Program-Driven or Gospel-Driven Church?

It is no revelation that American churches reflect American culture far too much.  And it is also not difficult to see for the casual observer (without head in the sand) that our churches are oftentimes far more concerned about programs than people or mission.  Check out here for ten reasons to "underprogram your church" at Jared Wilson's blog.  I confess that this program mentality has been a source of grief for me since I was called into the Christian Church about a dozen years ago.

HT: Justin Taylor (This seems to be the convention when you swipe a post from someone, but I confess along with my grief that I also am not certain I know what "HT" means.  Any light for my darkness would be greatly appreciated.)

The Whole Life of Believers One of Repentance

Last Sunday's New Covenant Church sermon by Pastor O'Donnell reminded us that the Reformation was fundamentally a call to repentance.  Luther's first thesis in the famous Ninety-five Theses was this:

"When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, 'Repent' [Matt. 4:17], he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance."

Repenting, Rebuking, Persevering

This past Sunday's New Covenant Church message The Headless Prophet and the Heartless King, Part 2 preached by Pastor O'Donnell was another solid bit of churchly instruction.  He might have entitled this two-part sermon series on Mt. 14:1-12, as suggested creatively by his witty wife, The Monster and the Monk, which I rather like.  It is a call to personal repentance, bold rebuking, and suffering perseveringly. 

So by grace, through faith, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, let's get on with turning from every remnant of remaining corruption, speaking the truth in love, and enduring hardship for the sake of the Gospel!

By It I See Everything Else

"I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else" (C. S. Lewis, Is Theology Poetry?).

Keeping Faith and a Good Conscience

Pastor O'Donnell's recent sermon The Headless Prophet and The Heartless King, Part 1 on Matt. 14:1-12 is one of the best sermons I've ever heard on keeping faith and a good conscience.  (Actually that's not all this sermon is about, but it does powerfully address this matter.)  Listen carefully to this one.  And then listen again.  And then, God willing and enabling, keep faith and a good conscience with zeal and vigor and diligence.

Augustinian Fellowship

Consider Augustine's notion of fellowship and compare it with what we often mean by fellowship.  And ask yourself, whose is richer, whose poorer?  Whose more biblical, whose more natural?

Fellowship according to Augustine is "the enjoyment of God and of each other in God" (City of God, Book XIX, Ch. 17). 

How's our fellowship?

One Step Toward Hell

"Any step that is taken in any way, by strength that is not immediately from Christ, is one step toward hell" (John Owen, On Communion with God).

God's Lyrics

Pastor Doug O'Donnell's book God's Lyrics: Rediscovering Worship through Old Testament Songs is now available. No doubt this will prove to be a valuable contribution to the discussion and implementation of God-honoring worship in the church's corporate gatherings.  Do take it up and read!

Do You Know Yourself?

In Part 2 of Owen's On Communion with God and the second digression of chapter 3, Owen speaks of wisdom and knowledge in Christ.  And he asserts that all true wisdom consists in the knowing of God and of ourselves.

Concerning the knowing of ourselves:  "In the knowledge of ourselves, in reference to our eternal condition, does much of our wisdom consist.  There is not anything wherein, in this depraved condition of nature, we are more concerned than sin; without a knowledge of that, we know not ourselves."

Another wise word:  "A real and experimental acquaintance, as to ourselves . . . is our wisdom; and it is that which is of more value than all the wisdom of the world."

So do you know yourself?

(You can purchase this classic work Communion with the Triune God in a user friendly version lightly edited by Kapic and Taylor for the modern reader.)

No Mistake More Terrible

B. B. Warfield says this cautionary word that I find so important for those of us Christians who are so busy, busy, often in "ministry."  Christless activism are perhaps the right words.

"There is no mistake more terrible than to suppose that activity in Christian work can take the place of depth of Christian affections."

The Making of a Minister

"God had but one Son, and he made him a minister."--Thomas Goodwin

"None but he who made the world can make a minister."--John Newton

Divine Justice: Free Choice or Necessity?

Did God have to punish his Son for our sin, or is this simply the way that he chose to save us?  In other words, could God have made satisfaction for sin in another way?  This question is often posed as a difficult one, but really it ought not to be.  To suppose that God poured out his wrath on his Son when really it wasn't necessary makes this demonstration of God's justice merely an act of his will and not of his nature.  And if it was merely an act of his will and not of his nature, it follows that this willingness to punish Jesus in our place is rather an instance of injustice, if in fact God could have done otherwise.

Wisdom and Knowledge in Christ

As a good follow-up to the last post with Packer's wisdom, I want to set forth here a bit of wisdom from Owen.  This sort of instruction has got to get into our system corporately, covenantally, and last (not first, which is our inclination) individually. 

Owen instructs:

"All true and solid knowledge is laid up in, and is only to be attained from and by, the Lord Jesus Christ; and the hearts of men, if they are but true to themselves and their most predominate principles, must needs be engaged to him." 

We often throw knowledge unrelated to the Lord Jesus alongside the knowledge of the Lord Jesus, as if both are simply equally true and wise and right-minded.  But that is not so.  As Jesus said of the law, that there are weightier provisions in it, so it is with wisdom and knowledge.  And the only "true and solid knowledge" is laid up in Christ Jesus.  This should be asserted boldly and without shame or fear of contradiction.  And it also ought to be done without everyone assuming that thereby knowledge not attained directly from the Bible (like scientific knowledge) is worthless.  It isn't.  (By itself, relatively speaking, it virtually is, if set over against Christ or apart from Christ.)  But it only has its fullness and richness and most meaningful meaning when seen in relation to the Son. 

In him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3).  Outside of him is folly and madness, whatever face may be put on it, however sophisticated and learned.

The Coherence of the Cosmos

Commenting on Col. 1:17, J. I. Packer says this marvelous statement:

"The coherence of the cosmos depends on its relation to the Son.  The coherence of the cosmos depends upon the continual output of upholding power from the Son."

We would do well to meditate upon this and get it into our system.  And until so-called science and scientists acknowledge this and bow before the Son who makes the discipline and their work possible, redemption still has to be applied.  And in due course it will be, for all things will be reconciled to the Son according to the Father's good pleasure and purposes.  Messiah Jesus will have the supremacy, will be pre-eminent, in all things.

Interpreting the Song of Songs

I said  a handful of posts ago that I'd return to speak of the propriety of handling the Song of Songs allegorically as Owen does in On Communion with God.  I still intend to do that.  Here I only wish to raise a question:  What are the allusions within the Song of Songs?  That is, to which Scriptures (particularly but not exclusively in the Old Testament) does the Song of Songs allude (if any)?  Are there portions of Scripture that seem to be linked linguistically or conceptually with the greatest of all songs?  And if so, what is the subject matter and particularly the theology of those portions?  I'm wondering if this may shed light on how to handle this love poem, which I do believe must be handled in the first instance as love poetry.  This really is beyond question in my mind.  And yet, this portrait of covenant love is also doubtless functioning canonically as a pointer way beyond itself, to something more ultimate, more glorious, rooted in eternity.

Poor, Low, Perishing Contemplations

After speaking on that in which communion with the Son conists in chapter 2 of part 2 of Owen's On Communion with God and the way in which we have communion with the Son regarding his personal grace in chapter 3, Owen then describes the personal excellencies of Jesus Christ.  In this section (which is a marvelous inducement to repent of all vain thinking and doing), Owen describes the hidden mystery of the Gospel, great without controversy, admirable to all eternity.  And then he adds, "What poor, low, perishing things do we spend our contemplations on!" 

Oh how right he is!  I find that it is so easy for us--maybe especially so for American Christians--to spend our thoughts endlessly on vanities and trifles with little to no thought about the glories of the Gospel.  I am smitten and cut by this word from Owen.  And oh how I long to repent of spending my contemplations on poor, low, and perishing things!  Oh to be given over to meditation on the glories of Christ and his mediatorial work!  What else is so worthy of our most assiduous and severest meditation?  God help us.

Receiving Jesus as Lord, Riveted on Jesus as Lord

Verses 6 and 7 of Colossians 2 routinely are regarded as the theme verses of the book of Colossians.  And rightly so.  They are.  But the modern translations are ambiguous in English.  The end of v. 6 is a command and says in many English translations: "walk in him."  What does the in mean?  And is it the best translation to get at what Paul is after?

Now I want to digress for a moment.  I am not arguing here for a particular translation philosophy.  I actually prefer ambiguity in English translations that reflect the ambiguity in Greek, and for Bible study I also prefer to use many different translations with different translation philosophies.  So what I am saying is not a quibble with any translation's translation philosophy.

The in of v. 6 is a preposition that takes the dative: en autō, "in him."  The preposition en with the dative has a wide range of possible meanings.  And the correct possibility is always determined in large measure by the context.  And I want to suggest that contextually the best meaning is either "in the presence of" or "with reference to."  Both of these amount to roughly the same idea. 

