The Man Whose Name Was "Help"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Suffer a Little for My Sake

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

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

Making Texts Do Little Poodle Tricks?

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

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

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

O God, Grant Firm, Glad, and Grateful Faith

A Lutheran prayer for a robust faith:

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

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

Baptism as a Sure Sign

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

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

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

Grammatico-Historical Method Not Enough

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preacher: Be Bold and Calm

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

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

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

God Does All, and We Do All

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creating a Church Culture of Reading

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

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

Preacher: Acquire Other Languages

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

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

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

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

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

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

The World Ordained to Display Gospel Glories

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

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

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

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

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

Religious Affections Essential

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

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

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

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

LIke a Silkworm Eating into the Leaf

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

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

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

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

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

Chronological Snobbery

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

But, he says,

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

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

Orators Born, Not Bred

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

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

Plagarism in the Pulpit

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

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

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

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

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

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

Superabounding Grace

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

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

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

The Scope and Sweep of the Psalms

Athanasius on the comprehensiveness and sufficiency of the Psalms:

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

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

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

A Lutheran prayer to the Good Shepherd:

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

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

The Supremacy of God in Preaching

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

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

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

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

O Lord, Rekindle and Strengthen Faith

A Lutheran prayer before receiving communion:

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

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

The Psalter's Very Special Grace

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

            (Col. 3:9-11).

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

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

            new humanity.

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

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

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

            A. Let Christ’s peace control your hearts.

            B. Let Christ’s word dwell within you.

            C. Guard yourselves with gratitude.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do Your Sins Bite and Gnaw and Frighten You?

A Lutheran prayer to the Lord Jesus:

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

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

"The Anti-Psalm"

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

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

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

Journaling: A Time-Wasting and Foolish Practice

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

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

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

God Is Merciful to Me

A Lutheran prayer of confession and confident trust:

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

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

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

Do You Know Who You Are?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Preacher: What to Strive For

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

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

Living and Dying to Jesus

A brief Lutheran prayer of self-dedication to Christ, based on Rom. 14:7:

“O Jesus Christ, I live to you; I die to you; living or dying, I am yours. Amen.”

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

Gathering Together to Strengthen Marriages

This summer a group from our home church is getting together six Sunday nights to strengthen our marriages. Like caring for a glorious garden so it's not overrun with weeds, we're going to do a little planting, a little watering, and a little hoeing in community.

We'll be reading through Doug Wilson's For a Glory and a Covering: A Practical Theology of Marriage. I expect to do some blogging on the book along the way. Please feel free, especially if you're involved in the discussions, to interact and comment. If you're blogging on the book, I'll be sure to drop by and see what you're saying.

For those who'll be joining our jolly gatherings this summer (which Em and I are really looking forward to), I'm posting the marriage discussion schedule below. 

One more word about a word above. I say jolly gatherings, because "the joy of the Lord is our strength," and the strength of our marriages. And I say jolly, because I fully anticipate having a lot of fun with friends. 

Summer Reading Schedule for Marriage Discussion

June 10—Introduction and Part I: "Marriage and the Nature of God" 
                 (Chps. 1-5, xi - p. 26)

                 Discussion Focus: chps. 2 & 5

                 * Hosts: The Wencels 

June 24—Part II: "Marriage Is for Men and Women" 
                 (Chps. 6-8, pp. 29-53)

                 Discussion Focus: chps. 7 & 8

                 * Hosts: The Polenders

July 15—Part II: "Marriage Is for Men and Women"
              (Chps. 9-12, pp. 55-86)           
              Discussion Focus: chps. 11 & 12
              * Hosts: The Walters

July 22—Part III: "Marriage Is for Sinners" 
                (Chps. 13-16, pp. 89-108)

                Discussion Focus: chps. 14 & 16

                * Hosts: The Colberts

Aug 12—Part III: "Marriage Is for Sinners" 
                (Chps. 17-19, pp. 109-124)

                Discussion Focus: chps. 17 & 19

                * Hosts: The Wencels

Aug 26—Part IV: "Marriage Is Good" 
                (Chps. 20-23, pp. 127-149)

                Discussion Focus: chps. 21 & 23

                * Hosts: ?

