“let us mark first of all when the Gospel is preached to us that it is just as if God reached out his hand (as he says by the prophet Isaiah, Isa. 65:2) and said to us, “Come to me.” It is a matter which ought to touch us to the quick, when we see that God comes to seek us, and does not wait until we come to him, but shows that he is ready to be made at one with us, although we were his daily enemies. He seeks nothing but to wipe out all our faults and make us partakers of the salvation that was purchased for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. And thus we see how worthily we have to esteem the Gospel, and what a treasure it is”
– John Calvin preaching on 1 Timothy 2
New at The Children’s Hour
I have recently posted several new reviews at my blog on children’s books, The Children’s Hour. I have a positive review of Arthur Conan Doyle’s classic, The Lost World, which is a fun read with some good lessons to mine. I was quite disappointed with the final installment in Alister McGrath’s children’s trilogy, Darkness Shall Fall. I also have a positive review of a valuable book titled Child Identity Theft: What Every Parent Needs to Know. Lastly, I have posted a couple of quotes from Reformers on family life which I found helpful- Luther and Calvin talking about the importance of training our children in the knowledge of God.
Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?
Re-reading J. I. Packer’s Knowing God I came back across this hymn by Charles Wesley which I have chosen for this week’s poem of the week. Wesley wrote this hymn right after coming to faith expressing his joy in conversion. It is a marvelous expression of the wonder of being redeemed.
Where shall my wondering soul begin?
How shall I all to heaven aspire?
A slave redeemed from death and sin,
A brand plucked from eternal fire,
How shall I equal triumphs raise,
Or sing my great Deliverer’s praise?
O how shall I the goodness tell,
Father, which Thou to me hast showed?
That I, a child of wrath and hell,
I should be called a child of God,
Should know, should feel my sins forgiven,
Blessed with this antepast of Heaven!
And shall I slight my Father’s love?
Or basely fear His gifts to own?
Unmindful of His favors prove?
Shall I, the hallowed cross to shun,
Refuse His righteousness to impart,
By hiding it within my heart?
No! though the ancient dragon rage,
And call forth all his host to war,
Though earth’s self-righteous sons engage
Them and their god alike I dare;
Jesus, the sinner’s friend, proclaim;
Jesus, to sinners still the same.
Outcasts of men, to you I call,
Harlots, and publicans, and thieves!
He spreads His arms to embrace you all;
Sinners alone His grace receives;
No need of Him the righteous have;
He came the lost to seek and save.
Come, O my guilty brethren, come,
Groaning beneath your load of sin,
His bleeding heart shall make you room,
His open side shall take you in;
He calls you now, invites you home;
Come, O my guilty brethren, come!
For you the purple current flowed
In pardons from His wounded side,
Languished for you the eternal God,
For you the Prince of glory died:
Believe, and all your sin’s forgiven;
Only believe, and yours is Heaven!
The Apocrypha, Lutheran Edition
For school I recently read through most of the Apocrypha with my boys, and I used the new, The Apocrypha: The Lutheran Edition with Notes(ESV) recently published by Concordia Publishing House. My boys had the standard Oxford Annotated Apocrypha (RSV). It was a great experience simply reading through this literature with them, and I greatly appreciated this new edition.
The great benefit of this Lutheran edition is the wonderful introductory matter, study notes and other guiding matter. Each book is introduced with basic information as well as quotations from Martin Luther on the book’s oddities and value. Luther’s comments (as usual) were often humorous and very helpful. He pointed out well the problems in any book, but noted the value as well. This edition also has a nice overview of the historical setting of the Apocrypha, the time between the testaments, an era often unknown to many in church. Lastly, ten appendices give an overview of other historical material from this time including Josephus, Philo, Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic literature, Nag Hammadi Codices and others.
This is a very nice study resource which helps in gaining awareness of the world into which Jesus emerged in his ministry.
Richard Baxter Poem on Facing Death
The “Poem of the Week” on my office door this week is Richard Baxter’s “Lord, It Belongs Not to My Care,” which I encountered while re-reading Packer’s Knowing God. It is a powerful testimony of trusting God, come what may. The hymn was published in 1681 in Baxter’s Poetical Fragments, where it is accompanied by this notation, “This Covenant my dear Wife in her former Sickness subscribed with a Cheerful will.” This affirmation of trust, then, was not an idle abstract thought for Baxter, but one rooted in the real challenge of facing death.
Lord it belongs not to my care
Whether I die or live;
To love and serve Thee is my share,
And this Thy grace must give.
If life be long, I will be glad,
That I may long obey;
If short, yet why should I be sad
To welcome endless day?
Christ leads me through no darker rooms
Than He went through before;
He that unto God’s kingdom comes
Must enter by this door.
Come, Lord, when grace hath made me meet
Thy blessèd face to see;
For if Thy work on earth be sweet
What will Thy glory be!
Then I shall end my sad complaints
And weary sinful days,
And join with the triumphant saints
That sing my Savior’s praise.
My knowledge of that life is small,
The eye of faith is dim;
But ’tis enough that Christ knows all,
And I shall be with Him.
