Baptism into Christ's Body

I just started to read Robert Letham's Systematic Theology, published by Crossway in 2019. And it just might become my go-to one-volume systematic theology along with Louis Berkhof's. So far, it is riveting. (Never thought I'd say this about a contemporary systematics text!) I will probably post a bit more on it as I get into its contents more deeply, but for now I simply want to cite a portion on baptism.

As I began to read the section on baptism (in preparation for our daughter Zoe's baptism this upcoming weekend), I thought to myself, and blurted out to my wife: "This is my view! This is what the New Testament actually teaches!" It's rooted in the Bible's fairly straightforward teaching instead of our modern systems on these things, where baptism tends to get detached from its biblical, ecclesial, and salvific contexts. Letham does well in holding things together that few Christians (North American, at least) seem to be able to hold together.

Note that the discussion of baptism in Letham's volume comes after justification, not in a detached section on ecclesiology, but in a chapter entitled "The Beginning of the Christian Life," which is itself part of a larger section on "The Spirit of God and the People of God." Here's a salutary sample, and a good simple word on baptism:

It is appropriate to bring baptism into the equation at this point [after a discussion on justification]. The New Testament presents baptism as one of the points of entry into salvation, together with repentance, faith, and the reception of the Holy Spirit; these all feature in the evangelistic sermons in Acts. Throughout the New Testament Epistles there are allusions to baptism in this connection. Moreover, Rome makes baptism the instrumental cause of justification; while this has had unfortunate consequences, it alerts us to the need to provide some coherent answer. We saw in the previous chapter the close connections between regeneration, union with Christ, and baptism, connections often missed in evangelical and much recent Reformed thought [italics mine]. The Western world has been prone to thinking in analytical categories, breaking realities down into component parts, with distinctions to the forefront rather than connections. There is need to repair this imbalance in our present context. . . . 

Baptism is essential to the church's ministry. Jesus instituted it and required it as primary (Matt. 28:18–20). The way the church is to make the nations disciples is first by baptizing them. This occurred at Pentecost only a few days later (Acts 2:37–41). There, Peter linked baptism to the gift of the Spirit and cleansing from sin (1 Pet. 3:21). Paul also connects baptism with cleansing from sin (Acts 22:16) and elsewhere mentions baptism in the same breath as membership of the body of Christ and the gift of the Spirit (1 Cor. 12:13). It is the entry point into the church and so marks, in its way, the entrance into salvation. 

 —Robert Letham, Systematic Theology (Wheaton: Crossway, 2019), 705–706.

Christian Education's Impotence

"Christian education is no more capable of transforming men than is humanistic education" (Wilson, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning, 76).

The Massive Entailments of a Clear Theology of Creation

C. S. Lewis, speaking on a clear theology of creation, as it comes to us in the Psalter, over against the alternatives of the ancient world:

Now we all understand of course the importance of this peculiarity in Judaic thought from a strictly and obviously religious point of view. But its total consequences, the ways in which it changes a man's whole mind and imagination, might escape us (Reflections on the Psalms, 93). 

This is astute. And all the more so sixty-some years after Lewis wrote this. The worldview implications of God's making all things of nothing cannot be overstated. Along with working out a biblical view of man that is desperately needed today (anthropology is the battle ground in our day, not soteriology, not anything else), there needs to be a renewed emphasis on the Creator and his spoken world. The entailments are far more numerous and pervasive than many today, it seems, seem to be able to consider. We live in a dream world. A delusion.

Being drilled for so long now in a materialistic view of things from the secular standpoint, we are hardly able to think rightly about reality at all. I say this advisedly; I don't think this is overstating the matter. It is no accident of history, for example, that we are more muddled about man (what he is, and what is his place and purpose in the world) than ever before. Lewis serves here as a salutary reminder that we need to give renewed attention to attending to the world and the Word who made it.

