All Is Wrapped up in Him

Early on in Communion with God, John Owen describes 'three things in general wherein . . . personal excellency and grace of the Lord Christ consists.'

The first is that Christ is 'fit to save.' The second is that he is 'almighty to save.' The third is Christ's

excellency to endear, from his complete suitableness to all the wants of the souls of men. There is no man whatever, that has any want in reference to the things of God, but Christ will be to him that which he wants. . . . Is he dead? Christ is life. Is he weak? Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Has he the sense of guilt upon him? Christ is complete righteousness. . . .

Many poor creatures are sensible of their wants, but know not where their remedy lies. Indeed, whether it be life or light, power or joy, all is wrapped up in him. (p. 94)

The ultimate key to spiritual health is not our having-it-together-ness. The key is awareness that we don't have it together. Knowing our 'wants,' says Owen. Not qualifying; knowing we don't.

Covenant Seminary Faculty Addition

Page 22 of the current Covenant Magazine describes Bob Yarbrough's return to Covenant Theological Seminary.

Good news for Covenant.

The Flock of the Fainthearted

May a merciful God preserve me from a Christian Church in which everyone is a saint!

I want to be and remain in the church and little flock of the fainthearted, the feeble, and the ailing, who feel and recognize the wretchedness of their sins, who sigh and cry to God incessantly for comfort and help, who believe in the forgiveness of sin.

--Martin Luther, preaching on John 1, in Luther's Works, 22:55

Marital Counsel for Dummies

If you touched your wife as much as you touch your iPhone your marriage would be in a much better spot.

--Justin Hyde

John Owen's Single Pursuit in Life

Owen concludes his discussion of the love between Christ and his saints by describing his treatment as

but a little, from him who has the least experience of it of all the saints of God; who yet has found that in it which is better than ten thousand worlds; who desires to spend the residue of the few and evil days of his pilgrimage in pursuit of this--in the contemplation of the excellencies, desirableness, love, and grace of our dear Lord Jesus, and in making returns of obedience according to his will: to whose soul, in the midst of the perplexities of this wretched world, and cursed rebellions of his own heart, this is a great relief, that 'He that shall come will come, and will not tarry.'

--Communion with God (Christian Focus 2007), 241-42

Be Who You Are

The (imperative) ten commandments are famously preceded by the (indicative) reminder, 'I am the LORD your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' But this rhythm of grace/response, gospel/obligation, is pervasive throughout both OT and NT. Was struck today by the way Deuteronomy 14 opens:

'You are the sons of the LORD your God. You shall not . . .' (Deut 14:1)

Ephesians 5:1 is a clear NT counterpart: Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 1 Peter and 1 John are replete with the same notion.

Here's who you are; be who you are.

A Mediator

There is no arbiter between us
[lit. there is not a man between us to judge/decide]
who might lay his hand on us both.
Let him take his rod away from me,
and let not dread of him terrify me.
Then I would speak without fear of him,
for I am not so in myself.
--Job 9:33-35 (cf. 33:23-24)

There is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ.
--1 Timothy 2:5

We are not so in ourselves. Without an arbiter, we speak with fear of him; dread of him terrifies us. Without a mediator, his rod is on us. Jesus the mediator lays a hand on both God and us. He takes his nail-scarred hands and clasps together our hand with God's happily outstretched arm.

Praise God.

Satan's Inadvertent Suicide

Martin Luther on the practical spiritual help that Christ's deity gives believers in the war against sin and Satan--

[I]f, as God's Son, He sheds His blood to redeem us and cleanse us from sin, and if we believe this, rubbing it under the devil's nose whenever he tries to plague and terrify us with our sins, the devil will soon be beaten; he will be forced to withdraw and to stop molesting us.

For the hook, which is the divinity of Christ, was concealed under the earthworm. The devil swallowed it with his jaws when Christ died and was buried. But it ripped his belly so that he could not retain it but had to disgorge it. He ate death for himself.

This affords us the greatest solace; for just as the devil could not hold Christ in death, so he cannot hold us who believe in Christ.

