If my series on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which is now finished, has left you wanting to know more, then I encourage you to listen to three talks from my friend, Joel Virgo. Joel leads the Brighton Newfrontiers church, CCK. His first talk speaks about something I have blogged about previously, apostles today. The second goes through some of the gifts, and in the third he speaks about how the gifts can operate in meetings.

Joel argues for a different approach, depending on the size of the congregation, saying "the bigger the number of people in the room, the more important the leadership gift becomes in that meeting." He believes that the ideal size of meeting for the gifts to freely operate is around 100, although that does not mean they can't be used at all in larger or smaller meetings.

Also, there is one talk that I recommend more than any other if you are now eager to receive more of the Holy Spirit. Terry Virgo spoke at a Newfrontiers USA event on "How to Receive the Holy Spirit." You can download the audio, or read a testimony of how that talk led to a breakthrough for a man who had been seeking the Spirit for many years. Terry also has many other useful talks online

John Piper has a number of talks on the Holy Spirit available over at Desiring God. For example, "How to Receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.

If you want to read more about this, I also recommend the following books. You will find you don’t agree with everything you read, not least because they don’t agree with each other! But, each of these books has something very useful to contribute to our understanding of this vital subject.

The section in Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology is probably the best place to start (as is the case with so many biblical subjects!) He has also written probably the standard work explaining the view of prophecy I hold to entitled The Gift of Prophecy in the New Testament and Today Grudem edited a four views book to which Sam Storms contributed called Are Miraculous Gifts For Today?

Daniel Wallace and James Sawyer wrote Who’s Afraid of the Holy Spirit. Read how two professors’ theological training had left them ill-prepared to deal with traumatic events, and their resulting journey away from what they called a spiritually sterile tradition to an experience of God’s Holy Spirit. Can cessationists experience the Holy Spirit without becoming out and out charismatics?

Don Carson’s book, Show the Spirit succeeds in steering such a middle course that I doubt anyone will agree with everything he says! But, it is very good to have your assumptions and beliefs examined in light of the exposition of this well-respected teacher. This book will leave both charismatics and cessationists a little uncomfortable, but definitely urges us to be open to the Spirit’s work.

A recent book from Crossway, He Who Gives Life is a very helpful and comprehensive theology of the Holy Spirit.

Gordon Fee's God's Empowering Presence examines every mention in Paul's letters of the role of the Holy Spirit.

Last, but by no means least, my friend Greg Haslam has recently written a fantastic book on the practicalities of pursuing the gift of prophecy today, called Moving in the Prophetic.

And there, for now, I will leave this subject of the gifts and this blog will move on to other things.

It is with great pleasure that I can now share with you all the final cover of my forthcoming Crossway book. Many of my readers helped with the process of choosing the cover, and for that matter the title too. There have also been a number of my friends and family who have helped already with the process of editing. Writing itself may be a lonely activity, but I have found that the input of others is invaluable. At the moment I am interacting from time to time with several different people from the publishers and so it is perhaps surprising how much of a team effort the whole thing really is.

The book will hopefully be released in Jan 2010. In the meantime you can discuss the vital subject of the resurrection in a Facebook group or on the Gospel Coalition Network.

I am thrilled to be able to offer you an opportunity to have an influence on the design of the cover for my book. All you need to do is join the new resurrection discussion group on the Gospel Coalition Network and comment on each of four covers there. Please say which you like, but also what each of them makes you think of.

If you are not yet a member of the Gospel Coalition Network, why not join, or if you prefer you can log in to Facebook and visit each of these URLs in turn to view the covers and comment on them:

1. http://is.gd/t1FS
2. http://is.gd/t1Gi
3. http://is.gd/t1Gw
4. http://is.gd/t1GS

I have now almost finished polishing my manuscript ready for submission to Crossway. In the process I have discovered a number of terrible habits in writing that I have to break. Well, what I mean is, other people have discovered them.

I want to offer a big thanks for everyone who has helped me by reading the manuscript before submission. Some have made comments about structure, others about the theology, and others have focused more on grammar and style. Thanks to Andree Warnock, Andrew Cottingham, Andrew Fountain, Andrew Warnock, Anna Averkiou, Annette Harrison, Arnold Bell, Ben Virgo, Bobby Jamieson, Dave Pask, Dave Bish, Frank Turk, Greg Haslam, Hannah Sandu, Henry Warnock, Joanne Soda, Joe Rigney, Liam Goligher, Marjorie Warnock, Matthew Hosier, Michael Reeves, Nathan Fellingham, Phil Butcher, Phil Moore, Scott Lamb, Stuart Emsley, Ted Hans, and Tope Koleoso. I just hope I havent forgotten anyone! Don't feel bad to drop me an email if your name should be on this list and isn't. And, subtle hint to those who still have a copy, its not too late (yet!) to get back to me and get your name on this list!

So here are some of my bad habbits that I have been rooting out of the document (thank God for the edit-find function!) Are there any howlers I havent committed?

My howlers
Surely, certainly, next, as follows, strikingly, note, notice, clearly, in fact, definitely, absolutely, without doubt, unusually, and basically loads of adverbs.

There are more but I have forgotten them already!

UPDATE - Thanks for all your feedback emails and messages. I think I am down to five, the first for with the same subtitle. The last one could be a title on its own or could replace "Living in Light of the Resurrection" with one of the others.

1. Raised with Christ - Living in Light of the Resurrection
2. Raised For Our Justification - Living in Light of the Resurrection
3. Raised For Our Salvation - Living in Light of the Resurrection
4. Raised To Save Us - Living in Light of the Resurrection
5. How the resurrection changes everything

Visit facebook or email me to give feedback.

--------------

You my blog readers are now becoming my instant focus group. Having been sure for ages that "Resurrection Empowered Life" was the right title for my future book, I am now having significant doubts. So, basically, I want to give you a chance to pop over to my facebook group, my twitter page or just email me your own suggetions or comments on the list at the end of this post. Some of the following I don't even like myself, so don't feel bad at saying you don't like them.

The book is basically about the idea that we have neglected the resurrection somewhat, and so we need to look again at the evidence for it, and its implications for us today in doctrine and experience. Here is a wordle of the latest draft which I am still working on. It shows the 100 most frequently used words in the book (minus certain common words) and so gives a good idea of what themes I am addressing. Click on it to zoom in.



Here is a list of some possible titles, some I quite like, some I hate, and some that are there just to give you ideas.

1. Just dropping the "Em" and saying The Resurrection Powered Life
2. The Resurrection and your life
3. The Resurrection and you
4. The Resurrection: Power for living
5. How to live in light of the resurrection
6. Living in light of the Resurrection
7. Experiencing Resurrection Power
8. Connecting to Resurrection Power
9. Resurrection and its implications for today
10. Resurrected for Our Salvation - How the resurrection changes us today
11. Raised to Save Us - Living in light of the resurrection
12. Resurrection - a Living hope for today
13. Refocussing on the Resurrection
14. How Focussing on the Resurrection could change your life
15. Living By Resurrection Power
16. The Power of Jesus Resurrection
17. The Power that Caused Jesus Resurrection
18. Living in the Power of His Resurrection
19. Raised with Christ - Experiencing the Power of his Resurrection
20. Raised with Christ - - Living in the Surprising Power of His Resurrection
21. Resurrection Power
22. Resurrection Life

“Have I been born again?" is not a question to be answered hastily. In John Piper's new book, Finally Alive, expect to be challenged. Piper strips away our complacency, arguing that many people falsely believe they are Christians. He begins by arguing that many who claim to be "born again" today are actually not, and that statistics demonstrating that so-called born again Christians are morally indistinguishable from unbelievers only demonstrate that many who think they have been regenerated actually are still on their way to hell.

Have you carefully examined yourself lately to see if YOU are truly saved? Being wrong about this issue will have eternal consequences and Jesus warned us that there will be those in that day who will have thought they were his followers but actually were not:

Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’"

By examining the Bible’s teaching on the new birth, John Piper shows us how to be certain our faith is genuine. Because no issue could be more critical, I believe this is the most important book Piper has written. It could be the most important book outside of the Bible that you or your loved one will ever read. I was privileged to have the opportunity to read this prior to launch and it moved me profoundly, challenging me once more to be sure of my own salvation and to appreciate more fully what God has done for me.

This book is being published first in the UK. However, it is now possible to pre-order it, and I understand it can also be delivered to the USA and other countries. It's worth the cost of international postage. If you move quickly (i.e. before December 4th), your order will be free of delivery charges in the UK.

A single copy is now available on pre-order for just £8.99 (which is approximately $14), dropping to £7.64 each if you buy a box of twenty. Buy several copies! Delivery, however, is not possible before Christmas.

My friend, P-J Smyth, is a popular Newfrontiers speaker, and the leader of GodFirst Church Johannesburg. He has recently overseen a rather nice-looking update to his church's website. A number of sermon mp3's and a range of e-books are all available. P-J is a punchy, impactful, and clear communicator. I recommend his material highly. As just one example, the following quote comes from a book on the Bible, available free on his site, entitled The Sword.

"The Word will bring you faith. Romans 10:17 makes this one crystal clear. Do you want that kind of faith that pleases God, causes the impossible to become the possible, moves mountains, destroys satanic strongholds, and violently advances the kingdom of God? It comes from hearing and hearing and hearing and hearing the things that God has to say!

You can have faith in your feelings, in which case your feelings will govern your life. You can have faith in your fears, and so be paralyzed into inactivity. You can have faith in others, and often be disappointed. Or you can have faith in God’s Word, and learn that He is utterly trustworthy in every situation. Smith-Wigglesworth said, “Except the word of God, everything else is sand. It’ll stand forever, it’s settled in heaven, not one jot or tittle will fail, it can’t be broken or improved upon, and those who believe in it shall be like Mount Zion that cannot be moved.”

— P-J Smyth, The Sword

If you live in or near Johannesburg in South Africa, you should consider at least a visit to this church which, from what I hear, is a vibrant multicultural place where Jesus is worshiped as Lord and the Word of God is honored. What more could you ask for?

This is the last in my short series on Steve Chalke and The Atonement Debate. The previous posts in this series can be found by clicking on the links below:

• Update on Steve Chalke and The Atonement Debate
  
  
• Steve Chalke Confirms He Does Not Believe in Penal Substitution
  
  
• Steve Chalke Argues Against Penal Substitutionary Atonement
  
  
• Steve Chalke and Neglect of the Resurrection

In his chapter of the book, The Atonement Debate, Steve Chalke continues with a classic argument from silence. He claims that Jesus did not teach this doctrine himself and therefore it is questionable. He also argues that before Jesus’ death he would not have had any gospel message to share if PSA is true. The second aspect of this is easy to dispatch since it betrays a very linear view of time. Romans 3 makes clear that it was Jesus’ death that enabled God to overlook sins committed beforehand. In addition, I have often wondered what Chalke believes about hell. Jesus teaches a lot about hell, and a number of his parables refer to eternal suffering. Surely he is describing the problem he is about to solve in doing this. Also, at the climax of his ministry the necessity of his death is very clear to Jesus, and his words describing it as a cup he must drink are poignant. If PSA is not true, it is difficult to see how Jesus’ death was so absolutely necessary. In any case, Jesus did not have to directly teach this doctrine in order for it to be true.

Chalke tries to negate concepts of God’s anger by essentially claiming that God is defined as love, and that fact trumps any mention of God as a God of wrath and anger and presumably holiness. He then devotes an entire section to the cultural implications of PSA, which he says plays into notions of violence and “might is right,” from which the rest of the world is moving away. He also claims it is too individualistic. In fact, in this section he seems to be in danger of removing altogether the importance of the individual’s relationship with God. There is even a statement that he does not like the notion that someone can believe they are saved in an instant, claiming that “separates salvation from discipleship” (page 42). It is vital for us to separate salvation from discipleship, or legalism and justification by works is the result. We do not live good lives in order to be saved. I have long been suspicious that removing the doctrine of penal substitutionary atonement inevitably weakens our belief that it is Jesus who saves us in favor of the notion that we have to do something in order to earn our way to heaven. Without fully expressing this, Chalke certainly seems to be implying it. He does not clearly elucidate his views on justification here, however, so I need to be careful, but remain very curious about the implications of what he is saying.

Finally, and perhaps most helpfully, in his closing section Chalke explains what he has put in the place of PSA. Basically he believes in the Christus Victor model whereby it is the victory won by the death and resurrection of Jesus that is key to our salvation. But before he gets there, he makes a clear statement about attempts to “soften” PSA, some of which he believes are even present in The Atonement Debate, to which he is a contributor.

“Since my book was published, and in the serious theological debate that has followed it, some have sought to readdress their definition of penal substitution. I have witnessed various attempts to redraw, redefine, recast, remodel, and rehabilitate the theory as “not really as violent and retributive a concept as The Lost Message of Jesus suggested.” But the problem is simply this: this is not how the situation is perceived either within or beyond the church. So, whilst I applaud these attempts to manufacture a kind of “penal substitution theory lite”—some of which will, no doubt, be presented in other contributions to this book—in my view, what we need is not a reworking but a renunciation” (page 42).

Chalke and I do agree on at least one thing. PSA should not be softened. We should either reject it completely as he is calling for, or, as many millions have, accept it as a precious truth despite all its shocking gruesomeness.

If you would like more information about the atonement, I would recommend the book Pierced for Our Transgressions, or you could read through my previous atonement series in the links found in the following posts from my bog,“Atonement Wars” and “More Atonement Wars.”

In his arguments against penal substitutionary atonement (PSA), Chalke parodies what its advocates believe, claiming that, according to those who hold to PSA,

. . .it is Jesus’ death alone that becomes our “good news.” This approach reduces the whole gospel to a single sentence: "God is no longer angry with us because Jesus died in our place.” Indeed, that is exactly why evangelistic presentations based on penal substitution often do not even bother to mention the resurrection; for them it serves no purpose in the story of salvation (page 39).

