Meditating on God’s Word Continually

The Lord gave to Israel the following instructions: “Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” (Deut. 11:18–19; see also Deut. 6:7–9).

It is striking that these verses command Christian parents to talk, and therefore, meditate, upon God’s word at all times, to remind their children of God’s word during all the main parts of the day: “when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up” (Deut. 11:19; see also 6:7). These are most solemn instructions, and although the focus of these verses is the highly important work of Christian parents in the religious instruction of their children, these verses contain several clear implications for all believers, young and old.

Dear reader, think about your own life. Parents, what are the most common topics at Sunday dinner? Young people, what are the most common topics of your conversations with your family and friends? Sports? Work? Hobbies? Entertainment? Are we also regularly taking advantage of the word of God that we have received from the preaching, using it as an occasion to discuss, meditate, and edify and encourage one another in the Lord? Out of the abundance of a person’s heart, his or her mouth speaks (see also Luke 6:45).

But you may ask, “those verses are mainly addressed to the teaching of parents to their children. Certainly, you are not saying that I, as an individual Christian, should meditate and talk about God’s word all the time, are you? There is so much else to do and to talk about!” I am certainly not saying that we should do nothing but study and meditate on the Scriptures all day. We have our duties, our callings, our jobs, our studies, and the Lord delights in us when we fulfill them to his glory (Col. 3:23–24; see also Eccl. 9:10). We also can enjoy many healthy and innocent recreational activities, for the good of our bodies and minds. However, this does not contradict the fact that the Lord and his word should be our priority and that God’s word should dominate our lives as manifested in our conversations and personal meditations.

David says that man is to be blessed whose “delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night” (Ps. 1:2). David was resolute to praise the Lord continually and at all times: “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Ps. 34:1). Paul instructs us as follows: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things” (Phil. 4:8). And what is there in the world that is more true, more honest, more just, more pure, more lovely, more good, and more virtuous than God’s own word as recorded in the Holy Scriptures (Ps. 12; Prov. 30:5; 2 Tim 3:16–17)?

Sometimes we are afraid to bring up God’s word in our social gatherings, perhaps fearing to appear unusual or to break an accepted pattern. But what a great encouragement we find, unsurprisingly, in the Scriptures! Whether it is a family member who sincerely asks us for the reason of our hope (“when thy son asketh thee…” Deut. 6:20) or a friend who (perhaps annoyed) asks us why we “always bring up the Bible,” we answer according to the great truth that motivates us: “We were Pharaoh’s bondmen in Egypt; and the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand” (Deut. 6:21). Purely by grace, the Lord saved me from that great and terrible bondage of sin that I could have never defeated by myself! The Lord brought me into his kingdom of light! He imputed unto me the perfect righteousness of Christ! The Lord gave me his Holy Spirit who is always with me! How can I stop talking and witnessing of such immeasurable and eternal benefits! It is because of these (and many other) priceless spiritual blessings that we, by God’s grace alone, out of gratitude conduct our lives, our thoughts, our meditations, and our conversations so that we can say with the psalmist: “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Ps. 34:1).

Yes, our old man always wants to do the opposite of praising, meditating and talking about the Lord, and Satan always works to distract us with anything but God’s word. We feel unable, and sometimes, unwilling. And the reason why we so often feel this way is simple: left to ourselves and according to our old man, we are unable and unwilling to meditate on God’s word day and night. But blessed be God, because in him, through Christ, we have not only all our salvation, but also the power by his Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life! Blessed be God, who has given us his Holy Spirit dwelling in us, bending our wills to his will, renewing our minds to see the greatness of his name and work for us in Jesus Christ. Move on, dear saint, in the strength of the Lord, the only author and captain of our salvation, and partake of the means of grace that he has established for his people.

