Tag Archives: Obedience

Abraham Kuyper, Common Grace 1.25

18 Monday Apr 2022

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The previous post on Common Grace may be found here.

In the 25th chapter, Kuyper asks what sort of consciousness did Adam possess? What could it possibly mean to Adam to be told of death & life? How could Adam know what was presented him when he met Eve (or Eve, Adam)?

Kuyper argues that Adam and Eve were possessed of a moral clarity which would escape us at this point: The law of God was not merely an appendage to their knowledge, it was the framework of their understanding.

Moreover, the content of their knowledge would be bracketed with their conscious realization that I was not but now I am. 

Having moral capacity and an understanding of existing or not Adam had the capacity to understand the prohibition to not eat from that Tree. It was an arbitrary command, in the sense that it was not immediately apparent from the natural ordering of the world. To not strike Eve when she came to him would be part of the natural moral order: it is good to not hurt this fellow human being.

But what motivation would then exist to refrain from the Tree. It is not a question of natural law, but a question of positive command: why obey this positive command? Or, as Kuyper puts it, will you obey because it is good, or will you obey because God has so commanded it. The goal was that Adam would obey because of fealty to God.

He provides an analogy: If you give one a command and the other demands an explanation, (what is the purpose of this command, what will be the benefit to me and so on), eventually obedience will not be obedience to command but rather is a decision that I think this is a good idea.

The moral development of Adam was thus to be two-fold: first, there was the development of the delight in good and doing good. Second, this development and delight in good was to be because it was given by God. 

The apparent insignificance of the command, this tree and not some other, had in it the point of the commandment: there could be no motivation for the command beyond God’s authority.

The purpose of the command was to test Adam to see if he would obey because he had been so commanded by God.

Romans 12:1, First Sermon, Introduction

06 Thursday Jan 2022

Posted by in Romans, Sermons

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I previously posted some essays for a study on Romans 12 (currently, I am part way through “body”, but have stalled a bit to read a couple of books on the Incarnation since it is relevant to “body”). In addition to the explanatory essays I also intend to prepare sermons. I think of the essays as prose and the sermons as poetry; one as explanation, one as persuasion (although both contain both elements, the emphasis is different.)

Below is the introduction to the sermon. The most common introduction in the circles with which I am familiar involves some sort of story which introduces the main point. So if I wish to emphasis self-sacrifice for a greater good, I may tell a story about soldier who risks much for his companions. This can be quite effective, because it can make an abstract idea concrete for those who are listening. Also a story, well told, gets the attention of the listener. It also provides a porch for the listener to enter the house. Since the sermon will always be coming after something else, getting attention and preparing the listener are valuable aims.

But that is not the only way to introduce a sermon. Below, rather than introduce a story, I seek to introduce a question. In this case, why did Paul chose a particular word? The sermon then acts to answer the question.

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV) 

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. 

Paul is writing a letter to people, many of whom he had never met; a letter to a church he had never attended. Throughout this letter, he has been very bold telling them what they must know; explaining to them how they are to think about the work of God in Jesus Christ. Paul is writing with the confidence and authority of an apostle of Jesus Christ. 

The first 11 chapters have been development of doctrine. It is the most detailed, sustained explanation of the Christian life from a state of nature to glorification which appears in the Bible. He explains sanctification and answers questions about the deep things of election. 

The final section of the letter, beginning here, sets forth practical instruction on how to live a Christian in the world, and with other Christians—which is often a far more difficult matter. He will give very precise and direct commands. The commands are often profoundly difficult, such as bless those who persecute you. 

But here, when opens up this second he makes an interesting word choice. There is no word in English which has the same connotations as Paul’s word. When the word is used as a noun, it is used to the Holy Spirit, who is a Comforter in John 14. In 1 John 2, Jesus is said to be an Advocate; same word. There is also a verb with the same general meaning, and it can be translated exhort, or encourage, or beseech, or entreat.

It is not quite a command, but it is more than a suggestion. Paul is not offering opinions; he is an apostle and is giving direction. But he opens this series of direction with this interesting word. If you’re curious, it sounds something like this, parakalo. 

Peter does the same thing in his first epistle. In chapter 2 and verse 11, we read

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 

1 Peter 2:11 (ESV) Peter is using the same word as Paul uses here. There are a few other uses of this word in Paul which we will have a chance to consider. Why would an apostle, such as Peter or Paul—the “greatest”, if we can use such a word in this case—of apostles; why would they begin their most urgent instructions as an appeal and not as direct requirement?