We need not accept the accuracy of Chalke's parody to be stung by its application, at least in part. It is a fact that at times evangelicals neglect to talk about the resurrection and other aspects of what the cross accomplished for us. In fact, Christians should believe that the gospel is about both the death and resurrection of Jesus, and that the work of Christ is about more than only satisfying God’s wrath. For starters, regeneration requires something to be done to us right here and now, and surely our gospel presentations need to explain this. And it is important to stress that there are other aspects of the atonement itself, and in this Mark Driscoll has served us well in his book, Death By Love, which outlines in letters to church members the different aspects of what the cross accomplished.

If Chalke was merely calling for us to remember to emphasize all the aspects of what Jesus accomplished for us, then I would say Amen! to that. Indeed, it was in part because of my own study of all these issues, which was in turn prompted by the Steve Chalke controversy, that I began to feel compelled to write about the resurrection. So perhaps in some sense this whole argument is the background within which the idea for my book, provisionally entitled The Resurrection Empowered Life, arose.

The key thing here is—even if we acknowledge some neglect of other aspects of Christ’s work for us—that is no reason to deny the truth of Jesus’ wrath-absorbing death on the cross. We should heed Chalke’s calls to look at everything Jesus has accomplished for us, but ignore his desire that we reject any notion that he was punished for us. I will continue to examine Chalke’s reasons for his rejection of PSA tomorrow.

In his chapter in the recent book The Atonement Debate, Steve Chalke begins to argue against penal substitution (PSA). He starts in a surprising, and to me, a deeply concerning way. One of my major concerns about this whole debate is what a rejection of PSA does to our view of the Bible. The concept of God’s wrath is very prominent in the Bible, culminating in the famous dilemma of Romans 3 where Paul essentially asks how can God be both JUST and yet FORGIVE our sin. In the context of Romans, to me that answer is simple—because Jesus took away that wrath and bore our punishment.

Chalke sidesteps the issue of the wrath of God by attempting to remove the issue of the sacrifices of the Old Testament from the discussion by claiming:

“The emphasis on Yahweh’s apparent appetite for continuous appeasement through blood sacrifice, present within some Pentateuchal texts, is to be understood in the light of later prophetic writings as a reflection of the worship practices of the pagan cults of the nations that surrounded the people of Israel. However, the story of Israel's salvation is the story of her journey away from these primal practices towards a new and more enlightened understanding by way of Yahweh's self-revelation.” (page 38, The Atonement Debate)

This quote is simply breathtaking coming as it does from the pen of a professed evangelical. First of all, it seems that Chalke takes a very different view of Scripture to that of the majority of evangelicals. The books of Moses are not to be contradicted by later revelation! These sacrifices were demanded by the actual audible voice of God recorded infallibly by Moses. Chalke's comments only make sense if he doesn’t believe that the Pentateuch is actually God’s Word. Moses records that God did not merely “accommodate himself” to the local culture; he actively commanded sacrifice!

Of course it's not just the Pentateuch with which Chalke’s comments seem to disagree. In his attempt to separate what Jesus did on the cross from biblical notions of sacrifice, one has to wonder what he would make of the book of Hebrews. On page after page the writer to the Hebrews directly connects Jesus’ death with that of the lambs and goats of the Old Testament sacrifices. Hebrews 9:22 says, “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins” and clearly declares of Jesus in verse 26, “He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

We can't just airbrush out of the Bible the teaching that it is a wrath-removing bloody sacrifice for sin that is absolutely necessary in order that we can be saved. In his comments on the Pentateuch, Chalke seems to imply that he does not believe those passages to be truly God’s infallible Word, or at least he believes that those passages were contradicted later on. Would he view Hebrews in the same way? We will continue to look at Chalke's reasons for rejecting PSA tomorrow.

I do want to thank Steve Chalke for the honesty and openness in his contribution to the recent book, The Atonement Debate. He is very bold, and explains his position with far more clarity than I feel he has done before. Reading his chapter was worthwhile as there is much confusion about what Chalke really believes. Indeed, many people, including N. T. Wright, have gone so far as to make pronouncements about what they are sure Chalke believes. But in this book we find the answer to the question in his own words—What does Steve Chalke now think about penal substitution?

Firstly, he has not changed his mind about the appropriateness of his original use of the “cosmic child abuse” language which many found offensive. He says:

“Though the sheer bluntness of my imagery shocked some, I contend that, in truth, it represents nothing more than a stark unmasking of what I understand to be the violent, pre-Christian thinking behind the popular theory of penal substitutionary atonement. Thus, whilst having great respect for many of those who hold what, I readily concede, is currently regarded as orthodoxy within modern evangelicalism, I will attempt to set out through this essay why I believe it to be biblically, culturally, and pastorally deficient and even dangerous” (page 35).

One of the other key questions is this: Was N. T. Wright right to say that Chalke holds to a form of penal substitution that is similar to Wright’s own position? Here Chalke is very clear. He acknowledges that he does hold a “deep resonance” (page 35) with Wright’s position. But he claims that both his own and Wright's understanding of the way in which the cross saves us is “so far removed from what is commonly taught” (page 35) that he does not like to use the word "penal" as representing his own position.

Wright, it seems, is stuck somewhat in the middle of this. Do Chalke and Wright really agree as much as they both think they do? Is Chalke right to say that Wright’s view, which the prof calls a form of PSA, is actually not really PSA at all? To be honest, sometimes Wright can be hard to fathom and it takes great patience to dissect him fully in such a manner as John Piper did over Wright’s view of justification. But Wright is not the subject of this post; instead, we are looking at Chalke’s own position.

Chalke agrees with Wright's assessment of the book Pierced For Our Transgressions (PFOT) as “deeply, profoundly, and disturbingly unbiblical” which, since it is a book upholding PSA in a clear and strong way, makes any claim that either Wright or Chalke actually do believe in PSA quite hard to stomach. [In my view, incidentally, PFOT is probably the single best book to read if you want to understand PSA more fully.] Chalke then goes on to explain why he does not believe in PSA as almost everyone would define it. Join me tomorrow as I interact with the arguments he uses.

Somehow I missed a book published earlier this year by Zondervan called The Atonement Debate. The book was described to me as a “cool-headed” approach to the whole debate on penal substitutionary atonement (PSA) that has been raging in evangelicalism since Steve Chalke popularized attempts to dismiss it as a form of “cosmic child abuse.” It is essentially an edited and expanded publication of some papers from a theological debate which took place under the auspices of the Evangelical Alliance and the London School of Theology.

To be honest, when I heard this book was going to be “cool-headed” I was already concerned about it. I'm not sure the atonement is a subject that it's possible to be terribly cool about. That's because another word for cool is lukewarm. Jesus hates us to be lukewarm about crucial issues, even threatening to spit the lukewarm from his mouth (Revelation 3). I much prefer interacting with someone who is either hot or cold about important issues like this.

The truth is, there could scarcely be a more important subject. On the one side are people like Chalke who genuinely believe that many evangelicals today are teaching a barbaric pre-Christian lie that is destroying the Church’s witness. On the other hand are those of us who believe that if we were to deny that Jesus took the punishment that was due us for our sin, turning aside the wrath of God by bearing it in himself, quite simply there would be no gospel left.

I can't see how people who really believe either of those two positions can just agree to disagree and work together as fellow evangelicals. One group must be wrong. Whichever group is right are also clearly quite correct to be very concerned about the opposite group who are, by their false teaching, distorting the gospel and preventing people from coming to a true knowledge of what Jesus has done for them. There are some issues on which we can compromise. This is not one of them.

Accordingly, the first chapter, which tried to set the scene, concerned me greatly. It was written by a believer in PSA who acknowledged that the crafters of the UK Evangelical Alliance’s Statement of Faith had clearly intended to include PSA in that statement. Minutes of the meetings and the living memory of those survivors failed to explain why, in the 1970’s, the word “penal” had been dropped from early drafts of the statement. The writer seemed anxious to stress, however, that in his view it would have been wrong to insert the word penal back into the statement in its most recent revision as that would have been seen as targeting an individual. To be honest, I find such a reluctance baffling. I believe that clarity is exactly what is needed in this debate. Can people really work together in an organization with such diametrically opposed views as I have outlined above?

For some reason it fell to me to become more involved in the debate that had been ongoing within UK evangelicalism than I ever expected. It was a great surprise to me to find myself in the position where I felt obliged to break the story that the separation of Spring Harvest and Word Alive had not been entirely amicable. What soon became clear was that this was not only an argument between Chalke and those who held to PSA. Almost more importantly, there was a disagreement between those who said that they hold to PSA about what should be done when a leading member of many evangelical organizations like Steve Chalke criticized their prevailing teaching so strongly. Many plead, “Can’t we just all get along and agree to disagree?” For more information about the controversy please see the links found in the following posts from my blog “Atonement Wars” and “More Atonement Wars.”

It would seem that The Atonement Debate is published with a desire to help evangelicals understand the debate and then move on from it. Indeed, the tone of most of the papers is conciliatory, and I suspect that one could easily come away after reading it wondering what all the fuss is about. I had assumed that Steve Chalke's relative silence on the issue meant that he too had come to the conclusion that this didn't really matter as much as both his original rhetoric and that of his detractors had led one to believe. I couldn't have been more wrong, as we will see tomorrow when I continue to blog on this subject.

My buddy Mike shared this video of his new ESV Study Bible. Enjoy.


Brand Spanking New ESV Study Bible from Mike Anderson on Vimeo.

You can purchase an ESV Study Bible online.

I want to introduce you to a very unusual book by Mark Driscoll and his writing buddy and professor, Gerry Breshears. I would go so far to say that this is a unique book in that I have never seen anything quite like it.

If their first book together, Vintage Jesus, was a light cheerful book that offended some by its use of humor and at times edgy topics for illustrations, this new book by these two men is more of a grungy, almost dark book. The video over at the ReLit site leaves you in no doubt that this is a book that will wrestle with darkness, pain, and even demonization.

Certainly this book represents just a tiny sample of the ocean of pain that a pastor of a large church has to handle over the years. Some neoliberals argue that people who believe in penal substitutionary atonement do not engage with the real suffering found in the world. This book demonstrates emphatically that this is simply not true in Driscoll's case. Such critics also argue that the evangelical's gospel can become overly narrow, eventually focusing solely on the "felt need" of the feelings of guilt many still feel. Guilt, however, is far from the only reason people come to Christ. The New Testament is full of helpful ways we can understand what Jesus did on the cross.

Without in any way softening his commitment to the centrality of Jesus taking the punishment of sin in our understanding of the cross, Driscoll is far broader in his understanding of and application of the cross to hurting people's lives today. From convicted child molesters, to cheating husbands and raped women, Driscoll shares pen outlines of the destruction manifest in the lives of specific people to whom he has ministered. He then shows in a letter written to each individual how a specific aspect of what Jesus has done on the cross can bring wholeness and salvation to them.

This is a vital book that should be read by every Christian who is serious about reaching out with the gospel into this dark and damaged world. I will share a video of Mark speaking about the book, followed by an excerpt from one of those letters that particularly struck me. You will have to buy the book to see exactly how Driscoll and Breshears apply the gospel to Bill and his violent, abusive father.

"As a little boy you rightly felt angry at your dad, and that anger rightly compelled you to confront his injustice and protect the rest of the family. Therefore, anger can be a righteous virtue, which explains why God gets angry at sin too. The Bible is full of examples of God getting angry at sinners. A few examples will illustrate my point clearly, but a reading of Leviticus 26:27-30, Numbers 11:1, and Deuteronomy 29:24 for starters, speak of God's anger as being hostile, burning, and furious.

Flaccid church guys will often accept that in the Old Testament God did get angry, but they will say that Jesus was a nice, emotionless, flaccid church guy, just like them, who chose a hollow, fake smile over anger every day. But even Jesus got angry, furious, and enraged . . . [Here Driscoll cites Mark 3:5 and Revelation 19, but one could also add Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-17, Luke 19:45-46, and John 2:13-17.]

In speaking of God's anger, I want to be careful not to give permission for us to lose our temper and rage, because that is a sin—the very sin your father committed repeatedly. However, because God is perfect, his anger is perfect and, as such, is aroused slowly (Exodus 34:6-8), sometimes turned away (Deuteronomy 13:17), often delayed (Isaiah 48:9), and frequently held back (Psalm 78:38).

Furthermore, God feels angry because God hates sin (Proverbs 6:16-19, Zechariah 8:17). Sadly, it is commonly said among Christians that "God hates the sin but loves the sinner." This is as stupid as saying that God loves rapists and hates rape, as if rape and rapists were two entirely different entities that could be separated from one another. Furthermore, it was not a divinely inspired author of Scripture but the Hindu, Gandhi, who coined the phrase, "Love the sinner but hate the sin" . . .

Regarding God's anger and hatred, it is commonly protested that God cannot hate anyone because he is love. But the Bible speaks of God's anger, wrath, and fury more than of his love, grace, and mercy. Furthermore, it is precisely because God is love that he must hate evil and all who do evil—evil is an assault on whom and what he loves.

Therefore, Bill, your anger toward and hatred of your father are justifiable and are the healthy response to seeing your dad beat the mother and siblings you love. However, in a mysterious conflict of deep emotions, you continued to love your father just as God continues to love unrepentant sinners whom he simultaneously hates . . .

I know this will be difficult for you to comprehend, Bill, but Jesus has fully experienced what you have, and much more. Jesus was mocked and beaten, though he was without sin. He willingly substituted himself for those he loved and wanted to save . . . "

From Death By Love by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears, copyright 2008, pages 127-129. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com.

