The cross should offend no one

The makers of the soap Coronation Street recently filmed an wedding scene in a quintessentially English church. Concerned that a cross would offend people they concealed it from view with flowers and candles before filming. You can read about it here. There have been apologies for this error and the upset it has caused. However, the following comment from a spokesman at the Diocese of Chester caught my eye:

"The cross is universally accepted as a symbol of Christianity, and should offend no one."

I'm not surprised that the media wishes to cover up a cross. Such a move is ideologically driven and intellectually shallow, but not particularly surprising. That's what people do when they are on the run from God. It is an act of suppression to relieve the pressure of God's special and general revelation.

But it is somewhat bizarre that a church spokesman should say that the cross should offend no one. The cross should offend everyone. It is a direct challenge to our moral calculus, to our deeply held philosophies, to our assessment of human nature, freedom and ability. The cross strips away all our religious, intellectual, and ethical pretensions.

The cross is the very central point of the "scandal of particularity." It tells us not only that God is to be found in this way, and in no other, but he cannot be known rightly without us coming to terms with our sin and corruption and with this way of rescue alone.

The cross leaves all people, in all cultures, at all times, horribly exposed as God defying, God evading, rebels. And yet at the same time the cross displays, as nothing else can, the wisdom and power of God. Who would have thought that the very God that we spend all our lives rejecting and replacing should give his own Son to die in the place of the guilty, and to bear their punishment? That he should freely offer to all people life and forgiveness through the cross of Christ? That God should be in the business of making his bitterest enemies his closest friends?

Don't look in the wrong place

Samuel Bolton on law, gospel, justification and assurance:

Alas, there are multitudes in the world who make a Christ of their own works, and this is their undoing. They look for righteousness and acceptance more in the precept than in the promise, in the law rather than in the Gospel, more in working than in believing...There is something of this spirit in us all; otherwise we should not be up and down so much in respect of our comforts and out faith, as is still so often the case.

The True Bounds of Christian Freedom, p. 70

The substance of the moral law and its redemptive-historical administration

At the start of February I will be heading to London for the Affinity Theological Conference. The subject this year is The End of the Law?

Here are some quotations from Samuel Bolton (1606-1654) on the moral law:

Indeed, the law, as it is considered as a rule, can no more be abolished or changed than the nature of good and evil can be abolished and changed...for the substance of it, it is moral and eternal, and cannot be abrogated.

We grant that the circumstances under which the moral law was originally given were temporary and changeable, and we have now nothing to do with the promulgator, Moses, nor with the place where it was given, Mount Sinai, nor with the time when it was given, fifty days after the people came out of Egypt, nor yet as it was written in tables of stone, delivered with thunderings and lightnings.

We look not to Sinai, the hill of bondage, but to Sion, the mountain of grace. We take the law as an image of the will of God which we desire to obey, but from which we do not expect life and favour, neither do we fear death... (p. 57-8)

For what is the law in the substance of it but that law of nature engraven in the heart of man in innocency? (p. 59)

More to come on this.

Calvin 365: (11) Our God will help us

If you are not confident that God really is sovereign over all things then you will place your trust in something else appart from him in times of need. Psalm 115: tells us that "Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." On the basis the Psalmist exhorts us to trust in the Lord and to find him to be our help and shield.

Preaching on Psalm 115 for the weekly day of prayer on November 4th, 1545, Calvin said:

After the prayer, let us remember how this thought is given to us, that "our God in in heaven" (Psalm 115:3), in order that it may be for us a shield to withstand every evil thought-thoughts such as wondering whether our God can aid us.

This must be imprinted in our memory: our God will aid us.

The reason: nothing can prevent Him.

And He has declared to us that it is His God pleasure never to fail us at need...And if God does not help us at first, let us wait on Him; we will not be disappointed.

Our God will come, and when?

He knows when it will be time.

Quoted in David B. Calhoun, Prayer: "The Chief Exercise of Faith" in David W. Hall & Peter A. Lillback [eds] A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes: Essays and Analysis, p. 366-7

Calvin 365: (10) Romans is the key to the whole Bible

If we understand this Epistle , we have a passage opened to us to the understanding of the whole of Scripture.

Dedication to Simon Grynaeus, p. 2

If we gained a true understanding of this Epistle, we have an open door to all the most profound treasures of Scripture.

The Theme to the Epistle of Paul to the Romans, p. 5

Calvin 365: (9) Sound advice to preachers and commentators

Since it is almost his only task to unfold the mind of the writer whom he has undertaken to expound, he misses the mark, or at least strays outside his limits, by the extent to which he leads his readers away from the meaning of his author.