An Awful Weapon in the Hand of God

“It is not great talents God blesses so much as great likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.”—Robert Murray M’Cheyne

—Andrew Bonar, ed., Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Carlisle: Banner of Truth, 1995), 282.

A Minister’s Personal Holiness Paramount

“What my people need most is my personal holiness.—”Robert Murray M’Cheyne

—Andrew Bonar, ed., Memoir and Remains of Robert Murray M’Cheyne (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1978), 258.

O Father, I Would Be Lost and Destroyed

 Luther offers a model prayer of contrition, confession, and childlike trust:

My dear Father, I always confess and you can see that as I walk or stand, every particle of my inner and out being, together with my body and soul, deserves hell and fire. When all is said and done, you, my Father, know that of my own accord there is not even a hair on my head, nor any other thing in me, that is good. Everything that belongs to me is hunted by the hated devil for the bottomless pit.

What can I say about it? In spite of who I am, I continue to pray to you, my dear Father. Do not stare and search me with your eyes, for I would be lost and destroyed, even if a hundred thousand worlds were mine! But I ask you to look at the face of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, your anointed one, my Mediator, High Priest, and Advocate; my Savior, Redeemer, and Benefactor. O my Father, be gracious and merciful for his sake, not mine. 

Grant me a happy end and a glad resurrection, for the sake of your dear Son, Jesus Christ. Help my body in this world, and my soul in the world to come, because of the crimson blood which he has shed on the cross for the forgiveness of my sins, and because of my many sins which cannot be named, which because of your righteousness you will not cover. I pray you now, my Father, because of your infinite mercy permit the blood of Jesus Christ your Son to accomplish its purpose in me. It was willed by you from eternity that the shedding of the blood of Jesus Christ on the cross should pay for the forgiveness and remission of my sins.

So in whatever hour or moment by day or night you will come and knock to require my spirit which you have breathed into me, I pray you continually, dear Father, to permit this spirit, which is my soul, to be commended into your hands. I ask this because of the blood, sufferings, and death of your dear Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 70-71.

Blog Break

The blog is on hold. The internet has been down at our place for days. I'm also now in the hospital getting testing for my heart, which has been acting up again. If you're here reading this, please pray for sweet fellowship with the Lord and restoration of health to serve the Lord with vigor and zeal.

Meekness Is not Weakness

"Meekness is not weakness, but is what you get when a powerful wild horse has been tamed (all the same power, but now under control)."

—N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Prison Letters (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002), 182.

Training Little Minds for Christ

Justin Taylor has labored in love to provide this reading list for children grades 1-8. Thanks, Justin!

Training Little Minds for Christ

Justin Taylor has now provided a reading list for sixth through eighth graders: follow this link. Follow this link for the list for fourth through fifth grade reading; and this one for first through third grade.

Some Did Count Him Mad

"A man there was, though some did count him mad,
The more he cast away, the more he had."

—John Buynan, Pilgrim's Progress (New York: Penguin, 2008), 265.

An Incomparable Treasure

Calvin tells us what he perceives to be the core of Colossians: "The principal object at which [Paul] aims to teach is that all things are in Christ, and that he alone ought to be sufficient and more than sufficient for the Colossians." I find this to be on the face of the instruction in Colossians, and pure and wholesome doctrine.

Then Calvin reasons why we should esteem this epistle as an "incomparable treasure":

All parts of our salvation are placed in Christ alone, that they [the Colossians] may not seek anything elsewhere; and he reminds them that it was in Christ that they had obtained all their blessings, in order that they might the more carefully make it their aim to retain him to the end. And, truly, even this one article is of itself perfectly sufficient to make us reckon this epistle, short as it is, an incomparable treasure; for what is greater in the whole of heavenly doctrine than to have Christ drawn to the life, that we may perceive his power, his office, and all the fruits that come to us from him?[1]

Let us then, with that great man of the Reformation, reckon this Pauline epistle according to its true worth as we perceive the wealth of Christ. I wouldn't trade it for all the estates and assets of both Bill Gates and Warren Buffett combined. Would you? More strongly, I wouldn't trade it for 10,000 worlds!

