Dr. Ron Gleason and Reformation Day 2014

In the following video, taken at the Talbot School of Theology on the occassion of Reformation Day 2012, Dr. Ron Gleason (author of Herman Bavinck: Pastor, Churchman, Statesman, and Theologian) gives a good and solid lecture on the basic tenets that undergirded the Reformation.




However, what impressed me the most was what he said at the 7:15 mark:

"In 1980, the Lord called me to take the casket of my 4-month old son and put it into the ground as my last earthly duty as his father. And I recall going back to our home in the Netherlands, to a little village in Kampen, and literally just falling back on the bed and wiping the tears, and that verse came to my mind and I said, 'This, too, Lord?' And he said, 'Yes, this, too. This will mold you and shape you into a better person, a better Christian. This will conform you more to the image of Christ. You will be able to comfort others with the comfort with which I am going to comfort you.'"

I was reminded of an old post:

"John Calvin lost his wife and son.

John Owen had eleven children. All died in early youth, except one daughter.

Francis Turretin had four children. Only one survived." (Underdog Theology: Personal Tragedy to Apostasy, Oct. 29, 2012)

Hope at the End of Dr. Powlison's Rope

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)

Chaotic Change

The process of being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, called sanctification, is a lifelong dynamic of the Holy Spirit revealing the nature and extent of indwelling sin, with the attendant horrors of being confronted with the reality of our ugly selves in the light of God's beautiful holiness. This also involves the Spirit leading us by the hand and incessantly reorienting our hearts and minds toward the Goal through the Gospel. Exhausted and horrified, we are grateful for the righteousness, peace, and joy that is ours in the midst of our failures and we are invigorated by undeserved grace. We get up, dust ourselves, and pursue Christ once again in grateful obedience.

The fact of the matter is that change is most often a process and seldom an event. Change happens chaotically. It comes unannounced, in fits and starts. We don't wake up and say, "Hey, I think I'll create all kinds of change today." Change is pushed upon us by a persevering Redeemer, who will not walk away from the work he has begun...He will put the need of change before us in the most inopportune moments. He will not submit to our schedule or agenda for our day. He has not promised that change will be enjoyable each time or a comfortable process over the long haul. He has promised to stay near us, giving us everything we need, and he has guaranteed that we will be more than we ever thought we could be. (He will not cease working until we are like Jesus. Now, how's that for a goal!) So, he calls us to be patient. He calls us to be willing to wait. He calls us to continue when continuing is hard, and as we are continuing, to look for any way we can to incarnate his transforming love. (Paul D. Tripp, What Did You Expect? Redeeming the Realities of Marriage [Illinois:Crossway, 2010], 131-132)

Isaiah 40 and Divine Simplicity

Today's Lord's Day sermon on Isaiah 40 almost brought tears to my eyes (I was holding it in). Hearing the Gospel preached through a narrative of God's incomprehensible power and grace, as manifested in nature and redemption, inevitably moved me, and I noticed that my pastor's voice cracked at times (he was moved too!).

I was extremely pleased that today's sermon was, in a way, a reinforcement of this very profitable and philosophically technical (hence, profitable!) Reformed Forum presentation on the doctrine of divine simplicity that I got into yesterday (Dr. James Dolezal rocked!):

The Triumvirate

I am seething with excitement as I am now in possession of what could arguably be considered as the three most important literary works of the Reformed tradition outside of the creeds and confessions. I am referring to John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, Francis Turretin's 3-volume Institutes of Elenctic Theology, and Herman Bavinck's 4-volume Reformed Dogmatics.

The former two I acquired myself through Amazon, and they have been my most expensive book purchases. What has raised my joy, even beyond belief, is that the latter was given to me—for free! That's right. Bavinck's RD would have been the most costly for me to acquire and yet I now have it sitting on my shelf, a testament to the mysterious ways that are often the hallmark of God's providence.