--Luther's Works, 22:24

The Army Grows: Nathan Luther Ortlund

Lewis: Cultivation, not Castration, of Masculinity

C. S. Lewis has a fascinating little essay in God in the Dock called 'Priestesses in the Church.' In it he's addressing a 1950s Anglican/Episcopal issue, but the relevance to today's church scene is striking. Lewis argues that the office of priest should be open to men only. At one point (p. 238-39) he says:

It is painful, being a man, to have to assert the privilege, or the burden, which Christianity places upon my own sex. I am crushingly aware how inadequate most of us are . . . to fill the place prepared for us. But it is an old saying in the army that you salute the uniform not the wearer. . . .

We men often make very bad priests. That is because we are insufficiently masculine. It is no cure to call in those who are not masculine at all. A given man may make a very bad husband; you cannot mend matters by trying to reverse the roles. He may make a bad male partner in a dance. The cure for that is that men should more diligently attend dancing classes; not that the ballroom should henceforward ignore distinctions of sex and treat all dancers as neuter.

Too 'Gospel-Centered'?

. . . I delivered to you as of first importance . . . --1 Cor 15:3

There has been a wave of books, blogs, messages and movements in recent years calling, in various ways, for the church today to be (more) 'gospel-centered.'

Publically, I think of Ray Ortlund, Zack Eswine, Tim Keller, Sovereign Grace, Acts 29, the Gospel Coalition, Jared Wilson, Joe Thorn, Jonathan Dodson, Paul Tripp, David Powlison, Jerry Bridges, Mike Bullmore, D. A. Carson, Graeme Goldsworthy, Covenant Seminary, Tullian Tchividjian, and many others (see e.g. here). Privately, I think of friends like Brian Martin, Nate Conrad, Dan Orr, and Jim Lane, who have personally helped me understand the gospel as the engine (keeping us going), not the runway (getting us off the ground at conversion and landing us in heaven at death but unnecessary in between), to life and theology.

In more recent days, though, some are raising the question of whether this is getting a bit out of hand, asking whether we can emphasize the gospel to the exclusion of other things, and, perhaps most of all, simply expressing a general cynicism about the current trendiness of being gospel-centered (whatever 'gospel-centered' means--I use the phrase here to refer to viewing the gospel not as something beyond which Christians graduate but which rather remains the heartbeat of life, to be not only confessed doctrinally and evangelistically but also appropriated emotionally and psychologically, the non-negotiable of all non-negotiables, summed up best biblically in 1 Cor 15:3-4).

There are three possible responses to the current trendiness of being 'gospel-centered.'

1. Uncritically dismiss it due to its trendiness.

2. Uncritically absorb it due to its being embraced by others we know or respect; vicariously feed on others' excitement without personally digesting it ourselves.

3. Consider what it means, and whether it is biblical; ponder what is true in it; ask why it is trendy.

The last option is the way of wisdom. Before either dismissing it or absorbing it, let's consider it, test it, and, if we find that in fact deeper awareness of sin and sin's healing in Christ is indeed the place to start and end every day happily and humbly, pass it on.

Remember, trendiness is not bad in itself. Justification by faith alone was suddenly trendy among significant church circles in the 1520s and 30s. Thank the Lord for all those who neither uncritically dismissed it nor uncritically absorbed it but personally wrestled with it, saw it in their Bibles, found fresh liberation, and passed it on.

Luther on John 14:6

'I am the way.' --John 14:6

Christ is not only the Way on which we must begin our journey, but He is also the right and the safe Way we must walk to the end. We dare not be deflected from this. . . . Here Christ wants to say: 'When you have apprehended Me in faith, you are on the right way, which is reliable and does not mislead you. But only see that you remain and continue on it.' . . . Christ wants to tear and turn our hearts from all trust in anything else and pin them to Himself alone.

--Martin Luther, sermon on John 14:6, in Luther's Works, 24:47, 48, 50

Luther is teaching me that the Christian life can easily be boiled down into two simple steps.

1. Trust in Christ
2. See #1

Owen: Christ's Greatest Joy

It is the gladness of the heart of Christ, the joy of his soul, to . . .

What?

Reside with his Father, in heaven?

See justice vindicated as his enemies are judged?

Bask in the worship of the angels?

See the saints dutifully obey him?

