Fascinating post on Genesis and creation

From Justin Taylor's blog:

It is sometimes claimed that the church has historically interpreted Genesis 1 as taking place in six twenty-four hour days, such that this is the “traditional” interpretation, with the rise of other interpretations as being solely due to scientific theories with naturalistic assumptions, especially those of Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century.

In light of this claim, it’s instructive to read the historical survey conducted by Robert Letham in his article, “‘In the Space of Six Days’: The Days of Creation from Origen to the Westminster Assembly,” Westminster Theological Journal 61 (1999): 147-74 [not available online].

Professor Letham writes, “This article focuses on how the six days of creation in Genesis 1 have been understood in exegetical history until the time of the Westminster Assembly [1640s]. . . . We will simply ask how the matter has been viewed in the past, for if it is as obvious as some make out we might expect a broad measure of agreement to exist.”

What follows are his summary points at the end of the article:

(1) Before the Westminster Assembly there were a variety of interpretations of Genesis 1 and its days. If the text of Genesis is so clear-cut why did the church down the centuries not see it that way? Does that not say something not only about the interpreters but also the text? Claims that a literal reading of the days of Genesis 1 is obvious fall down when the history of interpretation is taken into consideration.

(2) We will be wise to heed the warnings Augustine and Calvin give on the difficulty of interpreting this chapter, and so beware of dogmatic claims they themselves did not advance. Jerome pointed to the Jewish rabbis’ refusal to let anyone under thirty interpret it. Creation transcends our knowledge and experience. A heavy dose of medicine from Job 38:1ff is in order. As with any other passage, Genesis 1 must not be interpreted in isolation but in the context of the whole of Scripture.

(3) Until the mid-sixteenth century the interpreters we cited were all abreast of the philosophy and science of their day, and often made use of it in biblical interpretation. That we reject many of their scientific beliefs is because of our own scientific knowledge. That we place implicit faith in the laws of gravity is due to what we know scientifically, rather than from the Bible. So far I, for one, have found this reliable! Calvin allows and supports scientific work. He indicates Genesis is of a different literary genre than a science text book.

(4) The Reformed tradition of the sixteenth century interpreted creation theologically. The classic Reformed creeds consider it in the context of the doctrine of God, as an ex nihilo work of the Trinity. In so doing, they affirm their continuity with the historic teaching of the church. The question of the days of creation was not even a matter of discussion. It does not appear in theses for debate by students. Its absence is striking. It was never a matter of confessional significance.

(5) The Puritans until the time of the Westminster Assembly are significantly different from the historic church in their conspicuous lack of interest in creation in general and Genesis in particular. They never even attempted a serious theological interpretation of creation. Nor were they interested in interacting with contemporary science. At a time of such scientific and philosophical ferment this is astounding. Their interests had switched to the narrowly soteriological and ecclesiastical. Evidently, the focus of this article was not a matter of controversy for them.

You’ll have to track down the full article to see the historical homework behind these conclusions.

To be sure, none of this settles the issue—which ultimately must be settled by careful exegesis. But it is a helpful reminder for us not to assert or assume that the history of interpretation before Darwin was uniform.

From yesterday's sermon

I preached at my church this morning. The topic I was given was "The Work of the Holy Spirit". I focused on the Holy Spirit glorifying the Son as in John 16:12-15 as well as the Spirit's application of redemption and our union with Christ. Below are a few quotes I used:

Leon Morris: “The work of the spirit is Christocentric. He will draw attention not to himself, but to Christ. He will glorify Christ.”

D. A. Carson: “Just as the Son by his ministry on earth brought glory to his Father, so the Paraclete by his ministry brings glory to Jesus: that is his central aim.”

John Calvin on union - “... we must understand that as long as Christ remains outside of us, and we are separated from him, all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless and of no value for us ... he unites himself to us by the spirit alone.”

John Murray on union: “what is the nature of our union with Christ? ... It is Spiritual ... “Spiritual” in the New Testament refers to that which is of the Holy Spirit. The spiritual man is the person who is indwelt and controlled by the Holy Spirit and a spiritual state of mind is a state of mind that is produced and maintained by the Holy Spirit. Hence ... the bond of this union is the Holy Spirit himself.”

More from D. Ortlund

Another great post a Strawberry Rhubarb Theology:

Break Them and Smash Them and Humble Them

Lloyd-Jones, preaching on Mark 9:29 ('And he said to them, "This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer"'):

We must become utterly and absolutely convinced of our need.

We must cease to have so much confidence in ourselves, and in all our methods and organizations, and in all our slickness.

We have got to realize that we must be filled with God's Spirit. And we must be equally certain that God can fill us with his Spirit.

We have got to realise that however great 'this kind' is, the power of God is infinitely greater, that what we need is not more knowledge, more understanding, more apologetics . . . no, we need a power that can enter into the souls of men and break them and smash them and humble them and then make them anew.

And that is the power of the living God. And we must be confident that God has this power as much today as he had one hundred years ago, and two hundred years ago, and so we must begin to seek the power and to pray for it. We must begin to plead and yearn for it. 'This kind' needs prayer.

--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Revival (Crossway, 1987), 19

Dane Ortlund on Gospel-centeredness and the Spirit

A very interesting post by Dane Ortlund:

Does Gospel-Centeredness Neglect the Spirit?

That's a criticism I hear from time to time. (By 'gospel-centered' I have in mind an approach to the Christian life that views the gospel of grace--perhaps crystallized best in 1 Cor 15:3-5--as not only the gateway into the Christian life but also the pathway of the Christian life.)

Isn't this whole way of thinking, the objection goes, focusing on the second Person of the Trinity to the neglect of the third? The objective to the neglect of the subjective? While taking nothing away from the gospel--what magnificent grace it is!--shouldn't we describe the 'center' of Christian growth, progressive sanctification, as the Holy Spirit?

Good questions!

Three responses--a tiny one, a small one, and a big one.

1. Tiny response

Yes, it is possible to neglect the Spirit.

2. Small Response

There is an appropriate multiperspectivalism to contemplating the 'center' of growth in godliness.

From one perspective the Spirit is indeed the center. From another perspective the gospel is the center. To use categories from historical theology, the Spirit is the center effectually. Yet the gospel is the center instrumentally.

To those who snort in response to such flabby/everybody-wins/postmodern 'multiperspectivalism,' may I ask a question--what is the center of the human body?

Answer: it depends on the perspective. From the perspective of geometry, somewhere around the belly button. From the perspective of neuroscience, the brain. From the perspective of biblical psychology, the heart. All are right. Complex realities such as the human body--or spiritual growth--will be greatly impoverished if only one 'center' is allowed, from only one perspective (along these lines see Vern Poythress' Symphonic Theology or John Frame's Doctrine of the Knowledge of God). This is not only a defense that gospel-centeredness is compatible with Spirit-sensitivity, but also a rebuke to some of us who have ourselves viewed growth monoperspectivally—only from the perspective of gospel instrumentality. I think I have fallen into this in the past.

In brief: the answer to the objection, 'The Spirit, not the gospel, is the center of sanctification!' is: 'Yes--if we're talking about effectual empowering.'

2. Big response

The main way I would respond to someone who thinks that self-consciously centering on the gospel in sanctification neglects the Spirit is to ask: What does the Spirit do?

'Well,' you say, 'the Spirit animates us, impels us, transforms us.'

Yes and amen. And how does the Spirit do that?

The New Testament's answer is: By giving us eyes to see the beauty of Christ. By opening our eyes to the wonder of the gospel. The work of the third Person is to rivet our eyes, in increasingly joyful astonishment, on the second Person.

Several passages teach this. I'll briefly cite three and reference a few more.

1. Throughout John 14-16, Jesus comforts the disciples by teaching them, among other things, that it is good for them that he go away, so that the Spirit can come. And how does Jesus describe the work of the Spirit? The Spirit 'will bear witness about' Jesus (John 15:26). The Spirit 'will glorify' Jesus (16:13-14). The third Person spotlights the Second Person. The Spirit’s animating impulse is not a raw, faceless power. The subjective work of the Spirit works in tandem with the objective work of Christ.

