Tag Archives: salvation

Edward Taylor, Meditation 31, Begraced by Glory.5

14 Sunday Feb 2021

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Stanza 5

By me all lost, by thee all are regained.

All things are thus fall’n now into thy hand.

And thou steep’st in thy blood what sin had stained

That th’stains and poisons may not therein stand.

And having stuck thy grace o’re all the same (35)

Thou giv’st it as a glorious gift again.

Summary: The eschatology of Christianity is both personal and universal; it is both in time and beyond time. The time before the Fall is brought forward into eternity. The tree of life which was lost in the Fall in the Garden is in the New Heavens and New Earth. (Rev. 22:2) The rivers of Eden return as the River of Life. (Rev. 22:1) What was had – and lost – is given “as a glorious gift again.” There is also the person eschatology: The damage done by sin is remedied by blood of Christ – which is both a healing gift of grace, and what makes the poet fit to receive grace.

Notes:

By me all lost, by thee all are regained.

This language of “all” comes directly from motto for this poem, “All things are yours .. the world or life or death or the present or the future”. This theme of “all” played a substantial element of Puritan theology. Thomas Watson wrote an entire book on the subject, “The Christian’s Charter.” Often this “all things” is contrasted at length with good which we can have in this world: goods which do not keep. So for instance, George Swinnock, in chapters 14 & 15 of The Fading of the Flesh, contrasts the difference between what is had the graceless and gracious (one who has received grace) in this world and the different between the sinner’s and the saint’s portion in the life to come. 

The all received by grace is not merely the consummation of the world and a life to come. It is a thing present now in this life. 

A passage by Thomas Brooks may help to understand what is regained:

O sirs! if God be your portion, 

then every promise in the book of God is yours, 

and every attribute in the book of God is yours, 

and every privilege in the book of God is yours, 

and every comfort in the book of God is yours, 

and every blessing in the book of God is yours, 

and every treasury in the book of God is yours, 

and every mercy in the book of God is yours, 

and every ordinance in the book of God is yours, 

and every sweet in the book of God is yours; 

if God be yours, all is yours.

Thomas Brooks, The Complete Works of Thomas Brooks, ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart, vol. 2 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; G. Herbert, 1866), 66.

All things are thus fall’n now into thy hand.

There is an irony in this line: in the fall all was lost; but now through the reversal of sin and death by Christ suffering death for others sin, and thus the “all” falls into his hands.

And thou steep’st in thy blood what sin had stained

That th’stains and poisons may not therein stand.

There has been an irony in Christian imagery that the blood of Christ washes the sinner clean. A much later song which became well-known through the Salvation Army’s use:

Are you washed in the blood,
In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb?
Are your garments spotless?
Are they white as snow?
Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?

The perhaps the most direct biblical allusions which line behind this line

Isaiah 1:18 (AV)

18 Come now, and let us reason together, 

saith the LORD: 

though your sins be as scarlet, 

they shall be as white as snow; 

though they be red like crimson, 

they shall be as wool.

There is also the imagery of the sacrifice which runs through the Bible. What is always so strange of these passages is how something can be cleansed with blood? Blood would never make anything clean. 

Taylor explains that the sin which has stained his life is removed by means of the blood shed, because the blood takes the place of the sin stained.  The garment becomes so soaked in blood that there is no room for the poison and stains

There is an implied image of the thing being cleansed being a garment. The image of the garment being cleansed is present in certain rules concerning being unclean, but perhaps is most directly taken from Jude 18, “the garment spotted by the flesh.”

And having stuck thy grace o’re all the same (35)

Thou giv’st it as a glorious gift again.

The restored garment – the restoration of the entire life – is given back to Taylor as a gift. One relationship here is found in the return of the Prodigal Son. The son who has hatefully rebelled against his father and lost his inheritance returns home to hope for the life of a servant is given a glorious robe and invited to a feast. 

This also is similar to the imagery of Pilgrim’s Progress where Christian is given glorious clothing to make his new life. 

Also note that the grace conveys “glory”. The hope of the Christian is glorious, but is also glory:

1 Peter 1:3–9 (AV)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. 

6 Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: 8 Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: 9 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Thus, while the renovation of the Creation will be glorious, there also will be glory of each individual. We will become glorious. In the Weight of Glory, C.S. Lewis wrote, ““the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” 

Union with Christ

One final note on this stanza is the blood which is graciously given which makes him fit to receive the grace. Blood is as intimate as could exist. Moreover, the life is in the blood. Lev. 11:17. The is this life blood which works the transformation. His identification as being covered in this blood is the gracious condition which makes “all yours.”