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[1] John Calvin, The Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians (eds., Torrance, David W., and Torrance, Thomas F; trans. Parker, T. H. L.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1996), 298.

Training Little Minds for Christ

Justin Taylor provides a helpful reading list for fourth through fifth graders: check it out here. Look here for the link for first through third graders.

"Holy Delight"

Now that our parents know the sex/gender of our baby (my wife is seventeen weeks along in her first pregnancy), we're happy to announce we're having a little girl. Her name is Ariana Dalissa Wencel. Ariana is Greek in origin, and means "holy." Dalissa is English, from the Latin deliciae, which means "delight," or "pleasure." So her name means "holy delight."

It has a twofold significance. First, her name reminds us that our daughter is a delight from the Lord, and so one that should be holy, not idolatrous. She is a delight, but not an ultimate one. We will delight in her "in God" (à la Augustinianism). God alone is our supreme satisfaction, not this child.

Second, her name will serve to remind her that God is her holy delight, her pleasure above every pleasure, her all-satisfying infinite Delight and Treasure, even as he is her parents' all-satisfying infinite Delight and Treasure.

Cleverness in the Pulpit?

"No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save."—James Denney

—Quoted in John Piper, The Supremacy of God in Preaching (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004), 59.

O Lord, Fill My Empty Cup

Luther on the empty needing filling:

Look, Lord, an empty vessel that needs to be filled. My Lord, fill it. I am weak in the faith; strengthen me. I am cold in love; warm me and make me fervent, that my love may go out to my neighbor. I do not have a strong and firm faith. At times I doubt and am unable to trust you completely. O Lord, help me. Strengthen my faith and trust in you. I have insured all my treasure in your name. I am poor; you are rich and you did come to be merciful to the poor. I am a sinner; you are upright. With me there is an abundance of sin; with you a fullness of righteousness. Therefore I will remain with you, from whom I can receive but to whom I may not give. Amen.

 —Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 67-68.

An Outcropping of Counter-Cultural Spirituality?

David Wells on the choice between love for God and love for the world:

The choice for God now has to become one in which the church begins to form itself, by his grace and truth, into an outcropping of counter-cultural spirituality. It must first recover the sense of antithesis between Christ and culture and then find ways to sustain that antithesis. It is, after all, only when we see what the church is willing to give up by developing this antithesis that we see what it is actually for. If it is for God, for this truth, for his people, for the alienated and trampled in life, then it must give up what the post-modern world holds most dear: it must give up the freedom to anything it happens to desire. It must give up self-cultivation for self-surrender, entertainment for worship, intuition for truth, slick marketing for authentic witness, success for faithfulness, power for humility, a God bought on cheap terms for the God who calls us to a costly obedience. It must, in short, be willing to do God's business on God's terms.

—David Wells, God in the Wasteland: The Reality of Truth in a World of Fading Dreams (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1994), 223. 

Is this how you (or an outsider) would characterize the evangelical church today: an outcropping of counter-cultural spirituality? No such words would come to mind. God help us.

Training Little Minds for Christ

Justin Taylor provides a helpful reading list for first through third graders: check it out here.

Sooner Than Saying Anything Outright Barbarous

Since in recent months I've heard or read a number of people urging the reading of George Orwell's "Politics and the English Language," I recently read it. And I'll likely read it again. I can't say I agree with everything it says, but it would do much good no doubt if heeded. You can follow the link above to read the whole of it. Here I only want to reproduce the six rules that Orwell gives for one to decide whether or not to used a word or phrase.

