Hearing the Gospel (Over and Over!)

 Here’s a book that church leaders need to get – pastors, elders, deacons, and other Christians who help God’s people in different ways: Counsel from the Cross by Dennis Johnson and Elyse Fitzpatrick.  In a word, this book is a lesson on the gospel and how it applies to Christians on the pilgrim way - fighting sin and dealing with difficulties while carrying the cross.

“I assume you are already aware of how powerful the word of the gospel is, but I wonder if any of us realize that once we have believed the message we don’t really need to hear it again.  But we couldn’t be more wrong.  It is the glorious message of God’s love for us in Christ that engenders the faith and perseverance that will enable us to grow in godliness.  It is in the gospel message that we see the glory of God; it shows us the face of Jesus Christ and transforms us.”

“The gospel message – that God has made us his own in spite of our sin – is what we need to hear over and over again.  By the Spirit’s work we will see the face of Jesus Christ in the Word preached to us, even though it might be presented by weak and unimpressive men.  The power to transform hearts belongs to God, not to men, but God has promised to transform us through the message that the world calls ‘folly’ and through men that the world despises as fools.”

Amen and Amen.  If the pulpit does not resound with gospel-grace each and every Sunday, the church’s shepherding/counseling work has no solid ground on which to stand.  The center of true Christian discipleship and guidance is the gospel, which is the center of biblical preaching, which is the center of the church herself.  This is another reason why historic, Bible-saturated liturgy is a blessing: each Sunday we (plural) hear the law, we confess our sins together, and we hear the forgiveness of sins through Christ’s blood.  Then the gospel is echoed in song and sermon.  In this way, Lord’s Day worship provides the church the motivation and means to counsel those who need it. 

I highly recommend this book; in fact, I may work through it with some leaders at the church I serve.  Counsel from the Cross is straightforward, well-written, and full of biblical truth and application.  This would complement a book I recommended last week, namely, You Can Change by Tim Chester.  These are books you’ll read, enjoy, and refer to time and again.

shane lems

sunnyside wa

Anselm’s “De Concordia”

 I’ve been reading through Anselm of Canterbury’s De Concordia, which was one of the last things he wrote before his death in 1109 AD.  De Concordia is no easy read, since it deals philosophically with the difficult topics of God’s foreknowledge and predestination as well as human freedom.  In fact, I’m still wrestling through some things he says, and I’m not sure I’m totally in agreement.  However, it is worth the read.  Here’s a sample:

“If one rightly grasps the meaning of the word foreknown, by the very fact that something is said to be foreknown, its future existence is declared.  For it is not foreknown unless it shall actually be, since the object of knowledge is what is actually the case” (p. 437).

“Predestination is the equivalent of pre-ordination and pre-establishment; and therefore to say that God predestines means that he pre-ordains, that is, to bring it about that something happen in the future.  But it seems that whatever God decrees to happen in the future shall happen of necessity.  Therefore, whatever God predestines shall happen of necessity” (p. 449).

“It should also be understood that the word ‘foreknowledge,’ as also the word ‘predestine’ are not used of God literally, for in him there is no before or after, but all things are present to him at once” (p. 450).

De Concordia is an interesting read, that’s for sure!  This also reminds me that the discussions of predestination and the will certainly did not originate with the Canons of Dort or John Calvin.  By the way, this book, Anselm of Canterbury: The Major Works (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) is under $10 at the WTS bookstore.  If you’re into historical theology, or you want some primary sources for medieval theology, I’d recommend this book.  For that good price, you get a solid paperback (c. 500 pages) which contains other works such as Monologion, Proslogion, and Why God Became Man (Cur Deus Homo), among others.

shane lems

sunnyside wa

An Outline of Horton’s New ST

 I have to admit that I’m not wild about some aspects of the layout of Mike Horton’s excellent new systematic theology, The Christian Faith.  I’m not sure why the editors/publisher didn’t give us a more detailed outline, and I’m not sure what good a tiny glossary does (it is 12 pages or so).  This book is a deep and sometimes difficult read - the reader could use some extra help!  A detailed outline would have been a nice addition since Horton’s way of writing often includes looking back at earlier topics and ahead to future topics. 

Despite these minor annoyances, I am enjoying the content very much.  I’m finished with the first part, and to make for easier reading and future referral, I’ve written a detailed outline with a few page references for help.  I’ll build on it more in the future (this is part 1).  Feel free to do with it what you want, and please let me know if you see corrections that need to be made.  If someone wants to eventually make this available online, we’ll link it instead of doing this.  Also, I’m open to better formatting, since I don’t have time to put extra work into it.

Michael Horton’s The Christian Faith

An Outline by Rev. Shane Lems

 Introduction: The Dogma Is the Drama

1)     Why Theology?

a)      Drama: The Greatest Story Ever Told

b)     Doctrine: The Grammar of Faith

c)      Doxology: Saying Amen!

d)     Discipleship: The Way of Christ in the World

e)      Putting It All Together: God’s New Role for us in His Play

2)     Why Systematic Theology?

3)     Back to the Sources

 Part 1: Knowing God (The Presuppositions of Theology)

Chapter 1: Dissonant Dramas: Paradigms for Knowing God and the World

1)     Dissonant Dramas: The Nature of Reality (p.36)

a)      Pantheism and Panentheism: Overcoming Estrangement

b)     Atheism and Deism: The Stranger We Never Meet   

2)     A Covenantal Account of Meeting a Stranger (p. 41)

a)      Defining the Model

b)     Defending the Model

c)      The Heart of the Model: A Covenantal Relationship

3)     Epistemology: Knowing God (p. 47)

a)      How Can We Know God? Post Reformation Interpretation

i)       God’s Incomprehensible Majesty

b)     The Sovereign Self: Variations on a Theme

Chapter 2: The Character of Theology: A Theoretical or a Practical Science?

