The piety of the Old Testament thus began with faith. And though, when the stage of the law was reached, the emphasis might seem to be thrown rather on the obedience of faith, what has been called ‘faith in action,’ yet the giving of the law does not mark a fundamental change in the religion of Israel, but only a new stage in its orderly development. The law-giving was not a setting aside of the religion of promise, but an incident in its history; and the law given was not a code of jurisprudence for the world’s government, but a body of household ordinances for the regulation of God’s family. It is therefore itself grounded upon the promise, and it grounds the whole religious life of Israel and the grace of the covenant God (Ex. xx. 2). It is only because Israel are the children of God, and God has sanctified them unto Himself and chosen them to be a peculiar people into Him (Deut. xiv. 1), that He proceeds to frame them by His law for His especial treasure (Ex. xix. 5, cf. Tit. ii. 14). Faith, therefore, does not appear as one of the precepts of law, nor as a virtue superior to its precepts, nor yet as a substitute for keeping them; it rather lies behind the law as its presupposition. – B.B. Warfield, The Biblical Doctrine of Faith
Tolle Lege: Practicing Affirmation
Readability: 1
Length: 160 pp
Author: Sam Crabtree
Why read a book on affirmation? Does man really need to be praised? You might think that you have some strong theological reasons for not praising others more. You may reason that it is more loving to show someone Christ’s glory than their own. That showing a person their depravity and Christ’s glory and salvation are the kinder act. But are praising people and praising God at odds?
Why should you want to affirm people? Because you want to praise God! Total depravity does not mean we never affirm a person, rather it means we always know to whom all glory is due whenever any human does anything good, true, or beautiful.
Affirmation should be worship, or we shouldn’t do it. God alone is due all the glory, and this does not mean the neglect of affirmation, but laboring at it. Here is a book that directs affirmation towards its proper end. It does not entreat you to labor at affirmation with man or manipulation as a goal, but with the glory of God as a goal. For this reason I affirm this book. It is Christ-glorifying. I thank God for Sam Crabtree and Practicing Affirmation, because God is due the glory.
When our mouths are empty of praise for others, it is probably because our hearts are full of love for self.
Good affirmations are God-centered, pointing to the image of God in a person. The only commendable attributes in people were given to them. Everything is from God, through God, and to God so that in all things—including the commendable qualities in people—he might get the glory: “‘Who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?’ For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen” (Rom. 11:35–36).
[Paul] didn’t thank people for things; he thanks God for people.
We help people be shallow when we focus our compliments on their braiding of hair, wearing of gold, putting on of clothes, sequins, piercings, and tattoos (see 1 Peter 3:3-4).
Be careful what you affirm. You may get more of it. Just as there are superior ways of correcting, there are superior ways of affirming.
If we affirm trendy clothing, we may get more shallow trendiness.
If we affirm accessories, we may get an emphasis on accessorizing.
If we affirm only winning, we may get an increase in unscrupulous win-at-any-cost attitudes and behaviors.
If we affirm things like Scripture memory and serving others less than we affirm dance lessons or soccer performance, we may discover a corresponding set of values and priorities developed in the life of the affirmed.
The Pugilist: Fight for Words
I think you will agree with me that it is a sad thing to see words like these die like this. And I hope you will determine that, God helping you, you will not let them die thus, if any care on your part can preserve them in life and vigor. But the dying of the words is not the saddest thing which we see here. The saddest thing is the dying out of the hearts of men of the things for which the words stand. As ministers of Christ it will be your function to keep the things alive. If you can do that, the words whichexpress the things will take care of themselves. Either they will abide in vigor; or other good words and true will press in to take the place left vacant by them. The real thing for you to settle in your minds, therefore, is whether Christ is truly a Redeemer to you, and whether you find an actual Redemption in Him,- or are you ready to deny the Master that bought you, and to count His blood an unholy thing? Do you realize that Christ is your Ransomer and has actually shed His blood for you as your ransom? Do you realize that your salvation has been bought, bought at a tremendous price, at the price of nothing less precious than blood, and that the blood of Christ, the Holy One of God? Or, go a step further: do you realize that this Christ who has thus shed His blood for you is Himself your God? -B.B. Warfield, “Redeemer” and “Redemption”
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 & Weeds Gone Wheat
The kingdom of heaven – it’s here, it’s in breaking, it’s moving!
