In Light of the Gospel Reflections on Living "in light of the gospel"

Good Friday

April 6, 2012 11:53 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Our Good Friday service is always one of my favorites in the year. The service had moments of silent meditation and singing of hymns that reflect the depth of Christ’s death, such as “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted,” “O Sacred Head Now Wounded,” and “Ah, Holy Jesus.”

Thinking about Christ and his death has a certain sense of “weightiness” to it that is hard to describe. I cannot imagine what it would have been like to live through that Sabbath after Good Friday. Thanks be to God for the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

Here is one of Thomas Cranmer’s collects for Good Friday (based on Ezekiel 18:23, 33:11 and John 10:16):

Merciful God, who has made all men, and hatest nothing that thou has made, nor wouldest the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted and live; have mercy upon all Jews, Turks, Infidels and heretics, and take from them all ignorance, hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word: and so fetch them home, blessed Lord, to thy flock, that they may be saved among the remnant of the true Israelites, and be made one fold under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord; who liveth and reignth with thee and the holy ghost, now and forever. Amen.

Posted in: Death of Jesus

Maundy Thursday

April 5, 2012 10:58 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

I didn’t grow up in a liturgical tradition that followed the church year, so I was well into college before I heard of Good Friday, much less Maundy Thursday. This comes from the Latin Mandatum, the word for “command” or “mandate,” and that day is called Maundy Thursday because the night before Jesus died, he gave his disciples a new command: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).

Almighty and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Book of Common Prayer (Canadian, 1962)

Posted in: Church Year

Free from Logos: “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners” by John Bunyan

April 5, 2012 7:00 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

As part of their Free Book of the Month program in 2012, Logos is giving away Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners by John Bunyan. You can get it here.

Posted in: Books

Vos’s Grace and Glory

April 4, 2012 12:03 am ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Thanks to Jason Button for pointing out that Geerhardus Vos’s Grace and Glory is available for free download as an ePub, Mobipocket/Kindle, or PDF. Grace and Glory is one of my favorite books.

Posted in: Books

Mark Dever Interviews Greg Beale on Biblical Theology

April 2, 2012 12:09 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

Greg Beale has taught me a great deal about Biblical Theology. His recent book A New Testament Biblical Theology is a book every teacher of Scripture should read. Mark Dever recently interviewed Beale for the 9Marks Leadership Interview. Here’s the description: “Greg Beale gives a crash course on the discipline of biblical theology, assesses recent works on it, and explains what he’s written and why.” Listen to it here.

 

Posted in: Misc

Thinking about Ministry and Personal Mistakes

March 23, 2012 9:17 am ⋅ 2 Comments ⋅

Tony Payne has a good interview with Phillip Jenson on his experiences in the ministry. The interview is titled, “The Mistakes of Philip Jenson.” Here is one section of it. Tony asks, “Well, knowing what you do now, thinking back over decades in ministry: if you were talking to a young man or woman in ministry just getting started, what would you say to them?” Jenson says,

You’ve got to take up your cross and follow Jesus. So this is no career move for the faint-hearted. This is no career move for someone who wants an easy life or a nice life. You’re not going to be accepted, and you’re not going to be liked: you are following the crucified one.

So grasp that reality before you start. That’s not an invitation for nasty people to join the ministry. If you enjoy conflict you have a spiritual problem. But if you withdraw from conflict, or think you’re going to win people over by niceness, you have a major problem because you’re not actually dealing with Christianity. People like using the suffering servant of the cross as an image of loving service. It is that. But it is also an image of painful martyrdom and alienation and rejection. That’s what Christian ministry is always going to be about.

Secondly then, it’s really important to be at one with your spouse about it. Family life is really important, and without a good wife beside me I could not have survived the years that God has given me in the work that I’ve been doing. Helen’s strength has been massive in enabling me to do what I do.

