Category Archives: Theology

Repetitions in the Baptism and Crucifixion

04 Wednesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Christology, Matthew, Uncategorized

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the-crucifixion-philippe-de-champaigne

This is just a tentative list of repetitions. While listening to the story on Good Friday, last, I was struck by “If you are the Son of God” in Matthew 27 — because it was precisely the words of Satan in the temptation. Then I thought of the difference in the sky: it was torn open in the baptism; it was closed in the crucifixion.  Anyway, here are some notes to develop to some day:

Baptism Crucifixion
All Jerusalem went out to see him The crowd before Pilate
Pharisees and Sadducees Chief priests and the elders
John hesitates to baptize Jesus Pilate hesitates to kill Jesus
John warns them to repent Let him be crucified
Even now the ax is laid at the root of the tree His blood be on us
The heavens were opened There was darkness over the face of the land [the heavens were closed]
the Spirit of God descended like a dove and coming to rest on him; My God, My God why have you forsaken me
this is my beloved Son the soldier, truly this was the Son of God.
Satan, if you are the Son of God those who passed by, “if you are the Son of God”
Satan tempts Jesus with bread they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall
Satan tempts Jesus at the temple You who would destroy the temple and in three days build it up
All these will I give you [kingship] the soldiers mock Jesus as king

This is King of the Jews
 

The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification (Outline and Study Guide), Direction 1

28 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Walter Marshall, 1628-1680, The Gospel Mystery of Sanctification

Direction One: That we may acceptably perform the duties of holiness and righteousness required in the law, our first work is to learn the powerful and effectual means by which we may attain to so great an end. This direction may serve instead of a preface, to prepare the understanding and attention of the reader for those that follow.

 

OUTLINE OF THE CHAPTER

 

  1. The “Great End” is Holiness.

 

  1. This is a manner of life which comports with the moral law of God.

 

  1. Definition

 

  1. The Ten Commandments

 

  1. Or the love of God and neighbor

 

  1. “It consists not only in external works of piety and charity, but in the holy thoughts, imaginations and affections of the soul, and chiefly in love, from whence all other good works must flow, or else they are not acceptable to God; not only in refraining the execution of sinful lusts, but in longing and delighting to do the will of God and in a cheerful obedience to God, without repining, fretting, grudging at any duty, as if it were a grievous yoke and burden to you.”

 

  1. This universal obedience is our goal — but during this time of imperfection — it will be fully achieved.

 

  1. God will be “gracious and understanding” during our time of imperfection.

 

  1. It will be a state we will attain in the age to come.

 

  1. Consider the beauty of holiness.

 

  1. What could greater than to love God.

 

  1. These duties are the end for which we were created.

 

  1. These duties are renewed in us in sanctification and will be our end in glorification.

 

  1. These are not arbitrary duties, but rather are “holy, just and good”. (Rom. 7:12)

 

  1. Therefore they are called natural religion, and the law that requires them is called the natural law and also the moral law; because the manners of all men, infidels as well as Christians, ought to be conformed to it and, if they had been fully comformable, they would not have come short of eternal happiness (Matt. 5:19; Luke 10:27, 28), under the penalty of the wrath of God for the violation of it.

 

  1. We must come to know the means to attain this end.

 

  1. This knowledge is necessary

 

  1. Some falsely think they merely need to know “what to do” and then do it. This misses the mark

 

  1. They have an inadequate understanding of holiness, as if it were itself merely a means to an end.

 

  1. Such people also wrongly think that it is something easy to attain.

 

  1. At this point he makes an apt criticism of much preaching which thinks itself quite “strong” and “biblical”: “Yea, many that are accounted powerful preachers spend all their zeal in the earnest pressing the immediate practice of the law, without any discovery of the effectual means of performance – as if the works of righteousness were like those servile employments that need no skill and artifice at all, but industry and activity.” These preachers are great at making people feel guilty (because it takes no great skill to proclaim the law and point to our flaws; not even Paul “attained”).

 

  1. Here notes eight considerations:

 

  1. We lack the ability to rightly perform the demands of the law. ” If we believe it to be true, we cannot rationally encourage ourselves to attempt a holy practice, until we are acquainted with some powerful and effectual means to enable us to do it.”

 

  1. A consciousness of one’s own guilt before God is not sufficient to achieve holiness.

 

  1. A heathen can have knowledge of his guilt before God without knowing how to attain holiness. The means of attaining holiness come only from supernatural revelation.