The ESV Study Bible (ESVSB) launch date of October 15th is approaching fast. The Study Bible team has been busy sharing samples and features online to entice us. Their goal is to help people know what's inside the Study Bible and how it might best serve them.

From an e-mail sent out by the Study Bible team, here is a summary of what is available at this time:

Free Book Introductions and Sample Chapters Online
In addition to the previous posts from Jonah, the Psalms, and Revelation, the introductions have now been uploaded,including sample chapters, for the following books:

• Ezekiel
  
• Isaiah
  
• Ephesians
  
• Colossians

Free Articles Online
A number of the fifty articles that will be in the ESVSB have now been uploaded:

• Overview of the Bible: A Survey of the History of Salvation, by Vern Poythress
  
• Reading the Bible
  • Reading the Bible Theologically, by J. I. Packer
    
  • Reading the Bible as Literature, by Leland Ryken
    
  • Reading the Bible in Prayer and Communion with God, by John Piper
    
  • Reading the Bible for Personal Application, by David Powlison
    
  • Reading the Bible for Preaching and Public Worship, by R. Kent Hughes
• The Bible and World Religions
  • Contemporary Judaism, by Marvin Wilson
    
  • Islam, by Timothy Tennent

City Plan of Rome
The Introduction to the Book of Romans contains a city plan of ancient Rome, which has been posted online, along with an excerpt of some of the information on Rome found in that introduction. Other city plans that you'll find in the ESVSB include the cities of Ur, Nineveh (see page 9 of the Jonah PDF), Babylon, Jericho, Corinth, Ephesus, and Philippi.

Interviews With Contributors

• Andy Naselli interviewed David Reimer about the book of Ezekiel (blog interview)
  
  
• Michael Spencer interviewed David Powlison about the application of Scripture (blog interview)
  
  
• Colin Adams interviewed Raymond C. Ortlund Jr. about the book of Isaiah (blog interview)
  
  
• Andy Naselli interviewed Clinton Arnold about the book of Colossians (blog interview)
  
  
• Andy Naselli interviewed S. M. Baugh about the book of Ephesians (blog interview)
  
  
• Beginning with Moses interviewed Vern Poythress about biblical theology and seeing Christ in the Old Testament (blog interview)
  
  
• Owen Strachan interviewed Harold Netland about pluralism and world religions (audio, mp3, approximately 45 minutes)

New Videos
A video page has been launched for the ESVSB.

Some of you have probably already seen the five-minute YouTube preview, but that was just part of a thirteen-minute video that goes into more depth. Each of the nine chapters from the video is available individually. Some of you might be especially interested in this one-minute overview of the Online Study Bible, which hasn't been discussed much yet.

All the videos are available to download as high-quality mp4s.

The following video is an interview with Wayne Grudem, J. I. Packer, and Lane Dennis of Crossway, and is hosted by Justin Taylor:




Facebook
If you want to interact with others about the ESVSB, you can now join a Facebook group.

If you live in North America you can pre-order from the ESV Study Bible website or from Amazon.com using the following links, which seem to be offering significant discounts:



If you live in Europe, then visit Amazon.co.uk using the following links:

My friends at Crossway continue to outdo themselves in the area of excellence. I sometimes think I should just issue a blanket recommendation—buy ANYTHING they print. But for some specifics, I thought I'd post some mini-reviews today. They have also recently started a book blog which has already had some great posts, so I've decided to award them a "Warnie Award," which means that their headlines will appear in my sidebar from now on.

Here are a few Crossway books that have helped me as I have dipped into them in recent months:

THE SUPREMACY OF CHRIST IN A POSTMODERN WORLD
Each year the Desiring God Ministries Conference seems to spawn a book. This is one of them, and in it John Piper, D. A. Carson, Tim Keller, Mark Driscoll, Voddie Baucham, and David Wells all interact with the vital issues of how we can be both faithful to Scripture and relevant to the culture. Avoiding the extremes of compromise and alienation, this book charts a course we would be wise to follow carefully. Here is a quote to whet your appetite:

"This culture basically says that there is no rhyme or reason, so we're here to make the most of it. Consume. Enjoy. That's why we're here. That is the overarching mentality in our culture, both inside and outside the Church, resulting in an unquenchable materialism and causing us to look at children as a blight and as a burden. While many in the poorest nations of the world talk about the number of children with which they can be blessed, we talk about the number of children we can afford. We have houses that are larger than they've ever had and families that are smaller than they've ever had.... Why? Because they get in the way of our consumption and our enjoyment" (page 60).

WHAT JESUS DEMANDS FROM THE WORLD
For a religion founded on the God-man Jesus, it is amazing how little attention we tend to give to what he said. John Piper's book goes a long way to correcting this omission. If you thought commands and demands were only found in the Old Testament, this book will surprise you. Far from making things easier for us, Christ actually lays out a set of demands that far exceed the Old Testament law in their reach and challenge to us. Of course, he does this to show us our need for him, but nonetheless, empowered by the Spirit, we are intended to live as Jesus tells us. After all, he commanded us to make disciples of all nations and teach them to obey whatever he has commanded us (see Matthew 28). This book will help you understand and obey these commands.

IN MY PLACE CONDEMNED HE STOOD
We can never have too many books helping us to understand the glory of the cross and everything it accomplished for us. Mahaney recommends reading a book on the cross every year, so it's no wonder he encouraged his friends in this endeavor, which brings together short essays from Mark Dever and J. I. Packer.

One other fantastic thing about Crossway is that they have published 29 books by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. I can't comment on this author enough. Although based on sermons he preached decades ago, the books sound like they were written for the 21st century. More and more of his talks continue to be adapted for publication. They are supreme examples of what preaching should be like, but also function very well as books. If you haven't discovered the Doctor yet, where have you been? His sermons are also available at mlj.org.uk. Here is an extract from one recent book, Compelling Christianity, based on Acts 8:

"The Christian message does not stop at the mere proclamation of the forgiveness of sins and reconciliation to God. It goes on to say say that this Gospel changes men and women. . . . Christ came into the world not only to bear my punishment and to reconcile me to God, but also to fit me for heaven. He came to do something to me that enables me to enjoy God even in this world. What is it? I must be "born again"....

That is it! We must be made anew, we need a new nature, a new heart, a new mind, we must be new persons. And he has come to do this for us. This is the wonderful, amazing, astounding doctrine of regeneration and rebirth.

This new creation is the act of God. The God who made the world and made man at the beginning makes us anew in Christ. Get rid forever of the notion that becoming a Christian simply means being forgiven or trying to be a little bit better than you were before; you cannot be....

He is there! I am not left to myself. I have a new nature. The Spirit is working in me, getting rid of the pollution, sanctifying me, preparing me for Glory; and even before I get there I have, in Christ, access to God" (pages 59-63).

Finally, I should not neglect to mention a commentary I found helpful when preparing my talks from Philippians earlier this year. It's a slim volume that nevertheless manages to get to the pith of the message of this vital book. The "Preaching the Word" series deserves to be read.

The 24th most read post on this blog is, ironically enough, a post that introduced my most popular posts of 2007.

Position 23 is filled by a post listing some books I think every Christian should read.

I have now published all the Mark Driscoll material from his recent visit to the UK. Don't miss the video interviews, and the Dwell material, as well as the talks from Brighton. There is a lot to absorb there. There are also three talks for church elders that I was not present at.

Since his return to the US, however, this man has been nothing short of busy!

He has interviewed J. I. Packer on Young Christian Leaders, and Homosexuality. He also wrote a series of blog posts on Spurgeon:

• Spurgeon is the Man, Part 1 — Introduction



• Spurgeon is the Man, Part 2 — Spurgeon was a Bible Guy



• Spurgeon Prayed, Laughed, Cared, and Evangelized, Part 3



• Spurgeon Wrote Books that the Haters Hated, Part 4



• Recap: Spurgeon is the Man Week

He has also preached a cracking sermon series which you can see here, and for which you can download notes by following the links. About fifty minutes into the first one he starts talking about our Newfrontiers prayer meeting. As he put it, it was like a prayer meeting on Pro-Plus. He then tells Mars Hill that some things are about to change around there, and gets them to pray for each other. Nice one!

Pray Like Jesus



The Lord’s Prayer



The Gethsemane Prayer



He has now departed for Australia for a well-earned holiday, but not before posting a blog from the airport, mentioning that his Macbook Pro is now loaded up with Logos software. (Get your Logos software from me with a 25 per cent discount if you are jealous.)

Oh, and I almost forgot. The cutest thing he has probably ever done is wave his built in MacBook Pro web cam at his rather noisy kids (where do they get that from???). The funniest bit is when he gets his wife to join in the fun. That expression is worth a thousand words! I hope his family enjoys him—he's all theirs now, at least until the Australian preaching tour starts!



The guy is like a dynamo, and on top of all that, Crossway now has nine books listed with Mark Driscoll as an author (although some are not out yet). The ones I've seen are uniformly helpful and engaging, and I commend them highly! One that is coming soon is Death By Love, and the website has just been released. Looks fantastic.

I haven't yet mentioned online the ESV Study Bible which Wayne Grudem and Justin Taylor, among others, have been working on furiously for what must seem to them to be an eternity. There is a whole website devoted to it where you can download samples of the work that will make you impatient for October when this will be shipped.

This looks to me to be the study Bible for the 21st century. Laid out in a visually attractive way and stuffed full of incredibly helpful material, I can't think of any reason why you wouldn't want to rush to get your pre-order in. Why not buy a few and give them as Christmas presents?

Primary Features of the Study Bible

• 2,752 pages—equivalent to a 20-volume Bible resource library all in one volume.
  
  
• 1.3 million words—written by 95 leading evangelical scholars and teachers.
  
  
• 20,000 notes—focusing especially on understanding the Bible text and providing answers to frequently raised issues.
  
  
• Over 50 articles—including articles on the Bible’s authority, reliability, and interpretation; on biblical archaeology, theology, worship, prayer, and personal application.
  
  
• Over 200 full-color maps—created with the latest digital technology, satellite images, and archaeological research; printed in full color, throughout the Bible.
  
  
• 200-plus charts—offering key insights and in-depth analysis in clear, concise outline form; located throughout the Bible.
  
  
• 80,000 cross-references—to encourage easy location of important words, passages, and biblical themes.
  
  
• More than 40 new full-color illustrations—including historically accurate reconstructions of the Tabernacle, the Ark of the Covenant, Solomon’s temple, Herod’s temple, the city of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time and throughout the history of Israel, and many more.

If you live in North America you can pre-order from the ESV Study Bible website or from Amazon.com using the following links, which seem to be offering significant discounts:



If you live in Europe, then visit Amazon.co.uk using the following links:

A number of bloggers have been mentioning that Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology is online for free. I felt it was a bit suspicious, however, because of the web address that was being shared—it contained only numbers, i.e. in this type of format—202.202.202.202. That is generally not a good sign in a web address. I have deliberately NOT linked to that new site for the following reason:

I have made some inquiries with IVP, the UK publisher, and their initial response is that they are a bit concerned by this development and are looking into it. It is still possible that the site is legitimate and that permission was obtained by someone else within IVP and/or from Zondervan, the USA publisher. This is looking increasingly unlikely, however.

I am sure the rights and wrongs of this will emerge clearly with a bit more time. In the meantime, Christian integrity, not to mention the law of copyright, would require anyone who has innocently visited the site to desist from doing so again, and other bloggers to remove their links which, again, I am sure were innocently posted. If someone who becomes aware of this message has indeed made this file available in such a way without the publisher's permission, they ought to remove it immediately.

If you want an electronic copy of this resource, Logos Bible Software's version can be purchased for just a few dollars and will work even without one of their core software packages.

Most Mondays I post something by or about Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones, one of my historical heroes. Today is an example of this habit. While I was preoccupied with New Word Alive, Martin Downes posted the chapter list for a new book on Lloyd-Jones by the Doctor's assistant. The book, entitled "Lloyd-Jones—Messenger of Grace," is broad-ranging, and will look at issues like Lloyd-Jones' attitude toward the Holy Spirit, preaching, and the impact of his sermons. It sounds like a very interesting book.

Lloyd-Jones is a bit like John Piper in that he refuses to fit neatly into any of our molds. His message still resonates today with cessationist and charismatic alike. I often wonder if today Lloyd-Jones would have identified himself as a reformed charismatic, although there is no doubt that he had serious reservations about some key charismatic beliefs.

To understand his sometimes unique position in relation to some of the controversies of his time is very instructive. You do not have to agree with Lloyd-Jones on everything, but you do have to take him seriously. Murray's two-volume biography of the Doctor is compulsory reading for those wanting to understand our Christian heritage of the last century.

Thankfully, many people today seem to have moved on from the ideas of the "homogenous church growth principle." I never could see how that whole idea wasn't just a thinly veiled form of racism, or at the very least, an accommodation with the racism of others. I think I would prefer to be a part of a church aiming to be multicultural, even if that means it might not grow as quickly as one where people's eager desire to flock together with others like themselves is not challenged.

Having said that, it's not easy to build that kind of church. For a start, one has to live in a multicultural area, which is simply not true of every town—certainly not in the UK anyway. Even if you are in such an area, there are many hurdles to overcome.

The desire does seem to be growing for multicultural churches to be formed. There are even a few such churches springing up. It was great today, therefore, to attend a day conference at King's Church Catford aimed at stirring churches to rise to this challenge.

For once I decided not to live-blog the event, but I am told mp3s will be available online. It was great to greet one or two of my readers at the event also. Thanks for coming up and saying "Hi." It always means a lot to know that there are real people reading.

It's vital to remember when blogging that behind every page impression lies a human person with real emotions. It's because so many bloggers forget that, not only am I glad I banned comments here, but for now at least, I'm keeping away from the comment boxes elsewhere, too. Somehow forcing people to send me an e-mail if they want to contact me seems to have driven away the negative comments that I used to have to wade through.

