Tag Archives: doctrine

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation LIII

18 Thursday Jan 2018

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The previous post from this 17th century devotional may be found here

MEDITATION LIII
Upon a Counterfeit Piece of Coin

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What physicians say of some disease, they are most dangerous which imitate and come nearest unto health, may be applied fitly to adulterous and spurious coins: that the greater resemblance and likeness they have to the true and genuine, the more pernicious and destructive they are to the public, wasting though insensibly not only private estates but the common treasury and riches of a nation.

And therefore, falsifying of coin, which bears the image or arms of the prince (as the general warrant to ratify the goodness of it), has been made a crime of the same complexion with the highest attempt or act done against his person; the same capital punishment being inflicted upon him that is food guilt of the one as is upon him that is guilty of the other.

What can be one more to deter any from such practices then the loss of name, estate, life, in a ghastly and ignominious death? And yet, these severities, which should be as boundaries at the foot of the mountain to keep all from offending (Exodus 19:21-25) are insufficient to restrain the many who love gain, and the hope of secrecy do embolden to run a sad hazard that thy may enjoy the sweet.

Secrecy in sinning, though in some respect it extenuates the sin, as making it less sandals and less contagious, yet it is a powerful attractive to include to the commission of sin.

Joseph’ mistress (Genesis 39:11) was most vehement in her soliciting of him to folly when none of the men of the house were within. The Harlot of Probers mades that as her plea to the young man to harken unto her, That the good man is not at home, he is gone a long journey, he hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come at the day appointed. (Prov. 7: 19-20)

It is that which put an edge upon the covetousness of Achan, to take the goodly Babylonian garment, the two hundred shekels of silver, and the wedge of gold, that he could not do without the privity [knowledge] of any, so that none could charge him with the breach of that strict command which God had given of not taking the accursed thing least they make themselves accursed the camp of Israel accursed and trouble it. [Judges 7:10-26]

But how far more presumptuous are they who adulterate not the coins of princes but the truths of God and stamp his names on their inventions, to give a credit and value to them. Have such workers of iniquity any darkness and shallow of death where they may hide themselves? Do they think that though Kings cannot discover those oft times that violate the dignities of the crown, that they also can escape the knowledge of the Most High? Or is not he as jealous of his Word, which has magnified above all his Name as they are of every piece that carries their image and inscription upon it? Has he not declared himself to be against those that prophecy the deceits of their own heart (Jeremiah 14:14) and use their tongues and say, The Lord says.

Yea, has he not denounced the most dreadful curses against all embalmers or clips of his heavenly coin? To the one he threatens that all the plagues that are written in the Book of Truth (Rev. 22:18); and for the other, he shall take away his part in the book Book of Life, out of the Holy City, and from the things that are written in the Book of God (Rev. 22:19). Who can read such a sentence and not tremble at the thought of it?

And yet though God (as Bernard speaks) A wise exchanger will not take mont that is broken or false; though we cannot mock him, as one man mocks another, how many do take a liberty to mint doctrines and tenet that have only the semblance not the purity and substance of Divine Truth? And upon these they set the Name of God, that they may more easily deceive the incautious

As Pompey built a theater with the title of “temple”, and Apollinaris the Heretic School with the Title of Orthodox: What prevalence such arts in this kind have had, I would [give as an example] the defections of many particular persons, yea of churches [does] abundantly witness. Was not the whole church of Galatia soon removed from him that had called them into the Grace of Christ unto another Gospel (Gal. 1:6). By their false teachers blending the necessity of circumcision with the Gospel and the works of faith. And did no the Corinthians comply more readily with the false apostle than with Paul? Ye suffer [permit it] if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take you, if a man exalt himself, if a man do smite you on the face. 2 Cor. 11:20.

It is the temper and disposition of most to be far more circumspect and jealous of the concernments of their estate than of their faith; and to use both the scale and the test to find out false and light coins, when in matters of faith, the question is seldom made, “Whose image and superscription do they bear?” (Mark 12:16) It is enough if they please fancy or else have the allowance of such whom them have in admiration. Can I then do less than bemoan the slightness and indifference of Christians about the Truth which is the only deposit that God has concredited [deposited with] to the Saints? And awaken both myself and others to buy the truth at any rate, but to sell it or debase it at no rate?