They will both follow up this introduction with direct requirements: You must do this, you must not do that. They know how to issue direct commands. Nor are they timid men. They both showed themselves to have uncommon courage. They were both willing to face the threat of certain death with great poise. 

Nor were they unintelligent men who used words without thought. These were men who turned the world upside down by merely speaking. They brought no armies; they used no force. They had no political power. They did not command tremendous wealth. They were both Jews, who—to the Romans who knew about Jews—were strange people who would not eat pigs and who would not work on Saturday and who were circumcised.  Their strangeness would certainly not increase their persuasive appeal.  And yet, by merely speaking they transformed the world. 

Their words are such that people in China and Chile, India and Indiana, Laos and Lagos, adhere to what they said and wrote. That is astounding. So, we cannot simply ignore their decision when they make a choice of words which may surprise us. 

Why then does Paul, and Peter, use this word when it comes to a critical juncture. I believe there are two answers. The first answer: They are explaining to us, the nature of the obedience which a Christian should render to the command of God. The second answer: They are modeling for us, the type of leadership which should mark a Christian leader. Each of these ideas will need space to move and so there will be two sermons, one for each.

As to the nature of Christian obedience, there are three parts. The obedience of a Christian should flow from faith, hope, and love. Paul uses the word entreat, urge, beseech, because he was us to hear and see that our obedience flows from faith, hope, and love. He does not need to demand such obedience but merely stir-up our hearts and obedience will follow as a delight.

And so to the first point, The obedience of a Christian must flow from faith.

Soren Kierkegaard, The Mirror of the Word, Part Two

24 Tuesday Apr 2018

Posted by in Exegeting the Heart, Kierkegaard, Kierkegaard, Uncategorized

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“What is Required in Order to Derive True Benediction From Beholding Oneself in the Mirror of the Word?

“First of all, what is required is that thou must not look at the mirror, not behold the mirror, but must see thyself in the mirror.”

At this point, Kierkegaard is getting to what the Word is supposed to do to one when it is read: specifically, what does this passage in James say the Word is supposed to do when it is read. He explains this by referring to “reading and reading”:

Thus the lover [who had received a letter] had made a distinction between reading and reading, between reading the dictionary and reading the letter from the lady love.

This means that when we read the Word, we must not treat the Word as the object and we the subject in control: rather, the Word is the subject and we are the object being examined. — This is not bare subjectivity of meaning — this does not mean that there are thousand “meanings” in the text and thus all ‘readings’ are equally valid. It would be easy to understand Kierkegaard as advocating some sort of hyper-reader-response theory:

So the lover made a distinction, as regards this letter from his beloved, between reading and reading; moreover, he understood how to read in such a way that, if there was a desire contained in the letter, one ought to begin at once to fulfill it, without wasting a second.

Think now of God’s Word. When thou readest God’s Word eruditely — we do not disparage erudition, far from it — but remember that when thou does read God’s Word eruditely, with a dictionary & c., thou are not reading God’s Word …

There are words on the page, that is true. But the reading does not stop at understanding the words: the words are there to do something to the reader. The one who reads the lover’s letter is not merely engaged in an intellectual exercise; the reading is undergone to change the reader.

There is a “point” to reading the Word:

And if there is a desire, a commandment, an order, then (remember the lover!), then be off at once to do accordingly.

To which one may object, but what of all the obscure and difficult passages. Kierkegaard answers brilliantly: well there are many things you do understand. Tell you what: do all the things which you in fact can understand, and after you have done all that let us consider the obscure passages.

This gets to a matter of Hebrews 5:14. There is a correlation between our ability to uderstand the Word and our obedience to the Word. Our correspondence in life to the Word, our correspondence in affection transforms our ability to understand:

14 But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.

Cognition

Behavior                       Affection

Each of these three affect the other. Kierkegaard is explaining that if we read merely for cognition, we have not read the Word. It is not inert knowledge which one seeks, but transformation. And James 1:22 explains that one transformation which must take place is that the Word must illuminate and expose the reader: the reader is being examined and seen when the Word is rightly read.

How then is this done? What does it look like in practice?

Edward Polhill, Obedience Prepares One for Suffering

19 Monday Jun 2017

Posted by in affliction, Edward Polhill, Obedience, Uncategorized

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(The previous post in this series on Edward Polhill’s A Preparation for Suffering in an Evil Day may be found here )

 

Polhill next explains that obedience to God’s will before we suffer, will prepare us to persevere through suffering when it comes. We are fitted to God’s determination for our life through obedience, that obedience then becomes the basis for submitting to God’s will in suffering.

