." He says, "I myself floundered in it for five years, or thereabouts, and am therefore well acquainted with its terrible geography." Moved with pity for those who also find themselves in the mire of despair, he says to his flock: "So, a little knot of Christian people, both men and women, should always be ready, in every church, to listen for cries of distress, and to watch for broken hearts and cast-down spirits."

Urging his people to imitate the man named Help, Spurgeon gave the following instruction for how they might be of help to those who, like Christian, need to be lifted out of the muck:

1. Get him to state his own case. When Help assisted Christian, he did not at once put out his hand to him; but he asked him what he did there, and why he did not look for the steps. It does men much good to make them unveil their spiritual griefs to their comforters. Confession to a priest is an abomination, but the communication of our spiritual difficulties to a fellow-Christian will often be a sweet relief and a helpful exercise.

2. Enter, as much as lieth in you, into the case before you. Help came to the the brink of the Slough, and stooped down to his poor friend. This may seem to you, perhaps, as an unimportant direction; but, depend upon it, you will be able to give very little help, in any, if you do not follow it. Sympathy is the mainspring of our ability to comfort others. If you cannot enter into a soul's distress, you will be no "Son of Consolation" to that soul. So, seek to bring yourselves down to "weep with them that weep," that you may uplift them to the platform of your joy.

3. Comfort these poor brethren with the promises of God. Help asked Christian why he did not look for the steps; for there were good and substantial stepping-stones placed through the very midst of the Slough; but Christian said he had missed them through excessive fear. We should point sinking souls to the many precious promises of God's Word. Brethren, mind that you are yourselves well acquainted with the consoling declarations of Scripture; have them on the tip of your tongue, ready for use at any time that they are required.

4. Try to instruct those who may need your help more fully in the plan of salvation. The preacher cannot, even with all his attempts, make the simple Gospel plain to some of his hearers; but you, who are no preachers, may be able to do it, because your state of mind and education may happen just to suit the comprehension of the person concerned. . . . If my brethren and sisters, the "helps," will be constantly and intelligently active, they may, by homely language, often explain where theologians only confuse; that which may not have been understood, in the form of scholastic divinity, may reach the heart when uttered in the language of daily life. We need parlour and kitchen and workshop preachers, who can talk the natural speech of men; Universities and Colleges often obscure the truth by their modes of speech.

5. Tell the troubled one your own experience. Many have been aided to escape from the Slough of Despond in this way. "What! exclaims the young friend to whom we are speaking, "did you ever feel as I do?" I have often been amused, when I have been talking with enquirers, to see them open their eyes with amazement to think I had ever felt as they did, whereas I should have opened mine with far greater astonishment if I had not. We tell our patients all their symptoms, and then they think we must have read their hearts; whilst the fact is, that our hearts are just like theirs, and, in reading ourselves, we read them.

6. Pray with them. Oh the power of prayer! When you cannot tell the sinner what you want to say, you can sometimes tell it to God in the sinner's hearing. There is a way of saying, in prayer with a person, what you cannot say direct to his face; and it is well, sometimes, when praying with another, to put the case very plainly and earnestly.

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 38-48.

Suffer a Little for My Sake

"Dear God, I am your creature. You have sent me a cross and suffering, saying to me: Suffer a little for my sake and I will reward you well. Dear God, because it is your will I will gladly suffer. Amen."

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 86.

Making Texts Do Little Poodle Tricks?

Over at Blag and Mablog, Doug Wilson helpfully describes the task of systematic theology:

Systematic theology is nothing less than remembering what you read in other passages while you are reading this passage. The kind of thing that gives systematic theology a bad name is remembering what you thought other passages said, privileging them in some form of special pleading, and making the verse in front of you do little poodle tricks.

The whole post, which addresses the reality of the faithful and unfaithful within the same Church, may be found here.

O God, Grant Firm, Glad, and Grateful Faith

A Lutheran prayer for a robust faith:

O Father and God of all comfort, through your word and Holy Spirit grant us a firm, glad, and grateful faith. By it may we easily overcome this and every trial, and at length realize that what your dear Son Jesus Christ himself says is true: "But take courage; I have conquered the world" (John 16:33). Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 85.