Paul has just said "as you received Christ Jesus the Lord."  This is how the Colossians are to "walk in him."  That is, in the same way!  And how did they receive Jesus?  By believing in him as the Lord!  They recieved him as the Lord of all (cf. Col. 3:17; and 3:1 with allusion to Ps. 110).  And so they are to continue to walk with referece to him as Lord, in the presence of the one who is Lord of all.

So here is my translation of Col. 2:6-7:

Therefore, as you recieved Messiah Jesus as the Lord [of all],
so walk with reference to him [as the Lord of all],
because you have been rooted in him
and
now you are being built up in him and established in the faith,
even as you were taught,
abounding with thanksgiving. 

That's My King: Do You Know Him?

Another good and moving video: That's My King.  A family member asked me yesterday if there is a Sunday version that follows up on the video It's Friday, but Sunday's a Comin'.  That's My King is a good follow up.

Easter and the Evil Generation

This New Covenant Church Easter sermon preached by Pastor Doug O'Donnell on Mt. 12:38-45 is apostolic stuff and a good give-away sermon for skeptics.  O'Donnell does not preach a truncated gospel as is typical within much evangelicalism today.  O'Donnell's is the full-orbed Gospel of the incarnation, life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, session, and coming-again-in-power-and-great-glory of King Jesus.  Jesus is the Messiah of Old Testment hopes and expectations who has been enthroned as Lord of all, not just of individual hearts.  This is the fundamental Christian confession:  Jesus is Lord of all.  And this is the Gospel O'Donnel preaches. 

So download this one and listen for yourself and give it away to others.  I personally was profoundly convicted afresh of the utter necessity of laying down the arms of the remnants of my rebellion, of taking the silly little crown off of my swollen head to cast at Jesus' feet, and of following this great King who is worthy of all worship and honor and adoration and obedience.  Follow this Christ, or perish forever.  There is no other choice.

It's Friday, but Sunday's a Comin'

I love this video clip.  Hit it's Friday, but . . . to watch and listen.

Gospel Poetry

J. I. Packer says: read this poem carefully, for this is the true gospel.

Oh ye sons of men be wise,
trust no longer dreams and lies,
Out of Christ, all mighty power
can do nothing but devour.

God you say is good, that’s true.
But he is pure and holy too,
just and jealous is his ire,
burning with vindictive fire.

This had all been self-declared:
Israel trembled when they heard,
But the proof of proofs indeed
is he sent his Son to bleed.

When the blessed Jesus died
God was clearly justified.
Sin to pardon without blood
never in his nature stood.

Worship God, then, in his Son,
there his love and there alone.
Think not that he will or may
pardon any other way.

See the suffering Son of God
panting, groaning, sweating blood,
Brethren this had never been
had not God detested sin.

Be his mercy therefore sought,
in the way himself has taught.
There his clemency is such,
we can never trust too much.

He that better knows than we,
God himself bid us now to Jesus flee.
Humbly take him at his Word
and your souls will bless the Lord!

--Joseph Hart

Communion with the Son Jesus Christ

Part 2 of Owen's classic On Communion with God, the largest section of the book, addresses fellowship with the second person of the Trinity.  And the fellowship we have with him is as mediator.  Here Owen sets forth two things: (1) a declaration that we have such fellowship with the Son; and (2) a demonstration of that in which this fellowship or communion consists. 

Almost immediately Owen turns to the Song of Songs to speak of this fellowship, which is striking and even jarring to the modern reader.  I want to speak to this, but I'll do this in another post, addressing the propriety of such a handling of the greatest of all songs.

Here I simply want to highlight a bit of instruction from both chapters 1 and 2 of this part of the book.  In chapter 1, commenting on S. of S. 2:1ff, Owen says that our communion with the Lord Jesus is set forth and described as enjoying: (1) sweetness; (2) delight; (3) safety; (4) comfort.  This is the flavor of the fellowship. 

Then in chapter 2 we are shown that our fellowship with the Son consists in grace.  There are different aspects to this grace: (1) there is the grace of personal presence and loveliness; (2) there is the grace of free favor and acceptance; and (3) there is the grace of the Spirit of Christ, the fruit or graces of the Spirit. Owen goes on to speak of the first aspect, the nature of personal grace, in the rest of chapter 2.  And what he means is this: the graces of the person of Christ as he is vested with the office of mediation.  Chapter 3 will address how the saints hold communion with the Lord Jesus in personal grace.

"There is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all" (1 Tim. 2:5-6).  Amen!

Communion and Consistency

"Communion with the Father is wholly inconsistent with loose walking."—John Owen

The Christian's Duty of Holding Immediate Communion with the Father in Love

Chapter 4 of part 1 of Owen's On Communion with God provides exhortations unto communion with God along with directions in it and observations from it.

Owen exhorts:  "It is a duty for Christians to hold immediate communion with the Father in love."  After urging his readers to look to the Father as love, he exults in whose love this love is.  It is the love of an all-sufficient and infinitely self-satisfied God whose triune life amidts of no defect or lack.  God the Father infinitely delighted in his own glorious excellencies and perfections beheld in his Son from all eternity.  In the fellowship of the Son through the Spirit of their love, he might have rested and delighted himself forever.  So his love for creatures and requirement of love from them is not due to any need or deficiency in God.

Owen then describes the kind of love this is.  It is eternal, free, unchangeable, distinguishing.  The Father's love was fixed on his people before the foundation of the world.  And nothing in us moved him to this love.  It is wholly undeserved and has as its spring the Father's mere good pleasure and will.  It is constant, for God is immutable.  His love is a steadfast and comitted love.  And, last, but certainly not least precious, God's love is distinguishing, discriminating.  It is not promiscuous, at least not in one very important respect.  It is a particular love for his holy people, not for all, a love that sends his Son to die for them to secure sharing in the truine life and love of God forever and ever. 

So Owen urges all to look to the love of the Father so as to receive it.  And, "let it have its proper fruit and efficacy upon your heart" in the return of love back to God again.  He then gives considerations to help us in the duty and daily practice of receiving the Father's love and making suitable returns in love back to him. 

"So much as we see of the love of God, so much shall we delight in him, and no more," says Owen.  If this is so, and if we were created to glorify God by enjoying him forever, then this is no small matter.  May the Father be pleased to grant to us a fuller enjoyment of his love as the blood-bought gift of the Son in the strength of the Spirit—to the praise of the glory of his grace, freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

Owen on How God's Love and Our Love Differ

One more post on chapter 3 of part 1 of John Owen's classic On Communion with the Triune God.  Toward the end of this chapter, Owen shows "wherein God's love and our love differ."  He sets forth three ways.

"First, the love of God is a love of bounty; our love unto him is a love of duty."

Commenting on the nature of this infinitely full love, after talking about how bountiful and overflowing it is, Owen says that the love of the Father "is the love of a spring, of a fountain--always communicating--a love from whence proceeds everything that is lovely in its object.  It infuses into, and creates goodness in, the persons beloved."  Divine love communicates, bestows, creates, infuses all manner of good things in the objects of love.  God loves us too well to leave us as we are.  He will make us reflect the image of the Son of his love, and it his peculiar and rich love communicated that brings this about. 

"Our love unto God is a love of duty, the love of a child. . . .  It is indeed made up of four things: (1) rest; (2) delight; (3) reverence; (4) obedience." 

"Second, they differ in this: The love of the Father unto us is an antecedent love; our love unto him is a consequent love."

One verse will do here:  "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 Jn. 4:10).  As Owen puts it, "his love goes before ours."  There is nothing in us, no love flowing from us, antecedent to the Father's love that moved him to love us.  He simply loved us because he loved us.  God is love.  And infinite love tends to overflow lavishly and needs no prior impetus to cause the overflowing. 

"Third, they differ in this also: The love of God is like himself--equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminuition; our love is like ourselves--unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining."

This third heading says enough on its own, and anyone who knows anything of the glory of God and of the instability of the self knows what is intended here.

So again and always, all praise be to God who is love, who overflows in love, whose love then overflows from us back to him again and then out to others in communion with him--all through the Lord Jesus in the energy of the Holy Spirit.  For from him and through him and to him are all things, to him who is the great three-in-one and one-in-three be the glory forevermore!  Amen!

The Matter of Communion with God

Chapter 3 of part 1 in On Communion with God is, all of it, marvelous stuff.  It makes my heart sing and dance, thrills my soul with pleasure and refreshment, renews my mind with the triune love of God.  Along with chapter 4, it treats of the matter of communion with God.  The whole of it is worth reading and meditating upon at length, again and again.  And I will do this.  I do not by any means intend here to reproduce all that is valuable, but I will set forth some of the sweetness to point to the pot of honey.

Communion with the Father consists in love.  The saints do peculiarly and eminently have communion with God the Father in love—and this love is free, undeserved, eternal.  This is, says Owen, the great discovery of the Gospel.  Indeed it is.  To know God not as our angry judge but as a loving heavenly Father is the best news in all the world.  Owen cites "God is love" (1 Jn. 4:8) and shows that clearly the love of the Father is in view in the context.  He then shows how Jesus purchases and mediates this love and the Holy Spirit sheds it abroad in believers' hearts.