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Convinced Sinners Seeking Comfort and Acceptance

In the quotations that follow, John Owen speaks wisely to how we approach the doctrine of justification. He's talking about our posture before God in this matter. And in this section from his book on justification, he's inquiring into the cause or reason a person may be acquitted of sin and accepted with God. It spans a few pages, and I pull out and place here pieces of a common theme cropping up again and again in this section, which theme I think is almost entirely missing today in our posture in relation to this doctrine. And this is not a good thing, in case you're wondering.

Whether it be any thing in ourselves, as our faith and repentance, the renovation of our natures, inherent habits of grace, and actual works of righteousness which we have done, or may do? or whether it be the obedience, righteousness, satisfaction, and merit of the Son of God our mediator, and surety of the covenant, imputed unto us? One of these it must be—namely, something that is our own which, whatever may be the influence of the grace of God unto it, or causality of it, because wrought in and by us, is inherently our own in a proper sense; or something which, being not our own, not inherent in us, nor wrought by us, is yet imputed unto us, for the pardon of our sins and the acceptation of our persons as righteous, or the making of us righteous in the sight of God. Which of these it is the duty, wisdom, and safety of a convinced sinner to rely upon and trust unto, in his appearance before God, is the sum of our present inquiry. . . . 

. . . Neither are we in this matter much to regard the senses or arguings of men who were never thoroughly convinced of sin, nor have ever in their own person "fled for refuge unto the hope set before them."  

. . . It is alone the relief of those who are in themselves . . . guilty before, or obnoxious and liable to, the judgment of God, that we inquire after. . . . 

. . . But, beyond what tends directly unto the guidance of the minds and satisfaction of the souls of men, who seek after a stable and abiding foundation of acceptance with God, we are not easily to be drawn . . . 

. . . That which alone we aim (or ought so to do) to learn in it and by it, is how we may get and maintain peace with God, and so to live unto him as to be accepted with him in what we do. To satisfy the minds and consciences of men in these things is this doctrine to be taught.

As I said, this feel is almost entirely missing in the present wranglings about justification. And it's a sign, if Scripture is to be the judge (and it is), that we're culpably overlooking what our posture must be as we approach God in this matter. Are we convinced sinners seeking relief? Or are we detached scientists studying a specimen?

—The Doctrine of Justification by Faith (vol. 5; Works, Banner of Truth), 8-10.

The Living Hope of New Testament Spirituality

In a chapter titled "Richard Baxter on Heaven, Hope, and Holiness," J. I. Packer expresses three convictions:

The first is that rejoicing in the "living hope" of "an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power"; and "set[ting] your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed" (1 Pet. 1:4-5,13) are integral elements in New Testament spirituality. And I see New Testament spirituality as the norm for all subsequent Christian belief. 

My second conviction is that a good deal of what is involved in being "alive to God" in this or in any age depends directly on having this "living hope" vivid in one's heart. I think here of the qualities of zeal, enterprise, energy, and persistence in well-doing for God; of loving, adoring worship as a daily habit; of meekness, sweetness, and selflessness under pain and disappointment; of a sense of proportion, a due appreciation of pleasure, and a realism about death.  

My third conviction is that we Western Christians, by and large, . . . are to our shame a sluggish, earthbound lot compared with our Puritan predecessors, and that lack of long, strong thinking about our promised hope of glory is a major cause of our plodding, lacklustre lifestyle. 

—J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 263-264.

Our Future-Oriented Salvation

Commenting on the salvation language of Rom. 5:9 in particular and Paul's writings generally, Doug Moo says:

This future-oriented use of σῴζω is quite usual in Paul. For while he sometimes uses the verb to denote the deliverance from the penalty of sin that comes at conversion (e.g., Rom. 8:24; Eph. 2:5, 8), he more often used the word (and its cognates; cf. Rom. 13:11) to depict the final deliverance of the Christian from the power of sin, the evils of this life, and, especially, judgment (e.g., 1 Cor. 3:15; 5:5; Phil. 2:12). Paul pictures the Christian as having been saved, as looking forward to being saved, and even as in the process of being saved (cf. 2 Cor. 2:15; 2 Thess. 2:10).

 —The Epistle to the Romans, pp. 310-311.

