Word-Derived Self-Image

To echo the sentiment from prior post, somewhere in The Baptized Body Peter Leithart says, "Christians are to have a self-image not based on our own perceptions or feelings but based on the Word and promise of God."

Matthew 4:4 - Self-Reliance is Self-Destruction

"From the beginning, man has always relied upon God's verbal revelation for his ethical behavior. Immediately upon creating Adam, God spoke to him concerning His ethical requirements (Genesis 2:16-19)" (Kevin Swanson, Apostate, 41).

Even Adam in his original righteousness relied upon the Word of God. Arguing by contrasting the greater to the lesser: in light of the sinful effects of the fall and the imputation of Adam's sin (cf. Romans 5:12-19), how much more are the sons of Adam behooved to rely upon the Word of God?

Pride. Human autonomy. Self reliance. Idolatry. These four are one in the same. Thus, self-reliance is self-destruction. We are creatures, so we need to have creaturely-reliance, i.e., man was created to be Word-reliant. Christ the God-man said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).

Aphoristic Commentary: Jer. 31:31-33

Jeremiah 31:31-33, Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

The Law is not written on our hearts with ink; it is written on our hearts by the Spirit of the Living God; God is the Wordsmithy of Wordsmiths.

Scripture and Christian Formation

"The Christian Scriptures are the primary text for Christian spirituality. Christian spirituality is, in its entirety, rooted in and shaped by the scriptural text. We don't form our personal spiritual lives out of a random assemblage of favorite texts in combination with individual circumstances; we are formed by the Holy Spirit in accordance with the text of Holy Scripture. God does not put us in charge of forming our personal spiritualities. We grow in accordance with the revealed Word implanted in us by the Spirit" (Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book, 15).

Col. 3:16-17, Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

Worship, which is Spirit-led and Scripture-saturated, is corporate discipleship; by Spirit and Word, worship provides both corporate-formation and personal spiritual-formation.

Dog-with-a-Bone Kind of Reading

"Language, spoken and written, is the primary means for getting us in on what is, on what God is and is doing. But it is language of a certain stripe, not words external to our lives, the sort used in grocery lists, computer manuals, French grammars, and basketball rulebooks. These are words intended, whether confrontationally or obliquely, to get inside us, to deal with our souls, to form a life that is congruent with the world that God has created, the salvation that he has enacted, and the community that he has gathered. Such writing anticipates and counts on a certain kind of reading, a dog-with-a-bone kind of reading [Peterson equates this with Hebrew word hagah, that is, "meditate", cf., Ps. 1, Ps. 63, Isa. 31:4.]" (Eugene H. Peterson, Eat This Book: A Conversation in the Art of Spiritual Reading, 3-4).

Effectual Callings

"The first part of effectual calling is a right hearing of the Word by those who were dead in sin; their minds are illuminated by the Spirit with irresistible truth. The preaching of the Word accomplishes two things [following quotation from William Perkins' Golden Chaine]: 'the Law shewing a man his sin and the punishment thereof, which is eternal death' and 'the Gospel, shewing salvation by Christ Jesus, to such as believe.' Both become so real that 'the eyes of the mind are enlightened, the heart and ears opened, that he [the elect sinner] may see, hear, and understand the preaching of the word of God'" (Joel R. Beeke & Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life, 126).

Efficacious Preaching

On the efficacy of preaching, Michael Horton insists "It is effective because God has promised to dispense his saving grace then and there by the Spirit, and it grows organically out of the logic of the message itself because it is an announcement of something that has been accomplished by God, rather than an incentive to get sinners to save themselves by sheer force of will or effort. It is good news, not good advice, good production value, or good ideas."

Horton elaborates on this good news: ". . . we can always count on God being where he has promised to meet us . . . . The power of the Spirit is linked to a promise; namely, a promise that faith comes by hearing the gospel preached (Rom. 10:8, 17)" (A Better Way: Rediscovering the Drama of God-Centered Worship, 64-65).

Word of God: Creates Faith

"The Word [God's word of salvation], all-powerful in its effect and salvific in its benefit, creates the faith that receives it" (Thomas J. Davis, This Is My Body: The Presence of Christ in Reformation Thought, 58).