My wife and I sat reading aloud “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austin to one another one evening this week. The most famously quoted lines of her book come from the opening paragraph. In this opening we find Mrs. Bennett speaking to Mr. Bennett upon the occasion of a wealthy gentleman who has moved to Netherfield Park, "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." Their own situation is that of five unmarried daughters and no sons. From one perspective the reader may be frustrated by this anxious, frantic and silly mother who seeks her fortune and that of her daughters among single unmarried men who must be in want of a wife from among her daughters or by the indifference, silence and often lacking leadership on the part of her husband . But on the other hand one may be delighted in the providence of God in the unfolding of the story of relationships and marriage and the joys and sorrows that accompany them. I heartily recommend this book to men and women alike.
But it is not about Pride and Prejudice that I write, rather it is about the thought of unmarried daughters. I have four. And it is about single men in possession of good fortunes that I write in the interest of my daughters and the host of covenant daughters we have being raised up under the roof of our church at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. While reading Numbers 36 this morning I was struck by the liberty given to the daughters of Israel within the confines of the law as it regards to marriage. In that chapter there is a concern over the transfer of inheritance from one tribe to another through marriage. They like Mrs. Bennett were concerned not only for their daughters but it would seem their fortunes as well. And there was the possibility of losing that inheritance through marriage, by the way is another important theme in Pride and Prejudice. But it is in the midst of the judgment that Moses gives in this context that I found this liberty protected by law. In 36:6 Moses says, “This is what the LORD commands concerning the daughters of Zelophehad, ‘Let them marry whom they think best, only they shall marry within the clan of the tribe of their father.” The liberty is expressed in telling them they can marry whoever they think is best. The Law is expressed in only let that person be in the clan of the tribe of their fathers. The liberty gives them freedom to choose and the law constrains and protects their freedom according to God’s own will. This was good not only for the daughters but for the daughters love expressed to God in trust and their love expressed to their family in doing what would be best for them in the days of the sharing of their inheritance with those yet to come.
Our daughters have the same liberty and law given them in the New Testament under the New Covenant. The context is different in that the inheritance is an eternal life in the Son and all that the Son possesses among the nations, not a particular plot in Israel. And the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of that inheritance not a clan member or a man in possession of a good fortune. The liberty is given in Christ Jesus where everything is permissible but not everything is beneficial (1Cor.6:12; 10:23). The daughters of the New Covenant may marry whom they think best. But the best is in accord with the knowledge, righteousness and holiness that they now have and hope for in Christ. The liberty is not a license to sin so that grace may increase, but the liberty is freedom from the bondage and dominion of sin to live in the freedom and glory of Christ in all things. Therefore the liberty is not given for the triumph of sin and lust, but for the glory of God in lives that treasure Christ more than they treasure single men of good fortune or good looks. This is why law is given with liberty in Christ Jesus commanding our daughters not be unequally yoked (2Cor.6:14). These daughters in the New Covenant have taken the yoke of Jesus upon themselves (Mt.11:29) and have been united together with him in his body. Therefore the law of love to our daughters is not to divide the body of Christ by being united in one flesh with one outside of the body of Christ. This law is obeyed by all who love Christ more than they love a single man of good fortune or good looks (Jn.14:15). And she will exercise her liberty in the confines of this law so that she will demonstrate in the liberty a greater treasuring of her true husbandman who brings her into a true inheritance than the treasuring of a single man with promise.
It is the responsibility of fathers and mothers not to be indifferent and silent or anxious and silly toward our daughters and their potential husbands. Rather we must discipline and nurture them to the love of their Lord that they will delight in his liberty and law as they seek to make a decision about a man who will bring them into their true inheritance as a bride ready for Christ their true husbandman.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
What Do You Mean by "Covenantal"?
I was recently asked the question, “What do you mean by “covenantal”? The text below is my answer to that person and I hope it may prove helpful to many in the church.
I admit the term "covenant" can be misused and over used and perhaps the word "covenantal" is not a word at all but an idea. However J.I. Packer uses it when he writes on the covenant and my use of "covenantal” comes from his idea that in our relationships to one another in the church we are expressing a "biblical ethic" that is a reflection of God's bending himself toward us in his covenant with us. Here is how Packer says it,
"The distance between God and the creature is so great," says the Westminster Confession (VII.I), "that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant." Exactly! So biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God's covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace."[1]
Therefore when I use covenantal in regards to the life we live as the church it is the life we live out of the new covenant in Christ's blood toward one another as his body not only "animated by gratitude for grace" but exercised by faith in the ongoing grace of God we have in Christ. We are bond together in Christ for love to God and love to one another. Therefore we live in this bond by worshiping around the apostles teaching, prayers, the breaking of bread, sharing one another's burdens and joys. This is very much unlike the world expresses in the suburbs at the block party in the culdesac or in the backyard around the grill and teake torches or unlike the world expresses on the island at the club or unlike the world expresses in the neighborhood under the big oak tree and a grill full of chicken or fajitas. The churches covenatalism is around the cross of Christ where we live by faith in him submitting to his discipline, not forsaking the assembling together, worshiping in our homes and then with homes together in one place, the church building, praying, singing, eating, laughing and crying together, talking about what it means to be a man in the church, home and community with our minds and hearts in the book of the covenant and not the latest Esquire in reflection of Tom Cruises manhood.