2. The most startling passage to me is 1 Cor 2:12. 'We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.' Why do we receive the Spirit? In order that (hina) we might grasp what we have freely received--the phrase 'freely given' is one Greek word, the verb form of the noun 'grace.' The Spirit opens our eyes to see what we have been ‘graced’ with. And note further the strongly Christocentric context of 1 Cor 2, both before and after v. 12--the Spirit opens our eyes to see what we have been graced with in Christ.

3. The seeing-metaphor I'm using in this post is explicitly used by Paul in 2 Cor 3, where he speaks of 'beholding the glory of the Lord' (Lord = the exalted Lord Jesus--note also 4:3-6) as what transforms believers. And all this 'comes from the Lord who is the Spirit' (not a conflation of Christ and the Spirit, but simply a most intimate association--cf. Rom 8:9-11). In brief: the Spirit effectually causes us to behold Christ in such a way that transforms us.

I'll leave the textual evidence at that, though there are other texts that reinforce the notion that one major role of the Spirit is to rivet our eyes on the gospel of what Christ has done in our place. Note, for example, Gal 5:4-5; Eph 5:18-20; Phil 3:3; 1 John 4:2-3; 1 John 5:6; maybe also Rom 8:2-4.

It would be horrid to reduce the total work of the Spirit solely to opening our eyes more and more to the gospel. Even within the specific realm of sanctification, another major strand of NT teaching is the new impulses toward godliness that the indwelling Spirit gives believers. But as the Spirit relates to the role of the gospel in progressive sanctification, I believe the criticism that gospel-centeredness neglects the Spirit is wrongheaded and unbiblical.

Conclusion

In a single sentence, here’s what I am trying to communicate: Yes, the Spirit is the effectual cause of transformation, and a (the?) major way the Spirit transforms us is by opening our eyes more and more to the wonder of the gospel of grace. The Spirit applies what the Son accomplished. Yet in thinking of the Spirit 'applying' salvation we should think not only of how the Spirit joins us to Christ but also how he makes subjectively real to us what is objectively true of us by virtue of that participation in Christ’s death and resurrection. (You don’t focus on your brain when you look at your wife and ponder how beautiful she is. You focus on her, and enjoy her. Your brain is what effectually causes that enjoyment. But what would you say to someone who told you you’re neglecting your brain by being so wife-centered? You’d say—if it weren’t for my brain, I would not be able to enjoy my wife at all. Praise God for a brain. But I don’t look at my brain; I look with my brain. Yes, yes, in lots of ways the analogy breaks down, but I think you get the point.)

O to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit. In working slowly through Lloyd-Jones on revival, just last night I read a sermon on what it means to live in a demonstration of the Spirit and of power. I want that. Take my degrees, I'd rather have 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

But Christian growth in holiness is not a see-saw, one side representing the Spirit and the other side the gospel, such that if we put weight on one side then the other must necessarily go down in neglect. No, the two sides of the see-saw rise and fall together. Both or neither. To the degree that we are Spirit-filled, to that degree we will be gospel-centered. And to the degree that we are gospel-centered, to that degree we will walk in the power of the Spirit.

Devotionals

This year I have really come to appreciate devotionals. For a few months I read Morning by Morning, a daily devotional by Charles Spurgeon, as well as Morning Thoughts, a similar work by Octavius Winslow. I always thought that daily devotionals were sort of ... well ... cheesy. But my mind has been convincingly changed. I am currently being enjedified (edified in an enjoyable manner) by a devotional by John Piper: A Godward Life.

Here is a quote, about revival, from A Godward Life that I liked:

Revival is the sovereign work of God to awaken his people with fresh intensity to the truth and glory of God, the ugliness of sin, the horror of hell, the preciousness of Christ's atoning work, the wonder of salvation by grace through faith, the urgency of holiness and witness, in the sweetness of worship with God's people (111).

I hope you will find devotionals a profitable endeavour at some point in your journeys.

More quotes from Calvin's Institutes

... not only does he sustain this universe (as he once founded it) by his boundless might, regulate it by his wisdom, preserve it by his goodness, and especially rule mankind by his righteousness and judgment, bear with it in his mercy, watch over it by his protection; but also that no drop will be found either of wisdom and light, or of righteousness or power or rectitude, or of genuine truth, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause.

In this ruin of mankind no one now experiences God either as Father or as Author of salvation, or favorable in any way, until Christ the Mediator comes forward to reconcile him to us.

As a consequence, we must infer that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.

As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods.

Crying Out For Mercy

More from The Bruised Reed

The bruising is necessary prior to conversion that so the Spirit may make way for himself into the heart by leveling all proud, high thoughts that and that we may understand ourselves to be shat we are indeed by nature...It is a very hard thing to bring a dull and an evasive heart to cry with feeling for mercy. Our hearts, like criminals, until they be beaten from all evasions, never cry for the mercy of the Judge.

Sibbes lived in a different era. Corporal punishment was much more the norm of the penal system at that time. In our era, we lack understanding regarding any need to “cry out for mercy”. We are far more familiar with the “cry out” for rights. We even cry out for the rights of the most vile criminals and protect those rights within our laws. Fairness is paramount in our society. It would be abhorrent for most of us to hear a criminal cry out for mercy while being beaten at the hands of a judge, even if he was guilty. That is unfair! Right are being violated! However, we are not talking about fairness when we talk about God being a judge. We are talking about perfection. There is no appeal to fairness when perfection is determining the justice. To cry out to God for rights in light of His perfection and His just wrath only demonstrates a lack of awareness of your own state. Once you know that you are truly guilty, beyond a doubt, deserving punishment, under the view of an all knowing, perfectly just God - you quickly realize that an appeal for fairness will be your demise. Only fools would appeal for fairness in this situation. Your only recourse is an appeal for mercy.

Ignorance of God

In his magnum opus, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Calvin contemplates the knowledge of God that is prevalent in all people, godly or otherwise. One of his proofs is something we have all seen. Unsaved people will often ignore God, mock Christians, despise the Word, and avoid church; until something bad happens. And then the prayers flow; we Christians often show the same flaw. However, Calvin uses this evidence to show that even in the unregenerate their is not complete ignorance of God.

Nay, we have still stronger evidence of the proposition for which I now contend—viz. that a sense of Deity is naturally engraven on the human heart, in the fact, that the very reprobate are forced to acknowledge it. When at their ease, they can jest about God, and talk pertly and loquaciously in disparagement of his power; but should despair, from any cause, overtake them, it will stimulate them to seek him, and dictate ejaculatory prayers, proving that they were not entirely ignorant of God, but had perversely suppressed feelings which ought to have been earlier manifested. (1.4.4)

The Bruised Reed

I've started reading The Bruised Reed by Richard Sibbes. The book's title is derived from
Isaiah 42:1-3
Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice n the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.

Later in Matthew12:18-20 we read how Jesus was the fulfillment of this prophesy. I know some of the other bloggers have been through this Puritan classic but this is my first time reading it. I haven't been disappointed, Chapter 1 - The Reed and the Bruising caught my attention right out of the gate. Here's a few of my favourite quotes:

What a support to our faith is this, that God the father, the party offended by our sins, is so well pleased with the work of redemption.

The bruised reed is a man that for the most part is in some misery, as those were that came to Christ for help, and by misery he is brought to see sin as the cause of it, for whatever pretense sin makes, it comes to an end when we are bruised and broken. After conversion we need bruising so that reeds may know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks.

Referring to David, Paul and Peter...the heroic deeds of those great worthies do not comfort the church so much as their falls and bruises do.

I think this is going to be a great read!

10 reasons why good theology is better than good medicine.

Now the final installment of the list...

#4 Good medicine can treat rock hard blood vessels on your heart to get rid of your angina. Good theology can take an entire heart of rock, make it soft and cause it to ache for something else - God. (Ez 11:19)

#3 Good medicine can help you out of your mother's womb. Neither good medicine nor good theology can get you back in. Good theology can get you 'born again' without that rather unseemly 're-entry' proposition being necessary. (See Nicodemus in John 3:4-7)

#2 Good medicine has many great physicians. Good theology only has one and his waiting list isn't very long. Walk-ins are accepted! (Luke 5:31-32, Rev 3:20)

#1 reason why good theology is better than good medicine...
Good medicine is good for your lifetime. Good theology is good for eternity.