Baptism as a Sure Sign

A Lutheran prayer of thanksgiving for the sure sign of baptism:

O my God, I am a sinner, and yet I am not a sinner. Alone and apart from Christ, I am a sinner. But in my Lord Jesus Christ and with him, I am no sinner. I firmly believe that he has destroyed all my sins with his precious blood. The sign of this is that I am baptized, cleansed by God's word, and declared absolved and freed from all my sins. In the sacrament of the true body and blood of my Lord Jesus Christ I have received as a sure sign of grace the forgiveness of sins. This he has won and accomplished for me by the shedding of his precious blood. For this I thank him in eternity. Amen.

  —Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 77.

Grammatico-Historical Method Not Enough

Ahhh. A breath of fresh air. Peter Leithart on our approach to the Scriptures:

Since the Reformation, "grammatical-historical" biblical interpretation has been the main hermeneutical method among Protestants. A development of the medieval idea of "literal" meaning, the grammatical-historical approach attempts to understand Scripture in the light of the grammar of the original languages and the historical and cultural setting in which the text was written.

Something like the grammatical-historical method has been foundational to all biblical interpretation throughout the history of the church. Biblical interpretation would be a free play of signifiers without grounding in the vocabulary, grammar, and historical setting of the Bible.

But the grammatical-historical method, essential as it is as a foundation, cannot provide the overarching "grammar" for the interpretation of Scripture. If it becomes the sole method of interpretation, the study of the Old Testament will be reduced to a study of "what they did then" rather than a study of the glories of the Christ who was yet to come.

Liberal interpretation of the Old Testament can, in fact, be understood as the product of an exclusive reliance on the grammatical-historical method, and evangelical biblical study often has the same narrow focus. Interpretation of the Old Testament must be grounded in grammar and history, but if it does not move to typology, it is not Christian interpretation.

—A House for My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament (Canon Press: Moscow, 2000), 27.

Preacher: Be Bold and Calm

C. H. Spurgeon on a man's public conduct as a preacher called of God:

My brethren, if the Lord has indeed ordained you to the ministry, you have the best reasons for being bold and calm, for whom have you to fear? You have to deliver your Lord's errand as he enables you, and if this be done, you are responsible to no one but your heavenly Master, who is no harsh judge. You do not enter the pulpit to shine as an orator, or to gratify the predilections of you audience; you are the messenger of heaven and not the servant of men.

 —“The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 163.

God Does All, and We Do All

Jonathan Edwards gives the most profound explanation I've ever read or heard for the interplay between divine sovereignty and human willing and acting (the italics are mine):

In efficacious grace we are not merely passive, nor yet does God do some, and we do the rest. But God does all, and we do all. God produces all, and we act all. For that is what he produces, namely, our own acts. God is the only proper author and fountain; we only are the proper actors. We are, in different respects, wholly passive and wholly active.

In the Scriptures the same things are represented as from God and from us. God is said to convert, and men are said to convert and turn. God makes a new heart, and we are commanded to make us a new heart. God circumcises the heart, and we are commanded to circumcise our own hearts; not merely because we must use the means in order to the effect, but the effect itself is our act and our duty. These things are agreeable to that text, "God worketh in you both to will and to do."

"God does all, and we do all. God produces all, and we act all." Now that is profound. Do you see it? If you don't, O ponder it long and hard. Peer as deep down as you can into this deep mystery! And ask yourself if this is not what Phil. 2:12-13 means when it says to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure."

So there is not the tension that some might think. God really does all, and we really do all.

—"Concerning Efficacious Grace," in Miscellaneous Observations on Important Theological Subjects (vol. 2, Works; Banner of Truth: Carlisle, 1997), 557.

Creating a Church Culture of Reading

I judge that unless we seek to do what Mark Dever urges here, our churches will never see the much needed reformation, growing maturity, spiritual depth, and generational faithfulness many of us long for. 