Musical:

And thou STeep’Tt in thy blood what Sin had STained

That th’STains and poiSonS may not therein STtand.

And having STuck thy Grace o’re all the Same (35)

Thou Giv’ST it as a Glorious Gift aGain.

The repetition of the sounds as noted, tied these lines together. 

The scansion has some interesting features:

and thou STEEP’ST in THY BLOOD what SIN had STAINED

that TH’STAINS and POIsons may NOT therein STAND

and having STUCK thy GRACE o’re ALL the SAME

THOU GIV’ST it as a GLORious GIFT aGAIN

The accents tracks the alliteration, so that each underscores the other. Thus, the rhythm and the sounds each seek to press the emphasis on meaning of the words. 

Martin Lloyd-Jones, The Glorious Thing About Salvation

26 Saturday Aug 2017

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I argue, therefore, that we are not evangelizing truly unless we present this truth — that in salvation we are not merely forgiven and not only justified; the doctrine of salvation includes the base truth that we were in Ada but now are in Christ, that we are taken out of the one position and put into another. That is primitive evangelism, that is one of the basic elements in the presentation of the gospel; and therefore if we do not give it due emphasis we are not evangelizing truly. Evangelism is not simply saying ‘Come to Christ; He will do this or that and the other for you.’ No! The glorious thing about salvation is that I am taken out of Adam and that I have finished with him, and am dead to sin. I am in Christ, and all the blessings that come to me come because of my union with Christ. I want to emphasize this. ‘Know ye not.” Haven’t you realized, haven’t you grasped, haven’t you understood.

Martin Lloyd Jones, The New Man, Romans 6:3

Edward Taylor, Would God I in that Golden City Were.1

19 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by in Edward Taylor, Literature, Uncategorized

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(Jasper)

Would God I in that Golden City were,
With jasper walls all garnished and made swash
With precious stones, whose gates are pearls most clear
And street pure gold, like to transparent glass.
That my dull soul might be inflamed to see
How saints and angels ravished are in glee.

The reference here is the city of the New (heavenly) Jerusalem:

18 And the building of the wall of it was of jasper: and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. 19 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst. 21 And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; every several gate was of one pearl: and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass.

Revelation 21:18–21 (AV).

Meter: Note in the first line there is the standard iamb, followed by a trochee which forces attention upon the I: would GOD I in that GOLden CITy WERE. It is his presence in the place which is emphasized in the meter.

Paraphrase: The poet wishes that he could be present in the age to come, in the heavenly Jerusalem come down to earth (for the goal of Christianity is not some far away place, but heaven and earth together). The trouble lies with his “dull soul”. This is a constant them in Taylor: the present inability to truly enjoy the glory of God. In the Ascension poems, he would that he could bare the sight of Christ entering into glory and being seated. Here, he wishes for the age to come. This tension will only be resolved by the resurrection:

42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1 Corinthians 15:42–44 (AV).

Were I but there and could but tell my story,
‘Twould rub those walls of precious stones more bright:
And glaze those gates of pearl with brighter glory;
And pave the golden street with greater light.
‘Twould in fresh raptures saints and angels fling
But I poor snake crawl here, scare mud walled in.
Reference “I poor snake crawl here”. I an ironic reference to Genesis 3:1 where the Serpent (Satan) appears as a snake to tempt Eve. Genesis 3:15 makes reference to the “seed/offspring of the serpent”. Being subjected to the Fall and the Curse, human beings have now been brought low.

Meter: “Story/Glory”, end the first and third lines. The line scan 11 syllables with a feminine rhyme on the 10 & 11th syllables.

Paraphrase: The story of the poet’s salvation (his coming to this city) of such a marvel that if it were known, it would impart a greater glory to the place than is possible in the mere stones and gold. Those things are beautiful, but the story of the poet’s salvation is greater still.
May my rough voice and blunt tongue but spell my
My tale (for tune they can’t) perhaps there may
Some angel catch in an end of’t up and tell
In heaven when he doth return that way
He’ll make they palace, Lord, all over ring
With it in songs, they saint and angels sing.
Meter: In the first line of the phrase “blunt tongue” again creates a pair of accented syllables by running a trochee after an iamb. The effect is jarring, underscoring the bluntness of his tongue.

