Tag Archives: Holy Spirit

How Narratives Work, Part 2

11 Saturday Nov 2017

Posted by in Preaching, Uncategorized

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After noting the plot points in the section under consideration, we should note how this particular section of Acts 4 fits into the larger narratives.  First, this scene of Peter and John before the counsel fits into a larger section running from Acts 3:1 and ending with 4:35.

The scene in chapter 3 begins with Peter and John coming to the temple to pray. They meet a lame beggar at the Beautiful Gate. The beggar hopes to receive alms. Peter tells the man what he does not have (“silver and gold”) but he also makes an offer:

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

Acts 3:6 (ESV). If the close of the extended is 4:35, there is an interesting parallel concerning wealth, because 4:32-35 concerns the distribution of wealth throughout the church. If the section ends with 4:31, it closes with prayer. Acts 3 begins with the apostles going to prayer and having no wealth.

The man having been healed in the name of Jesus, a crowd gathers. Peter preaches a Gospel sermon “proved” by the power of Jesus in healing this man and the power of God in raising Jesus:

15 and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. 16 And his name—by faith in his name—has made this man strong whom you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given the man this perfect health in the presence of you all.

Acts 3:15–16 (ESV).

Chapter 4 then begins with the power of the state in arresting and trying Peter and John. Luke parenthetically points to the power of the Word of God:

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand.

Acts 4:4 (ESV). The apostles are interrogated concerning the source of the miracle: “By what power or in what name”? Whose authority is at play here?

Peter responds with a quotation from Psalm 118, that Jesus is the cornerstone.

There is then the famous response of Peter concerning God’s authority versus the authority of the state:

 

19 But Peter and John answered them, “Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge, 20 for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard.”

Acts 4:19–20 (ESV).  Having been threatened by the powers that be, Peter and John return to the church.

The church prays: first, a praise to God for his sovereignty even persecution: Jesus was killed by wicked me which was “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place” (Acts 4:27). They then pray for boldness to stand against the threats and persecution.

This section fits within the larger narrative of the primitive church’s growth and Peter’s preaching.

Finally, there is the master narrative set forth in the prologue: Luke was the “beginning” of what Jesus did and taught (Acts 1:2); and Jesus’ programmatic statement for Acts:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Acts 1:8. Jesus will continue to work and teach, but it will be through the power of the Holy Spirit and it will be through the witness of these disciples. The events of Acts 3 & 4 are further examples of how Jesus healed a man; how the disciples were witnesses to Jesus; and how this was done through the work of the Spirit (Acts 4:8, “Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit’).

In doing this, we are still at the observation stage of our work. We note the major plot points of a section. We then note the general themes of the section and how these look compared to the larger narrative(s).

The Spirit Always Leads People to Think

31 Monday Jul 2017

Posted by in Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Uncategorized

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So the first effect of Christianity is to make people stop and think. They are not simply overawed by some great occasion. They say, “No, I must face this. I must think.” That is the work of the Spirit. The people in Acts thought again. They repented—the Greek word is metanoia—they changed their mind completely. The Spirit always leads people to think, and, as I have been showing you, the greatest trouble is that men and women go through life without thinking. Or they think for a moment but find it painful, so they stop and turn to a bottle of whiskey or television or something else—anything to forget.
Is it not obvious that the world, speaking spiritually and intellectually, is in a doped condition? In all sorts of ways men and women evade the facts. They can do this with great energy, they can be very intellectual, but ultimately they end up with nothing.
What does the Spirit make us think about? Well, not first and foremost about ourselves. I must emphasize that Christianity does not start with us. It does not say, “Do you want to get rid of that sin that is getting you down? Do you want happiness? Do you want peace? Do you want guidance?” That is not Christianity. That, again, is the approach of the cults. No, these people in Jerusalem were made to think about Jesus Christ! They were given the objective, historical facts about this person. Peter had just said to them, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
The next verse continues, “Now when they heard this”—they were not thinking about themselves but were beginning to think about Him. That is always the message of the Christian church. The true Christian message brings us face to face with the historical facts.

 

Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Becoming a Christian,” in Authentic Christianity, 1st U.S. ed., vol. 1, Studies in the Book of Acts (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2000), 53–54.