What Justifying Faith Is

In the last post from Thomas Watson's justly famous A Body of Divinity I sought to introduce a portion of the book and its broader context. That portion is the fifth chapter entitled "The Application of Redemption." Here, working through key catechetical elements in our redemption, Pastor Watson instructs the flock of God on matters of faith, effectual calling, justification, adoption, sanctification, assurance, peace, joy, growth in grace, and perseverance, each in turn. And each full of matter for meditation and provocation for practice. We look now, first off, at what justifying faith is.

Watson wisely notes first what it is not. This is important, not least when counterfeits go about unchecked and unchallenged. Everyone believes today in the evangelical church. Or they wouldn't be there, right? Wrong. Without going into all the reasons why man (who is incurably religious) might attend an "evangelical" church, it is sufficient to focus on what Watson avers: "There may be assent to divine truth, and yet no work of grace on the heart" (215). That's no doubt right. One may agree that the gospel is true and still not know God or be justified by his grace. This sort of "faith" is the faith of devils. They know the gospel is true, but don't love it or trust it. So, Watson continues: "Many assent in their judgments, that sin is an evil thing, but they go on in sin, whose corruptions are stronger than their convictions. . ." (215). May it never be with us.

Well, what then, you ask, is a justifying faith, or a faith that justifies? What is the sort of faith that saves sinners from the coming wrath? What faith unites to the risen Jesus and puts one right with a holy God, a God who cannot truck with sin? According to our trustworthy physician of the soul for this post, it consists in three things: 1) self-renunciation; 2) reliance; and 3) appropriation.

First, self-renunciation. "Faith is a going out of one's self, being taken off from our own merits, and seeing we have no righteousness of our own. 'Not having mine own righteousness' (Phil. 3:9). Self-righteousness is a broken reed, which the soul dares not lean on. Repentance and faith are both humbling graces; by repentance a man abhors himself; by faith he goes out of himself" (216). For our purposes today, almost certainly the main thing to observe here is that justifying faith does not make much of the self. It's not impressed with the self. The self-serving swollen-self is a thing to be repented of rather than touted and tickled. Faith looks away from this swollen self upward "to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb." And it looks to his goodness, his greatness, his glory, and says: "not having a righteousness of my own." It says: “not impressed with the self.” It says: “no good thing dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.”

Next, Watson speaks of how faith, if it is to be a faith that justifies, includes the element of reliance. Faith relies not on the self, but on another. "Faith rests on Christ's person. Faith believes the promise; but that which faith rests upon in the promise is the person of Christ. . . . Faith is described to be 'believing on the name of the Son of God' (1 John 3:23), namely, upon his person. . . . Faith rests on Christ's person 'as crucified' [and, I'll add, risen and reigning and coming again in great power and glory]. It glories in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14)." This is the proper person (not the swollen self) for faith to rely on. And this person—Christ crucified, risen, reigning!—knows nothing of the modern self, which is conceited and self-absorbed. No, the person of the risen Jesus is swallowed up in his Father's glory and will. The person of Christ is swallowed up in diving love, not self-love. And he came to nail the modern self to the cross along with all our other God-belittling sins of self-exaltation. 

Lastly, then, comes appropriation. A justifying faith applies Christ to itself. To illustrate, Watson paints this picture: "A medicine, though it be ever so sovereign, if not applied, will do no good. . . . This applying of Christ is called receiving him (John 1:12). The hand receiving gold, enriches; so the hand of faith, receiving Christ's golden merits with salvation, enriches us" (216). And this receiving or appropriation language is fitting for faith that focuses on another away from the swollen self. The modern self can do nothing for its self, or by its self, or with its self. No, rather, looking up and away from its self, authentic faith receives with the hand of a beggar the free gift of God.

