No Other Boast

More than any other subject I love to read books about the atonement.  Upon thinking of such books I pray my heart always be tenderly and freshly affected by such teaching.  I beg that I retain much of the truth presented, that it become the fondest treasure to me, and I never forsake it.  In My Place Condemned He Stood is such a book, a book of solid teaching from a solid teacher whom it is great to figuratively sit under and learn from.  Still I struggle with commending it to the average layman.  The best two chapters (of 4 total) can be found within J.I. Packer’s Knowing God and A Quest for Godliness.  These are great classics; everyone should read Knowing God, and if you have any interest in the Puritans A Quest for Godliness is a great introductory work.

Outside these two chapters it is fun to read Duncan, Mohler, Dever, and Mahaney’s brief introductory thoughts for those who are fans or theirs, but the reason why I would most recommend buying it even if you have the two previously mentioned books is Ligon Duncan’s annotated bibliography of books on the cross in the back.  Wondering what your next read on the cross should be, this is the place to go (and like Mahaney I think you should read at least 1 new book on the atonement [to you] and reread a great old one every year).

And this is righteous anger – the right reaction of moral perfection in the Creator toward moral perversity in the creature.  So far from the manifestation of God’s wrath in punishing sin being morally doubtful, the thing that would be morally doubtful would be for him not to show his wrath in this way.  God is not just – that is, he does not act in the way that is right, he does not do what is proper to a judge – unless he inflicts upon all sin and wrongdoing the penalty it deserves.

We who have believed have died – painlessly and invisibly, we might say – in solidarity with him because he died, painfully and publicly, in substitution for us.

Sometimes it’s nice to read a book when you leave unimpressed with the writing style and creativity of the author. I don’t think Ware a person personally devoid of creativity; I think he was very purposeful in his writing style. While many are looking for creative and innovative ways of expressing the Trinity (The Shack) it is refreshing to read a simple, biblical, historical, traditional, and creedal expression of the Trinity. Ware’s Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is written such that the ordinary layman will have no problems digesting it.

And the three members of the Godhead work together in harmony. Not in unison, but in harmony. “Unison” expresses a form of unity, yet it has no texture and richness. “Harmony,” however, communicates the idea of unified expression but only through differing yet complementary parts. You have different voices in different pitches. One carries the melody, but just one. Others carry the strains of harmony to fill out and complement the melody. If you think that only one part matters, you are sorely mistaken. For again, to achieve the kind of textured and rich unity that harmony accomplishes, all the parts are important. Yet each part has to be an expression of the same score, the same composition, expressing the mind of the composer.

The beauty of harmony is a beauty of diversity without discord, of distinctiveness without disarray, of complexity without cacophony.

So it is with the Trinity: it is God’s unified nature expressed richly and beautifully in the three equal and full possessions and manifestations of that one nature, with each “voice” contributing variously, yet with complete unity and identity of nature or essence. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not identical Persons, but they are harmonious in accomplishing the one undivided purpose, one undivided goal, one common work, since they each possess fully the one, undivided divine essence. So, unity and difference, identity and distinction-this marks the triune nature of God most centrally. Just how this identity and distinction gets worked out among the Persons of the Godhead, and what this means to the lives of us who are made in his image-these questions are what will occupy us through the remaining chapters of our study.

To insist on egalitarian relationships where God has designs structures of authority and submission is to indicate, even implicitly, that we just don’t like the very authority-submission structures that characterize who God is, and that characterize his good and wise created design for us. But when we see that this structure of authority-submission pictures God himself – that the members of the Trinity exist eternally as equal in their essence but distinct in the taxis that marks their distinct roles – then we realize that what we have chafed at is, at heart, the very nature of God himself.

We are images of God in order to image God…

No competition, no jealousy, no bitterness, and no dispute exist among these Persons. Here in the Trinity, rather, we see hierarchy without hubris, authority with no oppression, submission that is not servile, and love that pervades ever aspect of the divine life. Unity and diversity, identity and distinction, sameness and difference, melody and harmony – these are the qualities that mark the rich texture of the life of the one God who is three.