 

  1. “Sanctification, by which our hearts and lives are conformed to the law, is a grace of God communicated to us by means, as well as justification, and by means of teaching, and learning something that we cannot see without the Word (Acts 26:17, 18).”

 

  1. The Scriptures alone provide the knowledge of the means of sanctification. 2 Tim. 3:16-17. If God has been good enough to give us such instruction, then we must receive it rightly.

 

  1. We can know our deficits by means of nature, but we cannot know the way of sanctification without revelation. ” The learning of it requires double work; because we must unlearn many of our former deeply- rooted notions and become fools, that we may be wise.”

 

  1. Without knowing the means of sanctification as set forth in the Scripture, we can be easily led into false doctrines. Unless know the means for sanctification given by God, we will led astray.

 

  1. In short, we will have no success in sanctification, unless we follow in the way appointed by God.

 

  1. A final note on the errors which befall those who do not learn the way appointed by God:

 

The heathens generally fell short of an acceptable performance of those duties of the law which they knew, because of their ignorance in this point: (i) Many Christians content themselves with external performances, because they never knew how they might attain to spiritual service. (ii) And many reject the way of holiness as austere and unpleasant, because they did not know how to cut off a right hand, or pluck out a right eye, without intolerable pain; whereas they would find ‘the ways of wisdom’ (if they knew them) ‘to be ways of pleasantness, and all her paths to be peace’ (Prov. 3:17). This occasions the putting off repentance from time to time, as an uncouth thing. (iii) Many others set on the practice of holiness with a fervent zeal, and run very fast; but do not tread a step in the right way; and, finding themselves frequently disappointed and overcome by their lusts, they at last give over the work and turn to wallow again in the mire – which has occasioned several treatises, to show how far a reprobate may go in the way of religion, by which many weak saints are discouraged, accounting that these reprobates have gone farther than themselves; whereas most of them never knew the right way, nor trod one step right in it, for, ‘there are few that find it’ (Matt. 7:14). (iv) Some of the more ignorant zealots do inhumanly macerate their bodies with fasting and other austerities, to kill their lusts; and, when they see their lusts are still too hard for them, they fall into despair and are driven, by horror of conscience, to make away with themselves wickedly, to the scandal of religion.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

 

  1. Do you think worth your time and effort to seek holiness?

 

  1. What is the value of holiness? See, e.g., 1 Thess. 4:7; Heb. 12:14; 1 Peter 1:16; 2 Peter 3:11.

 

  1. What does it mean to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?

 

  1. What does it mean to love your neighbor as your-self?

 

  1. Read through the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5-7). Do you see that Jesus’s teaching describes you?

 

  1. Have you ever attempted to seek after holiness? What did you did you do? How well did it work?

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation LV

21 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Exegeting the Heart, law, Scripture, Uncategorized, William Spurstowe, William Spurstowe

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MEDITATION LV
Upon a Looking Glass

mirror

 

What is that which commends this glass? Is it the pearl and other precious stones that the frame is set in, is richly decked and enameled? Or is the impartial and just representation that it makes according to the face everyone who beholds himself bring unto it? Surely the ornaments are wholly foreign and contributing no more to its real worth than the case does onto the goodness of the wine into which it is put; or the richness of the plate [silver] to the cordial in which it is administered?

That for which the glass is to be esteemed is the true and genuine resemblance it makes of the object which is seen in it, when it neither flatters the face by giving any false beauty to it, nor yet injures it by detract ought [anything] from it.

To slight [think less than proper of] then or neglect the glass for the meanness [lowliness, lack of ornaments] of its case, and to value it only for its gaiety [beauty, appearance] is no better than the folly of children or the brutish ignorance of those who judge a book by its cover and not by the learning that is in it.

For quarreling with a glass for its returning a most exact and absolute likeness of the face that is seen in it is to despise it for its excellency and come from no other ground than a conscious of some guilt [here, a fault, not necessarily a moral failing].

Is it not for this very respect that beautiful persons both prize it and use it happily too much? It being the only means whereby they come to be acquainted with their own comeliness [beauty] and to understand what it is that allures the hearts and eyes of all toward them.

Who then but those who features nature has drawn with a coal rather than a pencil, or whom age and sickness have robbed them of what they formerly prided themselves in, shun the familiar use of it [use a mirror regularly]. Or be angry when they look into it, as if it upbraided them [rebuked them], rather than resemble them.

