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Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner 4.3

31 Friday Dec 2021

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John Street (director of the MABC program at TMU) when teaching on the change which should take place in the Christian refers to the passage in Ephesians 4, where Paul writes a thief must stop stealing and then get a job and give to others. To merely stop stealing is to be a thief between jobs. But to work and give is to be something new. John Owen explains that the death of sin is to abound in grace:

The first is, How doth the Spirit mortify sin?

I answer, in general, three ways:—

[1.] By causing our hearts to abound in grace and the fruits that are contrary to the flesh, and the fruits thereof and principles of them.

John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 19.

Sibbes makes a similar point about faith. It is not sufficient to merely stop trusting in the creature, we must put our trust in God:

Obs. That it is not sufficient to disclaim affiance in the creature, but we must pitch that affiance aright upon God.

We must cease one thing and begin another. Our faith will be somewhere. If we take it off of the creature and do not place it upon God, we will be like the soul where a demon has been driven out only to return with others worse than himself. Thus, the Scripture commands us repeatedly to take our trust off of the creature and to place it upon God:

We must not only take it off where it should not be placed, but set it where it should be. ‘Cease from evil, and learn to do well,’ Isa. 1:16, 17. Trust not in the creature. ‘Cease from man,’ as the prophet saith, ‘whose breath is in his nostrils,’ Isa. 2:22; ‘Commit thy ways to God, trust in him,’ Ps. 37:5. 

He then makes an argument from common grace. We can read in many heathen authors the reasonable argument that we must stop trusting in the creature. The world will disappoint us. It reminds me of the Fire Sermon of Buddha, ““Everything, monks, is burning. What, monks, is everything that is burning? The eye, monks, is burning, form is burning, eye-consciousness is burning, eye-contact is burning. The feeling that arises dependent on eye-contact, whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, that also is burning. 

With what is it burning? It is burning with the fire of passion, the fire of hatred, the fire of delusion. I declare that it is burning with the fire of birth, decay, death, grief, lamentation, pain, sorrow, and despair.” 

He can see the vanity of the creature, but he then can offer no solution beyond rejecting creation. 

This much can be seen without grace:

The heathen, by the light of nature, knew this, that for the negative there is no trusting in the creature, which is a vain thing. They could speak wonderful wittily* and to purpose of these things, especially the Stoics. They could see the vanity of the creature. But for the positive part, where to place their confidence, that they were ignorant in. And so for the other part here, ‘Neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods.’ Idolaters can see the vanity of false gods well enough. 

But this rejection is insufficient; it is not salvation:

It is not enough therefore to rest in the negative part. A negative Christian is no Christian; 

There must be a movement to trust in God

Oh! such make religion nothing but a matter of opinion, of canvassing an argument, &c. But it is another manner of matter, a divine power exercised upon the soul, whereby it is transformed into the obedience of divine truth, and moulded into it. So that there must be a positive as well as a negative religion; a cleaving to God as well as a forsaking of idols.

* That is, ‘with wit’ = wisdom.—G.

Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner, 4.2

30 Thursday Dec 2021

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In this section, Sibbes explains the psychology of remaining in unrepentant sin. We will trust in the creature until the creature fails us:

They said so when they had smarted by Asshur, and by idolatry. Then ‘Asshur shall not save us,’ &c. They knew it by rule before; but till God plagued them, as he did oft by Asshur and by Egypt, when he broke the reed that it did not only not uphold them, but run into their hands, they made no such acknowledgment. [They had leaned upon Egypt as a walking stick. But when the stick broke, they stumbled and the stick went through their hand. Sibbes is alluding to Is. 36:6, “Behold, you are trusting in Egypt, that broken reed of a staff which will piece the hand of any man who leans on it.”]

Sibbes states his proposition, 

Usually it is thus with man, he never repents till sin be embittered to him. He never alters his confidence till his trusts be taken away. 