God enlarges our hearts in the way of spiritual exercise…When God enlarges the heart of his child, he does so not without, but through the heart-exercise of the renewed and sanctified saint, longing and yearning, praying and seeking, searching the word, dwelling in the midst of God’s people, fighting the good fight, walking in the way of his good commandments. Thus the saint goes from strength to strength, rejoicing in the Lord and confiding in his promise.[1]

As we continually and daily cling to Christ alone by listening and reading his preached and written word, by praying, fellowshipping with the saints, and striving for godliness, the Lord works in us in his good appointed time, so that we may increasingly make the psalmist’s confession our own: “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day” (Ps. 119:97).

 

[1] Herman Hoeksema, All Glory to The Only Good God (Jenison, MI: Reformed Free Publishing, 2013), 299.

Originally published in the

Beacon Lights, Vol. 79, No. 2 (Feb. 2020).
Art by Ferdinand Pauwels.

©

Augustine on Peace, War, and Man's Highest Good

The Dark Riders, by Carle Hessay (1911-1978)

 

“Whoever gives even moderate attention to human affairs and to our common nature, will recognize that if there is no man who does not wish to be joyful, neither is there any one who does not wish to have peace. For even they who make war desire nothing but victory—desire, that is to say, to attain to peace with glory. For what else is victory than the conquest of those who resist us? And when this is done there is peace. It is therefore with the desire for peace that wars are waged, even by those who take pleasure in exercising their warlike nature in command and battle. And hence it is obvious that peace is the end sought for by war. For every man seeks peace by waging war, but no man seeks war by making peace. For even they who intentionally interrupt the peace in which they are living have no hatred of peace, but only wish it changed into a peace that suits them better. They do not, therefore, wish to have no peace, but only one more to their mind. And in the case of sedition, when men have separated themselves from the community, they yet do not effect what they wish, unless they maintain some kind of peace with their fellow-conspirators. And therefore even robbers take care to maintain peace with their comrades, that they may with greater effect and greater safety invade the peace of other men. And if an individual happen to be of such unrivalled strength, and to be so jealous of partnership, that he trusts himself with no comrades, but makes his own plots, and commits depredations and murders on his own account, yet he maintains some shadow of peace with such persons as he is unable to kill, and from whom he wishes to conceal his deeds.”

These considerations on earthly peace and war (or earthly peace through war) by Augustine of Hippo are from The City of God, 19:12. They are placed in the context of Augustine's teleological ethics according to which true peace can only be found in the enjoyment of the highest good, that is, the triune God: “the peace which is peculiar to ourselves we enjoy now with God by faith, and shall hereafter enjoy eternally with Him by sight. But the peace which we enjoy in this life, whether common to all or peculiar to ourselves, is rather the solace of our misery than the positive enjoyment of felicity. Our very righteousness, too, though true in so far as it has respect to the true good, is yet in this life of such a kind that it consists rather in the remission of sins than in the perfecting of virtues” (Book 19:27). Often in The City of God (and elsewhere in some of his works), Augustine offers insightful analyses of the reasons for and the unfolding of fallen humanity's natural but disordered desire for peace and happiness. In this specific passage, Augustine discusses one of the most extreme consequences of the misdirection of this natural desire: war. 

Delighting in God, Delighting in Godliness

The Sower (1888), by Vincent van Gogh  (1853–1890)

We are called to obey God’s will out of gratitude because we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The Heidelberg Catechism famously describes its third part as “how I shall express my gratitude to God for such deliverance” (Answer 2), and Lord’s Days 32–44 are a detailed explanation of our walking in gratitude toward the Lord. This is indeed our chief motivation for obedience. 