The Requirements of Believers for Complete Communion with the Father in Love.  Now the first bit was important and antecedant to this second bit, but this second bit is important for modern American Christians to consider and practice.  There are two requirements for complete communion with the Father in love according to Owen:  First, that we recieve the Father's love; and second, that we make "suitable returns" unto the Father. 

"Communion consists in giving and receiving."  And we do not hold communion with the Father until we receive his love.  How then is this love received?  Answer: by faith in the Son crucified, risen, exalted.  It is through Christ alone that we have access to the enjoyment of the Father's love (e.g., Jn. 14:6; Eph. 2:18; 1 Pet. 1:21).  "When by and through Christ we have an access unto the Father, we then behold his glory also, and see his love that he peculiarly bears unto us, and act faith thereon."  So we may not receive the light of God's love except by the beams of the Son; by the beams of the Son we see the sun of the Father's love, which is the Fountain of all light. 

So "Jesus Christ, in respect of the love of the Father, is but the beam, the stream; wherein though actually all our light, our refreshment lies, yet by him we are led to the fountain, the sun of eternal love itself.  Would beleivers exercise themselves herein, they would find it a matter of no small spiritual improvement in their walking with God."

Owen then goes on to describe the "suitable returns" that believers make in love to God.  He rounds off chapter 3 by describing wherein our love and God's love are similar and different.  The riches in this chapter are worth mining and offering up to God in love, delight, satisfaction, obedience, worship.  For God the three-in-one and one-in-three is infinitely worthy of our deepest longings, most intense affections, highest delightings, absolute obedience, and consummate trust.  All praise and worship and love and honor and glory be to him who lives and reigns forever—one God, Father, Son, and Spirit—world without end.  Amen!

Unique Communications within the Trinity

Rounding off chapter 2 of part 1 of Communion with God, Owen refers to the unique contributions of each person of the triune Godhead.  He takes up John 6:45 as a clear example of this:  "It is written in the Prophets, 'And they will all be taught by God.'  Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me. . . ."

Now the accomplishment of that promise--"they will all be taught by God"--is, says Owen, particularly referred to the Father.  Continuing, "This teaching, whereby we are translated from death unto life, brought  unto Christ, unto a participation of life and love in him--it is of and from the Father: him we hear, of him we learn, by him are we brought unto union and communion with the Lord Jesus.  This is his drawing us, his begetting us anew of his own will, by his Spirit. . . ."

And then we are called upon by the Father to hear the Son uniquely: "This is my loved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him" (Mt. 17:5).  So "the Father proclaims him from heaven to be the great teacher."  And the entirety of Christ's prophetic office, and no small part of his kingly office, consists in the teaching of the Son.  In this teaching he is said to draw all to himself (Jn. 12:32).  And he does this "with such efficacy that the 'dead hear his voice and live'" (Jn. 5:25).  Owen goes on, "The teaching of the Son is a life-giving, a spirit-breathing, teaching--an effectual influence of light, whereby he shines into darkness; a communication of life, quickening the dead; an opening of blind eyes, and changing of hard hearts; a pouring out of the Spirit, with all the fruits thereof."

Later in John's Gospel we read of the Spirit's ministry: "The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (Jn. 14:26).  And then John says in his first epistle, "But the anointing that you received from him abides in you, and you have no need that anyone should teach you.  But as his anointing teaches you about everything--and is true and is no lie, just as it has taught you--abide in him" (1 Jn. 2:27; cf. 1 Cor. 2:12).  Owen sets forth this text to show the unique contribution of the Spirit, he tells us, because "it is comprehensive, and comprises in itself most of the particulars that might be enumerated--quickening, preserving, and so forth."

Owen's conclusion:  "This, then, further drives on the truth that lies under demonstration; there being such a distinct communication of grace from the several persons of the Diety, the saints must needs have distinct communion with them."

Lastly, in what do these distinctions lie and what is the ground of them? 

"The Father communicates all grace by the way of original authority."

"The Son, by the way of making out a purchased treasury."

"The Spirit does it by the way of immediate efficacy."

Oh do rush and purchase this sweetest of all works on the Trinity!  I feel really at home and healthy as I've been sitting at Owen's feet to learn of our tripersonal God.  And the great thing about sitting at Owen's feet is that you forget Owen and are led to Jesus' feet through the Father's call in the power and life of the Spirit.

All praise to the three-in-one God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!  All glory and honor and praise and blessing be to him who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb, and to the the Seven Spirits before the throne, for they created all things and are redeeming all things according to their infinite wisdom and good pleasure!

Distinct Communion with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit

Moving on through chapter 2 of part 1 of Owen's On Communion with God, Owen discusses and provides scriptural support for distinct communion with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit.

Of the Father, for example, he says:  "He gives testimony unto . . . his Son: 'This is the witness of God, that he has testified of his Son' (1 Jn. 5:9).  In his bearing witness he is the object of belief.  When he gives testimony (which he does as the Father, because he does it of the Son), he is to be received in it by faith. . . .  To believe on the Son of God . . . is to receive the Lord Jesus as the Son, the Son given unto us, for all the ends of the Father's love, upon the credit of the Father's testimony; and, therefore, therein is faith immediately acted on the Father."

Of the Son.  Owen cites first Jn. 14:1: "'You believe in God,' says Christ, 'believe also in me'--believe also, act faith distinctly on me; faith divine, supernatural, that faith whereby you believe in God, that is, the Father."  And then he gives numerous other texts including Rev. 1:5-6; 5:8, 13-14, where the Lamb is worshipped distinctly along with Father.  He also cites Acts 7:59-60, where dying martyr Stephen says, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit," and "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge."  See also 1 Cor. 1:2, where the saints are defined as those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus. 

Of the Holy Spirit, one text will suffice:  "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor. 13:4).  Here, I believe, the communion of the Spirit means the fellowship of the saints under the Spirit's sweet influence and by the communication of himself from the fountain which is the grace of the Lord Jesus and love of God. 

Owen then speaks of distinct communion from each person of the Trinity.  He shows the Trinity communicating both jointly and distinctly to the churches of first-century Asia minor and thence to the Church universal.  In Rev. 1:4-5 we read:  "Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits [an apocalyptic way of referring to the one Holy Spirit who is all-powerful and all-knowing and the fullness of God's gift to us] who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth."  Notice here that grace and peace are prayed for by John as coming from each person of the Trinity, but coming from the whole Trinity, that is to say, from God who is a unity.  There is both a distinguishing and joining here in the communication of divine grace and peace.

This gives a flavor of the contents of this portion of the book.  It is the stuff of a joyful, glad, grateful, and full heart.  This is what might be called interpersonal doctrine in the heights, the sort of thing that makes a sinner-turned-saint sing and dance till he well nigh faints.  Oh blessed Trinity!  All praise be to you--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the three-in-one and one-in-three!

Defining Virtue

St. Augustine's definition of virtue can scarcely be improved upon: "rightly ordered love" (Book XV, City of God).

Here is C. S. Lewis's expansion of Augustine's definition: "St. Augustine defines virtue as ordo amoris, the ordinate condition of the affections in which every object is accorded that kind of degree of love which is appropriate to it" (Ch. 1, The Abolition of Man).

The Spacious Firmament on High

The Spacious Firmament on high,
With all the blue Ethereal Sky,
And spangled Heav'ns, a Shining Frame,
Their great Original proclaim:
Th' unwearied Sun, from day to day,
Does his Creator's Pow'r display,
And publishes to every Land
The Work of an Almighty Hand.

Soon as the Evening Shades prevail,
The Moon takes up the wondrous Tale,
And nightly to the list'ning Earth
Repeats the Story of her Birth:
Whilst all the Star that round her burn,
And all the Planets, in their turn,
Confirm the Tidings as they rowl,
And spread the Truth from Pole to Pole.

What though, in solemn Silence, all
Move round the dark terrestrial Ball?
What tho' nor real Voice nor Sound
Amid their radiant Orbs be found?

In Reason's Ear they all rejoice,
And utter forth a glorious Voice,
For ever singing, as they shine,
The Hand that made us is Divine.

--Joseph Addison [1672-1719]

Gospel Theatre: Rehearsing, Improvising, Performing

Here is the second lecture by Dr. Vanhoozer given at Southeastern.  Hit the title for the link.

Gospel Theatre: Staging, Scripting, Directing

This lecture and the one following (in the next post) given four months ago by Dr. Kevin Vahoozer of Wheaton College at Southeastern Seminary are worth absorbing.  The two lectures together are entitled, “Doing Faith: Seeking (and Showing) Understanding in Company with Christ.”  Click on the title to go to the lecture on Vimeo.

The Manner of Communion: Distinct and Peculiar

The next portion of On Communion with God addresses the manner and matter of communion with God (chps. 2-4).  The manner of communion with God takes up all of chapter 2 and part of chapter 3.