Commentary on Romans, Dedication to Simon Grynaeus, p. 1

WSC Calvin conference

Westminster Seminary California are holding a conference next weekend on "Calvin's Legacy: Reforming the Church today." They are just about fully booked, but you can catch up with the action through the live blogging of Scott Clark.

Details can be found here.

The Reformation and its impact (audio links)

I could listen to David Calhoun all day. Here is the link for his lectures on the Reformation and Modern Church History. They include the following, plus much more:

Lesson 1: Introduction to Reformation and Modern Church History

Lesson 2: The Context of the Reformation

Lesson 3: Erasmus and the Humanists

Lesson 4: The Life of Martin Luther

Lesson 5: Luther's "Theology of the Cross"

Lesson 6: The Life and Theology of Ulrich Zwingli

Lesson 7: The Radicals of the Reformation

Lesson 8: The Life of John Calvin

Lesson 9: The Theology of Calvin

Lesson 10: The English Reformation

Lesson 11: John Knox and the Scottish Reformation

Lesson 12: The Catholic Reformation

Lesson 13: The Results of the Protestant Reformation

Lesson 14: The Anglicans

Lesson 15: The Puritans

Lesson 16: The Scottish Presbyterians

Lesson 17: The Church in the Netherlands

Lesson 18: The Westminster Assembly

Lesson 19: Calvinism in the New World

Lesson 20: Protestant Orthodoxy

and this...

Lesson 35: Christianity and Liberalism

Calvin 365: (8) I want a real Calvinist!

What effects upon the soul are the result of the Spirit wrought application of the sovereignty of God (in creation, providence and redemption) as declared in his Word?

Do these truths make men and women narrow and bigoted, proud, arrogant, unloving, harsh, and cold? Do they make them humble, considerate, kind, loving, and motivated in their love to others?

I realise that not all accusations that Calvinists are arrogant, cold and harsh are misplaced. At times we are inconsistent with what we believe to be true, and fall short of being truly shaped by the truth. One of my favourite blog posts deals with this issue, you may like to read it (Why [some] Reformed people are such jerks)

But, to borrow some words, with a little adaptation, from ER: I want a real Calvinist, who believes in a really gracious salvation! Here is Warfield's assessment that Calvin was in fact that kind of Calvinist:

It was that we might know ourselves to be wholly in the hands of this God of perfect righteousness and goodness--not in those of men, whether ourselves or some other men--that he was earnest for the doctrine of predestination: which is nothing more than the declaration of the supreme dominion of God.

It was that our eternal felicity might hand wholly on God's mighty love--and not on our sinful weakness--that he was so zealous for the doctrine of election: which is nothing more than the ascription of our entire salvation to God.

As he contemplated the majesty of this Sovereign Father of men, his whole being bowed in reverence before him, and his whole heart burned with zeal for his glory.

As he remembered that this great God has become in his own Son the Redeemer of sinners, he passionately gave himself to the proclamation of the glory of his grace.

B. B. Warfield, "John Calvin: The Man And His Work" in The Works of Benjamin B. Warfield Volume V: Calvin and Calvinism, p. 23

TSK is reading Reforming or Conforming?

Tall Skinny Kiwi (Andrew Jones) is reading Reforming or Conforming? He has this to say:

A really good book came in the mail two days ago. Reforming or Conforming? Post-Conservative Evangelicals and the Emerging Church. I always said that when a book of a decent calibre comes out as a corrective to the emerging church, I would give it some airplay and consideration on the blog. Although I think it misses the mark at many points, its probably a better critique of the emerging church movement [or EmergentVillage, to be precise] than any other I have come across. Its well written, not condescending, not patronizing and it offers some good advice for the wider evangelical church.

There are posts on the intro, chapter 1, chapter 7 and chapter 9

Preaching Christ Crucified

I came across the following helpful comment on preaching Christ by Sinclair Ferguson:

We do not preach "the atonement" as such, or "salvation," "redemption," or "justification" as such, but Jesus Christ and him crucified. These blessings were accomplished by Christ and are available only in Christ, never abstracted from him. We must learn to avoid the contemporary plague of preaching the benefits of the gospel without proclaiming Christ himself as the Benefactor in the gospel.

We do not offer people abstract blessings (peace, forgiveness, new life) as commodities. Rather we preach and offer Christ crucified and risen, in whom the blessings become ours and not otherwise. We preach the person in the work, never the work and its blessings apart from the Saviour himself.

"Preaching the Atonement" in The Glory of the Atonement (Hill & James, eds), p. 437

Does God need to be reconciled to us?

I'm currently writing a chapter for a book. The chapter title is "Heresy Never Dies: The shadow of Socinianism falls on Evangelicalism." The Socinians were a 16th and 17th century group that denied the trinity, the deity of Christ (obviously), justification sola fide, penal substitution, eternal hell, and God's exhaustive foreknowledge (yup, they are the ancestors of Clark Pinnock and the other openness guys on that one).

