The New Testament institution is not, as we have seen, a pure democracy. Neither is it an autocracy. It is the simple truth that singularity has no place in the government of Christ’s church. In every case the singularity exemplified in diocesan episcopacy, whether it be in the most extreme form of the papacy, or in the most restricted application of local diocesan bishops, is a patent deviation from, indeed presumptuous contradiction of the institution of Christ. Plurality is written in the boldest letters in the pages of the New Testament, and singularity bears the hallmark of despite to Christ’s institution.
It is not for us to question the institution of Christ even when we are unable to discover the reasons for it. But in this instance it is not difficult to see the wisdom and grace of the head of the church. Plurality is a safeguard against the arrogance and tyranny to which man has the most characteristic proclivity. And plurality in this sphere always differentiates the singularity that belongs to Christ and to him alone. It is no wonder that failure to adhere to the plurality that must be maintained in the government of the church has, by logical steps, resulted in what on all accounts is the greatest travesty ever witnessed in the history of Christendom, namely, the pretensions and blasphemies of the Roman see. —John Murray, “The Form of Government“
Category: Heroes
The Exegetical Systematician: The Law of Growth
“The law of growth applies, therefore, in the realm of the Christian life. God is pleased to work through the process, and to fail to take account of this principle in the sanctification of the people of God is to frustrate both the wisdom and the grace of God. The child who acts as a man is a monstrosity; the man who acts as a child is a tragedy. If this is true in nature, how much more in Christian Behavior. There are babes in Christ; there are young men, and there are old men. And what monstrosities and tragedies have marred the witness of eh church by failure to take account of the law of growth!” —John Murray, “Progressive Sanctification”
The Exegetical Systematician: Scripture Isn’t Deficient, We Are
“It is here that the doctrine of the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit enters. And this doctrine is to the effect that, if faith in the Word of God is to be induced, there must be the interposition of another supernatural factor, a supernatural factor not for the purpose of supplying any deficiency that inheres in the Scripture as the Word of God, but a supernatural factor directed to our need. Its whole purpose is to remedy that which our depravity has rendered impossible, namely, the appropriate response to the Word of God. In this respect the internal testimony is co-ordinate and consonant with the Scripture itself. The Scripture is pre-eminently redemptive revelation; it is remedial of sin. The internal testimony is but another provision of God’s redempdve, and therefore supernatural, grace, directed to the correction of that which sin has effected.” —John Murray, “Fatih”
The Exegetical Systematician: God Needs No Notary
“It will readily be seen how necessary this principle is. If Scripture is the Word of God it must bear the marks of its divinity. This is parallel to the argument respecting God as Creator drawn from the visible creation. The invisible things of God omnipotence, divinity, eternity—are clearly seen (kathoratai), being understood (noumena) by the things that are made (Rom. 1:20). Just as the heavens declare the glory of God and bear wimess to their Creator, so the Scripture as God’s handiwork must bear the imprint of its divine authorship. In other words, only the evidence of God’s hand could measure up to the requirements necessary to authenticate his handiwork. This is just saying that the evidence upon which faith in divinity rests must itself have the quality of divinity.” —John Murray, “Faith”
The Exegetical Systematician: Faith is Forced Consent
“But what we are insisting upon is that when faith is present it is because there has been a judgment of the mind that the evidence is sufficient, whether made consciously or unconsciously, hastily or slowly, whether it is justified or unjustified. Faith is a state of mind induced by what is considered to be evidence, presented to the understanding and evaluated by the judgment as sufficient.
We must add one other characteristic, and go one step further in our analysis of the phrase we have used, ‘a state of mind induced by evidence’. Faith is forced consent. That is to say, when evidence is judged by the mind to be sufficient, the state of mind we call ‘faith’ is the inevitable precipitate. It is not something we can resist or in respect of which we may suspend judgment. In such a case faith is compelled, it is demanded, it is commanded. For whenever the reasons are apprehended or judged sufficient, will we, nill we, faith or belief is induced. Will to the contrary, desire to the contrary, overwhelming interest to the contrary, cannot make us believe the opposite of our judgment with respect to the evidence.” —John Murray, “Faith”
The Exegetical Systematician: The Incarnation
“The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not. We must appreciate the historic factuality and temporal occurrence of the incarnation and the sustained contrasts involved. The infinite became the finite, the eternal and supratemporal entered time and became subject to its conditions, the immutable became the mutable, the invisible became the visible, the Creator became the created, the sustainer of all became dependent, the Almighty infirm. All is summed up in the proposition, God became man. The title ‘God’ comprehends all that attributes that belong to God and the designation ‘man’ all the attributes that are essentially human.” —John Murray, “The Person of Christ”
The Exegetical Systematician: What Hath Noah to do with Christ?
Common grace provides the sphere of operation of special grace and special grace therefore provides the rational of common grace. —John Murray, “Common Grace”
The Exegetical Systematician: Total Depravity isn’t Totally Depressing
But that the doctrine of total depravity and inability is in reality a counsel of despair is grossly untrue. It is rather the very truth that lays the basis for the glory of the gospel of grace and for the exercise of that faith that is unto life eternal. Nothing is more soul-destructive than self-righteousness. And it is self-righteousness that is fostered by the doctrine that man is naturally able to do what is good and well-pleasing to God. To encourage any such conviction is to plunge men into self-deception and delusion and such is indeed the counsel of despair. —John Murray, Inability
The Exegetical Systematician: Immoral but never Amoral
The law of God extends to all relations of life. This is so because we are never removed from the obligation to love and serve God. We are never amoral. We owe devotion to God in every phase and department of life. —John Murray, The Nature of Sin
No Adam, No Christ
We need salvation. How does salvation come to bear upon our need? Racial solidarity in Adam is the pattern according to which salvation is wrought and applied. By Adam sin-condemnation-death, by Christ righteousness-justification-life. A way of thinking that makes us aloof to solidarity with Adam makes us inhabile [not fit or qualified] to the solidarity by which salvation comes. Thus the relevance of the Adamic administration to what is most basic, on the one hand, and most necessary, on the other, in our human situation. —John Murray, The Adamic Administration
No Other Boast 