I just finished Robert Letham’s new book The Westminster Assembly: Reading its Theology in Historical Context.  I thought the book was incredibly helpful on the topic – probably the most definitive work on what it was trying to accomplish (correct historical misunderstandings of the Assembly and give an answer to the Calvin and the Calvinists debate).  I added it to the pile of great books and articles that Letham has already published.  Which made me wonder why he is always so helpful.  Two reasons I came up with:

1. Its difficult to find scholars who are experts in both Patristic and Reformational studies.  Scholars who are experts in one tend to be helpful in their area of expertise and anachronistic of the other.  However, those who have read anything by Robert Letham know that Letham is one of those unique scholars.  His works, ranging from Christology to Eastern Orthodoxy, all display a vast knowledge of patristic to contemporary sources.
2. He is a great historian and theologian.  Maybe I am the only one who has come across the problem many times of a church historian who attempts to be a theologian throughout his book and fails miserably.  Sadly, historians are often times bad theologians and vise versa.  Letham’s books on the Trinity and the work of Christ, however, display his expertise in both disciplines.

Here is a page with all his published books.

Paul writes in Galatians 2:21, “I do not nullify the grace of God, for if justification were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.”   This verse is in the larger context of an argument on justification in chapter 2 and into chapter 3.  Yet, Paul’s application of the doctrine of justification to his own life and daily choices should cause us to reflect a moment.  Certainly, Paul is immediately talking about Old Covenant customs that separate Jews and Gentiles in Galatians 2, but he expands it to the cosmic effects of the cross on humanity’s standing before God.  Whatever Paul does, he desires to live in light of forgiven sins through the accomplished work of Christ.  Notice what he says immediately before, “And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God , who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20).

So then, when Paul speaks about the dangers of nullifying the grace of God, he is speaking of any action we might be compelled to do in order to justify ourselves before God over and against Christ work on our behalf.  All of us have impulses that we desire to act upon that we think will give us a good standing before God.  Whether it be good parenting, consistent devotions, faithful tithing, or good church attendance, we, as sinners, work to build significance in ourselves before God apart from trusting in Christ for our righteous standing.  Here are few areas that I often, sinfully, strive in to justify myself before God:

1. Good behavior in my children. I must admit that I begin to swell with pride when people remark on the good behavior of our children and I often feel overly embarrassed when they publicly misbehave.  I worry about people’s perceptions of me and my parenting skills.  My heart condition can produce sinful attitudes towards my children when my own “righteous standing” has become a ramshackle.
2. Books. Reading has done immeasurable wonders for my sanctification and fight against sin.  Yet, at some significant level, it has also fueled pride.  I often, sinfully, identify myself in what I have read, rather than in what Christ has done on my behalf.
3. Having it all together. There is a sort of mistaken peace that I feel when everything is together in our family – when all the children are catechized and behaving well, when all the bills are paid, when Jena (my wife) and I are getting along great, and it seems as though everything is together before the eyes of the world.  I say mistaken peace, because my sinful impulse is to feel as if “togetherness” is the peace that reconciles me to God.  Yet, often times, I cry peace when there is no peace, because my heart can react in turmoil when my “togetherness” is threatened.  I replace God work on my behalf with my own self-worth, and forget the Gospel.

What are some areas where you justify yourself?

Last week I was able to do a Q/A with Dr. Vern Poythress on his new book In the Beginning Was the Word for the new website Christian Book News.  You can read Part 1 and 2.

Below are the questions I asked him:

1. What is the major concern or occasion behind a book like this?
2. Why is a knowledge of God so important for understanding language?
3. What does language stand to lose when its divorced from its relation to God?
4. Is this topic important for preaching and evangelism?  How
5. What do you hope your readers take away from this work?

Its a great new book that I believe is valuable for pastors to read.

Pure Church gives a great little video on Dever’s assessment of The Trellis and the Vine.

In reading Hebrews 5, the author argues for a high view of the work accomplished by Jesus at the cross as our High Priest over the work of high priests in the Old Covenant.  At the end of chapter, however, the author desires to explain further truths about the Person of Christ and the work of Gospel, but his readers “have become dull of hearing” (Heb. 5:11).  They still need milk, like one who is an infant spiritually, instead of solid food.  The author desires them to grow in knowledge, not for knowledge sake, but for their sanctification:

But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).

Because they have not grown in the knowledge, their discernment powers have grown dull.  They lack the ability to carefully discern between what is good and evil, morally.  What knowledge, exactly, is the author speaking about?  The entire letter is the author’s reflection upon Scripture and deducing truths from them to form an ordered instruction about who Jesus is, his Gospel, and its implication upon the life of the Christian.  His readers have underestimated the importance of reflecting upon Scripture to come to a clearer knowledge of Christ and his Gospel for their sanctification.

