Category: Tolle Lege

After John G. Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides this was my favorite biography this year.  Luther is fun anyway, but Bainton writes in a readable manner such that you understand both Luther and his context.  Out of all the reformer’s biographies I have read Here I Stand has been the most fun and rewarding.

[Against opponent Prierias in debate] I am sorry now that I despised Tetzel. [It was Tetzel who was selling indulgencies near Luther sparking the posting of the 95 theses.]  Ridiculous as he was, he was more acute than you.  You cite no Scripture.  You give no reasons.  Like an insidious devil you pervert the Scriptures.

For me the die is cast.  I despise alike Roman fury and Roman favor.  I will not be reconciled or communicate with them.  Let them damn and burn my books.  I for my part, unless I cannot find a fire, will publicly damn and burn the whole canon law.

Balaam’s ass was wiser than the prophet himself.  If God then spoke by an ass against a prophet, why should he not be able even now to speak by a righteous man against the pope?

[In reply to the Papal Bull] I protest before God, our Lord Jesus, his sacred angels, and the whole world with my whole heart I dissent from the damnation of this bull, that I curse and execrate it as sacrilege and blasphemy of Christ, God’s Son and our Lord.  This be my recantation, O bull, thou daughter of bulls.

And as they excommunicated me for the sacrilege if heresy, so I excommunicate them in the name if the sacred truth of God.  Christ will judge whose excommunication will stand. Amen.

Germany is the pope’s pig.  That is why we have to give him so much bacon and sausages.

To balance the quotes above I must say that this is only one side of Luther.  The reason he had no fear of man was because of his fear of the Lord swallowed all other fears.  Luther was a man gripped by the holiness and grace of God.  I present the one side to prod you into reading the book to discover the other which was the source of his radical passion.

Last year Tim Challies said that The Cross He Bore by Frederick Leahy would be the best $4.03 I would ever spend.  I think he might have been right.  It is easily one of the best books I read last year, and one of my favorite books about the cross of Christ, which is why I wanted to share it with the NRBC.  I thereafter researched Leahy and found out that The Cross He Bore is part of a trilogy he wrote on the cross so I quickly ordered the other two.   The Victory of the Lamb pack a similar punch in its brief pages  (126).  Whereas in The Cross He Bore Leahy stirs the emotions concerning the themes of propitiation, redemption, and atonement, here he develops the theme of Christus Victor.  While I don’t think the book as good as The Cross He Bore, it is a great bargain at $5.40.

How can there be enmity between Satan and the woman where there has been agreement and friendship between them?  Only God can effect such a change, and he does.

Three crosses stood starkly against an eastern sky.  Two of the crucified were dying.  The one in the center was already dead.  His death was unique.  There had never been a death like this before, and never would be again.  Other deaths make only slight impact on the course of history; his death was crucial for mankind.  All other deaths are largely of local and temporary interest; his death had cosmic and eternal implications.  Other deaths involve only personal and individual struggle; his death was the meeting-point of the mighty forces of divine wrath on the one hand and satanic fury on the other.  Here, in this death, all the power of God and all the malice of Satan were exerted to the full and borne by the one on that centre cross, to the satisfaction of God and defeat of Satan.  This was the death that overcame death.

Though written in a clear and helpful manner, Graeme Goldsworthy’s Preaching the Whole Bible as Christian Scripture is not for everyone. I only recommend it here to those preachers and teachers who frequent this joint. This is definitely one of the best books I’ve read this year. This practical work shows that Christ is the hermeneutical key to all of Scripture, and how this is to be worked out in the many literary forms of Scripture by giving numerous examples.

Preachers have a theoretical gospel and an operative gospel. Theoretically we will get into a theological mode and produce, as far as possible, a biblically based notion focusing on the person and work of Christ. But, in pastoral practice it is easy to be pragmatic. Our operative gospel will be the thing that preoccupies us as the focus of our preaching and teaching.

My concern about evangelism is that sometimes there is a greater emphasis on the need for some kind of response than on the clear exposition of the gospel. Telling people they need to come to Jesus, that they must be born again, that they should commit their lives to Christ, and so on, is not preaching the gospel. It is, at best, telling them what they ought to do or, in the case of the new birth, what has happened when they have received the gospel. It is a remarkable thing in Acts 2 that Peter’s sermon contained no appeal. The appeal came from the congregation: ‘What should we do?’ It was the power and clarity of the gospel message that impressed them with the need to do something about it.

The evangelistic sermon, as we see in Acts, will therefore contain element other than the gospel. Telling people the need for the gospel, both their felt need and real need, is plainly important, but it is not the gospel itself. … Whenever people’s sense of assurance of salvation is expressed in the first person, something is amiss. When the question ‘How do you know God will accept you?’ is answered by ‘I have Jesus in my heart,’ ‘I asked Jesus into my life,’ ‘The Holy Spirit is in me,’ and so on, the real gospel basis for assurance needs to be reviewed. We rejoice when the answer comes in the third person: ‘God gave his only Son to die on the cross for me,’ ‘Jesus died, rose, and is in heaven for me.’ When the focus is on the finished and perfect work of Christ, rather than on the yet unfinished work of the Spirit in me, the grounds for assurance are in place.