This is how it happened. It was a Saturday, and you could imagine my glee when my order of Turretin's Institutes finally arrived. It kickstarted one of the best Saturdays I've ever had. I was so inspired that my thoughts of yesterday, about street children and how they reminded me of my love for my kids and God's love for the undeserving elect, were effortlessly drawn out from me and down into blog writing.

After posting the blog entry entitled, "The Analogy of Poor Street Kids," it didn't take a long while before a Facebook friend of mine "liked" on the post. It was a Reformed Filipino doctor from the U.S. whom I've known to be an "appreciator" of my blog and posts. He commented on my FB post about the blog entry, stating how much he liked my choice of words. I would've been stuffed full by the compliment, but then I received a PM (private message). He was offering to buy me any book that I wished!

Let me tell you about Filipino coyness and courtesy in situations like this—the first instinct would be to politely demur. That is what I did, not in flat out refusal, but with a bit of wit and humor-laced ascertaining of whether my friend was sure. After determining that he was intent on being generous, founded on his desire to be a blessing to myself and to those in the Philippines whom he considers as his siblings in the Reformed faith, I replied and posted an Amazon link to Bavinck's RD.

I waited for his reply, expecting rejection, as the 4-volume magnum opus was worth no loose change. And then it came. He said that he was very pleased with my choice since it was the same book that he was currently reading. I was floored! Is this really happening? I immediately told my wife and she was embarrassed for me. LOL! My friend immediately made the order at Amazon, selecting expedited shipping. After a little over a week, Bavinck's RD was mine!

I would tell you who this guy is, but I don't think that that would be his wish (never met anyone who wanted to be on the Santa Claus side of a gift—LOL).


PS.
I wrote this post for the same reason I love theological books—gratitude.

Devotion to God is predicated on the gratitude that the knowledge of Him and His ways fosters. Doctrine defines doxology.

Given that the Holy Spirit checks my motives when, left to myself, I would fall headlong into fits of unfounded pride, my desire for knowledge is my desire for godliness.

Thank you, brother!

Thank You, my Covenant Lord!

Stop Studying Theology

Is my love for theology grounded on the desire to grow my gratitude to God by gaining deeper knowledge of who He is and the marvelous works that He has done, for the hastening of my conformity to Christ and the benefit of my family and the Church—or is it because of less nobler motivations (more blog fodder!)?

Carl Trueman sets me straight:

Paul Helm on Piper

Paul Helm offers a gentle criticism of Piper's "Christian Hedonism" here.

I think one problem with Piper's approach is that it does not deal with piety covenantally. Whereas Scripture, and the Reformed confessions, teach that piety is born out of the gratitude that is created in the heart and mind of the redeemed sinner by virtue of being made right with God, Piper proposes that piety is born out of an "appreciation" of the excellencies of God that is not so much mediated through the preaching of the Word and the Sacraments but through an immediate, predominantly emotional, awareness of God's perfections.

The Heidelberg Catechism states:

Question 86. Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works?

Answer: Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own image; that so we may testify, by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings, and that he may be praised by us; also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith, by the fruits thereof; and that, by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ.

The neo-Platonism is as evident in Piper as it is in his hero, Jonathan Edwards.

The Underdogism of Ed Welch

I appreciate Ed Welch's take on underdogism.

Punch-Drunk on Grace?

How many times have you heard someone claim that "Rules and regulations, do's and dont's, these don't apply to me—I'm under grace!"? While it would be too damning to call them antinomians (some may just be too punch-drunk on the notion of grace), I believe the preceding sentiment is really born out of the ignorance of the enduring significance of the law in the life of the Christian. If the law is the expression of God's moral will, then as long as God endures, the law follows suit.