The pastoral consideration Dever urges is patently important, and yet somehow so little considered and carried out. Some wonder why our churches are biblically and theologically anemic. Wonder no more!

Preacher: Acquire Other Languages

C. H. Spurgeon on the value of learning languages to the expositor of sacred Scripture:

The acquisition of another language affords a fine drilling for the practice of extempore speech. Brought into connection with the roots of words, and the rules of speech, and being compelled to note the differentia of the two languages, a man grows by degrees to be much at home with parts of speech, moods, tenses, and inflections; like a workman he becomes familiar with his tools, and handles them as every day companions.

I know of no better exercise than to translate with as much rapidity as possible a portion of Virgil or Tacitus, and then with deliberation to amend one's mistakes. Persons who know no better, think all time thrown away which is spent upon the classics, but if it were only for the usefulness of such studies to the sacred orator, they ought to be retained in all our collegiate institutions.

Who does not see that the perpetual comparison of the terms and idioms of two languages must aid facility of expression? Who does not see moreover that by this exercise the mind becomes able to appreciate refinements and subtleties of meaning, and so acquires the power of distinguishing between things that differ—a power essential to an expositor of the Word of God, and an extempore declarer of his truth.

Learn, gentlemen, to put together, and unscrew all the machinery of language, mark every cog, and wheel, and bolt, and rod, and you will feel the more free to drive the engine, even at an express speed should emergencies demand it.

—“The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 160-161.

The World Ordained to Display Gospel Glories

When the time came for God to send his Son into the world, did he do so in the light of the categories that happened to be in place? In other words, did God look around for fitting symbols and patterns and analogies (e.g., sonship, kingship, priesthood, temple, bridegroom, etc.) with which Christ might be understood?

No way. Not in ten million ages. The whole of creation and human history has been ordained to display the glories of Christ and the good news he brings. God made and rules the world in such a way that all the categories for understanding the fullness of the Son and the Gospel are woven into reality from all eternity. When the Creator created, he created all things in view of what he wanted to communicate about his Son. He ordained the world, he governs the world to display the realities of redemption.

Edmund Clowney underscores this with the example of Jesus as the bridegroom of his people:

When Jesus came to gather to Himself the people of God, He revealed Himself as the Bridegroom, come to claim His church as His bride. The figure is not accidental. It is not that God looks down from heaven to discern some human relationship that might prove to be a fitting symbol of His love. The reality is the other way around. When God formed Eve from the body of Adam, He was providing the means by which we might be prepared to understand the joy of an exclusive love.

—Edmund P. Clowney, The Unfolding Mystery: Discovering Christ in the Old Testament (P&R: Phillipsburg, 1988), 26.

Religious Affections Essential

Are "affections" (what we would call "emotions" or "feelings" today) important in Christianity?

In 1746, Jonathan Edwards wrote an important and famous book, A Treatise Concerning the Religious Affections. He wanted to make one main point in this work: "true religion, in great part, consists in holy affections" (95). He defined "affections" as "the more vigorous and sensible exercises of the inclination and will of the soul" (96)—such as love, hatred, desire, delight, joy, grief, sorrow, hope, gratitude, compassion, fear, anger, zeal (97-99).

So, yes, if Edwards and, more importantly, the Bible are to be our guide, the affections are essential. Without them there is no true Christianity. Certain feelings and emotions are not optional or seen in only certain personality types. True Christianity consists, in great part, in holy affections.

—Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (ed. John E. Smith; vol. 2, Works; Yale University Press: New Haven, 1959), 95-96.

LIke a Silkworm Eating into the Leaf

C. H. Spurgeon on devouring the Word à la John Buynan:

Oh, that you and I might get into the very heart of the Word of God, and get that Word into ourselves! As I have seen the silkworm eat into the leaf, and consume it, so ought we to do with the Word of the Lord—not crawl over its surface, but eat right into it till we have taken it into our inmost parts.  

It is idle merely to let the eye glance over the words, or to recollect the poetical expressions, or the historic facts; but it is blessed to eat into the very soul of the Bible until, at last, you come to talk in Scriptural language, and your very style is fashioned upon Scripture models, and, what is better still, your spirit is flavored with the words of the Lord.  