Reference: The purpose of salvation is bring glory to God. As Paul writes in Ephesians:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: 4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: 5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, 6 To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Ephesians 1:3–6 (AV)

Paraphrase: The poet is unable to sing in any manner worthy of God’s glory (much less saints made perfect or the angelic world). Therefore, he will “spell” his story: he will write it out in this poem. His hope is that by spelling it out, an angel may over his story and bring the story back to heaven where the angel’s far greater abilities will make it possible to recount the story (given in this poem) in a song worthy of God’s gory.

As Charles Wesley wrote:

O for a thousand tongues to sing
My great Redeemer’s praise,
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

My gracious Master and my God,
Assist me to proclaim,
To spread through all the earth abroad
The honors of Thy name.

 

Sermon Outline: Isaiah 15-16

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by in Acts, Isaiah, Preaching, Sermons, Uncategorized

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(Picture, “War & Poverty” by Kelly Short — I am using this picture because it provokes one to sympathy by seeing the horror of war — is one of the primary effects of Isaiah 15-16)

In reading Isaiah 15-16, I thought (1) How would I preach this passage? And (2) What is important in the manner of its composition: It is poetry, with a great deal of emphatic compression, repetition and imagery. Why is written like this and not as a narrative or as a didactic declaration?

I.  The Horror of Judgment

The overall tone is one of pathos. The repetition insists upon the horror and sorrow:

Ar of Moab is laid waste in a night

Kir of Moab is laid waste in a night

And so on. Every detail of the devastation is repeated and amplified. It is like a series of snapshots of broken walls, bodies and wailing. The destruction is absolute and goes down even to the earth. 16:8-10

There are refugees fleeing in all directions and the terror and sorrow spread in all directions like blood from the corpses:

Isaiah 15:8–9 (ESV)

8           For a cry has gone

around the land of Moab;

her wailing reaches to Eglaim;

her wailing reaches to Beer-elim.

9           For the waters of Dibon are full of blood;

for I will bring upon Dibon even more,

a lion for those of Moab who escape,

for the remnant of the land.

I can help thinking of all the millions pouring out of the Middle East who suffer loss and death and sorrow even as they flee. Any sermon must effectuate the sorrow and horror of the judgment or the sermon will have failed in its purpose.

II.  The Cause of Judgment

Second there is the cause of this devastation:

Isaiah 16:6–7 (ESV)

6           We have heard of the pride of Moab—

how proud he is!—

of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence;

in his idle boasting he is not right.

7           Therefore let Moab wail for Moab,

let everyone wail.

Mourn, utterly stricken,

for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth.

This reminds me of Obadiah 3 (which is interesting when you compare this to Amos 1:11-12 & 2:1-3).  So this horror has come about because of pride.

III.  The Escape from Judgment

Third, this is the real bite in the passage. God has destroyed Moab with a horror beyond belief.  But God mourns the destruction:

Isaiah 15:5 (ESV)

5           My heart cries out for Moab;

her fugitives flee to Zoar,

to Eglath-shelishiyah.

For at the ascent of Luhith

they go up weeping;

on the road to Horonaim

they raise a cry of destruction;

 

Isaiah 16:9 (ESV)

9           Therefore I weep with the weeping of Jazer

for the vine of Sibmah;

I drench you with my tears,

O Heshbon and Elealeh;

for over your summer fruit and your harvest

the shout has ceased.

God loves his enemies: God judges, and yet there is compassion for the necessity of the judgment:

Luke 19:41–44

41 And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, 42 saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. 43 For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side 44 and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

There is a command to shelter the refugees:

Isaiah 16:3–5 (ESV)

3           “Give counsel;

grant justice;

make your shade like night

at the height of noon;

shelter the outcasts;

do not reveal the fugitive;

4           let the outcasts of Moab

sojourn among you;

be a shelter to them

from the destroyer.

When the oppressor is no more,

and destruction has ceased,

and he who tramples underfoot has vanished from the land,

5           then a throne will be established in steadfast love,

and on it will sit in faithfulness

in the tent of David

one who judges and seeks justice

and is swift to do righteousness.”

Notice this command ends with the protection in the tent of David. This phrase “tent of David” matches (in the LXX) the language of Acts 15:16:

The citation from Amos 9:12 follows the LXX fairly closely, though this version differs from the Massoretic (Hebrew) text in significant ways.49 ‘Precisely the divergence of the LXX from the Hebrew enables the text to be used midrashically.’50 The purpose of this restoration of the Davidic rule is not simply to bless Israel but also ‘ “that the rest of humanity may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who bear my name, says the Lord, who does these things” ’. James adds words possibly taken from Isaiah 45:21 ‘ “(things known from long ago” ’) as a gloss on the concluding words from Amos 9:12 (‘ “these things” ’).51 This addition strengthens the claim that God’s plan to save Gentiles along with Jews is no novelty, since it was part of his eternal purpose (cf. Rom. 15:8–12).

