Tag Archives: Father

Our Fellowship is With the Father

19 Saturday Sep 2015

Posted by in 1 John, 1 Peter, Preaching, Union With Christ

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1 John 1:1–4 (ESV)

1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life— 2 the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was made manifest to us— 3 that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

What does it mean to have fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ?

If you call on him as Father, 1 Peter 1:17

28 Friday Aug 2015

Posted by in 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Fear of the Lord, Lectures, Leviticus, Preaching

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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.

The Fountain of all Theology: The Father’s Love for His Son

31 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in Christology, Ephesians, Glory, God the Father, Image of God, Justification, Revelation, Romans, Soteriology, Trinity

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An August 2012 conference at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary resulted in a book of essays entitled The Beauty and Glory of the Father. The first essay in the collection, “The Father’s Love for His Son” by Bartel Elshout contends:

The Holy Spirit gives us a glimpse into the infinite depth of the Father’s heart — a heart that is eternally moved in love for His eternally begotten and beloved Son. This is the fountain from which all theology flows. Nothing so precisely defines who the Father is as the fact that He loves His Son with the totality and fullness of His divine person. (3)

The remainder of the essay sets out to demonstrate and develop that thesis. He sets out a series of minor theses respecting the Trinity in eternity, creation, fall, redemption, and the eschaton.

The presentation is precise and scholarly without being pedantic. While the work entails rigor of thought, it does not present any difficulties which an attentive adult could not master. While never quite poetic, it is beautiful in its clarity and object.

Elshout presents his case with careful logic, drawing out implications which are not immediately obvious — but which once demonstrated can be affirmed. This is the primary strength of the essay.

For example, as he works through the manner in which creation demonstrates the Father’s love for His Son, Elshout contends:

The Father’s love for His Son, the love that moved Him to create the entire univere for His Son, also moved Him to create Adam in the image of His Son. (7).

I was not immediately sure that one could say that Adam, who was certainly created in the image and likeness of God was particularly created in the image of the Son. Elshout recognized the difficulty and so presents a careful case.

First, he looks to Romans 8:28-29. The first verse is the much abused text that all things work together for good — which fails to recognize that “good” is defined in verse 29:

28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

“In other words, the ultimate goal of redemption is the conformity of fallen human beings to the image of the Father’s well-beloved Son” (7). He confirms the proposition by referencing 1 John 3:1-2:

1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

From this proposition, Elshout draws an inference: “If the goal of the Father’s redemptive work is to conform men and women to the image of His Son, this must have been His original goal in creating man” (7). This is the greatest leap of the argument.

To support this jump, he argues that the goals of creation & redemption are the same. First, he looks to the purpose of creation. He reasons, “If the goal of the Father’s redemptive work is to conform men and women to the image of His Son, this must have been His original goal in creating man.” (7)

What is the purpose of creation: “thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev. 4:11, KJV). [The Greek text has “καὶ διὰ τὸ θέλημά σου ἦσαν καὶ ἐκτίσθησαν”; thelema, will/decision. Here is an example of how English words have shifted meaning over the past 400 years. In 1611, “pleasure” would be something in accordance with one’s will.]

All things exist according to the pleasure, the will of God and continue so. At this point, I believe Elshout would have strengthened his argument by a reference to Ephesians 1:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
5 he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will,
6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

The fact of redemption in the Son is solely a matter of the Father’s will [Greek: κατὰ τὴν εὐδοκίαν τοῦ θελήματος αὐτοῦ, according to the pleasure of his will, thelematos.] Elshout certainly seems to presume this passage in his argument.

We know that the purpose of redemption is conforming rebellious, straying human beings to the image of the Son. This is done according to the good pleasure of God’s will. Moreover, creation itself is an act of the very same will. Indeed, the process of redemption and sanction is conformity to the Creator:

9 Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices
10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Colossians 3:9-10

At this point, Elshout’s observes something which I found fascinating. Skipping a portion of his argument, Elshout draws out an implication of Adam being created in the image of the Son. First, the Son himself discloses the Father (John 1:18). Thus, to look upon the Son is to know the disclosure of the Father.