It would not appear that Paul’s determination to know nothing among his hearers but Christ and Him crucified led him into the trap of predictability. Of course, if by predictability we mean that people will come to expect every sermon to expound something of the glories of Christ, then let us by all means be predictable.

Is it possible to preach a Christian sermon without mentioning Jesus? I want to avoid simplistic answers here. Perhaps I can put it another way: Why would anyone want to try to preach a Christian sermon without mentioning Jesus?

If you are one of the many Biblically illiterate, or you fail to read scripture in a way that consistently points you to Christ may I recommend Mark Dever’s The Message of the Old Testament.  The book is a collection of 39 sermons, one for each book of the Bible that Mark Preached at Capitol Hill Baptist Church where he is the pastor.  Because they are sermons they are very accessible and practical, being void of the technical jargon that an introduction to the Old Testament might have.   This is a great book to give you an overall feel for God’s redemptive plan as seen throughout the Old Testament.

Yet, by abandoning these books, we abandon the revelation of God.  More than that, we hinder our ability to understand the New Testament’s revelation of Jesus Christ.  If Christ is the key to human history, the Old Testament carefully describes the lock.

If Christ is the climax of the story, the Old Testament sets the stage and begins the plot.  Do you read just the endings of books?

If the New Testament presents God’s promises kept, the Old Testament tells us about God’s promises made.

In other words, if you don’t get what the Old Testament teaches, you’ll never get Christ.  Our God does not waste words.  Each Testament needs the other.  You will best be able to comprehend Christ’s cross if you first understand the question left unanswered by the Old Testament.  The cross is the answer.  How well do you know the question?

“You may have made Christ your Savior, but have you made Him your Lord”, such words sound profound, but they are not the gospel of Jesus according to John MacArthur in The Gospel According to Jesus. MacArthur purposefully devoid of great style gives clear biblical answers concerning what has become known by opponents as “Lordship Salvation”.  I highly recommend this book for anyone wrestling with this issue.

No one can rightfully lay claim to Him as Savior while refusing to own Him as Lord.

Am I suggesting that the popular gospel of our day is so seriously adulterated that it has become “another gospel,” a message so corrupt that its purveyors doom themselves to perdition?  No. I have not written this book to label anyone a heretic.  But I do believe that the danger of “another gospel” is a very real threat.  As the message is further weakened and cheapened, the church must be on guard lest we embrace a message so profoundly altered it bears no resemblance to the biblical message.

The superficial response is epidemic in twenty-first-century Christianity.  Why?  Because the gospel is usually presented with the promise of joy, warmth, fellowship and good feeling, but without the hard demand to take up one’s cross and follow Christ.

Fruit not foliage is the mark of true salvation.

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Each chapter of Death by Love is a personal letter written by Driscoll to someone he has dealt with as a pastor of Mars Hill.  You will feel deep anger to some of the recipients of the letters and deep compassion to some of the recipients.  Driscoll applies the truths of the cross to both the rapist and the rape victim.   Here sin’s offensiveness toward God is not a lite fat free version that is pleasant our contemporary palate, nor has the offensiveness of the cross to the wisdom, power, and righteousness of man been watered down.  Driscoll will still be sure to upset many though in a different way.  The humor and sarcasm are absent, but theologically many will disagree with him over some finer points.  I would advise them upon these finer points to follow Driscoll’s example and not elevate them to the same level as the core message of the cross.  I highly recommend the book but would advise you that the discussion of sin and sins victims are frank and heart wrenching.  Yet this is the very reason I think many of the readers of this blog should read it.  In our little world called the Bible Belt everything is sanitized, including sin; and it would do us much good to see the horrors, devastating effects, and sorrows of sin freshly. 

…there is no such thing as Christian community or Christian ministry apart from a rigorous theology of the cross that is practically applied to the lives of real people.

[Commenting on I Corinthians 15:1-4] Here we see that the gospel is continual, in that we must continually be reminded of it; proclamational, in that it must be preached to us often, including preaching it to ourselves; essential, in that we must continually cling to it alone for the assurance of our salvation; central, in that it is the most important truth in all the world; eternal, in that it is passed on from one generation to the next without modification by religion; Christological, in that it is about the person and work of Jesus Christ alone; penal, in that the wages for sin – death – was paid; substitutional, in that Jesus’ death on the cross was literally in our place for our sins; biblical, in that it is in agreement with and the fulfillment of all Scripture; and eschatological, in that the resurrection of Jesus reveals to us our future hope of resurrected eternal life with him.

This may shock you, but of all the things you have ever done, I believe thinking you are good enough to pay God back with a few tears, apologies, dollars, and kind deeds is the most offensive.

So, rather than arguing whether or not it would be cruel of Jesus to torment you justly, you should thank him for suffering so that you do not have to.