What is worthy here to focus faith's attention on as I end this post is how a justifying faith is not one that merely knows the benefits of redemption or thinks of those benefits as the proper object for faith. Rather, as Watson eloquently puts it, faith fastens itself on Christ himself. It is the person of Jesus faith embraces—as coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, working miracles in our midst, teaching about the kingdom of God, and as crucified and risen and reigning as King of the nations, pouring out his Spirit, coming again in power and glory. Yes, no doubt as working wonders on our behalf and bringing forgiveness and freedom. Yes, no doubt as reconciling the rebel to the Sovereign whose majesty was infinitely offended by the self-satisfied-swollen self. But the benefits of redemption ought never to be held forth for faith except as they come in the person, work, and words of the Christ sent from above. He alone in all his glory is the proper place for faith to fasten its gaze. And when it does so through self-renunciation, reliance, and appropriation, the swollen-self is crucified, and the sinner justified. Forgiven! Freed! Righteous! Loved! Not guilty! No condemnation! Reconciled to a holy heavenly Father. All in the beloved, in whom alone is there redemption. 

"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing" (Rev. 5:12).

The Application of Redemption

The title above comes from the fifth chapter in Thomas Watson's magnificent and best-known book: A Body of Divinity. I have been reading this book through for a second time now (the first time feels like ages ago) a few mornings a week when faith is flagging in order to fan the flame. And this second time through for me is far more invigorating than the first (which is not to say that the first was without benefit and appreciation, but more years have a way of clarifying a lot of things). My esteem for Thomas Watson and for this work in particular continues to grow.

Just a brief bit of background and then I'll jump right in to a series of posts pertaining to the aforementioned chapter on the application of redemption. Watson was an English Presbyterian Puritan minister who lived circa 1620–1686. His Body of Divinity, published posthumously in 1692, comes from a series of sermons he preached to his people on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. This series of sermons numbered 176. Many of these fed into the Body of Divinity, but not all. The rest fed into Watson's books The Lord's Prayer and The Ten Commandments. These three books together make up a trilogy on the Westminster Shorter Catechism. (See Meet the Puritans by Beeke and Pederson for the chapter on Thomas Watson, from which I refreshed my memory of this background information.)

The first section in the chapter "The Application of Redemption" from Watson's Body of Divinity is on faith. He begins by citing Gal. 2:20 (in the king's English, of course): "The life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." And he asserts that it is the Spirit who "applies to us the redemption purchased by Christ, by working faith in us" (Watson, Body of Divinity, 215). And then, before getting into the kinds of faith that people may possess, Watson speaks a short pithy word that packs the punch of the profound pastoral theology for which Watson has became known and loved. Here is trademark Watson: "Christ is the glory, and faith in Christ the comfort, of the gospel" (215). Christ is indeed the glory of the Gospel. And faith in his name is indeed its comfort. Amen, pastor Watson. 

I'll end this brief introductory post here on this simply yet profoundly stated note. In the next post I shall cover something of what Watson teaches about what justifying faith is. I hope this present post has whet your appetite for more. Lord willing, in the posts to follow, as here, I shall be citing and summarizing from the Banner of Truth's revised edition of Watson's book. Which reminds me: Banner of Truth books ought to be part of any disciple's diet these days, and perhaps my mentioning one of them here in glowing terms will set you going to get a meal from that market. 

Zeal AND Prudence

"Zeal without prudence is rashness; prudence without zeal is cowardliness" (Thomas Watson, Body of Divinity, p. 173).

An Altogether Different World

"To take hold of the Son and to believe in Him with the heart as the gift of God causes God to reckon that faith, however imperfect it may be, as perfect righteousness. Here we are in an altogether different world—a world that is outside reason. Here the issue is not what we ought to do or by what sort of works we may merit grace and the forgiveness of sins. No, here we are in a divine theology, where we hear the Gospel that Christ died for us and that when we believe this we are reckoned as righteous, even though sins, and great ones at that, still remain in us" (Luther's Works, vol. 26, Lectures on Galatians 1535, p. 234). 

Jesus Will Have His Prize

"The success of the gospel for which [the Puritans] yearned was bound up with their trust in Christ. They never gave way to the feeling that because the condition of the world was so deplorable the Second Coming of Christ was the only hope for mankind; in their mind, to have done so would have been to fall into unbelief in regard to the promised results of his first coming. If what was predicted seemed impossible, the remedy was to contemplate more closely the authority and glory which now belongs to the Head of the Church" (Murray, The Puritan Hope, 90).