David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 432.

The language of the throne coupled to the tent of David strengthens the tie to Jesus (and all of the cross-references to Jesus based upon this language).

The reason why the sorrow and terror are seen throughout the poem is that God intends to provoke the same sorrow and terror in the hearer. Moab is guilty. The judgment is justice, but it is sad, frightening event. God is calling upon his people to rescue the judged people of Moab.

It is interesting that it is not certain what attack is being foretold:

The first part of the prophecy, 15:1–9, tells of the devastating effect of the disaster which was to befall Moab. As noted above, the actual nature of the attack cannot be determined from the general account here. The major emphasis is upon the effect, which will be that the Moabites will be so demoralized that their only response will be weeping and flight.

John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1986), 336–337.

But by analogy, the lesser judgment all foretell the greater judgment to come. This would lend itself, by such analogy to a very evangelistic plea. The tie to seeking protection in the tent of David would strengthen the argument.

God foretells this judgment, primarily to the people of God, to provoke them with both the horror of the judgment and the sorrow of the victims (who deserve the judgment) so that they will reach out and rescue these people by bringing them into the tent of David.

Thomas Watson, 24 Helps to Read the Scripture

02 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Reading, Scripture, Thomas Watson, Uncategorized

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In this section, Watson gives a general proposition, three motivations and a rebuke.

First, the general proposition: Read the Scripture with seriousness:

VI. Read the word with seriousness. I one go over the Scripture cursorily, says Erasmus, there is little good to be got by it; but if he be serious in reading it, it is the savor of life; and well may we be serious if we consider the importance of those truths which are bound up in this sacred volume. Deut. 32:47: “It is not a vain thing for you; it is your life.” If a letter were to be broken open and read, wherein a man’s whole estate were concerned, how serious would he be in reading it.

Watson does not give further explanation of what he means by seriousness; however, some consideration will make the point clear. First, seriousness at the least requires undivided attention. Go into a room where someone else is intently watching a movie or a sporting event at a critical juncture. Their entire attention is focused upon that one thing and any distraction is likely to upset them. If the Scripture is as serious as fictional characters in a petty conflict, then certainly reading the Scripture must require focused attention.

Second, seriousness must entail an earnest consideration. Children plummeted into a game will give themselves heart and soul to some task.  They will not merely give undivided attention but they will consider each aspect earnestly: it matters how this matter concludes.

Third, seriousness a willingness to respond as a result of the information received. Your friend watching a movie may give undivided attention and earnest consideration to the movie — but once it is over, your friend is not likely to move to Manhattan to be of assistance to the character whose life has been upended by a surprise revelation. When the movie is over, your friend quickly forgets what has taken place.

Yet, when we read the Scripture, we must read it with a seriousness that we are transformed by what we have read.

Watson now gives three examples why Scripture requires such seriousness.  First, Scripture is serious because it concerns Christ, the Lord and King of Creation:

In the Scripture our salvation is concerned; it treats of the love of Christ, a serious subject. Christ hath loved mankind more than the angels that fell. Heb. 2:7. The loadstone, indifferent to gold and pearl, draws the iron to it; thus Christ passed by the angels, who were of more noble extraction, and drew mankind to him. Christ loved us more than his own life; nay, though we had a hand in his death, yet that he should not leave us out of his will. This is a love that passeth knowledge; who can read this without seriousness? 

Second, Scripture concerns our eternal end; nothing could of greater concern to a human being than the unending end of his soul:

The Scripture speaks of the mystery of faith, the eternal recompenses, and the paucity of them that shall be saved. Matt. 20:16: “Few chosen.” One saith the names of all the good emperors of Rome might be engraved in a little ring; there are but (comparatively) few names in the Book of Life.

Third, Scripture explains with what deadly concern we must treat our destiny:

The Scripture speaks of striving for heaven as in an agony. Luke 13:24. It cautions us of falling short of the promised rest. Heb. 4:1. It describes the horrors of the infernal torments, the worm, and the fire. Mark 9:44. Who can read this and not be serious?

The lightness with which we treat Scripture must in part be because we do not actually think that much hangs in the balance. We belong to an age which does not consider Judgment Day to be a concern. Just today, a friend wrote to me and said many people treat Judgment Day as “Acceptance Day” because there God will be such an accepting Judge. Watson writes of this sort:

Some have light, feathery, spirits; they run over the most weighty truths in haste, (like Israel who eat the Passover in haste,) and they are not benefited by the word. Read with a solemn, composed spirit. Seriousness is the Christian’s ballast, which keeps him from being overturned with vanity.