The Racovian Catechism has the following to say about the death of Christ and reconciliation (Section V, Chapter 8):

...the Scripture never asserts that God was reconciled to us by Christ, but that we were reconciled to him; which indicates no wrath on his part, but our aversion to him, and our enmity against him. Wherefore the satisfaction, which they fancy, can by no means be inferred from any of those passages.

As I read that I also remembered coming across the following footnote, quite unrelated to Socinianism, in Don Carson's chapter "Atonement in Romans 3:21-26" in The Glory of the Atonement (Hill & James, eds):

As Paul uses "reconciliation" terminology, the movement in reconciliation is always of the sinner to God. God is never said to be reconciled to us; we must be reconciled to him. At the level of exegesis, those are the mere facts.

On the other hand, because the same exegesis also demands that we take the wrath of God seriously, and the texts insist that God takes decisive action in Christ to deal with our sin so that his wrath is averted, in that sense we may speak of God being "reconciled to us": Wesley was not wrong to teach us to sing "My God is reconciled," provided it is recognized that his language is drawn from the domain of constructive theology and not from the narrower domain of explicit exegesis (although, we insist equally, the constructive theology is itself grounded in themes that are exegetically mandated). (p. 134, n. 53)

In due course I will post some comments by John Owen on this point from his work Vindicae Evangelicae.

Calvin 365: (7) The wonderful plan of justification

Who can adequately calculate the loss when the truth set out in the following words is obscured and lost? Who can rightly estimate the weight of judgment involved in the deliberate rejection of this truth?

How great presumption is it to condemn the supreme Judge when he freely absolves, so that this answer may not have full force: "I will show mercy on whom I will show mercy"?

And yet Moses' intercession, which God restrains in these words, was not to the effect that he should spare no one but that he should wipe away the charge against them even though they were guilty, and absolve them all equally.

And on this account, indeed, we say that those who were lost have their sins buried and are justified before God because, as he hates sin, he can love only those whom he has justified.

This is a wonderful plan of justification that, covered by the righteousness of Christ, they should tremble at the judgment they deserve, and that while they rightly condemn themselves, they should be accounted righteous outside themselves.

Institutes, 3.11.11

Calvin 365: (6) The free offer of the Gospel

As a teenager I spent some summers involved in outreach at the seaside (n.b. British summers are a washout and British beaches something of a health hazard at the best of times).

We would teach children a chorus that said "Jesus-said-that-who-so-ever-will-may-come!" to which a few of us added in a late night discussion, and "Calvin-said-that-who-so-ever-won't."

At that stage I had not read a single word that Calvin had written, but that didn't stop me from having a grotesquely misshapen view of the man and his theology. It was a few years later, when reading through Ephesians 2:1-10, that my misinterpretation of Calvinism was exposed, and my inadequate grasp of the grace of God in the gospel was laid aside. I then saw, for the first time, that the Triune God saves, he really does do the work of saving, and that the offer of the gospel to all is made effective to those who are called. I saw that I was dead, but God made me alive with Christ even when I was dead in sin.

That is why today I am both a Calvinist, for want of a better phrase (I believe that the sovereign God graciously saves undeserving sinners) and an evangelist who is free to tell all people everywhere to repent and believe.

And Calvin, as the following makes clear, really did believe and teach that "who-so-ever-will-may-come":

The Gospel is indeed offered to all for their salvation, but its power is not universally manifest.

The fact that the Gospel is the taste of death to the ungodly arises not so much from from the nature of the Gospel itself, as from their own wickedness. By setting forth one way of salvation, it cuts off confidence in every other way. When men withdraw from this one salvation they find in the Gospel a sure evidence of their own ruin.

When, therefore, the Gospel invites all to partake of salvation without any difference, it is rightly termed the doctrine of salvation. For Christ is there offered, whose proper office is to save that which had been lost, and those who refuse to be saved by Him shall find Him their Judge.

Commentary on Romans, 1:16, p. 27

Calvin 365: (5) Faith is a gift so gratitude is the right response

One of the notes that the apostles keep sounding in their letters is that of thankfulness. It is a mark of the Christian and of the Church to express thankfulness to God for his common blessings and for his special mercies in the gospel.

Where thankfulness is weak, in our souls and churches, a critical spirit, cynicism, pride, and envy are permitted to flourish. How can you respond with jealousy or resentment toward others at the same time as you are bending your knee to thank God for his grace in helping, strengthening, equipping, and blessing others. The two frames of mind cannot co-exist. Which is why we would be much healthier if we spent less time inhabiting our own thoughts, or involving others in our dark broodings, and more time bowed before the Father, the God of all grace.