The confessions and Scripture, however, do not talk only of gratitude. They also talk about delight, joy, and love. Here are some examples with emphasis added to identify some key words: 

What is the quickening of the new man? It is a sincere joy of heart in God, through Christ, and with love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works. (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 90) 

What doth the tenth commandment require of us? That even the smallest inclination or thought contrary to any of God’s commandments never rise in our hearts; but that at all times we hate all sin with our whole heart, and delight in all righteousness. (Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 113) 

The elect in due time, though in various degrees and in different measures, attain the assurance of this their eternal and unchangeable election, not by inquisitively prying into the secret and deep things of God, but by observing in themselves, with a spiritual joy and holy pleasure, the infallible fruits of election pointed out in the Word of God—such as a true faith in Christ, filial fear, a godly sorrow for sin, a hungering and thirsting after righteousness, etc. (Canons 1.12) 

We beseech Thee…that they may daily follow Him, joyfully bearing their cross, and cleave unto Him in true faith, firm hope, and ardent love. (Form for the Administration of Baptism) 

We beseech Thee, show him Thy mercy, that he may become more and more assured in his mind of the remission of his sins, and that he may receive from thence inexpressible joy and delight to serve Thee. (Form of Readmitting Excommunicated Persons) 

It is appropriate for these documents to mention joy, love, and delight. In fact, it is possible to be grateful to someone without necessarily delighting in or loving that person. In contrast, believers walk in the way of holiness because we love holiness, as it deserves to be loved. We love holiness because God is holy. More than that, God is holiness. And we love and delight to walk in godliness because it is in the way of our obedience that the triune God has been pleased to transform us by his Spirit. We walk that way out of love for and delight in God in addition to our gratitude for his great saving benefits. We do this just as a faithful son obeys his good father, not simply out of gratitude (which ought certainly to be there), but because he loves his father and rejoices and delights in obeying him.

We have every reason for delighting in God’s beautiful holiness and in practicing godliness. God is beautiful. Even more than that, he is beauty.[1] It is right to rejoice, love, and delight in our God who is true beauty. This beauty explains why God is attracted to and loves himself above all else: he is the standard of love and beauty in his own being. Hoeksema states: “As an attribute of God, grace is that divine virtue according to which God is the perfection of all beauty and loveliness and contemplates himself as such with infinite delight.”[2] 

Related to this idea of beauty, we understand that God’s law is the reflection of his character. Every commandment is a glorious and beautiful revelation of his character to his people. Consider the following: 

• Why shall we have no other gods before him? Because he is the only God, the sole creator of all things. 
• We shall not worship any image because “there is one only simple and spiritual Being, which we call God…eternal, incomprehensible, invisible…” (Ex. 33:20; Belgic Confession art. 1).
• We shall not take the name of the Lord in vain because God is his name (Ex. 3:14).
• We shall not steal because God is the creator and owner of all (Ps. 24).
• We shall not kill because God is life and the only one who owns life and death (Deut. 32:39).
• We shall not lie because God is truth (Ps. 31:5). 

As it is natural and right to delight in God who is holiness and beauty in himself, so it is natural and right to rejoice and delight in the law that reflects his holy character. Through obedience to that law, we are transformed according to his holy and beautiful image. In addition to their gratitude for God’s deliverances, the psalmists repeatedly mention their delight in and love for God’s law: “I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved” (Ps. 119:47). I encourage you to read through the psalms with this theme in mind.[3] 

Gratitude does not exhaust the motivation for our walking in obedience. When I truly love a person who is in authority over me, who loves me, and who cares for me, I enjoy that person’s company and delight in serving him. I also rejoice in pleasing that person. Similarly with God. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matt. 22:37). The triune God is not only our Lord, but our Father. And Jesus is not only our Savior, but our mediator and eldest brother. True love for him certainly involves gratitude, but it is not limited to gratitude alone. 

Saints delight and rejoice in serving the Lord through an active faith because of all his benefits and because of who he is. Saints love God because of their justification and their sanctification in Christ. And they delight in and are attracted to such a beautiful God, desiring to be changed by grace according to his image. Taking on the image of God means that we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Pet. 1:4) in the way of obedience to his commandments. “Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous; and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness” (Ps. 97:12). 