He proves this point with six consideration:

First, obedience is the work of the Holy Spirit in one’s life: this supernatural work of the Spirit in obedience leads to the same supernatural work of the Spirit to go through suffering:

Again, the Holy Spirit, which makes good men do God’s will, will enable them to suffer it too. St. Paul took pleasure in persecutions, because, when he was weak, then he was strong, (2 Cor. 12:10); that is, the Holy Spirit did strengthen his inward man to bear the cross. The Holy Spirit in the saints is a well of water, springing up to everlasting life, (John 4:14; 1 Peter 4:14).

Second, we must believe, because God has commanded: that it is enough. Having been fitted to obey, we are fit to suffer at God’s determination.)

Third,

True obedience makes us to grow up into Christ the head, and to be of near alliance to him. It makes us to grow up into Christ the head, (Eph. 4:15). Obedience, being the exercise of all graces, brings us into a near union with Christ, and makes us more and more like to him: the more we act our love, meekness, mercy, goodness, or any grace, the more we are united to him and incorporated with him; nay, true obedience makes us to be of near alliance to him. (Luke 8:20-21)….St. Paul bore about in his body the dying of the Lord Jesus, (2 Cor. 4:10); and the allies of Christ must be ready, at God’s call, to suffer with him.

Fourth, suffering well will take strength; we can only increase in such strength through obedience:

True obedience produces an increase of grace and spiritual strength. Obedience is a christian’s daily walk; the more he exercises himself to godliness, the more grace he hath in his soul. …Such an obedience as this admirably disposes a man for suffering. The greater his stock of grace is, the better will he hold out in the straits of the world. The more strength he hath in the inner man, the more able he will be to bear the burden of the cross:

Fifth, “True obedience obtains the gracious presence of God to help and comfort good men in the doing his will.”

Sixth, if we are in the way of obedience, we are on the way to God, and thus will endure suffering on that way:

True obedience is the way to heaven: those blessed ones, that do the commands of God, “have right to the tree of life, and enter in through the gates into the city,” (Rev. 22:14). The more obedient a man is to the divine will, the richer entrance he hath into the blessed kingdom. After sowing to the Spirit comes the crop of eternal glory; after walking in holy obedience, comes the blessed end of life and immortality…..When Basil the great was threatened with banishment, and death, he was not at all moved at it: banishment is nothing to him that hath heaven for his country; neither is death any thing to one to whom it is the way to life: He that is in the way to heaven hath great reason to break through all difficulties to get thither.

 Edward Polhill, The Works of Edward Polhill (London: Thomas Ward and Co., 1844), 352–354.

 

Thomas Manton on helps to obedience

15 Thursday Jun 2017

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Obedience, Psalms, Sanctification, Sanctifictation, Theology of Biblical Counseling, Thomas Manton

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Thou has commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently. Ps. 119:4

In this fifth sermon on the 119th Psalm, Manton begins by providing a help to obedience. There would be no need to speak of obedience, if it were “natural” to use. What then keeps us from obedience? Manton begins here:

Doctrine 1: To gain the heart to full obedience, it is good to consider the authority of God in his word.

Manson makes three points: the first two concern our benefit in obedience; the third, the necessity of obedience.

Our profit:  Obedience to God’s commands is both reasonable and profitable: our good lies in in obedience:

First, it is reasonable to obey God. “If we were left at our liberty, we should take up the ways of God rather than any other: Rom. vii. 12, “The commandment is holy, just, and good.”

Second, it is to our benefit to obey God, both in this life — and more even more so at the judgment. Obedience, “will bring in a full reward for the future.”

God commands:

The next motive is that of the text, to urge the command of God. It is a course enjoined and imposed upon us by our sovereign lawgiver. It is not in our choice, as if it were an indifferent thing whether we will walk in the laws of God or not, but of absolute necessity, unless we renounce the authority of God.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 39.

He then supports this point with three considerations:

First, God is not our equal: He is our creator, therefore he has the right to command. He is our judge and therefore has the power to enforce his commands by punishment or reward.

Second, God has not suggested but commanded:

Unless you mean to renounce the sovereign majesty of God, and put him besides the throne, and break out into open rebellion against him, you must do what he hath commanded: 1 Tim. 1:9, ‘Charge them that be rich in the world,’ &c., not only advise but charge them. And Titus 2:15, ‘These things exhort, and rebuke with all authority.’ God will have the creatures know that he expects this duty and homage from them.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 40.