The Greatest and Finest Product of Human History

02 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Ecclesiology, P. T. Forsyth, P.T. Forsyth, Pneumatology, Uncategorized

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My contention would be that, apart from such a position as I desire to bring to your notice—some real apostolic belief in the real work of Jesus Christ—apart from that no Church can continue to exist. That is the point of view which I take at the outset. The Church is precious, not in itself, but because of God’s purpose with it. It is there because of what God has done for it. It is there, more particularly, because of what Christ has done, and done in history. It is there solely to serve the Gospel

It is impossible not to observe at the present day that the Church is under a cloud. You cannot take any division of it, in any country of the world, without feeling that that is so. Therefore I will begin by making quite a bold statement; and I should be quite prepared, given time and opportunity, to devote a whole week to making it good. The statement is that the Church of Christ is the greatest and finest product of human history. It is the greatest thing in the universe. That is in complete defiance of the general view and tendency of society at the present moment. I say the Church is the greatest and finest product of human history; because it is not really a product of human history, but the product of the Holy Spirit within history. It stands for the new creation, the New Humanity, and it has that in trust.

 

P.T. Forsyth, The Work of Christ.

Should we pray to the Holy Spirit?

09 Saturday Jul 2016

Posted by in Abraham Kuyper, Charles Hodge, Charles Spurgeon, Prayer, Trinity, Uncategorized

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In Daniel Block’s “For the Glory of God”, he asks the question as to whether we should address worship specifically and personally to the Spirit.  His analysis begins with three observations:

  1.  “No one addresses the Holy Spirit in prayer, or bows to the Holy Spirit, or serves him in a liturgical gesture. Put simply, in the Bible the Spirit is never the object of worship.”
  2. “The Spirit drives the worship of believers yet does not receive worship.”
  3. “In true worship, the person of the Trinity may not be interchanged without changing the significance of the work.”

He notes two historical developments in the church. First, is the development of the Doxology,

Praise God from whom all blessings flow,

Praise him all creatures here below;

Praise him above you heavenly host;

Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Amen.

He noted that it derives from Gloria Patri per Filium in Spiritu Sancto, Glory to God the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. This was changed in response to the Arians, which sought to ontologically subordinate Jesus. To avoid that movement, the connections where changed to “and” from “through” and “in”.

The second development was the Charismatic movement to single out the Spirit for particular adoration in prayer and song.

Block is reticent to make the Spirit the unique object of worship

When we read Scripture, the focus will on God the Father or Jesus Christ the Son. However, it seems that the Holy Spirit is most honored when we accept his conviction of sin, his transforming and sanctifying work within us, and his guidance in life and ministry, and when in response to his leading we prostrate ourselves before Jesus.

This emphasis on the Spirit’s work in is matched by an interesting comment from Kuyper

It appears from Scripture, more than has been emphasized, that in the holy act of prayer there is a manifestation of the Holy Spirit working both in us and with us.

Kuyper, Holy Spirit (1946), trans. de Vries, p. 618.

James Hastings has a discussion on prayer directed to the Spirit. The conclusion comes in his last paragraph:

Continue reading →

Orthodox Paradoxes: The Spirit

23 Tuesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Pneumatology, Theology, Uncategorized

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Section 4 of Ralph Venning’s Orthodox Paradoxes:

IV Concerning God the Spirit

35. He believes the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son; and yet he believes the Spirit to be the same being with the Father and the sone.
36. He believes that God has no corporeal members, and yet he believes that the spirit in the finger of God.
37. He believes that the Father sent forth the Son, and that the Son set forth the Spirit; and yet he believes they were never separated one from the other.

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation 13

19 Friday Jun 2015

Posted by in Meditaiton, Pneumatology

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(These meditations were written by William Spurstowe. To the best of my knowledge, they have remained unpublished since 1666.)

Upon Morning Dew

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The meditation of this subject is no less facile than delightful, like Jacob’s venison, it is soon come by, because God has brought it to my hand having often in his Word resembled dew (which makes the earth fruitful), to his Grace, that makes the hearts of men, naturally barren, to bring forth fruits of righteousness, so that it is not difficult task for to draw a useful parallel between the one and the other in sundry respects.

The dew if of a heavenly original, the nativity thereof is from the womb of the morning, it tarries not for man, not waits for the sons of men. And is it not thus in the grace of conversion? Is not that wholly from above, without any preparations, congruities, concurrencies, that do or can arise from the flesh? We are made active by grace, but we are not at all agents in fitting ourselves to grace. As no man ca be antecedently active to his first birth; so neither can he be to his second birth. Of God’s own will we are begotten by the Word of Truth.