Let us all go to Jesus in gratitude and delight! Not only have we full forgiveness for all our sins and shortcomings in Jesus, but we are indwelled by the regenerating and empowering Holy Spirit! Holding fast to Jesus and his finished work for us, and relying on the Spirit who Christ sent to dwell in us, let us all join the psalmist and pray: “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law…Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works” (Ps. 119:18, 27). 

[1] See especially Ps. 27:4; 29:2; 39:11; 45:11; 50:2; 90:17; 96:6, 9.
[2] Herman Hoeksema, Reformed Dogmatics: Vol. 1 (Grandville, MI: Reformed Free Publishing Association, 2004), 160. Emphasis added. The reader will not regret reading pages 154–166 of the same book.
[3] See especially Ps. 1:2; 37:4; 40:8; 112:1; and nearly all of Psalm 119.

Originally published in the 

Beacon Lights, Vol 80 No 9 2021.

Republished with the editor's permission.

©

The Preciousness of Christ's Divinity and Humanity

Art by Full of Eyes.

«What a grand and glorious truth is this to the believing soul: the absolute Deity of the Savior, the essential Godhead of Christ! How it endears Him to the heart as the Rock of ages upon which its hope is built! How precious must be every evidence of the divine strength, stability, and durability of that basis upon which the believing sinner reposes his whole salvation. Precious, then, is Christ as God. Precious in His Deity, precious as a distinct person in the adorable Godhead, precious as "God over all, blessed for evermore." But pause, Christian reader, for a moment, in wonder and praise before this august truth. If there is a spot where we should put off the shoes from our feet, surely it is this. With what profound reverence, with what silent awe, yet with what adoring love should we contemplate the GODHEAD of our Redeemer!

But this personal representation of the Lord Jesus involves also the preciousness of His manhood. His [Christ's] personal alliance with our nature, His condescending stoop to our humanity, is not the least endearing feature to the heart of His believing saints. We have claimed for the Son of God absolute Deity; we now claim for Him perfect humanity. "Flesh," real and substantial, yet, "harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners," was He "made." A humanity identical with His people in all but its original and actual sinfulness. "He knew no sin." And yet, what a sin-bearer was He! All the transgressions of His elect met upon Him! But He could only bear sin, as He himself was essentially free from its taint. Had there been the remotest breath of pollution adhering to Him- had one drop of the moral virus circulated through His veins, it had rendered Him utterly and forever incapable of presenting to the justice of God, an atonement for sin. He then would have needed, like the high priest of old, to have offered for sins "first for Himself, then for the people."

How precious, then, beloved, is our Lord Jesus as "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh." Think of His perfect humanity, a humanity free from sin, and therefore capable of dying for the ungodly, a humanity laden with sorrow, and therefore capable of sympathizing with the afflicted. Precious to our hearts as God, precious as Man, precious as both united in one, inconceivably and eternally precious is He, whose name is "Wonderful," to His believing saints. Tell, oh tell, how precious is that humanity of the Son of God that partook, by actual participation, and still bears, by the most perfect sympathy, all the sinless weaknesses, infirmities, temptations, and sorrows of His people. Precious humanity! to which, when other human friendships are changed, and other human love is chilled, and other human sympathy is exhausted, you may repair, and find it an evergreen, a perennial stream, a gushing fountain of unchanged affection, tenderness, and sympathy, meeting and satisfying, to their utmost capacity, your hearts' deep pantings! Precious humanity! that dries each tear, that bears each burden, that is touched with each infirmity, that soothes each sorrow, and that succours each temptation of His people. "In all things it behooved Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of His people. For in that He himself has suffered being tempted, He is able to succor those who are tempted."

Oh, love the Lord, then, all you His saints; laud Him, all you His people; and, in all your deep griefs, your lonely sorrows, your sore trials, your fiery temptations, your pressing needs, your daily infirmities, repair to the succourings, and the sympathies, and the intercessions of His humanity, and learn how precious Jesus can be to the hearts of His suffering and sorrowing ones. Upon this rock of Christ's complex person God has built His Church, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.» 