We can see the fruit of minimizing Christian doctrine in some Christian circles, where homosexual activity and marriage is heartily approved.  Their power to discern between good and evil has become dull.  Theology does, at times, divide, yet theological growth in the knowledge of Christ and his Gospel never fails to increase our sanctification.  May we never be satisfied with milk.

In the Beginning Was the Word: Language: A God-Centered Approach by Vern Poythress –Excellent.  I highly recommend this book for pastors, evangelists, and missionaries – anyone communicating the Truth of the Gospel.

Counsel from the Cross by Dennis Johnson and Elyse Fitzpatrick – Very good book on how the Gospel applies to the Christian life – informing, instructing, and sanctifying our hearts.  Just great!

Jesus: Made in America by Stephen Nichols – Great book.  Very David Wellsian throughout.

New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ by Thomas Schreiner – Equally as helpful to the scholar as its to the pastor.  God has blessed the Church with this volume, and will for quite some time.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Matt. 27:46

At the cross, we see the second Person of the Trinity, the man Jesus, bearing the sins of the world and giving us a small picture of the agony and shame in his statement, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  Words cannot express the profound activity that is happening when Christ exclaims his forsakenness by the Father.  Divine judgment is taking place.  Darkness has filled the skies (Matt. 27:45) at mid-day.  Upon Jesus Christ, our sins and transgressions have been credited to him.

William Cowper was a famous hymn writer, poet, and satirist from the 18th century. He was brilliant in the eyes of many and had a promising career at the in The House of Lords at a fairly young age. But Cowper also battled with insanity, spending portions of his life in asylums. The bright spots in his life were the periods where he lived with the Unwin family in recovery and John Newton – a converted slave trader and pastor in London. Newton and Cowper would write many famous hymns together in order to place Cowper’s mind on great and glorious things rather than leave his mind to the darkness that lingered. Cowper would write powerful words such as this:

GOD moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,
And rides upon the storm.

Olney Hymns (1779)–’Light Shining out of Darkness’

Sadly, the death of his close friend Mary Unwin would send Cowper into a darkness that he could never recover from. He would spend the rest of his life in torment until dropsy finally seized him and killed him in the Spring of 1800.

The story of William Cowper is sad in the eyes of many because despite his great affection and passion for the glory of God and a high dependence on the accomplishments of the cross of Christ, it seemed as if God forsook his child and left him to his own darkness of mind. Many churches, today, do not sing his hymns because “dying in depression” displays a child who has forsaken his Savior or been forsaken by God.

But these assessments are not true. In fact, the story should bring hope and encouragement to saints who struggle with depression and fears of hell. The theme of William Cowper’s life was this:

E’er since, by faith, I saw the stream Thy flowing wounds supply,
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.
And shall be till I die, and shall be till I die;
Redeeming love has been my theme, and shall be till I die.

There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood,1772

D. A. Carson said this about the apparently sad ending of William Cowper’s life: “Jesus cried on the cross,’My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me?’, so that William Cowper would never have to. That is substitution. That is the grounding for new birth. Nothing less.”

“You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Luke 3:22

After John the Baptist brought Jesus up from the water, the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and the Father said to him, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”  This text displays the sweet communion the Son has with the Father, not just in that moment, but from all of eternity.  Yet, for Christians, this proclamation is good news – “gospel” good news!

We are sinners and God is not pleased with our sinfulness.  No one can stand before our righteous God on their own standing and live.  We are sinful and deserve God’s judgment.  From Adam onward, no one can claim to be righteous.

Yet, we see Jesus.  The divine Son of God – the Creator and Sustainer of the universe – came and put on humanity, becoming like us in every way.  While still preserving his divine Sonship, he lived as a perfect man, so that those who would trust in the saving promises of God in Christ would have his righteous obedience accounted to them.  When God sees those who repent and believe, he does not count their sins against them, but credits them with the righteousness of Christ.  Therefore, because God is well pleased with his Son, he is well pleased with those who have been united with Christ, through faith.

I can’t say enough about how much I am enjoying Vern Poythress’ new book In the Beginning Was the Word.  It is creative, convicting, and compelling.  Poythress beautifully crafts his argument of a Creature-creature paradigm of language.  God, as Creator, creates and sustains language.  Language is Trinitarian.  We communicate with language as God’s image bearers.  For Poythress, language is distinctly God-centered and those who were created in his image should use it as such.  However, there are many who do not and Poythress warns of the dangers of not centering language in God:

In the twentieth century, structural linguistics has mostly assumed “from the beginning”, in the foundation of the discipline, that language and communication is purely human, that is, God either does not exist or that he can be factored out of the picture.  The same goes for the sociological study of human communication…  But from a biblical point of view, the move to exclude God ignores the single most important fact about communication and the most weighty ontological fact about language.  It has distorted the subject matter that we study, and so we can only anticipate a multitude of repercussions when it comes to the detailed analysis of the subject.