The fellowship is exercised either distinctly and peculiarly or jointly and in common.  That is to say, our fellowship with God is experienced either distinctly and peculiarly with each person of the Trinity or with the Godhead as a unity.  The beginning of chapter 2 sets forth the scriptural evidence for a distinct communion with each person--with the Father, with the Son, with the Holy Spirit--in giving and receiving.

Union and Communion

As I mentioned in the last post, part 1 of Owen's On Communion with God deals with communion with the Father.  And in chapter 1 Owen's starting point is this glorious text: "Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 Jn. 1:3).  He then reminds us that by nature no one holds any communion with God because he is light, we darkness; and what fellowship has light with darkness?  He is life, we are dead; he is love, and we are enmity.  So what agreement can there be between us?  Humanity in this condition has neither Christ, nor hope, nor God in the world (Eph. 2:12).  In this condition humanity is alienated from the life of God through the ignorance within (Eph. 4:18).  So Owen instructs, "While there is this distance between God and man, there is no walking together for them in any fellowship or communion." 

And so it is only by the "manifestation of grace and pardoning mercy" that a door is opened for entrance into any communion with God.  In Christ Jesus those who were far off are brought near by his blood, for he is our peace (Eph. 2:13-14).  Through him sinners have access in one Spirit to the Father (Eph. 2:18).  "By Jesus Christ alone, then . . . is this distance taken away."  He is the sole basis for all our communion with God.  Owen then marvels: "And truly, for sinners to have fellowship with God, the infinitely holy God, is an astonishing dispensation."

After stating that there is such a thing as communion with God, Owen discusses the notion of communion generally.  He then gives a specific definition of communion with God: it consists in "his communication of himself unto us, with our return unto him of that which he requires and accepts, flowing from that union which in Jesus Christ we have with him."  Note that it is grounded upon a union established with Jesus Christ.  It is only then--flowing from that union--that there can be "that mutual communication, in giving and receiving, after a most holy and spiritual manner, which is between God and the saints while they walk together in a covenant of peace, ratified  in the blood of Jesus." 

The saints communion with God is twofold: (1) perfect and complete (experienced in glory); and (2) initial and incomplete (experienced in this age as the firstruits and dawnings of the full communion to come).  And it is the latter--initial and incomplete communion--that Owen handles in this work.

Communion with the Triune God

Of Communion with God by the great Puritan divine John Owen (1616-1683) was published in 1657.  It was republished recently in 2007 with light editing and helps by Justin Taylor and Kelly Kapic for the sake of the modern reader.  Emily and I have just taken this one up to foster our fellowship with the one God who is three persons and the three persons who are one God.

It is interesting to note that this work by Owen grew out of sermons that he had preached to his flock.  So this is a pastoral work, and it is a pastoral work of spiritual and theological genius.  And as Kapic states in the introduction to the republished edition, this work is "intentionally and consistently Trinitarian in structure and Christocentric in emphasis." It is divided into three parts: (1) Of Communion with the Father; (2) Of Communion with the Son Jesus Christ; and (3) Of Communion with the Holy Spirit.  Part two is by far the longest.   

One of the reasons this book is so valuable and beneficial for us today is that Owen, like many Puritians, was strong where we are weak.  In harmony with Buynan and other dissenters like him, Owen, Dewey Wallace says, "insisted upon a very personal and emotional experience of union with Christ and the Holy Spirit."  In my quarter of evangelicalism, our approach to God is oftentimes intellectualistic, dry, cold.  So Owen, an intellectual giant probably without rival today, can help us.  We are rightly afraid of emotionalism, but we, as they say, throw the baby out with the bath water.  Or, using another metaphor, like the drunk, after falling off one side of the horse, we fall off the other side as we try to get back on.

So I'm eager to be led with my wife into deeper communion with the triune God by an old saint who knew God personally, intimately, richly, profoundly.

Shakespeare's Sonnet #55

Not marble nor the gilded monuments
Of princes shall outlive this powerful rhyme;
But you shall shine more bright in these contents
Than unswept stone, besmear'd with sluttish time.
When wasteful war shall statues overturn,
And broils root out the work of masonry,
Nor Mars his sword nor war's quick fire shall burn
The living record of your memory.
'Gainst death and all-oblivious enmity
Shall you pace forth; your praise shall still find room,
Even in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the ending doom.
  So, till the judgment that yourself arise,
  You live in this, and dwell in lovers' eyes.

True Grace and Our Need

Thomas Brooks on true grace:

"The objects of true grace are supernatural.  True grace is conversant about the choicest and the highest objects, about the most soul-ennobling and soul-greatening objects, as God, Christ, precious promises that are more worth than a world, and a kingdom that shakes not, a crown of glory that withers not, and heavenly treasures that rust not.  The objects of temporary grace are low and poor, and always within the compass of reason's reach."

Oh for more soul-transforming and life-imparting grace in the soul!  Come down, Lord, rend the heavens, and visit your languishing church with supernatural grace and life.  We need change within, not methodological change without, that is, if ever we are going to make significant changes without and be a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.  Come down, sovereign Lord, for your great name's sake!  Apart from you, we can do nothing.  This we confess openly and plainly.  Pour forth once more, more of the Spirit of grace from the heavenly throne of the risen and exalted Christ, for we are perishing, for we "have a reputation of being alive, but are dead."

Perseverance and Persecution

An observation on the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3.  Of the seven churches, only two are not criticized by the risen Christ for moral shortcomings: only the churches of Smyrna and Philadelphia.  And Smyrna is undergoing severe persecution, even unto death.  Among all seven churches, only Smyrna is under the intense fire of bodily suffering. 

Now my question is this: Why is one of the only two faithful churches suffering the most severely?  And this suffering, take note, as it is clear from the text, is ordered by the Lord to test the church of Smyrna.  The answer is found, among many places, in Paul:  "All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12).  It is precisely those who follow in the Master's steps most closely who are going to suffer most.  Faithfulness and fire go together.  Perseverance always meets with persecution. 

So let us hear Peter: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you; but to the degree that you share the sufferings of Christ, keep on rejoicing, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice with exultation" (1 Pet. 4:12-13).

Smoke in Satan's Eye

A follow up to the last post is in order due to a deficiency.  One more holy exhortation: after having a holy time of horsing around, don't forget to toast and thank the truine God of redemption with a glass of wine.  Then, and this is very important; without this the instruction would be incomplete: be sure to blow some cigar smoke in Satan's eye.  (Yes, of course this instruction is aimed at heads of households.  And be sure to pass this on to your sons, men.)

Holy Marriage and Holy War

Is it coincidental that domestic relationship instructions in Eph. 5 and 6 precede holy war instructions in Eph. 6?  Or are these instructions of a piece in the seamless Christian life?  Are these part and parcel of the one fight of faith?

It ought not to come as a surpise to the Church that the devil wants to destroy relationships, especially marital.  And it also ought not to be surprising, therefore, that a holy, healthy, and harmonious marriage is an awesome weapon with which to wage holy war against the enemy of our souls. 

So let us don the whole armor of God--including the robust marriage instruction of Eph. 5.  This is one of the sharpest of the Spirit's swords.  And to men, especially, let us take up that sword and slay every dragon that attempts to ruin our marriages.  Praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and petition, let us wield the weaponry of a Word-fashioned marriage to throw down what was already thrown down decisively at the cross.

Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood.  Consequently, our weapons ought not to include peashooters--impotent instruments like secular psychology, twelve-step programs, and romance advice from the gurus.  We should be fully prepared and armed to wield the holy Word and a holy marriage. 

One more salutary tactical bit of biblical instruction (pulling out one of the big guns): don't forget to flout the devil frequently with some holy horsing around in that pure and undefiled marriage bed.

We Resemble What We Revere, either for Ruin or for Restoration

Professor G. K. Beale's recent work "We Become [Like] What We Worship" looks at the story of Israel's sin through the lens of Isa. 6. And Israel's sin, so Beale argues, was essentially idol worship. The main thesis of the study is this: "What people revere, they resemble, either for ruin or restoration."

If one were to read nothing more than the section in the introduction on Professor Beale's interpretive approach, money will have been well spent. Beale is a master interpreter, especially when it comes to canonical interpretation, biblical theology, and Old in the New material. But he also handles a slice of the textual data (this study does not purport to be exhaustive) on idolatry with a good exegetical and theological grasp. It is meaty and salutary instruction. My recommendation: take up, and read.

Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices

Blessed Steve Belonger!  That holy man of God who counseled my soul many times as a young believer!  And one of his counsels was this: read Thomas Brooks' book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.  He called it his favorite book. 

Well, I've taken it up to read it.  And oh how much help I've been getting for me and my house as we seek to serve the Lord and not Satan!

Section III is entitled, "Satan's Devices to Keep Souls From Holy Duties, To Hinder Souls In Holy Services, & To Keep Them Off From Religious Performances."  Here he discusses many of Satan's devices in this regard.  Device 7 is this:  "By casting in a multitude of vain thoughts, whilst the soul is in seeking of God, or in waiting on God."  Brooks goes on, "By this device [Satan] hath cooled some men's spirits in heavenly services, and taken off, at least for a time, many precious souls from religious performances."

