Category Archives: Augustine

Pelagius on the Human Will

07 Sunday Jan 2018

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[Some more from the draft of an article on the psychological effects of the Fall and whether common grace can provide a sufficient response]

Indeed, Pelagius held that the human will is wholly within one’s own power. While the matter under consideration is particularly the question of whether one can lead pleasing to God, do not fall prey to the mistake that the ability to obey God’s law is some sort of bare behavior or “spiritual” decision which does not affect the rest of the person. True obedience to the law of God requires one’s conduct, cognition, affect and will.[1] Accordingly, the ability to obey the law entails a properly functioning psychology.[2]

In his letter to his “Letter to Demetrias”, Pelagius writes:

When I have to discuss the principles of right conduct and the leading of a holy life, I usually begin by showing the strength and characteristics of human nature. But explaining what it can accomplish, I encourage the soul of my hearer to the different virtues.[3]

He explains the strength as an absolute liberatarian freedom of will, “You should not think that humanity was not created truly good because it is capable of evil and the impetuosity of nature is not by necessity to unchangeable good…The glory of the reasonable soul is located precisely in its having to care a parting of the ways, in its freedom to follow either path.”[4]

If the power to do good lies within the human will, why then do any follow a corrupt path. It is not any inherent original sin which has perverted the human psyche: rather, it is the result of sociological and psychological patterns gained from the environment. “Doing good has become difficult for us only because of the long custom of sinning, which begins to infect us even in our childhood.”[5]

Conversely, the manner of becoming “good” is a process of cognitive-behavioral psychology; granted Pelagius was rudimentary in his development, but he was on the “right path” (some might say): “If you therefore you want your way of life to correspond to the magnificence of your resolution …. Apply yourself now so that the glowing faith of your recent conversation is always warmed by a new earnestness, so that pious practices may easily take root during your early years.” (In short be mindful of what you think and what you do, so that through repetition you may become what you resolve to be).

The transformation of the human life is contingent upon God granting a new nature; rather, transformation is a matter of the right therapeutic practice.

[1] Matt. 5:22 & 5:28, 21:28-32, 22:36-40, 23:28; John 3:16, 14:21; Acts 2:38; Rom. 10:8-17; Col. 2:8; et cetera. “True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections.”Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections, ed. John E. Smith and Harry S. Stout, Revised edition., vol. 2, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), 95.

[2] Again, I am using the word “psychology” deliberately to push back against the idea that there is some “spiritual” aspect of a human being which independently of one’s psychological state. Pelagius is quite right to put the full power to obey the law of God within the human being’s psychological being, his capacity, volition and action. No honest atheist would hold that a Christian’s belief, affection, conduct and volition toward God are somehow divorced from the Christian’s psychology. The atheist may think the Christian diseased, defective, neurotic or whatnot. But only a Christian trying to preserve some sort of fictitious barrier between religious/spiritual life and psychology would attempt such a thin

[3] J Patout Burns, ed., Theological Anthropology, ed. and trans. J Patout Burns, Sources of Early Christian Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 40.

[4] J Patout Burns, ed., Theological Anthropology, ed. and trans. J Patout Burns, Sources of Early Christian Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 42.

[5] J Patout Burns, ed., Theological Anthropology, ed. and trans. J Patout Burns, Sources of Early Christian Thought (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1981), 50; Benjamin Warfield, “Augustine and the Pelagian Controversy,” in Studies in Tertullian and Augustine (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2003), 295 (“It was only an ever-increasing facility in imitating vice which arose from so long a schooling in evil; and all that was needed to rescue men from it was a new explanation of what was right (in the law), or, at most, the encouragement of forgiveness for what was already done, and a holy example (in Christ) for imitation.”).

At this point it must be noted that modern psychology would often include a substantial element of physiology: disease of the central nervous system and its effects upon thought, emotion and conduct (whether there such thing as volition in such a regime of pure physiology as a cause, I will leave for others to debate). There is no dispute that the central nervous system can be diseased, and that such disease will have substantial obvious effects. The decay and death of the body are promised results of Adam’s sin. Gen. 2:17 & 3:19. No one disputes that various drugs can and will affect one’s psychology. Drawing a precise line between what is physiological and what is psychological are extremely difficult for everyone involved. There is also the question of responding to one’s physiology (unless with a materialist, there is something more than the brain at issue)

Pelagic Psychology and Integration

04 Thursday Jan 2018

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In research the question of the psychological effects of the Fall (essentially, the Fall fundamentally transformed human psychology: our cognition, affections, behavior and will have all been changed as a result of the Fall; therefore, only a remedy which addresses the injury of the Fall will be sufficient to remedy the psychological damage), I came upon this discussion by Augustine of the psychology of Pelagius.  Pelagius held to the position that one’s will and conduct are independent of God’s control (God creates us as independent beings); in essence the psychological functioning of a human remains unaltered as a result of the Fall.

Any psychology which does not take Christian claims seriously will necessarily hold that human psychology operates independently of one’s relationship to God (except perhaps as the subjective concept of “God” operates upon one’s psychology; the “truth” of God would be the subjective effect of the belief, not the objective working of any “God”). This makes any Christian’s use of such psychology fundamentally problematic.  Any Christian who holds to an easy integration of such psychology with a Christian add-on is thus operating on a Pelagian understanding of human psychology.

[For those who do not know, Pelagius is an arch-heretic in the history of Christianity:

A two-pronged attack by Augustine and Jerome (a powerful combination) led to Pelagius’s condemnation by two African councils in 416, a decision upheld by Pope Innocent I, who in 417 excommunicated Pelagius and Celestius.

J.D. Douglas, “Pelagius,” ed. J.D. Douglas and Philip W. Comfort, Who’s Who in Christian History (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1992), 547.]

Here is the language from Augustine:

CHAPTER 4.—PELAGIUS’ SYSTEM OF FACULTIES

In his system, he posits and distinguishes three faculties, by which he says God’s commandments are fulfilled,—capacity, volition, and action:4 meaning by “capacity,” that by which a man is able to be righteous; by “volition,” that by which he wills to be righteous; by “action,” that by which he actually is righteous. The first of these, the capacity, he allows to have been bestowed on us by the Creator of our nature; it is not in our power, and we possess it even against our will. The other two, however, the volition and the action, he asserts to be our own; and he assigns them to us so strictly as to contend that they proceed simply from ourselves. In short, according to his view, God’s grace has nothing to do with assisting those two faculties which he will have to be altogether our own, the volition and the action, but that only which is not in our own power and comes to us from God, namely the capacity; as if the faculties which are our own, that is, the volition and the action, have such avail for declining evil and doing good, that they require no divine help, whereas that faculty which we have of God, that is to say, the capacity, is so weak, that it is always assisted by the aid of grace.

 

CHAPTER 5 [IV.]—PELAGIUS’ OWN ACCOUNT OF THE FACULTIES, QUOTED

Lest, however, it should chance to be said that we either do not correctly understand what he advances, or malevolently pervert to another meaning what he never meant to bear such a sense, I beg of you to consider his own actual words: “We distinguish,” says he, “three things, arranging them in a certain graduated order. We put in the first place ‘ability;’ in the second, ‘volition;’ and in the third, ‘actuality.’1 The ‘ability’ we place in our nature, the ‘volition’ in our will, and the ‘actuality’ in the effect. The first, that is, the ‘ability,’ properly belongs to God, who has bestowed it on His creature; the other two, that is, the ‘volition’ and the ‘actuality,’ must be referred to man, because they flow forth from the fountain of the will. For his willing, therefore, and doing a good work, the praise belongs to man; or rather both to man, and to God who has bestowed on him the ‘capacity’ for his will and work, and who evermore by the help of His grace assists even this capacity. That a man is able to will and effect any good work, comes from God alone. So that this one faculty can exist, even when the other two have no being; but these latter cannot exist without that former one. I am therefore free not to have either a good volition or action; but I am by no means able not to have the capacity of good. This capacity is inherent in me, whether I will or no; nor does nature at any time receive in this point freedom for itself. Now the meaning of all this will be rendered clearer by an example or two. That we are able to see with our eyes is not of us; but it is our own that we make a good or a bad use of our eyes. So again (that I may, by applying a general case in illustration, embrace all), that we are able to do, say, think, any good thing, comes from Him who has endowed us with this ‘ability,’ and who also assists this ‘ability;’ but that we really do a good thing, or speak a good word, or think a good thought, proceeds from our own selves, because we are also able to turn all these into evil. Accordingly,—and this is a point which needs frequent repetition, because of your calumniation of us,—whenever we say that a man can live without sin, we also give praise to God by our acknowledgment of the capacity which we have received from Him, who has bestowed such ‘ability’ upon us; and there is here no occasion for praising the human agent, since it is God’s matter alone that is for the moment treated of; for the question is not about ‘willing,’ or ‘effecting,’ but simply and solely about that which may possibly be.”