It is the gladness of the heart of Christ, the joy of his soul, to take poor sinners into relation with himself. He rejoiced in the thoughts of it from eternity. . . . It is the main design of the ministry of the gospel, to prevail with men to give up themselves to the Lord Christ, as he reveals his kindness in this engagement.

--John Owen, Communion with God (Christian Focus 2007), 101, 100

Zack Eswine Reminds Us . . .

. . . of the three ways to live.

Zack is pastor of Riverside Church
in St. Louis.

Luther: Ruined with Christ

If we perish then Christ the Almighty Ruler of the world himself must suffer with us. Even if this cause were to collapse, I would much rather be ruined with Christ than rule with Caesar.

--Martin Luther, in 'Sayings in Which Luther Found Comfort,' in Luther's Works, 43:172 ('this cause' = the sixteenth-century Reformation)

Paid

'By his stripes we are healed.' --Isaiah 53:5

Study and Prayer

Study yourself to death, and then pray yourself alive again.

--Adam Clarke, in C. H. Spurgeon, who calls it 'a wise sentence' (Lectures, 316)

Not Great Talents that God Blesses

How diligently the cavalry officer keeps his sabre clean and sharp; every stain he rubs off with the greatest care. Remember you are God's sword, His instrument--I trust, a chosen vessel unto Him to bear His name. In great measure, according to the purity and perfection of the instrument, will be the success. It is not great talents God blesses so much as likeness to Jesus. A holy minister is an awful weapon in the hand of God.

--Robert Murray McCheyne, quoted in C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students (Zondervan 1954), 8

Lewis: 'I Was Decided Upon'

In May 1963--six months before he died--C. S. Lewis was interviewed in his office at Cambridge. It's a fascinating 7-page interchange.

At one point he was asked about his account in Surprised by Joy of his conversion, kicking and screaming, the most reluctant convert in all of England. The interviewer asked whether Lewis felt that he had made a real decision that day. Lewis responded--

I would not put it that way. What I wrote in Surprised by Joy was that 'before God closed in on me, I was in fact offered what now appears a moment of wholly free choice.' But I feel my decision was not so important. I was the object rather than the subject in this affair.I was decided upon. I was glad afterwards at the way it came out, but at the moment what I heard was God saying, 'Put down your gun and we'll talk.'

Interviewer: That sounds to me as if you came to a very definite point of decision.

Lewis: Well, I would say that the most deeply compelled action is also the freest action. . . . I chose, yet it really did not seem possible to do the opposite.

--'Cross-Examination,' in God in the Dock, 261

Luther: The Closeness of Christ

'I am the bread of life.' --Jesus (John 6:35)

Christ is closer to you through His Word than your son with his arms entwined around your neck. To come to Christ does not necessitate a long journey. It is not necessary for you to go to St. Iago or Rome. . . . No, you come to Christ when you believe in Him. Then He is with you and very close to you. He lies right before us, in front of our eyes and ears, so that we can see and hear Him. Just believe in Him, and then you have eaten Him and come to Him. --Martin Luther, preaching on John 6:35, in Luther's Works, 23:42-43

A Word . . .

. . . from our friend Bryan Chapell at Covenant Seminary.

Agreed

'This act could be the most important message Dr. Piper has ever proclaimed.'

Preachers and Justification

Satan's strategy is to whisper when you are down. . . . For Spurgeon, it is the doctrine of justification personally applied and experienced that Satan seeks to undo in the Lord's preachers. Spurgeon exhorted Christians that they must expect that when they lose sight of their sense of justification, when they are conscious of sin and feel unfit to minister before God, 'just then,' the enemy 'will come to accuse' them.

--Zack Eswine, Kindled Fire: How the Methods of C. H. Spurgeon Can Help Your Preaching (Christian Focus 2006), 208; quotes Spurgeon's

Satan the Coward

Satan is a great coward. He will generally meddle with God's people when they are down. I find that when I am in good physical health, I am not often tempted of Satan to despondency or doubt; but whenever I get depressed in spirit, or the liver is out of order, or the head aches, then comes the hissing serpent.

--Charles Spurgeon, quoted in Zack Eswine, Kindled Fire: How the Methods of C. H. Spurgeon Can Help Your Preaching (Christian Focus 2006), 207

A Surpassing Love

Bryan Chapell on the grace of the gospel, at last June's Advance.