Preaching as a Dying Man to Dying Men

From Baxter's Poetical Fragments:

               A life still near to Death, did me possess
               With a deep sense of Time's great preciousness;

so that

               I Preach'd, as never sure to Preach again,
               And as a dying man to dying men.

—Culled from J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 266.

O Lord, Give More Light and Joy in Your Spirit

A Lutheran prayer for a right understanding:

Lord God, dear Father, through your Holy Spirit you have taught and enlightened the hearts of your believers. Through the same Spirit give us a right understanding, to be glad at all times in his comfort and power, through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 66.

The Best Doctrine

"That is the best doctrine and study which maketh men better and tendeth to make them happy."

—Richard Baxter, culled from J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 29.

Thanatopsis

To him who in the love of nature holds
Communion with here visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And gentle sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart,—
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air,—
Comes a still voice—Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again;
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix forever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak 
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.
Yet not to thy eternal resting place
Shalt thou retire alone—nor couldst thou wish 
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarch of the infant world—with kings, 
The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre.—The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods—rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and poured round all,
Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven, 
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread 
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom. — Take the wings
Of morning, and the Barcan desert pierce,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings —  yet — the dead are there,
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep — the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest — and what if thou shalt fall
Unheeded by the living — and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come,
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glides away, the sons of men — 
The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,
And the sweet babe, and the gray-headed man, — 
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn, shall follow them.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

—William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)

Frequent and Ardent

"A good prayer should not be lengthy or drawn out, but frequent and ardent" (Luther, vol. 43, Works, 209).

A Total View of Christianity

Packer on the essence of Puritanism:

Puritanism . . . was a total view of Christianity, Bible-based, church-centered, God-honouring, literate, orthodox, pastoral, and Reformational, that saw personal, domestic, professional, political, churchly, and economic existence as aspects of a single whole, and that called on everybody to order every department and every relationship of their life according to the Word of God, so that all would be sanctified and become "holiness to the Lord."  

Puritanism's spearhead activity was pastoral evangelism and nurture through preaching, catechizing, and counselling (which Puritans themselves called casuistry), and Puritan teaching harped constantly on the themes of self-knowledge, self-humbling, and repentance; faith in, and love for, Jesus Christ the Saviour; the necessity of regeneration, and of sanctification (holy living, by God's power) as proof of it; the need for conscientious conformity to all God's law, and for a disciplined use of the means of grace; and the blessedness of the assurance and joy from the Holy Spirit that all faithful believers under ordinary circumstances may know. Puritans saw themselves as God's pilgrims, travelling home; God's warriors, battling against the world, the flesh, and the devil; and God's servants, under orders to do all the good they could as they went along.

—J. I. Packer, Honoring the People of God: Collected Shorter Writings on Christian Leaders and Theologians (Vancoover: Regent College Publishing, 1999), 24-25

Ask Whatever You Wish?

What Jesus holds out to his disciples in Jn.15:7 simply staggers the mind: "Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you." Whatever I wish? Really? Come on. How can that be?

Now I do not in the least desire to downplay the sweep of Jesus' promise here in John 15. However, if you have ever wondered how this texts works in real life, only to find yourself more than a little puzzled and perplexed, ponder first long and hard (before throwing up your hands in defeat because the Bible is too hard to get) the flow of thought that starts in v. 1.

The subject of vv. 1-7 is bearing fruit by abiding in Jesus, and Jesus' words abiding in us. "Bearing fruit" language occurs five times in the first five verses. And then following Jesus mind-bending word in v. 7, we read: " By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples" (v. 8). The "by this" of v. 8 shows us the topic and scope of "whatever you wish" and "it will be done for you." Jesus' wants fruit bearing in his disciples, fruit bearing that brings glory to the Father. And as the following verses reveal (vv. 9-17), the pre-eminent and all-embracing fruit is love (see also Jn. 13:34-35).

