He will not be shut out of His world

Along with a few other books of substance, I am currently working through John Frame's The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God. Can we know God? Really and truly? These are legitimate questions in this day of subjective truth and post-modern sensibilities. Frame responds in the affirmative:

Scripture, at any rate, is clear: God is both knowable and known. He is known truly, known as He really is. Some people have argued that because our knowledge of God comes through revelation and then through our senses, reason, and imagination, it cannot be a knowledge of God as He really is but only of how He appears to us . . . In Scripture, reality (God in particular) is known, and our sense, reason, and imagination are themselves revelations of God-means that God uses to drive His truth home to us. God is Lord; He will not be shut out of His world. (33, emphasis mine)

A totally self-sufficient community of love and glory

Shortly I will be posting a book review for the book written by Mike Cosper called Rhythms of Grace: How the Church's Worship Tells the Story of the Gospel. For now, consider this excerpt from the book which discusses the existence of worship in eternity-past before the creation of the universe:

So before the world began, there was love. It flowed-perfect, complete, and constant-between the three persons of the Trinity. This love was an unending appreciation, a perpetual beholding and rejoicing in the goodness and perfection of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The scene was what theologian Fred Sanders calls the "happy land of the Trinity." It was, and is, a totally self-sufficient community of love and glory. 

At its heart, worship is rooted in this love. The Trinitarian community is, in a sense, perpetually beholding one another with love and amazement . . . The word worship comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which combines two words meaning "ascribe worth." The Trinity can be said to be always at worship because the three persons of the Godhead perfectly behold the worth and wonder of one another. (26-7)

Their practice will be according to their convictions

This is great stuff by Edwards. In the 11th lecture of Charity and Its Fruit, Edwards convincingly declares that men's practice will be according to their convictions. That is, if a man truly believes something, he will act on it and if he does not act on it, it seems that he is not really and entirely convinced of that truth.

Nowhere is this more true than in man's dealings with the gospel. Gospel-truth is efficacious truth; if you believe it sincerely, your life is changed and this results in a change in the manner in which you live your life.

If a man hears important news that concerns himself, and we do not see that he alters at all for it in his practice, we at once conclude that he does not give heed to it as true; for we know the nature of man is such, that he will govern his actions by what he believes and is convinced of. And so if men are really convinced of the truth of the things they are told in the gospel, about an eternal world, and the everlasting salvation that Christ has purchased for all that will accept it, it will influence their practice. They will regulate their behavior according to such a belief, and will act in such a manner as will tend to their obtaining this eternal salvation. If men are convinced of the certain truth of the promises of the gospel, which promise eternal riches, and honors, and pleasures, and if they really believe that those are immensely more valuable than all the riches, and honors, and pleasures of the world, they will, for these, forsake the things of the world, and, if need be, sell all and follow Christ. If they are fully convinced of the truth of the promise, that Christ will indeed bestow all these things upon his people, and if all this appears real to them, it will have influence on their practice, and it will induce them to live accordingly. Their practice will be according to their convictions.

Similarities between covenants

Hello all!

Sorry for the slim pickings at the blog this past while. Lots of things going on around here keeping me busy and somewhat distracted. Hopefully I'll be back on track now.

I continue to find Kingdom Through Covenant intriguing and enriching. It is full of helpful commentary on sundry topics concerning the covenants in the Bible. The following excerpt touches upon the connection between the various covenants and how they should be approached.

ISAIAH 54:9–10

[9] “To me this is like the days of Noah,
when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth.
So now I have sworn not to be angry with you,
never to rebuke you again.
[10] Though the mountains be shaken
and the hills be removed,
yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken
nor my covenant of peace be removed,”
says the LORD, who has compassion on you. (NIV)

This passage is extremely important for letting the biblical text define in its own terms the relationships between the various covenants; it will be considered at length later. Nonetheless, Isaiah compares here the new covenant with the covenant with Noah. What is precisely similar between both covenants is the undeterred, unswerving commitment of Yahweh to carry out the promises enshrined in them. Just as he promised never again to cover the entire earth with floodwaters as a judgement, so he will never be angry with his people and so withdraw his loyal love in the covenant of peace.

I love the suggestion above that the similarity between an older covenant, like the Noahic, and the new covenant is "the undeterred, unswerving commitment of Yahweh to carry out the promises enshrined in them." We serve an awesome God!