The dew also in its descent and fall is silent and imperceptible, it flies every sense of which it may seem to be a proper object. It is so subtle as that the sharpest eye, as that the sharpest eye cannot see it; so silent, as that the quickest ear cannot hear it; and so thin, as that the naked hand cannot feel it. When it is come, it is visible: but how it comes, who can tell?

After such a secret manner oft times are the illapses [movements, descents; it was the word which the Puritans often used to describe the work of the Holy Spirit] of the Spirit, and the operations of his grace upon his heart; his teachings, his tractions, his callings, are all efficacious to draw, to persuade, yet the way is hidden, and the soul, ere ever it is aware, is made like chariots of Aminadab [Song of Songs 6:12, KJV].
The dew again, as Naturalists observe, is most abounding in calm and serene seasons, when the heaves are least disturbed with winds and storms; it is a moisture drawn up the sun in the day and then falling by small innumerable drops in the night. And is it not thus in the grace of God? Are not those hearts refreshed most with it, that are least disquieted with earthy cares and tossed to and fro with anxieties? Are not such, like Gideon’s fleece, plentifully wet with evidence of God’s love, when others, like the ground about it, are wholly dry?

Lastly, the dew is of a growing and reviving nature, which brings a life and verdue to the fields, vineyards, gardens, flowers, which the cold would chill or the heat would scorch. Therefore, when God promised to Israel the beauty of the Lilly, the stability of the cedar, the fruitfulness of the olive, to effect all this he says, “He will be as dew.”

And what ground can but bring forth when he who is the Father of Rain, and begets the drops of the dew, shall himself descend upon it in the bounty and goodness? Who can but love him with a love of duty, whom he shall thus tender with a love of mercy? Who can but love him with a love concupiscence [here, extremely strong desire, not a mere sexual desire], as being more desirous of new influences, than satisfied with former receipts, whom he so freely loves with a love of benefice?

O Lord,
My Soul thirsteth for thee as the gaping and chapped earth doth for the moisture of thy heavens;
I am nothing,
I can do nothing without thee;
My first fruits
My growth,
My life
Depend wholly upon the droppings of thy grace
When thy dew leith all night upon my branch
My glory is fresh in me
And my whole man is as the smell of a field with the Lord hath blessed.
Be not therefore unto me
O my God
As a cloud without rain
Lest I be as a tree without fruit.
But let thy grace always distill upon me as the dew
And as the small rain upon the tender herb
And then shall I be as the ground which drinketh in the showers that come oft upon it
And bringeth forth fruit meet for him by whom it is dressed
And receive also new blessing from God.

Shepherds Conference 2015, Sinclair Ferguson, “The Holy Spirit and Inerrancy”

07 Saturday Mar 2015

Posted by in Bibliology, Christology, John, Pneumatology

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Sinclair Ferguson
The Holy Spirit & Inerrancy

John 14:15–17 (ESV)

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

(The Spirit who had dwelt in and on Jesus would come to the believers at Pentecost. There is no other Spirit who indwells the believer.)

John 14:15–31 (ESV)

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. 21 Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” 22 Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” 23 Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. 24 Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. 28 You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I will come to you.’ If you loved me, you would have rejoiced, because I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 And now I have told you before it takes place, so that when it does take place you may believe. 30 I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming. He has no claim on me, 31 but I do as the Father has commanded me, so that the world may know that I love the Father. Rise, let us go from here.

 

John 15:26–27 (ESV)

26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

John 16:12–15 (ESV)

12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.

John 17:8 (ESV)

8 For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

John 20:30–31 (ESV)

30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The Scriptures Come to Us as a Gift of the Holy Trinity:

When our fathers spoke about the Trinity, they noted two basic truths of the Trinity’s communication to human beings & creation. When God does something all three persons of the Trinity are operative: such as in incarnation, the sending of the Spirit. The external works of the Trinity are indivisible.

Doctrine of the Appropriations: Each person of the Trinity engages in work in a unique way. Only the Son died; only the Father can be praised for sending him.

[[opera ad extra (Lat., works to the outside) Also, notae externae. Activities and effects by which the Trinity is manifested outwardly. They include creation, preservation, and government of the universe as a function of the Father; redemption as a function of the Son; and inspiration, regeneration, and sanctification as a function of the Holy Spirit.
opera ad intra (Lat., works to the inside) Also, notae internae. Immanent and intransitive activities of the Trinity or actions which the three persons of the Trinity exercise toward one another, such as the eternal generation of the Son and the Procession of the Holy Spirit. — Nelson’s Dictionary]]
The same principles apply to the creation of the Scripture.