1)     Seeing as Certainty: The Way of Vision (p. 81)

2)     Hear O Israel – Covenantal Speech

3)     Hearing is Believing

4)     Theory and Practice (p. 94)

a)      The Theory-Practice Debate in Theology

b)     Faith and Reason

c)      Faith as Confidence in God’s Promise: The Story is the Point

5)     Theology as Wisdom for Invocation (p. 104)

a)      Wisdom

Chapter 3: The Source of Theology: Revelation

1)     Models of Revelation (p. 113)

2)     Toward a Biblical Doctrine of Revelation

a)      Revelation Depends on Divine Initiative

b)     Revelation is a Speech Act

c)      Revelation Serves Redemption

d)     Propositions Without Propositionalism

e)      Revelation and Mediation (p. 126)

f)      Essence and Energies

g)     Trial and Testimony

3)     The Word of God (p. 135)

a)      The Word of God as Law and Gospel

b)     God’s Revelation in Creation: General Revelation

i)       Scriptural Justification for General Revelation

ii)     Historical Interpretations of General Revelation

iii)   Karl Barth’s Rejection of Natural Revelation (p. 146)

Chapter 4: Scripture as Covenant Canon

1)     God’s Ruling Constitution: Word as Canon (p. 151)

2)     Inspiration: God’s Word and Human Words

a)      Trinitarian Cooperation in Inspiration

b)     God’s Energies: Fiat and Fruitfulness

c)      Verbal-Plenary Inspiration

d)     Divine and Human Agency in Inspiration

i)       Undervaluing the Humanity of Scripture: The Docetic Temptation

ii)     The Gospel and the Priority of God’s Agency in Inspiration

e)      Inspiration and Illumination (p. 167)

f)      Collapsing the Distinction Between Inspiration and Illumination

3)     The Truthfulness of Scripture (p. 173)

a)      The Princeton Formulation of Inerrancy

b)     Inerrancy after Barth

Chapter 5: The Bible and the Church: From Scripture to System

1)     The Sufficiency of Scripture: Canon and Community (p. 186)

a)      Sola Scriptura: The Reformation Debate

i)       Roman Catholic Teaching

ii)     Reformation and Post-Reformation Interpretation

b)     Authority and Sufficiency of Scripture in Modern Theology

c)      Gospel and Culture (p. 201)

2)     The Nature of Doctrine: From Scripture to System

a)      George Lindbeck’s Models of Doctrine

b)     A Covenantal Model of Doctrine: From Drama to Dogmatics

i)       Scripture to Dogma

ii)     Creeds and Confessions

 

A Living Hell

  Fighting sin can be a living hell.  If a person is trying to renovate himself or become a better person without the gospel, the Word, the Spirit, and prayer, he is fighting Satan without any weapons.  Thomas Watson called a person like this ”the old Adam dressed in new clothes.”  In reality, he is doomed at the outset of the battle; his life will either be a living hell of legalism, pride, or complete despair.  John Owen put it this way.

“I…bewail the endless foolish labor of poor souls who, being convinced of sin and not able to stand against the power of thir convictions, do set themselves by innumerable perpelxing ways and duties to keep down sin: but being strangers to the Spirit of God, all in vain.  They combat without victory, have war without peace, and are in slavery all their days.  They spend their strength for that which is not bread, and their labor for that which profits not.”

He goes on.

“This is the saddest warfare that any poor creature can be engaged in.  A soul under the power of conviction from the law, is pressed to fight against sin, but has no strength for the combat.  They cannot but fight, and they can never conquer; they are like men thrust on the sword of the enemies, in purpose to be slain. The law drives them on, and sin beats them back.  Sometimes they think indeed that they have foiled sin, when they have only raised a dust so that they see it not; that is, they distemper their natural affections of fear, sorrow, and anguish, which makes them believe that sin is conquered, when it is not touched.”

Rather than on our own, we need to put to sinful deeds to death by the Spirit (Rom 8.13), depending on Jesus’ work for us (Col 3.1-5), using the Word as our sword (Eph 6.17), and prayer as a great defense against sin (cf. Ps 51), always remembering that God’s grace sustains, motivates, and strengthens us for and in the battle (cf. 2 Cor 12.19).  Owen explains gospel-driven mortification like this.

“Mortification of any sin must be by a supply of grace.  Of ourselves we cannot do it.”

“Mortification of sin is peculiarly from the death of Christ.”

“In one word, this whole work [of mortification] which I have described as our duty, is affected, carried on, and accomplished by the power of the Spirit.”

This is a trustworthy saying: if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live (Rom 8.13).  Amen!

shane lems

sunnyside wa

Horton on Theology

 Great stuff here by Michael Horton in The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way.

“…It is the goal of good theology to humble us before the triune God of majesty and grace.  …The older theologians of the Reformation and Post-Reformation eras were so convinced that their interpretations fell far short of the majesty of God that they called their summaries and systems ‘our humble theology’ and ‘a theology for pilgrims on the way” (p. 13).

“The Apostle’s and Nicene creeds are not just a list of key doctrines; they are a confession in the form of a story, our shared testimony to the most significant facts of reality” (p. 14).

“To believe in the triune God of Scripture who speaks and acts in history requires an act of apostacy from the assumed creed of our age” (p. 15).

“This story that runs from Genesis to Revelation, centering on Christ, not only richly informs our mind; it captivates the heart and the imagination, animating and motivating our action in the world” (p. 19).

 Can’t wait to get into the rest of this! 

shane lems