Well, what are the remedies for this device of Satan?  Brooks gives seven:

Remedy 1:  "Have your hearts strongly affected with the greatness, holiness, majesty, and glory of that God before whom you stand, and with whom your souls do converse in religious services."

Remedy 2:  "Be peremptory in religious services, notwithstanding all those wandering thoughts the soul is troubled with."

Remedy 3:  "Consider this, that those vain and trifling thoughts that are cast into our souls, when we are
waiting upon God in this or that religious service, if they be not cherished and indulged, but abhorred, resisted, and disclaimed, they are not sins upon our souls, though they may be troubles to our minds; they shall not be put upon our accounts, nor keep mercies and blessings from being enjoyed by us."

Remedy 4:  "Solemnly consider that watching against sinful thoughts, resisting sinful thoughts, carries with it the sweetest and strongest evidence of the truth and power of grace, and of the sincerity of your hearts, and is the readiest and the surest way to be rid of them."

Remedy 5:  "Labour more and more to be filled with the fullness of God, and to be enriched with all spiritual and heavenly things."

Remedy 6:  "Keep up holy and spiritual affections; for such as your affections are, such will be your thoughts."

Remedy 7:  "Avoid a multiplicity of worldy business."

The enlargements upon each remedy are worthy of careful and prolonged meditation.  I bless God for wise counsel from ages past!  For such counsel and wisdom is regrettably rare today, at least in America, not least in much of so-called evangelicalism.  Again and again I find that I get more help from older writers than newer.  We should all heed C. S. Lewis' advice to avoid chronological snobbery in our reading.  Per Lewis, for every two modern books we read, we should read at least one outside of our century.  And the Puritans should be on that reading list fairly regularly.  They were strong where we are weak!

Eighth Wheaton College President Appointed

Good news from Wheaton College!  Dr. Philip Graham Ryken has been selected to lead Wheaton College into its next chapter.  This appointment ought to be cause for thanksgiving to God, not least because Wheaton College is in need of strong, faithful evangelical leadership if she is going to avoid institutional shipwreck.  Hit the title of this post for the link to Wheaton's website announcement of this selection.   See below for this same announcement from Wheaton.  See also this link for Justin Taylor's update: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/2010/02/20/philip-ryken-new-president-of-wheaton-college/.

Dear Friends,

On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I am pleased to announce the selection of Dr. Philip Graham Ryken '88 as the eighth president of Wheaton College.
On the evening of Friday, February 19, the Board of Trustees voted to ratify Dr. Ryken's nomination by the Presidential Selection Committee. The unanimous vote reflects our deep confidence in Dr. Ryken's ability to articulate and exemplify the College's mission, and our conviction that he will provide strong academic and Christ-centered leadership for this new chapter in the life of Wheaton College, as well as in the academy at large.

Dr. Ryken readily affirms the College motto and mission not only through his words, but also in the way he has lived his life as an academic, a pastor, and a man dedicated to his family. We are indeed grateful to the Lord for His call on Dr. Ryken's life, and for His provision of a president who will hold the preeminence of Jesus Christ and His Kingdom above all else as he becomes integral to the future of Wheaton College.

Sincerely yours,

David K. Gieser
Chairman
Board of Trustees

Supper and Psalms

Em and I have found a few sections of the Psalms to be especially good portions for regular, repetitious reading as we sit down for meals.  They're short, tied together thematically, and they provide an aroma and atmosphere of gratitude and praise, trust and hope, wonder and awe at the table.  Pss. 145-150 are great for lifting up our hearts in praise and thanksgiving to the Lord.  Pss. 120-134, the Songs of Ascents, are hope-filled as we eat in the midst of our enemies and move toward our Jerusalem above.  Pss. 93-100 are royal psalms setting forth YHWH's holy majesty and absolute dominion, and it is before this God we eat and drink, rise up and sit down, live out all our ways. 

These are sections of Scripture that can easily get worked into regular meal times and that can provide a healthy and holy atmosphere (in part through the repetiton) for children who grow up as "olives shoots" around our tables.

While we often read psalms at dinner, right now we're actually working through bits of the Westminster Confession.  It too is marvelous dinner time stuff, helping me to lift up our hearts to God in gratitude over our food while recalling the day's mercies and provisions, assisting oftentimes our conversation by flavoring our discussions with God talk.

Advice on Reading Well

This post is swiped from Justin Taylor's blog:  Between Two Worlds: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/justintaylor/. 

Philosopher Francis Bacon wrote in the 16th century:

Some books are to be tasted,
others to be swallowed,
and some few to be chewed and digested.

Susan Wise Bauer uses this as a springboard to talk about the three stages to understanding any book: the grammar stage, the logic stage, and then the rhetoric stage:

First, you read the book at what I call the “grammar stage” level; just get through the book and try to understand the basic principles, the basic story, the basic argument. Don’t try to understand all of the book. Just create a mental overview of the ideas. The second stage of reading is the logic stage: after you’ve read the whole book, stop and think about what the book is saying, how it’s saying it, and try to decide whether or not you agree with it. And then, finally, you enter the third stage of reading: the rhetoric stage, in which you form an opinion about the book. Unfortunately, we have been trained from our earliest days to pick up a piece of writing and go straight to the rhetoric stage. Our first question, after we read twenty pages, is “What do I think about this book?” This habit of thought is epidemic, something that we’re taught to do from very early on.

She argues that we usually skip stages one and two and jump immediately to stage three, asking, “What does this mean? Do I understand it? Do I agree?” In order to understand, we first need to do the first two stages.

How? She suggests: First: go all the way through the book one time. Just turn all the pages. Mark anything that’s difficult, and keep going. Second: once you’ve gotten all the way through to the end of the book, go back to the marked sections. Rethink those parts that you didn’t understand. Reread the pages that seemed confusing to you. Eighty percent of the time, if you’ve gotten all the way to the end of the book, those initially puzzling paragraphs won’t puzzle you any more. You’ll see how they fit into the whole. Third: form an opinion. Talk to a friend about the book. Get a reading buddy. Promise each other that you are going to read the same book all the way through, reexamine the difficult parts, and then tell each other what you think about the book’s ideas. Explaining your opinions to someone else is the very best way to figure out what you really think. (And remember: to refuse to have an opinion until you come back to a book a second and then a third time is a very revolutionary thing to do.)

She then offers two additional suggestions. First: Keep a reading journal as a way of helping you to remember what your opinions are on each book.  Second: Consider reading chronologically in a single genre: fiction, poetry, drama, history, autobiography. Every writer builds on the work of those who came before. When you read chronologically, you begin to see the same techniques and strategies re-used, or re-imagined. The first epic poem you read is horribly difficult. The second is easier, because you recognize some of the elements you encountered in the first. The third is easier yet. But if you read first a poem, and then a play, and then a novel, you begin from ground zero of understanding each time.

Here is the link to Bauer's whole article:  http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/Stop-cleaning-the-kitchen.html.

The Gospel According to St. Mark

A century ago, Martin Kahler famously described the form of the Gospels as "passion narratives with extended introductions."  And that is dead on! 

Consider, for example, Mark's Gospel.  It falls into two main sections.  The first section is roughly chapters 1-8.  Here the narrative is action-packed and focuses on Jesus' powerful ministry of gathering disciples and doing mighty deeds that astonish the crowds.  Mark 8:27-30 functions then as a watershed in the narrative, a hinge around which the story turns and then moves inexorably to the cross.  After Peter confesses on the road to Caesarea Philippi that Jesus is the Christ, Jesus abruptly begins teaching about his impending suffering and death.  And henceforth all presses forward toward the cross.  Roughly half, therefore, of the Gospel is devoted to Jesus' sufferings.  The crucifixion of the Christ is central indeed to the Gospel and the once-for-all-delivered-to-the-saints faith.

How large a shadow does the cross cast in our lives and preaching and teaching?

The Kingdom of God

Many, following George Eldon Ladd, speak of the kingdom of God as the eschatological realm of salvation.  While this fits a good deal of data and evidence, I'm not persuaded that it is comprehensive enough.  It perhaps has helped contribute to a truncated worldview and Christianity.  It is helpful, but perhaps also damaging.  I'll explain why I think this is so, but I confess the need to work through these matters still more. 

This notion of the kingdom of God as merely the eschatological realm of salvation is too narrow.  The kindgom of God no doubt includes the realm of salvation, but it also includes more.  Check all the texts, and see for yourself.  It seems to me that a better way of describing it would be this:  the kindgom of God that dawned with the coming of the Sun of Righteousness is the eschatological reign of God in Christ broken into the present in the life, ministry, death, burial, resurrection, accension, and session of King Jesus.  And this cannot be confined to touching only those who are touched by saving grace, for all--saved and unsaved alike--live under this eschatological reign not yet consummated, some sweetly and submissively (enjoying it in a peculiar way), some bitterly and sinfully (experiencing it in a different way). 