Thomas Watson, “How We May Read the Scriptures with Most Spiritual Profit,” in The Bible and the Closet: Or How We May Read the Scriptures with the Most Spiritual Profit; and Secret Prayer Successfully Managed, ed. John Overton Choules (Boston: Gould, Kendall and Lincoln, 1842), 22–23.

What is Worship (2)?

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Culture, Thesis, Uncategorized, Worship

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Last night working this definition through my graduate theology class, I had some helpful assistance:

First, the “sin” is recognized, typically by a subject sense of unhappiness. The “salvation” thus being that which brings happiness.

Second, the matter of sin and salvation could be better understood as a matter of shame and honor.

Third, there are a series of sin/salvation events which lead ultimately to a self-honor which resolves the problem of having been put to shame in the Fall (since no one aspect of the creature is sufficient to resolve the lose of the Creator (see, Romans 1:18, et seq.) it will be necessary to seek multiple “salvations” — no creature will ever be enough).

 

What is Worship?

10 Wednesday Feb 2016

Posted by in Culture, Sin, Soteriology, Thesis, Uncategorized

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I have been trying to find a definition which captures the concept of worship when it expands out into “normal” activities. Without question, our relationship to various “idols” — sports idols, music idols, the famous, the beautiful, the powerful can constitute  worship. A college football looks like worship.

But there is also the worship of the mall (James K.A. Smith’s first chapter in Desiring the Kingdom is brilliant on this point). How do we capture work as worship? And how do we distinguish appropriate human action is appropriate and not as sinful worship? How do I go to a football game or a concert and not “worship” the performer?

This is still tentative:

Every worldview — even if it is inarticulate — grapples with the “wrong” in the world, the way it is not supposed to be. The most thoughtless person still struggles against something wrong. There is some Fall, some Sin which haunts us all — even if we don’t think of it in “religious” terms.

There is a solution to that something wrong: If you will, there is  Sin and there is Salvation.

The object of worship is that thing, person, whatever, which the human worshiper believes will resolve the “what is wrong with the world” problem. It might be the outcome of political election or new shoes.

The act of worship is that set of actions and affections which seek to obtain the benefit of the object hoped in.

There may be more than one object of worship necessary to resolve the problem as understood by the human worshipper.

Seen in this way, not all worship will entail distinctly “religious” means. The act of worship is fit to the object of worship.

“Religious” acts of worship take place where the object of worship is principally spiritual.

However, where the objet of worship is a material object the practice of worship will not appear to be “religious”. If it is an objection and action which is common to a particular culture, it will appear “normal” and be largely invisible.

 

 

The Spiritual Chymist, Meditation XXV (Upon False Mediums)

14 Thursday Jan 2016

Posted by in Soteriology, Uncategorized, William Spurstowe

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The previous post in this series from William Spurstowe, 1666, is here

There is only one right way of salvation.

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The fruition of the end is the Sabbath of all action, having this property in it, to quiet as well as incite the agent: for nothing that moves it may move, but it moves that it may rest. And yet though the end be always desirable, it is by agents who act freely and out of choice often missed and fall short of as well as enjoyed. And this sometimes it comes to pass by their dividing that means from the end, presuming they may obtain the one and yet not use the other.

With Sophism [tricky logic], Satan has cheated many out of salvation, while he has made them confident of happiness yet careless of holiness: to think that they may inn [spend time in an inn] with the righteous though they never travel with them; that they may reap glory, though they sow seed to the flesh.

Sometimes again I missed the end though they use the means, because they do not proportion the one to the other. They use the means, but it is as some patients take medicine, to stir the humors rather than to carry them away, and thereby endanger themselves rather than effect a cure.

Many through the strength of conviction yield that if they have heaven something must be done by them: but their study is rather to find out the invisible point, nature and grace part, then to abound in all manner of holy conversation [a holy manner of life], and so while they strive to do no more than what will save them they fall miserably short of what is required.

Others again miscarry in regard of the end by pitching upon false and vain means, which though labored and persisted in do not yield profit in the least. What any man wonder at his disappointment that should hunt a hare with a snail [use a snail rather than a dog while hunting rabbits]? Or to hit the mark should shoot an arrow out of a butcher’s gambrel [a metal post used by a butcher: it wouldn’t shoot an arrow]? Or to make a tree fruitful should close the body of it with costly silks instead of feeding the root with good mold? Would not this folly be rather greatly reproached by all, then his frustrated endeavors in the least be pitied by any?

