Christian Ministers: Preach Scripture

Christ is all: Christian ministers must preach and live Christ (“Christ is the mainspring both of doctrinal and practical Christianity” (J. C. Ryle, Holiness, 309). Christ is all: Christian ministers must give hope and truth to the church by washing her in the Word. The timeless foundation for making Christ all is clinging to the voice of Christ echoing in the Scriptures; in order for the church to make Christ all, she must listen to the voice of her Beloved. Therefore, a Christian minister must never exchange the voice of his own clever ideas for the voice of Christ in the Scriptures!

Christian Ministers: Preaching Grace

Salvation is by grace. Salvation is ουκ εξ εργων, not of works. A Christian Minister's job is to preach salvation by grace by grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). Christian preaching is not of works. For a minister, preaching and theology must walk hand in hand; the content of the message (grace) should characterize the mode (preaching done by grace and not of works). Otherwise, a minister will never make Christ "all."

Christian Ministers: Making Christ "All"

“I might show how Christ ought to be all in a ministry. The great work which ordained men are intended to do, is to lift up Christ. We are to be like the pole on which the brazen serpent was hung. We are useful so long as we exalt the great object of faith, but useful no further. We are to be ambassadors to carry tidings to a rebellious world about the King’s Son, and if we teach men to think more about us and our office than about Him, we are not fit for our place. The Spirit will never honour that minister who does not testify of Christ—who does not make Christ “all.”

“I might show how language seems exhausted in the Bible, in describing Christ’s various offices. I might describe how figures seem endless which are employed in unfolding Christ’s fullness. The High Priest, the Mediator, the Redeemer, the Saviour, the Advocate, the Shepherd, the Physician, the Bridegroom, the head, the Bread of Life, the Light of the World, the Way, the Door, the Vine, the Rock, the Fountain, the Sun of Righteousness, the Forerunner, the Surety, the Captain, the Prince of Life, the Amen, the Almighty, the Author and Finisher of Faith, the Lamb Of God, the King of Saints, the Wonderful, The Mighty God, The Counselor, the Bishop of Souls—all, these, and many more, are names given to Christ in Scripture. Each is a fountain of instruction and comfort for everyone who is willing to drink of it. Each supplies matter for useful meditation” (J. C. Ryle, Holiness (James Clarke & Co., LTD., 1977), 321).

Ministerial Training

Wrapped up four position papers for ministerial training. And now I am ready for a week of Christmas respite. Hopefully I will read a good novel; hoping that novel will be Melville's Moby Dick. So.

The first paper is on evangelization; I argue that evangelization is comprised of two tenets, missions and evangelism, and that these are distinct from one another because of differences in evangelistic intent and whether the evangelist shares/does not share native cultural spaces with the audience.

The second paper is on the doctrine of man; I believe it is important to have biblical doctrine of man nailed down in our minds (meaning, don't have a clumsy anthropology). Why? Because the divine perfections are best displayed in man (leaned heavily upon John Calvin's Institutes ).

The third paper is on the importance of and necessity for cultivating the Christian virtue of hope. Why? Because it is hope that engenders and sustains faith.

Lastly, I summarized and argued for the importance of the Reformed/Federal Theology distinction of the covenant of works/covenant of grace. I believe that our understanding of God's covenant with man is of the utmost importance, since our view of the covenant of redemption/covenant of grace will determine our understanding of the Atonement and human salvation.

Movie

My wife and I watched Lars and the Real Girl this week. The movie is about human emotions, relationships; the take away message for the movie is (sacrificial) love. There were a couple lines of dialogue that were stellar, the best being:

Lars Lindstrom (main character): I was hoping winter was over.
Margo (Lars' coworker): No, it's just a thaw - winter isn't over till Easter.

Indiana, November Snow

Indiana sings a new song to its Lord. Julie, in the back yard clearing the walk, joins in song.

Triune, Thus Creator

God is Triune, thus the Creator. So argues Robert Letham via Herman Bavinck:

"It is impossible to think of creation (this creation, this multifaceted and coherent creation, the only one we know and the only one there is) coming into existence apart from its maker being relational, and so in accordance with his full revelation as triune, as Bavinck so cogently argues. Bavinck goes even further, arguing that 'without generation [the generation of the Son by the Father] creation would not be possible. If in an absolute sense God could not communicate himself to the Son, he would be even less able, in a relative sense, to communicate himself to his creature. If God were not triune, creation would not be possible.' This is borne out by hints in the OT of distinction within the unity of the one God" (Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity, 22).

