Meditating on the Glory of Christ

In the 1680s when the greatest theologian of the English speaking world, John Owen was dying, he came up with his last book, a discourse on the glory of Christ. The book is packed with meditations on the glory of Christ – His person, office and grace. In the preface, Owen notes why meditating on the glory of Christ ought be the diligent business of every Christian.  Owen says,

The revelation made of Christ in the blessed gospel is far more excellent, more glorious, and more filled with rays of divine wisdom and goodness, than the whole creation and the just comprehension of it, if attainable, can contain or afford. Without the knowledge hereof, the mind of man, however priding itself in other inventions and discoveries, is wrapped up in darkness and confusion. This, therefore, deserves the severest of our thoughts, the best of our meditations, and our utmost diligence in them. For if our future blessedness shill consist in being where he is, and beholding of his glory, what better preparation can there be for it than in a constant preview contemplation of that glory in the revelation that is made in the Gospel, unto this very end, that by a view of it we may be gradually transformed into the same glory? [1]

When William Payne, the editor of Owen’s book on the glory of Christ, visited him near the end, Owen said to him, “O, brother Payne, the long-wished for day is come at last, in which I shall see the glory in another manner than I have ever done or was capable of doing in this world.” [2] John Owen thus died meditating on the glory of Christ and with a deep and joyful conviction that death is not the termination but the consummation of his enjoyment of Christ.  Owen describes the kind of restful life one would live if meditating on the gospel glories of Jesus Christ is one’s chief delight,

Our beholding by faith things that see not seen, things spiritual and eternal, will alienate all our afflictions, — make their burden light, and preserve our souls from fainting under them. Of these things the glory of Christ, whereof we treat, is the principal, and in due sense comprehensive of them all. For we behold the glory of God himself "in the face of Jesus Christ." He that can at all times retreat unto the contemplation of this glory, will be carried above the perplexing prevailing sense of any of these evils, of a confluence of them all. "Crux nil sentit in nervo, dum animus est in coelo." (One does not feel the pain of the cross when his mind is on heavenly things.) [3]

Footnotes  

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[1]  John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ in His Person, Office, and Grace, in The Works of John Owen, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 275.

[2] Peter Toon, God’s Statesman: The Life and Work of John Owen (1971; reprint, Eugene, Ore.:Wipf & Stock, 2005), 171.

[3] John Owen, Meditations and Discourses on the Glory of Christ in His Person, Office, and Grace, in The Works of John Owen, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1965), 278.

A True Puritan

Quotable Quotes

"A true Puritan is one whose heart is warmed by the Lord's sweet communion, whose esteem is bent to the ground, facedown in His awesome presence, whose mind is captured by the words of the Word Incarnate, whose will succumbs to the sovereignty of God Almighty, whose bones burn with the fire of the Holy Spirit, whose desires are inflamed with the pleasures of the Great I Am, who knows that he is yet incomplete, wretched, undeserving, unworthy, still persevering, still longing, still in dire need of His tender mercies and steadfast love. A true Puritan doesn't yet know that indeed he is one. “ – A Reformed sister in India, who wishes to remain anonymous. 

Sabbath : A Day of Holy Work

It is worthwhile to read what Matthew Henry, while commenting on Mark 2:27-28 says about the sabbath. Here is a good example of what the Puritans believed about the sabbath. 

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Whom the sabbath was made for (v. 27);

It was made for man, and not man for the sabbath. This we had not in Matthew. The sabbath is a sacred and divine institution; but we must receive and embrace it as a privilege and a benefit, not as a task and a drudgery.

First, God never designed it to be an imposition upon us, and therefore we must not make it so to ourselves. Man was not made for the sabbath, for he was made a day before the sabbath was instituted. Man was made for God, and for his honour and service, and he just rather die than deny him; but he was not made for the sabbath, so as to be tied up by the law of it, from that which is necessary to the support of his life.

Secondly, God did design it to be an advantage to us, and so we must make it, and improve it. He made if for man.

1. He had some regard to our bodies in the institution, that they might rest, and not be tired out with the constant business of this world (Deu. 5:14); that thy man-servant and thy maid-servant may rest. Now he that intended the sabbath-rest for the repose of our bodies, certainly never intended it should restrain us, in a case of necessity, from fetching in the necessary supports of the body; it must be construed so as not to contradict itself—for edification, and not for destruction.

 

2. He had much more regard to our souls. The sabbath was made a day of rest, only in order to its being a day of holy work, a day of communion with God, a day of praise and thanksgiving; and the rest from worldly business is therefore necessary, that we may closely apply ourselves to this work, and spend the whole time in it, in public and in private; but then time is allowed us for that which is necessary to the fitting of our bodies for the service of our souls in God’s service, and the enabling of them to keep pace with them in that work.

See here,

(1.) What a good Master we serve, all whose institutions are for our own benefit, and if we be so wise as to observe them, we are wise for ourselves; it is not he, but we, that are gainers by our service.

(2.) What we should aim at in our sabbath work, even the good of our own souls. If the sabbath was made for man, we should then ask ourselves at night, "What am I the better for this sabbath day?’’

(3.) What care we ought to take not to make those exercises of religion burthens to ourselves or others, which God ordained to be blessings; neither adding to the command by unreasonable strictness, nor indulging those corruptions which are adverse to the command, for thereby we make those devout exercises a penance to ourselves, which otherwise would be a pleasure.