I guess that little outburst was probably prompted by an illustration used earlier today:

From a distance I thought you were a monster. Then, when you got closer, I thought you were an animal. When you got closer still, I realized you were a human. Closer still, I realized I liked you. When you were right next to me, I recognized you were my brother.

A quick shout-out about a couple of books on the subject, neither of which I have had time to read completely, but I like what I have seen. First, Gracism by David Anderson (one of the speakers) and secondly, Dynamic Diversity by Bruce Milne.

Chuck Colson has stopped by my blog on his blog tour to promote his new book, The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters. So far the stops have included:

• Powerblog — The Faith: We Ask, Chuck Answers
  
  
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader — Chuck Colson Answers My Questions
  
  
• ReasonedAudacity — The Faith by Charles Colson: Questions for the Book Blog Tour
  
  
• Challies.com — Chuck Colson Blog Tour

Today, I asked Chuck the following:

Adrian
Others have asked you erudite theological questions. I hope you haven't felt like you were facing some kind of theological inquisition! Welcome to the blogosphere, Chuck! I would like to be sneaky and ask you more than one question, although they are not as intellectual as some of the others.

First of all, will we ever see a Chuck Colson blog? Secondly, can you please tell us a bit about your hopes and aspirations for the book, i.e. how you came to be writing it, why you wrote it, who your target audience is, and what you hope the book will achieve in the Christian world?

Chuck Colson
There is a Chuck Colson blog right now; it's called The Point. Actually, it is run by a group here at Prison Fellowship, but it expresses my views completely.

The reason that I wrote The Faith is that I think the Church desperately needs, as Jim Packer said on his 80th birthday, to be catechized. We need to learn again the basics of our faith, those things which we hold in common through all the centuries, through all the denominations. It is what Lewis called mere Christianity. But people need to be grounded. Otherwise we can't defend ourselves and we can't live the faith out. So I think it's one of the most important books I've ever written.

The queries have started coming in. Readers are e-mailing me, wanting to know:

1. Have I forgotten about the series of republished popular posts?
   
   
2. What is the number one most-read post on this blog?

The suspense is building up . . . !!

So I've decided to launch a competition, offering four free new Christian books to the winners. The competition question? It's simple. As of now, which post is currently the most frequently read post on my blog? (There are only 2,990 or so to choose from!)

The first two bloggers who post the correct guess (with a link back to this post) will each be declared a winner and receive a Christian book through the mail. Two more books will go to the first two correct e-mail guesses. If there are fewer than two bloggers or e-mailers with the correct answer, the free books will switch to the other group. If no one gets the right answer, I will select some winners in a quasi random way (so don't sue me!).

Get thinking, and feel free to enter more than once! E-mail the post URL to adrian.warnock@gmail.com, or write your guess on your blog.

No. 3 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on July 10, 2005 and represented the first in my series of interviews with Christian leaders. I had no idea back in 2005 where the blogging journey would lead me. An exclusive offer to interview the translators of what was then a little-known, new, apparently niche-appeal translation was simply too good to turn down. The folks at Crossway were kind enough to offer me this amazing opportunity, which I grabbed with both hands!

For awhile, my blog was entirely devoted to the ESV. At the time, some people probably thought I'd never talk about anything else! They were wrong, of course, because although I often do go on and on about a subject for quite awhile, eventually the subject changes as the weeks roll into months and then years!

Here is that post in its entirety. For an exhaustive list of posts about the ESV on my blog, please click on the link provided at the end of this post.

This post is the final one in an extended series I have run on the English Standard Version of the Bible. The opportunity to interview the ESV translators has been great. We have one more answer to share on a video clip, and at the end of the post I will list links for all my previous posts on the ESV (including some that weren't directly to do with the interview).

I hope this series of posts will continue to be of use to others, so if you have enjoyed them please do consider linking to this post on your own blog.

If you want to know more about the ESV version of the Bible, these interview posts should be helpful to you. There is also a great ESV Blog which is run by the publishers.

If these posts have prompted you to buy yourself a new Bible, do let me know by e-mailing me at adrian.warnock@gmail.com. The choice of Bible translations is a very personal thing, and most serious Bible students will own more than one version. Comparing and contrasting differing translations of a passage is very helpful in trying to understand what the Bible means.

I hope that even if you do not decide to use the ESV as your primary Bible translation, you will at least look at it from time-to-time to compare it to your current favorite. It is available to read for free online, and can be bought online from Crossway or Amazon.

The Final Question
To what extent was the translation of the ESV Bible one consciously assisted by prayer and the Holy Spirit? How conscious of his work in illuminating and guiding our understanding of God's Word were you in working together on this translation?

Watch J. I. Packer respond (Windows Media).

I may say, we did make worship basic to what we were doing and started each day with a reading of Scripture, a word or two of application, and prayer together. And we thought that important. We wanted the blessing of God on what we were doing, and we were sensitive not to follow a procedure which would, in fact, leave God out of what we were doing.

Read more . . . The ESV—A Bible Translation for Everyone?

No. 8 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on October 10, 2005, when I had the honor of interviewing C. J. Mahaney via e-mail.

C. J. has, in recent years, been introduced to a new audience because of his friendship with Mark Dever and Company. I have known of him since the 1980's, and loved to listen to him live at early Newfrontiers Bible Weeks.

In January 2008, C. J.began blogging at the Sovereign Grace Blog—C. J. Mahaney's View From the Cheap Seats and Other Stuff. The headlines from that blog will be appearing in my Warnie Winners Box from now on.

Adrian
It is my great pleasure to welcome to the blog one of my greatest heroes in the faith, C. J. Mahaney. C. J. is well-known as a preacher and the leader of Sovereign Grace Ministries. More recently he has been gaining fame in the world of blogs as the husband and father of the writers of GirlTalk. He is also the mentor of another well-known blogger and author, Josh Harris, who I have also interviewed.

Welcome to the world of the blogosphere, C. J. It was great of you to join us for this interview. I would like to talk to you today about your new book, Humility—True Greatness. First of all, what prompted such a book? Whose idea was it, and how was it born?

C. J.
Adrian, I'm honored to be interviewed! I can assure you the idea for this book was not mine! I didn't volunteer to write this book, and there were countless times while writing it that I had the following thought: "You idiot! Why did you agree to write this book?" I was approached by my publisher to write the book, and I was encouraged by my wife and friends. After some initial reluctance, I agreed to do it. I can assure you that writing about humility is a humbling experience.

Adrian
It seems from what you are saying and from my reading of the book that humility is actually something of a lifetime message for you. Am I right in that assessment? Do you believe that one of the biggest needs of the Church today is for leaders to emerge who have the authority to lead, but the humility to do so graciously? If so, how will this book and other resources help in producing such leaders?

C. J.
Adrian, you ask good questions and you ask a lot of questions! It is true that I have been studying both humility and pride for many years for the purpose of weakening pride in my own life and cultivating humility by the grace of God. And I think Scripture is clear about the priority of humility, not just for leaders, but for everyone who professes to love and serve the Savior. In Isaiah 66:2 we read the following astonishing statement:

This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word."

Although God is aware of all things, he is searching for something in particular, something that acts like a magnet to capture his attention and invite his active involvement. And that something is humility. God is decisively drawn to the humble. It is my hope that this book will remind the reader of the priority of humility in the divine economy and the gracious promise of God "to give grace to the humble (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

Read more . . . Interview With C. J. Mahaney

Part of the reason for my blog holiday has been, hopefully, to fit more time for prayer into my schedule which, even without blogging, remains tightly packed. As usual, I have not found that as easy as I would like—although I am praying more than I normally do. What is it about prayer that we find so difficult?

I thought I would interrupt this blog break to bring you the following prolonged extract from Sam Storms' forthcoming book on Colossians. The daily devotions I am sharing here are all on the subject of prayer, and I have found them helpful to me as I look again at this vital subject. This is taken from The Hope of Glory: 100 Daily Meditations on Colossians, by Sam Storms, pp.309-324, © 2008. Used by permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, http://www.crossway.org/.

The Easiest Thing About Prayer
Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
The easiest thing about praying is quitting. Giving up seems so reasonable, so easy to justify. It’s always been that way, which is why Paul wrote in Colossians 4:12, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Persevering in prayer when no one seems to listen strikes many people as a sign of fanaticism, if not mental instability.

Not long ago I received an e-mail from a friend who was facing the impending deaths of several people in his church. Soon after, I learned of the untimely passing of an incredibly godly Christian man who left behind a grieving wife and two young children. In any given week I hear the same stories you do: a loved one dies, a job is lost and another not found, bills go unpaid, relationships are shattered, dreams fail to materialize. Rain does not fall and crops fail. A teenager is loved and cared for, yet rebels and abandons God. What makes such incidents especially disturbing is that they all occur notwithstanding persistent and fervent prayer that they not. Why is it that a man or woman prays for relief or deliverance or some essential blessing to alleviate intense aggravation, but hears nothing? In humble faith, with sincerity of heart, not for a moment doubting that God is able both to hear and answer their prayers, they pray. But heaven is silent, or so it seems.

I recently saw the film The Island (that’s not a recommendation!) in which unsuspecting clones are nourished and sustained to serve as organ donors for their wealthy sponsors who aspire to live as long as possible. These “folk” know virtually nothing of the outside world or its ways. Two have escaped and are in conversation with a rather strange man who happens to mention “God.” “What’s ‘God’?” asks one of the clones.

“Oh, well, you know when you close your eyes and ask for something?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, God’s the one who doesn’t answer you.”

It’s a bad joke, but for many people it rings all too true. People in Paul’s day faced the same temptation to quit that we do. But too much was at stake. Though defeated at the cross, Satan and his demons are still active. The weakness of the flesh abides. The threat of schism in the body of Christ is ever present. Great opportunities to share the gospel are at every turn. So, don’t quit, says Paul. Continue steadfastly in prayer. Keep watch at all times lest you despair. Be thankful for all God has done and will do in response to your petitions. Much has already been said in Colossians concerning perseverance in prayer, so I won’t repeat myself here. . . . Instead, I want to briefly address the reasons why a good God who can help often seems not to, or at least not to in accordance with our schedules. There are surely reasons other than these, but here are a few suggestions that I hope will encourage you to “continue steadfastly in prayer” (Colossians 4:2a).

First, we are a presumptuous people. We just assume that God ought always to do what we ask, when we ask, precisely in the way we ask. By delaying his response, God awakens us to the gracious character of all answered prayer. In other words, that God says or does anything at all in response to our petitions is sheer, undiluted grace. Resolute continuation in prayer, watchful perseverance, is often the best way for us to learn this invaluable lesson.

Second, steadfast endurance in coming again and again to the throne of grace is God’s way of cultivating in us a sense of absolute and utter dependence upon him. We are by nature self-reliant, self-sufficient folk. If God were instantly and at all times to answer our every prayer, we would gradually lose our sense of urgency. Truth be told, most of us would soon lose sight of the fact that it is God alone who is the source of all good. By suspending his response, God is saying to each of us: “Just how desperate are you? How conscious are you that I am your only source, your sole and all-sufficient supply?”

Third, persistent praying puts us in that frame of mind and spirit in which we may properly receive what it is that God desires to give. In other words, it isn’t so much that God is reluctant to give, but that we lack preparation to receive. Try to envision what a mess your life would have been if your parents granted you everything you asked for as a child! God often delays his answers because, quite simply, we are in no shape to receive them. Few of us are willing to admit that, but deep down we know it’s true.

Fourth, steadfast, watchful continuation in prayer helps us differentiate between impetuous, ill-conceived, selfish desires, and sincere, deep-seated, Christ-exalting ones. Persistence in prayer thus enables us to weed out improper petitions.

Fifth, endurance at the throne of grace purifies the content of our petitions. By repeating our prayers we are forced to think and rethink what we are saying. We are compelled to evaluate our motivation and aim for asking God for something in particular. It’s a bit like how I read, reread, and read yet again each of these meditations. It helps me identify mistakes, locate typographical errors, and rephrase something that otherwise might be false or misleading. I can almost envision God saying in response to my first articulation of a prayer, “Sam, are you sure you want me to answer that one? Think about it. Contemplate the long-term consequences of a yes. Then come back and ask me again in different terms, with a purified purpose.”

Sixth, perseverance cultivates patience. By withholding an immediate response, we learn how to wait on God. Waiting on the Lord is far from a passive posture. It’s an active, expectant, persistent pressing in to the heart and purposes of a loving God. How might we ever learn to do this were it not for steadfastness in prayer?

Seventh, oftentimes God wants to give, but not now. The answer will come in better circumstances, at a more opportune moment. By delaying his response, a greater and better and more God-glorifying end is secured than by an immediate answer.

Finally, even if none of the reasons given above makes sense to you, persevere anyway! God isn’t asking you to understand; he’s asking you to be faithful.


Pray Thankfully!
Colossians 4:2
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
There’s always a possibility that someone reading this passage might walk away with the idea that prayer is an anxious, troublesome, fearful endeavor. Paul’s language might easily contribute to that, were it not for the final two words of the text. Let me explain.

If I were to exhort you concerning some spiritual activity and insisted, perhaps with great urgency, that you “continue steadfastly” in it and that you remain alert and watchful, you might be inclined to worry, perhaps wringing your hands, biting your nails, and pacing nervously back and forth in doubt of the ultimate outcome. Now let’s be clear about one thing: prayer is serious business. James put it pointedly: “You do not have, because you do not ask” (James 4:2). If we fail to pray, we most likely will not receive. It is utterly presumptuous to think that God will do for us apart from prayer what he has promised to do for us only through prayer.

But this reality must be held in delicate balance with the equally biblical truth that God is sovereign: nothing slips his mind or through his fingers. He will accomplish all his purposes. He “works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).