The third thing is: expect to make mistakes. It’s okay to make mistakes. In fact, it’s good to make mistakes. A person who hasn’t made mistakes hasn’t tried hard enough. You can’t be in a people ministry without making mistakes. You can’t be in something as complicated as Christian ministry without making mistakes. But you’ve got to learn how to deal with mistakes. You’ve got to be able to say, “Yeah, I got that dead wrong. I need to say sorry, and to fix up the things I can fix up, and to leave the rest to God. I have to pick myself up, dust myself off, and start all over again.” Mind you, some mistakes have consequences that you bear for the rest of your life. You can’t avoid that.

 

Posted in: Interviews

How an affair begins

March 22, 2012 10:40 pm ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

That’s the title of an article by Andrée Seu in the online version of World Magazine. She explains:

A friend of mine told me that now she understands how adultery begins.

She went to a woman’s house to drop off a package as a favor to someone, but the woman was not home. The husband was, and they exchanged pleasantries for a few moments. My friend noticed the carpentry project the man was working on and commented on his artistry. She asked him a few questions about it, and it didn’t take much to encourage him to spill forth for an hour and a half about every aspect of the work. It was fun.

It’s an important warning that we should all hear. Read the whole article.

Posted in: Marriage

La Réforme: Celebrating the French Reformation on the Quincentennial of Pierre Viret (1511–71)

March 18, 2012 4:27 pm ⋅ 1 Comment ⋅

Last fall at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Michael A.G. Haykin and The Andrew Fuller Center hosted a conference on the French Reformation: La Réforme – Celebrating the French Reformation on the Quincentennial of Pierre Viret (1511–71). Along with the lecture on Pierre Viret, there are lectures on Calvin and Beza.

 

Posted in: Audio

The Birth of Geerhardus Vos

March 14, 2012 11:41 pm ⋅ 4 Comments ⋅

One of my favorite theologians, Geerhardus Vos, was born this day, March 14, 1862, in Heerenveen, the Netherlands. Vos came to the United States in 1881 when his father became pastor of a church in Grand Rapids. Geerhardus studied at the Christian Reformed Seminary in Grand Rapids and then at Princeton Theological Seminary. He traveled back to Europe for doctoral studies in Berlin and Strassburg. He taught five years in Grand Rapids before answering the call to be the first Professor of Biblical Theology at the Princeton Theological Seminary in 1893. He served Princetont until his retirement at the age of  70 in 1932.

If you have never read Vos, I would suggest you start with sermons from Grace and Glory. Many of these are found on the website at various places (such as Kerux). I also think that Danny Olinger’s Geerhardus Vos Anthology provides a helpful starting point for people new to Vos and Biblical Theology. At some point, all who are interested in biblical theology and eschatology must read Pauline Eschatology. This book turned my theology upside down, especially the idea that “eschatology precedes soteriology.” Vos says, “[The] eschatological principle is so deeply embedded in the structure of the biblical religion as to precede and underlie everything else” (Pauline Eschatology, p. 66). Worthy of meditation!

 

 

 

Posted in: Biblical Theology

The Underestimated Doctrine of Conversion

March 12, 2012 11:14 am ⋅ Leave a Comment ⋅

The March-April 2012 9Marks Journal covers the topic of conversion. Jonathan Leeman explains:

9Marks is deeply interested in the doctrine of conversion (it’s the fourth mark) because it’s tightly tied to the doctrine of the church. If the church is a house, conversion is the timber. The timber you use will dramatically affect the kind of house you get. Will you include the timber of divine sovereignty? Human responsibility? Repentance? Faith? My own article on the corporate component of conversion explores these matters further.

But start with Jared Wilson’s reflections on the beauty of the doctrine and Owen Strachan’s historical observations. Thomas Schreiner and Steve Wellum also help us to get our doctrine right. This is critical, friends. Owen’s piece especially will help you to see why, as will Bobby Jamieson’s instructive book review on Revival and Revivalism.

Once you’ve got the doctrine right, you need to think about how it connects to the life of the church. For that purpose we’ve called in Jeramie Rinne, Michael Lawrence, Mike Mckinley, and Shai Linne. Zach Schlegel’s review of Finally Alive might also surprise you with its pastoral insight.

You can read the articles online or as a pdf.

Posted in: Conversion
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