Rob but God once of his truth, and what riches of glory do you leave him? Is not he the God of Truth, and are not you witnesses, chosen by himself, to give testimony unto it? And can you dishonor him more than to make him like the Father of Lies (John 8:44), while you either spread the infection of error to others, or receive it from others into your own bosom? Bethink therefore yourselves, you who deliver the oracles of God, that you be not as lying vanities of the heathen which deceived those that repaired [went] uno them. What comfort can you ever have in departing form the form of sound words (2 Tim. 1:13) and speaking in affected and swelling words which are one of Satan’s lures to seduce into errors?

Who can understand behems greeming of the inward root, or the canting of the familists, of being Godded with God or Christed with Christ? And be you wise, O Christians, in the differencing of such impure gibberish from the holy dialect of the Spirit. Let not such arts, which serve only as the light of the fowler in the night, first to amaze the birds and then to bring them into the net, ensure and captivate you. Keep untainted from errors. The doctrines of the faith that you profess, that you profess, which will be your glory; and the duties that you perform to god from hypocrisy which will be your comfort. Let not your intercourse with heaven be in such services that are only guided with words of piety, which make them specious to men, and wholly destitute of sincerity, which can alone commend you to God.

Would it not be a piece of inexcusable folly for any to heap up a mass of counterfeit coin and then to value himself worth thousands? And is it not far great for men to think that they have laid much treasure in heaven (Matt. 6:20), and rich toward God by prayers that they have made and other services they have done, which will all be found dross and not gold and will produce no return [rather than] the increase of a sore condemnation? O the thoughts are dreadful to think how many will be found poor, miserable, and naked Laodiceans, who comfortably presume that they are rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing (Rev. 3:17).

I cannot therefore but pray,
Lord help me to buy of thee the God tried in the fire
and to get such grace into my heart
that I may never be amongst the number of those who are justly hated by men for hypocrites in the world
and condemned by God for hypocrites in the other world.

 

1 Peter 1:17, How Doctrine Leads to Life

08 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling

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1 Peter 1:13–21 (ESV)

13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 17 And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one’s deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile, 18 knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot. 20 He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you 21 who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.

Book Review: (Part 1)

18 Thursday Apr 2013

Posted by in Ascension, Christology

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In the Foreward to Gerritt Scott Dawson’s  Jesus Ascended: The Meaning of Christ’s Continuing Incarnation,  Dr. Douglas F. Kelly writes,

For whatever reason, the ascent of the glorified body of Christ bearing our new humanity to the Father’s Throne has been generally neglected for centuries in most theological and ecclesiastical traditions.

Writes that after 18 years of ministry, “I had not preached a single sermon devoted entirely to the ascension” (Accent on the Ascension, Carl Brumback, Gospel Publishing House, 1955). He had not heard any such sermon. He went to look for a book on the subject, but “the cupboard was bare.”  He checked the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. (for those younger readers, finding the contents of a library used to require actually traveling to the physical building):

I could scarcely believe my eyes when I examined the files. Among the thousands of books on religious subjects, there was but one work in the English language which dealt solely with the ascension: The Ascended Christ, written by Henry Barclay Swete, and published originally in England in 1910.

He had missed William Milligan, The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of our Lord, 1894.[1] Now this lack of recent work actually begins a delight of this Dawson’s book: First, it is good to have such a thorough and thoughtful book available. Second, due to the lack of recent work, Dawson’s authorities for explication of the relevant biblical texts are drawn largely from the Church Fathers.  Too many theology books spend their time sparring with graduate students and fail to consider the extraordinary history of the church. 

However, as is amply demonstrated by Dawson, the Christological and Trinitarian debates of the early Church brought out brilliant insight into the biblical texts which might have received less consideration if more doctoral theses had focused on the Ascension.

Now neglect of a doctrine may be a mere historical curiosity – but Dawson draws a practical pastoral implication. He reviewed the nature of the life of his local congregation:

All of these signs point to a membership composed of committed Christians who are living in the grip of a world that has claimed them as its own. I do not believe my people are consciously trying to serve two masters. Generally, I do not think they even realize the contradiction between our beliefs and our life as a church. They are kind, happy, forgiving, dear church fold. Their pastor, however, knows himself to be compromised, realizes that he, too, has ‘the world is too much with us’ disease, and wants to get better (21).