I would quote John Buynan as an instance of what I mean. Read anything of his, and you will see that it is almost like reading the Bible itself. He had read it till his very soul was saturated with Scripture; and, though his writings are charmingly full of poetry, yet he cannot give us his Pilgrim's Progress—that sweetest of all prose poems—without continually making us feel and say, "Why, this man is a living Bible!" Prick him anywhere; his blood is Bibline, the very essence of the Bible flows from him. He cannot speak without quoting a text, for his very soul is full of the Word of God. I commend his example to you, beloved.

—C. H. Spurgeon, Pictures from Pilgrim's Progress (Pasadena: Pilgrim Publications, 1992), 5-6.

Chronological Snobbery

C. S. Lewis defines what he calls "chronological snobbery" as "the uncritical acceptance of the intellectual climate common to our own age and the assumption that whatever has gone out of date is on that account discredited."

But, he says,

You must find why it went out of date. Was it ever refuted (and if so by whom, where, and how conclusively) or did it merely die away as fashions do? If the latter, this tells us nothing about its truth or falsehood. From seeing this, one passes to the realization that our own age is also "a period," and certainly has, like all periods, its own characteristic illusions. They are likeliest to lurk in those widespread assumptions which are so ingrained in the age that no one dares to attack or feels it necessary to defend them. 

—Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1955), 207-208.

Orators Born, Not Bred

"All the rules of rhetoric, and all the artifices of oratory cannot make a man eloquent, it is a gift from heaven, and where it is withheld it cannot be obtained."

—C. H. Spurgeon, “The Faculty of Impromptu Speech,” in Lectures to My Students, Book I, 156.

Plagarism in the Pulpit

 Dr. D. A. Carson on plagarism in the pulpit over at The Gospel Coalition:

First: Taking over another sermon and preaching it as if it were yours is always and unequivocally wrong, and if you do it you should resign or be fired immediately. The wickedness is along at least three axes: (1) You are stealing. (2) You are deceiving the people to whom you are preaching. (3) Perhaps worst, you are not devoting yourself to the study of the Bible to the end that God's truth captures you, molds you, makes you a man of God and equips you to speak for him. If preaching is God's truth through human personality (so Phillips Brooks), then serving as nothing more than a kind of organic recording device in playback mode does not qualify. Incidentally, changing a few words here and there in someone else's work does not let you off the hook; re-telling personal experiences as if they were yours when they were not makes the offense all the uglier. That this offense is easy to commit because of the availability of source material in the digital age does not lessen its wickedness, any more than the ready availability of porn in the digital age does not turn pornography into a virtue. (Occasionally preachers have preached a famous sermon from another preacher, carefully noting their source. That should be done, at most, only very occasionally, but there is no evil in it.) 

Second: Taking over the structure, perhaps the outline in exact wording, and other significant chunks, while filling in the rest of the substance yourself, is not quite so grievous but still reprehensible. The temptation springs from the fact that writing a really good outline is often the most creative and challenging part of sermon preparation. Fair enough: if you "borrow" someone else's outline, simply acknowledge it, and you have not sinned. 

Third: In the course of diligent preparation, you are likely to come across clever snippets and ways of summarizing or formulating the truth of a passage that are creative and memorable. If you cite them, you should acknowledge that they are not yours, either with an "As so-and-so has said" or an "As someone has said." This discipline keeps you honest and humble. 

Fourth: If you read widely and have a good mind, that mind will inevitably become charged with good things whose source or origin you cannot recall. Often such sources can be tracked down fairly easily. On the other hand, do not become paranoid: a well-stocked mind is the result of decades of reading and learning, and ought to overflow easily and happily with gratitude toward God to the blessing of God's people. 

Johann Albrecht Bengel (1687-1752): "Apply yourself wholly to the text; apply the text wholly to yourself."