Bible Translation, Christian Missions

In Robert Alter's 1996 translation and commentary on Genesis, he says there is an "unacknowledged heresy underlying most modern English versions of the Bible," and that error is "the use of translation as a vehicle for explaining the Bible instead of representing it in another language." I agree. A translation's chief aim should be to re-present the Word.

And we can apply this thinking to Christian Missions. What happens when we craft a theology and practice of missions in the vein of the above heresy? A raft of errors will occur, indeed. If missions is a vehicle for explaining Christ, you will end up with an ism. However, if missions re-presents Christ to another language, that is, another culture, then you will end up with Christendom. The former turns missionaries into explainers of Christianity, the latter is a Biblical view of missions--you are an ambassador of Christ and Bride, the Church.

Bible translation should represent the Bible in to another language and missions should represent Christ in to another language, in to another culture.

Human Heart - Danger of Deception

"The human heart has so many recesses for vanity, so many lurking places for falsehood, is so shrouded by fraud and hypocrisy, that it often deceives itself” (Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, III.II.10).

Self Discipline: Words, Speech

Thoughts on Proverbs 6:1-5:

1 My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,
2 Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth; thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.
3 Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, when thou art come into the hand of thy friend; go, humble thyself, and make sure thy friend.
4 Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids.
5 Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Self-control exercised over the tongue, the words of our mouth, will be like a wall around a city; disciplined speech is protection.

“Christian prudence will keep us clear from such engagements, which bring distress upon our families, dishonor upon our name, and reproach upon our religion. While the “good man sheweth favor, and lendeth, he must guide his affairs with discretion (Psalm 62:5)” (Charles Bridges, Exposition of the Book of Proverbs).

Self-control/prudence with the words of our mouth will protect:

1) Our families
2) Our name
3) Our religion (Christ & Church)

Self-control/prudence with the words of our mouth will protect us and our friends:

“Even to the recipient, an unconditional pledge may be an unintended disservice by exposing him to temptation and to the subsequent grief of having brought a friend to ruin” (Commentator Derek Kidner).

Christ's Satisfaction: Efficacious

“So far is the doctrine of Christ’s satisfaction from throwing open a door to impiety and spreading a couch for security and negligence that it is the most efficacious means of holiness and the death of sin itself (which Christ assigns as one among others of the ends for his death. ‘That being dead unto sin, we may live unto righteousness; that henceforth we may no more live unto ourselves, but to him who died for us and was raised again for our justification,’ as Paul so often reasons on this subject (Rom. 6; Tit. 2:14; 1 Pet. 2:24)” (Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology, Volume 2, 437-438).

Building Culture

"Reaction to pagan culture is not the same as building a biblical culture" (Douglas Wilson, Standing on the Promises: A Handbook of Biblical Childrearing, 12).

Power in Prayer

Jesus’ words bring power in prayer: “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7).

Comprehending the Whole Christ

“We must face the fact that in history Jesus has proved a gigantic figure. It is not at all impossible, accordingly, that he is the sitter behind both Gospel portraits, and that the Synoptists depict him from one aspect, John from another. The fact that we are not able to put the two together to our satisfaction may mean no more than that we are not big enough to comprehend the whole Christ” (Leon Morris, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The Gospel According to John, Revised Edition, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 15).

Marriage: Bestowing Loveliness

The Bible teaches that a Christian husband is responsible for the loveliness of his wife (Douglas Wilson, Reforming Marriage, 53).

. . .

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. 5:25-27)

God therefore requires husbands to love their wives with effect. In loving our wives, we are not to imitate the sentimental loving of that modern idol, "gentle jesus," but rather we are to imitate the efficacious loving of the Lord Jesus Christ who came to earth in order to purchase His people, and save them from their sins.

. . .

So when a man takes a woman into his home, all who know them should expect to see her flourish and grow in loveliness in the years to come. If their wedding ceremony referred at all to the fifth chapter of Ephesians, was this not what he vowed he would do (53-54)?

Reforming Marriage: Constant Love, Imitative Love

The kind of love Paul requires here [Eph. 5] is constant. So godly husbandry is constant husbandry.

And as the context makes clear, the love in this passage is also imitative. It is learned from a Person; it is learned through watching Jesus Christ (Douglas Wilson, Reforming Marriage, 10).

. . .

The love and affection of Christ has been set upon His people alone. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives alone. This is the duty I hope to explain in this book in some detail (11).

Death of Christ: A Ransom

The death of Christ is a ransom, Matt. xx. 28, paid by compact for the deliverance of captives for whom it was a ransom" (121).