Whom the sabbath was made by (v. 28); "The Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath; and therefore he will not see the kind intentions of the institution of it frustrated by your impositions.’’

Note, The sabbath days are days of the Son of man; he is the Lord of the day, and to his honour it must be observed; by him God made the worlds, and so it was by him that the sabbath was first instituted; by him God gave the law at mount Sinai, and so the fourth commandment was his law; and that little alteration that was shortly to be made, by the shifting of it one day forward to the first day of the week, was to be in remembrance of his resurrection, and therefore the Christian sabbath was to be called the Lord’s day (Rev. 1:10), the Lord Christ’s day; and the Son of man, Christ, as Mediator, is always to be looked upon as Lord of the sabbath. This argument he largely insists upon in his own justification, when he was charged with having broken the sabbath, Jn. 5:16. [1]

  

Footnotes

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[1] Matthew Henry Commentary on the whole Bible, Mark 2:27-28.

Puritan Style of Preaching

In an introduction to one of his sermons preached in 1967, J.I Packer gives 5 essential characteristics of Puritan preaching as follows :

“What do you mean by preaching in the Puritan style? I would tell you what I take it to mean.

1. Preaching in the Puritan style is preaching that is expository. The Puritans sought to be expositors first and last. Opening texts was their phrase for it, bringing out the treasures hidden in the various texts of the Word of God.
2. Preaching in the Puritan style is preaching that is doctrinal. The Puritans believed that texts teach truths and the preacher’s business is to find those truths and display them so that people may learn them.
3. Preaching in the Puritan style is preaching that is contemporary.  There never were preachers more directly contemporary than the Puritans. One of them said this “it’s a cheap zeal that declaimeth against the errors of yesterday”. And it would be a cheap zeal on my part if I simply aped the Puritans when God has set me to preach the Word to you today.   
4. Preaching in the Puritan style is preaching that is applicatory.  The Puritans sought to get inside their hearers, they sought to use the Word of God in order to search their hearts. They believed that one reason why God has given us His truth was so that we might know ourselves as we are in His presence; as He knows us. The sought to apply the Word in such a way that their congregations would know themselves. Also in such a way that their congregations would feel the healing power of truth, of those particular places of need and trouble, the sore places, the bruised places in their own consciences and in their own hearts.
5. Preaching in the Puritan style is preaching that is (if I might try to reclaim an abused phrase) honest to God. Much preaching today, I believe is not honest to God. It is not honest to God in its matter. It does not declare God’s whole counsel. It soft peddles God’s holiness and His severity. That is abusing the Word of God. Much preaching today, I believe is equally failing to be honest to God in its manner.  Its sentimental and cheapening holy things.  Oh its brilliant and thereby calling attention to the preacher rather than to the Lord. The Puritans lead us out of these into honest preaching. The preaching of those who have sought to hear the Word of God and now stand before congregations to declare what they have heard.

This to be sure is what I mean by preaching in the Puritan style. You can see that it is only by the grace of God that anyone ever succeeds in preaching in the Puritan style. If a man ever does, he ought to be very thankful.” [1]

Amen, may God raise up such preachers in our day for His glory.

Footnotes

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[1] Sermon entitled “Romans 7&8” by J.I Packer

Puritan Understanding of Sanctification

Dr. J.I Packer gives a thorough explanation of the Puritan witness to the doctrine and practice of sanctification in this three part lecture series. Packer initially lays some general guidelines on how we should learn from Puritans or any other group of Christians of a bygone age. He starts with warning us on merely imitating the Puritans in their diction or dense speech. He rather exhorts us to apply the same truths in our age. Through out this series, Packer is characterized by a nuanced approach, which as always is the mark of a true scholar. He does not have any presupposition that the Puritans are always right in what they say, but rather seeks to weigh everything in light of the Scriptures. He calls his preaching a Biblical Historical method of preaching. In the end he does vindicate the teachings of the Puritans and calls it a classic. Through out this series, he takes mainly one Puritan – John Owen, whom he considers to be the greatest of all Puritans as the Puritan spokesperson for their understanding of sanctification. 

The first in the series is an introduction to the theme of sanctification and so it is simply entitled “What is Sanctification”. Packer begins by unpacking what the shorter and larger Westminster Catechism says on sanctification. He then moves on to the Westminster confession and then to the Scriptures. This lecture is a very good introduction to this whole series.

In the second lecture, Packer concentrates on “Sanctification and the Fight”. Here he concentrates on why there is a fight involved in progressive sanctification. He first explains the reasons for the presence of this fight.  For this he takes Owen’s writings on indwelling sin, Satan and our fallen bodies. The second part of this lecture then concentrates on how we can effectively fight. It is presented in military terms and is very practical and useful in one’s private battle against sin. Here again it is Owen's brilliant exposition and practical wisdom that is used by Packer. 

The final lecture is titled “Assurance and Conduct” and focuses on what the Puritans thought about having “a well grounded assurance”. Here Packer explains from the Scriptures the different aspects of the doctrine of assurance and quotes what the Puritans said about each of these aspects. The precision and care that the Puritans displayed in their pastoral ministry is very evident in this study.

Highly recommend this series for all Christians. 

  

Puritan Understanding of Sanctification

1. What is Sanctification?  Listen | Download
2. Sanctification and the Fight  Listen | Download
3. Sanctification and Assurance  Listen | Download