Notice that Sibbes attributes the ultimate failure and the timing of the failure to the providence of God:

When God overthrows the mould of his devices, or brings them upon his own head, setting him to reap the fruit of his own ways, embittering sinful courses to him, then he returns. 

Next notice that God works this way, because merely telling us something does not work, we don’t take instruction well until we experience the truth. It reminds of Blake’s proverb of hell, the road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom; we don’t know the truth of thing until we experience it:

Instruction without correction doth for the most part little good. When Asshur had dealt falsely with them, and idolatry would do them no good, then they begin to alter their judgment. What makes men, after too much confidence in their wit, when they have, by their plots and devices, gone beyond what they should do, and wrapped and entangled themselves in a net of their own weaving, as we say, alter their judgment? They are then become sick of their own devices. This makes the change. 

Sibbes uses an interesting psychological explanation: our brain weaves a net; we have an irrational streak which keeps us from being able to change our course:

For till then the brain hath a kind of net to wrap our devices in. 

So, many have nets in their brains, wherewith they entangle themselves and others with their idle devices; which, when they have done, and so woven the web of their own misery, then they begin to say, as the heathen saith when he was deceived, ‘O fool am I, I was never a wise man!’ Then they begin to say, I was a fool to trust such and such. I have tried such and such policies, and they have deceived me. I will now alter my course.

Sin is irrational. We can see this most easily when we look at another’s sin. Why would a successful musician destroy his life with drugs? Why would a famous politician destroy his life with adultery? Why would another gamble themselves into ruin? When we see these things from the outside, they are plainly madness. But inside, we weave a net which permits and perpetuates the madness.

What should we do this knowledge?

Use. Therefore make this use of it, not to be discouraged when God doth confound any carnal plot or policy of ours, as to think that God hates either a nation or a person when they have ill success in plots and projects which are not good. 

By causing the creature to fail, by permitting our confidence to be shaken God intends to do us good:

Nay, it is a sign rather that God intends good, if they make a right use it. God intends conversion, to translate false confidence from the creature to himself, and to learn us to make God wise for us. It is a happy thing when in this world God will disappoint a man’s courses and counsels, and bring him to shame, rather than he should go on and thrive in an evil and carnal course, and so end his days. 

Sibbes makes this point in another place by means of a brilliant image. (To “post” means to ride a quickly as possible. There is a new horse at every “post,” thus permitting the rider to travel at the maximum possible speed):

“If God should have let us alone to our own desires, we were posting to hell. It is the greatest misery in the world, next to hell itself, to be given up to our own desires. A man were better to be given up to the devil than to his own desires.”

Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 4 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1863), 512.

Thus, conversely, to be permitted to profit without repentance is a sign that God has marked one for destruction, 

There is no evidence at all which can be given of a reprobate, because there may be final repentance, repentance at the last. But this is one and as fearful a sign as may be, to thrive and go on in an evil course to the end. When God shall disappoint and bring a man to shame in that he prided in and built upon, it is a good sign.

The end is for us to “fix and pitch” our confidence upon God. This will be his next point.

Richard Sibbes, The Backsliding Sinner 4.1

28 Tuesday Dec 2021

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In the fourth sermon, Sibbes continues his examination of the nature of the prayer of repentance. He summarizes his previous points as follows:

The Holy Ghost therefore doth prescribe them, together with prayer and thanksgiving, reformation. ‘Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.’ So that here you have reformation joined with prayer and praise. Whence we observed divers things: that without reformation our prayers are abominable; that in repentance there must be reformation of our special sin; which here they do. 

He now adds a further observation, “In reformation, we must go not only to the outward delinquencies, but to the spring of them, which is some breach of the first table.”