 

Augustine of Hippo, “A Treatise on the Grace of Christ, and on Original Sin,” in Saint Augustin: Anti-Pelagian Writings, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. Peter Holmes, vol. 5, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1887), 218–219.

If you comprehend, it is not God ….

27 Wednesday Jul 2016

Posted by in Augustine, Epistemology, Theology, Uncategorized

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Involved here is a matter of profound religious importance, to which Augustine gave expression as follows: “We are speaking of God. Is it any wonder if you do not comprehend? For if you comprehend, it is not God you comprehend. Let it be a pious confession of ignorance rather than a rash profession of knowledge. To attain some slight knowledge of God is a great blessing; to comprehend him, however, is totally impossible.” [Quoting Augustine, Lectures on the Gospel of John, tract. 38, NPNF (1), VII, 217–21.]

Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: God and Creation, vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2004), 48.

Introduction to Biblical Counseling Week Two: Sin

09 Thursday Jan 2014

Posted by in Augustine, Biblical Counseling, Hamartiology, Jay Adams

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The previous entry in this series may be found here:https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/01/02/introduction-to-biblical-counseling-overview/

The lecture which accompanies this lesson can be found here: https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.calvarybiblechurch.org/audio/class/biblical_counseling_2014/20140112.mp3

INTRODUCTION TO BIBLICAL COUNSELING

Week Two: Sin

Summary: Sin brought about a breach between God and humanity, which led to all our sorrows. All good for us comes from our Creator. To be severed from our Creator is to sever us from all hope and life. As a result of that breach, all of creation has become disordered, and we are left in conflict and isolation on all sides.

Two principle consequences of sin are (1) disruption of the relationship between God and human beings; and (2) disruption of the relationship between human and human.[1]

The loss caused by sin creates a coveting, a desire for something we do not have (which is ultimately God). That loss and desire attach to all sorts of different things in the creation (often good things which are misused) in an effort to feel better. However, coveting and obtaining anything in all creation will be insufficient to solve our ultimate craving for God.

Two quotations from Augustine’s Confession will help illustrate this point. In Book 1, chapter 1, Augustine prays to God, “Thou hast prompted him, that he should delight to praise thee, for thou hast made us for thyself and restless is our heart until it comes to rest in thee.”  

In Book 4, chapter 12, he writes:

If physical objects please you, praise God for them, but turn back your love to their Creator, lest, in those things which please you, you displease him. If souls please you, let them be loved in God; for in themselves they are mutable, but in him firmly established–without him they would simply cease to exist. In him, then, let them be loved; and bring along to him with yourself as many souls as you can, and say to them: “Let us love him, for he himself created all these, and he is not far away from them. For he did not create them, and then go away. They are of him and in him. Behold, there he is, wherever truth is known. He is within the inmost heart, yet the heart has wandered away from him. Return to your heart, O you transgressors, and hold fast to him who made you. Stand with him and you shall stand fast. Rest in him and you shall be at rest. Where do you go along these rugged paths? Where are you going? The good that you love is from him, and insofar as it is also for him, it is both good and pleasant. But it will rightly be turned to bitterness if whatever comes from him is not rightly loved and if he is deserted for the love of the creature. Why then will you wander farther and farther in these difficult and toilsome ways? There is no rest where you seek it. Seek what you seek; but remember that it is not where you seek it. You seek for a blessed life in the land of death. It is not there. For how can there be a blessed life where life itself is not?

Non-biblical understandings of the human heart and life will focus behavior and sometimes the desire. But only a biblical understanding can bring us to understand that the unhappiness in the human being is ultimately caused due to sin and our loss of God. Anything which stops short of Godward change merely seeks to affect the outflow of sin with addressing the source of sin. Therefore, the solution must ultimately focus on the Godward relationship of the heart.

We must further understand that the troubles which come from the results of sin (sin against, sin generally in the world), likewise find their resolution only in God. Sin causes injury which only God can ultimately heal (Matthew 11:25-30; Luke 12:22-34; John 14:1-7; 2 Corinthians 1:3-10; Hebrews 2:14-18, 4:14-16).

In all these things we must see that sin has caused a separation from God and disorder in the universe. We have become guilty and polluted by sin. Yet, we must remember that is the foreigner, the invader. We must detest sin because we love God and love our neighbor.

I.       Introduction

A. The dependency of human beings upon God.

1.   Our very existence hangs upon God.

a.   Romans 11:36

b.   Hebrews 1:1-3

c.   Colossians 1:16

d.   Genesis 1:27

      2.   Life comes from God

a.   John 1:3-4. John Calvin writes of this passage:

Moreover this life may either include inanimate creations in general, which do live in their own way though they lack feeling, or life may just refer to living creatures. It is of little consequence which you choose, for the simple meaning is that the Word of God was not only the source of life for all creatures, so that those which had not yet existed began to be, but that his life-giving power makes them remain in their state. For if his continuing inspiration did not give life to the world, everything that lives would immediately decay and reduce to nothing.

b.   Psalm 104

3.   Believers have a peculiar dependency upon God for life.

a.   Ephesians 2:1-6

b.   Colossians 3:4, “When Christ who is your life appears ….”

B.   Before the Fall, human beings had all things necessary for our life.

1.   Genesis 2:1-24

a.   Existence: Genesis 2:7

b.   Food: Genesis 2:9

c.   Water: Genesis 2:10

d.   Work: Genesis 2:15

e.   Human relationship: Genesis 2:22

f.    Counsel/Knowledge of God: Genesis 2:16-17

2.   Created upright: Ecclesiastes 1:29

3.   Created with the potential for life without death. Genesis 2:16-17.

4.   Created in a proper relationship with God.

C.   Created as a worshiper. This is a topic we will address in a separate lesson. For this lesson it is necessary to understand that human beings “naturally” were able to glorify and enjoy God in their normal pattern of life.

D.  Before the Fall, human beings lived in a right standing with God such that the life of God was given to us without hindrance and we received without rebellion.

 

II.      The Damage of the Fall

A. All of the trouble we see in this world and in our lives came about as the result of sin; for sin cut us off from life in God.  God makes this point clear when he explains to Adam that eating from the Tree of Knowledge will result in death, “in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).[2]

B.   The damage done by the Fall exists and permeates all that we are and do. Every human being knows this world is not right. I just read yet another human being complain of the faults and wickedness of the world and then complain that God must be wrong; therefore, God does not exist. Why do human beings all know that the world is wrong? Who has ever experienced a different world? I remember an anthropology professor try to explain this sensation (we evolved for some other world that none of us have ever lived in).  The trouble that we will experience in this life and the problems we will meet in counseling all flow out of the Fall. Therefore, we must understand what happened so that we can rightly understand what to do about it.