 ~ Octavius Winslow, The Precious Things of God, 

chapter 1, pages 6-7, 8-11.

T. F. Torrance on Realism and Idealism

As I have been studying and thinking about Christian theistic realism and Christian theistic phenomenalistic idealism, I have come across a discussion by Thomas F. Torrance (1913–2007). He was a realist of some sort. Independently of his position (which I don't necessarily share), while presenting his own view, Torrance also makes some very interesting remarks on the alleged contrast and conflict between "realism" and "idealism."

The contrast between realism and idealism, implied in the use of either term, evidently has its source in the distinction we make between subject and object, idea and reality, or sign and thing signified. This is a natural operation of the human mind, for it belongs to the essence of rational behavior that we can distinguish ourselves as knowing subjects from the objects of our knowledge, and can employ ideas or words to refer to or signify realities independent of them. Normally our attention in knowing, speaking, listening, or reading is not focused upon the ideas or words we use, far less upon ourselves, but upon the realities they signify or indicate beyond themselves. Hence in our regular communication with one another we use and interpret signs in the light of their objective reference. Thus the natural operation of the human mind would appear to be realist. 

We use these distinctions, then, between subject and object, idea and reality, or sign and thing signified, naturally and unreflectingly, and only turn a critical eye upon them when something arises to obscure signification, such as a break in the semantic relation. Much now depends upon where the emphasis falls, upon the signifying pole or the objective pole of the semantic relation. that is, upon idea or reality, upon sign or thing signified. In this state of affairs the contrast between idealism and realism arises out of an oscillation in emphasis from one pole of the semantic relation to the other. The distinction sharpens into a conflict, however, when the two poles are extended to a breaking point or when the relation between them is disrupted through some dichotomy of thought. However, since the relation between idea and reality or sign and thing signified is never completely severed, there seems to be a regular tendency, as one extreme position is corrected in respect of the other, for each to pass over into the other, to that idealism sometimes passes over into a form of realism and realism passes over into a form of idealism. For example, in the dialectical relation that arises out of a split between theoretical and empirical factors in natural science, an emphasis upon mathematics separated from experience may end up in a mechanical and materialist understanding of the world, while an emphasis upon sense experience as the ultimate ground of knowledge may end up in a rationalist empiricism or even a conventionalism. Virtually the same dialectic arises in theology between radically divergent approaches to the understanding of Christ traditionally characterized as "dark" and "ebionice," for in modern as in ancient Christologities each tends to turn into a form of the other.

It may be noted that when the semantic relation between idea and reality or between sign and thing signified is not completely severed but only damaged, our thought nevertheless becomes trapped in distorting ambiguities which require correction. It is within the context of this problematic state of affairs, and on the ground of some form of epistemological dualism that underlies it, that coherence and correspondence theories of truth have continually been thrown up in the history of thought. Who has always been at stake is a distorting refraction in the ontological substructure of knowledge. The lesson that is constantly being taught is that there can be no satisfactory theory of truth within the brackets of a dualist frame of thought, for it can only yield the oscillating dialectic between coherence and correspondence. There can be no way forward except through a rejection of dualist modes of thought in an integration of empirical and theoretical components in knowledge and of form and being in our understanding of reality. That would restore the integrity of the semantic reference of idea and sign to reality, in which reality would have objective priority over all our conceiving and speaking of it. Strictly speaking, the contrast, let alone the conflict, between realism and idealism would not then arise, nor would the distinction between a coherence and a correspondence view of truth which depends on a disjunction between form and being. 