Reflecting on summer in the middle of winter

In the middle of the frigid temperatures and mounds of snow, let's join John Piper as he contemplates summer in his devotional entitled A Godward Life:

Every season is God's season, but summer has a special power.

Jesus Christ is refreshing, but flight from him into Christless leisure makes the soul parched. At first it may feel like freedom and a\fun to skimp on prayer and neglect the Word, but then we pay: shallowness, powerlessness, vulnerability to sin, preoccupation with trifles, superficial relationships, and frightening loss of interest in worship and the things of the Spirit.

Don't let summer make your soul shrivel. God made summer as a foretaste of heaven, not a substitute. If the mailman brings you a love letter from your fiance, don't fall in love with the mailman. That's what summer is: a glistening letter of love to show us what he is planning for us in the age to come-"things that the eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him" ( 1 Corinthians 2:9). Don't fall in love with the video preview and find yourself unable to love the coming reality.

Jesus Christ is the refreshing center of summer.

The cause and the source of all good things

Calvin declares God as the source of all goodness, that is, light, wisdom, power, rectitude, and truth. As the source of these things, and every good thing, God is not only the primary and foundational cause of these things, but he is also the very essence of those things. God is not just the source of truth, though He is that. But he is also truth; things are true as far as they correspond to Him. He is the original cause of wisdom, but He is not just that. He is wisdom; things are wise only so far as they correspond with Him. He is both the mover and disseminater of these things, and He is the very standard of these things, and He is these things.

... we must be persuaded not only that as he once formed the world, so he sustains it by his boundless power, governs it by his wisdom, preserves it by his goodness, in particular, rules the human race with justice and Judgment, bears with them in mercy, shields them by his protection; but also that not a particle of light, or wisdom, or justice, or power, or rectitude, or genuine truth, will anywhere be found, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause ... (Institutes 1.2.1)

A few quotes from Institutes

• As a consequence, we must infer that man is never sufficiently touched and affected by the awareness of his lowly state until he has compared himself with God's majesty.
• As long as we do not look beyond the earth, being quite content with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue, we flatter ourselves most sweetly, and fancy ourselves all but demigods.
• In this ruin of mankind no one now experiences God either as Father or as Author of salvation, or favorable in any way, until Christ the Mediator comes forward to reconcile him to us.
• ... not only does he sustain this universe (as he once founded it) by his boundless might, regulate it by his wisdom, preserve it by his goodness, and especially rule mankind by his righteousness and judgment, bear with it in his mercy, watch over it by his protection; but also that no drop will be found either of wisdom and light, or of righteousness or power or rectitude, or of genuine truth, which does not flow from him, and of which he is not the cause.

10 reasons why good theology is better than good medicine

Here's the first of two installment on this blog topic. In keeping with a David Letterman tradition of the "Top 10 list" and combining a bit of the recent "legendary exploits of Chuck Norris" genre my kids seem to enjoy reciting, I offer the following reason why good theology is better than good medicine.

#10 Some good medicines can calm your mind. Good theology gives you a brand new mind. (Eph 4:23)

#9 Good medicine needs saws and drills to separate joints and marrow. Good theology does it with words. (Hb 4:12)

#8 Good medicine can replace your bad hip with titanium, polyethylene and methylmethacrylate. Good theology can put your hip out, leave you with a limp and you'd be better off. (Gen 32:25)

#7 Good medicine can put you to sleep and take out your rib. Good theology can put you to sleep, take out your rib and turn it into the best thing that ever happened to you. (Gen 2:22)

#6 Good medicine would have saved Jesus life by stopping his bleeding. Good theology saved yours by allowing it. (Hb 9:22)

#5 Good medicine temporarily helps those who are sick. Good theology brings back to life those who are dead! (Eph 2:1)

Whetting your thoughts = faith

"Faith is not a sleeping thing, nor merely not doubting that Christ is mine, but a continual active whetting of my thoughts on Christ as mine ..." - Thomas Goodwin

Faith is not the absence of doubt. It is not the negation of incertitude or uncertainty. It is active and participatory. It is a 'sharpening through friction' of our thinking. It is a 'stimulation and making keen' of this thought: Christ is mine. You do not 'whet' your thoughts and thinking passively. You must be proactive and purposeful. You must read. You must think. You must converse.

He wins back truant hearts

I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with loving-kindness have I drawn you. Jeremiah 31:3.

The law of love is the law of Gods moral government of His people. By this, and by this alone, He rules them. All that is disciplinary in His conduct is resolvable into love. It is by kindness, loving-kindness, yes, marvelous loving-kindness, that He wins back their truant hearts, and binds them closer to Himself. I am the Lord, who exercise loving-kindness. Oh, to imitate Him in this particular!- to be like God in His kindness to the children of men. Then would there be less sitting in the judgment-seat; less readiness to cast the first stone; less harshness and censoriousness in our conduct and spirit towards others; and more of that self-judging, self-condemning, and self-abasement, before the holy, heart-searching, all-seeing Lord God, without which we may be awfully deceived.

- Octavius Winslow

An apology

A good reason to blog or journal comes from John Calvin, via Augustine, in his notes to the reader section of Institutes:

"I count myself one of the number of those who write as they learn and learn as they write."

An overdue read!

I began reading The Institutes of the Christian Religion this morning. Here is a brief intro by Brittanica:

Institutes of the Christian Religion, Latin Christianae Religionis Institutio, French Institution De La Religion Chrétienne, John Calvin’s masterpiece, a summary of biblical theology that became the normative statement of the Reformed faith. It was first published in 1536 and was revised and enlarged by Calvin in several editions before the definitive edition was published in 1559.

The first edition, written in Latin and published in Basel, where Calvin was in exile, included a dedication to the French king Francis I. Calvin intended his work to be a statement of French Protestant beliefs that would refute the king, who was persecuting French Protestants and incorrectly calling them Anabaptists (radical Reformers who wished to separate the church from the state). It consisted of six chapters that discussed the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, disputed sacraments, and Christian liberty. Most of the themes of Calvin’s mature thought were contained in the first edition.

The first French edition, prepared by Calvin and published in Basel in 1541, was the first great work in argumentative French prose. It influenced French thought and literary style.

The final edition, in Latin and published in Geneva in 1559, was more than four times longer than the first edition. It was organized into four books concerning Creator, Redeemer, Spirit, and church. The dominating themes dealt with God’s sovereignty, his grace, and his redemption of undeserving sinners. This edition was published in French (1560), in English (1561), and eventually in many other languages.

I'm looking forward to this journey!

Due estimate

Thomas Goodwin on a Christians highest privilege and greatest interest, namely, patience and suffering:

If you are true and right Christians, and you know,as the apostle says, how to put a due estimate on what is your greatest interest and privilege in this life-

the proof and trial of your graces, and of the grace of patience above all, as the highest perfection of a Christian, yea, of Christ Himself, and the most eminent praise of prophets and apostles -

and if you value being rendered most pleasing to God, then count it all joy when you fall into temptations.

For now you have God and Christ, the great, the Chief Master Orderer and Designer of these conflicts, setting His most gracious eye on you, pleasing Himself to behold how valiantly, wisely, and gallantly you behave and acquit yourselves. (61, line breaks mine)

Piper answers: Can a True Believer be Fooled by the Prosperity Gospel

Our current youth series is called "Demolishing Strongholds" and it's essentially about reclaiming a biblical worldview... think The Truth Project geared towards a teenage audience.

Anyway, this past Sunday evening we focussed specifically on how Christians have allowed doubts to seep in to our minds about the Old Testament accounts: "Did God really create the world in 6 days?"; "Did Jonah really spend 3 days in the belly of a fish?" or "Did the walls of Jericho really fall down simply because Joshua and company walked around the walls a few times and started shouting?"

Our premise was, when you start doubting anything in the bible, how and when do you start to draw a line? It's a slippery slope.