C.   Guilt and Shame

1.   Guilt is the objective status of having violated a standard. Shame is the subjective awareness of being guilty.

2.   Genesis 3:7-8

a.   The first response of the humans was to see themselves as naked.

b.   Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Gospel in Fig Leaves:

They knew that they were in some sense naked; before they had not been naked. What is this? I do not know, but I am inclined to agree with those who suggest, as an exposition of this, that man at the beginning, as he was made perfect by God, had a kind of glory about his body even as there was about his soul. Man, when he fell, not only fell in his spirit, but he also fell in his body. The apostle Paul tells us that at the end, when our Lord comes again, “[He] shall change our vile body”—the body of our humiliation—“that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body”—the body of his glorification (Philippians 3:21).

Man, let us remember, was made in the image of God in every respect. He was not only upright with a righteousness that was spiritual, but there was, I believe, a glory pertaining to the body. And when Adam and Eve sinned, they lost that glory and were left with bodies as we now know them, and they were aware that they had been deprived of something. There was immediate consciousness of a nakedness, a loss, an incompleteness. Something had gone. A glory had departed” (47).

c.   John Piper makes a different suggestion:

Consider a second possibility for why they are naked and not ashamed. My suggestion is that the emphasis falls not on their freedom from phys­ical imperfection, but on the fullness of covenant love. In other words, I can be free from shame for two conceivable reasons: One conceivable (but unreal) reason is that I am perfect and have nothing to be ashamed of. The other reason I could be free from shame is that even though I am imperfect, I have no fear of being disapproved by my spouse.

The first way to be shame-free is to be perfect; the second way to be shame-free is based on the gracious nature of covenant love. In the first case, there is no shame because we’re flawless. In the second case, there is no shame because covenant love covers a multitude of flaws (1 Peter 4:8; 1 Cor. 13:6). (This Momentary Marriage, 33).

d.   Counseling:

i.    I think both understandings are correct. First, we were corrupted – not merely spiritually but also physically (Genesis 3:19).  When we see human beings in glory, they are glorious (Mark 9:3).  Our current bodies lack glory and yet we will gain glory at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:43).  We bare the marks of our sin in our physical bodies. Second, we do not live in perfect covenant love with any human beings. Even before God we are prone to feel guilty and ashamed.

ii.   Since we are imperfect, since we are by nature guilty and corrupt, we spend our lives trying to gather glory and protection for ourselves. Think of all the things human beings do to become “glorious” and honorable. Think of how human beings abuse and oppress other humans to gain honor and status from them.

iii.             Since we are corrupt, the accusations and abuse of others cause actual pain.  E.g. of hidden versus false accusations.

iv. The extraordinary pain of abuse of our bodies, such as physical and sexual abuse which cause damage and shame far beyond any mere physical aspect.

v.   The power of Christ to overcome versus the world. 1 Samuel 13:20, “do not take it to heart”. Versus, Romans 8:33, “Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.”

C.   The conflict with all creation: Genesis 3:15-19

1.   Aspects

a.   Supernatural: Genesis 3:15

b.   Physical: Genesis 3:15-19

c.   Relational: Genesis 3:16b.

d.   Physical universe cursed/subjected to futility: Genesis 3:17-18; Romans 8:20; Ecclesiastes 1:2.

e.   Work: Genesis 3:17-19

f.    One’s own body: Genesis 3:19.

2.   Counseling considerations

a.   All troubles in this world ultimately flow from sin:

i.    Our own sin: guilt, shame.

ii.   The sin of others against us.

iii.             The effects of sin generally.

b.   Explanations for human trouble which do not address sin and its affects will be insufficient.

i.    Example of psychological conditioning. Children of alcoholics. Physical and sexual abuse.

ii.   Physical troubles: Alzheimer’s Disease.

D. Noetic Effects of Sin

1.   Sin has damaged the ability of human beings to think correctly. This is called the “noetic effect” of sin.

2.   The key passage on this doctrine is Romans 1:18-32. As one works through the passage we see that a distortion in our understanding of God leads to “all manner of unrighteousness” (v. 29).

3.   Total depravity (we have said) means not that a person is as bad as he might be (God’s common grace restrains sinners from fully manifesting their sinful potential), but, rather, that in every aspect every person is affected by sin. That means (of course) that, among other things, his thought processes have been affected. At every point in the process of thought, breakdowns may—and do—occur. Because of Adam’s sin—and their own—human beings do not think straight! That is an altogether important fact for the counselor to keep in view.

In speaking of the effects of sin, Paul put it this way:

… because although people knew God, they didn’t glorify Him as God or thank Him. Instead they became involved in futile speculations and their senseless hearts were darkened. Claiming that they were wise, they became fools … just as they disapproved of retaining God in their knowledge, so God handed them over to a disapproved mind.…

These truths have great consequences for counseling. I shall mention one or two basic ways in which this is so.

The noetic effects of sin upon daily living are quite varied. They creep into all areas of Christian living—the home, work, the church, prayer, etc. Constantly, in the Scriptures, we discover God correcting the results of sinful human thinking. The problem is so serious that He sets it forth in the sharpest terms of contrast when He reminds us, “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways.”

Again and again, in the Scriptures, we are confronted with the fact that sinful human thought reverses God’s thought.[3]

4.   Dr. Zemek writes in “The Noetic Malady”, “The noetic effects of the Fall are attested on nearly every page of the Holy Scriptures. If one fails to take seriously God’s infallible diagnosis of this malady, attempts at treatment will be at best directed only to symptoms and the result will be fatal…” (Grace Theological Journal 5, p. 205 (1984)). Fortunately for us, “God specializes in bending man’s perverted noetic inclinations” (p. 221).

5.   Counseling considerations:

a.   The effect of sin upon our own thinking.

b.   The effect of sin upon the other.

c.   The need for Scripture to correct our corrupted thinking.

III.    The Discontentment of Sin

A. The basis of temptation to sin: We want something we do not have. There is a manner in which the things we ultimately want (honor, security, love, life) are what we had prior to the Fall.

1.   James 1:12-18

2.   Genesis 3:1-6.

3.   James 4:1-4

4.   Proverbs 5:1-6.

5.   Proverbs 7:21-23.

6.   Coveting

a.   Deuteronomy 5:21.

b.   Romans 7:7: “Augustine says, that Paul included in this expression the whole law; which, when rightly understood, is true: for when Moses had stated the things from which we must abstain, that we may not wrong our neighbor, he subjoined this prohibition as to coveting, which must be referred to all the things previously forbidden.”(John Calvin, Romans, electronic ed., Calvin’s Commentaries (Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1998), Ro 7:7.)

c.   Covetousness. Strong desire to have that which belongs to another. It is considered to be a very grievous offense in Scripture. The tenth commandment forbids coveting anything that belongs to a neighbor, including his house, his wife, his servants, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to him (Exod. 20:17). Jesus listed covetousness or greed along with many of the sins from within, including adultery, theft, and murder, which make a person unclean (Mark 7:22). Paul reminded the Ephesians that greed or covetousness is equated with immorality and impurity, so that these must be put away (5:3). A covetous or greedy person is an idolator (5:5) and covetousness is idolatry (Col. 3:5). James warns that people kill and covet because they cannot have what they want (4:2).