Every pastor who preaches regularly, writer, speaker, or even those who desire to think, write, or speak about Truth clearly would benefit greatly from this book.

Somehow, I believe Brian Mclaren writes music to inspire change and hope, but he tends to generalize everything (like in his books) so much that his songs have little-to-no meaning at all to them.  Maybe someone can explain what, exactly, is “about to be born”.  Here is his new song “To Be Born”:

I am reading through Stephen Nichols’ book Jesus: Made in America.  I am very much enjoying it!  Nichols surveys the landscape of popular understandings of Jesus from the early American Puritans to Mel Gibson’s Passion of Christ. In his chapter on the Puritans he spends some energy on one particular puritan named Edward Taylor, who was a preacher for 58 years and a poet.  He wrote many poems on the mystery of the Incarnation and the union of the human and divine nature of the one Person of Christ.  Below is one that I found myself reading over and over:

In Essence two, in Properties each are

Unlike, as unlike can be.  One All-Might,

A Mite the other; One Imortall Fair:

One mortall, This all Glory, that all night:

One infinite, One finite.  So forever:

Yet ONED are in Person.  Part’d never.

“For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” Romans 5:19

At a very basic level, when God looks at the world he only sees two men.  Although these two men lived generations apart, God envisions the world, ultimately, only through them.  One man, Adam, lived before the face of God, yet rebelled against God’s command and a curse was laid upon him and his offspring.  The bad news is that everyone born after him, all of mankind, inherit this curse.  This curse, apart from a divine remedy, not only leads to sin, suffering, and death in this life, it also leads to eternal destruction and separation from God after it.

And yet we see Jesus.  He also lived before the face of God, yet he lived in perfect obedience and submission to the will of his Father.  The significance of the person of Jesus Christ, is that he not only lived a perfect life before the face of God, he also lived a perfect life as the divine Son of God.  So then, when he was crucified on the cross for sins, he was a perfect sacrifice for the sins of many – a perfect Mediator between God and man because he was both fully God and fully man.  The good news is that all who repent and believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be saved from the curse of Adam and live in union with Christ, so that when God looks upon you he no longer sees the person of Adam and his curse, but Christ and his righteousness.  Praise God for his mercy and grace!

I spent the last week in New Orleans, LA at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting.  It is always nice to see old friends and meet new ones.  I did not spend a fortune on books, though I did make a short [wish] list.  Its always hard to be away from my family, especially now since we just recently had our third child.  I am thankful for a very faithful and loving wife.

Here are a few highlights from the meeting that I thought was worth sharing:

(1)  Al Mohler and John Piper were involved in a panel discussion on the “Common Word Between Us” effort to bridge Muslims and Evangelicals theologically.  Below is the audio:

• Muslim Perspectives on the Writing of “A Common Word”
• Christian Defenses of the Yale Response to “A Common Word”
• Q&A

(2)  Owen Strachen live-blogged Bruce Ware’s presidential address on the humanity of Christ.  Owen did a superb job.  I cannot imagine trying to live-blog an address like this.

(3)  Speaking of Owen Strachen, he also introduced me to Bible Mesh.  While many of you, like me, have probably seen this new teaching tool recently mentioned on  popular Christian blogs, I wanted emphasize the value of it.  I would encourage you to spend some time and explore their website.

Below are the contents to the Fall 2009 JBMW from CBMW

Christian thankfulness is not primarily Well, at least I’m not as bad off as… or I need to thankful for what I have because there many who do not have what I have.  Christian thankfulness has a more significant level to it.  Mainly, a child of God has what he has free of charge.  Jeremiah Burroughs, in his Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, explains it like this (I will summarize):

A child of an inn-keeper has his diet, lodging, and anything else he needs provided.  A stranger comes and he, also, has his diet, lodging, and anything else needs provided.  The child of the inn-keeper may have a very plain meal, while the traveler feasts.  At the end, the child never pays for his provisions.  But, as for the traveler, there will be a reckoning for everything.  Burroughs writes, “Grace shows a man that what he has, he has free of cost, from God as from a father, and therefore it must needs be very sweet.”

The Christian may be thankful and content in what he has, even though he has very little.  For all that he has is free of cost, paid for by the purchase of Christ Jesus.