This is the point, I believe, of Paul’s insistence that when we pray, and we should pray always and alertly, we should do so “with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4:2b). Why does he insist on this? And more important still, how do we do it? How does one pray thankfully?

First, I believe Paul includes this qualifying phrase because he wants to instill confidence in us rather than fear and uncertainty as we pray. It’s his way of saying, “Yes, by all means be faithful and fervent in your prayers. But know this: God is always and ever on his throne. The battle in which you fight is ultimately his, on your behalf. Let gratitude for what God has done and will do permeate your petitions. In this way you will never lose hope or fall into despair or live in fear that he has abandoned you in your hour of need.”

But second, and most important, how do we do this? What does it mean to pray “with thanksgiving”? Here are a few thoughts.

First, pray with gratitude that God is actually there, alive and alert and never asleep. We do not speak into a vacuum or to a God who is preoccupied with other, allegedly more important matters.

Second, pray with gratitude that God not only lives and loves but also actually listens to what we say. He hears us! “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. . . . He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you” (Isaiah 30:18–19). As you pray, therefore, thank God that he loves to listen and to be gracious.

Third, pray with gratitude that the God who lives, loves, and listens is also more than able to do above and beyond all we ask or think (cf. Ephesians 3:20). I’m so thankful that the God to whom I pray isn’t a wimp or a weakling, but an omnipotent and infinitely wise Father who delights in giving good things to those who ask (Luke 11:13).

Fourth, pray thanking God that he has chosen to include you in the process. God could have ordained that all his will be accomplished independently of our participation. But he didn’t. He has chosen to achieve his ultimate ends through means, the latter being primarily our prayers.

Fifth, pray thanking God for all the ways he is changing you as you pray. Wholehearted and humble intercession transforms the intercessor. Our ideas of God are elevated. Our awareness of personal dependency is intensified. The magnitude of God’s power and providence is manifest in ways that we otherwise might never behold. Our dreams and hopes and desires are cleansed and purified as we humbly submit to his will and crucify our own.

Sixth, pray thanking God that what you are asking him to graciously do in the lives of others he has already done in yours. If we are not grateful for the salvation and healing and mercy granted us, how can we possibly be fervent and diligent in asking that God do the same for others?

Seventh, and finally, pray with gratitude to God not simply for what he has done but for what he will do. Thank him in advance for what he will do in response to your requests. Without being triumphalistic or sinfully presumptuous, we should pray with Thank you, Lord!

The bottom line is this: it’s hard to be fearful when you are immersed in gratitude. Thankfulness turns the human soul toward heaven and away from self. Thankfulness, by its very nature, requires that we fix our focus on the fact that God is and who God is and what God has done and will do. Thankful prayer is necessarily theocentric.

Do you recall the incident in 2 Chronicles 20 where Jehoshaphat and the kingdom of Judah came under siege by the Moabites and Ammonites? After their prayer seeking God’s assistance, the prophet Jahaziel came to them with a bizarre word of counsel. “He appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, [to] say, ‘Give thanks to the Lord, for his steadfast love endures forever’” (2 Chronicles 20:21).

He instructs them to be thankful on the front end of the battle, before the enemy is ever engaged. Let the reality of God’s steadfast love fill your heart, he told them. Praise him for who he is. Rest peacefully in what he will do. “Stand firm,” he said, “hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf” (2 Chronicles 20:17).

Thus, “when Paul says our praying is to be done with thanksgiving, he means that we should keep our eyes on the victory of God. We do not fight as losers or even as those who are uncertain. We know God will win. And if we have eyes to see, we will recognize the path of his power again and again.”


Just Do It!
Colossians 4:3–4
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Now, wait just a minute. We all agree that God loves lost souls and wants them to hear the gospel of salvation in his Son. So why does he suspend the opening of an evangelistic door on the prayers of the Colossians? I’m tempted to say, in the words of the Nike commercial: “God, ‘just do it!’” Or, perhaps more reverently, “God, why don’t you directly open these doors rather than telling Paul to tell us to ask you to do so? What’s the point of our asking you to do what you’ve already revealed is in your heart to accomplish? As I said, Lord, ‘just do it!’” I suspect God’s response to me would be: “No, Sam. That’s not how I operate. Yes, of course, I could ‘just do it’ directly and instantaneously, without your involvement or anyone else’s. But I prefer to do it when you ask me to. In fact, in most instances I won’t do it unless you ask me to.”

Here’s another question that comes to mind. Why does Paul encourage the Colossians to pray for him? What’s the point of his asking them to ask God to open a door for the Word? Why does he urge them to pray that God would give him clarity of speech? Isn’t it enough that he ask God himself? I’m assuming he did, but he evidently believed that it would greatly help his cause if others joined him in beseeching God for this blessing. Does this imply that God is more inclined to say yes to our requests if more people are united in asking him for them? That seems odd.

Or is it primarily to aid his cause that Paul enlists the prayers of others on his behalf? Could it possibly be that for the sake of God’s greater glory he makes this request of the Colossians? I’ll return to that momentarily.

Let’s be clear about one thing. I didn’t ask these questions because I intend to solve the tension between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. I couldn’t solve it even if I wanted to, and how prayer factors into the equation is ultimately something beyond my intellectual ken.

Rather, I’m concerned about the nature of prayer. Or, more accurately, I’m concerned about the purpose of prayer. Why has God chosen to incorporate it into the way he governs the world and accomplishes his purposes?

One thing we know: God loves to be asked, and there’s good reason for it. Consider Psalm 50:12, one of the most sarcastic verses in Scripture. God says to the Israelites: “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine,” which is to say, if God were hungry (which, of course, he’s not), he wouldn’t need the Israelites to provide him with a meal. “Every beast of the forest is mine,” says the Lord, “[not to mention] the cattle on a thousand hills” (Psalm 50:10).

So, if God doesn’t need us or our prayers, why does he create us and then command us to ask him for things? That’s a pretty profound question, but it comes with a fairly simple answer.

In Psalm 50:15 God says again, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” When you’re in trouble, says God, when you have needs and problems and trials and obstacles to overcome, pray to me and ask that I intervene and make provision. If you do, I’ll deliver you. And in your obvious dependence upon me I will be glorified. We both win. You get delivered. I get glorified. You receive a blessing. And people and angels and demons see that I’m the all-sufficient supply, the infinitely resourceful God, the one being in the universe who exists to overflow in abundant goodness to weak and needy people like you!

It’s amazing how asking a few questions about the nature and purpose of prayer drives us directly into the reason why God created the universe. God didn’t create us because he was needy or lacking in some profound way. We don’t supply God with anything. “The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Acts 17:24–25).

So, that being true, why did he make it all? He made it all so that in its (our) utter and absolute dependence on him for everything, his glory as God might be seen and savored. Our need magnifies his supply. Our lack draws attention to his abundance. God honors and glorifies himself by overflowing in bountiful blessings to those who otherwise deserve only death. And how do we get these blessings? By praying for them! God suspends his work on our prayers not because he can’t do it alone but because our prayers highlight our dependence and his supply. We are humbled as dependent and he is exalted as depended upon.

Not only does he get the glory for being depended upon but we get the gladness for being dependent. Yes, please read that again. There is no greater joy than getting what God gives (and he is himself, of course, the greatest gift). And there is no greater glory than for God to be giving.

Jesus commanded his disciples to pray, and here’s why: “Whatever you ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Although there are undoubtedly other reasons why God chose to incorporate our prayers in the accomplishment of his purposes, his glory is preeminent.

One more thing: earlier I asked why Paul felt it important to enlist the prayers of the Colossians on his behalf. It’s not because God is stingy and Paul thought that a multitude of intercessors might have greater success in prevailing on God’s otherwise reluctant heart than would he alone. Once again, it’s all about God’s glory. In 2 Corinthians 1:11 Paul wrote, “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.”

Note carefully why it’s important that the Corinthians (like the Colossians) pray for him. It is so that “many will give thanks” for the “blessing” that God grants to him in response to their prayers. God’s glory is more readily seen and known and savored when many rise up in unified gratitude for what he has done than if only one or a few do. So, when we pray for one another we get gladness in receiving what God gives and God gets glory for giving what we get.

Open Doors for the Gospel
Colossians 4:3–4
Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.
Political correctness notwithstanding, Christianity is an evangelistic religion. Its aim is to proclaim the good news that there is eternal life in only one: Jesus Christ. Its aim, by the grace of God, is to bring about the deliverance of men and women out of the domain of darkness into the kingdom of light. There are some things, no doubt, for which we as Christians ought to apologize, but declaring that faith in Jesus Christ alone is essential for eternal life isn’t one of them. We should never hesitate to proclaim the “mystery of Christ” or shrink back from seeking the conversion of every soul.

Here in Colossians 4:3–4 Paul solicits the prayers of these believers, not for his own health or freedom or prosperity but for the opportunity and clarity to proclaim Jesus as Lord to lost and dying people. There are two elements in Paul’s request that call for our attention.

First, he asks them to ask God to open “a door for the word” that he might proclaim “the mystery of Christ” (v. 3). This isn’t the first time he’s used this imagery for evangelistic opportunities (see also Acts 14:27; 1 Corinthians 16:8–9; 2 Corinthians 2:12).

The “door,” evidently, is closed. This may suggest political opposition; social, cultural, and educational barriers to sharing the faith; adverse weather that hinders travel; or any number of factors that make evangelism difficult from a human perspective. It may be that Paul is asking God to grant him favor with those who have the authority to give him access to certain arenas of activity or platforms from which he might declare his message. In any case, Paul believed that God is sovereign over all such circumstances and that he can remove obstacles and overcome resistance and restrain the enemies of the faith when asked to do so by his people.

That an apostle, no less, would ask ordinary Christians like these Colossians to pray for his evangelistic success is stunning. Paul refused to trust in his skill or eloquence or theological knowledge alone. He needed the intercessory support of other believers. It’s almost as if he’s saying, “I’m helpless if you don’t ask God to help me.” Amazing!

And what might Paul do should the door be opened? He has one goal, one solitary purpose: to proclaim the mystery of Christ. The word mystery doesn’t mean what it does in a P. D. James novel or in a Sudoku puzzle. Paul typically uses this word when he has in mind a truth formerly hidden but now made known in Jesus Christ.

The mystery of Christ is the revelation of what God has done in and through his Son to make possible atonement for sin and its forgiveness. That the Word should become flesh (John 1:14) is a mystery now made known for our salvation. That God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19) is a mystery now revealed for our justification. That faith alone in a crucified Messiah is the power of God unto salvation is a mystery now made known for our eternal welfare.

Where Christ is not proclaimed, the gospel is not known. No matter how psychologically soothing a sermon may be, if the mystery of Christ is not center stage, the gospel has not been preached. The focus of our message is not self-esteem, social justice, the plight of the poor, or world peace (as important as those issues are in their own right), but Jesus Christ crucified and risen for the salvation of lost souls.

Paul’s second request is that they ask God to enable him to proclaim this mystery with clarity (v. 4). “Pray that God will work in me,” says Paul, “that I might have the words to speak in the most persuasive manner and at the most appropriate time. Ask God to operate in my heart and mind and soul so that my message will ring true and will reverberate with passion and conviction and courage.”

Stunning, isn’t it, that a man of Paul’s spiritual caliber and gifting felt so desperately dependent on the prayers of others for his effectiveness in ministry! He made a similar plea to the Roman church, appealing to them to strive together with him in their prayers to God on his behalf, that he might be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and that his service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the
saints (Romans 15:30–31).

His request of the Colossians raises an interesting question: What precisely might serve to inhibit or hinder his clarity of speech or prevent him from proclaiming the gospel in the way he desired? It may be that he anticipated trick questions from a hostile crowd and needed the assistance of the Spirit to see through their deception and speak truth into the fog of error. It may be that he sensed the importance of using just the right illustration or parable or analogy to make a point that would penetrate a closed and calloused heart with the truth that brings light and life. Paul, no doubt, felt confused at times and needed the quickening ministry of the Spirit in his mind. “Pray that God would clear my head of intellectual cobwebs and overcome any sluggishness of speech that would be unworthy of the gospel I proclaim. Pray that the Father would fill me with the Spirit of boldness and confidence and drive from me all fear of man and concern for my own reputation or physical safety.”

If he felt this burden, how much more you and I! Have you committed to praying consistently for your pastor each time he preaches? Have you interceded for that Sunday school teacher who tells the story of Jesus to indifferent and mocking junior high students? Have you petitioned God for yourself as you prepare to share your testimony with an unsaved neighbor? We are all desperately in need of such anointing and spiritual support from on high every time we open our mouths to speak of Christ.

“O, grant us open doors, Father, that we may speak boldly and clearly and joyfully of your Son and all that you have done for sinners in and through him! Work in us by your Spirit that we might have just the right story, the most telling illustration, the most persuasive phrasing as we declare the mystery of Christ Jesus! Amen.”

No. 20 on the list of most-read posts on this blog appeared on October 25, 2007, and introduced us to a remarkable new approach to a study Bible, brought to us by Crossway. As of January 2008, I'm still working my way through this Bible, reading it from cover-to-cover. I'm enjoying it very much.

Crossway has made the preface of its new ESV Literary Study Bible available online. They have also made the text available for electronic purchase. I am very impressed with the introductions they offer to every passage in the Bible. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Too many Christians think that the literary study of the Bible necessarily implies that we do not believe it is inspired by God. This is, of course, not true. The Bible is, after all, a book. You will almost certainly find the comments in this new work totally different to those you have read in any other study Bible. As far as I know, this is the first truly literary study Bible.

