'It is they that bear witness about me' (John 5:39)

HT: Dan Orr

Un-American

J. I. Packer, reflecting on wisdom he has learned from John Owen--

Christian living must be founded upon self-abhorrence and self-distrust because of indwelling sin's presence and power. Self-confidence and self-satisfaction argue self-ignorance. The only healthy Christian is the humble, broken-hearted Christian.

--J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Crossway, 2010; repr.), 196

It is after he sees God, is made whole again, regains his sanity, and has his complaining heart drained of its incessant bickerings, that Job says: 'I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes' (Job 42:6). That is the healthiness where Job ends; it is not an un-healthiness that Job needs to be cured of.

Can anyone out there even come close to touching this parking job by my wife?

Didn't think so.

The Battle

From Pop's sermon last Sunday at Immanuel on 2 Timothy 2, in a series on prayer--

Life is war. Life is striving for something and against its opposites.

And for us, to live is Christ. So Paul says here, 'Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus' (2 Timothy 2:3). Immanuel does not exist to make your life more comfortable. Immanuel exists to help you become more deployable. We are here to fight for Christ, and to win, and to enjoy winning. I love the passage in The Lord of the Rings when the army of Rohan goes into battle against the orcs of Mordor:

For morning came, morning and a wind from the sea; and darkness was removed, and the hosts of Mordor wailed, and terror took them, and they fled, and died, and the hoofs of wrath rode over them. And then all the host of Rohan burst into song, and they sang as they slew, for the joy of battle was on them, and the sound of their singing was fair and terrible.

Some of us might have difficulty with that. But our warfare as a church is not political. We are not fighting the culture war. Our struggle is against the oppression that many people don’t even feel until they wake up in hell. We are not fighting against people. We are fighting against the God-dishonoring and self-injuring things that people are living for. The real battle of our times--and let’s make sure we are on the right side--the real battle of our times is not between us and anybody else but between Christ and religion. That battle is subtle but real.

We feel it in the form of silent pressure to keep quiet about Jesus or, even if we do use Jesus-talk, just to fit him into the convenient margins of the status quo. But he must never become the commanding presence at the center of our lives. That is the pressure against us and against him.

We must rebel, and rebel happily.

Matera on Romans

I'm working through the new commentary on Romans by Frank Matera in the Paideia series and enjoying it very much. Matera is a Roman Catholic who teaches at the Catholic University of America, and at times he takes a New Perspective-ish slant on things which I think trivializes what Paul is saying (pretty sure Frank won't be getting an email from Don Carson to join the Gospel Coalition any time soon). But this commentary is really excellent. Clear. Clear, clear, clear. And refuses to sacrifice the theological on the altar of the historical (O blessed breath of fresh theological air).

As a taste, I found this introduction to theological issues in Romans very satisfying.

Although Romans is an 'occasional letter,' inasmuch as [sic] it was occasioned by the circumstances of Paul and the Romans, it remains a profoundly theological document that deals with issues central to humanity's relationship with God. This is not to say that Romans is a theological essay or a systematic compendium of Paul's theology. But it is a religious document composed by a man who has reflected deeply on the significance of the saving justice that God manifested in Christ.

In doing so, Paul presents us with a series of insights that are foundational for the Christian understanding of the human person (anthropology), God's redemptive work in Christ (Christology and soteriology), the new community of believers whom God has called and sanctified in Jesus Christ (ecclesiology), the new life that believers live in and through the power of God's Spirit (ethics), and the hope of this sanctified community (eschatology). In effect, Romans provides us with the outline of a redemptive story that encompasses humanity's predicament prior to Christ, its redemption in Christ, and its hope for the final salvation and glorification it will enjoy when it participates in the glory that the risen Christ already enjoys.

--Frank J. Matera, Romans (Paideia; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2010), 20-21

Amazing how many biblical scholars' middle names begin with j.

Thanks for this good contribution, Professor Matera!

Bruce Winter Interview

Really enjoyed this interview with Bruce Winter. Instructive and edifying. Fascinating insights into a couple of Pauline texts, and also a needed reminder (for me anyway) of the radical difference between cross-informed leadership and world-informed leadership. John 13!

Bruce is former warden of Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, and the current leader--er, principal--of Queensland Theological College in Australia.

Thanks for doing these, Mark Dever.

How Were Old Testament Believers Saved?

The grouchy Netherlander:

The Old Testament is . . . to be viewed as one in essence and substance with the New Testament.

For though God communicates his revelation successively and historically and makes it progressively richer and fuller, and humankind therefore advances in the knowledge, possession, and enjoyment of creation, God is and remains the same. The sun only gradually illumines the earth, but itself remains the same, morning and evening, during the day and night. Although Christ completed his work on earth only in the midst of history and although the Holy Spirit was not poured out till the day of Pentecost, God nevertheless was able, already in the days of the Old Testament, to fully distribute the benefits to be acquired and applied by the Son and the Spirit.

Old Testament believers were saved in no other way than we. There is one faith, one Mediator, one way of salvation, and one covenant of grace.

--Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 3:216, discussing the pactum salutis, the eternal, intratrinitarian covenant to redeem a people for himself

Lloyd-Jones: The Greatest Snare in the Christian Life

If your knowledge of the Scriptures and of the doctrines of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has not brought you to this knowledge of the love of Christ, you should be profoundly dissatisfied and disturbed. All biblical doctrine is about this blessed Person; and there is no greater snare in the Christian life than to forget the Person Himself and to live simply on truths concerning Him. . . .

We should never study the Bible or anything concerning biblical truth without realizing that we are in His presence, and that it is truth about Him. And it should always be done in an atmosphere of worship. Biblical truth is not one subject among others; it is not something that belongs to a syllabus. It is living truth about a living Person. That is why a theological college should be different from every other kind of college; and that is why a religious service is essentially different from every kind of meeting the world can organize.

--Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Unsearchable Riches of Christ: An Exposition of Ephesians 3 (Baker, 1998), 208

HT: Adrian Warnock

With Our Every Muscle

In 1533 Calvin was studying in Paris when he found himself forming a friendship with Nicholas Cop, fellow reformer-to-be and rector of the University at Paris. Late that year Cop preached a sermon that boldly revealed his own convictions and growing dissatisfaction with Roman doctrine and ecclesiology.

Calvin, it is thought, collaborated with him in the writing of it. Immediately after the sermon Cop and Calvin were forced to flee Paris.

Here is part of what Cop preached that day:

Why then do we conceal the truth rather than speak it out boldly? Is it right to please men rather than God, to fear those who can destroy the body but not the soul?

O the ingratitude of mankind, which will not bear the slightest affliction in the name of him who died for the sins of all, him whose blood has freed us from eternal death and the shackles of Satan! The world and the wicked are wont to label as heretics, imposters, seducers and evil-speakers those who strive purely and sincerely to penetrate the minds of believers with the Gospel. . . .

But happy and blessed are they who endure all this with composure, giving thanks to God in the midst of affliction and bravely bearing calamities. . . .

Onward, then, oh Christian men. With our every muscle let us strive to attain this great bliss.

--William Bouwsma, John Calvin: A Sixteenth Century Portrait (Oxford University Press, 1988), 15-16

Am I Morally Culpable if My Body Makes Me Sin?

Seasoned wisdom from our brother Ed Welch.