Calvin gets to the heart of the matter in his comments on Romans 1:

It is worth noting, first of all, that Paul commends their faith in such a way as to imply that it had been received from God. From this we learn that that faith is a gift of God.

If thanksgiving is the acknowledgement of a benefit, whoever thanks God for faith acknowledges that it is His gift. When we find that the apostle always begins his congratulations with thanksgiving, we may know that the lesson we are being given is that all our blessings are the gifts of God.

We should also accustom ourselves to such forms of expression as may ever rouse us more keenly to acknowledge God as the bestower of all God things, and so to stir up others at the same time to a similar attitude.

If it is right to do this in little blessings, how much more ought we to do so in regard to faith, which is neither a commonplace nor an indiscriminate gift of God.

Commentary on Romans, p. 20

Calvin 365: (4) God listens to our prayers and praise with a stethoscope

The great danger in prayer and praise is to be caught up with the form and not the very essence of engaging with God. Here are some helpful words from Calvin to ponder at the beginning of the Lord's Day, and to take with us if we are able to gather together with his people. The closing sentence is worth committing to memory and reflecting on often:

We not only must serve God and call on him with only our mouth and voice, but that it is necessary that our heart be lifted up so that our melody rises above the heavens and comes right before the majesty of God.

Now it it true that to attain this, it is not necessary that the tongue labours too much. For they who have spoken not a word have sometimes really called out to God, and he has heard and answered them...He knows what we need before we ask it of him.

He thus looks into our heart and gives it more attention than he does to the voice of the mouth. For there are many who cry out enough, but it is nothing more than a voice sounding in the air. All this is of no use unless the heart is touched.

For if we desire that God hears us and answers our prayers, it is necessary that the heart speaks and is burning with a strong desire to pray to him and praise him.

"A Fragment from a Sermon of John Calvin" quoted in David B. Calhoun, Prayer: "The Chief Exercise of Faith" in David W. Hall & Peter A. Lillback [eds] A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes: Essays and Analysis, p. 354

School's out forever

Comic story in The Times about Watercliffe Meadow Primary in Sheffield. Apparently the word "school" has far too many negative connotations for pupils and parents, so the received wisdom is that it should now be referred to as "a place for learning."

Read about it here.

The Times also has the following list of alternative job titles:

Waste removal engineer Dustman

Domestic engineer Housewife

Knowledge navigator Teacher

Stock replenishment adviser Shelf stacker

Dispatch services facilitator Postman

Leisure services administrator Masseuse/masseur

Flueologist Chimney sweep

Head of verbal communications Receptionist/secretary

Environment improvement technician Cleaner

Education centre nourishment production assistant Dinner lady

Calvin roundup

Here are some Calvin links. Of course there are five, as there ought to be, not four or four and a half.

Scott Clark has some great book recommendations here (these will give plenty of historical and theological context to the man and his theology).

Justin Taylor tells us about the Princeton "read through the Institutes in a year" planner here

You can also read Jim Packer's foreword to Hall & Lillback [eds] A Theological Guide to Calvin's Institutes: Essays and Analysis here

And Derek Thomas reminds us about the reading schedule here

And another fellow Welshman, Guy Davies, recently reviewed Paul Helm's Calvin: A Guide for the Perplexed here

Calvin 365: (3) The happiness of promoting God's glory

A short, sweet, and Piper-esque third installment (of 365) from Calvin:

There is no truer characteristic of believers than that they should promote the glory of the Lord, with which their whole happiness is connected.

Commentary on Romans, p. 25

Calvin 365: (2) The basis on which we stand before God

From his commentary on Psalm 130:

Whenever God then exhibits the tokens of his wrath, let even the man who seems to others to be the holiest of all his fellows, descend to make this confession, that should God determine to deal with us according to the strict demands of his law, and to summon us before his tribunal, not one of the whole human race would be able to stand...But the Prophet...confesses, after having thoroughly examined himself, that if of the whole human race not even one can escape eternal perdition, this instead of lessening rather increased his obnoxiousness to punishment.

Whoever, as if he had said, shall come into the presence of God, whatever may be his eminence for sanctity, he must succumb and stand confounded, what then will be the case as to me, who am not one of the best?

The right application of this doctrine is, for every man to examine in good earnest his own life by the perfection which is enjoined upon us in the law. In this way he will be forced to confess that all men without exception have deserved everlasting damnation; and each will acknowledge in respect to himself that he is a thousand times undone.

Farther, this passage teaches us that, since no man can stand by his own works, all such as are accounted righteous before God, are righteous in consequence of the pardon and remission of their sins. In no other manner can any man be righteous in the sight of God.