Phyrnethe famous harlot throws passionately away her glass saying, As I am, I will not; as I was, I cannot behold myself. And yet is this not anger against the glass causeless [without a reason]? Does it make gray hears upon the head? Or the pock-marks and wrinkles upon the face? Or does it discovery only what age and disease have done? And let them see what they cannot conceal from others?

Now what does all this argue but an averseness in men to understood the truth of their condition and a willingness through self-flattery to deceive themselves in thinking of what ever they have above what is meet [appropriate, fitting]? Great must be the impatience against truth, when the silent elections of the glass that vanish as soon as it is turned from, kindle such dislikes in the breast as to make it cast them from them [one anger throwing the mirror] for doing only the same to them which it does to others.

Here methinks [I think] we may find the ground that carnal men [one who is in the flesh, and does not have the Spirit of God] are offended at the Word, both in putting scorn and contempt upon it by the low and mean [base, foul] thoughts they have of it; or else by the anger they express against it, in throwing this blessed mirror from them in as great, though not so good, a heat as Moses did the tables which he brake beneath [at the foot of] the Mount [Ex. 32:19].

Some pick a quarrel with the plainness of the Word, as if it wholly wanted [lacked] those embroideries of wit and art that other writings and discourses abound with, and had none of those quaint expressions that might win the affections of them that converse [here, read] with it.

But is not this to make such use of the Word as young children do the glass, more to behold the babies in their own eyes, than to make any observance of themselves.

Is the Word writ or preached to have its reflections upon the fancy [vain imagination] or upon the conscience? Is it to inform only the head or reform the heart? If the inward man be the proper subject of it, the simplicity of conduces to that great end than the contemperation [accommodation] of it with humane mixtures [adding or mixing in something which would make it accommodating to “polite” speech].

It is not the painted but crystal glass by which the object is best discerned.

Others again are not a little displeased with the Law or the Word of God, because when they look into it both their persons and their sins are represented in a far differing manner from those conceptions they ever had of one or the other. In their own eyes, they are as Absaloms without any blemish; but in this glass they are as deformed lepers and spread with a uniform uncleanness: and who can bear it to see himself thus suddenly transformed into a monster?

Now their sins which they judged to be as little as the motes [a mote is a speck of dust] in sunbeams, appear in amazing dimensions, and it is to them not a looking glass but a magnifying glass. Thoughts of the heart, glances of the eye, words of the lips, irruptions of the passions are all censured by it as deserving death, and there is nothing can escape it, which as a rule it will not guide or as a judge condemn.

O how irksome this must needs be to carnal and unregenerate men who abound with self-flattery and presumptions of their own innocence and righteousness who can as with little patience endure the convincing power of the Word as sore eyes the severe searchings of the light.

We need not wonder that the Word has so many adversaries who take part with Nature against Grace, setting their works on wits by distinctions and blended interpretations to make it as a glass breathed and blown upon, which yields nothing but dim and imperfect reflections.

Is there anything that the Word does more clearly assert than the loathsome condition of Man’s nature with which comes into the world? Is it not expressed by the filthiness of the birth every child is encompassed with when it breaks forth from the womb? Is it not resembled to the rottenness and stench of the grave into which Man is resolved when he is said to be dead in sins and trespasses?

And yet how many when they view themselves in this glass give out to the world that they can see no such thing?

Celestius of old [a follower of the heretic Pelagius, 5th century] thought the original sin was matter [of the substance] of dispute rather than faith. And some have been so bold of late as to call it [original sin] Austin’s figment [a figment of Augustine’s imagination].

But the more injurious to this divine mirror of truth, the more it behooves every good Christian to be studious in vindicating it from the scorns of such as despise it for its simplicity [clarity] and from the impieties of others that seek to corrupt its purity; and to show for what cause others hate it, he [the Christian] most affectionately loves and prizes it.

Thy Word is very pure, says David, therefore thy servant loves it. [Ps. 119:140]. Can you do God better service, while you honor his Word which he has magnified above all his Name? [Ps. 138:2] Or can you do yourselves more right than to judge yourselves by that which is so pure that it can neither deceived nor be deceived.

What though it present you with sad spectacle of your sins, which may justly fill you with shame and self-abhorrence; does it not also show you your Savior, who is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. And cannot this joyful sight raise you more than the other sight can cast you down?