Covenantalism is the life of the people of God who have been bought by the blood of the covenant and put by his providence among a particular visible body of his covenant and living bound together in the bonds of love for his glory there until he by his providence, and not a persons passion or wander lust, moves them elsewhere or returns in his fullness.
I am rambling but I hope this is helpful.
I admit the term "covenant" can be misused and over used and perhaps the word "covenantal" is not a word at all but an idea. However J.I. Packer uses it when he writes on the covenant and my use of "covenantal” comes from his idea that in our relationships to one another in the church we are expressing a "biblical ethic" that is a reflection of God's bending himself toward us in his covenant with us. Here is how Packer says it,
"The distance between God and the creature is so great," says the Westminster Confession (VII.I), "that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant." Exactly! So biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God's covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace."[1]
Therefore when I use covenantal in regards to the life we live as the church it is the life we live out of the new covenant in Christ's blood toward one another as his body not only "animated by gratitude for grace" but exercised by faith in the ongoing grace of God we have in Christ. We are bond together in Christ for love to God and love to one another. Therefore we live in this bond by worshiping around the apostles teaching, prayers, the breaking of bread, sharing one another's burdens and joys. This is very much unlike the world expresses in the suburbs at the block party in the culdesac or in the backyard around the grill and teake torches or unlike the world expresses on the island at the club or unlike the world expresses in the neighborhood under the big oak tree and a grill full of chicken or fajitas. The churches covenatalism is around the cross of Christ where we live by faith in him submitting to his discipline, not forsaking the assembling together, worshiping in our homes and then with homes together in one place, the church building, praying, singing, eating, laughing and crying together, talking about what it means to be a man in the church, home and community with our minds and hearts in the book of the covenant and not the latest Esquire in reflection of Tom Cruises manhood.
Covenantalism is the life of the people of God who have been bought by the blood of the covenant and put by his providence among a particular visible body of his covenant and living bound together in the bonds of love for his glory there until he by his providence, and not a persons passion or wander lust, moves them elsewhere or returns in his fullness.
I am rambling but I hope this is helpful.
An Everlasting Covenant to An Uncertain Culture
Someone has said, “There is only one thing that is certain and that is that everything is uncertain.” We live in uncertain times, our jobs and livelihoods are uncertain. We live with the uncertainty of our future as a church, a community, a state or a nation. Uncertainty and a struggling sense of security are marks of our culture. What does the church have to offer in a culture of uncertainty and insecurity? The answer comes in God’s everlasting covenant.
God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:7). This covenant is a relationship that God established with Abraham by his sovereign will and guaranteed it by himself (Genesis 15:17). He made the promise in the relationship in love and promised with an oath to keep it (Deuteronomy 7:8). Therefore God is true and his everlasting covenant is true. This everlasting covenant God makes with his people is further realized in the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (1Corinthians 11:25). God’s grace promised (Genesis 3:15) and realized throughout the covenants of the Old Testament was fully confirmed in the death of Christ on the cross. There on the cross Jesus made full atonement for sins as a righteous substitute for sinners (Romans 3:21-26) satisfying the justice of God and at the same time being the justifier of all who by faith in him come into a relationship with God by his grace through faith. Through Jesus Christ God the Father establishes his relationship with his elect sealing them to a promised life forevermore through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14). God is true, not false and he cannot lie or go back on his promise. Therefore the covenant that he establishes with his people is an everlasting covenant that cannot be undone. And it is in the certainty of this everlasting covenant that the church is secure.
This doctrine of assurance founded in the truth of God is called by some, “The prime error of heretics”. And by the Council of Trent it was said “a believers assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence.” Others would say this assurance is presumption. They argue that having a confident assurance in God’s everlasting covenant and salvation is not a true and spiritual humility and often leads to a passive and apathetic form of Christianity. But all who would denounce this doctrine of assurance on grounds of abuse or untruth must acknowledge the Scriptures clear statements to the contrary. And when the Scripture makes this doctrine clear to our minds and hearts this “grace with assurance is no less than heaven let down into the soul.” Here are a sampling of Scripture passages that may prove helpful in considering God’s eternal grace to all who are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus: Job 19:25-26; Ps.23:4; Isa.43:1-3; 54:10; Jer.32:40; Mt.18:12-14; Jn.3:36; 5:24; 6:35-40, 47; 10:27-30; 17:11,12,15; Rom.5:8-10; 8:1,28-30, 35-39; 1Cor.1:7-9; 10:13; 2Cor.4:14,17; Eph.1:5,13-14; 4:30; Col.3:3-4; 1Thes.5:23-24; 2Tim.4:18; Heb.9:12,15; 10:14; 12:28; 1Pe.1:3-5; 1Jn.2:19,25; 5:4,11-13,20; Jude 1, 24-25. It is the grace of assurance that allows the church to live in God’s kingdom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and this is what the church can offer to a culture of uncertainty.