Here is the point: All sin, whether adultery, robbery, murder, et cetera, must trace its origin to a rebellion against God. When the relationship toward God is amiss, our relationship to the creation likewise suffers

The root of all sin, is the deficiency of obedience to some command of the first table. When confidence is not pitched aright in God, or when it is misapplied, and misfastened to the creature: when the soul sets up somewhat for a stay and prop unto it, which it should not do, this is a spiritual and subtle sin, and must be repented of,

He then explains that “the spring head” of sin is “false confidence.” This false confidence in the creature is idolatry. And we are “naturally prone to idolatry.”

He explains two species of idolatry:

1. By attributing to the creature that which is proper to God only, investing it with God’s properties; or,

2. By worshipping the true God in a false manner.

A great deal of the sermon then concerns whether images may be used in the worship of God and whether the worship (even under a different term) of angels or saints is permitted. Being a devout Puritan, Sibbes has no room for images or prayers directed to angels or saints. 

There is an interesting aside in his argument concerning a national religion. Sibbes rightly says, “Religion, though it cannot be forced.” He then says that the nation should train the child in the proper means of religion; which seems incoherent. If true religion can only be the product of faith and repentance, as opposed to outward behavior divorced from sincere faith and repentance; then religion cannot be forced it very nature. This is a point on which I disagree with the heavenly doctor.

Sibbes then takes up the idol set up in the heart, what one loves or fears is god

But this is not all; we must know that there be other idols than the idols which we make with our hands. Besides these religious idols, there be secular idols in the world, such as men set up to themselves in their own hearts. Whatsoever takes up the heart most, which they attribute more to than to God, that is their idol, their god. A man’s love, a man’s fear, is his god. 

Having made the proposition, he then illustrates the point:

If a man fear greatness rather than God, that he had rather displease God than any great person, they are his idols for the time. ‘The fear of a man brings a snare,’ Prov. 29:25, saith the wise man. And those who get the favour of any in place, sacrifice therefore their credit, profession, religion, and souls, it is gross idolatry; dangerous to the party, and dangerous to themselves. It was the ruin of Herod to have that applause given to him, and taken by him, ‘The voice of God, and not of man,’ Acts 12:22. So for any to be blown up with flatterers, that lift them up above their due measure, it is an exceeding wrong to them, prejudiceth their comfort, and will prove ill in the conclusion; indeed, treason against their souls.

This trusting in the creature always debases the man. We are created to have only God as our God: not the opinion of other human beings, or the accumulation of stones and metal. And so we become debased because we become what we worship:

So there is a baser sort of idolaters, who sacrifice their credit and state, whatsoever is good within them, their whole powers, to their base and filthy pleasures. Thus man is degenerate since his fall, that he makes that his god which is meaner than himself. Man, that was ordained for everlasting happiness and communion with God, is now brought to place his happiness and contentment in base pleasures. Whereas it is with the soul of man for good or ill, as it applies itself to that which is greater or meaner than itself. If it apply itself to confidence and affiance in God, then it is better. For it is the happiness of the soul to have communion with the Spring of goodness, as David speaks, ‘It is good for me to draw near to God,’ &c., Ps. 73:28. When we suffer the soul to cleave in affiance to earthly things, it grows in some measure to the nature of the things adhered to. When we love the world and earthly things, we are earthly. 

Only God can free us from idolatry:

Till the Spirit of God touch the soul, as the loadstone doth the heavy iron, drawing it up, as it were, it will cleave to the creature, to baser things than itself, and so makes the creature an idol, which is the common idolatry of these times.

And finally, the various idols made by different people are based in the temperament of the idolator:

Some make favour, as the ambitious person; some their pleasures, as baser persons of meaner condition; and some riches. Every man as their temper and as their temptations are.

Finally, the creature will make a god will prove our ruin; the idol rather than saving us, ruins us:

Now, it is not enough to be sound in religion one way in the main; but we must be sound every way, without any touch of idolatry. In a special manner the apostle calls the ‘covetous man an idolater,’ Eph. 5:5, because he makes riches his castle, thinking to carry anything with his wealth. But his riches oftentimes prove his ruin; for whatsoever a man loves more than God, God will make it his bane and ruin; at least, be sure to take it away, if God mean to save the party. Therefore, here they say, ‘Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the works of our hands, Ye are our gods.’