O fear not to see your sin, when you may at the same time behold your Savior. A mourning heart is the best preparation for a spiritual joy, and serves to intend the height of it, as dark colors do set off the gold that is laid upon them.

Give me, therefore, O Lord a broken and relenting heart
That sin may be my sorrow
And Christ may be my joy;
Let my tears drop from the eyes of faith
That I may not mourn without hope
Nor yet rejoice without trembling.
Let me see my sins in the glass of the Law
To humble me,
And my Savior in the glass of the Gospel
To comfort me
Yea, let me with open so behold his glory
As to be changed into the same image
From glory to glory.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation LIV

16 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by in Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Uncategorized, William Spurstowe, William Spurstowe

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The prior post in this series may be found here

MEDITATION LIV
Upon Health of Body & Peace of Conscience

It was a high and eminent testimony given by St. John the Elder to Gaius in the prayer that he made for him, with an earnest the he might prosper and be in health, even as his soul prospered. (3 John 2) It is a crown that I could heartily desire might be deservedly set upon the head of everyone that is called by the honorable name of Christian; than I doubt not, but those reproaches which are daily cast upon them would fall as far short of them as stones that thrown at the Sun; and those scandals at which those who are without do stumble would be removed, and they also won by their own conversation [conduct/manner of life] to the obedience of faith.

But alas, I must invert the apostle’s wish, and I will wish true prosperity to the saints themselves; and pray that their souls may prosper and be in health as their bodies prosper: so unequal is the welfare for the most part that is between the one and the other. Where may I find the man? Or, who can tell me what is his name whose care and observance has so far prevailed as to make his soul an equal plight [agreement: he has agreed with his soul to take care of it to the same degree he has agreed to take care of his body] with his body; and to keep one as free from lusts as the other from diseases?

Whoever thought it necessary that pension should be given to orators to dissuade men from running into infected houses [a house where people were suffering from the plague]? Or to be out of love with moral poisons? Is not the least jealousy and suspicion of such things an argument enough to secure themselves against managers that may fall out?

But is there not need to admonish and warm the best and holiest of men that they abstain from fleshly lusts which war against these soul? Is it not requisite to bid the most watchful to take heed of lethargy when the Wise Virgins fall aside [Matt. 25:1, et seq.]? Did not Christ himself caution his disciples against having their hearts at any time over-charge with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life [Luke 8:14 & 12:37]?

And yet the meanest [lowly, not-noble] of their condition might seem to exempt them from such snares?

From whence then is ti that the welfare of the body should be mores studiously endeavored by all than the well-being of the soul in peace and serenity is almost by any? Is it not from the strength of fleshy principles which abide in the best and darken oft times the eye of understanding that it cannot right apprehend its concernments?

If there were but a clear insight into that blessedness into which peace of conscience does estate a believer, it could not be but that, it being laid in the balance with the health of the body, it should as far overweigh it as a full bucket a single drop, or as the vintage of a particular wine [to a] cluster [of grapes].

True it is that health of the body is a salt of all outward blessing which without it have no relish or flavor; neither riches nor honors nor delights for the belly or back, can yield the least pleasure where this is wanting; so the the enjoyment of it alone may be set against many other wants [things which are lacking]. And better it is to enjoy health without other additional comforts than to posses them under a load of infirmities.

And yet I may still say, What is the chaff to the wheat. Though it be the greatest outward good that God bestows in this life, it is nothing to that peace which passes understanding. Sickness destroys it [the body]; age enfeebles it; and extremities embitter it. But is the excellency of this divine peace that works joy in tribulation, that supports in bodily languish, and creates confidence in death.

Who is it that can throw forth the gauntlet, and bid defiance to the armies of trials, to persecutions, distress, famine, nakedness, perils, and sword [Rom. 8:35], but he whose heart is established with this peace (the ground of which is God’s free love; the price of which is Christ’s satisfaction [atoning death on the cross]; and the worker of which is the Holy Spirit; and the subject of which is a good conscience).

This was that that filled Simeon’s heart with joy and made him to beg a dimission [permission to depart] of his Savior [Luke 2:29] whom his eye had seen, his arms embraced and his soul trusted in. What a strange thing it is then that there should be so few merchant men that seek this godly pearl, which is far above all treasures of the earth, that are either hid in it or extracted from it?