I was really happy with the discussion that followed. The teenagers began to point out areas in our culture and lives that are affected by such doubts. For example, favouring evolution instead of a 6 day creation can lead to defending abortion. That seems like a large leap to make, but there is a caption at the Smithsonian Museum that reads: "Human DNA closely resembles the DNA found in the average fruit fly, reminding us of our common ancestry."

The question then becomes: WHat do you do with a bothersome fruit fly? Destroy it. (Usually with your thumb) What do you do with unwanted babies? Destroy them.

Before I continue in to a full rant, how I came across this video by John Piper was when I was asked something along the lines of: "What did we start to doubt in order to get such a skewed version of the gospel?"

Great question. The gospel the young man was referring to was the "health, wealth and prosperity gospel", which I make sure to teach against whenever I am trying to remind a group of teenagers that they are sinners in need of a saviour.

The discussion that followed was fantastic. I allowed time and room for the teenagers to navigate through the idea and they concluded that Genesis tells us what our purpose is: to glorify God, and what we needis : Reconciliation to God.

When we begin to doubt our purpose and our needs, or begin to think our purpose is something other than what God's word says than we begin to think differently about our needs. It becomes less about glorifying God and more about glorifying ourselves. It becomes less about finding Him as the treasure, and more about using Him to obtain our treasure.

The question was then asked: "Are people who believe the prosperity gospel truly Christians?"

Another great question.

I love my group of teenagers.

That's how I came across this video, and what I love about the video is when Piper says: '...we need to teach. Because it's amazing how many people, when they hear solid teaching, wake up! They don't say, "I just got saved!" They say, "I knew deep down something was wrong. I just couldn't articulate it. It just didn't feel right.'

http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/ask-pastor-john/can-a-true-believer-be-fooled-into-believing-the-prosperity-gospel#ooid=BmcnhxOm8W569x-STZoi7ZWzI1NXwgie

Perhaps there are alot more elect that have been truly led astray, and we're leaving them in the hands of the enemy because we are too scared, uneducated or uneasy teaching truth.

I am constantly encouraged at the very real conversations I have with these teenagers... sometimes I wish their parents were more open to hearing truth.

The Spirit fires our hearts

From Thomas Goodwin's Exposition of Ephesians as relayed in A Habitual Sight of Him edited and introduced by Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones:

You see, the heart is made the subject of Christ’s dwelling; it is not to dwell in the notion, in your brains. You have no indwelling of Christ unless your hearts are affected.

This is expressly said:
“We all, beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord” (2 Cor. 3118).

First, there is spiritual beholding, he speaks of Christ, not only of His person, but of all that is to be known of Christ. Adam’s graces had no glory, but all of Christ’s do.

Such a beholding, letting Christ and His glory into the soul, changes it, turns it, and leaves impressions on it. This is done by the Spirit of the Lord. By “the Spirit of the Lord” the apostle does not mean the Holy Ghost, for he said in the words before, “The Lord is that Spirit.”

It is Christ Himself, by His force and power when He comes into the soul, who changes it, fills it, quickens it, strengthens it, and leaves impressions on it.

As the burning glass contracts all the beams of the sun to a point, but it is the beams of the sun that set on fire the cloth, so it is the Spirit of the Lord that fires our hearts. Thus, to know Christ is to dwell in Him. (57, line breaks mine)

Ortlund on Phillipians

In his chapter from For The Fame Of God's Name entitled The Pastor as Worshipper, Ray Ortlund Jr. considers the book of Phillipians and draws out what the Phillipian believers can put their faith in. He writes,

"Taking into account only this letter from the apostle, they have reason to believe that:

• he who began this good work in them will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ (1:6);
• they are all partakers of grace together (1:7);
• they are experiencing the affection of Christ Jesus himself through their relationship with Paul (1:8);
• they will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ (1:1O);
• human opposition, far from defeating the gospel, is serving to advance the joyous spread of the gospel (1:12-18);
• should life be lost, Christ is gained (1:21);
• temporary survival is gospel opportunity (1:22);
• to depart and be with Christ is far better than this life (1:23);
• the further one goes with Christ, the more joy one experiences (l:25);
• the gospel of Christ is an uplifting power (1:27);
• opposition to gospel witness presages the doom of the opponents and the glorious destiny of the faithful (1:28);
• it is a God-given privilege to suffer for the sake of Christ (1:29);
• union with Christ brings encouragement, comfort from love, participation in the Spirit, affection, and sympathy (2:1);
• Christ Jesus himself is living proof that the arrogance of this world is doomed and that gospel humility is the path of great reward (2:6-9);
• Jesus is King, and he will have every rational creature in the universe know it and own it, to the greater glory of God the Father (2:10-11);
• the Philippians do not need Paul always present to lead them by the hand; God himself is deeply at work in them (2:12-13);
• knowing Christ Jesus the Lord redefines all trophies of self-exaltation as “rubbish,” for he gives true righteousness and participation in his death and resurrection; he is so superior to all things in this world that, whatever path one may take into the resurrection of the dead, the price to be paid is small in comparison (3:7-11);
• in conversion, Christ Jesus takes eternal possession of the believer (3:12);
• the call of God in Christ Jesus offers a prize far beyond this world, worthy of the believer’s all (3:14);
• to whatever extent any believer struggles to grasp the upward call, God will reveal all that that believer needs revealed (3:15);
• to settle for the rewards of this world is to make oneself an enemy of the cross of Christ and to make a god of one’s earthly appetites, which is the path of destruction and the reversal of a truly human life (3:18-19),
• those who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh also find their citizenship in heaven, from which they await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will raise even their lowly bodies into his immortal glory by his power over all things (3:3, 20-21);
• their names are written in the book of life (4:3);
• the Lord is at hand (4:5);
• God receives the prayers of his people and sends his overruling peace to guard their hearts when the circumstances of life would have them frantic (4:6-7);
• if believers will follow the apostolic example of lovely heavenly-mindedness, they will experience the presence of the God of peace (4:8-9);
• Christ strengthens his people to accept with contentment whatever life may bring (4:11-13);
• when the Philippians support Paul’s ministry, the fruit increases to their own credit (4:17);
• God receives their partnership with Paul as a sacrifice pleasing to himself (4:18);
• God is committed to the Philippians’ own needs with all his riches in glory in Christ Jesus (4:19);
• in it all, God will get glory for himself forever and ever (4:20);
• in the meantime, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ will steadfastly be with their spirit (4:23)." (p411-12)
  

What is it to have Christ dwell in the heart by faith?...
First, it is to have Jesus Christ continually in one's eye, a habitual sight of Him ... you should carry along and bear along in your eye the sight and knowledge of Christ, so that at least a presence of Him accompanies you... (55)

Failure to use means

"The name of Jesus is discovered to be strangely adapted to men of every race and of every kind of previous education. And the Church has ample means, with promise of God's Spirit, to bring the name of Jesus to all. If, therefore, this way of salvation is not offered to all, it is not the fault of the way of salvation itself, but the fault of those who fail to use the means that God has placed in their hands." - J. Gresham Machen

Endless Eschatology

On Wednesday I blogged about eschatology and the small group study we were doing on it. I thought I would pass on 2 more resources I used in preparing for the evening.

1) An Evening of Eschatology - Two of my favourite theologians who happen to be pastors, are John Piper and Sam Storms. In this video, they are joined by two more winsome scholars in Doug Wilson and Jim Hamilton. Piper, via the Desiring God website descibes the event as such,

"On September 27, 2009, Desiring God and Bethlehem College & Seminary hosted “An Evening on Eschatology” at the Downtown Campus of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis. It was attended by about 800 people who sat in the darkened sanctuary while six cameras were trained on the brightly lit roundtable where the four participants sat in a circle.

For two hours I moderated, more or less, a discussion among Jim Hamilton (professor of New Testament at Southern Seminary in Louisville), Sam Storms (pastor of Bridgeway Church in Oklahoma City), and Doug Wilson (pastor of Christ Church, Moscow, Idaho).

You can find the audio and video here.