Jesus is Lord of all, including unbelievers--but not savingly.  Obviously.  Nevertheless, since he has been given all authority in heaven and on earth, he is the Lord of the whole world.  He is King of kings, Lord of lords.  All must be told to bend the knee, for all are under this reign that moves on into eternity.  American democracy and secularization does not mean that Jesus is only Lord of the church!  Ladd's view is plausible, I suggest, because of our context, and I'm thinking particularly of our silly notions of the separation of church and state. 

Well, more on this later.  I'm still working through the texts on this one, but thus far Ladd is not totally satisfying.  I rather marvel that so many have been so impressed with his work, even though I acknowledge that there is much that is valuable there.

Do Practice and Profession Match?

Jonathan Edwards' sermon on Mt. 11:16-19 has this as its basic doctrine: "Wicked men are very inconsistent with themselves."

Here is a slice from that sermon:

"So some of them may profess that they have had great discoveries made to their souls of God's glory and excellency, and that they have seen how much more glorious God is than all earthly things.  But if it be so, why do not they cleave to God, and follow him, rather than other things?  If they have known God to be so much more excellent than the things of the world, because they have had acquaintance with God, why do they in their practice cast off God for the sake of the things of the world; why do they in their practice prefer a little of the world, a little worldly gain, a little worldly honor, or a little worldly convenience or pleasure, before God?  Certainly, if God be more excellent than the whole world, as they profess that they have seen him to be, then surely he is worth more than so small a part of the world.
      
So they may tell what love they have found in their hearts to God, how they have found their hearts drawn out in love to him at different times.  But if they love him so well, why do they take no more care to please him; why are they so careless of his honour, and of their duty to him; why do they allow themselves in practices which they know he hates, and utterly forbids?"

"They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works.  They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work" (Tit. 1:16).

A Feigned, False, and Cunning Good Will

In the course of Luther's 1519 exposition of the third petition in the Lord's Prayer, Luther observes this:  "It is impossible for a truly good and sincere will to become irritable and quarrelsome when thwarted.  Mark well that it is a definite sign of an evil will that it will not brook opposition.  Impatience is the fruit by which you can recognize a feigned, false, and cunning good will.  A genuinely good will when thwarted will say, "O God, I regarded my plan as good.  But if it is not to be, I am content.  May your will be done."

Tom Wright, Toddlers, and Epistemology

N. T. Wright's first volume of a projected six-volume work called The New Testament and the People of God is organized in five parts.  Part I is the introduction and deals with Christian origins and the New Testament.  Part II is entitled "Tools for the Task."  In it Wright discusses four areas: first, knowledge and its problems and varieties; second, literature, story, and the articulation of worldviews; third, history and the first century; and fourth, theology, authority, and the New Testament.  Part III is labeled "First-Century Judaism within the Greco-Roman World," Part IV "The First Christian Century," and Part V "Conclusion." 

Thus far I've only gotten into the front end of Part II, and it is proving to be fruitful and stimulating reading.  Wright writes a lot of sensible and salutary stuff, but I'm left feeling a little like his discussions are (perhaps) a wee bit too controlled by his and related academic disciplines.  I may be able to say more on this in a later post, particularly with regard to epistemology.  But I have to see first how Wright develops the epistemology that undergirds the Christian worldview for which he contends.  And I want to acknowledge lickety-split that any reflections and critique that I offer are admittedly from the standpoint of a toddler standing in awe with wonder at a father's understanding of the world round about.  But toddlers still ask questions like, "But what about this, daddy?  And, why do you say that?"

Hallowed Be Your Name

Luther's 1519 exposition of the Lord's Prayer in volume 42 of his writings is wonderful stuff.  For the exegete and biblical theologian, elements of it may not be satisfying.  But for the pastorally and theologically minded man, it is satisfying and then some.  (Incidentally, probably no one should read Luther for precision and carefull exposition, but for theological insight and depth and pastoral sensitivity and concern, one could hardly do much better.)

In summarizing the petition "Hallowed be your name," Luther says:  The sum and substance of the petition is this:  "O dear Father, may your name be hallowed in us; that is, I confess and am sorry that I have dishonored your name so often and that in my arrogance I still defile your name by honoring my own.  Therefore, help me by your grace so that I and my name become nothing, so that only you and your name and honor may live in me." 

And so a person who accords great honor and glory to God, ascribing all to him, "will not be disturbed when dishonor and contempt are heaped on him, for he knows that it is right.  And if no one else wants to dishonor and despise him, he will do this himself.  He dislikes being lauded and exalted.  In that respect he is just, giving to God what is God's and to himself what is his, to God honor and everything else, to himself dishonor and nothing else."

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Amen.

New Creation, Jerusalem, God's Temple

In G. K. Beale's book The Temple and the Church's Mission: A biblical theology of the dwelling place of God, Professor Beale explores the significance of the temple in John's Apocalypse.  He focuses especially on the final vision of the book where the new creation and Jerusalem are equated with God's tabernacle (Rev. 21:1-3).  The thesis of the book is that the OT tabernacle and temples were designed symbolically to point to the cosmic eschatalogical reality of God's tabernacling presence, formerly limited to the holy of holies, extending throughout the whole earth.  The biblical theology and exegesis are superb and exemplary.

The Blessed Man's Cross

Em and I began the year of grace 2010 by reading Ps. 1 together a few times and thinking through its implications for this year.  It speaks of the path and means of God's blessing.  The man who turns from the way of the wicked and instead delights himself in the law of the LORD will be fruitful and prosper.  Stated categorically, "In all that he does, he prospers" (Ps. 1:3).  Wonderful.  We'll sign up for that.  As for me and my house. . . .

Then we read the next six psalms in recent days.  Psalm 2 talks about how God's chosen, anointed king is opposed by the world's greats and rulers.  Pss. 3 and 4 show that same chosen and loved son surrounded and buffeted by enemies.  David continues to cry out in Ps. 5 because of enemies (v. 8) whose mouths are without truth and whose inmost being is destruction, whose throat is an open grave and whose tongues are full of flattery (v. 9).  Pss. 6 and 7 see David still surrounded by workers of evil and enemies and crying out for deliverence.

Wait a minute.  I thought that the blessed man would be perpetually comfortable, have a nice white picket fence, surrounding a huge house, paid for by his cushy, well-respected and high-paying job.  He would surely have the world's goods, cute puppies, fat babies, nice vacations, the favor of all.  In all that he does, he prospers, right? 

Well, now, we see God's ways are not ours, ours not his.  The way of the cross is the portion of the blessed man who delights in and follows God's Word (see Mt. 10, for example).  And since David--God's anointed one and a man after God's heart--suffered so miserably, should anyone have thought that God's Son and Anointed One par excellence would not have enemies and suffer at the hands of wretched men and devils?  What about those who follow him?  "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master.  If they have called the master of the house Beelzebul, how much more will they malign those of his household" (Mt. 10:24-25).  "And whoever does not take his cross and follow [God's Christ] is not worthy of [him]" (Mt. 10:38).

God Has Made Them Both

Eccl. 7:14 says this:  "In the day of prosperity be joyful, and in the day of adversity consider: God has made the one as well as the other, so that man may not find out anything that will be after him."  The trusting and delighting consideration that God makes both the day of prosperity and the day of adversity is essential for being a joyful, sober-minded, and hope-filled Christian in a world where two contrary kinds of experiences are frequently juxtaposed: the birth of a baby or a marriage and the diagnosis of your deadly disease or death of a loved one.  Who will not go mad or suffer utter confusion (assuming you are sober, your eyes are open, and your head is not in the sand) if God is not seen and trusted with delight to be governing all things wisely and well--and doing so for our everlasting good?

New Testament Theology Center

Many have proposed a center for New Testament Theology.  Professor G. K. Beale's proposal embraces a great deal of revelation and appears to be as good as any proposal.  It is roughly this, stated in my own words:  The life, death, resurrection, and bestowal of the Spirit of Jesus Christ gave birth to the eschatalogical new creation--to the praise of the glory of God's grace.  What is not embraced here?

Judicious Speech

As a follow up to the last post, here is another proverb about thinking before speaking:  "The heart of the wise makes his speech judicious and adds persuasiveness to his lips" (Prov. 16:23).

One notes in Proverbs how much God is concerned about our every word.  One also notes with trembling and grief how careless we often are with words.

Mom's Counsel Biblical

"Think before you speak."  Many of us first heard this counsel from our mothers.  It is actually biblical: "The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer, but the mouth of the wicked pours out evil" (Prov. 15:28).

Education Reform

Doug Wilson speaks a lot of good sense on the education front.  It does offend many of our idolatries, however, so brace yourself if you are going to venture into reading some of that wholesome educational food-for-thought.  Read any and all of his posts on education.  Hit the title here to read a recent post that is helpful.  We need to be in this discussion far more than we are today, taking our brains off the couch for ten minutes once in a while.

A Carnival of Pillage

Hear Wilson and Calvin on the collective wisdom of our government and her citizens.  Click on the title of this post to take you to the link.

"There is no fear of God before their eyes" (Ps. 36:1).

By What Logic or Necessity?