Many say, Who will show us any good. [Ps. 4:6a]. But is David only that prays, Lord lift up the light of thy countenance upon us. [Ps. 4:6b] Others, like the scattered Israelites in Egypt go up and down gathering straw and stubble [Ex. 5:12]; when he, like an Israelite indeed, in the wilderness of this world, seeks mana which his spirit gathers up and seeds upon with delight and cries, Thou hast put gladness in my heart more than in the time that their corn and their wine increase. [Ps. 4:7]

It is the love of God shed abroad in the heart [Rom. 5:5] that doubles the sweetness of prosperity and sweetens also the bitterness of affliction: A wonder only therefore it is, not that few should seek but a much greater that any in this world should live without it.

Can any live well with the King’s favor, either in court or kingdom? And yet there are many places wherein such persons may lie hid in his dominions, when the utmost ends of the earth cannot secure the against God’s frowns. But if any be so profligate as Cleopatra-like to dissolve this jewel of peace in his lusts, and to drink down, in one prodigious draught that which exceeds the world in its price, and yet think they can live well enough without it; let them consider how they will do to die without it.

Sweet it is in life, but will be more sweet in death. It is not then the sunshine of his creatures but the Savior-shine that refresh them. It is not the wine that can cheer the heart, but the blood of sprinkling that will pacify it. [Heb. 10:22]

The more perpendicular death comes to be over our head, the lesser will the shadow of all earthly comforts grow and proves useless, either to assuage the pains of it or to mitigate the fears of it.

What is a fragrant posey put into the hands of a malefactor [here a condemned criminal] who is in the sight of the place of execution, and his friends bidding him to smell on it? Or, what is the delivering to him a sealed conveyance that entitles him to great revenues who has only minutes to live?

But, O what excess of joy does fill and overflow such a poor man’s heart when a pardon form his Prince comes happily in to prevent the stroke of death and to assure him both of life and estate?

This indeed is health and marrow to the bones.

And is it not thus to a dying sinner, who expects in a few moments to be swallowed up by those flames of wrath, the heat of which already scorches his conscience and cause agonies and terrors which embitter all the comforts of life and extract cries from him that are like the yelling of the damned: I am undone, without hope of recovery! Eternity itself will as soon end as my misery: God will forever hold me as his enemy, and with his own breath will enliven those coals that must be heaped upon me.

Of what value now would one smile of God’s face be to such a person? How joyfully would the softest whisper of the Spirit be that speaks any hope of pardon or peace. Would not one drop of this sovereign balm of God’s favor, let fall upon the conscience, heal and ease more than a river of all other delights whatsoever?

Think therefore upon it, O Christians, so as not any longer through your own default to be without the sense of blessing in your heart; that so in file as well as in death you may be filled with this Peace of God which passes understanding. [Phil. 4:7]

If prayer will obtain it, beg every day a good look form Him, the light of whose countenance is the only health of yours. If a holy and humble walking will preserve it, be more careful of doing anything to lose your peace than to endanger your health; remember that peace is so much better than health, as the soul is better than the body.

But grant, Holy Father
However others may neglect or defer to seek peace with Thee
And from thee
Yet I may now find thy peace in me
By thy pardoning all my iniquities
And may be found of thee in peace without spot
And blameless in the great day.

Who is the “Old Man” in Romans 6? (Martyn Lloyd-Jones)

14 Wednesday Mar 2018

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Lucas Cranach the Elder, 1538

In his sermon on Romans 6:5,6, Dr. Lloyd-Jones considers the issue of what is meant by the “old man” who has been crucified. He rejects one common understanding  that the old man is “the carnal nature and all its propensities”. Rather, the old man “the man that I used to be in Adam” (Rom. 6, p. 62). “As a Christian I am no longer in Adam; I am in Christ….It is not my carnal, sinful nature. That is still here, but the old man has gone, he has been crucified.” (Rom. 6, p. 63).

That is why those who are in Christ are no longer under condemnation. Rom. 8:1. The condemned man has been crucified; I am someone else.

And here is the implication:

We are never called to crucify our old man. Why? Because it has already happened — the old man was crucified with Christ on the Cross…nowhere does the Scripture call upon you to get rid of your old man, for the obvious reason that he is already gone….What you and I are called upon to do is to cease to live as if were were still in Adam. Understand that the “old man” is not there The only way to stop living as if he were still there is to realize that he is not there. That is the New Testament method of sanctification. the whole trouble with us, says the New Testament, is that we do not realize what we are, that we still go on thinking we are the old man and go on trying to do things to the old man. That has already been done; the old man was crucified with Christ.