2) Another helpful resource can be found at David Murray's Head Heart Hand blog. There he provides an eBook entitled End Times Q & A. It is easy to understand, and gives a fair overview of the four main eschatalogical camps; historic premillenialism, dispensational premillenialism, amillenialism and postmillenialism. Here is some info I gathered from his work:


The four (main) millennial views differ in these eight areas:

...the length of the 1000 years,
Is this a symbolical number for a long period of time, or a literal 1000 years?

...the nature of Christ’s kingdom on earth
Is it spiritual, physical, or both?

...the relationship between Israel and the Church,
Is the Church the fulfillment of Israel, a replacement for Israel, identical with
Israel, or distinct from Israel?

...the role of the devil,
When he is bound, when he is let loose, and what can he do?

...the tribulation,
When is it and who goes through it?

...the endtime signs,
Are they past, present, or future? What is the order and intensity?

...the number and timings of Christ’s coming(s).
How many comings and what order?

Amillennialism believes that the 1000 years of Revelation 20 is a figurative term for Christ’s present kingdom on earth and in heaven between his first and second comings, during which the devil is significantly bound, and which will be concluded with these coincidental climactic endtime sign: the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead, the final judgment, and the everlasting kingdom.

Postmillennialism believes that many of the signs of the times have been fulfilled, and that the thousand years is a figurative term for a future golden age of Christianity on earth, when the devil will be almost totally bound and the earth almost totally Christianized, followed by a brief period of Satanic loosing and the Lord’s return to earth for the final judgment.

Historic Premillennialism believes that after the end time signs, including the great tribulation, Christ will return to earth to bind Satan, resurrect His people, and reign on earth for 1000 years; after which Satan will be released for a little season before the resurrection of all at the final judgment, and the return of the Kingdom to the Father.

Dispensational premillennialism teaches that Christ’s second coming will occur in four phases: Christ’s rapture, Christ’s revelation, Christ’s reign, and Christ’s renewal. Without any precursory signs, Christ will return for His church, resurrect all dead believers, transform all living believers, meet them in the air, and return to heaven with them, while the 70th week begins on earth.

Episodic Christian thinking

As I continue to enjoy For The Fame Of God's Name, I am being exposed to some great writers. One of those is Albert Mohler. Mohler's contribution to the book is a chapter on worldviews entitled A God-centered Worldview. Here is an example of his writing:

A God-centered worldview brings every issue, question, and cultural concern into submission to all that the Bible reveals and frames all under-standing within the ultimate purpose of bringing greater glory to God. This task of bringing every thought captive to Christ requires more than episodic Christian thinking and is to be understood as the task of the church, and not merely the concern of individual believers. The recovery of the Christian mind and the development of a comprehensive Christian worldview will require the deepest theological reflection, the most consecrated application of scholarship, the most sensitive commitment to compassion, and the courage to face all questions without fear.

Christianity brings the world a distinctive understanding of time, history, and the meaning of life. The Christian worldview contributes an understanding of the universe and all it contains that points us far beyond mere materialism and frees us from the intellectual imprisonment of naturalism. Christians understand that the world—including the material world—is dignified by the very fact that God has created it. At the same time, we understand that we are to be stewards of this creation and are not to worship what God has made. We understand that every single human being is made in the image of God and that God is the Lord of life at every stage of human development. We honor the sanctity of human life because we worship the Creator. From the Bible, we draw the essential insight that God takes delight in the ethnic and racial diversity of his human creatures, and so must we. (364)

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Abortion Is About God: Piper’s Passionate, Prophetic Pro-Life Preaching

I have been reading through For The Fame Of God's Name the past few weeks and came across this post by one of the books editors, Justin Taylor:

Given Sanctity of Life Sunday this weekend, Crossway kindly gave me permission to post online a PDF of my chapter, “Abortion Is About God: Piper’s Passionate, Prophetic Pro-Life Preaching” (in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper, ed. Sam Storms and Justin Taylor [Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010], 328-350).

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Evangelicalism—in the Reformed camp or elsewhere—is not exactly overflowing with models of how to preach exegetically faithful, powerfully prophetic, culture-engaging, hope-giving, gospel-centered sermons on the politically charged and personally painful topic of abortion. But for the past twenty years John Piper has been doing just that. In this chapter I want to survey Piper’s sermons and writings on abortion as an encouragement and a model for preachers—and all believers—to honor God and defend the defenseless by proclaiming God’s Word and engaging the world on the issue of abortion.

In order to let Piper speak as much as possible, I’ll quote and paraphrase him extensively in what follows. I begin with a bit of biographical overview, sketching Piper’s development as a pro-life pastor. I’ll then attempt to summarize the main exegetical arguments in his pro-life sermons, since expositional preaching on abortion is a challenge. Finally, I will suggest some application lessons that pastors can learn from Piper’s pro-life preaching.

You can read or listen to all of these original sermons here.

Solomon's Solidarity with Shakespeare

Macbeth, in Shakespeare's famous tragedy of the same name, becomes aware of the futility of life as his world begins to crumble around him. He has lost his wife to an apparent suicidal act. His conscience is seared with cruel acts of murder and treason. His newly acquired kingdom is under an attack lead by some who are highly motivated by revenge. He speaks,

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (V, v, 19-24)

This soliloquy reminded me of Solomon's writings in Ecclesiastes. For example, "For who knows what is good for man while he lives the few days of his vain life, which he passes like a shadow?" (Ecc. 6:12) The metaphor of life being a shadow images what both authors are getting at. Similarly, Solomon also touches upon the idea of life amounting to nothing: "As he came from his mother's womb he shall go again, naked as he came, and shall take nothing for his toil that he may carry away in his hand." (Ecc. 5:15)

It seems that both writers shared similar sentiments about life's futility.

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, speaks to life and it's supposed futility: "The backdrop of eternity puts the span of human life into perspective. Our time on earth is short, but eternity dignifies time even as it reminds us of our finitude." (Mohler, R. Albert. For the Fame of God's Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010. Print. 364)

Eternity, won and bought by Christ for us, dignifies life! Yes, we are finite. Yes, life is a vapor, a shadow. But Christ's work, wrought on the cross and resulting in eternal life, removes futility from the equation. More than that, the cross infuses life with meaning and purpose beyond our understanding or imagination. For those who are perishing, life is futile. But for those who are being saved, life is full of meaning.

Eschatology

Our Life Group is looking at the End Times this week. The following is a note I put together using information at Monergism. It considers how the four major millenial views answer questions concerning Revelation 20. If you care, I am a former dispesational premillenialist now turned historic premillenialist.

The Millennium – Major Views

by Aaron Orendorff @ Monergim.com

The Questions – Revelation 20:1-8
(1) When is the millennium – past, present and future?
(2) When will Jesus return – before or after the millennium?
(3) What does the binding of Satan refer to (v. 2)?
(4) Is the thousand years a literal period of time (v. 2)?
(5) What is the “first resurrection” (v. 4-6)?
(6) What is the “second death”?
(7) What and when will the rapture be?
(8) What will the world be like until Christ returns?



The Answers
Amillennialism
(1) The millennium is now, the entire period of time from the Jesus’ first coming to His second.
(2) Jesus will return after the millennium.
(3) The binding of Satan refers to the gospel’s worldwide advance.
(4) The thousand years is a figurative number indicating a long period of time.
(5) The first resurrection refers to:
a. The intermediate (after-death) state of believers.
b. The spiritual coming to life (i.e. regeneration) of those who believe the gospel.
(6) The second death refers to hell.
(7) The rapture is a public event that takes place at Christ’s second coming when believers who are still living are “caught up” and transformed.
(8) Both evil and good will increase side-by-side until Christ returns.


Postmillennialism
(1) The millennium is future – a period of worldwide Christian triumph when the Kingdom of God is dramatically unveiled in history.
(2) Jesus will return after the millennium.
(3) The binding of Satan refers both to the gospel’s worldwide advance as well as a sever limiting of his power – both spiritually and physically.
(4) The thousand years is a figurative number indicating a long period of time.
(5) (See Amillennialism)
(6) The second death refers to hell.
(7) (See Amillennialism)
(8) Good will triumph over evil as the millennium approaches and continues.