A toddler plays happily in the kitchen. He climbs under the cabinets and cleans out the pots and pans making a fort, he bangs the pots and pans in the floor, he digs unidentified objects out from under the refrigerator or from under the table missed by the broom, and unnoticed by Mom, eats them. He is secure in Mom’s kingdom as she works around him, goes back and forth to the laundry caring for the families needs. He does not fear when she disappears around the corner because he knows she’s coming back. So are all who have been brought into God’s kingdom by his grace through faith in Christ and live and rest in his everlasting covenant.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,
. - Hebrews 6:13—20
God said to Abraham, “And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you.” (Genesis 17:7). This covenant is a relationship that God established with Abraham by his sovereign will and guaranteed it by himself (Genesis 15:17). He made the promise in the relationship in love and promised with an oath to keep it (Deuteronomy 7:8). Therefore God is true and his everlasting covenant is true. This everlasting covenant God makes with his people is further realized in the New Covenant in the blood of Christ (1Corinthians 11:25). God’s grace promised (Genesis 3:15) and realized throughout the covenants of the Old Testament was fully confirmed in the death of Christ on the cross. There on the cross Jesus made full atonement for sins as a righteous substitute for sinners (Romans 3:21-26) satisfying the justice of God and at the same time being the justifier of all who by faith in him come into a relationship with God by his grace through faith. Through Jesus Christ God the Father establishes his relationship with his elect sealing them to a promised life forevermore through his Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:3-14). God is true, not false and he cannot lie or go back on his promise. Therefore the covenant that he establishes with his people is an everlasting covenant that cannot be undone. And it is in the certainty of this everlasting covenant that the church is secure.
This doctrine of assurance founded in the truth of God is called by some, “The prime error of heretics”. And by the Council of Trent it was said “a believers assurance of the pardon of his sins is a vain and ungodly confidence.” Others would say this assurance is presumption. They argue that having a confident assurance in God’s everlasting covenant and salvation is not a true and spiritual humility and often leads to a passive and apathetic form of Christianity. But all who would denounce this doctrine of assurance on grounds of abuse or untruth must acknowledge the Scriptures clear statements to the contrary. And when the Scripture makes this doctrine clear to our minds and hearts this “grace with assurance is no less than heaven let down into the soul.” Here are a sampling of Scripture passages that may prove helpful in considering God’s eternal grace to all who are saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus: Job 19:25-26; Ps.23:4; Isa.43:1-3; 54:10; Jer.32:40; Mt.18:12-14; Jn.3:36; 5:24; 6:35-40, 47; 10:27-30; 17:11,12,15; Rom.5:8-10; 8:1,28-30, 35-39; 1Cor.1:7-9; 10:13; 2Cor.4:14,17; Eph.1:5,13-14; 4:30; Col.3:3-4; 1Thes.5:23-24; 2Tim.4:18; Heb.9:12,15; 10:14; 12:28; 1Pe.1:3-5; 1Jn.2:19,25; 5:4,11-13,20; Jude 1, 24-25. It is the grace of assurance that allows the church to live in God’s kingdom of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and this is what the church can offer to a culture of uncertainty.
A toddler plays happily in the kitchen. He climbs under the cabinets and cleans out the pots and pans making a fort, he bangs the pots and pans in the floor, he digs unidentified objects out from under the refrigerator or from under the table missed by the broom, and unnoticed by Mom, eats them. He is secure in Mom’s kingdom as she works around him, goes back and forth to the laundry caring for the families needs. He does not fear when she disappears around the corner because he knows she’s coming back. So are all who have been brought into God’s kingdom by his grace through faith in Christ and live and rest in his everlasting covenant.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, he swore by himself, 14saying, "Surely I will bless you and multiply you." 15And thus Abraham, having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation. 17So when God desired to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18so that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. 19We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf,
. - Hebrews 6:13—20
Covenantalism by J.I.Packer
"The distance between God and the creature is so great," says the Westminster Confession (VII.I), "that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which he hath been pleased to express by way of covenant." Exactly! So biblical doctrine, first to last, has to do with covenantal relationships between God and man; biblical ethics has to do with expressing God's covenantal relationship to us in covenantal relationships between ourselves and others; and Christian religion has the nature of covenant life, in which God is the direct object of our faith, hope, love, worship, and service, all animated by gratitude for grace.
Our theme is the life-embracing bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator and Christians, and it is high time we defined exactly what we are talking about. A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual commitment that binds each party to the other. Whether it is negotiated, like a modern business deal or a marriage contract, or unilaterally imposed, as all God's covenants are, is irrelevant to the commitment itself; the reality of the relationship depends simply on the fact that mutual obligations have been accepted and pledged on both sides. Luther is held to have said that Christianity is a matter of personal pronouns, in the sense that everything depends on knowing that Jesus died for me, to be my Savior, and that his Father is my God and Father, personally committed to love, nurture, uphold, and glorify me. This already is covenant thinking, for this is the essential substance of the covenant relationship: God's covenant is precisely a matter of these personal pronouns, used in this way, as a basis for a life with God of friendship, peace and communicated love. –
From what has been said so far, three things become apparent. First, the gospel of God is not properly understood till it is viewed within a covenantal frame.