Edward Taylor, Meditation 36.8 What strange strange thing am I?

22 Wednesday Dec 2021

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I’m surely made a gazing stock to all

The holy angels wonder: and the mock

Of devils (pining that they miss it all)

To these beams gild me a stupid stock.

Thy argument is good, Lord point it, come

Let’t lance my heart, till true love’s vein doth run.

But that there is a crevice for one hope

To creep in, and this message to convey

That I am thine, makes me refresh. Lord ope

The door so wide that love may skip and play.

My spirits then shall dance thy praise. I’m thine

And present things with things to come are mine.

Summary: I am ridiculous before all creation, angels and devils. But you have something good God. Let your promise cut my heart so that it flows in love. The thought that I belong to you gives me hope, it refreshes my spirit. Let that hope so work upon my heart that I will dance with joy in praise to you. If I have that, I have everything. 

Notes

I’m surely made a gazing stock

There are a pair of allusions in this section of the poem:

For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 

1 Corinthians 4:9 

Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into. 

1 Peter 1:12 

This whole event of salvation, of God redeeming and sanctifying human beings with all their flaws and failures is a marvel to angels and devils.  To follow after Christ is to be made a spectacle, or a “gazing stock” – a thing to be gazed upon – to all of creation.

The angels wonder, the devils mock, but all are interested: and this is not because of the inherent value of human conduct, but because God takes such interest in human beings. How can this be? 

pining that they miss it all: I hope that the devils don’t look upon me.

To these beams gild me a stupid stock.

The “beams” refers to the sight upon him. The idea was that when one looked upon something, there were beams from the eye. The beams shining upon him, “gild him” and what he becomes is “stupid stock”. Something unspeaking and blank. 

Thy argument is good

The offer of salvation and forgiveness. There are any number of such passages which would support this line. Here is one 

12          Therefore also now, saith the Lord, 

Turn ye even to me with all your heart, 

And with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning: 

13          And rend your heart, and not your garments, 

And turn unto the Lord your God: 

For he is gracious and merciful, 

Slow to anger, and of great kindness, 

And repenteth him of the evil. 

14          Who knoweth if he will return and repent, 

And leave a blessing behind him; 

Even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God? 

Joel 2:12–14 

            Lord point it, come

Let’t lance my heart,

“Let’t” is one syllable. 

This is prayer that he will be cut to the heart. An allusion seems to be response to Peter’s Pentecost sermon:

37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. 39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. 

Acts 2:37–39. The use of “point” may help support this as an allusion, it is a prick, not a slash. 

till true love’s vein doth run.

My heart has become encrusted and covered over with filth such that it does not function properly. Cut me anew – like that first repentance – and let true love for you again flow. 

That one’s love could grow cold and needs to be restored is an allusion to Jesus’ rebuke to the church at Ephesus:

4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. 

Revelation 2:4–5  

But that there is a crevice for one hope

To creep in,

Not every avenue for the work of God is closed. There is still a crevice through which hope could enter. Let hope enter through that place, let it creep in. My heart has become stone, but there is still one avenue for restoration. 

This image and line come as a sort of revelation to the poet. Wait, I see something, there is a crevice through which a single hope to creep through. 

            this message to convey

That I am thine

This is the content of that hope: I belong to you. I am thine. It is such a wonderful part of love to belong. I recently saw a dust up when someone publicly used the language of “treasure” to refer to his wife, as if she were something which belonged to him. Such people have no knowledge of love. And in the case of our relationship to Christ, it is unquestionably a matter of belonging. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 6:20, “for you were bought with a price.”

That is the ground of hope, just as it the ground of sanctification: I am not my own. 

                                                Lord ope

The door so wide that love may skip and play.