Working at CBMW I have been exposed to a fair bit of polemics – whether it be about women in ministry, the Trinity, or the meaning of certain terms in Scripture (like headship, authority, submission ,etc).  It is easy for one to get caught up in controversy.  Its energizing.  It puts purpose behind your efforts.  As a Christian, I can be thankful for historical controversies.  Our faith and understanding of Christ is furthered because of efforts of men who have thought deeply in order to guard against heresies.

But controversy can be consuming.

1. It can divert our attention away from feeding our souls on the more necessary things.  I do not want to diminish the importance of theological controversies.  I am thankful that men devoted their lives to defend the Trinity, justification, or the divinity of Christ.  Yet, many of these men kept the Gospel at the center.  They did not let controversy divert their attention away from their own increase in holiness, letting the love of Christ improve upon their hearts and lives.  We must be careful that our attention to controversies are fueled by the loved of Christ and the preservation of the Gospel.
2. Controversy has a tendency to fuel pride and the desire to be right.  The more we invest into whatever controversy we are involved in the more we have to lose.  Corrupt desires to be right can cause us to be dishonest in our writings, with others, and  even with ourselves.
3. We must guard against the tendency to lose our desire to love our brothers and sisters in the midst of controversy.  Dysfunctional desires to win arguments can cause us to misrepresent our opponents, create straw arguments, or paint opponents in an unfavorable light.

These are lamentable fruits of evil desires and contrary to the Gospel.  Keeping the fruits of the Spirt in mind when amidst controversy is helpful.  Ask questions like:

1. Am I acting with self-control?  Is something other than a redeemed heart and affections controlling my words and temper?
2. Do I desire to be right to such an extent that I am willing to put down or, even, hate others?
3. Am I patient with others, even when they are not with me?
4. Do I desire to continue in controversy more than I desire peace?

As Christians, we should be faithful to the Gospel and defend it whenever there is compromise.  We should be firm, steadfast, and courageous.  Yet, these are not contrary to the fruit of a redeemed heart.

Classic Dr. Russell Moore:

Southern Seminary had their own panel discussion on the topic of multi-site churches, which has spawned much discussion and debate.  I do think clear and biblical arguments against multi-site campuses have been given, so I am not going to rehearse them.  You can read a few here:

John Meade

Thabiti Anyabwile (very pastoral)

I wanted, however, to make an observation.  It seems that many who argue for multi-site campuses and who argue, biblically, for the necessity of eldership in the local church speak out both sides of their mouths.  What I mean is this, an argument for eldership in the Church is based upon the regular practice of the NT church.  Throughout the NT, churches were governed in some way by male elders and they were given the task of shepherding the flock.  Since this was the normal way in which the apostles set up local churches, then it should be normative for churches today.  Many on the pro-multi-site church debate argue for biblical eldership this way, yet do not apply this same sort of reasoning to their understanding of how a local congregation should gather.  The normal way in which the NT church functioned was to “gather together” – since the meaning of the word Church in the NT is “gathering.”

At the end of the day, it seems like pragmatism.

Here are all three parts of CBMW’s response, with myself, Denny Burk, and James Hamilton, to the TIME magazine article “The State of the American Woman.”

I mentioned earlier this week that I have begun reading Counsel from the Cross by Elyse Fitzpatrick and Dennis Johnson.  It has proved to be a very practical, gospel-guided book.  Chapter 2 is very helpful.  They point to 2 Cor. 3:18 as the main source of sanctification for the believer: “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” along with 2 Cor. 4:6, “God has shone in our hearts the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.”  What Fitzpatrick and Johnson seek to answer is how might we see his face?  How are our hearts and minds informed and illumined by the gospel? They give four basic ways:

(1) In the Word Preached

“The Word of God, in particular, the gospel message, which is the integrating center of the whole Word of God, is the means that the Spirit uses to transform the hearts and minds of the elect.”

(2) In Baptism

Baptism is an ongoing sign to assure believers of the washing of their sins, our union with Christ in his death, and in our new resurrected  life.

(3) The Lord’s Supper

A sign to confirm our confidence in the Gospel.  ”We are seated with him, dining at his table, eating the meal that he paid dearly to purchase.”

(4) Fellowship with other Believers

“The Gospel of Jesus Christ – that we are all more sinful and flawed that we ever dared believe but more loved and welcomed that we ever dared hope – is meant to be lived out in relationship: each of us assuring, reminding, confronting, counseling, and listening to one another, praying for one another, and bearing one another’s burdens.  It’s here, within gospel-centered relationships, that the Spirit will reveal the Son to us.”