Jesus Christ, whose saving ministry is the sum and substance of the gospel, is announced in Hebrews the mediator and guarantor of the covenant relationship (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). The gospel promises, offering Christ and his benefits to sinner, are therefore invitations to enter and enjoy a covenant relationship with God. Faith in Jesus Christ is accordingly the embracing of the covenant, and the Christian life of glorifying God by one's words and works for the greatness of his goodness and grace has at its heart covenant communion between the Savior and the sinner. The church, the fellowship of believers that the gospel creates, is the community of the covenant, and the preaching of the Word, the practice of pastoral care and discipline, the manifold exercises of worship together, and the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper (corresponding to circumcision and Passover in former days) are all signs, tokens, expressions, and instruments of the covenant, through which covenantal enrichments from God constantly flow to those who believe. The hope of glory, as promised in the gospel, is the goal of the covenant relationship (Rev. 21:2 f.), and Christian assurance is the knowledge of the content and stability of that relationship as it applies to oneself (Rom. 5:1-11,8:1-39). The whole Bible is, as it were, presented by Jesus Christ to the whole church and to each Christian as the book of the covenant, and the whole record of the wars of the Word with the church as well as the world in the post-biblical Christian centuries, the record that is ordinarily called church history, is precisely the story of the covenant going on in space and time. As artists and decorators know, the frame is important for setting off the picture, and you do in fact see the picture better when it is appropriately framed. So with the riches of the gospel; the covenant is their proper frame, and you only see them in their full glory when this frame surrounds them, as in Scripture it actually does, and as in theology it always should.
J.I. Packer Covenantalism http://www.gospelpedlar.com/articles/Bible/cov_theo.html
Our theme is the life-embracing bedrock reality of the covenant relationship between the Creator and Christians, and it is high time we defined exactly what we are talking about. A covenant relationship is a voluntary mutual commitment that binds each party to the other. Whether it is negotiated, like a modern business deal or a marriage contract, or unilaterally imposed, as all God's covenants are, is irrelevant to the commitment itself; the reality of the relationship depends simply on the fact that mutual obligations have been accepted and pledged on both sides. Luther is held to have said that Christianity is a matter of personal pronouns, in the sense that everything depends on knowing that Jesus died for me, to be my Savior, and that his Father is my God and Father, personally committed to love, nurture, uphold, and glorify me. This already is covenant thinking, for this is the essential substance of the covenant relationship: God's covenant is precisely a matter of these personal pronouns, used in this way, as a basis for a life with God of friendship, peace and communicated love. –
From what has been said so far, three things become apparent. First, the gospel of God is not properly understood till it is viewed within a covenantal frame.
Jesus Christ, whose saving ministry is the sum and substance of the gospel, is announced in Hebrews the mediator and guarantor of the covenant relationship (Heb. 7:22, 8:6). The gospel promises, offering Christ and his benefits to sinner, are therefore invitations to enter and enjoy a covenant relationship with God. Faith in Jesus Christ is accordingly the embracing of the covenant, and the Christian life of glorifying God by one's words and works for the greatness of his goodness and grace has at its heart covenant communion between the Savior and the sinner. The church, the fellowship of believers that the gospel creates, is the community of the covenant, and the preaching of the Word, the practice of pastoral care and discipline, the manifold exercises of worship together, and the administration of baptism and the Lord's supper (corresponding to circumcision and Passover in former days) are all signs, tokens, expressions, and instruments of the covenant, through which covenantal enrichments from God constantly flow to those who believe. The hope of glory, as promised in the gospel, is the goal of the covenant relationship (Rev. 21:2 f.), and Christian assurance is the knowledge of the content and stability of that relationship as it applies to oneself (Rom. 5:1-11,8:1-39). The whole Bible is, as it were, presented by Jesus Christ to the whole church and to each Christian as the book of the covenant, and the whole record of the wars of the Word with the church as well as the world in the post-biblical Christian centuries, the record that is ordinarily called church history, is precisely the story of the covenant going on in space and time. As artists and decorators know, the frame is important for setting off the picture, and you do in fact see the picture better when it is appropriately framed. So with the riches of the gospel; the covenant is their proper frame, and you only see them in their full glory when this frame surrounds them, as in Scripture it actually does, and as in theology it always should.