Let me be filled with this knowledge: give me not just a passing sense of belonging but a profound sense. Let it fill me until I am filled with joy.

The image of skipping and dancing (in the next line) are in such a marked contrast to the painful introspection which precedes it. This tells us something important about this searching and praying and repenting: it has a goal of joy and repentance.

                                                I’m thine

And present things with things to come are mine.

He ends here with a theme which has began in Meditation 31. The progression and repetition of this theme opens a door to Taylor’s meditations. He has been dwelling upon this idea for some time: all things are mine. The discussion of Meditation 31 begins here:

A note on baptismal vows

21 Tuesday Dec 2021

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I was asked a question tonight about Jonathan Edwards Resolution 42

Resolved, frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God, which was made at my baptism; which I solemnly renewed, when I was received into the communion of the church; and which I have solemnly re-made this 12th day of January, 1722–23.

Jonathan Edwards, Letters and Personal Writings, ed. George S. Claghorn and Harry S. Stout, vol. 16, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 1998), 756. My friend found this a bit confusing. First, he didn’t understand how Edwards had made any vows having been baptized as an infant. The answer to that question is found in the text of the resolution. He is referring to his own willing acceptance of those vows “when I was received into the communion of the church.”

Second, he was unaware of the practice. This comes in part from lightness with which we commonly think of our baptism. Compare that to Luther’s observation, “It is true, then, that there is no higher, greater, better vow than the baptismal vow. Or could anything greater be vowed than to cast out all sin, to die, to hate this life and to become holy?” Martin Luther, Luther’s Catechetical Writings: God’s Call to Repentance, Faith and Prayer, trans. John Nicholas Lenker, vol. I, The Precious and Sacred Writings of Martin Luther (Minneapolis, MN: The Luther Press, 1907), 325. Moreover, in common baptist practice which I have seen, there is no promise made to renounce sin, the flesh, and the devil, but rather a profession of repentance. I think that such promises are implied in true repentance. But yet, I simply don’t recall being taught that making the public profession imposes any duty to conform to the profession. I am not saying it is not there; rather, I am saying it is not made explicit.

Compare that to this observation from Thomas Manton in a sermon entitled, “How Ought We to Improve Our Baptism.”

Baptism is a perpetual bond upon us, obliging us to repentance, and a holy life. (Rom. 6:4.)—Therefore the scripture often reasoneth from it; as, Rom. 6:2: “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” He argueth not ab impossibili, but ab incongruo; not “from what is impossible,” but “what will misbecome” our renewed estate, which we profess to enter into by baptism; which is a vowed death to sin, and a bond wherewith we bind our souls to new obedience. So elsewhere: “If ye then be risen with Christ,” (in the import and signification of baptism,) “seek the things which are above.” And again: “Ye are dead, mortify therefore,” &c. Once more: “Put off all these, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds.” (Col. 3:1, 3, 5, 8, 9.) And in many other places the apostle argueth from the baptismal engagement to the effect intended and signified thereby.

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 96. He continues onto note that should be stray from our vow, our vow will be a witness against us:

If we have been baptized, and lived directly contrary to our baptismal vow, as if we were in covenant with the devil, the world, and the flesh, rather than with Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, what will become of us in the judgment?

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 97.

The question of baptismal vows is a reference point in much Puritan writing. For instance

All of us have vowed in baptism to fight against the world, and the devil, and the main enemy of all that is within us, that is, our flesh. We could not be hurt by them. We betray ourselves, as Samson betrayed himself to Delilah. Those that are baptized, and especially that have renewed their vows by solemn fasting, and renewed their covenant in taking the communion, as there are none of us all but have vowed against our corruptions and sins in baptism, and have renewed their solemn vows in the communion and in public fasting. Well, when we go about to strengthen our corruptions, and the corruptions of the times in the places where we live, what do we go about? To build the walls of Jericho again. What do we go about, but to strengthen that that God hath cursed? There is nothing under heaven so cursed as this corruption of ours, that is the cause of all the curses of the creatures, of all the curses that ever were, or shall be, even to the last curse: ‘Go, ye cursed, to eternal destruction,’ Mat. 25:41. This pride, and sensuality, and secret atheism and infidelity that we cherish, and love more than our own souls, this is that that many go about to build, and oppose all the ways that are used to pull down Jericho, and hate nothing so heartily as the motions of God’s Spirit, and the means that God’s Spirit hath sanctified to pull down these walls of Jericho.

 Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 7 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1864), 28.

Romans 12, How to Live Together, 5.5

19 Sunday Dec 2021

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The Incarnation

5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, 

                        “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, 

but a body have you prepared for me; 

            6           in burnt offerings and sin offerings 

you have taken no pleasure. 

            7           Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, 

as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’ ” 

Hebrews 10:5–7.

There is a tendency among human beings to either deny there is a soul, or to deny the body matters and the spirit is all. But the Scripture will have none of that.

The importance of the human being is seen when consider the most spiritual topics, God. While God does not have a body like a man; the Son of God became incarnate as a man (while in manner being degraded in any manner as God). The Incarnation is a mystery beyond all mysteries. But is also the basis of how we must understand all other things:

The incarnation of God, therefore, is the supreme mystery at the center of our Christian confession, and no less at the center of all reality. Consequently, all conceptions of reality that fail to see and savor that all things hold together in Christ, and that he is preeminent in all things, can never be anything but abstract conceptions of virtual realities—that is, invariably hollow and ultimately vacuous concepts pulled away from reality.

John C. Clark and Marcus Peter Johnson, The Incarnation of God: The Mystery of the Gospel as the Foundation of Evangelical Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 12.

There are many things which could be said of the Incarnation, but one thing which must be understood is the profound importance of the human body. To battle on our behalf, it was first necessary for the Son of God to have the body of a human being, and that the human body was the location of that conflict. Consider this verse:

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, [he shares our nature]

that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, [he destroys death from the position of a human body]

Hebrews 2:14. Think of how the Scripture speaks of our Savior. His announcement into this world is an announcement of being born a human being:

30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 

Luke 1:30–33.  Jesus is born. He is wrapped in cloth. He is laid in a manager – and at the end of his life he will again be wrapped in cloth and this time laid in a tomb. 

The crucifixion is the killing of his body. And the resurrection is the resurrection of his body.  And he is Ascended, reigning forever in a body.

The proof of the Resurrection is that his body is no longer in the tomb:

5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. 7 Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” 

Matthew 28:5–7. When he proves to the Disciples he has risen, it is the proof of his body:

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” 

26 Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” 

John 20:24–29. That body is the residence of all our blessing:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,

Ephesians 1:3. Indeed our salvation is bound upon with the identification of our body with his:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. 

5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrectionlike his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 6:1–11. Our life is a participation in the life of Christ, in his death, in his burial, in his resurrection.  

The presentation of our bodies in a living sacrifice is premised upon this union with Christ. We can offer no sacrifice apart from him:

24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. 

Hebrews 9:24–28. The sacrifice of his body is the only sacrifice for sin; a sacrifice never to be repeated. It is a sacrifice rendered “once.” 

We can only understand the sacrifice of our body in light of the sacrifice of his body and our union to that sacrifice. 

Indeed, it is in our union to Christ, a union which is not merely some intellectual proposition, but a sort of union which involves the body of our Ascended Incarnate Lord and our body is the premise of our sacrifice:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” 

John 14:6 We cannot offer something to the Father but in the life of the Son. We know the Father in knowing the Son. “He who has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14:9. Now these are deep waters in which it is very easy to get lost and drown. For our purposes we need merely assert that our approach to God is only in Jesus Christ, not around him. 