Crossway has kindly given me permission to share the following extract here. It explains twelve literary features of the Bible which together make it unique:

1. A unifying story line.
   
   Although the overall genre of the Bible is the anthology of individual books and passages, the Bible possesses a unity far beyond that of other literary anthologies. The technical term for a unifying superstructure such as we find in the Bible is metanarrative (big or overarching story). In the Bible, the metanarrative is the story of salvation history—the events by which God worked out his plan to redeem humanity and the creation after they fell from original innocence. This story of salvation history is Christocentric in the sense that it focuses ultimately on the substitutionary sacrifice and atonement of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from death. The unifying story line of the Bible is a U-shaped story that moves from the creation of a perfect world, through the fall of that world into sin, then through fallen human history as it slowly and painfully makes its way toward consummation and arrives at the final destruction of evil and the eternal triumph of good.
   
   
   
2. The presence of a central character.
   
   All stories have a central character or protagonist, and in the overarching story of the Bible God is the protagonist. He is the unifying presence from the beginning of the Bible to the end. All creatures interact with this central and ultimate being. All events are related to him. The story of human history unfolds within the broader story of what God does. The result is a sense of ultimacy that comes through as we read the pages of the Bible.
   
   
   
3. Religious orientation.
   
   The subject of literature is human experience, and this is true of the Bible, too, but a distinctive feature of the Bible is that it overwhelmingly presents human experience in a religious and moral light. Events that other writers might treat in a purely human and natural light—a sunrise, a battle, a birth, a journey—are presented by the authors of the Bible within a moral or spiritual framework. Part of this moral and spiritual framework is the assumption of the biblical authors that a great conflict between good and evil is going on in our world and, further, that people are continually confronted with the need to choose between good and evil, between working for God's kingdom and going against God.
   
   
   
4. Variety of genres and styles.
   
   Every literary anthology of the Bible's magnitude displays a range of literary forms, but the Bible's range may well top them all. We need to be alert to this, because the religious uses to which we put the Bible can easily lull us into assuming that the Bible is all one type of writing. The list of individual forms, if we include such specific motifs as the homecoming story or trickster or love poem, keeps expanding. (A complete guide to these literary forms as we find them in the Bible is Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998].) The variety that we find in the Bible stems partly from the large categories that converge—history, theology, and literature, for example, or prose and poetry, realism and fantasy, past and future, God and people.
   
   Read more . . . Twelve Literary Features of the Bible

I just received the following announcement in my e-mail about a blogging tour that Tim Challies will be taking next week. I have previously highlighted Tim's book here on my sidebar, and in my review of it, in which I said:

"Tim Challies takes us from the turbulent marketplace of ideas that is the modern western church back into the world of the Scriptures. Sadly, today many people fall into the trap of being naively blown from one wind of teaching to another. Others become so expert at straining out the gnats of what they believe to be error that they are unable to learn from anybody. Instead they believe themselves to be the guardians of "true" doctrine. Tim shows us from the Bible itself how to avoid both errors. Tim's reliance on the Bible is refreshing in an age when doctrinal pillars of our faith are being challenged by prominent preachers, and there is a constant search for novelty in parts of the Church. This book, like no other I have seen, aims to give ordinary Christians like you and me the tools we need to learn how to discern truth from error. I wholeheartedly urge you to get yourself a copy and read it, and then buy one for a friend."

RELEASE FROM CROSSWAY

Most Christians are a little fuzzy on the topic of discernment. We know that someone should apply discernment to the media, to teachings, and to important decisions. We've heard of discernment ministries, and we may have even used the phrase "the gift of discernment." The general tenor of our conversations could lead us to conclude that discernment is best left to the professionals.

Perhaps this conversation needs to be re-opened. Leading evangelical blogger Tim Challies initiates the dialogue with his new book, The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment, which contends that discernment is the call of every believer. In conjunction with the book's release, Challies is taking his message to the blogosphere. His two-week blog tour will start on Monday, January 7th and will run until Friday, January 18th. Watch for Challies on the following sites, and submit your comments to participate:

Jan 7: Evangelical Outpost

Jan 8: Tall Skinny Kiwi

Jan 9: A-Team

Jan 10: Adrian Warnock

Jan 11: Gender Blog

Jan 14: Jollyblogger

Jan 15: Between Two Worlds

Jan 16: Team Pyro

Jan 17: Internet Monk

Jan 18: Church Matters

Tim has written more about his tour and some foolish comment controversy some have been stirring up about his book. All I want to say for now is that a team of professionals built the Titanic. A single amatuer built the ark.

In my interview with Wayne Grudem he said something pertinent to this latest controversy over "professionalism" in the church:

". . . it is always wise to have a governing structure where the highest governing offices in the church and the highest positions of influence are open to lay people as well as ordained people. The denominations where only clergy have the highest of authority seem to be the ones that are never able to be brought back once they drift into liberalism because the ordinary lay people who have common sense and are reading their Bibles every day don’t have any way to regain control of a denomination that has gone astray if it has that kind of structure."

—Wayne Grudem

I have already told you how much I love books. Every book needs a Christian owner who will cherish it, care for it, place it lovingly on a bookshelf, and, ideally, even read it! But the truth is, with so many great books on the market today, most of us simply don't have time to read every book from cover to cover. Of course, it's good to sit with a book and just read it. But there are also times when we want to dip into books. Times when perhaps we are studying a certain passage in Scripture. This is when Bible software comes into its own. The ability to search a book or a collection of books for a subject or specific Bible reference is invaluable.

There are several different types of Bible software available. They each provide a different tool that is designed to do a different job. Comparing them is a bit like comparing a screwdriver and a chisel. Sure, you can use a screwdriver to do some jobs for which a chisel would be more appropriate, but if you tried it the other way around, you'd notice the difference! There is overlap in the design, but they are very different. I'm only going to talk today about two Bible software programs. Both of these are serious programs that, most importantly to me, make it possible to search through a remarkably large number of books. These two programs are Accordance and Logos Bible Software.

I should declare at the outset a significant bias. I have used Logos for a number of years and have a relationship with them whereby purchasers from this blog get a significant discount, and I obtain a referral payment. I have no such arrangement with Accordance.

Because I have been using it for so long, Logos has enough of a hold on me that it delayed by years my inevitable final switch from a PC to a Mac. "What would be the point of a computer without it?" I would have said. Parallels, a virtual PC program for Macs, means that I can run Logos alongside all my other Mac programs. Of course, it still doesn't look as elegant as the Mac programs, but it works better and faster than it did on my reasonably high spec PC. Macs just don't crash very much. There is no other way of saying it—Logos on a parallels virtual PC is fantastic. It is faster to open, and runs most searches more quickly than it ever did on my reasonably specked PC!

It is probably unfair for me to compare the interfaces of the two programs as I have only recently begun using Accordance and I am already very familiar with Logos. I can say that Logos is a fairly typical Windows program, using Internet Explorer as its base. Accordance, on the other hand, is a native Apple Mac program. Users who are passionate about one platform or the other will tend to like one or the other of the programs' interfaces.

The fact is, the two interfaces are not at all alike. If you are used to one of them, the other will seem quite strange, since the interface philosophies between the two applications are very different. The Accordance team has focused their attention on what they call the "work flow" in studying and getting information on the Bible or a specific Bible tool in depth. Some people I know who are more familiar with it than I am definitely love it.

By spending a bit of time learning the ropes it is possible to do many of the same searches. I find, however, that I still like the simplicity of Logos' passage guide, although you have to do some work identifying groups of books and adding them to the search to actually mine the depths of your library. Being able to simply enter a passage, hit the search button, and watch Logos search for that verse through the immense library of books I have amassed over the years is a major bonus.

Accordance, although its historical focus has centered less on a 'library' motif and more on searching individual books, does, in fact, have a similar feature with its "search all" function (available from "File - New" for some reason, rather than "Search"). The results are similar, although they are presented in a different manner. Until recently I thought that one thing which neither software program appeared to do well was to focus that search to a specific Bible verse rather than an entire passage, especially in theology journals. A search for Ephesians 1:3 would often return results on the whole of Ephesians 1, or worse yet, on the entire epistle. In Accordance, however, a new search in the "all tools" section provides a format which can say "Ephesians 1:3 <NOT> Ephesians 1:2." This will do what I described by excluding references to that verse, and it will also exclude references to the chapter as a whole. A recent improvement to the Logos search engine allows a very similar function. You need to call up a basic search and type something like Bible="Ephesians 1:3."

Please do not complain about the speed of either program in performing this mammoth task. Just think how long it would take you to do this from a manual approach! Get up, walk downstairs, put the kettle on, and it will probably be done before the kettle even has a chance to boil. If you have a Mac, it may finish before you even leave the room! The only drawback with a big library is that you can return too many results to sift through. But when studying an obscure verse and wanting to know what thousands of writers have had to say about it, having this information at your fingertips is invaluable. You simply couldn't do it at all without Bible software, so to complain about the interfaces seems a bit churlish.

On the other hand, I did like the ability of Accordance to select a few verses and generate a report on the relative importance, frequency, and uses elsewhere in the Bible of the words found in it. Logos has a similar feature which is more graphical and is apparently based on CIA technology for analyzing the importance of large volumes of data. There are some search features for specific books that Accordance has which are very different to those which Logos has implemented.

To be quite honest, neither program really excites me in its user interface. The truth is, both Logos and Accordance are not quite as easy and intuitive to use (especially for the more complex searches) as someone who hates to read manuals or watch video training would like! Logos intends to port their software to the world's best operating environment. But don't hold your breath waiting for the much delayed end result, and certainly don't delay buying a Mac for that reason!

For me, the key reason to purchase Bible software is because of the number of books you can get with it. In that regard, Logos wins hands down. The range and breadth of materials available is simply stunning, and massively outweighs the list available for Accordance. Some of the most important ones (such as the Word Biblical Commentary series and the Theological Journal Library) are available for both programs. (I am told that in the latter on Accordance it is possible to search by author, something which I haven't yet figured out in Logos.) But there are a number of helpful scholarly resources not available for Logos that are available for Accordance. These include (most importantly) Zondervan materials such as the Essential, Personal Growth, and Scholarly Bible Study Suites, and two standard lexicons, NIDNTT and NIDOTTE, as well as some other scholarly resources.

Few pastors or serious students of the Bible would be anything less than ecstatic to receive a gift like this, provided they are not so computer-phobic that they simply use it as a very expensive tea coaster! Perhaps you could club together with members of your church to gather sufficient funds to invest in a copy of one of these programs for your leader.

If you can afford it, and already own a Mac, you should seriously consider buying both programs. It is worth buying Parallels and Win XP just so you can use Logos! If you don't have a Mac, the choice is simple—buy the biggest Logos Bible Software package you can possibly afford, since you can always bring it with you if you do ever make a jump to the Apple platform.

I thought I might make a few suggestions about things that your Christian friend might want for Christmas. It is no surprise that I suggest books first of all. I love receiving new books. When the doorbell rings, I thunder downstairs, hoping that tell-tale flat-box will be in the postman's hand, announcing another book has arrived!

If you are looking for inspiration about what book to buy, I would obviously love you to go and scroll down through the rather long page which contains a number of my book review posts. But there are so many other great books out there.

I thought I would share a list with you of some of the books which I don't think I have reviewed yet. These books are on my shelves at home. Some of them I devoured eagerly from cover to cover, but just never got around to reviewing. Others were ones I started to read and found the bits I read to be helpful. Still others I have only skimmed through, but they look interesting to me!

I thought I would intrigue you by simply sharing the ISBN number and title only. If any of them tempt you, simply copy the ISBN number and search within your favorite online bookstore to find out more about these books.

1. 9781844741663
   Central Themes in Biblical Theology: Mapping Unity in Diversity
   
   
2. 9781844741281
   Darwin's Nemesis: Phillip Johnson and the Intelligent Design Movement
   
   
3. 9780670915538
   England: The Autobiography. 2,000 Years of English History By Those Who Saw It Happen
   
   
4. 9781581344080
   Interpreting the New Testament Text: Introduction to the Art and Science of Exegesis
   
   
5. 9781581348095
   Suffering and the Sovereignty of God
   
   
6. 9780737500684
   Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit?
   
   
7. 9780830833856
   Mastering Monday: A Guide to Integrating Faith and Work
   
   
8. 9781852403683
   Rebuilding the Walls: A Challenge to the Church from Ezra and Nehemiah
   
   
9. 9781581349344
   Rethinking Worldview: Learning to Think, Live, and Speak in This World
   
   
10. 9780801065330
    Escaping the Matrix: Setting Your Mind Free to Experience Real Life in Christ
    
    
11. 9781852404666
    Does God Approve of War?
    
    
12. 9781581349276
    The Great Exchange: My Sin for His Righteousness
    
    
13. 9780801027987
    Christ-centered Preaching: Redeeming the Expository Sermon
    
    
14. 9781844741915
    Total Church: A Radical Reshaping Around Gospel and Community
    
    
15. 9781903725757
    Our Eyes Fixed on Jesus
    
    
16. 9781581348309
    Parent Fuel: For the Fire Inside Our Kids
    
    
17. 9780310270164
    Confessions of a Reformission Rev: Hard Lessons from an Emerging Missional Church (Leadership Network Innovation Series)
    
    
18. 9780310256595
    The Radical Reformission: Reaching Out Without Selling Out
    
    
19. 9781852404376
    The Christian, Israel and the Hope of World Revival: Israel in Romans 9-11
    
    
20. 9780842371513
    Through Gates of Splendor: 40th Anniversary Edition
    
    
21. 9781581347739
    The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God's Grace
    
    
22. 9781576737262
    Finishing Strong: Going the Distance for Your Family
    
    
23. 9781844741458
    Gospel-centred Hermeneutics: Biblical-theological Foundations and Principles
    
    
24. 9781852404505
    Anger: How Do You Handle It? (Truth & Freedom)
    
    
25. 9781590523650
    Stop Dating the Church (Lifechange Books)
    
    
26. 9780976758266
    When Sinners Say "I Do": Discovering the Power of the Gospel for Marriage
    
    
27. 9780830824106
    The Message of Evil and Suffering: Light Into Darkness (Bible Speaks Today Bible Themes)
    
    
28. 9781850787297
    Twenty-four: Integrating Faith and Real Life
    
    
29. 9781852403782
    The Parables of Jesus: A Guide to Understanding and Applying the Stories of Jesus
    
    
30. 9780830826216
    Shepherds After My Own Heart: Pastoral Traditions and Leadership in the Bible (New Studies in Biblical Theology)
    
    
31. 9780785262565
    Twelve Extraordinary Women: How God Shaped Women of the Bible, and What He Wants to Do with You
    
    
32. 9780875527154
    The Heart of a Servant Leader: Letters from Jack Miller
    
    
33. 9781857923100
    Charles Simeon (HistoryMakers)
    
    
34. 9781860243400
    Work: Prison or Place of Destiny?
    