Premillennialism (Historic or Classic)
(1) The millennium is future.
(2) Jesus will return before the millennium.
(3) The binding of Satan refers to his power and presence being completely removed from the earth.
(4) The thousand years may be literal or it may be figurative.
(5) The first resurrection refers to the physical resurrection of all the “dead in Christ” when he returns.
(6) The second death refers to hell.
(7) The rapture is a public event that takes place at Christ’s second coming when believers who are still living are “caught up” and transformed.
(8) Evil will increase until Christ returns.


Premillennialism (Dispensational)
(1) The millennium is a future time when God will literally fulfill his OT promises to national Israel.
(2) Jesus will return once at the rapture (secretly) and again before the millennium (publically).
(3) The binding of Satan refers to his power and presence being completely removed from the earth.
(4) The thousand years is a literal period of time.
(5) The first resurrection refers to the physical resurrection of Christian martyrs and OT saints.
(6) The second death refers to hell.
(7) The rapture is a secret event that takes place at Christ’s first second coming when the church is silently removed from the earth:
a. Pre-tribulation
b. Mid-tribulation
c. Post-tribulation
(8) Evil will increase until the great tribulation begins – a seven year period of satanic dominance.

Matt Chandler sermon jam ... again

The immediate effectiveness of the gospel

In this excerpt, from J. Gresham Machen's classic tome Christianity and Liberalism, discusses the immediacy of the gospel. The gospel is historical fact; it really did happen so many years ago in such-and-such a place. But so what? Who cares? Socrates drank hemlock, John Lennon was killed by a deranged fan, and Jesus died on the cross. What is all the fuss about? The fuss is about a real event that happened in real time that effects us profoundly right now. The gospel saves me from sin and brings me to God today! And that is good news. Here is what Machen had to say:

It is true that the Christian gospel is an account, not of something that happened yesterday, but of something that happened long ago; but the important thing is that it really happened. If it really happened, then it makes little difference when it happened. No matter when it happened, whether yesterday or in the first century, it remains a real gospel, a real piece of news.

The happening of long ago, moreover, is in this case confirmed by present experience. The Christian man receives first the account which the New Testament gives of the atoning death of Christ. That account is history. But if true it has effects in the present, and it can be tested by its effects. The Christian man makes trial of the Christian message, and making trial of it he finds it to be true. Experience does not provide a substitute for the documentary evidence, but it does confirm that evidence. The word of the Cross no longer seems to the Christian to be merely a far-off thing, merely a matter to be disputed about by trained theologians. On the contrary, it is received into the Christian's inmost soul, and every day and hour of the Christian's life brings new confirmation of its truth.

Shakespeare on stuff

With this there grows
In my most ill-composed affection such
A stanchless avarice that, were I king,
I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
Desire his jewels and this other's house:
And my more-having would be as a sauce
To make me hunger more; that I should forge
Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
Destroying them for wealth.

(Macbeth, Act IV, Scene iii, Lines 76-84, emphasis mine)

In the excerpt above, Malcolm, the son of the traitorously slain King Duncan and rightful heir to the throne, is describing what his reign would be like should he ascend to the throne. He is not speaking honestly. He is testing Macduff to be sure that Macduff is trustworthy and a true friend.

When the class I teach studied this act of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, these lines jumped out at me. Shakespeare has shown great insight to the nature of wealth accumulation; the things of this world do not satisfy. The "more-having" would not sate the desire for things, rather, it would, as Malcolm puts it, "make me hunger more."

An interesting reminder from the Bard of the fleetingness of possessions. There is only one truly satisfying thing: God!

Stott on three Phases of our Salvation

Without referencing my long absence, or commenting on whose harsh words have prompted my return to the blogosphere, I’m just going to jump right in if it pleases you.

If you have never experienced the strange amalgamation of both joy and conviction while reading John Stott, I would recommend first and foremost “The Cross of Christ” – a book I recently lent to a former youth of mine who has “graduated” from my ministry and is currently going to school in Ohio. A book I am very much looking forward to dissecting through e-mails. I have no doubt it will bear much fruit in his life, as the books I fill his hands with every time he heads back to college always seem to.

If you want to experience more of John Stott, may I recommend “Men Made New”, which is a short 100 or so page booklet that explores Romans 5-8.

Romans 5 starts out: “ 1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Stott writes: “On closer examination these appear to relate to the three tenses or phases of our salvation. 'Peace with God' speaks of the immediate effect of our justification. We were ‘enemies’ of God (verse 10), but now the old enmity has been put away by God’s forgiveness and we are at peace with Him. The immediate effect of justification, then, is that enmity has given way to peace.

Secondly, ‘this grace in which we stand’ speaks of the continuing effect of justification. It is a state of grace to which we have obtained access and in which we continue to stand. This is how the New English Bible puts it: “We have been allowed to enter the sphere of God’s grace.” And, of course, having entered it, we continue in it. We stand in it today.

Thirdly, ‘the glory of God’ for which we hope speaks of the ultimate effect of our justification. ‘The glory of God’ here mean heaven, for in heaven God will be fully revealed.”

Stott goes on to describe how we can be sure of each stage of justification. Because we experience justification in its initial, immediate form, that is, that our hearts are regenerated and our affections are changed. We have all experienced that at some point haven’t we? A desire to please God, even though we may not know how, or have the will or self control to actually follow through with that desire.

But Stott reminds us that even though sanctification is “a difficult and arduous process that renders many Christians inactive in their faith”, because Paul assures us of these truths, and we honestly experience the fulfillment of the first phase of justification, “we can put faith in the fulfillment of the second phase, that is, the Holy Spirit conforming us to the image and likeness of The Christ.”

Once again, because we see sanctification at work in either our lives or the lives of those around us, we can again, put faith in the fulfillment of the third phase of our justification, which is glorification in heaven.

The rest of the book explains how our confidence in the work of our justification as we look backwards to its three effects empowers us to actively involve ourselves in partnering with the work of the Holy Spirit in the one area God Sovereignly invites us to participate in: our sanctification.

I definitely recommend this book, as it articulates well what it looks like to “put on” our “new self”, and how working to do so with the proper perspective is not legalism, but simply fighting to become what we already are in Christ.

The Courtroom

Thomas Oden, in his book The Justification Reader, says "The heart of the gospel idea of uprighting (justification) cannot be penetrated without pursuing carefully the metaphor of a courtroom verdict." (53)

Oden continues by expanding and explain the whole courtroom metaphor. This is a longer excerpt, but well worth the read:

All the elements of the courtroom situation are presupposed in salvation teaching: The judge is God: “You have come to God, the judge of all” (Heb. 12:23). The defendant is I and everyone else who has become enmeshed in the history of sin. “The whole world” is being “held accountable to God” (Rom. 3119). The plaintiff or accuser is personified as Moses, or generalized as “the law”: “Your accuser is Moses” (John 5:45).

The internal Witness is conscience, the moral testimony of the heart, or moral reasoning: “the requirements of the law are written on their hearts,” “their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts now accusing, now even defending them” (Rom. 2:15).

In this court an indictment is being read according to “the Written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us” (Col. 2:14). A sentence is being delivered: “Indeed, in our hearts We felt the sentence of death” (2 Cor. 1:9). The defendant is as good as dead: “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins” (Eph. 2:1).

Fortunately for us, in this courtroom metaphor, and in real life, we have an advocate:

In this courtroom an incomparable Advocate has appeared. “We have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One” (1 John 2:1). A satisfaction is offered, substituting another’s suffering for the penalty due to sinners: “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 2:2). The sacrifice of one is accepted for many: “Through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous” (Rom. 5:19).

On this basis the judge reverses the judgment, grants a full acquittal, and justifies the accused: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). The sinless One has become sin for us, taking punishment on our behalf, so that we might live to him. (54-55)

More from Machen on the Word

From J. Gresham Machen's Christianity and Liberalism:

The Christian man, on the other hand, finds in the Bible the very Word of God. Let it not be said that dependence upon a book is a dead or an artificial thing. The Reformation of the sixteenth century was founded upon the authority of the Bible, yet it set the world aflame. Dependence upon a word of man would be slavish, but dependence upon God's word is life. Dark and gloomy would be the world, if we were left to our own devices and had no blessed Word of God. The Bible, to the Christian is not a burdensome law, but the very Magna Carta of Christian liberty.