Jesus has made a way for his by taking our nature, by being found in a body which was offered as a sacrifice – and which was received for the forgiveness of sin. We participate in that life, that sacrifice, that resurrection. To participate in that life entails a life our body.  

What you must understand, the human body is the battlefield upon which God defeated his enemies. We participate in that victory in the identification of our life in this body with the life of the Incarnate Son of God. This identification is so great, that the Church, the sum of the redeemed are referred as the Body of Christ. 

The logic of Paul’s argument of how we are to live—and that manner of life is the nature of the “living sacrifice” commanded—is wholly premised upon our identification in the body of Christ. 

The Incarnation makes the life of the Church possible and is the basis for that life.

Seeing more clearly how the life of our body is joined up with the life of Jesus will be the next point.

Edward Taylor, Meditation 36.7, What strange strange thing am I?

17 Friday Dec 2021

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I am ashamed to say I love thee do. 

But dare not for my life and soul deny’t. 

Yet wonder much love’s springs should lie so low

They loveliness its object shines so bright.

Shall all the beams of love upon me shine?

And shall my love love’s object still make pine.

Notes

Beginning at the end: the word “pine” is an obsolete way of saying “pain”. It means not merely “pain” to languish or wear out.

We use that word only in the phrase “pine away” when we speak of someone who desires something greatly but cannot obtain it, such as someone lovesick who “pines away”.

I am ashamed to say I love thee do. 

It would be easy to misunderstand the force of this line. In current vernacular, this would seem to mean that he is ashamed of the object which he loves: I’m ashamed to say that I enjoy this low-brow movie, or this unhealthy snack. But here, the shame comes from the greatness of the object loved. Unlike the low-brow entertainment, it is not that the object loved is beneath him but rather that is so far above him.

It is a poor analogy, but it might understood by thinking of an awkward teenager claiming to be in love with a movie star. To claim that he loves this woman who is famously beautiful and ten years older would be ridiculous. For him to pine away over the impossible woman would make him a laughing stock. He would be ashamed to admit to his love. 

That is what is happening here: How can a human being claim to have this relationship with God? This is particularly the case in light of Taylor’s admission of his sin. Habakkuk 1:13 reads, “Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity.” 

There is a paradox, an absurdity which runs through the heart of the Christian claim.

But dare not for my life and soul deny’t. 

Deny it must be read as two, not three, syllabus: Den-y’t

The alliteration on the D’s draws the beginning and the end of the line together. 

Even though it may seem preposterous to lay hold of God in love, it cannot be denied. Only by adhering to God will there be salvation. 

Yet wonder much love’s springs should lie so low

They loveliness its object shines so bright.

He returns again to one of the main themes which run through Taylor’s poetry: the inadequacy of my response to God’s goodness.  It was the theme expressed in line 4, “What strange-strange thing am I?”

He looks to himself and sees tha this love is not matched to the object of the love. The object is “loveliness” and it “shines bright”. Yet the “springs” of his own love are low, like a stream in the end of summer. This causes him to wonder. 

Note the alliteration on these lines

Yet wonder much love’s springs should lie so low

They loveliness its object shines so bright.

The alliteration then sets off the final “br” in bright. There is also the assonance on “I”, lie, shines, bright. 

Shall all the beams of love upon me shine?

And shall my love love’s object still make pine.

These lines continue the alliteration on S and L, together with the repetition of a long ‘I.’ The final wod of the stanza, “Pine” again breaks the alliteration with a strong vowel, but also is tied to the previous lines by the assonance on “I”.  This is probably the most musically satisfying sections of the poem. 

He returns to the problem of his relationship to the beloved object, but this time from a different angle. First, it was the absurdity that claims God. Second, the wonder at himself for having such a low regard for the object of his love. 

This third question concerns fulfillment: Will he see the display of God’s love (“all the beams of love upon shine”), and yet not achieve some consummation of that love “shall my love’s object still make me pine”)? 