J.I. Packer Covenantalism http://www.gospelpedlar.com/articles/Bible/cov_theo.html
Friday, April 23, 2010
Covenant by the Book
Covenant by the Book
God is pleased to establish his covenant with his creatures in deed and truth. In the garden of Eden God set his creatures in the midst of all they needed and he spoke to them establishing his covenant and its conditions and in the midst of their sin spoke to them in words of grace (Gen.1-3). In the days of Noah God preserved his favored servant and his family in a floating vessel and secured them again upon dry ground, reiterating his covenant with Noah and his progeny in truth (Gen.6-9). God took the Gentile Abram from his homeland and spoke to him in numerous ways establishing his covenant with him and promised its fulfillment by himself (Gen.12-17). God led Moses out of the desert into Egypt to lead his covenant people out by his might under the cover of blood. He encamped with his people and spoke to them through his prophet words of life and promise (Exodus). David, a man after God’s own heart, preserved and protected by God, was given the throne of Israel by God’s might, and his throne established forever in his word of promise (2Sam.7). And in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son (Heb.1:2) who is the Word (Jn.1:1) and the Lamb of God who was slain for his people’s sin (Jn.1:29; Rev.5:8-10). He did this to demonstrate the love of God toward all those he has chosen to be holy and blameless in the Son forevermore for the praise of his glorious grace (Eph.1:4,6). God establishes his relationship with his people in his own deeds of power, wisdom and goodness through a bond of blood. And he perseveres with them with his eternal Word of power, wisdom and goodness. Covenant begins with God’s deeds and Word and is continually renewed with his people by his gracious deeds and powerful Word.
Covenant Renewal is a time to be reminded of our need of God’s powerful work toward us and his powerful Word with us. In 1968 the 36 year old Philip J. Masters climbed the mountains in Papua in the islands of Indonesia to carry God’s gospel to the Kimyal and Yali peoples. These fierce people had no knowledge of God’s love toward them in Christ and no welcome for this sojourner from another kingdom. They filled him with dozens of arrows shot from their bows and left his body in the river to wash up and be found by his family and friends. This was a tragic end to a fervent servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, from this tragedy God would grow a people reflecting his glory through his new covenant in the blood of Christ. In the year of our Lord 2010 God delivered to the Kimyal and Yali peoples his book of the covenant in their own language through the hands of Phyllis Masters, the wife of Philip J. Masters. The hands receiving the Scriptures were those of the people who took her husbands life in hatred 42 years earlier. These hands received the Book of the Covenant with joyful hearts as those who were being saved by God’s grace in the covenant of blood, the blood of his own Son, Jesus Christ as told to them in the Scriptures. The Kimyal and Yali church was founded in the blood of the covenant in the Son as told to them from the book of the covenant, and now this covenant people continue in God’s grace through these Scriptures as they hear them, read them and preach them in their own language. Philip J. Masters laid down his life for his friends as one who had known the love of God through the blood of the Son. The deed and truth of God in the covenant had given him life and in continued renewal of that covenant a life to share with others. As the Son promised to build his church even against the gates of hell (Mt.16:18), so Mr. Masters took the glory of Christ into a kingdom of darkness where Satan dwells and was killed as a faithful witness (Rev.2:13). His wife and others followed standing upon this faithful witness as a seed that had gone into the ground and died and there God has grown his beautiful church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and where this seed goes into the ground and dies it grows a beautiful bride of Christ through God’s deed and truth in covenant established and preserved on his book of the covenant.
God is pleased to establish his covenant with his creatures in deed and truth. In the garden of Eden God set his creatures in the midst of all they needed and he spoke to them establishing his covenant and its conditions and in the midst of their sin spoke to them in words of grace (Gen.1-3). In the days of Noah God preserved his favored servant and his family in a floating vessel and secured them again upon dry ground, reiterating his covenant with Noah and his progeny in truth (Gen.6-9). God took the Gentile Abram from his homeland and spoke to him in numerous ways establishing his covenant with him and promised its fulfillment by himself (Gen.12-17). God led Moses out of the desert into Egypt to lead his covenant people out by his might under the cover of blood. He encamped with his people and spoke to them through his prophet words of life and promise (Exodus). David, a man after God’s own heart, preserved and protected by God, was given the throne of Israel by God’s might, and his throne established forever in his word of promise (2Sam.7). And in these last days God has spoken to us by his Son (Heb.1:2) who is the Word (Jn.1:1) and the Lamb of God who was slain for his people’s sin (Jn.1:29; Rev.5:8-10). He did this to demonstrate the love of God toward all those he has chosen to be holy and blameless in the Son forevermore for the praise of his glorious grace (Eph.1:4,6). God establishes his relationship with his people in his own deeds of power, wisdom and goodness through a bond of blood. And he perseveres with them with his eternal Word of power, wisdom and goodness. Covenant begins with God’s deeds and Word and is continually renewed with his people by his gracious deeds and powerful Word.