O Lord, Teach Us to Pray, and Pray Well

In 1519 Martin Luther wrote a "Personal Prayer Book" to help people know how to pray in the midst of so much confusion about what true prayer is. In giving an example of how to pray according to the third petition of the Lord's Prayer, Luther writes this as part of his model for this petition:

Grant us true obedience, a perfect, calm, single-minded composure in all things—spiritual, earthly, temporal, and eternal. Protect us from the horrible vice of character assassination, slander, backbiting, frivolously judging or condemning others, and misrepresenting what others have said. O hold far from us the plague and tragedy which such speed can cause; rather, whenever we see or hear anything in others that seems wrong or displeasing to us, teach us to keep quiet, not to publicize it, and to pour out our complaints to you alone and to commit all to your will. And let us sincerely forgive all who wrong us and be sympathetic toward them.

—Personal Prayer Book (Luther's Works, vol. 43; ed. Gustav K. Wiencke; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 32–33.

Children at the Table

"When in 1 Corinthians Paul said that a man should examine himself, he spoke only of adults because he was speaking about those who were quarreling among themselves. However, he doesn't here forbid that the sacrament of the altar be given even to children" (Luther, Works, vol. 54, p. 58).

Bible Interpretation: No Fixed Rules

Luther:

I acknowledge no fixed rules for the interpretation of the Word of God, since the Word of God, which teaches freedom in all other matters, must not be bound.

—The Freedom of the Christian (Luther's Works, vol. 31; ed. Harold J. Grimm; Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1957), 341.

Backbiting

"Backbite (vt): To speak of a man as you find him when he can't find you" (Bierce, The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary, 12).

Solomon's School

"Over the gates of Plato's school, it was written: 'Let no one who is not a geometrician enter.' But very different is the inscription over these doors of Solomon [in the book of Proverbs]—Let the ignorant, simple, foolish, young enter" (Charles Bridges, Proverbs, 2).

More Heat

The issues are different for us today from what Jonathan Edwards was addressing in the shortcomings or faulty views of the Great Awakening in his writings on the subject. So in quoting Edwards here, and in thinking of the need for more heat today, I'm thinking mainly not of how we have so much light (we don't), but of how we have so many other things in which we trust (e.g., programs, new initiatives, church expansion projects, committee work, etc.) that are ineffectual for bringing about the revival and reform needed in the church in America. Yes, and even those parts that we think healthiest. See if you can map Edwards' insight onto our current situation.

Here is Edwards on the need for heat more than light:

Though as I said before, clearness of distinction and illustration, and strength of reason, and a good method, in the doctrinal handling of the truths of religion, is many ways needful and profitable, and not to be neglected, yet an increase in speculative knowledge in divinity is not what is so much needed by our people, as something else. Men may abound in this sort of light and have no heat: how much has there been of this sort of knowledge, in the Christian world, in this age? Was there ever an age wherein strength and penetration of reason, extent of learning, exactness of distinction, correctness of style, and clearness of expression, did so abound? And yet was there ever an age wherein there has been so little sense of the evil of sin, so little love to God, heavenly-mindedness, and holiness of life, among the professors of the true religion? Our people don't so much need to have their heads stored, as to have their hearts touched; and they stand in the greatest need of that sort of preaching that has the greatest tendency to do this (Works of Jonathan Edwards, Vol. 4, Yale University Press, 387–388).

Our Only Comfort in Life and in Death

The Heidelberg Catechism is golden. We're teaching it to our children. And the
first question is the sweetest and most precious of them all. Here it is:

Question 1: What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

Answer: That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

 —Mark A. Noll, ed., Confessions and Catechisms of the Reformation (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1991), 137.