Piper on beholding, becoming, seeing, savoring, and showing

AN ENDLESS WAVE OF INCREASING REVELATION OF DIVINE GLORY

Woe to us if we speak of our existence, or our being, for its own sake. God has given us existence. It is a great wonder, full of trembling and awe. We exist by him, through him, and for him (Rom. 11:36). The ultimate and greatest good of the gospel is not self-admiration or self-exaltation, but being able to see the glory of God without disintegrating, and being able to delight in the glory of Christ with the very delight of God the Father for his own Son, and being able to do visible Christ-exalting deeds that flow from this delight. So being like God is the ground of seeing God for who he is, and this seeing is the ground of savoring and delighting in the glory of God with the very delight of God, which then overflows with visible displays of God’s glory.

In this way the gospel of God reaches its final goal in a universal and corporate reality, not just an individual one. A wave of revelation of divine glory in the saints and in creation is set in motion that goes on and on and grows for all eternity. As each of us sees Christ and delights in Christ with the delight of the Father, mediated by the Spirit, we will overflow with visible actions of love and creativity on the new earth. In this way we will see the revelation of God’s glory
in each other’s lives in ever new ways. New dimensions of the riches of the glory of God in Christ will shine forth every day from our new delights and new deeds. And these in turn will become new ways of showing and seeing Christ that will elicit new delights and new doings. And so the ever-growing wave of the revelation of the riches of the glory of God will roll on forever and ever. And it will be made plain that the great and final good of the gospel is God.

(Piper, John. God Is the Gospel: Meditations on God's Love as the Gift of Himself. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2008. Print. 162)

15 biblical reasons for fasting

In Pleasures Evermore, Sam Storms provides 15 biblical reasons for fasting:

1. Fasting was practiced to avert God's judgment and displeasure against His people.
2. The people of God often fasted in preparation for war, with a view to seeking God's protection and blessing.
3. Fasting was one way of seeking God's help for deliverance from personal troubles and oppression.
4. Fasting was often an expression of sincere and heartfelt repentance from sin and humility before God.
5. Fasting also signified or expressed mourning, sorrow, deep grief, and sadness.
6. Ezra fasted as part of his request that God provide him with a safe journey.
7. Fasting is a way of expressing one's concern for the success of God's work.
8. Fasting serves to humble and rebuke us as it reveals how much of our happiness depends on the external pleasures of eating.
9. Fasting teaches us self-control and self-discipline.
10. Fasting is a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare.
11. Fasting opens our spiritual ears to discern God's voice.
12. Fasting sharpens and intensifies our intercessory prayers.
13. To fast is to worship.
14. Fasting can be an expression of our generosity and compassion toward those in need.
15. Fasting is feasting!

The book provides much commentary, Scripture references, and explanation which is too extensive for this post.

The Gospel for believers

I have created a new term: enjedification. Its meaning comes from the two words that were joined in its formulation. Enjedification is the process by which one is edified in a manner that is enjoyable. So, instead of saying a book was both enjoyable and edifying, I can simply say "I found that book enjedifying." This random word-generation came as I was contemplating the book For the Fame of God's Name. Edited by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor, the book is full of essays by a group of highly esteemed theologians and pastors. I have, thus far, really appreciated this work; it has been enjoyable and edifying - enjedifying!

D. A. Carson authored a chapter entitled What Is The Gospel?-Revisited. It is from this chapter that I share the following passage:

The gospel is not a minor theme that deals with the entry into the Christian way, to be followed by a lot of material that actually brings about the life of transformation. Very large swaths of evangelicalism simply presuppose that this is the case. Preaching the gospel, it is argued, is announcing how to be saved from God's condemnation; believing the gospel guarantees you won't go to hell. But for actual transformation to take place, you need to take a lot of discipleship courses, spiritual enrichment courses, "Go deep" spiritual disciplines courses,and the like. You need to learn journaling, or asceticism, or the simple lifestyle or Scripture memorization; you need to join a small group, an accountability group, or a women's Bible study. Not for a moment would I speak against the potential for good of all of these steps; rather, I am speaking against the tendency to treat these as postgospel disciplines, disciplines divorced from what God has done in Christ Jesus in the gospel of the crucified and resurrected Lord.

Carson goes on to say that having this perspective, one that relegates the gospel to a message for getting into heaven, has "huge and deleterious consequences." First, "if the gospel becomes that by which we limp into the kingdom, but all the business of transformation turns on postgospel disciplines and strategies, then we shall constantly be directing the attention of people away from the gospel, away from the cross and resurrection. Soon the gospel will be something that we quietly assume is necessary for salvation, but not what what we are excited about, not what we are preaching, not the power of God."

The gospel is for believers every bit as much as it is for non-believers; an enjedifying reminder for us all.

Hymns 3

Great hymns from a favourite band of mine

Is God capricious in His sovereignty?

From Donald J. Westblades essay in For the Fame of God's Name entitled The Sovereignty of God in the Theology of Jonathan Edwards:

The threat of capriciousness in God might stand if reason were to permit Edwards to ascribe an Arminian view of freedom to God, as though God begins his choices from a position of utter indifference. A God unconstrained not only by the laws of nature he authored but also by his own nature and loves and sense of order, whose will made its choices spontaneously apart from any motives, would indeed be utterly free-even of the consistency of keeping promises and covenants. To such a God his subjects may be obliged to bow. They surely, however, would find in him few grounds for trust. (118)

Read the excerpt again. Amazing. We can be thankful that God is constrained by His nature, His good and perfect and holy nature, because if He was not he would be directing things out of indifference. How is that a praiseworthy action? However, we can trust God because He makes decisions with motives, preferences, commitments, and most of all, His love. This is magnificent! We serve an awesomely sovereign God!

In the presence of something majestic

Being loved by God is the wonderful replacement of self as the foundation for our joy. In the place of self comes the glory of God. Most people know that the greatest experiences of joy in this life—the ones that come closest to being pictures of perfect joy in heaven—are not experiences of self-affirmation, but of self-forgetfulness in the presence of something majestic. Those moments are few in this life. Most of the time our joy in some splendor outside ourselves is contaminated by self-awareness and the craving of our ego to have some share in the wonder.

- John Piper, God is the Gospel, p151

God's Poetry

Fellow blogger Jude bought Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl for me for Christmas. A few posts ago he slotted it in the #10 spot in his years best list. If this book keeps going it's going to be very high on my list for 2011. Here are a couple quotes:

"This ocean, tiny in the universe, is here because it's beautiful. This word, these words that keep surging and crashing and grinding against the contrast of cliffs, they are strong and guttural, like the taste of Anglo-Saxon. This is poetry, but it is not delicate and fragile, a placid ocean beneath a Bible verse on an inspirational poster.This poetry has testicles. It's rougher than rodeo. Which is why the cliffs are crowded with spectators."

"On the jetty, I turn for a final look. The storm is filling the harbour with sand. Rain drips off my hood and runs down my nose. My legs chafe as they shift inside wet denim.The ocean sprawls. At the horizon, the gray sky meets with the gray sea and the two become one, a seamless wall of storm. Closer, spray rises behind the lighthouse.
"Cold," I say.
Cold, God says. And wet.
The rhythms are rough. I am part of a line, one word in a collection chosen for this day, this scene. His salty syllables sting my cheeks, and He continues to speak—The beaches must be tilled, He says. The kelp beds have grown too thick. The cliffs need new holes. The cliff-dwelling rich needs new leaks. The seas have been asking to toss. The sharks need to fee small. The seals and dolphins are laughing. They always are. You could learn from them."Cold," my wife says. And we turn."

Not merely a legal fiction

From The Justification Reader by Thomas C. Oden:

"What is justification? Justification is the declaration of God that one who trust's in Christ's atoning work, however sinful, is treated or accounted as righteous. This credited righteousness is received by faith.