Scriptural Redemption

Under the heading "Scriptural Redemption," John Owen maintained that:

1. Christ died for the elect only.
2. All those for whom Christ died are certainly saved.
3. Christ by his death purchased all saving grace for them for whom he died.
4. Christ sends the means and reveals the way of life to all them for whom he died.
5. The new covenant of grace was confirmed to all the elect in the blood of Jesus.
6. Christ, by his death, purchased, upon covenant and compact, an assured peculiar people, the pleasure of the Lord prospering to the end in his hand.
7. Christ loved his church, and gave himself for it.
8. Christ died for the infidelity of the elect (302-303).

Death of Christ: Justice of God Satisfied

The end of every free agent is either that which he effecteth, or that for whose sake he doth effect it.

. . .

The end which God effected by the death of Christ was the satisfaction of his own justice: the end for whose sake he did it was either supreme, or his own glory; or subordinate, ours with him (John Owen, The Death of Death in the Death of Christ,Vol. 10 of the Works of John Owen, 1852 (reprinted, Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007), 50).

. . .

Now, the end of the death of Christ is either supreme and ultimate, or intermediate and subservient to the last end.

1. The first is the glory of God, or the manifestation of his glorious attributes, especially of his justice, and mercy tempered with justice, unto us (89).

. . .

2. There is an end of the death of Christ which is intermediate and subservient to that other, which is the last and most supreme, even the effects which it hath in respect of us, and that is it of which we now treat; which, as we before affirmed, is the bringing of us unto God (90).

Calvinism: J.I. Packer

From J.I. Packer's Introductory Essay to John Owen's The Death of Death in the Death of Christ(The Banner of Truth Trust, 5).

Calvinism is something much broader than the "five points" indicate. Calvinism is a whole world-view, stemming from a clear vision of God as the whole world's Maker and King. Calvinism is the consistent endeavor to acknowledge the Creator as the Lord, working all things after the counsel of His will. Calvinism is a theocentric way of thinking about all life under the direction and control of God's own Word. Calvinism, in other words, is the theology of the Bible viewed from the perspective of the Bible--the God-centered outlook which sees the Creator as the source, and means, and end, of everything that is, both in nature and in grace.

Reality is Real

G.K. Chesterton in 1908: “You cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves. You cannot fancy a more skeptical world that that in which men doubt if there is a world.”

N.D. Wilson in 2009: “Hide behind big words, or listen to a child’s first laugh and know that this world is here, that you are in it, and that its flavors are deep and layered and its lights are bright. Know that it’s real.”

John Calvin: Mere Christianity

"If it be inquired then by what things chiefly the Christian religion has a standing existence amongst us, and maintains its truth, it will be found that the following two not only occupy the principal place, but comprehend under them all the other parts , and consequently the whole substance of Christianity, viz., a knowledge, first, of the mode in which God is duly worshipped; and, secondly, of the source from which salvation is to be obtained. When these are kept out of view, though we may glory in the name of Christians, our profession is empty and vain. After these come the Sacraments and the Government of the Church, which as they were instituted for the preservation of these branches of doctrine, ought not to be employed for any other purpose and, indeed, the only means of ascertaining whether they are administered purely and in due form, or otherwise, is to bring them to this test" (John Calvin, The Necessity of Reforming the Church, 13-14).

Christ of the Covenants

O. Palmer Robertson introduces The Christ of the Covenants with two aims: To foster a correct understanding of the significance of God's covenants and the relation of the two testaments. He argues that the various covenants and the testaments are organically unified in Christ; they are unified by the "Immanuel principle"--a principle that "binds the whole of Scripture together" (51). Christ is the fulfillment of that principle; Jesus Christ is the Immanuel--God with us. Below is an extended quote from Robertson's book:

Classically, covenant theology has spoken of a “covenant of works” and a “covenant of grace.”

The term “covenant of works” has been applied to God’s relation to man prior to his fall into sin. This relationship has been characterized as a covenant of “works” in an effort to emphasize the testing period of Adam. If Adam should “work” properly, he would receive the blessings promised by God.

The phrase “covenant of grace” has been used to describe the relationship of God to his people subsequent to man’s fall into sin. Since man became incapable of works suitable for meriting salvation, this period has been understood as being controller primarily by the grace of God.

This division of God’s covenant dealings with men in terms of “covenant of works” and a “covenant of grace” has much to commend it. It emphasizes properly the absolute necessity of recognizing a pre-fall relationship between God and man which required perfect obedience as the meritorious ground of blessing. In this structure, Adam cannot be regarded purely as a mythical figure. In real history God bound himself to the man he had made to be “very good.”