True Loyalty to the Lord

Commenting on Dan. 1:8–16, Sinclair Ferguson reflects:

Some Christians are heroes in their daydreams only. The characteristic mark of such heroism is imagining ourselves as faithful on great and public occasions and in rarefied atmospheres when others will be impressed. In stark contrast, true faithfulness in Scripture is first exercised in small things and in private. If we fail there, any faithfulness we show in public will be hypocrisy, a performance for the crowd and not an expression of loyalty to our Lord.

 —Sinclair Ferguson, Mastering the Old Testament: Daniel (Dallas: Word Publishing, 1988), 38.

Trained in the Ways of Babylon

Commenting on Nebuchadnezzar's strategy of defeating Jerusalem, as recorded in Dan. 1:3–7, Sinclair Ferguson observes: Nebuchadnezzar "weakened Jerusalem's prospects by exiling the cream of its youth, and he prepared for the future by giving them a thoroughly Babylonian education. . . . Nebuchadnezzar was not the last leader to see the value of infiltrating the colleges and universities to find candidates for his future service" (Sinclair Ferguson, Daniel, 34).

Zoe Eden Wencel

So the Wencels discovered recently via ultrasound that another girl has joined our family. That makes us a family of six. Two boys and four girls. We don't yet know whether she, too, will have red hair, as do our other girls, Ariana and Grace. But we do know her name: Zoe Eden Wencel. She is now sixteen weeks old, and her due date is January 5, the year of grace 2019. And per her imaging profile, she's pretty stinkin' cute. 

Zoe is from the Greek of the New Testament and means “life.” It's the same word used when Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life” (Jn. 14:6). It is also the Greek word used for Eve's name in Gen. 3:20 of the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible). Adam, the text tells us, called his wife "Zoe" ("Life"), "because she is the mother of all the living." Eden originates in the Hebrew Scriptures and is reminiscent of the garden of God of old (Gen. 2:8; Isa. 51:3). There the Lord placed the mother of all the living, and there God walked with man in the cool of the day. 

Almost needless to say, we're grateful beyond words for another little life added to our clan. Praise God from whom all blessings flow! May the Lord impart to Zoe Eden the life of God, and bring her safely into his everlasting Eden. May he lead her all her days until she at last enters the great promised garden-city of the new heavens and new earth (Rev. 22:1–2), where fullness of joy and peace abound in the permanent presence of the glory of the One who sits on the throne, and of the Lamb. 

The Great Commission and Ministers of the Church

"The commission may have application to the church generally, but the commission belongs particularly to the disciples, and to all those who after them were called to bring the Word of God to the nations. In other words, this commission has primary application to the ministers of the church" (Waters, How Jesus Runs the Church, xxv).

Real Spiritual Leadership: Changing People, not Directing People

"The goal of spiritual leadership is that people come to know God and to glorify him in all that they do. Spiritual leadership is aimed not so much at directing people as it is at changing people. If we would be the kind of leaders we ought to be, we must make it our aim to develop persons rather than dictate plans. You can get people to do what you want, but if they don't change in their heart you have not led them spiritually. You have not taken them to where God wants them to be" (Piper, The Marks of a Spiritual Leader, 3).

Why Preaching is often Inneffectual

"Catechising is the best expedient for the grounding and settling of people. I fear one reason why there has been no more good done by preaching, has been because the chief heads and articles in religion have not been explained in a catechistical way" (Watson, A Body of Divinity, 5).

The Forgotten Demographic in the Church

With all the buzz about doing evangelism in the church today, it would be helpful if the church exercised a bit more insight and genuine neighbor-love instead of doing what is most comfortable and what boosts the right kind of numbers. This piece by Gene Veith points out the uncomfortable truth for many upwardly-mobile white egalitarian-leaning evangelicals with feminist assumptions: the most unchurched demographic is the white working class.

Well, let's develop church strategies to go after them. No? Why not? Doesn't love call for it?

Challenging Labels

"If a 'disability' really only becomes a problem in one setting—our factory-model K–12 system—I’d challenge that label" (Bauer, Rethinking School, 43).