Covetousness, therefore, is basic to the commandments against murder, adultery, stealing, and lying. Those who accept bribes are coveting, leading to murder (Ezek. 22:12). Coveting a neighbor’s wife is a form of adultery (Exod. 20:17). Achan admitted to coveting a robe and silver and gold, so he stole them, which was a sin against the Lord (Josh. 7:20–22). Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, coveted the property of Naaman so much that he lied to get what he wanted from Naaman the leper (2 Kings 5:19–25) and was struck with leprosy. Proverbs warns that a covetous person brings trouble to his family (15:27). Thus covetousness is the root of all kinds of sins, so that Jesus gave the warning, “Be on your guard against all kinds of greed” (Luke 12:15).[4]

B.   Honor/Shame:

1.   Our original creation status.

a.   Genesis 1:26-28.

b.   Psalm 8

c.   Hebrews 2:5-8

2.   Shame:

What is shame? Shame is the deep sense that you are unacceptable because of something you did, something done to you, or something associated with you. You feel exposed and humiliated. Or, to strengthen the language, You are disgraced because you acted less than human, you were treated as if you were less than human, or you were associated with something less than human, and there are witnesses. These definitions can get us started. There isn’t one mandatory definition or description for shame, but any definition will include certain elements. For example, you can expect images of being an outsider, naked, and unclean. And don’t forget shame’s public nature. Guilt can be hidden; shame feels like it is always exposed. Once you identify shame, you can find it everywhere.[5]

3.   Our desire for honor.

a.   Leading to sin

i.    Cain: Genesis 4:1-16.

ii.   Tower of  Babel: Genesis 11:1-9.

iii.             Saul: 1 Samuel 18:6-9.

iv. Absalom: 2 Samuel 13-15.

b.   Seeking honor from God

i.    Joseph: Genesis 37.

ii.   Hannah: 1 Samuel 1.

iii.             Psalm 3 (et cetera).

c.   Pride is the false attempt to make up for the honor lost through sin.

4.   Shame/Honor in suffering

a.   1 Corinthians 1:18-31

b.   1 Peter 1:6-7; 4:14.

C.   The attempt to make up for what was lost in the Fall. It is interesting matter that human beings attempt to remedy the damage caused by the Fall by selecting some good thing and reveling and distorting the use of that good: such as food, work/rest/, relationship, et cetera.

1.   Eating/Gluttony

a.   Genesis 2:9, 3:19.

b.   Deuteronomy 21:20; Proverbs 23:20-21.

2.   Work/Laziness

a.   Genesis 2:15, 3:17-19.

b.   Proverbs 6:6-9; 10:26, 13:4, 15:19, 19:24, et cetera.

3.   Relationship with God/Power over God and spirits

a.   Genesis 3:13-15.

b.   Leviticus 19:13, 20:6, 20:27; 1 Samuel 28; 2 Kings 21:6.

4.   God/Idolatry

a.   Genesis 3:8-10.

b.   Romans 1:18-24.

5.   Marriage/Discord

a.   Genesis 3:16b.

b.   Genesis throughout.

c.   Adultery

d.   Contention: Proverbs 19:13, 21:9, 25:24.

e.   Song of Solomon:

One of the main features of the Song is the persistence of alienation between the man and the woman. This alienation is the result of the judgment announced in Genesis 3:16. The intimacy lost in the fall (judgment) is renewed (salvation), and the beauty of God’s intention is celebrated (glory)….

His [the king’s] efforts toward the renewal of the intimacy lost at the fall culminate in the bride’s statement in 7:10, “I am my beloved’s and his desire is for me.” The use of this term “desire” in Genesis 3:16 was noted above [the desire in that instance was an aspect of the judgment on sin]. Yahweh cursed the woman with “desire” for her husband, which meant that she would inappropriately seek to take the initiative in the relationship. The Song sings of the righting of the reversed relationship. Overcoming the judgment of the curse on gender relations, the man and the woman find reconciliation and intimacy.[6]

6.   It cannot work. Ecclesiastes 2:1-11.His

 

IV.     Counseling Considerations

A. This is not an exhaustive discussion of sin. Included on the website are additional documents/studies on the doctrine of sin.

B.   D.A. Carson has mentioned that a great difficulty in discussing Christianity in the contemporary culture, particularly on college campuses, is that many people have no category of thought for sin.  If the word is used at all, it is commonly used to refer to something which we like a lot but probably shouldn’t.  Candies are sinfully delicious.  A great pleasure is a sinful pleasure et cetera.

This thinking is not absent from the Christian church.  The ideas of our culture easily make their way into our personal thinking, because it is very difficult to maintain a consistently biblical frame of reference in light of a world which is constantly screaming a very different worldview.

Incidentally, this is often a fruitful area of investigation in any counseling situation.  Since continued habitual sin receives support and protection from non-biblical thinking [the various excuses, rationalizations, expectations which drive continued sin], and since popular culture even Christian culture  is often decidedly nonbiblical in its presentation, it is often useful to explore what the counselee reads, watches, listens to, et cetera. 

C.   When presented with a counseling situation, it can be useful to think through the issue of sin: whether the counselee’s own sin or the sin of some other person against them. Be careful to avoid psychological labels. For example, someone does not have “an inferiority complex”, but they may have “fear of man”.

D. Notice that sin is very catchy. Sin against a person often results in them sinning in return. Therefore, you have the matter of the damage done by being the recipient of sin and then in turn sinning against someone else (as you will in the attached documents, particularly in the documents “Sin is the Worst of Evils”) it is worse for one to sin than to be sinned against.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

APPENDIX: PRIDE

Be thoroughly convinced of the greatness and sinfulness of this sin.—How that it is a sin of the greatest magnitude, a first-rate sin, greater than theft, intemperance, or uncleanness, or any other fleshly wickedness. It is, indeed, the strength and heart of the old man; it lives in us, when other sins are dead; yea, it will help to kill other sins, that it may boastingly show their heads, and blow the sinner up with a conceit of his own strength and holiness. It is a sin that will take sanctuary in the holiest duties, and hide itself under their skirts; yea, it will pollute our holy things, and turn remedies themselves into diseases. I prefer this direction, and shall be the longer upon it, because when men are convinced of the sinfulness of this sin, that it hath more evil in it than other disgraceful sins, they will then set themselves in good earnest to mortify and subdue it. Then they will put it far away from them, and deal with it as they do with those sins that argue them, in the judgment of all men, to be graceless and ungodly persons. Remember, therefore, what hath been already hinted concerning the odiousness of this sin. It is hateful indeed to men, when it is discerned; but it is most hateful unto God. His nature and his honour both engage him against it; he doth severely punish it, both in this world and in the next. Pride is the forerunner not only of temporal, but of eternal, destruction. (Prov. 16:18.) This one sin, unless it be pardoned and subdued, is sufficient to turn us all into hell; it was the sin and the condemnation of the devil and his angels.

There are two properties in pride which greatly aggravate it, and make it out-of-measure sinful and abominable:—

1. The antiquity of it.—It was the first enemy that God ever had. This was the sin of the fallen angels, and also of our first parents; this was the original of original sin. Some have disputed whether pride or unbelief had the precedency in man’s fall; (“a question,” as one says, “much like that,—whether repentance or faith hath the precedency in his rising;”) but all are of opinion that man’s pride, if it was not antecedaneous, yet at least it was contemporary with his unbelief; and that pride was the great cause of his apostasy. He proudly affected to be as God, to have known good and evil. (Gen. 3:5.) He fell from what he was, by a proud desire of being what he was not.

2. The pregnancy of it.—It is a big-bellied sin; most of the sins that are in the world are the offspring and issue of pride. Let me instance in several other sins that are the genuine spawn of this sin:—

It causeth covetousness.—Though covetousness is said to be “the root” of other evils, yet this root itself springs from pride. What is covetousness but the purveyor of pride, and a making provision for the lusts thereof? Why are men greedy of worldly wealth, but for the feeding and maintaining of “the pride of life?” Habakkuk tells us, that “he who is a proud man enlargeth his desire as hell.” (Chap. 2:5.)

Again: it causeth ambition.—Proud persons have aspiring thoughts, and think themselves the fittest persons to preside in church or state. Haman said, “Whom should the king honour but myself?” (Esther 6:6.) A proud person takes it for an injury if any be preferred before him, though never so deserving; and he bears a secret grudge to any that had a hand in it, though they did it with the greatest sincerity and impartiality. None are friends to proud persons, but those that humour and honour them.