This distinction also provides an overarching structure to unite the totality of God’s relation to man in his fallen state. Because of its inherent emphasis on the unity of God’ redemptive program, this structure delivers the church from the temptation to draw too strongly a dichotomy between old and new testaments.

However, the terminology traditionally associated with this scheme has significant limitations. No criticism may be offered with respect to the general structure of this distinction. Two basic epochs of God’s dealings with man must be recognized: pre-fall and post-fall. All the dealings of God with man since the fall must be seen as possessing a basic unity....The terms “covenant of creation” and “covenant of redemption” may serve much more appropriately as categorizations of God’s bond with man before and after the fall. The “covenant of creation” refers to the bond with God established with man by creation. The “covenant of redemption” encompasses the various administrations by which God has bound himself to man since the fall.

Love, Again

"Love is the overflow of joy in God that gladly meets the needs of others....[Love] is first a deeply satisfying experience of the fullness of God's grace, and then a doubly satisfying experience of sharing that grace with another person" (John Piper, Desiring God, 119-120).

Love

"Love is not a bare choice or a mere act. It involves the affections. It does not just do the truth. Nor does it just choose the right. It rejoices in the way of truth" (John Piper, Desiring God, 114-115).

Christian Courage

George Weigel's conclusion from an article about the communist war against the Catholic Church (First Things, April 2011): "The communist war against Christianity was a bloody affair, in which Christian martyrdom reached new heights of sacrifice. That war also involved billions of man-hours of work and billions of dollars of public expenditure and was thus a form of theft form civil society. Deeply committed and politically shrewd Christian pastors and laity eventually won out over communism. The blood of martyrs, however, was the seed of the Church's victory. Their sacrifice and what we can learn from it about the cardinal virtue of fortitude--courage--must never be forgotten."

OT: Proverbs 31 Woman

Go here to read commentary on Proverbs 31:10-31 by Peter Leithart. His conclusion: Proverbs 31 is a heroic poem celebrating the domestic labor, that is, the domestic warfare of the virtuous woman.

On Writing

William Zinsser's priceless observation: "Like the minister's sermon that builds to a series of perfect conclusions that never conclude, an article that doesn't stop where it should stop becomes a drag and therefore a failure" (On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction, 63).

I have heard those sermons and read those articles. "A drag and therefore a failure," ouch.

Christian Charity

The Didache is one of the earliest manuscripts we have on Christian teaching, written at the end of the first or the beginning of the second century. Regarding Christian charity, the Didache quotes from an unknown source: "Let your gift to charity sweat in your hands until you know to whom to give it."

Christian Education

"The establishment of a Christian school movement is in principle a threat to the current establishment, and the establishment knows it" (Douglas Wilson, The Case for Classical Christian Education, 36).

"The philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre once said that without an infinite reference point, every finite point is absurd. This statement is exactly correct and explains why every secular classroom is a manifest absurdity. The need for an infinite reference point explains why an understanding that each child bears the image of God is so central to the process of Christian education" (49).

"In order to teach a child rightly, his parents and teachers must know both who and what they are, and they must know this on the authority of God's Word. They must understand that mankind has fallen away from the initial task assigned in the Garden of Eden, but that Jesus Christ came in order to make it possible for people to resume work on that task. Given the nature of the case, men and women must either serve God or refuse to do so. They must either serve God or man. This is the fundamental question before us in all our debates about education" (50).

The Lenten Gospel, Again

Writing after Christ's accomplishment, John the Evangelist said: "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8).

During the Lenten season we prepare for and anticipate celebrating a historical event. In a word, the Atonement; when Christ destroyed the works of the devil. Which is why Christians sing: "Death, where is your sting?"

The Lenten Gospel

From Richard A Muller's Dictionary of Latin and Greek Theological Terms:

"protoevangelium: literally, the protogospel; the first announcement of the redemption to be effected in and through Christ, given figuratively to Adam and Eve in the words of God to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel" (Gen. 3:15); in Reformed federalism, the inception of the covenant of grace."

Lent

“The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master” (Luke 6:40).

It is Ash Wednesday. It is the genesis of the Lenten season. In preparation for Easter the Church has historically found this to be an opportune time for confession of sin and imitation of Christ. Such practices are good and lawful; Spirit-led, that.

It is, therefore, a time for disciples, the pupils, the followers and adherents to the way of Christ, to confess sins and become as their master.

Function of Doctrine

"The function of doctrine is to make Christian prayer as difficult as it ought to be" (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord's Prayer & the Christian Life, p. 22).