This leads to the realization:

We may therefore conclude that, before the Fall, Adam and Eve delighted themselves in the very same Son of God in whom the Father eternally delights Himself. Being the bearers of the image of His Son, loving and worshipping Him, Adam adn Eve were the recipients of the love the Father has for His Son. The Father beheld the reflection of His eternal Son, and loved them with the same love with which He loved His Son. …In summary, the Father created man for His Son and in His image in order that man might know and love his Son and live for His glory. (8)

This brief notice concerns only two pages of the 16 page essay. The entire piece is well worth one’s consideration.

John Flavel, The Method of Grace.1

20 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Christology, Faith, John Calvin, John Flavel, Puritan, Trinity, Union With Christ

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Sermon 1. The general Nature of effectual Application stated 1 Cor. 1: 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

(The NASB 1995 translates it: But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us bwisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption ….)

John Flavel begins his discourse by drawing out the Calvin’s proposition that nothing of Christ can benefit us unless and until the Holy Spirit makes an effective application of Christ to us:

And the first thing to be attended to is, that so long as we are without Christ and separated from him, nothing which he suffered and did for the salvation of the human race is of the least benefit to us. To communicate to us the blessings which he received from the Father, he must become ours and dwell in us.

Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 3, chapter 1. Flavel makes the same point, albeit in the language of a preacher rather than a systematic theologian (yes, Calvin was a great preacher; but, the Insitutes are not a sermon):

For never was any wound healed by a prepared,
but unapplied plaister.
Never any body warmed by the most costly garment made,
but not put on:
Never any heart refreshed and comforted by the richest cordial compounded,
but not received:
Nor from the beginning of the world was it ever known, that a poor deceived, condemned, polluted, miserable sinner, was actually delivered out of that woeful state,
until of God,
Christ was made unto him,
wisdom
and righteousness,
sanctification
and redemption. (2 Flavel 15).

Observe the doctrine: We must realize that of Christ can save us, unless and until the Holy Spirit apply Christ to us. In fact, if Christ is merely outside of us, his life, death, resurrection and ascension not only do not save us, but actually testify against us and become the basis for judgment. John 3:

18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.

Therefore, Christ must be applied to us or we will not share in his glory and resurrection. To merely know about Jesus but not to know Jesus will be of no good (Matthew 7:21-23).

Christ’s life is like a medicine which will surely cure all disease — and, like a medicine, it can do no good unless and until it is made part of of one’s life. Such knowledge should provoke us to gain an interest in the life of Christ.

While Flavel takes his point from Calvin, the point is well grounded in Scripture. We see this doctrine underlie the argument of 1 Peter 1. Peter begins by setting forth all the beauty and benefit of Christ granted by the Father. He then stops to explain such benefit has been obtained by the work of the Spirit using the Scripture preached (1 Peter 1:10-12).

Thus, the salvation of human beings takes place by manifest operation of the Trinity, working in love to rescue sinners for the glory of God.

Marriage Exercise 2 1 Peter 1:3-5

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling

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1 Peter 1:3–5 (ESV)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, 5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Observations:

First, Peter begins with a prayer of praise to God the Father.  Thankfulness is a great engine of joy. One who is thankful will know joy. Yet to seek joy without thankfulness is to seek rain without clouds. Thankfulness brings forth joy.

Second, as those who profess Christ, we must be thankful to the Father: “ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17 (ESV)  ).

Third, it is interesting that in Colossians, the directives for marriage come immediately after the command to be thankful to the Father in everything –word or deed. Perhaps one reason marriage is so difficult is that we isolate from the directive to be thankful.  Ask yourself: have you expressed thankfulness this day, this morning for your spouse? Do you think that your lack of thankfulness has affected your marriage? If you are not thankful to the Father, what does imply about your understanding of the Father?

Fourth, we must not neglect the great privilege we have in having access to God the Father in our Lord. We mistake the Father greatly when we think of him of outside of Christ. When we comes to the Father by Christ, we come as a child of adoption and thus we are welcome (Rom. 8:14-17).

Fifth, our Father has expressed mercy toward us – he gave us his Son.  Yet, how often and how much mercy have you extended to your spouse. Our Lord directly ties the mercy of the Father to the command that we show love and mercy to our enemies: “35 But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 36 Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:35–36 (ESV)).  If you must love your enemies, we can it so difficult to love your wife or husband?

Sixth, we have a hope. Marriages often lose hope – because the hope is placed upon the wrong point. We are never commanded to hope in the response of other human beings? In fact, we are cautioned directly against placing our hope other than upon our Creator. Our true hope – the living hope granted by God is based upon the work of the resurrection. When we place our hope on a man or woman, we are bound for disappointment. Even worse, we have given to our husband or wife something which belongs to God. We must show love and care and service toward our spouse, but we must rest upon God.