The remainder of the poem will work out the terms of this desire: shall it be fulfilled?

Romans 12, How to Live Together, 5.3

15 Wednesday Dec 2021

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The Body as Evidence

In Matthew 9, a paralytic was brought to Jesus. Rather than immediately heal the man (which we assume the hope of the paralytic’s friends), Jesus says, “Take heart my son; your sins are forgiven.” Matt. 9:2.

This immediately provokes outrage in the scribes. How could Jesus claim to forgive sins?

Jesus then asks them a question, “For which is easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’?”

It all depends. If Jesus is a charlatan, then it is easier to say, “Your sins are forgiven.” That spiritual status does not produce a bodily state which is immediately visible to all. Thus, if he is lying, the lie cannot be seen.

However, if Jesus is telling the truth, then the forgiveness is the more difficult status. God alone can forgive sins; and such forgiveness will be purchased by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (“Jesus our Lord, who delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.” Rom. 4:24-25)

Jesus heals the man, as a demonstration of his power over the effects of sin (since death and disease are the result of sin’s influence in the world). He does so without a prayer that God would work at his request, but upon his own command.

From that display of over the body, one can infer Jesus’ power over the unseen spiritual status of sin.

That parallel exists in the case our life in the church. We Christians so easily profess our love for one-another. Our pastors speak of the “beloved,” when addressing the congregation. We speak of the unmerited and free forgiveness of others, just as we have received ourselves. We say we believe that we will, “forgiv[e] each other, as the Lord has forgiven” us. Col. 3:13

But those ideas which we so praise so often fail to materialize in the body. We say these things, but we do another. We praise humility and say that we would never blow a trumpet that others would see our righteousness, and then proceed to make the world knows our pious intentions and thoughts.

It is easier to be a hypocrite in practice, to profess an unseeable spiritual state, than it is to enact in the body humility and love and forgiveness.

Actual life in the body, both our own bodies, and the Body of Christ is what Paul requires here in Romans 12. We are to enact and embody this humility and love and forgiveness in the most flesh-crossing manner.

The world will stand by like the scribes seeing the paralytic before Jesus. They will say, this is crazy, you do not really love your enemy. You can say that, but unless I see love in action, embodied love, blessing given against your best personal interest, we will not believe you.

But Romans says, your body must be the visible place of this work.

By fully considering the depth of what is meant by the “body,” we will see just how rich a display of God’s glorious work is meant here in Romans.

The Body as a Physical Location

The connection between “body” and “sacrifice” would be immediately known by any First Century reader in a visceral manner that eludes a modern reader. I have known gone to a temple with a garlanded goat and watched a priest slaughter the animal and then divide its body.

I one was taken on a tour of a then-empty slaughterhouse. The steps in dispatching the dismembering the animal were explained and the implements for each task were displayed, but the actual “rendering” of an animal I did not see.

My experience goes no further than cleaning a fish. But there is a fundamentally different experience in slaughtering a large mammal. And that is an experience which all people in Paul’s time would have immediate knowledge.

A sacrifice entails the presentation of a body for slaughter. And so, when Paul says we must “present our bodies,” it would come not with a metaphorical distance but with an immediate revulsion. The sensation to be understood is the ransacking of my skin and bones.

Paul qualifies his instruction with the oxymoronic “living”, a “living sacrifice”. But whatever else Paul is demanding of the Romans, it is a matter not of metaphor or idea, it is a matter of flesh and bones.

What does this matter for us? Whatever Paul commands in this passage is not something we can hold at arms-length. He is commanding that we be physically present in some painful process. The emphasis on the body is a recognition that this will entail more than just thought, but will entail the visceral reactions of the body, the churning of emotion. And when we think of the circumstances which Paul will present in these few verses, we can see this may be a disturbing thing.

In short, I am calling you to be there at the place of potential conflict, at the place of humility, in the place of these other believers. This is not a matter of idea, it is a matter of life.