Third, God has given us precise directions that must be followed, “precepts”.

Christians, if we had the awe of God’s authority upon our hearts, what kind of persons would we be at all times, in all places, and in all company? what a check would this be to a proud thought, a light word, or a passionate speech?—what exactness would we study in our conversations, had we but serious thoughts of the sovereign majesty of God, and of his authority forbidding these things in the word!

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

At this point, Manton stops and considers the various hesitations, doubts, questions or weaknesses which could beset his hearers. He asks, Why should I consider the authority of God? This is a key point of the best preaching: it does not merely drop information before the hearer, but it helps the hearer process in the information. The preacher anticipates questions, uncovers motives, et cetera.

The very best preaching and the very best counseling are the same: helping another to understand, to digest, to live in accordance with God’s will.

1  We take God without the seriousness deserved: it shows in how we live:

Because then the heart would not be so loose, off and on in point of duty; when a thing is counted arbitrary (as generally we count so of strictness), the heart hangs off more from God. When we press men to pray in secret, to be full of good works, to meditate of God, to examine conscience, to redeem time, to be watchful, they think these be counsels of perfection, not rules of duty, enforced by the positive command of God; therefore are men so slight and careless in them. But now, when a man hath learned to urge a naughty heart with the authority of God, and charge them in the name of God, he lies more under the awe of duty. Hath God said I must search and try my ways, and shall I live in a constant neglect of it?

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

2  Obedience requires appropriate fear: disobedience comes from taking the commands of God too lightly:

The heart is never right until we be brought to fear a commandment more than any inconveniencies whatsoever. To a wicked man there seems to be nothing so light as a command, and therefore he breaks through against checks of conscience. But a man that hath the awe of God upon him, when mindful of God’s authority, he fears a command

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

3 If God has commanded the duty, then God will make obedience possible. We need not doubt our ability, because God stands behind the obedience. If someone thinks they will fail, they almost certainly will:

Many times we are doubtful of success, and so our hands are weakened thereby. We forbear duty, because we do not know what will come of it. Now, a sense of God’s authority and command doth fortify the heart against these discouragements

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 41.

4  The purpose or profit behind some commands are not immediately obvious. Why should God command that I not eat from this tree? Why should God command such and such a morality, a behavior? Why should God command faith? We do not need to quibble at God’s reasons when we know that it is God who commands.

5  God does not need our bare behavior. When God commands us he is seeking the  voluntary submission of our will to his:

Obedience is never right but when it is done out of a conscience of God’s authority, intuitu voluntatis. The bare sight of God’s will should be reason enough to a gracious heart. It is the will of God; it is his command, So it is often urged: 1 Thes. 4:3, the apostle bids them follow holiness, ‘for this is the will of God, your sanctification.’ And servants should be faithful in their burdensome and hard labours; 1 Peter 2:15, ‘For so is the will of God, that with well-doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.’ And 1 Thes. 5:18, ‘In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.’ That is argument enough to a godly Christian, that God hath signified his will and good pleasure, though the duty were never so cross to his own desires and interests. They obey simply for the commandment sake, without any other reason and inducement.

Thomas Manton, The Complete Works of Thomas Manton, vol. 6 (London: James Nisbet & Co., 1872), 42.

John Newton on the Practical Effects of Faith

15 Monday Feb 2016

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Faith, John Newton, Preaching, Sanctifictation, Sin, Uncategorized

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Letter VI

Sir,

INTRODUCTION

In the introduction, Newton raises three issues:

1. Faith is more than the means of justification: faith effects a changed life.

The use and importance of faith, as it respects a sinner’s justification before God, has been largely insisted on; but it is likewise of great use and importance in the daily concerns of life. It gives evidence and subsistence to things not seen, and realizes the great truths of the Gospel, so as that they become abiding and living principles of support and direction while we are passing through this wilderness. Thus, it is as the eye and the hand, without which we cannot take one step with certainty, or attempt any service with success.

2A. We should wish that all believers saw the importance of faith transforming their life in practice:

It is to be wished, that this practical exercise of faith were duly attended to by all professors. We should not then meet with so many cases that put us to a stand, and leave us at a great difficulty to reconcile what we see in some of whom we would willingly hope well, with what we read in Scripture of the inseparable concomitants of a true and lively faith.

2B. It should shock us of little those who claim to be Christians differ from others:

For how can we but be staggered, when we hear persons speaking the language of assurance,—that they know their acceptance with God through Christ, and have not the least doubt of their interest in all the promises,—while at the same time we see them under the influence of unsanctified tempers, of a proud, passionate, positive, worldly, selfish, or churlish carriage?