The Appointment of the Apostles:

These men were called to be eyewitnesses to the acts of Jesus. They in particular received the Holy Spirit to become the prophets, the spokesmen of Jesus for the New Age: New Age, new prophets (the apostles).

Three Aspects of How Jesus Sends the Spirit to the Apostles; particularly in relations to their writing Scriptures.

First: The sending of the Spirit to the Apostles is for the purpose to give the Word to the Church. John 13 through the end is sometimes called the book of glory (as opposed to the book of signs). Calvin: the other gospels show us Christ’s body; John shows us Christ’s soul.

Judas has gone out into the night; Jesus can now bare his soul to those whom he will not lose.

Jesus tells the Apostles that he is sending the Spirit so that they can give the word of truth to the church. The Son will ask the Father to send the Spirit.

As Peter alludes in his sermon, Pentecost is the evidence of a hidden event of God: What they see is the Son asking the Father, who gives the nations to the Son, sending the Spirit.

When the Spirit comes he will take what the Father has given to the Son.

This passage in John shows not merely salvation but also bibliology.

Stage One: Jesus is giving them the Spirit to empower them to be his spokesmen. The Spirit will come to empower the apostles to his disciples.

Notice the Amen statement: 13:16 & 20,
John 13:20 (ESV)

20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

This is the pattern of a prophet: When Moses speaks, it is God who speaks. When Aaron speaks, it is Moses spokes.

Sheliam: (sending) was as the man himself.

This is seen in the story of those [the man] who went to Jesus for the Centurion’s servant. A man who spoke as sent for another spoke as the man himself — thus, that man himself spoke. Analogy: power of attorney.

The Apostles have the power of attorney (so to speak).

That is why we are not embarrassed at
John 20:23 (ESV)

23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

We see this in how Jesus relates to the Father: Jesus is sent as the representative of the Father. The Spirit is another parakelet, of the same sort as Jesus.

Stage Two: The Spirit comes to the apostles to give the New Testament to the Church.

John 14:26,

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

16:13, while he the Spirit not speak on his own authority? He is God. The pattern of sending.

16:12

“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.
Jesus is going to speak to the apostles later through the Spirit.

Jesus is not speaking to us or about us at this time, because we were not there.

The Spirit is going to come and he is going to breathe out Scripture through you (not me).

There is an economic unity with the Spirit and the Son as to Scripture.

There are many things you still need to learn. My Spirit will be to you as I have been to you.

Stage Three: The Spirit comes as the Spirit of Truth: which guarantees the truthfulness, the inerrancy of what he gives to the Church.

Jesus repeatedly refers to the Spirit of Truth.

The Spirit of Truth who the world cannot know, receive.

The Spirit will bear witness about me.

As the Spirit of Truth he will lead the apostles into all truth.

Jesus sends the apostles into the world with the words.

The possibility that the Spirit lied to the apostles is the same possibility as the Father lying to the Son or the Son lying to the apostles.

Jesus affirms the inerrancy of the OT. He then sends his apostles to show that the OT prophecy was fulfilled in him. How could we possibly think that Jesus would send them to write an errant Scripture.

Think of the fact the Spirit killed those who lied to him (Acts 5): could he have possibly lied to the Church through the apostles. The Holy Spirit has no bad breath, my brothers.

Stage Four: It is this work of the Spirit that Jesus’ prayer in John 17 makes effectual in the apostles and in the world.

17:8, I am praying for them — the ones the Father has given to them.

What is it: I have given them the words
18: as you sent me into the world, with your words, so I have sent them into the world with my words.

And then asks for those who will believe in Jesus through the apostles’ words.

Stage Five: John understands that his Gospel is answer to Jesus’ prayer.

These things are written : gegrapthi, the language which is used of Scripture: the Gospel is calling itself Scripture.

Jesus gives the Spirit & the Word. These things are written that you may believe through this Word.

The idea that the apostles were ignorant of the fact that they were giving Scripture to the NT is utterly indefensible on the basis of the what NT says of itself.

What a moment it must have been for John as he was writing the Gospel: he is writing that Jesus’ prayer was answered through John’s Gospel.

Father to Son words, Son sends the Spirit to the apostles, who themselves the words started from the Father: he is writing and seeing Jesus’ prayer answered. What John as given to the Church is the word of Truth — which is as reliable as any word the Father has spoken to the Son.