Again: pride causeth boasting.—Hence it is that, in two places of scripture, “proud” persons and “boasters” are put together. (Rom. 1:30; 2 Tim. 3:2.) A proud person is ever praising and commending himself; and when he is ashamed to do it by open ostentation, then he doeth it by secret insinuation and circumlocution.

Again: it causeth scorning.—Disdain of others comes from men’s overvaluing of themselves. Compare two scriptures: you read, James 4:6, how God hath said, that he “resisteth the proud, but he giveth grace unto the humble.” Now where hath God said this? You will find it, Prov. 3:34: there it is said, “Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.” You see, the same persons that are called “scorners” in the Old Testament, are called “proud” in the New; so that scorning is the immediate fruit and effect of pride.

Again: it causeth lying.—Proud persons are great liars. Most of the lies and falsehoods that are told in the world, are to avoid disgrace and shame, or to purchase applause and esteem.

Again: it causeth contention.—The scripture is express in this: “Only by pride cometh contention.” (Prov. 13:10.) Ay, that is the greatest makebate in the world: “He that is of a proud heart stirreth up strife:” (Prov. 28:25:) he is a very firebrand in the place where he lives; he is like an unpolished stone, that will never lie even in any building.

Again: pride causeth unthankfulness.—Hezekiah’s pride and ingratitude are coupled together in scripture. (Isai. 39.) Proud persons,—instead of prizing, they despise, the mercies of God, and think diminutively of them; they look upon God’s gifts as due debts, and, instead of being thankful for what they have, they are ready to think [that] they have not what they do deserve.

Again: it causeth selfishness.—Pride makes men prefer themselves, not only before others, but before God himself. Proud persons idolize themselves, and make self their principal end. They love themselves more than God, and they live to themselves more than to God; they are not so zealous for his honour as for their own. Their estates and parts are more at the command of their pride, than at the command of God.

Again: it causeth carnal confidence.—Proud persons are fearless persons; they are so persuaded of their own strength and the goodness of their hearts, that they can walk in the midst of snares, and venture upon temptation, and fear no harm. “The fool rageth,” says Solomon, “and is confident.” (Prov. 14:16.) Pride makes men insensible of their danger, till it be too late.

Again: pride causeth self-deceit.—Proud persons “think themselves something, when they are nothing;” and so “deceive themselves.” (Gal. 6:3.) They take gifts for grace, and the common, for the saving, works of the Spirit. Presumption goes with them for faith, and a little sorrow for sin is repentance. They do not distinguish between the form and power of godliness, betwixt a blockish stupidity and true peace of conscience.

Thus I have told you many, but not one half, of the evil effects of pride. Let me proceed a little farther in this discovery.

Pride makes men censorious and uncharitable.—Proud persons are very prone to judge and censure others, especially if they differ from them in opinion; a little matter will make a proud person to count and call such “hypocrites,” or “heretics.” He no sooner espies a mote in their eyes, but he thinks it a beam; he would have others to think the best of him, but he himself will think the worst of others.

Again: it makes men whisperers and backbiters.—Such are joined by the apostle Paul with “proud” persons. (Rom. 1:30.) Those who are proud do not only censure others in their hearts, but they reproach and defame them with their tongues: they hope [that], by speaking evil of others, they shall be the better thought-of themselves; they endeavour to build their own praise upon the ruins of others’ reputation.

Again: it makes men dislikers and haters of reproof.—Proud persons are ready to find fault with others, but they do not like to hear of their own faults. Solomon says of “a scorner,” (that is, a proud person, as ye heard before,) that he doth “not love one that reproveth him;” (Prov. 15:12;) and in another place he says, that he “hates” him. (Prov. 12:1.) Though the reprover was his friend before, yet now he counts him as his enemy. Herod imprisoned John for telling him of his sin, though, before, he reverenced him. (Mark 6:17–20.)

Again: pride makes men heretical.—One says of pride, that it is “the mother of heretics.”* Simon Magus, that great heresiarch, was a very proud man: the Gnostics, the Manichees, the Eunomians, were all noted for pride; the latter vainly and blasphemously boasted that they knew God as well as he knew himself. Experience teacheth, that if any infection of heresy comes into a place, those that are proud do soonest catch it. “Mark those,” says one, “that are turned anywhere from the way of truth; and see if they were not proud and conceited persons.”

Again: it makes men separatists and schismatical.—There are such persons amongst the professing people of God, though all are not such that go by that name. “These be they,” says Jude, “who separate themselves.” (Jude 19.) “They went out from us,” says the apostle John, because “they were not of us.” (1 John 2:19.) Proud, conceited Christians are not contented to come out and separate from the unbelieving, idolatrous world, but they will separate also from the true church of Christ, and cast off all communion with them who hold communion with Him. They will say to those that are holier than themselves, “Stand off; for we are holier than you.” (Isai. 65:5.) O, it is pride that is the chief cause of all churchrents and divisions. We may thank pride for all the factions and fractions that are in the churches of Christ at this very day.

Again: pride makes men hypocrites.—It prompts them to put on a vizard and mask of religion, and to be in appearance what they are not in reality. Proud persons “love the praise of men more than the praise of God;” (John 12:43;) and therefore they are more careful to seem religious, than to be so indeed; they more study to approve their ways to men, than they do their hearts to God.

Again: pride makes men malicious and wrongful.—Proud persons are forward to do wrong, but backward to bear or endure it. They expect that others should forgive and bear with them, but they will not forgive or bear with others: they require “an eye for an eye,” and “render evil for evil,” nay, sometimes evil for good. A proud person careth not whom he wrongs or betrays, so he may accomplish his own ends. He makes no bones of falsehood, slander, oppression, or injustice, if he apprehend it necessary to his own honour or ambition.

Again: it makes men murmurers and complainers, μεμψιμοιροι.—Proud persons “find fault with their lot,” and are “discontented with their condition.” They think themselves wiser than God himself,—that in some things they could mend what he doeth or hath done. They suppose they could guide God’s hand, and “teach him knowledge;” (Job 21:22;) if they were of his council, they could give him direction for the better governing of the world in general, and for the better ordering of their own conditions and concernments in particular.

Again: pride makes men to slight the authority and command of God.—Proud persons do not only oppose their wisdom to God’s wisdom, but their wills, also, to God’s will. They not only disobey, but despise, the commandment of God, and say, (at least in their hearts,) as that proud king, “Who is the Lord, that we should obey his voice?” (Exod. 5:2;) or as those proud ones in Jeremiah, “We are lords, we will come no more unto thee.” (Jer. 2:31.) The prophet calling the Israelites to “hear and give ear,” he immediately subjoins, “Be not proud;” and by-and-by he adds, “If ye will not hear, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride.” (Jer. 13:15, 17.)

Again: it maketh persons to establish their own righteousness, and to set that up in the room of Christ’s righteousness.—Proud persons will “not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God;” so it is expressed in the epistle to the Romans. (Chap. 10:3.) God hath provided a righteousness for sinners of the children of men, such as is every way sufficient to justify and save them; and that is the righteousness of his Son. What he did and suffered, may by faith be imputed and made over to them, as if they themselves had done and suffered it; so that, “as by the disobedience of” Adam they “were made sinners, by the obedience of” Christ they might “be made righteous;” (Rom. 5:19;) and as Christ was “made sin for” them, so they may “be made the righteousness of God in him.” (2 Cor. 5:21.) But such is the pride of man’s heart, that he will not submit to this way of justification and salvation; he will not be beholden to another for that which he thinks he hath in himself; he will not go abroad for that which he thinks he hath at home. A proud sinner sees no need of a Saviour, and thinks he can do well enough without him. Thus I have set before you two decades of the evil effects of pride; I might have given you as many more. May all serve to show you the sinfulness of this sin![7]

[1]It is interesting to see that this disruption is matched by the essential commands of the law: (1) To love God with one’s whole heart, soul, mind and strength; and (2) to love one’s neighbor as oneself. Where sin has separated, God commands a law to restore fellowship. The work of restoring fellowship with God takes place by means of the Word and Spirit (love of God) in the congregation of worshipping (love of neighbor). We will examine these aspects in future lessons.