Superabounding Grace

Commenting on the language of Rom. 5:17, 20, John Owen speaks of the natural tendency of the language, which natural tendency supports understanding the righteousness or justification taught in Romans 5 as imputed freely as a gift by faith apart from works. He says,

Where there is περισσεία χάριτος, and χάρις ὑπερπερίσσευουσα— “abounding grace,” “superabounding grace”—exerted in our justification, no more is required thereunto; for how can it be said to abound, yea, to superabound, not only to the freeing of us from condemnation, but the giving of us a title unto life, if in anything it is to be supplied and eked out by works and duties of our own?

—The Doctrine of Justification by Faith (vol. 5, Works; Banner of Truth: Carlisle, 1998), 330-331.

The Scope and Sweep of the Psalms

Athanasius on the comprehensiveness and sufficiency of the Psalms:

Let whoever reads this Book of Psalms take the things in it quite simply as God-inspired; and let each select from it, as from the fruits of a garden, those things of which he sees himself in need. For I think that in the words of this book all human life is covered, with all its states and thoughts, and that nothing further can be found in man. For no matter what you seek, whether it be repentance and confession, or help in trouble and temptation or under persecution, whether you have been set free from plots and snares or, on the contrary, are sad for any reason, or whether, seeing yourself progressing and your enemy cast down, you want to praise and thank and bless the Lord, each of these things the Divine Psalms show you how to do, and in every case the words you want are written down for you, and you can say them as your own.

—St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation (ed. and transl. A Religious of C.S.M.V.; New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993), 116.

O Lord, I Am the Straying Sheep, You Are the Shepherd

A Lutheran prayer to the Good Shepherd:

O God, these are your words: There is greater joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine who do not repent. All the righteous and the angels will crush sin under their feet and will cover it. O my God, I feel my sins and am judged already. I am greatly in need of a shepherd to seek me. For this reason I rely completely on the gospel. O Lord, I know that I am a straying sheep and that you are the Shepherd and the One who seeks the lost. I want to hold to this assurance. In the mirror of your law I see that I am a scarred and lost sinner. Save me, O God, for the sake of your only begotten Son. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 72.

The Supremacy of God in Preaching

In Part One of his book The Supremacy of God in Preaching, John Piper unpacks four elements in making God supreme in preaching:

(1) The Goal of Preaching: The Glory of God
(2) The Ground of Preaching: The Cross of Christ
(3) The Gift of Preaching: The Power of the Holy Spirit
(4) The Gravity and Gladness of Preaching

On the cover, J. I. Packer says this: "A powerful tonic for tired preachers—a book that digs deep into the theology, strategy, and spirituality of pulpit ministry." A powerful tonic alright.

Consider reading it, if you haven't, even if you're not a tired preacher. You may find it to be a jolt to your soul like it's been to mine, not unlike the first time I heard Piper preach in person about ten years ago in Chicago at Moody. It was like an electric shock went right through me and electrified my soul for God. But before being electrified for God, that shock wave left me struck and numb for hours that evening with awe at the glory of God in the Gospel.

O Lord, Rekindle and Strengthen Faith

A Lutheran prayer before receiving communion:

My Lord Christ, I have fallen, I would be gladly strong. For this purpose you have instituted the sacrament, that with it we may rekindle and strengthen our faith and be helped. Therefore I am to receive it. Behold, Lord, it is your word. My weakness and failings are known to you. You, yourself, have said: "Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest" (Matt. 11:18). I now come to be helped. Amen. 

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 76.

The Psalter's Very Special Grace

From the Letter of St. Athanasius to Marcellinus on the Interpretation of the Psalms:

Among all the books [of the Bible], the Psalter has certainly a very special grace, a choiceness of quality well worthy to be pondered; for, besides the characteristics which it shares with others, it has this peculiar marvel of its own, that within it are represented and portrayed in all their great variety the movements of the human soul. It is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed and, seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given. Elsewhere in the Bible you read only that the Law commands this or that to be done, you listen to the Prophets to learn about the Saviour's coming or you turn to the historical books to learn the doings of the kings and holy men; but in the Psalter, besides all these things, you learn about yourself. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries.

—St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation (ed. and transl. A Religious of C.S.M.V.; New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1993), 103.