Seventh, our inheritance – our true object of hope – lies beyond any corruption or attack of this world. Children will do this: They will hope in happiness based upon some toy or game or party – and they will be gravely disappointed. God has so rigged the world that it is subjected to vanity (Eccl. 1:2). He loves us so greatly that he seeks draw us off of the world and onto him alone. “15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. 17 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:15–17 (ESV)). If we have been disappointed by a marriage, perhaps we have made the marriage an end in itself, an idol rather than an opportunity to sacrifice ourselves and our agendas to the glory of God.

Eighth: the permanence of our inheritance contrasts sharply with the temporality of marriage: The inheritance will not fade; but marriage is not so. In marriage, we promise only to remain for this life. God has subjected all things to futility – and our lives will end in death. Marriage is parable – not the reality. Perhaps God has permitted pain and disappointment in marriage so that we would force our hope and our gaze above the creation: to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

Ninth: God is the one guarding you and guarding the treasure. We take hold of God’s protection by faith: We merely plead our dependence and in so doing we are rescued. One reason we find ourselves ruined in this life, is that we seek to stand independently of God. And so God, as a good Father who cares more for our good and wisdom and his glory than for our ease, will permit us great sorrow and pain until we realize that it is by faith a true dependence and trust upon him that we receive good.

Tenth: a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. We are not promised this inheritance before the revelation of Jesus Christ. As for now it is faith and hope that we possess. We mistake his promise when we believe ourselves to be cheated because we have not received the promise in full. But the promise was never for today, for it is a promise in which we hope.

Application: Stop being disappointed in your husband or wife. Bring your faith and hope to God. The Father has provided a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He has not disappointed us in that promise. Stop trusting in something other than Christ. Stop hoping for something other than God’s glory to come. Realize that so much of your pain has come from placing your hope where God has not commanded: 19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19–21 (ESV)).

Read over the marriage directives: We are never told to hope in our husband or hope in our wives. We are told to them, to show them respect and love. We are told to give to them. We are even told to give to our enemies without hope of return (Matt. 5:43-48). We will not be disappointed when we live as God has commanded us. Our disappointment comes because we refused to live as he has commanded.

Consider how a right view of God, hope and service would transform your heart. On what ground would you harbor anger or resentment toward your spouse?

A final note: When both spouses obey God in this matter, the result is the absolutely free and joyous blessing of being loved and valued by one who treasures God and thus cares for me. Each may receive such blessing with pure joy, knowing that it flows from a greater love of God.  And so, this is not to lose the joy of romance and pleasure and companionship. Rather, those blessings become grounded in the greater joy and hope of God.

Prayer: Dear Father, forgive me for seeking your blessings rather than seeking you. Forgive me for setting my hope of happiness upon a human being, when you created me to seek my happiness in you. Forgive me for making marriage an idol, when I was created for worship of you alone.

Give me the wisdom and strength to rejoice in you alone.

Forgive me for not loving my spouse in the way in which you have commanded me. Give me a heart that seeks to honor you in the way in which I serve and live with my spouse. May I truly repent of my sins in my marriage, may I seek the forgiveness which comes from you and the forgiveness I must seek from my spouse. May I also grant forgiveness readily and fully – as you have forgiven me for the sake of my Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

 

Comparison of Edward Taylor’s “The Returnal” and John Owen’s Of Communion.7

01 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in 1 Peter, Biblical Counseling, Edward Taylor, John Owen, Meditation, Preaching, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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Finally, Owen writes of comfort:

 

Now, thus to lie in the arms of Christ’s love, under a perpetual influence of supportment and refreshment, is certainly to hold communion with him.

 

Taylor likewise writes:

 

43   But I’ve thy Pleasant Pleasant Presence had

44      In Word, Pray’re, Ordinances, Duties; nay,

45   And in thy Graces, making me full Glad,

 

 

Owen does not take up the matter of the means of communion with the Son in this chapter, but rather ends with:

 

The Lord Christ, the eternal Wisdom of the Father, and who of God is made unto us wisdom, erects a spiritual house, wherein he makes provision for the entertainment of those guests whom he so freely invites. His church is the house which he has built on a perfect number of pillars, that it might have a stable foundation: his slain beasts and mingled wine, wherewith his table is furnished, are those spiritual fat things of the gospel, which he has prepared for those that come in upon his invitation. Surely, to eat of this bread, and drink of this wine, which he has so graciously prepared, is to hold fellowship with him; for in what ways or things is there nearer communion than in such?