The Scripture’s very existence is to depend upon a theology of inerrancy.

it is not just the integrity of the Scriptures is at stake; rather the very integrity of the relationships within the Trinity. The Father does not lie to the Son.The Son does not lie to the Spirit. The Spirit does not lie to the apostles. This knowledge underscores the authority of the apostles’ writing.

That is why Paul says that we can “take note of that person”. How does have that arrogance: it is not Paul’s authority but rather the Father’s, Son’s Spirit’s.

Application:

One’s conviction that the Scripture is God-breathed and utterly without error comes through in the way in which one preaches.

It transforms those who gaze through the unveiled words, the inerrant word.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof.

[His mother on why they could not have sugar on their porridge but rather had salt: Because that’s the way the English eat it.]

Inerrancy matters because it honors the Spirit who glorifies the Son who glorifies the Father.

The Soul’s Conflict With Itself 6.2

05 Wednesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Richard Sibbes

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Pascal writes:

Distraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries. Yet it is itself the greatest of our miseries. For above all, it it that which keeps us from thinking about ourselves and so leads imperceptibly to destruction. But for that we should be bored, and boredom should drive us to seek some more reliable means of escape, but distraction passes our time and brings us imperceptibly to our death (414-171).

It is here, to the one without distraction that Sibbes draws our attention. For Sibbes, human solitude is not a matter of being withdrawn, but being alone with God. We need not be drawn away with our own distractions and confused heart — if there is a Spirit above our spirit to govern our affections and draw us toward God:

Obs. 4. We see here again, that a godly man can make a good use of privacy. When he is forced to be alone he can talk with his God and himself; one reason whereof is, that his heart is a treasury and storehouse of divine truths, whence he can speak to himself, by way of check, or encouragement of himself: he hath a Spirit over his own spirit, to teach him to make use of that store he hath laid up in his heart.

Pascal famously noted that it was our inability to be alone in a room which causes the depth of human misery.  Sibbes would agree and state that the heart which can be governed by the Spirit is one that need not be alone, at all. Rather, the one who knows and is known by God can come closest to God in such solitude.

The Spirit is never nearer him than when by way of witness to his spirit he is thus comforted;

If such solitude is such a bounty, then why do we fear it so? Our conscience. As Hamlet says to Rosencrantz:

O God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams.

It is precisely this trouble which makes solitude such a misery:

wherein the child of God differs from another man, who cannot endure solitariness, because his heart is empty; he was a stranger to God before, and God is a stranger to him now, so that he cannot go to God as a friend. And for his conscience, that is ready to speak to him that which he is loth to hear: and therefore he counts himself a torment to himself, especially in privacy.

Now one may dispute Sibbes (and Pascal’s) proposition. Yet experience proves the opposite. First, there is the great mountain of distraction that is our world. We make gods out of those best able to distract us. To whom do we give our money? Those who distract us and those who manage the distraction.

Now the alternative of “peace” and “meditation” is merely a variant on the theme. To empty one’s mind is merely to drive off the thoughts in a different direction. Both strategies seek to leave us anything about alone with ourselves and God.

We read of great princes, who after some bloody designs were as terrible to themselves,* as they were formerly to others, and therefore could never endure to be awaked in the night, without music or some like diversion. It may be, we may be cast into such a condition, where we have none in the world to comfort us; as in contagious sickness, when none may come near us, we may be in such an estate wherein no friend will own us.

What then is the solution? To have a heart prepared to meet God, to live in communion with God. The great weakness of the Christian church is its inability to lead Christians to be with God.  Even in the most doctrinally correct churches it seems that God is little better than an abstraction.

Sibbes directs to close with God in Word and Spirit (as Owen sought to teach in Communion With God). Christianity does most good with it is intensely spiritual and vital. When our hearts are directed and taught to be with God, even our solitude becomes a place of great joy and comfort:

And therefore let us labour now to be acquainted with God and our own hearts, and acquaint our hearts with the comforts of the Holy Ghost; then, though we have not so much as a book to look on, or a friend to talk with, yet we may look with comfort into the book of our own heart, and read what God hath written there by the finger of his Spirit. …. By this means we shall never want a divine to comfort us, a physician to cure us, a counsellor to direct us, a musician to cheer us, a controller to check us, because, by help of the word and Spirit, we can be all these to ourselves.