Dawson locates recovery of the doctrine of the Ascension as vital antidote to the poison of worldliness:

A solution to the world’s being too much with us is an increasing awareness of how much our true identity and life’s destination is located in heaven, followed by the change in life here on earth that comes from the transformation in vision. (26)

Dawson than makes a reference to the postscript of Swete’s volume  which bears more substantial examination.  Swete identifies seven ways in which right knowledge of the doctrine of Ascension would affect the manner in which we live as Christians in the current age.

The first aspect (which Dawson quotes in part) is that the doctrine directly countermands the spirit of the age: The current age of the world seeks to make the here and now, the getting and spending, as the beginning and end of human existence.  Yet, when we rightly realize there is a human being – God incarnate, Jesus Christ at the right hand of majesty on high and that he is ushering in the age to come, it transforms the manner in which we think of this world:

The Ascension and Ascended Life bear witness against the materialistic spirit which threatens in some quarters to overpower those higher interests that have their seat in the region of the spiritual and eternal. They are as a Sursum corda—’ lift up your hearts’—which comes down from the High Priest of the Church who stands at the heavenly altar, and draws forth from the kneeling Church the answer Habemus ad Dominum—’ we lift them up unto the Lord.’ Faith in the Ascended Christ was S. Paul’s remedy for the sensuality which he encountered in the Greek cities of Asia Minor: seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth; for your life is hid with Christ in God; mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. How strong a motive this appeal supplied is evident from the history of the primitive Church. The grosser vices of paganism have less attraction for our age, but the downward pressure of external things remains; at a time when life is being reduced to a complex machinery for the production of wealth, there is ample room for a doctrine which points men persistently to an order of realities which are at once present and eternal, a world which already surrounds us and waits only for the coming of the Lord to be manifested in overwhelming power. (Swete, 155-156).

However, the doctrine of Ascension does not lead us to flee the world. We are to live in the world, for our Lord is man of the physical world (even as he is also Son of God by nature). We cannot give the world our ultimate allegiance, for our King lives elsewhere – and yet we must not forget the world entirely. We must be in the world, but not of the world:

Faith in the Ascended Christ dictates the attitude which the Church should maintain towards the world. Two mistakes have been made in reference to this matter. There have been times in the life of the Church when she has been tempted to make common cause with the world, or to meet it halfway; and times, again, when she has gone to the opposite extreme of retiring from the world altogether. Neither of these attitudes is Apostolic or primitive, for in the early days of the faith, when men lived in full view of the Ascended Life, they knew how to live in the world without being of it. There is a familiar passage in a second century Apology which puts this into words, and must be quoted here once again. ‘Christians,’ the writer says, ‘ are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either by country or speech or customs. They neither inhabit cities of their own, nor use a different language, nor practise a manner of life which is out of the common. But while inhabiting cities Greek or foreign, as the lot of each determines, and following the customs of the country both in regard to dress and food and life in general, they shew themselves to be possessed of a citizenship which is all their own, and the nature of it is a paradox. They dwell in their native lands, but as sojourners; they share all things as citizens and endure all things as strangers; every foreign country is their fatherland, and every fatherland a foreign country to them. They are in these sides of the Christian life, or exaggerates one of them at the expense of the other, suffers spiritual loss; and it suffers because it has failed to realize the full significance of the Ascension and the Return in their relation to the present duty of the Church as representing Christ in the world.

Thus, as Swete and Dawson note, the doctrine of the Ascension is a necessary anchor to permit the Christian to navigate the world rightly. Since our hope is anchored beyond this world, this world cannot ultimately trouble us, nor should it take our dearest attention (for it is the world that killed our Lord). Yet, our Lord has seen fit that we should witness to his majesty in this world. Thus, his kingship gives us the strength to remain in the world.

Thus, recovering and understanding the doctrine of the Ascension is of critical importance for the people of God. 

In the next posts I will review Dawson’s development of the doctrine.

[1] I did manage to find a copy of this book for $1.00 – but I have not seen it available elsewhere. And, I am not selling it.

Book Review: Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, by Carl Trueman

12 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Church History, Reformation

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Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, by Carl Trueman.

Buy and read this book. First, it is helpful in a pastoral manner: both in presentation and in content. He does not merely lay out a proposition as a historical detail, but he constantly brings the proposition into the focus of practical ministry.