Chapter I in Book 1 of Anselm's Why God Became Man raises the question upon which hangs the whole work.  The question is this: "By what logic or necessity did God become man, and by his death, as we believe and profess, restore life to the world, when he could have done this through the agency of some other person, angelic or human, or simply by willing it?"  Or, more briefly: "By what necessity or logic did God, almighty as he is, take upon himself the humble standing and weakness of human nature with a view to that nature's restoration?"

Why God Became Man

St. Anselm (1033-1109), bishop of Canterbury, is perhaps most famous and known for his setting forth of the ontological argument for God's existence in The Proslogion.  It is simply this: That God is that than which nothing greater or better can be conceived.

He wrote during his mature years what has come to be a very influential work: Why God Became Man.  In the preface to this work, he tells the reader how he's arranged the work into two books and what each book is about.  Book 1 provides the objections of unbelievers who repudiate the faith because they suppose that it militates against reason and the answers of the faithful to such objections.  Anselm asserts that "it proves, by unavoidable logical steps," that without Christ it is impossible that anyone could be saved.  Book 2 proposes that even if nothing were known of Christ it can be demonstrated "with no less clear logic and truth" that the aim for which God made humanity--that "the whole human being should enjoy blessed immortality"--makes it inevitable that the outcome for which man was originally created should become a reality.  And this outcome, moreover, could only come to pass through the agency of a God-man.  And so, he says, "it is from necessity that all the things which we believe about Christ have come to pass."

The Institutes of the Christian Religion

Emily and I are wrapping up reading through Calvin's Institutes this year. And how healthy it has been to trek through the thick theology of the great Genevan reformer. The scope and breadth and depth of this work are truly astounding and breathtaking. It was the life's work of rare theological and pastoral genius. I commend it to every Christian. It is not just for pastors and theologians or historians! It is one of the great pieces of Christian literature of all time, graciously bestowed upon the Church for her profit.  It is a shame so few have read it.

So please, for the love of God, the good of his Church, and the sake of your soul—take up and read! Working through thoughtfully and prayerfully such Christian classics would be, so I judge, an important component of the much-needed reformation in the superficial and anemic American church. So love God with your mind and read great books. And Calvin's Institutes is surely tops on the list of great books.

Uttering Words

Praying aloud is a practice that used to be commonplace in the Church until fairly recently, as far as I'm able to discern.  Today, however, we don't utter audible words.  Luther urges uttering words to help us soar upwards.  I confess that I need this aid or my weak mind quickly strays.

"No one should depend on his heart and presume to pray without uttering words unless he is well trained in the Spirit and has experience in warding off stray thoughts.  Otherwise the devil will thoroughly trick him and soon smother the prayer in his heart.  Therefore we should cling to the words and with their help soar upward, until our feathers grow and we can fly without the help of words.  I do not condemn words or the spoken prayer, nor should anyone spurn them.  On the contrary, they are to be accepted as an especially great gift of God.  However, it is wrong when the words are not employed for their fruitful purpose, namely, to move the heart, but are only mumbled and muttered with the mouth, on the false assumption that this is all that is necessary."

Notice how in his recommedation of "uttering words" he warns of making them the heart of the matter.  They must be "employed for their fruitful purpose, namely, to move the heart."  O Lord, teach us to pray.

Lifting Up of Heart and Mind to God

What is the essence of prayer?  Luther taught the common person that "prayer is nothing else than the lifting up of heart or mind to God."  He continues, "But if the lifting up of the heart consitutes the essence and nature of prayer, it follows that everything else which does not invite the lifting of the heart is not prayer."  Luther says this in an exposition of the Lord's prayer, urging heartfelt prayer at a time when mindlessly mumbling through beads had become one of the marks of piety.  And so the average Christian had a distorted view of prayer.  The heart of the matter is the heart, and lifting up our hearts to God alone moves and pleases him.

"This people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men" (Isa. 29:13; cf. Mt. 15:8).

Kiss the Son

Conservative Christians ordinarily make quite a big deal out of being Bible people.  They say that we should all obey the Bible and go no further.  This is good and right.  But one of the problems, for example, is that conservatives ignore quite a lot of the Bible. 

Take Ps. 2:12: "Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled.  Blessed are all who take refuge in him."  Now, let me ask some difficult questions for conservative American Christians: Should Obama be told to kiss the Son?  Should he be required to obey King Jesus and submit to his righteous rule?  "Uh, ur, but, but what about the separation of church and state, the separation of church and state, our inviolable notion of the separation of church and state?"  So no doubt many would stutter and mutter while holding a big fat Bible.  Well, what does the psalmist say?  "Now, therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way" (vv 10-12).  Does this include twenty-first century rulers?  American Presidents?  Of course.  To whom do the apostles say this psalm refers?  To King Jesus (see Acts 2 and Heb. 1, for instance).  And should David, a mere pointer to the ultimate King, David's greater son and David's Lord, receive such regard but not the one to whom the psalm was ultimately pointing?  The apostles upset the world with their preaching for a reason: the were preaching Jesus as King (Acts 17:6-7). 

May God grant deep repentence in the church in America.  And I mean all of us. We're in this stinkin' mess together, and we need to pray to the Lord of Hosts to deliver us.  We continue to want to separate what God has joined together.  Jesus is Lord of all.  This is not difficult.  This is, after all, to our shameful neglect, the basic Christian confession and the center of the Gospel.  And somehow we've lost it and don't see it.

Reason Clothed and in Her Right Mind

In Calvin the Christian we see reason clothed and in her right mind.  Speaking of the mystery of the Sacred Supper, Calvin says, "I rather experience than understand it" (Institutes, 1403).  In context, he means, understand it comprehensively.  But he's not afraid to speak of experiencing something in the Spirit that is real and solid which he does not seek to explain fully with words.

Here's another example of Calvin's reason clothed and in her right mind.  "For as Christ's whole Kingdom is spiritual, whatever he does with his church must not be subjected to the reason of this world" (Institutes, 1404).  Well said.

Oh for the modern Church to be delivered from the insanity of rationalism, to be clothed and recover her right mind!  Lord, save us, from Reason with a big R and from so-called reason that will not sit at the feet of the Lord Jesus with clothes on and a sound mind—subjected to the Word of God and Wisdom incarnate.

One with Christ

Calvin on the Sacred Supper is without doubt in my mind dead on.  His view, amid the muddle, clarifies and illuminates.  It also tends toward nourishment and vivification and communion, which gets at my chief concern with understanding the Table aright. 

I give Calvin's summary from an extended discussion in Book 4 of what Scripture teaches concerning the Supper over against what today is called the "memorial view":  

To summarize:  our souls are fed by the flesh and blood of Christ in the same way that bread and wine keep and sustain physical life.  For the analogy of the sign applies only if our souls find their nourishment in Christ--which cannot happen unless Christ truly grows into one with us, and refreshes us by the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood.

The Holy Supper

As often as we celebrate the Table of the Lord, we engage in proclamation of his death until he comes (1 Cor. 11:26).  This simple truth is worthy of extended meditation.  Our celebration of the Holy Supper is a proclaiming of the Lord's death till he returns.  This simple truth lands on me this morning with more weight and force than previously it had. 

As the saints gather on Sunday, we do so in the name of the risen Christ, celebrating the resurrection and all that flows from it.  But our celebration of the Supper centers on the death that proceeded it.  The Table reminds us ever and always how the cross came before, and comes before, the crown, even as we enjoy new life in Christ.  And this cross, this substitutionary sacrifice, we proclaim as we celebrate the Supper.  An implication: we are bearing witness to unbelievers as we celebrate the sacred meal.

Two Touches

Here is another solid, soul-strengthening sermon by Pastor O'Donnell on Mt. 9:18-26.  It is full of resurrection healing and hope.  This kind of hope must be part of our Christianity or we're not Christians.  The hope proffered to faith in this sermon is the stuff of the endurance of the saints amid trials and tribulations.  I might add that this sermon by O'Donnell is a model of weaving counseling ministry into the preaching ministry. 


Enjoy this sermonic food for the hungry soul, for the weak soul, for the weak body.  In fact, enjoy it twice.  Or more.  After all, sermons are food, not just information for the notebook or for the nod of the head. They are to strengthen the heart, and by faith this one will.   


Click on the title of this post for the link to the sermon.

Initiation into the the Society of the Church

Here is a definition of baptism that I like a great deal. It seems to me to embrace the biblical data on the matter, and is not truncated as it often is when people speak of baptism today. It is Calvin's definition. And if it seems like I'm slavishly following Calvin of late, please just note that it is his 500th birthday and I simply want to honor his memory. Besides, the Institutes have been my breakfast every morning, alongside my daily reading from Scripture, during this past year because of a reading plan to mark the quincentenary of the reformer's birth.

So, here it is, from Book 4, Ch. 15, Sect. 1: "Baptism is the sign of the initiation by which we are received into the society of the church, in order that, engrafted in Christ, we may be reckoned among God's children."