Covenant Renewal is a time to be reminded of our need of God’s powerful work toward us and his powerful Word with us. In 1968 the 36 year old Philip J. Masters climbed the mountains in Papua in the islands of Indonesia to carry God’s gospel to the Kimyal and Yali peoples. These fierce people had no knowledge of God’s love toward them in Christ and no welcome for this sojourner from another kingdom. They filled him with dozens of arrows shot from their bows and left his body in the river to wash up and be found by his family and friends. This was a tragic end to a fervent servant of the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, from this tragedy God would grow a people reflecting his glory through his new covenant in the blood of Christ. In the year of our Lord 2010 God delivered to the Kimyal and Yali peoples his book of the covenant in their own language through the hands of Phyllis Masters, the wife of Philip J. Masters. The hands receiving the Scriptures were those of the people who took her husbands life in hatred 42 years earlier. These hands received the Book of the Covenant with joyful hearts as those who were being saved by God’s grace in the covenant of blood, the blood of his own Son, Jesus Christ as told to them in the Scriptures. The Kimyal and Yali church was founded in the blood of the covenant in the Son as told to them from the book of the covenant, and now this covenant people continue in God’s grace through these Scriptures as they hear them, read them and preach them in their own language. Philip J. Masters laid down his life for his friends as one who had known the love of God through the blood of the Son. The deed and truth of God in the covenant had given him life and in continued renewal of that covenant a life to share with others. As the Son promised to build his church even against the gates of hell (Mt.16:18), so Mr. Masters took the glory of Christ into a kingdom of darkness where Satan dwells and was killed as a faithful witness (Rev.2:13). His wife and others followed standing upon this faithful witness as a seed that had gone into the ground and died and there God has grown his beautiful church. The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church and where this seed goes into the ground and dies it grows a beautiful bride of Christ through God’s deed and truth in covenant established and preserved on his book of the covenant.
Friday, March 12, 2010
Love to Our Neighbors, the Doctrine of Vocation
In the ancient world and the middle ages “calling” or it’s Latin form “vocation” referred to a sacred calling of God toward men serving in the church. Therefore if you were not a priest or a monk you were not “called”. But with the dawn of the reformation and primarily through the work of Martin Luther that thought changed. Vocation began to be referred to as the calling of God upon every one of his creatures to carry out the works of God toward man. In regard to the family Luther suggested that God could populate the earth by creating each generation of people from the dust the earth. However, he ordained that children and generations would be brought up by families carrying out their various vocations as fathers, mothers, husbands, wives and children. It is in these various callings that man and woman become the “the masks of God” or the means by which God cares for all his creatures. As Luther said, “Therefore I advise no one to enter any religious order or the priesthood, indeed, I advise everyone against it – unless he is forearmed with this knowledge and understands that the works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they may be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks, but that all works are measured before God by faith alone.” (The Babylonian Captivity of the Church 1520). And again he said, “All our work in the field, in the garden, in the city, in the home, in struggle, in government-to what does it all amount before God except child's play, by means of which God is pleased to give his gifts in the field, at home, and everywhere? These are the masks of our Lord God, behind which he wants to be hidden and to do all things.” (Exposition of Psalm 147).
When we consider this doctrine of vocation we recognize that through our callings God is showing the blessings of his love upon his creatures. In the gospel we recognize that God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Rom.5:8). And now those who are alive in Christ have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph.1:3). However, we must also look at how he blesses us and others with his love through us each day in our various vocations. A Swedish theologian, Gustaf Wingren, wrote a book entitled, Luther on Vocations. He summarizes this idea in this way; “In his vocation man does works which effect the well-being of others; for so God has made all offices. Through this work in man's offices, God's creative work goes forward, and that creative work is love, a profusion of good gifts. With persons as his "hands" or "coworkers," God gives his gifts through the earthly vocations, toward man's life on earth (food through farmers, fishermen and hunters; external peace through princes, judges, and orderly powers; knowledge and education through teachers and parents, etc., etc.). Through the preacher's vocation, God gives the forgiveness of sins. Thus love comes from God, flowing down to human beings on earth through all vocations, through both spiritual and earthly governments.” Therefore the love of God is demonstrated to every creature in our dependence upon the Creator and also through his callings in his creatures lives. Gene Edward Veith says, “The picture is of a vast, complex society of human beings with different talents and abilities. Each serves the other; each is served by others. We Americans have an ideal of self-sufficiency and often dream of being able to grow our own food, build our own homes, and live independently of other people. But our proper human condition is dependence. Because of the centrality of love, we are to depend on other human beings and, ultimately and through them, on God. Conversely, other people are to depend on us. In God's earthly kingdom, we are to receive his blessings from other people in their vocations.” (Modern Reformation "By the Sweat of Our Brow" May/June Vol. 8 No. 3 1999 Pages 4-7, “Doctrine of Vocation”). The churches call to love our neighbor in good works so that others may glorify our Father who is in heaven takes place when we change a diaper, empty the dishwasher, arrive to work on time, teach a class, pick up trash or go to the grocery store. The Christians life is based upon grace, but the outworking of that grace is the work of love carried out through various vocations. This does not mean that only when the Christian carries out his vocation with complete unabated love that our neighbors receive the love of God through our work. A person may bake a loaf of bread or love his wife or make laws for purely selfish motives. However, God uses those vocations and the work in them as his means to work his sovereign will in showing love to his creatures. But for the Christian who is being sanctified in Christ it is a great joy to hate sin and love holiness and watch God love our neighbors through the outworking of faith in Christ in our various callings.
The doctrine of vocation allows the Christian to be identified not by “what he or she does” but by whose he or she is and what God is doing everyday though their life for his glory and the good of his creatures. When our joy is in God who made, sustains, and redeems us, then we will be glad in the callings of God in this life. It is the glory of God that brings us joy and dignity in our callings. And in that joy and dignity in him we can take up our crosses and follow him wherever he calls us through whatever vocation toward our neighbors in love.