    
35. 9781601780003
    Meet the Puritans: With A Guide to Modern Reprints
    
    
36. 9780825415876
    What Jesus Demands from the World
    
    
37. 9780007150649
    Statecraft
    
    
38. 9780830829316
    A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on Titus, 1-2 Timothy and 1-3 John: 1 (Letters and Homilies for Hellenized Christians Set)
    
    
39. 9780830825820
    The Expansion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Wilberforce, More, Chalmers and Finney (History of Evangelicalism)

My buddy, Jesse, has recently completed a nine-part series of posts on Signs of the Spirit, in which Sam Storms interprets Jonathan Edwards' classic work on experiential Christianity, The Religious Affections. Here are the links:

1. True spirituality is a hunger for God

2. Public gathering, prayer, preaching, and singing

3. You're not a Christian just because you...

4. Sign 1) A new spiritual 'sense'

5. Sign 2) A love for the things of God

6. Experience, emotion, Edwards and public worship

7. Signs 3-5) Moral excellency, right understanding, conviction.

8. Sign 6) Genuine, evangelical humility

9. Remaining 6 signs of genuine religious affections

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

I have now come to the end of my series responding to John Piper's new book, The Future of Justification. Here is a list of the previous posts:

1. John Piper, N. T. Wright, and Gracious Discernment
   
   
2. John Piper Challenges N. T. Wright on Justification
   
   
3. Piper Explains the Classic View of Justification Versus N. T. Wright's View
   
   
4. Piper and Wright: Does Justification by Faith Save Us?
   
   
5. John Piper: Is N. T. Wright Preaching Another Gospel?
   
   
6. Legalism Versus Grace in First Century Judaism
   
   
7. Hard and Soft Legalism
   
   
8. Legalism, Racism, and the First Century Jew
   
   
9. 2 Corinthians 5 and Romans 5—Two Critical Passages on Justification
   
   
10. The Christian and the Law
    
    
11. Piper Gets Passionate with the ETS on Justification
    
    
12. Tom Wright's Response to John Piper
    
    
13. Does Piper Neglect the Resurrection?

I would like to conclude by sharing a great summary quote from Dr. Piper which is a fitting climax to what, at least to me, has been an interesting journey through an important book. I hope many of you will go out and buy this book, but remember, buy Pierced for Our Transgressions first! This book will stretch you, but to be stretched is sometimes a good idea!

So, what is the crux of the doctrine of justification, according to Piper?

“Our only hope for living the radical demands of the Christian life is that God is totally for us now and forever. Therefore, God has not ordained that living the Christian life should be the basis of our hope that God is for us. That basis is the death and righteousness of Christ, counted as ours through faith alone. On the cross Christ endured for us all the punishment required of us because of our sin. And in order that God, as our Father, might be completely for us and not against us forever, Christ has performed for us in his perfect obedience to God all that God required of us.

This punishment and this obedience are completed and past. They can never change. Our union with Christ and the enjoyment of these benefits is secure forever. Through faith alone, God establishes our union with Christ. This union will never fail, because in Christ, God is for us as an omnipotent Father who sustains our faith, and works all things together for our everlasting good. The one and only instrument through which God preserves our union with Christ is faith in Christ—the purely receiving act of the soul.” (p. 184)

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

Many of the opponents of the doctrine of justification and penal substitution criticize us for not being as interested in the resurrection as the cross. I increasingly think that it is not so fair to accuse most evangelical theologians of not having a place for the resurrection in our system of beliefs. I do feel, however, that we perhaps under-emphasize the resurrection at times.

As I was reading this book, I was aware that, of course, Piper was interacting with Wright's views of the cross, so it was perhaps no wonder that the resurrection was featured less. Indeed, Wright's massive work on the resurrection did not feature in the bibliography.

As I was pondering this new obsession of mine with the place of the resurrection, I found myself asking—was Piper wrong not to look at it in more detail in this book? I concluded that probably this was influenced by the constraints of the length of the book. Perhaps an interaction with Wright on the resurrection should be the subject of another book.

I was surprised, however, to note that on two different occasions within the book Piper fell into an all-too-common evangelical trap. On both pages—89 and 212—he cites 1 Corinthians 15:3, omitting to continue the verse to include the resurrection. The Piper quotations omit the bolded phrase below:

"Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

Now, I suppose I shouldn't get overly legalistic about this, but I wish that we would all learn not to do that with that particular verse. Paul goes on to make the point that without the resurrection we would, in fact, still be in our sins, something that surely undermines any system of theology that does not require the resurrection to perform anything for us, altering our position in any way.

But I should not be unfair to Piper, for as we saw in an earlier post, when he summarizes his position on justification he states the following propositions:

(1) a person is in union with Christ by faith alone. In this union, (2) the believer is identified with Christ in his (a) wrath-absorbing death, (b) his perfect obedience to the Father, and (c) his vindication-securing resurrection. All of these are reckoned—that is, imputed—to the believer in Christ. On this basis, (3) the "dead," "righteous," "raised" believer is accepted and assured of final vindication and eternal fellowship with God.

So Piper, it seems, is NOT guilty of the charge of neglect of the resurrection. I wonder, though, how often do my own presentations of the gospel include the concept of Jesus' resurrection being credited to our account? Do I sometimes forget to even mention the resurrection of Jesus? The samples of Billy Graham's preaching I listened to at the Billy Graham Center certainly did speak of the resurrection of Jesus as part of what he had done for us. The phrase that keeps recurring in my mind from those sermons was simply "He is a living Jesus." Could it be that the preaching of the cross AND the resurrection is more spiritually potent for producing salvation than simply preaching on the cross?

UPDATE
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 13th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 14th most-read post was the summary of my interview with the leader of Newfrontiers, Terry Virgo.

This post was part of a series of posts on the debate between Wright and Piper over justification. Other parts of this series which would have made the top 30 in their own right include:

• John Piper, N. T. Wright, and Gracious Discernment
  
• John Piper: Is N. T. Wright Preaching Another Gospel?

The series is summarized here:

• Piper on Wright Conclusion: What is Justification?

***************

Trevin Wax has interviewed Tom Wright. A manuscript and audio are both available. Of particular interest is the following short section from Wright on Piper. Would that all our theological sparring partners could speak this way about us!

"Piper is in a different category. He graciously sent me an advance manuscript of his book which is critiquing me and invited my comments on it. I sent him a lengthy set of comments. I’ve only just got on email about two days ago the book in the revised form and I haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. So I cannot say whether he’s being fair or not at this stage.

But I do know that he has done his darndest to be fair and I honor that and I respect that. People have asked me if I’m going to write a response, and the answer is that I don’t know. I’m kind of busy right now. But I maybe should, sooner or later."

John Piper has delivered an amazing lecture on the vital place of justification to the ETS. The manuscript, video, and audio are available online, and this sets his new book, The Future of Justification, into context. The whole talk is fantastic, but these couple of paragraphs stuck out for me, especially considering his audience!

I’m aware that for some in the academic world, perhaps some of you, this very confession calls my fitness into question as a competent exegete. “This fellow has so much personal and pastoral allegiance to what he believes about justification, and feels such a great need for it, and has so much joy in it, that there is no way he can be objective when he comes to the biblical text, or be open to finding that his view is mistaken.” Well, that may be true. But there is another way to look at a person’s passion for particular truths.

A passion for a particular truth may be a blinding passion. That’s true. But it may also be the very means that God uses to make some truths visible and beautiful. I say that because of what Jesus said in John 7:17: “If anyone wills (or desires or wants, thele) to do God’s will, he will know (gnosetai) whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” In other words, Jesus taught that, at least in some matters, right willing precedes right knowing. Jesus is saying, “If you want the will of God, you will have the disposition of heart to recognize it when you see it in his word.” He does not say, “If you don’t want the truth God is revealing—if you have no passion for this truth—and therefore have a measure of objective distance and detachment from the truth, you will be able to assess clearly whether something is of God.” He says the opposite. There are some matters in which prior neutrality does not serve the truth, but serves death.

Today I want to share how John Piper brings two passages to bear on the justification debate. The quotes are all from his new book, The Future of Justification, and come from pages 170-180. The two passages are Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5. Piper is responding to Wright's slightly odd way of speaking about them. If you are interested in seeing an example of this, there is an article by Wright on 2 Corinthians 5:21 that I must say I found wholly unconvincing. This is what John Piper says about these passages:

Justification . . . happens to all who are connected to Christ the same way condemnation happened to those who were connected to Adam. How is that? Adam acted sinfully, and because we were connected to him, we were condemned in him. Christ acted righteously, and because we are connected to Christ we are justified in Christ. Adam's sin is counted as ours. Christ's “act of righteousness” is counted as ours.

. . . his being made sin is consistent with his being in himself free from sin; and our being made righteous is consistent with our being in ourselves ungodly. What is so illumining here is specifically the parallel between Christ's being “made sin” and our “becoming righteous.”

George Ladd brings this out with its crucial implication for imputation. Christ was made sin for our sake. We might say that our sins were reckoned to Christ. He, although sinless, identified himself with our sins, suffered their penalty and doom—death. So we have reckoned to us Christ's righteousness even though in character and deed we remain sinners. It is an unavoidable logical conclusion that men of faith are justified because Christ's righteousness is imputed to them.

[Piper goes on to quote Hodge.] “There is probably no passage in the Scriptures in which the doctrine of justification is more concisely or clearly stated than in [2 Corinthians 5:21]. Our sins were imputed to Christ, and his righteousness is imputed to us. He bore our sins; we are clothed in his righteousness. . . . Christ bearing our sins did not make him morally a sinner . . . nor does Christ's righteousness become subjectively ours, it is not the moral quality of our souls. . . . Our sins were the judicial ground of the sufferings of Christ, so that they were a satisfaction of justice; and his righteousness is the judicial ground of our acceptance with God, so that our pardon is an act of justice.” (Hodge, An Exposition of the Second Letter to the Corinthians, pp. 150–151, cited in John Piper, The Future of Justification, p. 180.)

Book photo courtesy Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

In his book, The Future of Justification, John Piper addresses the issue of legalism and the first century Jew. Piper responds to some of the notions of the New Perspectives people who claim that first century Jews had not drifted from the grace message of the Old Testament into legalism. He explains . . .

“In regard to the second objection to the general view that “the Jew keeps the law out of gratitude, as the proper response to grace,” it is important to see that, from Jesus’ standpoint, relational exclusivism (ethnic or otherwise) is rooted in self-righteousness, which means that ethnocentrism and legalism have the same root. This connection between self-righteousness and exclusivism is one of the points of Jesus’ parable that begins, “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous [dikaioi], and treated others with contempt” (Luke 18:9). A deep root of “treating others with contempt” (whether the others are ethnically similar publicans or ethnically different Gentiles) is: “[They] trusted in themselves that they were righteous. . . . In other words, the exclusivistic treatment of others is one manifestation of the self-righteousness that trusts in its own law-keeping. Legalism and ethnocentrism have the same root. They are not separate conditions of the soul. Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector also shows that the branches of this root of exclusivistic self-righteousness can, amazingly, make protests and prayers to the effect that all is of grace. Thus, the Pharisee prays, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector” (Luke 18:11).

Is this not a clear warning to us that finding grace dependent statements in Second-Temple Judaism does not demonstrate that the hearts of those who made those statements were not at root self-righteous (pp. 156-157).

It is interesting to note this idea that legalism and racism are closely entwined. At their core they are both rooted in pride and a superior view of ourselves and our cultural groups.

There is a very interesting quote from Matt Perman, one of John Piper's students, which Piper includes in his book, The Future of Justification. It addresses N. T. Wright's view that Judaism was not legalistic. Matt argues that there are, in fact, two types of legalism. Speaking of Wright and others he says:

“They appear to be thinking only in terms of hard legalism, which is the notion that either your works bribe God or that they are self-produced by your own effort. But, as you flesh it out, hard legalism does not exhaust the definition of legalism.

There is also soft legalism, which is the belief that your God-empowered obedience justifies you before God, or that you ‘become saved’ by faith but ‘remain saved’ by God-produced works (which includes the idea that final justification is based on obedience). In fact, Sanders acknowledged that the first century Jews believed that they got into the covenant by grace but ‘stayed in’ by works. But he failed to realize that this is legalism. The new perspective—and those taking their initial cues from it—typically conflate legalism and Pelagianism, seeming to think that because they (or the first century Jews) are not Pelagians, they therefore cannot be legalists. It needs to be made crystal-clear that these are distinct issues. You can utterly reject Pelagianism and yet be a legalist. You can be a Calvinist legalist, an Augustinian legalist, a believing-in-grace-empowered-works legalist. . . . This is perhaps the central issue of the debate and is probably a big part of the reason that they are going wrong. The essence of legalism is the belief that our right standing with God is based on, comes by means of, or is sustained by our works—regardless of whether those works are self-produced (hard legalism) or whether they are completely produced by God's grace in us (soft legalism). . . .” (Matt Perman, cited in John Piper, The Future of Justification (p. 152).