Consider careful those words of Sibbes: a divine (pastor), physician, counselor, musician, controller.

This comes from “observation 4” discussing remedies for a soul cast down. Here, Sibbes places the remedy in the preparatory work. We must prepare ourselves for our trouble. It will be found in:  Richard Sibbes, The Complete Works of Richard Sibbes, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 1 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson, 1862), 148–149.

The previous post in this series may be found here: https://memoirandremains.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/the-souls-conflict-with-itself-6-1/

Edward Taylor: Raptures of Love.1

29 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in 2 Corinthians, Ascension, Christology, Edward Taylor, Jonathan Edwards, Joy, Literature, Love, Meditation

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Raptures of love, surprising loveliness,
That burst through heavens all, in rapid flashes,
Glances guilt o’re with smiling comeliness!
Wonders do palefac’d stand smit by such dashes.
Glory itself heartsick of love doth lie
Bleeding out love o’re loveless me and die.

Line 1:
Rather than begin with the expected iamb, the poem begins with an accented syllable: Raptures. (One might have expected something like “Now raptures”.) Taylor intends to convey the sensation of being startled.

Rapture is an interesting word because it means to grab something and transport it elsewhere. The love which Taylor sees does not merely stand before him like picture: it grabs hold of him. He does not merely see the “flashes” (line 2), he is being transported.

The Scripture makes plain that God’s love does stand idly outside of the human being, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ must transform us:

For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Taylor puns on the word “love” by using it as a noun and as an adjective. The effect is to make “loveliness” mean more than mere delight — it is something which is attractive because it contains and conveys love.

Line 2:
“Heavens all”: Since the word “heaven” refers to the atmosphere, “outer space” and the place of God beyond the physical creation [heaven is not simply “far away”], the biblical writers will use the word “heavens” to refer to all three.

Jesus Christ at this time sits at the right hand of majesty on high (Hebrews 1:3). He is communicated to us by operation of the Holy Spirit.

Line 3
“Guilt o’re” covered in gold. The accented first syllable forces the movement forward in rapid fashion, thus the structure mirrors the content.

Line 4:
“Wonders” are looking on at the beauty of Christ the High Priest and feel shame and wonder.

Line 5:
Glory personified looks at the glory of Christ and falls lovesick. The image seems to be suggested by Canticles 5:8, “I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him, that I am sick of love.”

Line 6:
Taylor expresses the conflict of the saint who knows more than he feels. He knows that he should be as enraptured with the beauty of Christ as Wonder and Glory, but also sees that his affections are cold–thus, he is “loveless”.

It is strange and unfair that Puritans are thought to be dour, passionless people. While they openly condemned sin it was because sin is the cheat of joy and passion. Taylor, in full accord with Puritan teaching, hopes for greater passion and more love. The desire for passion and joy lay at the heart of Puritan teaching. Go to edwards.yale.edu and search for the words “beauty” (2480 entries) “joy” (3379).

Taylor will look upon his loveless in the 7th stanza (What strange congealed heart have I).

The last verb “die” is a bit ambiguous because the form is first person singular (die) not third person (dies). However, it seems best to understand Glory which is bleeding with love to be the subject who dies. The “wrong” form was dictated by the rhyme.

Charity and Its Fruits.1 “Charity, or Love, the Sum of All Virtue”

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

Posted by in 1 Corinthians, Biblical Counseling, Jonathan Edwards, Love, Pneumatology, Preaching

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Edwards series of sermons on love (published as “Charity and Her Fruits). The sermons as published by Yale may be found here in volume of 8 of the collected works of Jonathan Edwards, Ethical Writings: www.edwards.yale.edu

Charity, or Love,  the Sum of All Virtue

The text:

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. I CORINTHIANS13:1–3.

 Edwards begins his sermon with the observation that love is of greater value than any other virtue mentioned in the New Testament:

IN these words may be observed

1. Something spoken of as of special importance, and as peculiarly essential in Christians, which the Apostle here calls charity. Charity we find abundantly insisted on in the New Testament by Christ and his apostles. And indeed there is no virtue so much insisted on by them.

Having raised his topic, Edwards immediately dispenses with a potential problem in the text. The word English word “charity” had far too narrow a significance for Edwards’ congregants in 1738. They must not think of giving alms or having kind thoughts about another person. Rather, when they read the word they must think of a broader idea, “that disposition or affection whereby one is dear to another”.

Edwards then makes  second observation about the text, any action—even “the most excellent things that ever belong to natural men—are of no true importance if not stemming from love.