The Heart of Christ in Heaven, to Sinners on Earth (Thomas Goodwin) 3

07 Wednesday Mar 2018

Posted by in Ascension, Christology, Thomas Goodwin, Uncategorized

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06apollo

ANDREA DEL CASTAGNO

1447
Fresco
Sant’Apollonia, Florence

As Goodwin explains, John 13 gives us a view into the heart of Christ as prepares to leave his disciples. Next Goodwin considers this aspect of Christ’s “long sermon” on leaving, “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away”. John 16:7 Christ will (1) send the comforter (John 16:7), and (2) prepare a place for them. John 14:3. He goes on ahead to prepare a place for them, to make certain it is done. And like the High Priest, he carries their names over his heart when enters into the holiest place.

Goodwin then draws out the implications of this going and coming, sinking deep into the concept of marriage which runs throughout the Scripture:

“I will come to you again and receive you to myself.” He condescends to the very laws of bridegrooms, for notwithstanding all his greatness, no lover shall put him down in any expression of true love. It is the maker of bridegrooms, hen they have made all ready in their father’s house, then to come themselves and fetch their brides, and not to send for them by others, because it is the time of love.

Love descends better than ascends, and so doth the love Christ, who indeed is love itself, and therefore comes down to us himself.

….”Heaven shall not hold me, nor my Father’s company, if I have not you with me, my heart is so set up you; and if I have any glory, you shall have a part of it.”

….He will not stay a minute longer than needs must, he tarries only till he hath throughout all ages by his intercession prepared every room for each saint, that he may entertain them all at once together, and have the all about him.

4 Goodwin, “The Heart of Christ in Heaven”, 100.

The Heart of Christ in Heaven, to Sinners on Earth (Thomas Goodwin) 2

27 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by in Ascension, Biblical Counseling, Christology, Thomas Goodwin, Uncategorized

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Goodwin begins his analysis with John 13:1:

Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

Goodwin argues that in what follows, John writes to “set open a window into Christ’s heart and give a light into, and put a gloss and interpretation upon all that follows. The scope where is to show what his affections would be to them in heaven”.

Jesus knows that the cross is coming; that “the Father had given all things into his hands” (John 14:3).  What then does Christ think of; what does he do? He washes his disciples feet: Rather than thinking of what he would gain for himself, “he takes more for his own, who were to remain here in this world, a world wherein there is much evil”. The knowledge that he is coming to the end, draws out his compassion towards “his own”: “The elect are Christ’s own, a piece of him .. not as goods…his own children, his own members, his own wife, his own flesh.” (p. 97)

Goodwin explains the purpose of washing their feet as follows:

And what was Christ’s meaning in this, but that, whereas he should be in heaven, he could not make such outward visible demonstrations of his heart, by doing such mean services for them; therefore by doing this in the midst of such thoughts of his glory, he would show what he could be content (as it were) to do for them, when he should be in full possession of it….So you see what his heart was before he went to heaven, even admit the thought of all his glory; and you see what it is after he hath been in heaven, and greatened with all his glory, even content to wash poor sinners’ feet, and to serve them that come to him and wait for him. (p. 98)

And, this washing signifies his willingness to wash away their sin.

The Heart of Christ in Heaven, to Sinners on Earth (Thomas Goodwin) 1

25 Sunday Feb 2018

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This is a fascination essay (a long essay, a very short book), divided in three parts. The essay asks the question, what is Jesus Christ like now that he is ascended? What is he like in heaven? How does he now relate to me? And, rather than give a careless answer, Goodwin very carefully considers some important aspects of the Scriptural evidence.

This essay demonstrates a level of exegesis which cannot easily be taught. There is a mechanical sort of analysis which looks at text and explicates the grammar and syntax. That is necessary, but when it comes to Scripture, that sort of analysis goes only part way. The necessary questions are why is this being said? What does this do? How does this part relate to the whole (context is king, but the ultimate context of Scripture is the entirety, not merely the surrounding paragraph)? I remember a line a poem (perhaps it was Stratford, it has been years since I read it, “Everything is telling one big story”.)