So abide in Jesus. Let his word abide in you. Ask for whatever fruit you want. Any fruit whatever. Let every request be one flowing from and aiming at love. It will be given to you and prove you are Jesus' disciples. By this God the Father is glorified—"the chief end of man"—showing no narrowly self-serving requests fit into the mind-bending sweep of Jn. 15:7.

Stolen Gain Goes Down the Drain

Luther's instruction to his barber on how think about the eighth commandment (Luther was instructing him how to pray through it):

I can learn here that I must not take property belonging to my neighbors from them or posses it against their will, either in secret or openly. I must not be false or dishonest in business, service, or work, nor profit by fraud, but must support myself by the sweat of my brow and eat my bread in honor. Furthermore, I must see to it that in any of the above-named ways my neighbors are not defrauded, just as I wish for myself. I also learn in this commandment that God, in his fatherly solicitude, sets a protective hedge around my goods and solemnly prohibits anyone to steal from me. Where that is ignored, he has imposed a penalty and those in authority are ordered to punish the disobedient. Where that cannot be done, God himself metes out punishment and they become beggars in the end. As the proverb says, "Those who steal in their youth go begging in old age," or, "Stolen gain goes down the drain."

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 58.

Seifrid on Pistis Iēsou Christou

How the term pistis Iēsou Christou (πίστις Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ) in Rom. 3:22 (and elsewhere) should be interpreted has been a matter of intense scholarly dispute. For my part, I lean heavily toward the traditional interpretation, taking it as an objective genitive: "faith in Jesus Christ." But I don't want to give my reasons here. I want to post Mark Seifrid's view, which I find intriguing (though I'm not convinced yet). Most interpreters take pistis Iēsou Christou as either a subjective or objective genitive. Not so Seifrid. 

Providing examples from Josephus, Philo, Ignatius, and Acts, Seifrid argues that neither the objective nor subjective options should be embraced, because they both presuppose a purely verbal noun. Rather, Paul speaks of Christ as source and author of faith, so that “to believe in Jesus Christ is not first to act, but rather to be acted upon by God in his work in Jesus Christ.”

 —Seifrid, Mark A., “The Faith of Christ,” in The Faith of Jesus Christ: Exegetical, Biblical, and Theological Studies (eds. Michael F. Bird and Preston M. Sprinkle; Peabody: Hendrickson and Paternoster, 2009), 129-146.

Justification and Union with Christ

In thinking through Paul's articulation of justification in Romans (e.g., Rom. 3:21-22), it is vital to see that Paul sees "a righteousness from God" given as a gift for those who are united with him by faith coming in consequence of Jesus’ obedience, death, and resurrection (e.g., 3:24-25; 4:24-25; 5:9, 12-21). In union with Christ, Paul's most fundamental soteriological category, the sinner is seen as righteous.

It is also vital to see that although faith is stressed at length in 3:27ff, it is not seen as a work. It looks to God and his grace in the crucified and risen Christ (e.g., 3:22, 24; 4:5, 4:24). In fact, faith itself is seen as God’s doing (note the passive verb in the Greek in 4:20). Faith alone accords with grace (4:16), because its nature is to look away to what God, not man, has done and freely gives.

Justification and Church Membership

“Justification not only refers to the forgiveness of sins and acquittal of believers, but it also establishes the believer’s membership in the people of God" (Bird, The Saving Righteousness of God, 152).

More Special Helps Against Satan's Devices

In the last post, I gave the first five of "ten special helps and rules against Satan's devices,"  taken from Thomas Brooks' Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices (Banner of Truth, p. 243ff). Now here are the last five (again, the italics are the author's, followed by two or three sentences of my choosing from each point that seem to communicate well each help):

6. The sixth help. If you would not be taken in any of Satan's snares, then keep humble. Humility keeps the soul free from many darts of Satan's casting, and snares of his spreading. . . . The devil hath least power to fasten a temptation on him that is most humble.