 

Owen’s metaphor comes from 1 Peter 2:4-10

 

4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.” 7 So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” 8 and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Peter 2:4–10 (ESV)

 

Note how the purpose of the house is given in verse 9: “To proclaim the excellencies of him ….”  Both Taylor and Owen demonstrate the proclamation of such excellencies. One must think that that both actually understood themselves to be the partakers of such fellowship and desirous of such beauty. One who disbelieves the truth of their proclamation, must at least admit to they believed themselves to be possessed by such beauty.

 

And here is a reason for such weakness in the church and such wandering in our thoughts: we too little see the beauty. Our teachers have too little shown us shown beauty. It is hard work to find such beauty and harder still to show it to another.

 

Taylor points to another reason why the church at this time too little sees the beauty of Jesus: she simply does not desire it so:

 

49   Be thou Musician, Lord, Let me be made

50      The well tun’de Instrument thou dost assume.

51   And let thy Glory be my Musick plaide.

52      Then let thy Spirit keepe my Strings in tune,

 

Taylor desires of God to be submissive to God as an instrument is tuned and fit to be played. We live in an age where physical beauty is paraded in the most common manner. Indeed, our culture is built upon those to strive to have their beauty seen, and so we easily forget that the beauty which is shown between spouses shows itself most wonderfully in private communication. The beauty of the spouse is not for others but only for the beloved. The beauty of Jesus cannot be seen like a photograph; it cannot be had by ardent desire and submission to his leading. The bride must follow her husband.

Comparison of Edward Taylor’s “The Returnal” and John Owen’s Of Communion.6

31 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Edward Taylor, John Owen, Meditation, Preaching, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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Next we find safety:

 

Christ has a banner for his saints; and that is love. All their protection is from his love; and they shall have all the protection his love can give them. This safeguards them from hell, death, — all their enemies. Whatever presses on them, it must pass through the banner of the love of the Lord Jesus. They have, then, great spiritual safety; which is another ornament or excellency of their communion with him.

 

Taylor writes:

 

19   A Magazeen of Love: Bright Glories blaze:

20      Thy Shine fills Heaven with Glory

 

A magazine was a storehouse, often with a military connotation. Without question, a magazine is a source of safety. Such language was not unknown among the Puritans:

 

Our Lord Jesus is his Father’s gazophylacium, “the great magazine and store-house of infinite excellences:” “It pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell.” (1:19.) Yea, “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”

 

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 5 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 286. Another Puritan sermon will use the language of magazine, but will also show the passion with which they would preach serious doctrine:

 

God in the sallyings forth of his communicative and endearing name, and in all those mirrors and testimonies of himself which he affords us. (Rom. 1:20; Acts 17:24–29; 1 Tim. 3:16; Heb. 1:3; Eph. 4:6–24.)—O what a mirror of divine perfection is the vast fabric of the universe! How far doth it extend itself! How richly hath its Maker furnished it with glorious luminaries! vast in their bulk, beautiful in their orderly situations, constant and regular in their courses, and highly useful, and as liberal, in their dispensings of those influences which serve more glorious and various purposes than any man can reach at present, or perhaps in all the proficiencies of eternity, if such things may with modesty be supposed to be there. O wonderful power in its production! wonderful wisdom in its harmonious contrivance and compagination! and as great goodness in those stores and magazines, which are so generously provided for and accommodated to all the capacities and necessities and concerns of the whole frame, and of every part thereof! Is not God’s glorious name here legible, and his kind heart and hand as fully and even sensibly discernible herein? We are hereby both rendered and constrained to be his witnesses that he is God, and the best object of our love. Here, therefore, must our love both look and fix.

 

James Nichols, Puritan Sermons, Volume 4 (Wheaton, IL: Richard Owen Roberts, Publishers, 1981), 456; the sermon is entitled, “How May a Lukewarm Temper be Effectually Cured?”  Read that out loud and consider its effect.  Ours is a low-voltage age for rhetoric. And certainly rhetoric for its own sake is mere emotional fraud. By use of repetition and elaboration, the preacher creates an appropriate excitement.