[2] “Now, let me say one thing at the outset and be done with it. The notion that is so widely spread abroad (sometimes by those who ought to know better), that nouthetic counseling considers all human problems the direct result of actual sins of particular counselees, is a gross misrepresentation of the facts. From the beginning (cf. Competent to Counsel, 1970, pp. 108, 109), I have stated clearly that not all problems of counselees are due to their own sins. In Competent, I cited the cases of Job and the man born blind (John 9:1ff.).2 Those who persist in attributing to me views that I do not hold are culpable. Either they ought to know better before they speak and write (by reading the material available—nouthetic counseling has not been done in a corner!), or they should have investigated on their own what they accepted as fact (but was actually only gossip).

 

“While all human misery—disability, sickness, etc.—does go back to Adam’s sin (and I would be quick to assert that biblical truth), that is not the same as saying that a quid pro quo relationship between each counselee’s misery and his own personal sins exists. That I as quickly deny. It may be true in one given instance, but not in another. Neither is it true that all the suffering that some deserve they get in this life. Nor is it true that all the suffering that others receive in this life they bring upon themselves. Suffering, in a world of sin, comes to all in one way or another in the providence of God,3 but before investigating each case, that is all that may be said about it. Apparent inequities (not really so from the perspective of eternity) can be resolved only in the purposes of God, who hasn’t yet been pleased to reveal to us everything we’d like to know. We have all that we need to know—which is quite sufficient.” Jay Edward Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling: More Than Redemption (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resource Library, 1986), 139–140.

[3] Jay Edward Adams, A Theology of Christian Counseling: More Than Redemption (Grand Rapids, MI: Ministry Resource Library, 1986), 165–166.

[4] Walter A. Elwell and Walter A. Elwell, Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, Baker Reference Library; Logos Library System (Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996).

[5]Welch, Edward T. (2012-04-30). Shame Interrupted: How God Lifts the Pain of Worthlessness and Rejection (Kindle Locations 142-148). New Growth Press. Kindle Edition.

[6]James Hamilton Jr., God’s Glory in Salvation Through Judgment, 307-308.

* Hœreticorum mater superbia.—Augustinus.

[7] “What must we do to prevent and cure spiritual pride” by Rev. Richard Mayo, A.M, in James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, vol. 3 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 382–387.

Joy.1

17 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Augustine, Deuteronomy, Ecclesiastes, Exodus, Faith, Hope, Joy

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The book of common prayer (the graveside service) reads, “In the midst of life we are in death”. How then can joy be found in such a world? The world itself cannot rightly be the source of joy, as Augustine notes, vita misera est, mors incerta est (“Life is miserable, death uncertain”‘ Confessions Book VI, chapter 11). How then can joy be found? For some perhaps joy will be their privilege by disposition or circumstance — but such joys will necessarily be “vain” as Ecclesiastes says — vaporous, for the inexorable weight of death will strangle a joy of circumstance. At some point we will end alone.

So how and where can joy be found? The Scripture commends joy throughout, yet it is a joy of which rests not in circumstance but a joy which rests in God. How is this demonstrated and how is such joy obtained?

Consider the Feast of Booths commanded in Leviticus 23:39-43:

39 “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you have gathered in the produce of the land, you shall celebrate the feast of the LORD seven days. On the first day shall be a solemn rest, and on the eighth day shall be a solemn rest.
40 And you shall take on the first day the fruit of splendid trees, branches of palm trees and boughs of leafy trees and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.
41 You shall celebrate it as a feast to the LORD for seven days in the year. It is a statute forever throughout your generations; you shall celebrate it in the seventh month.
42 You shall dwell in booths for seven days. All native Israelites shall dwell in booths,
43 that your generations may know that I made the people of Israel dwell in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God.”

The Israelites are to rejoice as they remember that God had rescued them from Egypt. It was this which caused Jethro to rejoice:

8 Then Moses told his father-in-law all that the LORD had done to Pharaoh and to the Egyptians for Israel’s sake, all the hardship that had come upon them in the way, and how the LORD had delivered them.
9 And Jethro rejoiced for all the good that the LORD had done to Israel, in that he had delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians.

Exodus 18:8-9. The story of God’s rescue was a cause to rejoice. How then could the people rejoice — even in the wilderness (as Bunyan wrote, “the wilderness of this world”)? We may rejoice when we remember and discuss what God has done.

Note that this does not negate the tragedy of life or the pain of this world. Rather, the pain and sorrow of life forms the contrast which makes the joy possible. You see, joy points to what God has done in the midst of trial: They are to rejoice when they recall that God “brought them out of the land of Egypt” (Leviticus 23:43).

Such memory may be most necessary in the midst of present trial and sorrow: in the middle of pain, the pain can overwhelm one’s sense of all else. The pain seems as if it could never end. The future looks hopeless. That is when memory can be of great good. Memory reaches back to what has happened; it reaches outside of the present and demonstrates, It has not always been as this. Joy fetches strength from the past. Joy flowers from the faith and hope which comes from knowledge who God is (note that the ground of joy in Leviticus 23:43 ends with “I am the LORD your God”) and what God has done.

Augustine Confessions 1.1.1a (Translation and Notes)

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by in Augustine, Church History, John Calvin, Prayer

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Confessions 1.1.1

magnus es, domine, et laudabilis valde. magna virtus tua et sapientiae tuae non est numerus

 

Notes:

It is interesting that in seeking to confess his own life, Augustine begins with a confession of the Lord’s greatness.[1] This is praise draws heavily upon Scripture, as noted below.

Magnus es: Great are you

Domine: God, vocative

Et laudabilis valde: and praiseworthy intensely so.

magna virtus tua: Great is your strength

et sapientiae tuae: and your wisdom

non est numerous: not is numbered (cannot be numbered, infinite, exceedingly great).

 

Translation:

Great are you Lord, and worthy of praise. Great is your strength, and your wisdom has no end.

Pusey:  Great art Thou, O Lord, and greatly to be praised; great is Thy power, and Thy wisdom infinite.

 

Biblical Cross-References:

Great are you Lord:

Magnus Dominus, et laudabilis nimis, et magnitudinis ejus non est finis. Psalm 144:3 (VGCLEM)

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: and of his greatness there is no end. Psalm 144:3 (D-R)

 

1 Aperiens autem Tobias senior os suum, benedixit Dominum, et dixit : Magnus es, Domine, in æternum, et in omnia sæcula regnum tuum : Tobit 13:1 (VGCLEM)

1 AND Tobias the elder opening his mouth, blessed the Lord, and said: Thou art great O Lord, for ever, and thy kingdom is unto all ages. Tobit 13:1 (D-R)

 

 

The Wisdom of God:

Psalm 146:5 (Vulgate, D-R):

      5 Magnus Dominus noster, et magna virtus ejus,

            et sapientiæ ejus non est numerus.

 

Great is our Lord, and great is his power:

and of his wisdom there is no number.  