For example, he may point to some ways in which much of the contemporary protestant church fails to understand the Reformation emphases summarized in the solas – it is especially helpful when he demonstrates that often those who think themselves closely aligned with the solas have fundamentally missed the mark.

Another pastoral aspect comes through in his advice on how to better act as a pastor. Rather than leaving a doctrine (such as sola scriptura) as an artifact to be examined, Trueman shows how one should examine and perhaps alter his preaching to rightly reflect the doctrine.

Second, Trueman writes well. This first makes the book a pleasure to read. It makes the information easy to receive.  It provides a good model for those who would wish to learn to speak and write better (I assume much of his audience will be pastors – most of whom could certainly stand to improve their English language skills: A vitamin of the most healthful parts packed in sawdust will never make it past the throat; and a sermon of correct doctrine which cannot be swallowed will be left uselessin the pew).

Third, the book is informative: I learned from reading the book.

A book which exhorts, informs and teaches is a blessing.

Chapter One: The Pearl of Great Price

The Reformation was – and the continuing reformation must be – a theological task, wherein the Scripture confronts the sinful heart. The human heart has an extraordinary, an unending power to distort and cover over the Gospel. Thus, the human heart will continually seek to push the Gospel far away (Romans 1:18). There lies the need and reason for continual reformation.

The contemporary church is awash in means of changing the outside of the presentation – when such changes can never respond to the true depth of moral failure which makes the Gospel needful for humanity:

What this [a clear, theological understanding of human depravity] meant [to the Reformers] was that humanity would always seek to make God in its own image, always seek to worship him on its own terms, always seek to worship itself or its own forms than to face up to the experience o standing before God’s holiness and coming to him on his own terms (34-35).

Since this is true, we must both refuse to transform the Gospel into something more palatable for our culture – and for ourselves. We cannot make outward change to appease the culture, nor traditional maintenance to please ourselves the model of faithfulness.

Chapter Two: Meeting the Man of Sorrows

This chapter sets out Luther’s theology of the cross, a theology of suffering which displays God’s judgment and mercy in reality altering truth.  Here is a place where the reformation work must certainly continue, because we understand far too little of the demonstration of the cross.

Here is a mere hint of the beauty and pastoral concern of the chapter:

Suffering and weakness are not just the way in which Christ triumphs and conquers; they are the way in which we are to triumph and conquer too. In other words, if suffering and weakness are the ways God works in Christ, it is to be expected that these are the ways he will work in those who follow Christ. One does not become a theologian by knowing a lot about God; one become a theologian by suffering the torments and feeling the weakness which union with Christ must inevitably bring in its wake (49).

The church must not let itself be subverted by a culture which seeks to pave the way of life with ease and entertainment. The Gospel of the Cross is not a Gospel of a wonderful plan for your life – at least not in the manner in which is it is routinely expressed. Yes, to see Jesus, to glorify God and enjoy him forever is the greatest “plan for your life” that one could imagine. But it is not the plan of a better house, a better job, more comfort.

But is at just this point of suffering that the church can and must speak: the church can speak to life as it is; the church must speak to the true sorrow and pain of this life brought about sin and death.  The cross gives us something needful to say.

Chapter Three: The Oracles of God

This chapter presents the Scripture and the consequent sermon as the efficient cause – the practical means by which the Scripture is brought to bear upon the human heart.

The typical conservative Christian will willing affirm that the Bible is “true” and yet miss the significance of such a claim. As Trueman notes, any number of written documents are “true” – a bus schedule is “true”. The trouble does not lie in the fact of truth, but in the significance of that claim – and the true nature of the Scripture’s claim when presented rightly in the sermon:

…we do well to bear in mind James Packer’s point that preaching is not simply communication; it is far more than that, in that it actually brings Christ, God himself, to the congregation. The sermon may be made up of words, but what take place is far more than the mere transmission of information; the Holy Spirit uses those words to point to Christ, to create faith in Christ, and thus to unite individuals to Christ (83-84).

Those who call for something beyond sermons, something new (whatever the current concern may be) fail to understand the truth of the words of Scripture brought to bear in a sermon.  

 

Chapter Four: Blessed Assurance

Trueman contrasts the common understanding of the Gospel as a matter of one’s subjective experience with assurance as a conclusion based upon God’s action. While most (?) Christians define assurance in terms of personal experience – whether the legalist who can point to perfection, or the emotionalist who points to his “joy” – assurance should rightly be understood as a conclusion which one reaches on the basis of the nature of God’s work in Jesus Christ.