C. S. Lewis: Masturbation

A 1956 letter responding to Keith Masson, a young American.

3/6/56
Magdalene College
Cambridge

Dear Mr Masson -

. . . . I agree that the stuff about 'wastage of vital fluids' is rubbish. For me the real evil of masturbation would be that it takes an appetite which, in lawful use, leads the individual out of himself to complete (and correct) his own personality in that of another (and finally in children and even grandchildren) and turns it back: send the man back into the prison of himself, there to keep a harem of imaginary brides. And this harem, once admitted, works against his ever getting out and really uniting with a real woman. For the harem is always accessible, always subservient, calls for no sacrifices or adjustments, and can be endowed with erotic and psychological attractions which no real woman can rival. Among those shadowy brides he is always adored, always the perfect lover: no demand is made on his unselfishness, no mortification ever imposed on his vanity.

In the end, they become merely the medium through which he increasingly adores himself. Do read Charles Williams' Descent into Hell and study the character of Mr. Wentworth. And it is not only the faculty of love which is thus sterilized, forced back on itself, but also the faculty of imagination.

The true exercise of imagination, in my view, is (a) To help us to understand other people (b) To respond to, and, some of us, to produce, art. But it has also a bad use: to provide for us, in shadowy form, a substitute for virtues, successes, distinctions etc. which ought to be sought outside in the real world--e.g. picturing all I'd do if I were rich instead of earning and saving. Masturbation involves this abuse of imagination in erotic matters . . . and thereby encourages a similar abuse of it in all spheres. After all, almost the main work of life is to come out of our selves, out of the little, dark prison we are all born in. Masturbation is to be avoided as all things are to be avoided which retard this process. The danger is that of coming to love the prison.

Yours
C. S. Lewis

--Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis: Vol 3 (Cambridge University Press, 2007), 758-59; emphasis original

The Book of James and the Gospel

It's often thought that Paul addressed the problem of legalism, James the problem of license. Paul corrected those who made too much of rules, James those who made too little of rules. Paul said works don't save you; James said works must be part of Christian living, or it's only dead faith.

Fair enough, and helpful. Most deeply, though, both Paul and James were confronting people into whose hearts the gospel had not yet sunk deeply enough. Both were writing to those who were doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.

Here's how our friend Adolf puts it.

James directs the word of repentance toward the righteous: not toward obvious sinners who were condemned already by the Law, but toward that kind of godlessness that portrayed itself as piety. He addresses himself not to those who were not able to hear the word but to those who heard it eagerly without doing it; not to those who failed to believe but rather to those who had high praise for faith, but a corpse-like faith lacking obedience; not to those who lacked wisdom but to the wise; not to those who never prayed but to those whose prayer was despicable in the sight of God. . . . Jesus' struggle [was] against transforming religion into rebellion against God. (Adolf Schlatter, The Theology of the Apostles, p. 96)

'Transforming religion into rebellion.'

!

How to Pray before You Pray

For a soul to know its wants, its infirmities, is a heavenly discovery. He that has this assistance, his prayer is more than half made before he begins to pray. He . . . unloads himself on the Lord Christ. . . . Without this, prayer is not prayer.

--John Owen, Communion with God, 198

More Good Blogging

Darrin Patrick, pastor of The Journey in St. Louis, is blogging. Good stuff today on meditating on Scripture to get happy in the Lord.

Owen: His All-Conquering Desirableness

Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding, for the gain from her is better than gain from silver and her profit better than gold. She is more precious than jewels, and nothing you desire can compare with her. --Prov 3:13-15

. . . your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made for us wisdom . . . --1 Cor 1:30

John Owen writes:

Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God, the eternal Wisdom of the Father. . . . He and his ways are better than silver and gold, rubies, and all desirable things; as in the gospel he likens himself to the 'pearl in the field,' which when the merchant finds, he sells all that he has, to purchase. All goes for Christ; all righteousness without him, all ways of religion, all goes for that one pearl. The glory of his Deity, the excellency of his person, his all-conquering desirableness, ineffable love, wonderful undertaking, unspeakable condescensions, effectual mediation, complete righteousness, lie in their eyes, ravish their hearts, fill their affections, and possess their souls.

--Communion with God, 221