When we consider this doctrine of vocation we recognize that through our callings God is showing the blessings of his love upon his creatures. In the gospel we recognize that God demonstrates his love for us, in that while we were sinners, Christ died for us (Rom.5:8). And now those who are alive in Christ have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (Eph.1:3). However, we must also look at how he blesses us and others with his love through us each day in our various vocations. A Swedish theologian, Gustaf Wingren, wrote a book entitled, Luther on Vocations. He summarizes this idea in this way; “In his vocation man does works which effect the well-being of others; for so God has made all offices. Through this work in man's offices, God's creative work goes forward, and that creative work is love, a profusion of good gifts. With persons as his "hands" or "coworkers," God gives his gifts through the earthly vocations, toward man's life on earth (food through farmers, fishermen and hunters; external peace through princes, judges, and orderly powers; knowledge and education through teachers and parents, etc., etc.). Through the preacher's vocation, God gives the forgiveness of sins. Thus love comes from God, flowing down to human beings on earth through all vocations, through both spiritual and earthly governments.” Therefore the love of God is demonstrated to every creature in our dependence upon the Creator and also through his callings in his creatures lives. Gene Edward Veith says, “The picture is of a vast, complex society of human beings with different talents and abilities. Each serves the other; each is served by others. We Americans have an ideal of self-sufficiency and often dream of being able to grow our own food, build our own homes, and live independently of other people. But our proper human condition is dependence. Because of the centrality of love, we are to depend on other human beings and, ultimately and through them, on God. Conversely, other people are to depend on us. In God's earthly kingdom, we are to receive his blessings from other people in their vocations.” (Modern Reformation "By the Sweat of Our Brow" May/June Vol. 8 No. 3 1999 Pages 4-7, “Doctrine of Vocation”). The churches call to love our neighbor in good works so that others may glorify our Father who is in heaven takes place when we change a diaper, empty the dishwasher, arrive to work on time, teach a class, pick up trash or go to the grocery store. The Christians life is based upon grace, but the outworking of that grace is the work of love carried out through various vocations. This does not mean that only when the Christian carries out his vocation with complete unabated love that our neighbors receive the love of God through our work. A person may bake a loaf of bread or love his wife or make laws for purely selfish motives. However, God uses those vocations and the work in them as his means to work his sovereign will in showing love to his creatures. But for the Christian who is being sanctified in Christ it is a great joy to hate sin and love holiness and watch God love our neighbors through the outworking of faith in Christ in our various callings.
The doctrine of vocation allows the Christian to be identified not by “what he or she does” but by whose he or she is and what God is doing everyday though their life for his glory and the good of his creatures. When our joy is in God who made, sustains, and redeems us, then we will be glad in the callings of God in this life. It is the glory of God that brings us joy and dignity in our callings. And in that joy and dignity in him we can take up our crosses and follow him wherever he calls us through whatever vocation toward our neighbors in love.
Friday, March 5, 2010
Singing Hymns to the Glory of God
Does the Scripture contain hymns that we should sing or are we commanded in Scripture to sing hymns? We would all readily argue that it contains psalms. In the book of Psalms there are 150 songs of prayer divided into 5 different books (Bk.1: 1-41; Bk.2:42 – 72; Bk.3: 73-89; Bk.4: 90 – 106; Bk.5: 107 – 150). These psalms are categorized and are the churches primary source of praise, prayer and lament for God’s worshiping community. However in Paul’s letters to the Ephesians and Colossians he commands them to sing “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” (Eph.5:19; Col.3:16). Some have argued that these three words are used to define the canonical psalms. The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, uses these three words in psalm subtitles and therefore they would be familiar to the New Testament writers. But there are others who argue that the use of these words suggest that the church encouraged a variety of music and poetry in its song expressions in corporate worship. In studying these verses there are those who hold to the exclusive singing of psalms in worship and there are those who hold to the inclusive singing of psalms in worship. I would argue for the later that we must sing God’s inspired song book, the Psalms, but not to the exclusion of singing biblical and historical hymns. Hughs Oliphant Old comments, “The doxology of the earliest Christians kept psalmody and hymnody in a dynamic balance.” The psalms are a complete song book but not fully realized until they are seen in light of the complete work of salvation for God’s people on Calvary. Therefore in the Scripture we have both Psalms and hymns.