Humanity 2.0: "All in the Name of the Lord Jesus"

Below is the outline (with bullet applications) we gave everyone for the sermon I preached last Lord's Day evening. President Philip Ryken of Wheaton College, former pastor of the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, preached in our morning service. At our evening gathering, I joked that there's nothing quite like preaching your first sermon right after the preaching of President Doctor Philip Ryken of the historic Tenth Presbyterian Church.

Humanity 2.0: "All in the Name of the Lord Jesus” (Col. 3:12-17)

I. By What Authority Do You Do What You Do?

II. All in the Name of the Lord Jesus (v. 17):

            A. The structure, emphasis, theme: Col. 3:17 and 2:6-7 (and 3:1).

            B. The “new man/humanity” in Christ: “Christ is all, and in all!”

            (Col. 3:9-11).

III. The Christian’s Christian Clothing (vv. 12-14):

            A. “Then/therefore” (v. 12): what’s it there for? Verses 9-11 and the 

            new humanity.

            B.  Do you know yourself? Elect, holy, loved.

            C. Put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Wear his graces like a garment.

IV. The Body’s Body Language (vv. 15-16):

            A. Let Christ’s peace control your hearts.

            B. Let Christ’s word dwell within you.

            C. Guard yourselves with gratitude.

V. How Do We Wear and Bear This? Seven Brief Bullet Points.

• First, guard yourselves with gratitude (Col. 3:15, 17). The grateful person does not easily become resentful or envious or embittered or callous or careless or lifeless or loveless or. . . .

• Second, take in God’s word daily (Col. 3:16). Read your Bibles. Do it with your families, with siblings in Christ, with friends. Take in God’s word alone. Read it. Reread it. And reread it again. Regularly receive the word in faith at our Sunday gatherings. Hear it. Hear it again. And again. Think and pray it over. Talk about it with others. Speak it to others in the body. Gossip the Gospel.

• Third, devote yourselves to prayer (Col. 4:2, 12). You couldn’t save yourself, and you can’t sanctify yourself or others. You had to call on the name of the living Lord for salvation; you must call on the name of the living Lord for sanctification.

• Fourth, trust the Lord’s word about body life. He knows better than we do how to do this thing. He’s wiser than we are. Trust him. Even when (especially when) his word runs counter to our thinking. “But you don’t understand how he/she did this, and then said that. . . .” Trust him. Forgive. Put up with. Love. Let peace rule.

• Fifth, obey the Lord Jesus (Col. 3:17). Resolve to keep his commands in the power of his powerful Spirit. If Baal is lord, obey him. If modern consensus is lord, obey it. If you are your lord, then do it your way. But if Jesus is Lord of all, obey him—in everything, always! Jesus is Lord of all.

• Sixth, set your minds on things above, not on things on the earth (Col. 3:2). If our minds are stuffed with the world, heaven won’t dwell within our body, our church.

• Seventh, put to death the deeds of the body of the old man (Col. 3:5-9) that hinder living out the life of the new humanity in the New Man, the Second Adam (1 Cor. 15:22), our Lord Jesus. 

Do Your Sins Bite and Gnaw and Frighten You?

A Lutheran prayer to the Lord Jesus:

Dear Lord Jesus Christ, I feel my sins. They bite and gnaw and frighten me. Where shall I go? I look to you, Lord Jesus, and believe in you. Although my faith is weak, I cling to you and am made sure, for you have promised: whoever believes in me shall have eternal life. Even if my conscience is troubled and my sins frighten me and make me tremble, you have still said: "My son, be of good cheer; your sins are forgiven you. I will raise you up on the last day, and you will have eternal life." I cannot help myself by my own strength. I come to you for help. Amen. 

 —Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 72.

"The Anti-Psalm"

David Powlison turns Ps. 131 into its opposite, the anti-psalm:

Self,
      my heart is proud (I'm absorbed in myself),
      and my eyes are haughty (I look down on other people),
      and I chase after things too great and too difficult for me.
So of course I'm noisy and restless inside, it comes naturally,
      like a hungry infant fussing on his mother's lap,
      like a hungry infant, I'm restless with my demands and worries.
I scatter my hopes onto anything and everybody all the time.