FIRST SECTION: WHAT SHOULD BE THE EVIDENCES OF A TRUE FAITH?

1. True faith would demonstrate itself in a changed life. Too often, Christians are willing to have a change in something drug addictions or profligate sexual immorality: But the Scripture envisions a change “smaller” personal sins, such as pride, material discontentment, harsh speech.

It is not only plain, from the general tenor of Scripture, that a covetous, a proud, or a censorious spirit, are no more consistent with the spirit of the Gospel, than drunkenness or whoredom; but there are many express texts directly pointed against the evils which too often are found amongst professors.

He proves this point from Scripture:

Thus the Apostle James assures us, “That if any man seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, his religion is vain;” [James 1:26]

and the Apostle John, “That if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him;” and he seems to apply this character to any man, whatever his profession or pretences may be, “who having this world’s goods, and seeing his brother have need, shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him.” [1 John 3:17]

Surely these texts more than intimate, that the faith which justifies the soul does likewise receive from Jesus grace for grace, whereby the heart is purified, and the conversation regulated as becomes the Gospel of Christ.

Objection: Isn’t looking for a changed life “legalism”?

There are too many who would have the ministry of the Gospel restrained to the privileges of believers; and when the fruits of faith, and the tempers of the mind, which should be manifest in those who have “tasted that the Lord is gracious,” are inculcated, think they sufficiently evade all that is said, by calling it legal preaching.

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Mortification of Sin, Study Guide Chapter 11c (John Owen)

08 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by in Biblical Counseling, Deuteronomy, Discipleship, John Owen, Micah, Mortification, Psalms

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The previous post in this series will be found here

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Seventh General:

Rise mightily against the first actings of thy distemper, its first conceptions; suffer it not to get the least ground. Do not say, “Thus far it shall go, and no farther.” If it have allowance for one step, it will take another.

  1. Sin in our actions begins as sin our hearts:

20 And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.”

Mark 7:20–23 (ESV)

Thus, sin first begins in our thoughts and affections, it is an idea and desire before it ever becomes an action. Read James 1:14-15: What are the steps there listed for the beginning of sin?

Read Genesis 3:6: What takes place in Eve before she takes the fruit?

What about sins which seem to spring up spontaneously without any precursor, such a rage of anger: in what ways do such sins have start? Consider a recent experience of anger: What thoughts and desires had to be in place for anger to be possible? How would an increase in humility, pity, love have altered your heart in such a way that anger would not have been expressed? By way of comparison — consider other sins which you see others commit but you do follow in yourself. What is different your thoughts and affections that lead you to not following in that sin?

  1. We must stop sin at first actings.

It is impossible to fix bounds to sin. It is like water in a channel,—if it once break out, it will have its course. Its not acting is easier to be compassed than its bounding. Therefore doth James give that gradation and process of lust, chap. 1:14, 15, that we may stop at the entrance.

 

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This emptying and depleting would not be deplorable

23 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in 1 John

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How is it we know that we know Christ? By keeping his commandments. The word “keep” literally means “to look upon something as your treasure and therefore to guard it as your treasure.” Your attitude toward God’s commandments should be that they are your treasure. You carefully guard a treasure. That’s the attitude we ought to have when it comes to obeying the Word of God. What does it mean to keep God’s commandments? I think it means to keep them in two ways. First, the outward act is involved. Second, the inner attitude is involved. Those two things are always vital in the Christian life. When you live the Christian life, your outward conduct should flow from an attitude that characterizes your inner motivation. It is possible to obey and yet do it from an improper motivation in your heart. Jesus had a great deal to say about religious people who do outward acts with no inward reality to motivate those outward acts. Jesus called them hypocrites. “The heresy of all heresies of which teachers and Churches have been guilty, has been the thrusting of religious opinions and religious observances into greater prominence than moral purity. But beliefs unexceptionally orthodox are compatible with the life of devils, who believe and tremble.” B. H. Carroll was right on target when he said,

A mere verbal orthodoxy is hypocrisy, and is more hateful to God and more hateful to man than avowed infidelity. I am quite sure that a strict application of this test would empty thousands of pulpits, hundreds of professors’ chairs in Christian schools, and deplete thousands of church rolls. This emptying and depleting would not be deplorable but helpful. It would amount to a great revival.

Allen, David L. (2013-06-30). 1–3 John: Fellowship in God’s Family (Preaching the Word) (Kindle Locations 1053-1066). Crossway. Kindle Edition.