This is not to be viewed as if it were merely a legal fiction, or as a fantasy imagined in God's mind, or as a human hypothetical conjecture. This uprighted relation with the holy God comes about as a decisive, merciful, divine act, an actual event in history that occurs on the cross.

Justification is the reversal of God's judgment against the sinner, in which the sinner is declared to be no longer exposed to the penalty of the law, which is ultimately spiritual death, but restored to divine favor. Justification is that divine act by which one stands now in a right relationship with God. It is an act of God's free grace through which the sinner is absolved from guilt and accepted as righteous on account of the Son's atoning work." (36)

Another important doctrine to keep at the forefront of one's mind throughout 2011 and beyond.

Infallible

As a matter of fact, the doctrine of plenary inspiration does not deny the individuality of the Biblical writers; it does not ignore their use of ordinary means for acquiring information; it does not involve any lack of interest in the historical situations which gave rise to the Biblical books. What it does deny is the presence of error in the Bible. It supposes that the Holy Spirit so informed the minds of the Biblical writers that they were kept from falling into the error" that mar all other books. The Bible might contain an account of a genuine revelation of God, and yet not contain a true account. But according to the doctrine of inspiration, the account is as a matter of fact a true account; the Bible is an "infallible rule of faith and practice." - J. Gresham Machen, Christianity and Liberalism

How often does this perspective get challenged in our lives. Directly, maybe not so much. But indirectly, this doctrine is under constant assault ... constant. Everything our society stands for and propagates, everything our sinful nature promotes, every idea our adversary propagandizes is undermining to the Bible and silently screams "His Word is not true." We would do well in 2011 to regularly remind ourselves that " The words of the LORD are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times (Psalm 12:6 ESV).

Your Conversion

And have you not reason to praise God for YOUR CONVERSION?

Oh, what a wonder of sovereign grace that ever you were brought out of nature's
darkness into God's marvelous light!

That, ever divine power drew you,
and divine love chose you,
and divine blood cleansed you,
and a divine righteousness was imputed to you!

That, ever you did hear the voice of Jesus,
when lying in your blood,
cast out to the loathing of yourself,
saying to you,
"Live!"

And that then He washed you,
and clothed you,
and decked you with
ornaments,
and put a fair chain on your neck,
a crown and a mitre on your head,
and you became lovely through His loveliness put upon you—a king and a priest unto God!

Praise, oh, praise Him loudly for that happy day when,
having betrothed you in eternity,
He savingly drew you to Himself,
and you became His.

Can you recall the memory of that blissful hour, and not make the desert ring with your loudest, sweetest praise?

From Octavius Winslow's Consider Jesus, line breaks mine)

Reading plans for 2011

Reading Plan for 2011

I have read a lot of books the past 2 years. I have intentionally tried to push myself in terms of the quantity of books I read. I feel like I am making up for lost time; I should have been reading more. In line with being intentional about reading, I made goals the last 2 years that pertained to reading a certain number of books. This year, I continue with the purposeful intentionality by planning a few different reading goals.


The Bible

This year I plan to follow Professor Horner's reading plan. Here is an explanation, found at Tim Challies' blog, of the plan as provided by it's developer:

Each day you will read one chapter from each of ten lists. That’s right — ten chapters per day!!! Use ten bookmarks or sticky notes with the individual lists on them to keep track of your locations. Or use the set of bookmarks provided on the last page of this document.

On day one, you read Matthew 1, Genesis 1, Romans 1, and so forth. On day 2, read Matthew 2, Genesis 2, etc. On day 29, you will have just finished Matthew, so go to Mark 1 on the Gospel list; you’ll also be almost to the end of 2nd Corinthians and Proverbs, you’ll be reading Psalm 29 and Genesis 29, and so forth. When you reach the last chapter of the last book in a list - start over again. Rotate all the way through all the Scriptures constantly.

Since the lists vary in length, the readings begin interweaving in constantly changing ways. You will NEVER read the same set of ten chapters together again! Every year you’ll read through all the Gospels four times, the Pentateuch twice, Paul’s letters 4-5 times each, the OT wisdom literature six times, all the Psalms at least twice, all the Proverbs as well as Acts a dozen times, and all the way through the OT History and Prophetic books about 1 12 times. Since the interweaving is constantly changing, you will experience the Bible commenting on itself in constantly changing ways — the Reformer’s principle of ‘scriptura interpretans scripturam’ — ‘scripture interpreting scripture’ IN ACTION!

After you’ve read any particular book once or twice, your speed in that book usually doubles or triples because you’re familiar with it and can move quickly and confidently — because you are no longer merely decoding the text but thinking it through in the context of all of the scripture!

Even an ‘average’ reader, if focusing on moving through the text, rather than trying to figure everything out, can usually do this in about an hour a day - 5-6 minutes per chapter. Many people report moving confidently through the ten chapters in 35-40 minutes. If it is taking you longer, then you are ‘reading wrong’ - stay relaxed, focus, and just keep it moving. Moderate but consistent speed is the key. This is “gross anatomy” — looking at the whole body; you’re not closely studying organs or systems or tissues or cells — it is not microbiology. BUT — microbiology and the study or organs makes more sense when you know what the whole structure of the human body is like, and how all the parts, large and small, relate in perfect interdependence.

After just a few days the reading gets much easier; in a month it will be a habit, and in six months you’ll wonder how you ever survived before on such a slim diet of the WORD. And then — you’ll tell others to start the system!

I began in 1983 as a new Christian and have now read (most of ) the Bible hundreds and hundreds of times. You also need to get ONE Bible, keep it, and do all your reading in it, so you learn where everything is. I’ve had the same Bible since 1983 and I know it intimately. If you keep switching Bibles, you ‘lose’ this intimacy with the text. Find a translation and format you like and stick with it. THIS IS CRUCIAL.

Your Bible is the only thing on Earth that, as you wear it out, will actually work better and better.

Big Books

The second part of my reading plan involves reading some big books. Instead of reading a large amount of 'regular-sized' books, I plan to tackle some larger tomes. So far, my list is as follows:

• Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin
• A Theology of the New Testament by George Eldon Ladd
• The Doctrine of the Word of God by John Frame

We'll see how those go and then add to the list as I progress. But I will definitely be focusing on major works of importance; any suggestions out there?

I will also be continuing on with community reading with the guys who blog here. We have not decided on our first book for 2011 yet.

Consider Jesus in Forgiveness

Consider Jesus—in the Forgiveness of Injury

"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."—Luke 23:34

If the Christian precept of FORGIVENESS be estimated by the magnitude of
the injury forgiven, then these words of Jesus present to our view a
forgiveness of an inconceivable and unparalleled injury. The greatest crime
man ever committed was the crucifixion of the Son of God; and yet, for the
forgiveness of that crime, the Savior prays at the very moment of its
perpetration, fully persuaded of the sovereign efficacy of the blood His
enemies were now shedding, to blot out the enormous guilt of the sin of
shedding it.

(from Octavius Winslow's Consider Jesus)

New beginnings

Through the first few weeks of December, southwestern Ontario was pummeled with snowstorms that led to people referring to the winter blasts as "Snowmageddon". I, along with many others, was hard pressed to stay on top of snow removal around my house. There were many areas in which the snow, despite my best snow-thrower-aided efforts, accumulated and could not be removed.

The past 2 days we have had a thaw which has included temperatures in the positive range as well as significant amounts of rain. This provided an opportunity, which I took advantage of this morning, to complete nature's work in removing the snow and ice from around my residence.

The snow will be back. But the thaw has allowed me to clean up and start over in terms of keeping my home's driveway, walkways, and entrances free from the remnants of Snowmageddon's fury. This is a fresh start.

And today represents, though in Christ every day represents the same thing, a fresh start in our walks with Christ. A day to resolve to pursue Christ, behold Christ, love Christ, commune with Christ, and preach and proclaim Christ. This is primarily a process of allowing the Holy Spirit to submerge us in the deluge of Christ's grace. We come under this grace in His Word, in His body, in His sacraments, and in His presence.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV)

Piper returns

In my first post of 2011, I'd like to say, "Read this!"