—"'Peace, be still': Learning Psalm 131 by Heart," The Journal of Biblical Counseling 18 (2000): 3-4.

Journaling: A Time-Wasting and Foolish Practice

C. S. Lewis on keeping a diary (what we'd call "journaling"):

If Theism had done nothing else for me, I should still be thankful that it cured me of the time-wasting and foolish practice of keeping a diary. (Even for autobiographical purposes a diary is nothing like so useful as I had hoped. You put down each day what you think important; but of course you cannot each day see what will prove to have been important in the long run.)

—Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1955), 233.

God Is Merciful to Me

A Lutheran prayer of confession and confident trust:

Dear God, before you I confess that I am a great sinner. The Ten Commandments would drive me and commit me directly to hell. But your precious gospel teaches me to know and believe that out of love you have established a kingdom through Jesus Christ. In it you will be merciful and will help forlorn and condemned sinners. So I say my confession of faith and sin in one word: I am truly a sinner, but God is merciful to me. I am your enemy, but you are my friend. I deserve condemnation, yet I know that you do not want to condemn me. 

You want me to be blessed and to inherit heaven. This is indeed your will. You have permitted this truth to be preached to me and have commanded me to believe it, for the sake of your Son whom you have given for me. Amen. 

 —Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 71-72.

Do You Know Who You Are?

Do you know who you are? I'm talking to you, Christians. I mean, do you really understand who you are in God's Son? Consider the address of the saints of Colossae in Colossians 3, addressed by Saint Paul in his ancient letter to them. 

Verse 12 of Colossians 3 addresses you—my brothers and sisters in Jesus—as “God’s chosen ones,” or it could be translated, “the elect of God.” This description—don't miss it!—is so precious. Israel of old was God’s elect. And as Israel of old was called sovereignly and freely, so also “you were called.” See verse 15: “you were called in one body.” You were summoned to be joined to Jesus, to belong to Jesus’ body. And, the “elect of God” are also described as “holy” and “loved.” You are “holy” and “loved.”

To understand the power and preciousness of these “oppulent appellations,”[1] consider the love language of Deut. 7:6-8. (By the way, I’ll just say parenthetically: this ought to be your “love language,” our love language.)  In Deuteronomy 7:6-8, these three concepts of election, holiness, and being loved come together so beautifully. 

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

To be holy, as perhaps you know, is to be set apart for God’s special use and purposes. And this holiness is the result (note this well), not the cause, of God’s election. God’s choosing of a people calls them to be holy, set apart with a special status, to be used for God’s good and glorious purposes.

Now although God’s election makes a people holy, it is not election that makes God’s people loved. God’s love is what moved him to elect a people. His love elects, his love chooses.

Two texts on this love. Jeremiah 31:3 says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” Before you were created, God loved you, he set his affection on you. And Ephesians 1:4-5: “In love he predestined us . . . through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will. . . .” So his love moved him to predestine, to elect. You are elect, because you were loved, but you were not loved and elected because you were holy, but God’s love and election made you holy. For as Colossians 2:13-14 tells us: “When you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, [it was then that] God made you alive together with Christ, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having wiped out that record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands.” He put it away, “nailing it to the cross.” Loved. Elected. Forgiven. Made holy.

And so with these descriptions—chosen, holy, and loved—it’s clear: the Church is being understood as the new Israel in the second Adam, as a new humanity in Jesus. Doug Moo says this:

The Christians in Colossae . . . have the privilege of belonging to the historical people of God. The ‘new self’ is the ‘new Israel.’ This identification is clearly indicated in the description of the Colossians as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved. All three are standard ways of describing Israel in the Old Testament and the church as the people of God in the New Testament.[2]

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[1] Kent Hughes, Colossians and Philemon: The Supremacy of Christ (Wheaton: Crossway, 1989), 101.

[2] Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008), 275.

Preacher: What to Strive For

"Don't strive to be a kind of preacher. Strive to be a kind of person!"—John Piper

—John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 63.