7. The seventh help. If you would not be taken in any of Satan's snares, then keep a strong, close, and constant watch (1 Thess. 5:6; cf. Matt. 26:41; Col. 4:2: 1 Pet. 4:7). That soul that will not watch against temptations, will certainly fall before the power of temptations. . . .The best way to be safe and secure from all Satan's assaults is, with Nehemiah and the Jews, to watch and pray, and pray and watch. . . . Watchfulness includes a waking, a rousing up of the soul. It is a continual, careful observing of our hearts and ways, in all the turnings of our lives, that we still keep close to God and his Word.

8. The eighth help. If you would not be taken with any of Satan's snares and devices, then keep up your communion with God. Your strength to stand and withstand Satan's fiery darts is from your communion with God. A soul high in communion with God may be tempted, but will not easily be conquered. Such a soul will fight it out to the death.

9. The ninth help. If you would not be taken in any of Satan's snares, then engage not against Satan in your own strength, but be every day drawing new virtue and strength from the Lord Jesus. Ah, souls! when the snare is spread, look up to Jesus Christ, who is lifted up in the gospel, as the brazen serpent was in the wilderness [Jn. 3:14-15], and say to him, Dear Lord! here is a new snare laid to catch my soul, and grace formerly received, without fresh supplies from thy blessed bosom, will not deliver me from this snare. Oh! give me new strength , new power, new influences, new measures of grace, that so I may escape the snares.

10. The tenth help. If you would not be taken in any of Satan's snares, then be much in prayer. Prayer is a shelter to the soul, a sacrifice to God, and a scourge to the devil. . . . Prayer is the gate of heaven, a key to let us into paradise. There is nothing that renders plots fruitless like prayer; therefore saith Christ; "Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation" (Matt. 26:41). You must watch and pray, and pray and watch, if you would not enter into temptation.

Brooks has a footnote with this tenth help, which says: "It was said of Charles the Great that he spake more with God than with men. Ah! that I could say so of the Christians in our days." And my response: Oh that we could say so of ourselves in these days!

So I end now these two posts on "Special Helps Against Satan's Devices" with this longing and prayer:

O God in heaven, Lord and Lover of the Church's soul, keep us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Waken us to speak more with you than we speak with people. Forgive us for neglecting Jesus' instruction to "watch and pray." We've been so often so easily seduced by Satan's devices. But you've not left us ignorant without instruction. And you've not left us without a great Savior. So pardon our sins, empower our lives, and give us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ —all for your great honor and glory. Amen.

Special Helps Against Satan's Devices

In the conclusion of his book Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices, Thomas Brooks sets forth "ten special helps and rules against Satan's devices" (Banner of Truth, p. 243ff). In this post I'll give the first five, and in the next the last five (the italics are his, followed by two or threes sentences of my choosing from each point that seem to communicate well each help):

1. The first help. If you would not be taken by any of Satan's devices, then walk by rule. When men throw off the Word, then God throws off them, and then Satan takes them by the hand, and leads them into snares at his pleasure.

2. The second help. As you would not be taken with any of Satan's devices, take heed of vexing and grieving of the Holy Spirit of God. Whoever be grieved, be sure the Spirit be not grieved by your enormities, nor by refusing the cordials and comforts that he sets before you, nor by slighting and despising his gracious acting in others. . . . The Spirit of the Lord is your counsellor, your comforter, your upholder, your strengthener.

3. The third help. If you would not be taken with any of Satan's devices, then labour for more heavenly wisdom. There are many knowing souls, but there are but a few wise souls. . . . It is not the most knowing Christian, but the most wise Christian, that sees, avoids, and escapes Satan's snares.

4. The fourth help. If you would not be taken with any of Satan's devices, then make present resistance against Satan's first motions. It is safe to resist, it is dangerous to dispute. . . . He that will play with Satan's bait, will quickly be taken with Satan's hook. The promise of conquest made over to resisting, not to disputing: "Resist the devil, and he will fly from you" (Jas. 4:7).