One of the earliest hymns we find in Scripture is the Song of Moses from Exodus 15. This is a hymn of praise expressed in strength and joy (Ex.15:2) by Moses and the Israelites as they were delivered by God from their enemies. In this hymn Moses recounts the attributes and work of God that are revealed in his delivering his people from Egypt that they may worship him. It is a hymn that gives glory to God sung in a spirit of joy. These hymns were written down by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and passed down to the peoples of God for generations. This and other hymns like them would be sung by the people of God who had experienced God’s salvation in a response of joy. We are given other biblical hymns in Judges 5, 2 Samuel 22, Luke 1 and 2. These biblical hymns are called Canticles. This is the plural of the Latin word canticulum meaning a little song. There are other works of hymnody or portions of hymns in the New Testament that we would call “Hymns of Christ.” These passages (John 1:1-5, 9-11; Romans 10:9-13; 1Corinthians 12:3; Ephesians 5:14; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:15-20; 1Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; 2Timothy 2:11-13; Hebrews 1:3; 1Peter 3:18c-19, 22) are christo-centric poetry that are sometimes portions or whole hymns directly about Christ. Where the Psalms and Canticles point the way to Christ these biblical hymns are directly about Christ. These hymns would be the singing of what the church preaches; God’s salvation or deliverance by sovereign grace through Christ alone. The church must sing the bible. This does not mean that we only sing psalms or only hymns from the scriptures but our singing ought to be biblical, “shot through with the language, categories, and theology of the Bible” with Christ and his redemption at the center.
The church sang the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We also must value and practice the same in our day. Paul Jones says, “We find evangelicals slipping away from biblical worship and justifying their practices on the basis of the Zeitgeist. A hedonistic, narcissistic, relativistic, “me focused” age, though, is hardly one that should inform and define our approach to God. And yet it does. We measure our success by numbers, our relevance by how technologically integrated and up to date we are, and our worship by how good it makes us feel. In the minds of contemporary saints, hymns clash with spontaneity, simplicity, and style that have come to rule in the modern evangelical church.” Psalm and hymn singing must be the churches practice as she studies, prays, teaches, preaches and lives the Scripture. They are avenues of our prayer, praise and proclamation in personal and corporate worship. They speak what we need to hear and believe, they are expressions of what we need to think and feel, and they are a trumpet to a church and a world of the glory of God in Christ. They may be the direct words of the Scripture or a paraphrase, they may unfold a particular doctrine or attribute of God, or they may trace his creative, sustaining or redemptive acts. But they are the truth about God and about his image bearers taken from his Word. Therefore, they make demands on the whole of our being to sing them. They must be engaged with the mind and the heart not only in the words that are sung but in the music or tune that fits the words. They must be drawn out and dusted off from antiquity and they need to be written and sung in the present. Whether we sing the song of Moses or of the Lamb (Rev.15:2-3) the church of the living God will sing to the Lord.
One of the earliest hymns we find in Scripture is the Song of Moses from Exodus 15. This is a hymn of praise expressed in strength and joy (Ex.15:2) by Moses and the Israelites as they were delivered by God from their enemies. In this hymn Moses recounts the attributes and work of God that are revealed in his delivering his people from Egypt that they may worship him. It is a hymn that gives glory to God sung in a spirit of joy. These hymns were written down by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and passed down to the peoples of God for generations. This and other hymns like them would be sung by the people of God who had experienced God’s salvation in a response of joy. We are given other biblical hymns in Judges 5, 2 Samuel 22, Luke 1 and 2. These biblical hymns are called Canticles. This is the plural of the Latin word canticulum meaning a little song. There are other works of hymnody or portions of hymns in the New Testament that we would call “Hymns of Christ.” These passages (John 1:1-5, 9-11; Romans 10:9-13; 1Corinthians 12:3; Ephesians 5:14; Philippians 2:6-11; Colossians 1:15-20; 1Timothy 2:5-6; 3:16; 2Timothy 2:11-13; Hebrews 1:3; 1Peter 3:18c-19, 22) are christo-centric poetry that are sometimes portions or whole hymns directly about Christ. Where the Psalms and Canticles point the way to Christ these biblical hymns are directly about Christ. These hymns would be the singing of what the church preaches; God’s salvation or deliverance by sovereign grace through Christ alone. The church must sing the bible. This does not mean that we only sing psalms or only hymns from the scriptures but our singing ought to be biblical, “shot through with the language, categories, and theology of the Bible” with Christ and his redemption at the center.
The church sang the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We also must value and practice the same in our day. Paul Jones says, “We find evangelicals slipping away from biblical worship and justifying their practices on the basis of the Zeitgeist. A hedonistic, narcissistic, relativistic, “me focused” age, though, is hardly one that should inform and define our approach to God. And yet it does. We measure our success by numbers, our relevance by how technologically integrated and up to date we are, and our worship by how good it makes us feel. In the minds of contemporary saints, hymns clash with spontaneity, simplicity, and style that have come to rule in the modern evangelical church.” Psalm and hymn singing must be the churches practice as she studies, prays, teaches, preaches and lives the Scripture. They are avenues of our prayer, praise and proclamation in personal and corporate worship. They speak what we need to hear and believe, they are expressions of what we need to think and feel, and they are a trumpet to a church and a world of the glory of God in Christ. They may be the direct words of the Scripture or a paraphrase, they may unfold a particular doctrine or attribute of God, or they may trace his creative, sustaining or redemptive acts. But they are the truth about God and about his image bearers taken from his Word. Therefore, they make demands on the whole of our being to sing them. They must be engaged with the mind and the heart not only in the words that are sung but in the music or tune that fits the words. They must be drawn out and dusted off from antiquity and they need to be written and sung in the present. Whether we sing the song of Moses or of the Lamb (Rev.15:2-3) the church of the living God will sing to the Lord.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)