 

Assurance, rightly understood, necessarily transforms the Christian life:

 

Thus, the whole of the Christian life is profoundly shaped by the one brilliant insight: that God’s love is unconditional and total, that it brings us salvation as a gift, and that, most amazing of all, we can know this salvation for certain in ourselves (105).

 

Permit just one pastoral implication of a correct understanding of assurance – this is a matter for which the counselor must take especial notice.  When assurance hinges upon one’s subjective experience, suffering shakes one’s view of God: How can a good God permit me to experience sorrow?  Where assurance is a matter of one’s subjective emotional state, the “counselor” must somehow raise the sufferer’s feelings:

 

She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him; she needs to know that, whatever her current feelings of anguish and despair, God si trustworthy and loving; and she needs to know that assurance is not necessarily about emotional highs but about knowing that God is faithful even though the whole world appears to be falling apart around her.  ….that will only happen when the emphasis in preaching is not on ourselves but on the Christ of the Bible (122-123).

 

We Need the Gospel to Bring Peace

25 Wednesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, George Smeaton, Philippians

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There can be no real peace in the heart and mind unless or until there is peace with God respecting sin:

Conscience demands satisfaction or atonement. To this necessity on the side of conscience there are various solutions by our Lord, all of them full of significance. Thus when he invites the weary and Clayton, he plainly eludes the state of an awakened conscience desiring satisfaction or atonement which the individual is not able to offer (Matthew 11:28). The thirsty invited to come and drink are those who are in a similar condition (John 7:37). They who are described in the Sermon on the Mount as hungering and thirsting after righteousness are obviously those who feel the oppression of conscious guilt, and to pay for that a macula “righteousness,” or atonement which alone can fill in satisfy the wants of human nature (Matthew 5:6). Our Lord’s words assumed that such as the harmony between the voice of conscience and the claims of God, or, in other words, between man made in the image of God and the rights of him whose image he bears, that nothing will satisfy conscience that does not satisfy the perfections and law of God. As God’s representative within, it is taken for granted the conscience will quit only when God acquits, and possess peace only when God has opened through the finished redemption. There is an inner or subjective necessity which must come to its rights.

Thus conscience acknowledges that wherever sin is punishment ought to be suffered. We see in the old economy the intense longing of the heart after sacrifices, and the conviction of their insufficiency in the ceremonial law…. And as their holiness group, they would still be haunted by a keener sense of guilt, remembering that they were the same person still, and that no reparation had been made…..

Thus it appears from all history and experience, but conscience is so sensitive, but it will reject everything which made the offer to calm or heal it, till it finds repose in peace and the vicarious death of Christ; and no atonement will avail which is not infinite. Men discover to himself, and aware of his wants, will fall into despair. If the growing sense of guilt is not still by the great redemption of the cross. It is true that mere conscience cannot of itself tell what is an adequate atonement; that it is but a dumb sense of want; and that it often tries false remedies in vain reliefs. The man is a prisoner under guilt, and knows it. God alone knows it provides the adequate atonement; and the unburdened conscience attest to his adequate when found. But no one can persuade conscience that atonement is unnecessary.

–George Smeaton, The Doctrine of the Atonement as Taught by Christ Himself (26-27).

If this is so, then why must believers suffer a lack of peace? Doesn’t the Bible tell us that we must seek peace by prayer (Philippians 4:6-7). Paul says that we pray and God instantly and immediately brings us peace. Isn’t doctrine too abstract? What connection could there be between atonement and peace in the human heart?

Consider more carefully the argument of Paul:

Philippians 4:1–9 (ESV)

1 Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved. 2 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. 3 Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have labored side by side with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. 9 What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.

First the problem (vv.1-3): a row in the church. A fight of sufficient intensity that Paul was certain it had survived the trip to bring him news of the quarrel and that it would survive the return of the messenger.

In verse 4, Paul brings up the matter of salvation wrought by atonement (“whose names are in the book of life”). This immediately brings Paul to thoughts of joy (v.5). Paul then moves into a discussion of the relationship with God which includes submission to God in prayer (vv. 5-7).