The King is the Sower of the seed of salvation. The seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But if the kingdom is here, what is with the weeds?
Jesus’ answer – the kingdom has been inaugurated, but it is yet to be consummated; the kingdom will come in full glory, the weeds will be removed and the sons will shine like the sun, but not yet.
It is good that the kingdom does not come instantly in its fullness for naturally we are all weeds.
In Adam we are wheat gone wild, wheat gone weeds. But Jesus plucks weeds, recreates them, and sows us as sons of the kingdom. In Jesus we are weeds gone wheat. Sown by the Sower of salvation, we are being renewed in His image to one day shine like the sun.
“And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever (Daniel 12:2-3).”
The Pugilist: Christianity
We hear of Christianity without dogma, Christianity without miracle, Christianity without Christ. Since, however, Christianity is a historical religion, an undogmatic Christianity would be an absurdity; since it is through and through a supernatural religion, a non-miraculous Christianity would be a contradiction; since it is Christianity, a Christless Christianity would be- well, let us say lamely (but with a lameness which has perhaps its own emphasis), a misnomer. People set upon calling unchristian things Christian are simply washing all meaning out of the name. If everything that is called Christianity in these days is Christianity, then there is no such thing as Christianity. A name applied indiscriminately to everything, designates nothing. – B.B. Warfield, “Redeemer” and “Redemption”
Matthew 13:10-17 & Revealing and Concealing
Jesus’ speaking in parables both conceals and reveals. In the same act, Jesus reveals the mystery of the kingdom to his disciples, though He will have to explain the meaning later, and conceals the mystery of the kingdom from the crowd. So while this revealing and concealing is simultaneous, it is not symmetrical. Jesus reveals by giving, He conceals by withholding. If light is present, God is to be praised. If darkness is present, self is to be blamed.
The Pugilist: The Death Bed of a Word
You see, that what we are doing today as we look out upon our current religious modes of speech, is assisting at the death bed of a word. It is sad to witness the death of any worthy thing, — even of a worthy word. And worthy words do die, like any other worthy thing — if we do not take good care of them. How many worthy words have already died under our very eyes, because we did not take care of them! Tennyson calls our attention to one of them. “The grand old name of gentleman,” he sings, “defamed by every charlatan, and soil’d with all ignoble use.” If you persist in calling people who are not gentlemen by the name of gentleman, you do not make them gentlemen by so calling them, but you end by making the word gentleman mean that kind of people. The religious terrain is full of the graves of good words which have died from lack of care — they stand as close in it as do the graves today in the fiats of Flanders or among the hills of northern France. And these good words are still dying all around us. – B.B. Warfield, “Redeemer” and “Redemption”
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 & The Pew or the University?
When you think of the seed falling on the path, hard hearts, deaf listeners – who comes to mind?
Agnostics?
Atheists?
Doubters?
Cynics?
Skeptics?
Yes, they have hard hearts, but that isn’t the most vivid and immediate illustration we have in our context – the Pharisees. The hard hearted believed in Yahweh. The hard hearted loved the Old Testament. The hard hearted were zealous worshippers and tithers. The hard hearted were teachers and leaders. The heard hearted were ardently moral and religious.
Beware! The pew may be the best place to bake and harden.
Beware if you think this has never been the condition of your soil (Ephesians 2:1-3).
The hardest of hearts as easily belongs to the legalist in pew as the relativist in the university.
The Miracle Creating Power of the New Birth Accomplished and Applied.
The new birth is a miracle. From where does this miracle creating power come? How is one born again? Here is my answer:
The miracle creating power of the new birth explodes out of Christ’s death and resurrection and is channeled toward us by the Spirit in the preaching of the gospel of Christ.
Both answers are seen in 1 Peter. First, the explosion:
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead… (1 Peter 1:3)
Second, the channeling of that power to us by the Spirit in the preached word:
[Y]ou have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God… And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:23, 25)
In other words we are born again by the gospel accomplished (the explosion) and the gospel applied (the explosion being channeled to us).
The Pugilist: The Trinity and Redemption
Accordingly, the doctrine of the Trinity and the doctrine of redemption, historically, stand or fall together. A Unitarian theology is commonly associated with a Pelagian anthropology and a Socinian soteriology. – B.B. Warfield, The Biblical Doctrine of the Trinity
No Other Boast 