Your questions can be answered only in Jesus.  Your longings can be satisfied only in Jesus.  Your sins can be forgiven only in Jesus.  Your life can be transformed only in Jesus.  Your prayers can be answered only in Jesus.  Your eternity can be enjoyed only in Jesus.

Although at a few points I disagree with his exposition of Biblical texts I think Ed Welch’s Running Scared a thoroughly and profoundly Scriptural handling of the too little discussed emotion of fear.  Edward gives a deeply theological, God centered, and personally helpful treatment of the subject.  At times the reading was slow to me, but for the most part if you are struggling with fears or don’t think you have any I would recommend this book.

Listen to your fears and hear them speak about things that have personal value to you.  They appear to be attached to things we value.

“Don’t be afraid” says something about him even before it speaks to us.

…worry and fear are more about us than the things outside us.

…in the kingdom, lust is silly.  It is wanting less than what we already have.  It is replacing eternal joys with temporary highs.

If you want to skim through the Sermon on the Mount and get nice little devotional inspiration this is not the book for you.  If you wish to dive into the sermon, explore it, see its wonders, discover its beauties, tremble at its majesty, and be overwhelmed at its power I highly recommend D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.   This collection of 60 sermons is easily readable to the layman, the language is not technical, and one can sense the same power that was surely present when originally preached.  As with most of Lloyd-Jones writing he is amazingly timeless.  His observations, applications, and illustrations fit our time so well.   You sense that he is overwhelmed by the text, wrapped up in it such that though handling each thought so thoroughly he is only scratching the surface.  The word of God was meant to be preached, here you sense why.

The glory of the gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different form the world, she invariably attracts it.  It is then that the world is made to listen her message, though it may hate it at first.   That is how revival comes. … Our ambition should be to be like Christ, the more like Him the better, the more like Him we become, the more we shall be unlike everybody who is not a Christian.

The world, it is obvious, has fallen into this primary and fundamental error, an error which one could illustrate in many different ways. Think of a man who is suffering from some painful disease. Generally the one desire of such a patient is to be relieved of his pain, and one can understand that very well. No-one likes suffering pain. The one idea of this patient, therefore, is to do anything which will relieve him of it. Yes; but if the doctor who is attending this patient is also only concerned about relieving this man’s pain he is a very bad doctor. His primary duty is to discover the cause of the pain and to treat that. Pain is a wonderful symptom which is provided by nature to call attention disease, and the ultimate treatment for pain is to treat the disease, not the pain.. So if a doctor merely treats the pain without discovering the cause of the pain, he is not only acting contrary to nature, he is doing something that is extremely dangerous to the life of the patient. The patient may be out of pain, and seems to be well; but the cause of the trouble is still there. Now that is the folly of which the world is guilty. It says, ‘I want to get rid of my pain, so I will run to the pictures, or drink, or do anything to help me forget my pain.’ But the question is, what is the cause of the pain and the unhappiness and the wretchedness? They are not happy who hunger and thirst after happiness and blessedness. No. ‘Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.’

In the same way sin blinds us to the relative values of things.  Take time and eternity.  We are creatures here in time and we are going on to eternity.  There is no comparison between the relative importance of time and eternity.  Time is limited and eternity is endless and absolute.  Yet do we live as realizing these relative values?  Is it not again a simple fact that we give ourselves to things that belong to time and entirely ignore the things that are eternal?

…ultimately, the authority of the Sermon derives from the Preacher.  That is, of course, what makes the New Testament such a unique book, and gives uniqueness to the teaching of our Lord.  With all the other teacher that the world has ever known, the important thing is the teaching; but here is a case in which the teacher is more important even than what He taught.

George Eldon Ladd’s The Pressence of the Future is not a book that I would recommend to the average layman, but to the serious teacher of God’s Word, and all teachers should be serious, it is a very helpful work.  Jesus’ gospel was the gospel of the kingdom therefore in order to understand the gospel it is necessary to understand what the kingdom is.  Ladd summarizes the thesis of the book thus:

Our central thesis is that the Kingdom of God is the redemptive reign of God dynamically active to establish his rule among human beings, and that this Kingdom, which will appear as an apocalyptic act at

the end of the age, has already come into human history in the person and mission of Jesus to overcome evil, to deliver men from its power, and to bring them into the blessings of God’s reign. The Kingdom of God involves two great moments: fulfillment within history, and consummation at the end of history.

This is not an easy read, but it is an extremely helpful read.  The benefits will be well worth the work to the serious student of God’s word.

Here are four resources I use to pick commentaries, I have found them very reliable.

1. Ligonier Ministries – In their recommend reading there is a great section on commentaries that helpfully give the difficulty level of each. Also Keith Mathison has been doing some great blogging concerning his favorite five commentaries for various books.
2. New Testament Commentary Survey by D.A. Carson
3. Old Testament Commentary Survey by Tremper Longman III – I like the format of this survey better, it rates the commentaries with a star system.
4. Monergism has started a new website reformedbooks.net and it has a section on recommended commentaries.