 

How will the hearers ever believe that Jesus is worth one’s deepest affection, when one can express no affection in words?  It seems the stupidity of our age will work to destroy an avenue for conveying the beauty of Jesus.

Comparison of Edward Taylor’s “The Returnal” and John Owen’s Of Communion.5

30 Monday Jul 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Edward Taylor, John Owen, Meditation, Preaching, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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Working further through Song, Owen shows how Jesus is a source of 

Sweetness

Delight

Safety

Comfort

 

Owen writes of sweetness:

 

The grace exhibited by Christ in his ordinances is refreshing, strengthening, comforting, and full of sweetness to the souls of the saints. Woe be to such full souls as loathe these honey-combs! But thus Christ makes all his assemblies to love banqueting-houses; and there he gives his saints entertainment.

 

Taylor writes:

 

43   But I’ve thy Pleasant Pleasant Presence had

44      In Word, Pray’re, Ordinances, Duties; nay,

45   And in thy Graces, making me full Glad,

 

Of delight, Owen writes:

 

The spouse is quite ravished with the sweetness of this entertainment, finding love, and care, and kindness, bestowed by Christ in the assemblies of the saints. Hence she cries out, verse 5, “Stay me with flagons, comfort me with apples; for I am sick of love.”

 

This matches with Taylor’s refrain to be with Jesus. Moreover, Taylor explicitly calls service for the savior delight:

 

31   Thy Service is my Freedom Pleasure, Joy,

32      Delight, Bliss, Glory, Heaven on Earth, my Stay,

 

In fact, Taylor writes that if he were removed from the service of Jesus, he would have no reason to live:

 

37   If off as Offall I be put, if I

38      Out of thy Vineyard Work be put away:

39   Life would be Death: my Soule would Coffin’d ly,

40      Within my Body;

 

This is remarkable when one considers who “difficult” churches often find service to be: and I mean far more than ushers at the door (although such can be useful service). I think of visitation of the sick, prayer, giving for the poor, the work of study necessary to teach and preach well, exhortation, discipleship, counseling.  Too many see no point in service, likely because they do not see or rightly know the one who is to be ultimately served in the service of his body.

Comparison of Edward Taylor’s “The Returnal” and John Owen’s Of Communion.4

29 Sunday Jul 2012

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Edward Taylor, Fellowship, John Owen, Meditation, Preaching, Puritan, Song of Solomon

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Then working through additional verses, Owen uses the image of the apple tree:

As an apple tree among the trees of the forest, so is my beloved among the young men. With great delight I sat in his shadow, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Song of Solomon 2:3 (ESV)

From this Owen writes that Jesus is a source of food for the believer:

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. John 6:55 (ESV)

Moreover, Jesus is a source of shade for believer:

When the heat of wrath is ready to scorch the soul, Christ, interposing, bears it all. Under the shadow of his wings we sit down constantly, quietly, safely, putting our trust in him; and all this with great delight. Yea, who can express the joy of a soul safe shadowed from wrath under the covert of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus! There is also refreshment in a shade from weariness. He is “as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” Isaiah 32:2. From the power of corruptions, trouble of temptations, distress of persecutions, there is in him quiet, rest, and repose, Matthew 11:27,28.

One should note that Taylor writing in private poetry and Owen writing serious public theology both discuss the beauty of Jesus in the most passionate of terms.

This points to a common problem in much contemporary professing Christian preaching and writing. Much of it is dull and poorly developed. Here two men of surpassing gifts writing from within the Church write which extraordinary power and ardor. Admittedly such writing takes especial effort. Moreover, it springs only from sustained and dedicated meditation on Scripture.

Secondly, when one does here passionate pleas it typically revolves around immediate, personal needs or current culture and politics. The passion fails to rise above the mundane. Years ago, when alphabetizing song sheets, I was struck by the sheer number of songs which began with the word “I”. Now certainly I  must praise if I am to praise. But it seems that the song writers should have something to say about Jesus as the main thing. Taylor writes about his subjective experience, but it is an experience grounded in the objective reality of Jesus.

Here is a reason that so much of world lays waste to professors: How can a bloodless “worship” which is most often about musical ability and ginned up emotion act as a true break to sin? What person would choose waste over gold? And yet we do, because we know so little of gold.