To return to the meaning of realism, we shall use the term, not in an attenuated dialectical sense merely in contrast to idealism, nominalism, or conventionalism, but to describe the orientation in thought that obtains in semantics, science, or theology on the basis of a nondualist or unitary relation between the empirical and theoretical ingredients in the structure of the real world and in our knowledge of it. This is an epistemic orientation of the two-way relation between the subject and object poles of thought and speech, in which ontological primacy and control are naturally accorded to reality over all our conceiving and speaking of it. (T. F. Torrance, Reality and Evangelical Theology: The Realism of Christian Revelation, 58-60)

Reading Augustine for who has little time

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) is a key theologian and philosopher than anyone interested in Christian theology and philosophy needs to read, at the very least to some extent. However, for many of us, the busyness of life does not give us the time to approach the rewarding reading of this North African thinker. Moreover, the gigantic Augustinian corpus might be intimidating, and one might be confused on where to start: "Augustine wrote over one hundred treatises, countless sermons, and more than five million words in all” (Levering, The Theology of Augustine, xi).

There are some Augustinian anthologies that can help in this noble pursuit. They are anthologies, that is, collections of quotations from Augustinian primary sources. They are not expositions of Augustine's thought, and, therefore, they do not provide expositions of Augustine's own life or his historical and intellectual context. But the reader should not be discouraged, as I believe it is sufficient to get a basic grasp of Augustine's life from any trusted source to enjoy these anthologies.

• An Augustine Synthesis, by Erich Przwara. This anthology is structured in a philosophically fascinating way. The book provides a sufficiently comprehensive picture of Augustine's Christian philosophy. This is the lengthiest and most challengingly divided anthology of the three listed here.
• What Augustine Says, by Norman Geisler. Somewhat like Przwara's book, but shorter and with a division of topics that will probably be more familiar and approachable to most people.
• The Triumph of Grace: Augustine's Writings on Salvation, by N. R. Needham. A superb collection of texts from Augustine's works. The book is thematically divided into chapters which are, in turn, briefly introduced. An ideal place to start to see Augustine's God-centered view of salvation.

These anthologies offer short nuggets from Augustine's writings so that the reader (especially the beginner) can gradually acquire, through small daily doses, a good understanding of Augustine's Christian thought (as for all things, a little patience and perseverance are also required).

Tolle lege.

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Some Edwardsean Book Reviews

In the last few years, I have accumulated a few reviews of books on Jonathan Edwards. At the moment I am reading The Thought of Jonathan Edwards by Miklos Veto. The book is both lengthy and rich. Therefore, it will take me some time before I finish my review.

In the meantime, I will list here all the Edwardsean reviews I have written so far, from the oldest to the newest.

• Harry S. Stout (General Editor), Kenneth P. Minkema and Adriaan C. Neele (Associate Editors), The Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia.
• John J. Bombaro, Jonathan Edwards's Vision of Reality: The Relationship of God to the World, Redemption History, and the Reprobate.
• Steven M. Studebaker, Amos Yong, eds., Pentecostal Theology and Jonathan Edwards. In Jonathan Edwards Studies, Vol 11, No 1 (2021).
• Peter B. Jung, ed., Free Will: Jonathan Edwards’ Psychological, Ethical, and Theological Philosophy in his Freedom of the Will.
• Avihu Zakai, Jonathan Edwards's Philosophy of Nature: The Re-enchantment of the World in the Age of Scientific Reasoning.
• John Carrick, Jonathan Edwards and the Immediacy of God.

What follows are reviews of books with some significant connections to Edwards.

• Robert L. Boss, Joshua R. Farris, S. Mark Hamilton, eds., New England Dogmatics: A Systematic Collection of Questions and Answers in Divinity by Maltby Gelston (1766-1865).
• Joshua R. Farris (Editor), S. Mark Hamilton  (Editor), and James S. Spiegel (General Editor), Idealism and Christian Theology: Idealism and Christianity: Volume 1.
• Michael Patrick Preciado, A Reformed View of Freedom: The Compatibility of Guidance Control and Reformed Theology.
• Paul Helm, Reforming Free Will: A Conversation on the History of Reformed Views.

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