Trust in intellectual matters

Some helpful thoughts from Dr. Vern S. Poythress on trusting God in the midst of uncertainty about the Bible from his book Inerrancy and the Gospels:

In a fundamental way, trust in the matter of intellectual questions or historical difficulties or apparent discrepancies or biblical paradoxes remains part of the general obligation to trust God in every area of life. We have good grounds for trust, because of God's character and the faithfulness of his Word. He is infinitely good. We have grounds also in the demonstration of his goodness and faithfulness throughout history. Supremely, we have grounds in the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. God shows there his supreme commitment to righteousness. Christ was vindicated and sin received its due payment in Christ as substitute. God showed there his supreme commitment to truth: his promise of redemption proved true, at supreme cost to himself. He showed his supreme commitment to us in the love that he manifested in the cross. (109)

Thus, we look to the cross and Christ's work at Calvary for assurance and reassurance of his commitment to truth and his commitment to us. We have good grounds, infinitely good grounds, to trust God in all things and particularly to trust him in regards to his Word.

Fools! Simpletons! Dullards!

From a sermon preached by D. M. Lloyd-Jones called The Church Today: The Road to Emmaus as it is found in Crossway's book entitled Setting Our Affections Upon Glory:

I say again that I have an awful feeling that is what our Lord is saying about us and to us today. "You fools!" What he means is that we are dullards, that we are simpletons, that we do not know how to think, that we allow ourselves to be governed by circumstances and accidents and change and the things that happen to us and the conditions in which we find ourselves. And instead of using our minds and reason and our understanding and applying the truth we have received, we allow ourselves to be in this state of misery and dejection and discouragement. "What a terrible world this is!" Is that not true of us? Fools! Simpletons! Dullards! 

This is said frequently in the New Testament. Writing in his first epistle to certain churches, to unknown people whose names we do not know, strangers scattered abroad in various countries who were having a horrible time and were enduring terrible persecution, the apostle Peter says-and its one of the first things he tells them, "Gird up the loins of your mind" (1 Pet. 1:13). 

The church must think. She must use her mind and her reason. The tragedy is that we constantly tend to fall back on other things in order somehow or another to relieve ourselves and to keep thing going. We are sentimental. Sentimentality is very largely the trouble with present church. We are very nice people, we members of the Christian church, but we are very foolish. And the first thing we must do is wake up and gird the loins of our minds and think and understand the truth and begin to apply it to the situation in which we find ourselves, instead of giving way, instead of giving in, instead of just commiserating with one another. I am sometimes afraid that the church is dying of niceness. We are really good at praising one another, are we not, and saying that we are doing well. We have become a mutual admiration society, sympathisizing and communing with one another, and thus being sentimental with one another. And the whole time the condition of the church degenerates from bad to worse. Fools! We must apply our understanding to the situation with which we are confronted (76-7).

Cultivating fresh faith

I am almost finished blogging through the book Gospel Centered Discipleship. I continue to be encouraged and edified as I re-read and reflect on some of the ideas and insights of its author Jonathan K. Dodson.

Towards the end of the book Dodson works through some practical steps believers can take in regards to gospel-centered discipleship and I am reminded of how solid and helpful some of these suggestions are. For instance, Dodson begins an sub-section of his chapter entitled Practical Discipleship: Putting the Gospel into Practice with the title Cultivating Fresh Faith in the Gospel. Sounds good, right? Well, it is.

Consider the questions he leads this section off with:

How do we cultivate Bible reading that brings us fresh faith in the gospel? To be honest, there are times that old, memorized promises don't always work for me. Is this because "trusting your savior" doesn't work? No, it's because my heart becomes indifferent to them. How do we revive our hearts to take interest in God's promises? (132-3)

Dodson relies on the Puritan heavyweight John Owen to respond to the above questions and to indicate how we might cultivate fresh faith in the Gospel.

John Owen recommends we return to prayer, but perhaps not as you usually pray. He notes that if we wisely consider the Spirit's working in our hearts by prayer, we may understand much of his working upon our hearts by grace. In order to have fresh faith in the gospel, we ought to pray to the Spirit for three things: 1) insight into his promises, 2) experience of our need, 3) creation of desire. All too often we assume the insight, neglect to experience our need, and are too proud to ask for desire. (133)

I think that though all three of these practical insights are helpful, #2 impacts me the most. In our society and the culture that permeates it, it can actually be difficult to understand our ever-present and enormous need. We are seduced and satiated by the world to the detriment of our inner life. I think a prayer for cognizance and experience of our need is vital.

Dodson expounds on these ideas in the ensuing sections and it is all very helpful. Consider getting your hands on this gem and benefiting from it first hand.