 

Isaiah 40:8:

 

28 Numquid nescis, aut non audisti ? Deus sempiternus Dominus, qui creavit terminos terræ : non deficiet, neque laborabit, nec est investigatio sapientiæ ejus. Isaiah 40:28 (VGCLEM)

28 Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard? the Lord is the everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth: he shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of his wisdom. Isaiah 40:28 (D-R)

Romans 11:33:

33 O altitudo divitiarum sapientiæ, et scientiæ Dei : quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viæ ejus ! Romans 11:33 (VGCLEM)

33 O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and of the knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! Romans 11:33 (D-R)

 

 

 

[1] Calvin’s Institutes begin with this observation:

 

OUR wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other. For, in the first place, no man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts towards the God in whom he lives and moves; because it is perfectly obvious, that the endowments which we possess cannot possibly be from ourselves; nay, that our very being is nothing else than subsistence in God alone. In the second place, those blessings which unceasingly distil to us from heaven, are like streams conducting us to the fountain. Here, again, the infinitude of good which resides in God becomes more apparent from our poverty. In particular, the miserable ruin into which the revolt of the first man has plunged us, compels us to turn our eyes upwards; not only that while hungry and famishing we may thence ask what we want, but being aroused by fear may learn humility. For as there exists in man something like a world of misery, and ever since we were stript of the divine attire our naked shame discloses an immense series of disgraceful properties every man, being stung by the consciousness of his own unhappiness, in this way necessarily obtains at least some knowledge of God. Thus, our feeling of ignorance, vanity, want, weakness, in short, depravity and corruption, reminds us (see Calvin on John 4:10), that in the Lord, and none but He, dwell the true light of wisdom, solid virtue, exuberant goodness. We are accordingly urged by our own evil things to consider the good things of God; and, indeed, we cannot aspire to Him in earnest until we have begun to be displeased with ourselves. For what man is not disposed to rest in himself? Who, in fact, does not thus rest, so long as he is unknown to himself; that is, so long as he is contented with his own endowments, and unconscious or unmindful of his misery? Every person, therefore, on coming to the knowledge of himself, is not only urged to seek God, but is also led as by the hand to find him.

 

2. On the other hand, it is evident that man never attains to a true self-knowledge until he have previously contemplated the face of God, and come down after such contemplation to look into himself. For (such is our innate pride) we always seem to ourselves just, and upright, and wise, and holy, until we are convinced, by clear evidence, of our injustice, vileness, folly, and impurity. Convinced, however, we are not, if we look to ourselves only, and not to the Lord alsoD2—He being the only standard by the application of which this conviction can be produced. For, since we are all naturally prone to hypocrisy, any empty semblance of righteousness is quite enough to satisfy us instead of righteousness itself. And since nothing appears within us or around us that is not tainted with very great impurity, so long as we keep our mind within the confines of human pollution, anything which is in some small degree less defiled delights us as if it were most pure just as an eye, to which nothing but black had been previously presented, deems an object of a whitish, or even of a brownish hue, to be perfectly white. Nay, the bodily sense may furnish a still stronger illustration of the extent to which we are deluded in estimating the powers of the mind. If, at mid-day, we either look down to the ground, or on the surrounding objects which lie open to our view, we think ourselves endued with a very strong and piercing eyesight; but when we look up to the sun, and gaze at it unveiled, the sight which did excellently well for the earth is instantly so dazzled and confounded by the refulgence, as to oblige us to confess that our acuteness in discerning terrestrial objects is mere dimness when applied to the sun. Thus too, it happens in estimating our spiritual qualities. So long as we do not look beyond the earth, we are quite pleased with our own righteousness, wisdom, and virtue; we address ourselves in the most flattering terms, and seem only less than demigods. But should we once begin to raise our thoughts to God, and reflect what kind of Being he is, and how absolute the perfection of that righteousness, and wisdom, and virtue, to which, as a standard, we are bound to be conformed, what formerly delighted us by its false show of righteousness will become polluted with the greatest iniquity; what strangely imposed upon us under the name of wisdom will disgust by its extreme folly; and what presented the appearance of virtuous energy will be condemned as the most miserable impotence. So far are those qualities in us, which seem most perfect, from corresponding to the divine purity.

 

 

John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 1997).

Of Communion With the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Digression 1c.iv (Shame)

05 Friday Oct 2012

Posted by in Augustine, Biblical Counseling, Hebrews, John Owen, Luke, Puritan

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Shame and sexual sin: It seems that sexual sin seems to bear such a weight of shame, because sexual sin is sin transgressing marriage. Since our marriage of Christ to his bride is the means by which shame is lifted, shame lies most heavily upon the corruption of marriage.

In Luke 7, we read of Jesus eating with a Pharisee. This story deals with the horrifying weight of shame in sexual sin and thus discloses the unfading and unending grace and love of God in Jesus Christ who carries our sin and shame far away:

36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” Luke 7:36–39 (ESV)

Now in thinking of this scene we are likely to misunderstand the picture of the woman.  While I don’t have any particularized knowledge on the subject, certain things seem certain. First, her personal status in the culture would be brutally oppressive. This is a prostitute in the 4th or 5th world (not 3rd).  Second, she would be wracked with shame constantly. In a society which offered limited physical movement over the course of one’s life (peasants don’t have the ability or wealth to move about), this woman would have been known to all. Even the Pharisee and moralist knew her. Thus, her home town would have constantly held has a matter of public shame.

Third, she is likely quite young. Prostitutes being marginalized by their culture and victimized in their position will find themselves at the very least physically vulnerable. The potential for disease would be striking. It would have been striking for a such a woman to have a realistic change to grow old.

So let us picture a teenage girl, terrified, broken, ashamed charging into the room and falling before Jesus – all the while knowing the hateful and hurtful glares of those around.

Augustine notes irony in the moment. The Pharisee wonders that Jesus did not know this woman was a sinner. Yet, Augustine notes that this woman Jesus was God:

Christ was supposed to be but a man both by him who invited Him, and by them who sat as guests at the table with Him. But that woman who was a sinner had seen something more than this in the Lord. For why did she all those things, but that her sins might be forgiven her? She knew then that He was able to forgive sins; and they knew that no man was able to forgive them. And we must believe that they all, they who were at the table, that is, and that woman who approached to the Feet of the Lord, all knew that no man could forgive sins. Forasmuch then as they all knew this; she who believed that He could forgive sins, understood Him to be more than man. So when He had said to the woman, “Thy sins are forgiven thee;” they immediately said, “Who is this that forgiveth sins also?” Who is this, whom the woman who was a sinner already knew? Thou who sittest at the table as if in sound health, knowest not thy Physician; because it may be through a stronger fever thou hast even lost thy reason. …

This woman who believed that she could be forgiven by Christ, believed Christ not to be man only, but God also. “Who,” say they, “is this that forgiveth sins also?” And the Lord did not tell them as they said, “Who is this?” “It is the Son of God, the Word of God;” He did not tell them this, but suffering them to abide for a while still in their former opinion, He really solved the question which had excited them. For He who saw them at the table, heard their thoughts, and turning to the woman, He said, “Thy faith hath made thee whole.” Let these who say, “Who is this that forgiveth sins also?” who think me to be but a man, think me but a man. For thee “thy faith hath made thee whole.”

Augustine of Hippo, “Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament”, trans. R. G. MacMullen In , in A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series, Volume VI: Saint Augustin: Sermon on the Mount, Harmony of the Gospels, Homilies on the Gospels, ed. Philip Schaff (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1888), 418.

Think of this: The woman who bore such weight of sin and shame – before God and man – caught a glimpse of Christ, of God Incarnate and falls before him.  What does she bring? Sin. Shame. Faith. She does not care what the world thinks, if Christ thinks she is clean.

Consider further: Jesus knows that in forgiving her sin that he will need to carry her shame. The shame of sin must be carried. The curse and shame of sin must be discharged. This poor girl comes in her weakness and offers nothing but her weakness, she comes to him in faith and weeps that he will carry her sin and shame. And Jesus, in compassion and love, says, I will carry this shame, leave it here with me. I will carry this sin, place it upon my back. I will discharge the curse. You need feel no shame – it is gone, I have carried it far away.