-Richard Baxter
Our Need for Augustine’s Hermeneutics
I have greatly enjoyed the introduction to Jason Byassee’s Praise Seeking Understanding: Reading the Psalms with Augustine. I’m still working on the rest of the book, but the intro itself deserves to be read as we think about how we interpret the Bible. Byasee does not suggest the Fathers got it all right, but argues that our modern approaches have weaknesses which need supplementing from the Fathers. The Fathers had weaknesses which modern tools can help. In essence he is calling for us to read the Bible along with the church through the ages.
Here are a few quotes where I think he correctly points out some weaknesses in much of typical modern interpretation and identifies the key strength of Augustine and other church fathers.
“This book was born out of the experience of leading a congregation. As a preacher I spent a great deal of fruitless time seeking biblical commentaries to help me read scripture well for the sake of the church. I have found modern commentary helpful for certain things – in clarifying historical events or linguistic problems with greater confidence than ancient commentators could, for example. Yet I found ancient commentators more helpful in doing the most important thing that Christian preaching and teaching must do: drawing the church to Christ.” 1
“Now, Augustine’s ability to translate is legendarily limited, and he himself laments it. His hermeneutics and his actual exegetical leaps often call for mockery among modern students of biblical hermeneutics. And yet, for all that, his exegesis itself is lovely, and it is more precisely aimed at the church’s goal of reshaping persons in the image of Christ than ours tends to be.” 1
“I am convinced that the fathers generally and Augustine specifically have been almost entirely excluded from modern conversations about exegesis and from its actual conduct in seminaries and churches. While the fathers have their exegetical faults, they also have much to teach us. Most importantly, their telos in exegesis is often right, precisely where ours is frequently wrong.” 3
“Yet its [the patristic tradition’s]attempt to progress toward a specifically Christian goal, to conduct exegesis with this telos in mind, is a great improvement on exegesis done with no such eschatological orientation. Augustine does exegesis as though Jesus is head of the body of the church, and we who are doing the exegesis are members of the body united under this head. Christians should be hard-pressed to disagree.” 3
Prayer, the Very Essence of Religion
“Since prayer is that act by which we turn our will to God, prayer is of the very essence of religion . . . . Prayer is the most direct expression of faith, because prayerfully turning our thoughts and will to God is the initial step from thought about God to full assurance of God. By the same token prayer is the most direct expression of love. It is an offering of highest priority, since the first thing we owe God is our thinking and willing. (Adolf Schlatter, cited in Robert Yarbrough, 1-3 John, 298)
The Church, More than What It Seems
“These two days [John 1:29-34] witnessed the beginning of the greatest institution in the world, – the Christian Church, – and the end of prophecy, which reached its goal when its last representative stood in the presence of Jesus, and, with pointing finger, designated Him as the Lamb of God. To outward seeming they were but a little knot of poor Jews. How kings and Caesars would have scoffed, if told that they were the nucleus of a movement which would shatter their thrones and reshape the world! ‘The kingdom of God cometh not with observation.’”
Alexander Maclaren, The Gospel of John (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1893), 12.
“He Hears Us”
First John 5:14 gives us a powerful assurance in prayer: “he hears us.” This is our “confidence” John says. Yarbrough’s discussion of this truth is moving & instructive.
“The loftiest attainment of errant mortals petitioning before the heavenly throne is not to gain God’s compliance but to be fully assured of his listening ear – whatever external results our prayers do or do not precipitate from God’s side. ‘If we know that he hears us, whatever we request,’ it is enough. The highest divine response to the petitioner is not to put human prayer in the driver’s seat of destiny but to assure the one who prays that all requests are duly considered and acted on so as to maximize the coming of God’s kingdom and the fulfillment of his will – the attitudinal common denominator that Jesus taught should characterize all his disciples’ prayer.
Therefore, when John writes that ‘we know that we have the requests that we have requested from him,’ he is affirming that to know that God hears, to trust that he always acts in a wise and timely fashion, and to commune prayerfully with him in that settled assurance is in itself the deepest gratification of those who have eternal life in his Son (cf. 5:11 …).”
R. Yarbrough, 1-3 John, 302
Read, Pray, Sing
April 12-13, 2013 the Ryan Center for Biblical Studies will be hosting the conference, “Read, Pray, Sing: The Psalms as an Entryway to the Scriptures.” The conference theme captures two key points about the Psalms. First, the Psalms have been given to us to use in reading, praying and singing. Too often, all we do with them is read. Reading the Psalms is wonderful, but there is no need for us to miss these others uses which have been such a rich blessing to the church through the ages. The psalms give us words to express ourselves to God, tutoring us in growing in a rich relationship with God.
Secondly, the Psalms teach us the rest of the Bible. Martin Luther was fond of calling the Psalter a “mini-Bible” saying that all the themes of the Bible are summarized here in miniature. In fact as we seek to use the Psalms in our prayers and song, we are schooled in reading the scriptures in light of Christ, as Jesus himself taught us (Luke 24:27).
So, we will pursue this theme together being led by plenary speakers Andy Davis and Heath Thomas with breakout sessions from several Union faculty members. Also on Friday night we will have a Psalm-sing, taking the opportunity to sing a variety of Psalms in different styles.
The conference is intended for pastors, bible study leaders and anyone who wants to enhance their own study of the Scriptures. Until March 11 (the early registration deadline) the cost is only $50.