Carl Trueman is the Dean of Faculty and professor of historical theology and church history at Westminster Theological Seminary. He blogs at Reformation 21. His book Minority Report is a collection of various articles and blog posts. As a foreign national he offers some great critiques of American culture; this alongside his pleas for a healthy love of church history make the book a good read. I would recommend you read his blog first to sample. If you buy the book I would advise you to read section 2 first as I think it he more enjoyable and accessible part of the book.

Yet evangelicals in our anti-historical mode seem prone to one of the two tendencies noted above: an idolatry of the new and the novel, with the concomitant disrespect for anything traditional; or nostalgia for the past which is little more than an idolatry of the old and the traditional. Both are disempowering: the first leaves the church as a free-floating, anarchic entity which is doomed to reinvent Christianity anew every Sunday, and prone to being subverted and taken over by any charismatic (in the non-theological sense!) leader of group which cares to flex its muscle; the second leaves the church bound to its past as its leaders care to write that past and thus unable to engage critically with her own tradition. Humble and critical engagement with history is thus imperative for history, and we would be arrogant simply to ignore the past as irrelevant; critical, because history has been made by sinful, fallen, and thus deeply fallible human beings, and thus is no pure and straightforward revelation of God. It is this balance of humility and criticism that we must strike if we are to truly benefit from history.

I am going to start a new category of posts identified by “[b:]” in their title. This will be a humble attempt to share and refresh my memory of books that I have recently read that were spiritually nourishing. They will not function as reviews as I am not qualified and lack the time. My comments will be few and the quotes many.

John Paton: Missionary to the New Hebrides

John Paton was born on May 24, 18:64 and died January 28, 1907 at 82 years of age. He was a missionary to the New Hebrides (now Vanuatu, think Survivor 2004) where he first ministered courageously on the cannibal, warring island of Tanna. He saw little fruit there in his lifetime, however mighty seeds were planted. There he lost his wife, fellow missionaries, assistants, and his few earthly possessions. He then labored on the small island of Aniwa where He saw the mighty arm of God’s salvation in many souls. I highly recommend the book; although the 500 pages can be intimidating, know that missionary biographies function as the “action thrillers” of Christian biography, and they don’t get much better than this.

Here are some snippets:

Recollecting his Sunday experiences as a child: They went to church, full of beautiful expectancy of spirit – their souls were on the outlook for God; they returned from the church, ready and even anxious to exchange ideas as to what they had heard and received of the things of life. I have to bear my testimony that religion was presented to us with a great deal of intellectual freshness, and that it did not repel us, but kindled our spiritual interest. The talks we heard were, however, genuine; not the make-believe of religious conversation, but the sincere outcome of their own personalities. That, perhaps, makes all the difference betwixt talk that attracts and talk that drives away.

While sitting in a coconut tree evading murderous natives: Being entirely at the mercy of such doubtful and vacillating friends, I, though perplexed, felt it best to obey. I climbed into the tree and was left there alone in the bush. The hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but of yesterday. I heard the frequent discharging of muskets, and the yells of the Savages. Yet I sat there among the branches, as safe as in the arms of Jesus. Never, in all my sorrows, did my Lord draw nearer to me, and speak more soothingly in my soul, than when the moonlight flickered among those chestnut leaves, and the night air played on my throbbing brow, as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone! If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior’s spiritual presence, to enjoy His consoling fellowship. If thus thrown back upon your own soul, alone, all alone, in the midnight, in the bush, in the very embrace of death itself, have you a Friend that will not fail you then?

On his Scottish Christian heritage: I am more proud that the blood of Martyrs is in my veins, and their truths in my heart, than other men can be of noble pedigree or royal names.

Oh that I had my life to begin again! I would consecrate it anew to Jesus in seeking the conversion of the remaining Cannibals on the New Hebrides. But since that may not be, may He help me to use every moment and every power still left to me to carry forward to the utmost that beloved work…. And should the record of my poor and broken life lead any one to consecrate himself to Mission work at Home or Abroad that he may win souls for Jesus, or should it even deepen the Missionary spirit in those who already know and serve the Redeemer of us all – for this also, and for all through which He has led me by His loving and gracious guidance, I shall, unto the endless ages of Eternity, bless and adore my beloved Master and Savior and Lord, to whom be glory for ever and ever.

I also highly recommend John Piper’s biographical message on John Paton.