5. The fifth help. If you would not be taken with any of Satan's devices, then labour to be filled with the Spirit. The Spirit of the Lord is a Spirit of light and power; and what can a soul do without light and power "against spiritual wickedness in high places" (Eph. 6:12). It is not enough that you have the Spirit, but you must be filled with the Spirit, or else Satan, that evil spirit will be too hard for you. . . . Therefore labor more to have your hearts filled with the Spirit than to have your heads filled with notions, your shops with wares, your chests with silver, or your bags with gold. . . .

If You Will Keep My Covenant

The way covenants function in the Scriptures is what I consider a problem area for interpretation and theologizing. I suppose it may have something to do with the noncovenantal thinking of the evangelicalism in which I've been reared. But I think it also has to do with the way the whole Bible hangs together, which is a very complex matter.

Exodus 19:5 is an example of this. Which covenant is in view? Here's what William Dumbrell says, which seems right-minded to me: 

The covenant in mind may be prospective and have Exodus 20 in view. In the OT, however, references to keeping a divine covenant are consistently to a covenant already in existence (Gen. 17:9-10; 1 Kgs. 11:11; Ps. 78:10; 103:18; 132:12; Ezek. 17:14). It is possible that Exodus 19:5 points back to 6:5 and 3:13-15 and that continuity with the patriarchal covenant is involved, especially in light of the patriarchal style of address with which Yahweh begins verse 3. Involved in the Sinai arrangement that follows is continuity within the Abrahamic covenant but, for Israel, a specialized responsibility within the covenant. 

 —The Faith of Israel: A Theological Survey of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 37.

Father Hunger

Doug Wilson began a series called "Father Hunger" about a month ago. You can find the first in this series here. The series is proving thus far to be very instructive, and I would encourage fathers to give it a listen. Wilson is surely right in seeing "father hunger" as one of the great problems of our times.

MLJ Trust Major Announcement

Here is some really good news: Lloyd-Jones' preaching is now free for the world. God is good. And I am glad, and deeply grateful.

Ambling Along Complacently, Acting Like Rogues

Luther's counsel for praying through the sixth commandment:

"You shall not kill." Here I learn, first of all, that God desires me to love my neighbors, so that I do them no bodily harm, either by word or action, neither injure nor take revenge upon them in anger, vexation, envy, hatred, or for any evil reason, but realize that I am obliged to assist and counsel them in every bodily need. In this commandment God commands me to protect my neighbor's body and in turn commands my neighbor to protect my own. 

Second, I give thanks for such ineffable love, providence, and faithfulness toward me by which he has placed this mighty shield and wall to protect my physical safety. All are obliged to care for me and protect me, and I, in turn, must behave likewise toward others. He upholds this command and, where it is not observed, he has established the sword as punishment for those who do not live up to it. Were it not for this excellent commandment and ordinance, the devil would instigate such a massacre among us that no one could live in safety for a single hour—as happens when God becomes angry and inflicts punishment upon a disobedient and ungrateful world. 

Third, I confess and lament my own wickedness and that of the world, not only that we are so terribly ungrateful for such fatherly love and solicitude toward us—but what is especially scandalous, that we do not acknowledge this commandment and teaching, are unwilling to learn it, and neglect it as though it did not concern us or we had no part in it. We amble along complacently, feel no remorse that in defiance of this commandment we neglect our neighbors, and, yes, we desert them, persecute, injure, or even kill them in our thoughts. We indulge in anger, rage, and villainy as though we were doing a fine and noble thing. Really, it is high time that we started to deplore and bewail how much we have acted like rogues and like unseeing, unruly, and unfeeling persons who kick, scratch, tear, and devour one another like furious beasts and pay no heed to this serious and divine command.

Fourth, I pray the dear Father to lead us to an understanding  of this his sacred commandment and to help us keep it and live in accordance with it. May he preserve us from the murderer who is the master of every form of murder and violence. May he grant us his grace that we and all others may treat each other in kindly, gentle, and charitable ways, forgiving one another from the heart, bearing each other's faults and shortcomings, and thus living together  in true peace and concord, as the commandment teaches and requires us to do. 

—Martin Luther, Luther's Prayers (ed. Herbert F. Brokering; Augsberg: Minneapolis, 1994), 55-56.