Dr. Joel Beeke, talking about Calvin's doctrine of piety, offers some profitable insights on the matter:

"To promote piety, the Spirit not only uses the gospel to work faith deep within the souls of his elect, as we have already seen, but he also uses the law. The law promotes piety in three ways:

1. It restrains sin and promotes righteousness in the church and society, preventing both from lapsing into chaos.

2. It disciplines, educates, and convicts us, driving us out of ourselves to Jesus Christ, the fulfiller and end of the law. The law cannot lead us to a saving knowledge of God in Christ; rather, the Holy Spirit uses it as a mirror to show us our guilt, shut us off from hope, and bring us to repentance. It drives us to the spiritual need out of which faith in Christ is born. This convicting use of the law is critical for the believer’s piety, for it prevents the ungodly self-righteousness that is prone to reassert itself even in the holiest of saints.

3. It becomes the rule of life for the believer. 'What is the rule of life which [God] has given us?' Calvin asks in the Genevan Catechism. The answer: 'His law.' Later, Calvin says the law 'shows the mark at which we ought to aim, the goal towards which we ought to press, that each of us, according to the measure of grace bestowed upon him, may endeavor to frame his life according to the highest rectitude, and, by constant study, continually advance more and more.'" (Calvin's Piety, Mid-America Journal of Theology 15 [2004], 45)

Hunted Down

I have derived much spiritual benefit from Dr. David P. Murray's sermons. Though the Scottish accent does certainly please my ears a lot, and though his able use of alliteration in sermon titles and sermon points further serve this, it is his keen exegesis and application that have brought the Gospel home to me over and over again in times of need.

In his latest blog post, insightfully entitled, "God's been hunting me down," he bares his heart wide open, reflecting on the ways God has been dealing with him lately through physical affliction. He realizes that he has been pushing his body to its physical limits and, though he has certainly helped a lot of people through his fervent activity (I've never chanced upon anyone else with as much sermons as him on sermonaudio.com), he acknowledges that he has erred by having engaged in "ministry without spirituality."

Read the post here.

The Blows Beckon Us Back

"It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes" (Ps. 119:71).

Why is it that something which would be absent in future glory be deemed by the Psalmist as something good?

Because suffering brings us back to God. It is reality on a megaphone blaring in our ears, "Creature!" It puts us in our rightful place—close to God, in a relationship of humble and grateful dependence on Him for everything pertaining to our well-being: "The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit" (Ps. 34:18).

That Cosmic Slap in the Face

God's desire for His perfections to be reflected analogically in His creatures is no manifestation of divine hubris but the state of affairs as it must be in a universe with a Creator and the created—and a universe of another kind does not exist!

Gratitude in Francis Schaeffer's Spirituality

Further, I think there are two practical tests as to when we are coveting against God or men; first, I am to love God enough to be contented; second, I am to love men enough not to envy.

Let us pursue these two tests. First, in regard to God: I am to love God enough to be contented, because otherwise even our natural and proper desires bring us into revolt against God. God has made us with proper desires, but if there is not a proper contentment on my part, to this extent I am in revolt against God, and of course revolt is the whole central problem of sin. When I lack proper contentment, either I have forgotten that God is God, or I have ceased to be submissive to him. We are now speaking about a practical test to judge if we are coveting against God. A quiet disposition and a heart giving thanks at any given moment is the real test of the extent to which we love God at that moment. I would like to give some strong words to you from the Bible to remind us that this is God's own standard for Christians. "But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not convenient; but rather giving of thanks" (Ephesians 5:3, 4).

Thus, the "giving of thanks" is in contrast to the whole black list that stands above. In Ephesians 5:20 it is even stronger: "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." How inclusive are these "all things" for which we are to give thanks? These same "all things" are also mentioned in the book of Romans (chapter 8, verse 28): "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." This is not a kind of magic-the infinite-personal God promises that he will work all things together for the Christian's good.

Here I am told that if I am a true Christian, "all things" work together for my good. It is not all things except the sorrow; it is not all things except the battle. We throw the words "all things" in Romans 8:28 around all things. We do honor to God and the finished work of Christ as we throw that circle around the whole; all things work together for good to those who love God, for those who are the called according to his purpose. But to the extent to which we properly throw the term "all things" around all things, it carries with it also the "all things" of Ephesians 5:20: "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father. . . ." We cannot separate these two. The "all things" of Ephesians 5:20 is as wide as the "all things" of Romans 8:28. It must be giving of thanks for all things-this is God's standard.