Based upon his observations, Edwards draws out the doctrine which he will explain in the sermon:

All that virtue which is saving, and distinguishing of true Christians from others, is summed up in Christian or divine love.

Now the word “love” can be used in a variety of ways to describe a variety of things. Therefore, Edwards begins explanation by setting out the nature of true Christian love:

I. I would speak of the nature of a truly Christian love.

A. That all true Christian love is one and the same in its principle.

When love springs from my desire to some-thing, then the love will vary because of my heart and will vary with the thing loved.  A truly Christian love cannot be so. This is a strange idea, because we naturally experience a different love toward friends than toward someone we have never met. And that is Edwards’ point for his hearers. The love which the Bible commends and commands has a different source and nature than our common affections.  Edwards makes three points to demonstrate that Christian love is unique in its source and purpose:

First, such love is an operation of the Holy Spirit in and on the human heart:

It is all from the same Spirit influencing the heart. It is from the breathings of the same Spirit that the Christian’s love arises, both towards God and men. The Spirit of God is a spirit of love. And therefore when the Spirit of God enters into the soul, love enters. God is love, and he who has God dwelling in him by his Spirit will have love dwelling in him. The nature of the Holy Spirit is love; and it is by communicating himself, or his own nature, that the hearts of the saints are filled with love or charity.

This must be understood: The love which a Christian is called upon to possess, exhibit, expend does not originate with the individual human being. True Christian love is God’s work in the Christian’s life.

The difficulty which Christians often experience in their love toward neighbor lies in a failure to understand this point.  They look upon the requirement to love neighbor—and even their enemies—and think, I can’t make myself do that. Of course not. The love which a Christian must expend is a love which comes from God. Therefore, the Christian’s trouble lies in their Godward relationship: They are not receiving love from the Spirit’s work and thus have no true love to expend.

If I send my child to the market to buy something, I give him money to spend. God does not merely command love, but God also supplies the love.

Edwards proves this point with the following Scripture references:

Hence the saints are said to be “partakers of the divine nature” [2 Peter 1:4]. And Christians’ love is called the love of the Spirit. Romans 15:30, “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for the love of the Spirit.” And having bowels of love and mercy seems to signify the same thing with having the fellowship of the Spirit in Philippians 2:1, “If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies.” It is the Spirit which infuses love to God.8 Romans 5:5, “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.” And it is by the indwelling of this Spirit that the soul dwells in love to men. 1 John 4:12–13, “If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him, and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.”9 And ch. 1 John 3:23–24, “And this is his commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth in us, by the Spirit which he hath given us.”

Second, the love which the Christian shows to God is the same love which the Christian shows to neighbor:

The Spirit of God in the work of conversion renews the heart by giving it a divine temper. Ephesians 4:23, “And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” And it is the same divine temper which is wrought in the heart that flows out in love both to God and men.

Third, true love proceeds from motive to glorify God. Things in nature, particularly human beings, are loved with reference to God. The Christian is love neighbor because of God. Not as a fearful, if I don’t love I’ll get in trouble. Rather, the Christian must love neighbor because God is excellent, beautiful, holy:

When God and men are loved with a truly Christian love, they are both loved from the same motives. When God is loved aright he is loved for his excellency, the beauty of his nature, especially the holiness of his nature. And it is from the same motive that the saints are loved; they are loved for holiness’ sake. And all things which are loved with a truly holy love are loved from some respect to God. Love to God is the foundation of a gracious love to men. Men are loved either because they are in some respect like God, either they have the nature or spiritual image of God; or because of their relation to God as his children, as his creatures, as those who are beloved of God, or those to whom divine mercy is offered, or in some other way from regard to God.

Why then do Christians have such difficulty with the love described herein by Edwards? A great deal of the fault lies with their guides, their pastors and teachers. The love which the Christian must exhibit flows from a sight of the surpassing glory and beauty of God in Jesus Christ. Love does not proceed by merely haranguing people to “love”.

It is possible to manipulate and guilt people into particular actions. But all such manipulated behaviors will fall short of what Paul commends in 1 Corinthians 13. Indeed, Paul’s point is that such actions are inadequate because they do not proceed from true Christian love: such actions are “nothing”.

If true Christian love proceeds from the operation of the Holy Spirit and proceeds on the basis of exalting in the beauty and excellencies of God, then love can only be rightly motivated by a sight of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18).