Just Laugh at His Stupidity

In Calvin's Institutes, Book 4, Ch. 14, Sect. 4, Calvin continues his discussion of sacraments.  In doing so, he speaks of how outward signs that God has ordained render more certain to man the truth of God's promises.  The rainbow, for example, is set forth as one such sign of God's covenant faithfulness to never again destroy the world by flood.  In the course of this discussion, there is this marvelous statement that speaks to the naturalism of our day (and the naturalists who hold to it) just as it spoke to the naturalism of Calvin's own. 

Calvin on rainbows and naturalists:

If any philosopher, to mock the simplicity of our faith, contends that such variety of colors naturally arises from rays reflected upon a cloud opposite, let us admit it, but laugh at his stupidity in failing to recognize God as the lord and governor of nature, who according to his will uses all the elements to serve his glory.

So how ought we to respond to the naturalists of our day who stupidly speak of rainbows oh so scientifically, as though they are disproving the existence and providence of God?

"We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).

Are Calvinists Arrogant?

Calvinists, particularly newborn or young ones, are often charged with arrogance. And for a moment, I want to grant the charge. Maybe it is true that Calvinists are more arrogant, manifested to other Christians precisely when a God-centered and grace-soaked gospel and vision of all things is first embraced. Consider this. Maybe Calvinists really are more arrogant. But maybe they were more arrogant before ever they knew the grace of Christ. Perhaps God has chosen some of the most arrogant people on the planet for at least two reasons. First, God's choosing the proudest would highlight his grace, and his freedom and sovereignty in bestowing it. Choosing the worst sinners makes it clearer that such sinners couldn't save themselves (and it certainly wasn't their humble reliance on God that moved God to save them). Second, the proudest of the proud need more humbling, and there is nothing to flatten an inflated self like comprehensive grace, grace top to bottom, front to back, weighty grace, pouring forth from eternity.

So maybe the charge that Calvinists tend to be more arrogant is true. And so they (before becoming Calvinists, of course) are the ones to whom God has often determined to make known the riches and fullness of his grace--to display it more fully and to lay low what is too high. I was and am a proud man. And nothing but sovereign grace could overcome my high arrogance. An Arminian gospel, which I do not believe to be biblical and find repulsive, would make a wretch like me more, not less, proud.

That No One May Boast

Ephesians 2:8-9 deals a death blow to man's pride and vaunted powers: "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not from you: it is the gift of God, not from works, that no one should boast." The "and this" in verse 8 is neuter and singular in the Greek. The syntactical problem here is that there is no neuter antecedent, which is unexpected. Both grace and faith are feminine and singular in the Greek, and the periphrastic participle rendered "you have been saved" (or "you are being saved") is masculine and plural. So what is the antecedent? Oftentimes "and this" has a conceptual antecedent in the New Testament. And that seems most fitting here in Eph. 2:8-9.  So the antecedent is a by-grace-through-faith salvation. None of it is from man: all of it is the gift of God. And, yes, this includes our faith. It too is a gift of God. 

Why, one might ask? Does it have to be taken that way? I think that grammatically it makes the most sense, though the grammar is not decisive. Context and theology are! There is another factor in the context—God's aim. God is bent on ensuring that no one might boast (v. 9) in the way he bestows salvation. Leaving a little room for man to glory in his self-generated faith would devastate God's purposes in salvation. If the decisive factor when a person comes to faith in Christ is self-generated faith—to any degree whatsover—then man is decisive, even if he says he is only receiving the free gift, and has reason for glorying in self. If salvation hangs ultimately on man's decision, upon whom does it ultimately rest? Yep, you got it. And it's disgusting, isn't it? God will have none of it. So the whole of his by-grace-through-faith salvation is a gift—including the faith—that none should boast. Except, in the cross of Christ and the free grace of God.

The Ultimate Youth Pastor

Check out Ignatius, the ultimate youth pastor. When Emily and I first watched this some months back, we enjoyed many belly laughs and rolls on the floor. Unfortunately, there is too much truth to this satiric piece as relates to American youth pastors. Hit the title of this post for the link. And enjoy.

With Calvin in the Theater of God

This past weekend Em and I attended Desiring God's National Conference at the Convention Center in downtown Minneapolis. We had a wonderful time. It was singularly refreshing and renewing. It stoked the furnace of zeal for God's glory in all things. All of the speakers were on their game, if I may put it that way. The messages by Wilson, Storms, and Piper are particularly worthy of a hearing—more than once, each. The panel discussion was, as usual, rather stimulating. I've attended all but one of these national conferences since they started, and this one was, I think, the best. The title above gives the link to the messages.

Father of Mercies

Doug Wilson's sermon four Sundays ago (8-23-9) on Col. 3:12-14, entitled Father of Mercies, was outstanding. The Word is applied with good biblical sense and wisdom. Very helpful stuff indeed, including to help one think through stewardship and economics. This one is worth listening to multiple times. Click on the title of this post for the link (N.B. Christ Church sermons are not available for free for very long; as new sermons get added, old ones get taken off.)

By Sword, By Famine, By Pestilence

It is recorded in Ezek. 6 that idolatrous Israel would "fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence" (v. 11). Thus, says YHWH, "I will spend my fury upon them" (v.12). The upshot of the fury: "And you shall know that I am YHWH, when their slain lie among their idols" (v. 13). Question. Do our naturalistic tendancies blind us from seeing and knowing YHWH when he works his sovereign will among us, especially when he sends his fury? Another related question. Are we functional deists?

Exegesis Paper

The following outline is the basic method for doing an exegesis paper as taught by Prof. G. K. Beale in his Principles of Interpretation course at Wheaton College:

1. Dependent prayer.
2. Survey the historical context generally and particularly.
3. Confirm the limits of the passage.
4. Provide a provisional translation. Also compare 5 or 6 major translations and note differences.
5. Note textual problems.
6. Note grammatical problems.
7. Note syntactical problems. Do a sentence flow.
8. Note lexical problems.
9. Note exegetical relation (logical) problems. Do a discourse analysis.
10. Note parallel relation problems.
11. Note OT/NT problems.
12. Note historical-cultural background problems.
13. Note figurative problems.
14. Note genre problems.
15. Note theological problems
16. Produce a rough draft.
17. Consult secondary literature.
18. Provide a finished translation.
19. Produce the final form of the paper.

Canonical Context is the King's Servant

It is generally acknowledged that "context is king" in the interpretative enterprise. That is to say, extracting meaning from a text is accomplished well really only when the context is duly heeded. But I wonder if the canonical context is considered as it ought to be, not least given the theological awareness of divine intentionality in inspiring a canon of 66 books, 39 of which were penned before the coming of Christ, 27 after.

What I mean is this. As God's revelation unfolds and plays out (including inscripturated revelation and incarnate revelation), there is more context for understanding texts. So "thicker" or "fuller" meanings are possible and even probable and intended (though not necessarily intended by the human author). The wider and fuller context provided by the whole canon, and particularly by Christ's coming, makes plainer, clearer, brighter, and fuller where texts were heading according to divine intentionality, that is, as they were given by God to address not only the immediate context but also to speak beyond it in fuller and brighter ways. So increased and fuller and brighter understanding is precisely due to the enlarged and brighter context of the whole canon. Giving a proper place to the canonical context and divine intentionality of texts may help with some of the muddles in hermeneutical debates about use of texts and authorial intent.

Blood on the Hands

YHWH's word to the man called to speak in his name: "Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand" (Ezek. 3:17-18).

Methods and Industry

It ought to be said repeatedly that for all our methods and industry, it is God who must bestow light. For in his light alone do we see light. And lest this be misunderstood, it ought also to be said that God's ordinary means for bestowing light is through sound methodology and assiduous labor. Yet, God is not bound by them. He is free to bestow light on whom he will. Our methods and labor are futile without God's free favor. And so we are utterly dependent even as we break our brains and beat our bodies.

Sentence Flowing

For those who want to see the "syntactical bone structure" (as Prof. G. K. Beale calls it) of a text, a sentence flow is a method to do this. The following summary steps to take is taken from Gordon Fee's New Testament Exegesis (3rd ed., pp. 41-58):

1. Begin with the subject, predicate, and object to the extreme left.
2. Subordinate by indenting all adverbial modifiers and adjectival and noun clauses under the word or word group being modified.
3. Coordinate by lining up corresponding elements directly under one another.
4. Isolate structural signals (i.e., conjunctions, particles, relative pronouns, and sometimes demonstrative pronouns), either above or to the left, and highlight in order to draw lines from the structural signal to the the element(s) to which it is related.
5. Color-code recurring words or motifs in order to trace themes or ideas crucial to the flow of the argument.
6. Trace the argument by annotation.

Greatness, Humility, Servanthood

Piper's sermon two Sunday's ago on greatness, humility, and servanthood is helpful and searching. Helpful, I say, because humility is so often misunderstood (and we all easily slip into this) in our man-centered day and culture. Searching, I say, because pride lurks within and, at every turn, there the old man is puffing himself up before God. To listen or watch, see Greatness, Humility, Servanthood.