And yet how many men who would brand such a person with the deepest mark of folly and madness are guilty of as great an infatuation [a crazed idea] in matters of far higher moment [far greater importance]?

Is there anything that can be of more real consequence then the eternal welfare I have an immortal soul? Can the care of anxiety be too great to consider what rocks to shun [a ship avoided rocks in the water], what paths to tread, what means to use, that may bring the soul and salvation together?

And yet behold what and ill choice of mediums do such who profess themselves to be wise make to effect it. The idolater, he after a strange manner first makes is god, and then begs his happiness from it. One part of the wood he burns, as fuel to serve him; and the other part of it he serves and dreads as a deity, falling down before it, worshiping it, and saying, “Deliver me for you are my God.”

The wretched libertine thinks it little matters what religion any man follows, so long as he is true to it walk walk according to the rules and principles of it —as if heaven were a port to which all winds would blow; and inn in which travelers that journey from any direction maybe equally received.

The Pharisaical Christian lays the stress of his salvation upon his duties, which at best I like chains of glass, more specious than strong: like flourishings in parchment, they cannot bear a fiery trial.

Oh how few are they who consider that heaven stands like a little mark and a wide field, where there are 1000 ways to err from it, and yet but one to hit it? Yea,though God has said there is but one sacrifice by which we can be perfected; but one blood by which we can be purified; but one name by which we can be saved; yet how hardly are the best drawn to trust perfectly to the grace revealed and to look from themselves to Christ, as the author and finisher of their blessedness?

To make then a right choice of the way that leads to salvation is not an act of natural wisdom, but of divine illumination and teaching of the Spirit —who enlightens the mind and inclines the will to choose the one thing which is necessary.
O therefore, Holy Father
Seeing thou has made the whole progress of the salvation
   from first to last in Christ
   and by Christ
Election to be in him
Adoption to be in him
Justification to be in him
Sanctification to be in him
Glorification to be in him
Grant that, whatever others do
I may never choose the candle light of reason
But the Sun of Righteousness
As the guide for my feet into the paths of life
And both in life and death say
As the blessed martyr did
None but Christ!
None but Christ!

Angels Long to Look 1 Peter 1:10-121

29 Friday May 2015

Posted by in 1 Peter, Preaching, Sermons

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1 Peter 1:3–12 (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. 6 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, 9 obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, 11 inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. 12 It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look.

His living poems

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in Ephesians

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Our condition at the beginning is a key to the entire picture. We start out dead because of sin, so only God can bring us back to life:

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked according to this worldly age, according to the ruler of the atmospheric domain, the spirit now working in the disobedient. We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and by nature we were children under wrath, as the others were also. But God, who is abundant in mercy, because of His great love that He had for us, made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses. By grace you are saved! He also raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavens, in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might display the immeasurable riches of His grace in His kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are His creation—created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.

It could hardly be clearer. We were spiritually dead before God. We were absolutely powerless to do anything on our own behalf. The “you” and “we” in this passage are Gentiles and Jews, respectively. All had sinned, Paul told us in Romans 3, and the apostle tells us the same thing here in different words. In the midst of this terrible dilemma, God shows up. He shows up full of mercy. Mercy is something God does because He wants to, not because He has to. He shows up full of love. God chooses to make us alive in Christ. God gives us a place with Him in heaven, making us a part of His family.

So in the end, salvation is His gift, not from works. Those who benefit from God’s grace are the work of His creative hands, experiencing a new life in a new birth, what Scripture calls elsewhere “being born from above” or “born again.” And yet, despite all Paul says about works, he does not throw them away.

This is another part of Paul’s teaching we often miss. Works are a product of the new life of faith. Faith saves and faith works. We were “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time so that we should walk in them.” Why does God save us? So that we can again be useful, fulfilling the design that He originally had for us.

That is true fulfillment—walking in the purpose for which we were made. Good works are the indicator that salvation has taken place. When we are born again, we are God’s creation, His living poems. The word for creation in Ephesians 2:10 describes something someone else, in this case God, has brought into existence. We are designed for good works. We are built to serve and be useful. God designed this path so that having been saved and enabled in this new relationship, we can now walk in the good labor He designed for us originally to perform.

Bock, Darrell (2010-10-28). Recovering the Real Lost Gospel (pp. 63-64). B&H Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.