Paul  then moves to the matter of meditation and conduct (vv. 8-9). In the meditation list, what could Paul possibly have considered relevant for such meditation? In Philippians 2:5 Paul tells them to have or better that they already have the condition and basis to think like Jesus:  “Adopt then this frame of mind in your community – which indeed is proper for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Moises Silva, translation).  The content of that meditation in Philippians 2 is the work of Jesus in humiliation, death and resurrection to glory, i.e., the atonement.

We remain too much without peace, because we recall too infrequently how great a glory and how deep a hope we have in Jesus. We fail to see the greatness of the atonement, and thus we wallow in anxiety. Believer, drink deeply from the hope and joy of the atonement – and you will not be troubled. Do not turn your eyes from your hope.

The Starting Point is God — Not Me

03 Saturday Mar 2012

Posted by in Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Quotations

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Now that is not quite as obvious as it sounds, because if you consider the typical approach to theology and to biblical matters over the past hundred years or so, you will find that almost invariably the starting point is with man. Everything associated with what is sometimes called modernism is always characterised by that; the theology is always subjective; it always starts with man himself. Because modernism is interested in itself, and in its so-called psychological ideas of origin, inevitably it starts either with man or with the world, and from that goes on to study the doctrine of God.

But that is not what the Bible says. The Bible starts with God; you remember its great opening statement which really tells us everything: ‘In the beginning God …’ It is very important that we should emphasise this and grasp it clearly. The knowledge of God is ultimately the sum of all other doctrines; there is no sense, there is no meaning or purpose, in any other doctrine apart from this great central, all-inclusive, doctrine of God Himself. There is no point in considering the doctrine of salvation, nor the doctrine of sin, unless we have started with the doctrine of God. But quite apart from such, more or less logical, considerations, we start with the doctrine of God because God is God, and because if we put anything or anybody before Him we are thereby dishonouring Him. We are failing to worship Him as we should and failing to conduct ourselves in His presence as the Bible teaches us to do.

David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, God the Father, God the Son (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1996), 47-48.

John Brown, from his commentary on First Peter

13 Friday Jan 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Quotations

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It is painful to think that it is no uncommon thing for a person to be able to talk plausibly about these principles of Christianity,to reason conclusively intheir support, andto be zealous even to rancor against those who deny, or even doubt, their truth; while he yet continues a total stranger to their transforming efficacy, the slaveof selfishness,malignity andworldliness. And what is the most lamentable part of this sad history, the infatuated man seems in a great measure unaware of the shocking inconsistency he is exhibiting,in displaying the most unchristian tempers in defence of christian truth. He mistakes his knowledge and zeal about certain propositions— which, it may be, embody christian truth—for Christianity itself; and looking, it would seem, on orthodoxy of opinion as the sum and substance of religious duty, wraps himself up in an overweening conception of his own attainments, and resigns himself to the pleasing dreams of a fanciedsecurity, from which but too frequently he is first and forever awakened by hearing the awful mandate, “Depart from me, I never knew you;” and by finding his place assigned him with the hypocrites, in the regions of hopeless misery. It is an interesting inquiry,and,if properly conducted, would certainly elicit some important results—How comes it that men,with the Bible in their hands, can practise such fatal impositions on themselves? How comes it that the mere speculator should so readily conclude himself a sound believer? How comes it that the truth of doctrines should not only be readily admitted, but zealously maintained, while their appropriate influenceis altogether unfelt. and indeed, steadily resisted? It would lead us too far out of our way just now to engage in such an inquiry; but I must be permitted to observe, that whatever influence deficient human representations of divine truth may have had inproducing so mischievous and lamentable a result (and I believe that influence has been extensive and powerful), the truths of the Gospel themselves, andthe scriptural representationof them, cannot be justly charged as in any degree the cause of this evil. The doctrines of the Gospel are of such a nature, that, if apprehended intheir meaning and evidence,—if understood and believed,—they must, from the constitution of the mind of man,have a commanding influence over its principles of action;andthesedoctrines,as taught in the Bible,are not exhibited as mere abstract propositions, but are stated in such a manner as distinctly to show, how closely the belief of them is connected with everything that is good in disposition, and right in conduct. The speculatist in religion must not seek, for he will not find, in the Bible, an apology for his infatuationandinconsistency.On the contrary, he will meet with much to prove him altogether inexcusable.