There is a goal to this essay:

The scope and use whereof will be this, to hearten and encourage believers to come ore boldly unto the throne of grace, unto such a Savior and High Priest, when the shall know how sweetly and tenderly his heart, though he is now in his glory, is inclined toward them [Collected Works, vol. 4, p. 95].

It ends likes this:

In all the miseries and distresses you may be sure to know where to have a have a friend to help and pity you, even in heaven, Christ;

One who nature, office, interest, relation, all, do engage him to your succor; you will find men, even friends to be oftentimes unto you unreasonable, and their bowels [their compassion] in many cases shut up towards you.

Well, say to them all, If you will not pity me, choose, I know that one that will, one in heaven, whose heart is touched with the feeling of all my infirmities, and I will go and bemoan myself to him.

Come boldly says the text, even with open mouth, to lay open your complaints, and you shall find grace and mercy to help in time of need. Men love to see themselves pitied by friends, though they cannot help them; Christ can and will do both.

Vol. 4, p. 150. In between the aim and the strike, Goodwin provides a tremendous, careful theology of Christ’s Ascension.

Part I will be next.

Edward Taylor’s Meditation 25, “Why should my bells”, Stanza 3

02 Friday Feb 2018

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Glory, Literature, Uncategorized

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When I behold some curious piece of art,

 Or pretty bird, flower, star, or shining sun,

Pour out o’reflowing glory:  oh!  my heart

 Aches seeing how my thoughts in snick-snarls run.

 But all this glory to my Lord’s a spot

 While I instead of any, am all blot.

 

Paraphrase: I am taken by many lesser glories, a work of art, beauty in nature (it should be noted there here is an example of nature being seen as beautiful by a man living on the edge of a dangerous wilderness — and before the Romantics), my heart is taken with the glory. My thoughts become overwhelmed with these lesser sights. But all such glory is nothing compared with God’s glory; while I am on who is marked by the utter absence of glory.

 

Snick-snarl: What a wonderful phrase. An essay entitled, ” The Lincolnshire Dialect in the Eighteenth Century” defines it as follows, “Snick Snarl, a, curling up (particularly burnt leather). [Wright defines as “a tangle in thread etc.”].” http://www.cantab.net/users/michael.behrend/repubs/lincs_dialect_18c/pages/main.html It’s one of the words that sound like its meaning.

 

Scansion:  The third and fourth line have a jerky movement which slows the reading and forces attention on the meaning: The first word “pour” has an uncertain weight. It could be read POUR out or Pour OUT.  The phrase “o’reflowing glory: oh!”, while regular o’reFLOWing GLORy, OH, has an interesting effect based upon the assonance the repetition of O, including OR, twice. It is impossible to say the phrase quickly. One must to even say the words. It is made more difficult to pronounce because the scansion is regular, “overflowing glory” would much easier and quicker.

Another interesting movement runs from line 3 to 4, “OH! my HEART/ACHES, the emphasis thus thrown on “aches”.

 

Biblical Allusion: While there is a generic allusion to the beauty of God and stain of sin on man [by the way, a study should be made of whether Taylor, who was a friend of Jonathan Edward’s father, communicated any of this doctrine of glory to Edwards — who was overwhelmed with God’s glory], there appears to be a specific allusion to Hebrews 1:

Hebrews 1:1–3 (AV)

1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

The Greek which underlies the English is

Hebrews 1:3 (SBLGNT)

3 ὃς ὢν ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης καὶ χαρακτὴρ τῆς ὑποστάσεως αὐτοῦ, φέρων τε τὰ πάντα τῷ ῥήματι τῆς δυνάμεως, διʼ αὑτοῦ καθαρισμὸν τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ποιησάμενος ἐκάθισεν ἐν δεξιᾷ τῆς μεγαλωσύνης ἐν ὑψηλοῖς,

Which has the idea of effulgence or radiance. If there is an “overflowing glory” and effulgence of glory in the creature, how much more glory in the Creator.

God has acted

28 Thursday Dec 2017

Posted by in Ecclesiology

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So what does this mean for us today? The first practical point we should note is this: when we gather as a church, a biblical understanding of God’s grace means that we are only there because God has acted. Indeed, our gathering as the church is the action of God and not of ourselves. If we can ever legitimately make ourselves the subject of a sentence containing the phrase “do church,” it is only in a very subordinate and derivative way. The church that takes God’s grace seriously believes that the church is solely God’s creature—not our response to his grace.

Carl Trueman, Grace Alone