Philippians deals with this also. In Philippians 4:6 we read, "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."

"Be careful for nothing" here means: Do not be overcome by care in anything, by worry in anything, but rather by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. Of course, this is a statement concerning prayer in contrast to the worry, but at the same time it carries with it the direct command to thank God in the midst of the prayer for the "everything." Or we may note Colossians 2:7: "Rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving." You will notice this is linked to the sixth verse: "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him." What does it mean to walk in Christ? It is to be "rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith." (And there are many of us who think this is by faith; the instrument to do this is faith) ". . . abounding therein with thanksgiving." The final note is on the thanksgiving.

Then we find in Colossians 3:15: "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body, and be ye thankful." And verse 17: "And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him." And again in Colossians 4:2: "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving."

These words about thanksgiving are in one sense hard words. They are beautiful, but they do not give us any room to move-the "all things" includes all things.

We read in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: "In everything give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you." And this is linked to the next verse, verse 19: "Quench not the Spirit." Surely one thing is clear. God says to us: in everything give thanks.

I think we can see all this in its proper perspective if we go back to Romans 1:21: "Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasoning, and their foolish heart was darkened." This is the central point: they were not thankful. Instead of giving thanks they "became vain in their reasonings and their foolish heart was darkened." Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools. The beginning of mens' rebellion against God was, and is, the lack of a thankful heart. They did not have proper, thankful hearts-seeing themselves as creatures before the Creator and being bowed not only in their knees, but in their stubborn hearts. The rebellion is a deliberate refusal to be the creature before the Creator, to the extent of being thankful. Love must carry with it a "Thank you," not in a superficial or "official" way, but in being thankful and saying in the mind or with the voice, "Thank you" to God.

— Francis Schaeffer, True Spirituality (downloaded e-book, italics original).

Gratitude-Grounded Assurance

It can be said, and almost unanimously, that many approach the obedience and performance of good works, that are the heritage of the saints, in the spirit of fear of punishment or loss of rewards. They reason, always introspectively, that as a Christian, they must render obedience to the revealed will of God or else they might not be saved at all or suffer loss of divine real estate in the future kingdom. But is this how Scripture portrays the "working out of our salvation" to be? Must we always be laying our hearts bare, anxiously searching for the evidence of salvation that was there yesterday but somehow today feels absent?

Michael Horton writes that "John Wesley used to argue that he could not accept the doctrine of election because it undermined the main supports of holiness: fear of punishment and hope of reward" ('Putting Amazing Back into Grace,' (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 80). In opposition to this erroneous line of thinking, Paul stated, "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father'" (Rom 8:15). So if Scripture denies the fear of punishment or loss as the motivation for godly living, what then is the proper impetus? The Heidelberg Catechism provides this response in its answer to Question 86, "...that so we may testify, by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings..." The only acceptable ground for all our obedience and good works, in God's sight, is gratitude.

This is where the study of theology, the immersion in the doctrines of Scripture, come into play. Of course, no one becomes a child of God without first having known the truths about the person and work of Christ, believed in these truths, and trusted in the object of these truths, Christ Himself. So then a progression emerges: the more we know of God—His attributes, His nature, and His work—the more we realize the glories of the redemption that is ours in Christ and the benefits conferred on us by virtue of this union; and the more that this knowledge is ours, the more grateful we become! This gratitude then "...hits us...we have been predestined to a high and holy calling, we discover a higher and holier motivation for pursuing God's revealed will...we realize we are part of 'a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession' (1 Peter 2:9 NASB), we begin to reflect that awareness in our daily living" (Michael Horton, 'Putting Amazing Back into Grace,' (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002), 81).

We obey God's law not because we want to prove that we are children of God but because we already are! We constantly look to Christ for the assurance of our salvation, and this produces in us the gratitude that is the stuff of obedience—an obedience born of faith.