The Pharisee sees only the sinful woman – because he cannot see the Son of God before him. The Pharisee sees only according to the flesh – but the one who sees according to faith sees deeper:

16 From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:16–21 (ESV)

One final note comes from Hebrews 2. The writer tells us that Jesus does not help angels. No, Jesus not save angels. Instead, he saves prostitutes bowed down with shame and sin (their own sin and most painfully, the sin of others). Jesus entered into combat and destroyed the Devil who seeks to destroy human beings by means of sin and shame: And in so doing, he makes plain the place of rest and hope:

14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Hebrews 2:14–18 (ESV)

When the cares of my heart

03 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Augustine, Psalms, Romans

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Psalm 94:19:

When the cares of my heart are many, your consolations cheer my soul.

Christians often believe that the consolations of Christ and the peace wrought by the Spirit means that they will not experience troubles and trials as painful. Thus when they feel pain, they fear that have sinned and so become discouraged.

But here the Psalmist admits to his pain. He does not deny the pain, but sees that God offers a consolation in that pain.

While such consolation may be an immediate work of the Spirit, that is not the sole means used by God. Often that consolation comes from the Body of Christ in demonstrable acts of mercy and care:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
5 For as we share abundantly in Christ’s sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too.
6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.

2 Cor. 1:3-6.

Paul supposes that the congregation will have tears and joy – which will be shared:

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Rom. 12:15.

The world is troublesome, but such trouble exists to force us to seek comfort elsewhere. As Augustine wrote in the Confessions, Book IV:

Rest in Him, and ye shall be at rest. Whither go ye in rough ways? Whither go ye? The good that you love is from Him; but it is good and pleasant through reference to Him, and justly shall it be embittered, because unjustly is any thing loved which is from Him, if He be forsaken for it. To what end then would ye still and still walk these difficult and toilsome ways? There is no rest, where ye seek it. Seek what ye seek; but it is not there where ye seek. Ye seek a blessed life in the land of death; it is not there. For how should there be a blessed life where life itself is not?

Counseling the Discouraged Saint.2

21 Tuesday Feb 2012

Posted by in Augustine, Biblical Counseling, Christopher Love, Discipleship, John Owen, William Gurnall

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The prior post may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2012/02/10/counseling-the-discouraged-saint/

Fifth, God helps.

The Pelagian controversy began when a British monk named Pelagius heard of a prayer of Augustine recorded in chapter 39 of the tenth book of the Confessions:

My whole hope is in thy exceeding great mercy and that alone. Give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt. [(Domine), da quod iubes et iube quod vis]. Thou commandest continence from us, and when I knew, as it is said, that no one could be continent unless God gave it to him, even this was a point of wisdom to know whose gift it was. For by continence we are bound up and brought back together in the One, whereas before we were scattered abroad among the many. For he loves thee too little who loves along with thee anything else that he does not love for thy sake, O Love, who dost burn forever and art never quenched. O Love, O my God, enkindle me! Thou commandest continence; give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt.

Our Father knows that he has laid upon us burdens which we cannot bear. First, God commands us to believe, but we are by fallen nature rebellious and will not believe. Therefore, he must supply us with the faith to believe. Augustine notes the same in De Nono Perservantiae, XX:

Now what, indeed, does God command, first and foremost, except that we believe in him? This faith, therefore, he himself gives; so that it is well said to him, “Give what thou commandest.”

Here is a great comfort. A Christian who lacks a high view of God’s sovereignty in the work of the Gospel is left without a secure hope in the mortification of sin. A high view of God’s sovereignty is a grace and peace to the Christian suffering under sin.

If all the power resides solely in my will, unaided by grace, then I am alone to battle the sin.  I cannot turn to God for help: God commands, but God does not help.  God may command. God may promise reward or threaten punishment. But unless God can and does push from within, unless God can command my desire and will from the inside of my soul, I am doomed.

Yet, Augustine saw into the comfort of grace in the land of sin. God commands. God commands far above our ability. Yet, when God commands, God also wills. God does not leave us alone with sin and the command – that is the terror of the law without the great rain of Christ’s blood to drown the flames of sin and hell.  John Owen writes of such people in the third chapter of The Mortification of Sin:

This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in. A soul under the power of conviction from the law is pressed to fight against sin, but hath no strength for the combat. They cannot but fight, and they can never conquer; they are like men thrust on the sword of enemies on purpose to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin beats them back.

That is the believer who seeks to mortify sin and still has not read Romans 8:13, If by the Spirit you …. The Spirit is the great engine of mortification. When we seek to “have victory over sin” we forget that Christ has already won that victory! God has sent his Spirit to convey the Cross of Christ to our hearts that we might become crucified to the world (Gal. 6:14).

Our enemy will seek to delude us to think that we are to fight sin alone. That way only leads to despair. The church is littered with the wrecks of such believers.

Such believers do not know the great truth of mortification: God helps. Christopher Love puts it as follows:

You have God’s promise and Christ’s power to help you in managing this great work of mortification….As God commands His children to obey Him, so He convey power and ability to enable them to do so.

Consider carefully this joyful observation made by William Gurnall, in The Christian in Complete Armor:

Doctrine.  That the Christian’s strength lies in the Lord, not in himself.  The strength of the general in other hosts lies in his troops.  He flies, as a great commander once said to his soldiers, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power broken, he is lost; but in the army of saints, the strength of every saint, yea, of the whole host of saints, lies in the Lord of hosts.  God can overcome his enemies without their hands, but they cannot so much as defend themselves without his arm.  It is one of God’s names, ‘the Strength of Israel,’ I Sam. 15:29.  He was the strength of David’s heart; without him this valiant worthy (that could, when held up in his arms, defy him that defied a whole army) behaves himself strangely for fear, at a word or two that dropped from the Philistine’s mouth.  He was the strength of his hands, ‘He taught his fingers to fight,’ and so is the strength of all his saints in their war against sin and Satan.  Some propound a question, whether there be a sin committed in the world in which Satan hath not a part?  But if the question were, whether there be any holy action performed without the special assistance of God concurring, that is resolved,  ‘Without me ye can do nothing,’ John 15:5.  Thinking strength of God, ‘Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God,’ II Cor. 3:5.  We apostles, we saints that have habitual grace, yet this lies like water at the bottom of a well, which will not ascend with all our pumping till God pour in his exciting grace, and then it comes.  To will is more than to think, to exert our will into action more than both.  These are of God: ‘For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure,’ Php. 2:13.  He makes the heart new, and having made it fit for heavenly motion, setting every wheel, as it were, in its right place, then he winds it up by his actuating grace, and sets it on going, the thoughts to stir, the will to move and make towards the holy object presented; yet here the chariot is set, and cannot ascend the hill of action till God puts his shoulder to the wheel: ‘to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not,’ Rom. 7:18.  God is at the bottom of the ladder, and at the top also, the Author and Finisher, yea, helping and lifting the soul at every round, in his ascent to any holy action.  Well, now the Christian is set on work, how long will he keep close to it?  Alas, poor soul, no longer than he is held up by the same hand that empowered him at first.  He hath soon wrought out the strength received, and therefore to maintain the tenure of a holy course, there must be renewing strength from heaven every moment, which David knew, and therefore when his heart was in as holy a frame as ever he felt it, and his people by their free-will offering declared the same, yet even then he prays, that God would ‘keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of his people, and prepare their heart unto him,’ I Chron. 29:18. He adored the mercy that made them willing, and then he implores his further grace to strengthen them, and tie a knot, that these precious pearls newly strung on hearts might not slip off.  The Christian, when fullest of divine communications, is but a glass without a foot [a glass on a stem without a base], he cannot stand, or hold what he hath received, any longer than God holds him in his strong hand.  Therefore, Christ, when bound for heaven, and ready to take his leave of his children, bespeaks his Father’s care of them in his absence.  ‘Father, keep them,’ John 17:11; as if he had said, they must not be left alone, they are poor shiftless children, that can neither stand nor go without help; they will lose the grace I have given them, and fall into those temptations which I kept them from while I was with them, if they be out of thy eye or arms but one moment; and therefore, ‘Father, keep them.’ (Part First, Branch the Third).