Reading that quote, I realized that with the emphasis of people like Wright on the need for us to demonstrate that we have changed in order for God to finally justify us in the end has an interesting effect. It is ironic indeed that in trying to claim Judaism was not legalistic, it is possible to argue that the new perspective has created a new form of what Matt calls ‘soft’ legalism.

In fact, if first century Judaism was not in any sense legalistic this would be most remarkable. Surely they would have been the only religious group in the history of the world who escaped its ugly stain. Anyone with much history within the evangelical movement should appreciate that, for all our talk about grace, we have all too often succumbed to the deceptive allure of legalism. This would most likely not be obvious in a review of our doctrinal statements and other written documents, but would be true nonetheless.

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

So far in this series we have looked at the following:

• John Piper, N. T. Wright, and Gracious Discernment
  
  
• John Piper Challenges N. T. Wright on Justification
  
  
• Piper Explains the Classic View of Justification Versus N. T. Wright's View

Today I want to share a quote from The Future of Justification in which Piper responds to another of Wright's main criticisms of traditional views of justification. Wright has argued that the Gospel is not a way of getting people saved, and that we are not saved by holding a certain doctrine, but by faith in the person of Jesus and his resurrection.

“. . . there is a misleading ambiguity in Wright’s statement that we are saved not by believing in justification by faith but by believing in Jesus’ death and resurrection. The ambiguity is that it leaves undefined what we believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection for. It is not saving faith to believe in Jesus merely for prosperity or health or a better marriage. In Wright’s passion to liberate the gospel from mere individualism and to make it historical and global, he leaves it vague for individual sinners.

The summons, “Believe the gospel of Jesus’ death and resurrection” has no content that is yet clearly good news. Not until the gospel preacher tells the listener what Jesus offers him personally and freely does this proclamation have the quality of good news. My point here has simply been that from Acts 13:39 it is evident that one way Paul preached the gospel was by saying, “By him [namely, Jesus] everyone who believes is justified from everything from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.” Of course, it is Jesus who saves, not the doctrine. And so our faith rests decisively on Jesus. But the doctrine tells us what sort of Jesus we are resting on and what we are resting on him for. Without this, the word Jesus has no content that could be good news. . . .

If the gospel has no answer for this sinner, the mere facts of the death and resurrection of Jesus are not good news. But if the gospel has an answer, it would have to be a message about how the rebel against God can be saved—indeed, how he can be right with God and become part of the covenant people. I do not think Wright needs to marginalize these essential and glorious aspects of the gospel in order to strengthen his case that the gospel has larger global implications.” (pp. 86-89)

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

Today I will take you further into Piper's argument where he explains the long-held position, which Wright denies, that God cannot simply 'forgive' the guilty, but instead an exchange between guilt and righteousness must take place:

An omniscient and just judge never “finds in favor” of a guilty defendant. He always vindicates the claim that is true. If the defendant is guilty, the omniscient, just judge finds in favor of the plaintiff. The judge may show mercy. He has it in his power to bestow clemency, and to forgive, and not to condemn the guilty. But not condemning the guilty would never have been called “justification” or “finding in favor” or “bestowing the status of righteous.”

Nevertheless, justification and finding in favor and bestowing a status of righteous are indeed what happen in the law-court of God when guilty sinners who believe in Jesus are on trial. God “justifies the ungodly” (Romans 4:5). He declares them to be righteous, that is, to be not guilty of the charge. And the charge is: “None is righteous” (Romans 3:10). So, if the discrepancy between being found “guilty as charged” and being given the status of righteous cannot be based on clemency alone, what is it based on? (p. 76)

. . . for virtually the entire history of the church, the answer has been, with various nuances, that God either imputes or imparts divine righteousness to the defendant because of his relationship with Christ.

This was the central division between the Reformers and Roman Catholicism. One of the reasons for this is that the law-court that Wright has described seems to demand it, if the judge is omniscient and just—which he is. Exercising clemency toward, or forgiving, a guilty defendant does not provide a basis for justification. Commuting the sentence of the guilty person merely because of clemency or forgiveness is not what justification is. And an omniscient, just judge does not say that a defendant has moral righteousness when he is guilty of having no moral righteousness (Romans 3:10)—unless there is a way that an alien moral righteousness can be counted as his.” (p. 77)

. . . the omniscient Judge does not merely show clemency or forgiveness and assign us a status of “righteous”; he finds in our favor precisely because he counts us as having the moral righteousness that we in fact do not have in ourselves. When the charge against us is read (“You do not have moral righteousness”) and the verdict of the Judge is rendered (“I declare that you are not guilty as charged but do indeed have moral righteousness”), the righteousness in view in this declaration is real moral righteousness.

I will argue later that this is the righteousness of Christ imputed to the guilty through faith alone. The declaration of justification in the law-court of God is not merely forgiveness; it is not merely the status of acquitted; it is counting the defendant as morally righteous though in himself he is not.” (p. 78)

That, my dear reader, is the Gospel. What better explanation of it have you ever read?

Book photo courtesy of Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

On Friday I introduced a series on John Piper’s response to N. T. Wright in The Future of Justification. We saw that to Piper the most critical difference between N. T. Wright and himself is that Wright does not believe that Christ's righteousness is in any way transferred to our account. This is a vital, vital point. Without this concept of an alien righteousness either credited or transferred to us, ironically, both the Protestant and the Roman Catholic understandings of salvation unravel. Wright seems to believe that he and other modern theologians have discovered something that every theologian for millennia have missed. We should therefore be very careful before we accept such assertions. Men as epoch-shattering as Luther only come along very rarely. Is Wright such a man? Or is he deluded and quite plainly wrong?

This is how Piper elaborates on the dilemma we finished with on Friday:

“The omniscience of the judge implies that the defendant must have a different righteousness than Wright would concede, that is, a righteousness that is more than the mere status of being acquitted, regardless of innocence or guilt. Wright stresses that for the defendant, righteousness is not a character quality (i.e., not a moral righteousness) but a status, namely, that the court has found in the defendant’s favor. The defendant may or may not have committed the crime with which he was charged. Regardless, if the court finds in his favor, he is “righteous.” He has that status.

This definition of “righteous” may work in ordinary human law-courts where judges are fallible and their judgments must stand, whether they are right or wrong. But there’s a catch. In God’s courtroom, the Judge is omniscient and just. Now everyone in the first century would agree that in a courtroom where the Judge knows everything and is just, there can never be a case where there is a discrepancy between the truth of the charge and the truth of the verdict. In this court, what would be the basis of saying, “I bestow on you the status of righteous, and I find you guilty as charged”? How could such a finding be intelligible, not to mention just? One right answer that I think Wright would agree with is that this is what the atonement is all about. Christ died for our sins to provide a basis for this finding, and therefore, though guilty, the court can exercise clemency (or in God’s case, forgiveness) because of Christ and we go free.” (p. 74)

Piper goes on to summarize his understanding of what happens in justification in the following simple, but wonderful way:

“Wherever sins are not counted—righteousness is counted. That is, the forgiven person is not considered by God merely as a sinful forgiven person, but as a righteous person—a person “to whom God counts righteousness apart from works.” (p. 75)

Book photo courtesy Tony S. Reinke, The Shepherd's Scrapbook. Used by permission.

If there is one thing that the discernment debate between the Pyromaniacs and myself has confirmed these past few days, it is surely that discernment is far from easy!! It’s a good thing Tim Challies has written a book on it. I really like the following extract from his book, which I think totally sums up what I think has been happening over at the fire-lovers’ place. Of course, the whole point about wisdom and discernment is that it is very situational, so I am quite sure that some others see things very differently from me on that matter! Please note that I am not trying to claim that Tim would or should side with me in this debate; rather I am choosing to apply these words to the situation at hand as they seem relevant to me.

“It is easy, when attempting to be discerning, to neatly categorize people into two camps: safe and unsafe or good and bad. We then implicitly trust the people in the good camp and entirely reject anything said by those in the bad camp. To do so, though, is to ignore the common grace God gives whereby even those whose views are far different from our own can still be wise and can still speak the truth. While we need to read their words with care and discernment, we can and often should still read their words. We need to rest in the security of the Spirit’s guiding and protecting ministry in our hearts rather than in sheltering ourselves from views that do not always accord with our own.” (Tim Challies in The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment)

Tim then goes on to quote Dennis E. Johnson, Professor of Practical Theology and Academic Dean at Westminster Seminary California, in an article on Common Grace and Theological Scholarship as follows:

We cannot simply compile a list of “safe” authors, stamp them with the Reformed equivalent of imprimatur or nihil obstat, and then confine our reading to them. We must do the hard work of exercising discernment—sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, argument by argument. Facts, insights, perspectives, and methods must all be tested in the light of the principles of Scripture. And we must keep alive our consciousness of dependence on Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Our safety is not in avoiding the ideas of the unbelieving world; our safety is in union with Christ, who transforms the mind of those who trust in him.

There is hard work to be done in sorting and sifting the teachings of other humans, especially when we realize that we cannot simply cubbyhole the unpleasant or challenging ideas away and ignore them. But this hard work, like other exercise, gives us the necessary muscle tone to serve and lead God’s people. “Solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil (Hebrews 5:14).

UPDATE
In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 20th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 21st most popular post was my interview with Mark Dever.

This post introduced us to a remarkable new approach to a study Bible, brought to us by Crossway. In January 2008, I'm still working my way through this, reading it from cover-to-cover. I'm enjoying it very much.

***************

Crossway has made the preface of its new ESV Literary Study Bible available online. They have also made the text available for electronic purchase. I am very impressed with the introductions they offer to every passage in the Bible. I cannot recommend this highly enough. Too many Christians think that the literary study of the Bible necessarily implies that we do not believe it is inspired by God. This is, of course, not true. The Bible is, after all, a book. You will almost certainly find the comments in this new work totally different to those you have read in any other study Bible. As far as I know, this is the first truly literary study Bible.

Crossway has kindly given me permission to share the following extract here. It explains twelve literary features of the Bible which together make it unique:

1. A unifying story line.
   
   Although the overall genre of the Bible is the anthology of individual books and passages, the Bible possesses a unity far beyond that of other literary anthologies. The technical term for a unifying superstructure such as we find in the Bible is metanarrative (big or overarching story). In the Bible, the metanarrative is the story of salvation history—the events by which God worked out his plan to redeem humanity and the creation after they fell from original innocence. This story of salvation history is Christocentric in the sense that it focuses ultimately on the substitutionary sacrifice and atonement of Christ on the cross and his resurrection from death. The unifying story line of the Bible is a U-shaped story that moves from the creation of a perfect world, through the fall of that world into sin, then through fallen human history as it slowly and painfully makes its way toward consummation and arrives at the final destruction of evil and the eternal triumph of good.
   
   
   
2. The presence of a central character.
   
   All stories have a central character or protagonist, and in the overarching story of the Bible God is the protagonist. He is the unifying presence from the beginning of the Bible to the end. All creatures interact with this central and ultimate being. All events are related to him. The story of human history unfolds within the broader story of what God does. The result is a sense of ultimacy that comes through as we read the pages of the Bible.
   
   
   
3. Religious orientation.
   
   The subject of literature is human experience, and this is true of the Bible, too, but a distinctive feature of the Bible is that it overwhelmingly presents human experience in a religious and moral light. Events that other writers might treat in a purely human and natural light—a sunrise, a battle, a birth, a journey—are presented by the authors of the Bible within a moral or spiritual framework. Part of this moral and spiritual framework is the assumption of the biblical authors that a great conflict between good and evil is going on in our world and, further, that people are continually confronted with the need to choose between good and evil, between working for God's kingdom and going against God.
   
   
   
4. Variety of genres and styles.
   
   Every literary anthology of the Bible's magnitude displays a range of literary forms, but the Bible's range may well top them all. We need to be alert to this, because the religious uses to which we put the Bible can easily lull us into assuming that the Bible is all one type of writing. The list of individual forms, if we include such specific motifs as the homecoming story or trickster or love poem, keeps expanding. (A complete guide to these literary forms as we find them in the Bible is Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit, and Tremper Longman III, eds., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery [Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1998].) The variety that we find in the Bible stems partly from the large categories that converge—history, theology, and literature, for example, or prose and poetry, realism and fantasy, past and future, God and people.
   
   
   
5. Preference of the concrete over the abstract.
   
   While the New Testament contains a great deal of theological writing, the general preference of biblical authors is for concrete vocabulary. This is especially true of the Hebrew language of the Old Testament. In the Bible, God is portrayed as light and rock and thunder. Slander is a sharp knife. Living the godly life is like putting on a garment or suit of armor. Heaven is a landscape of jewels. To read the Bible well, we need to read with the "right side" of the brain—the part that is activated by sensory data.
   
   
   
6. Realism.
   
   The prophetic and apocalyptic parts of the Bible give us a steady diet of fantasy (flying scrolls, for example, and red horses), but the general tendency of the Bible is toward everyday realism. The Bible displays the flaws of even its best characters (Oliver Cromwell famously said that the biblical writers paint their characters "warts and all"). Although the Bible does not delineate the sordid experiences of life in the extreme detail that modern literary realism does, it nonetheless covers the same real experiences, such as violence, murder, sexuality, death, suffering, and famine. Of course the Bible differs from modern realism by showing us that there is a realism of grace as well as a realism of carnality. In other words, the Bible is not content to portray the degradation of a world that has fallen into sin without also portraying the redemptive possibilities of a world that has been visited by the grace of God and is destined for glory.
   
   
   
7. Simplicity.
   
   Although the Bible is certainly not devoid of examples of the high style, especially in the poetic parts, its overall orientation is toward the simple. The prevailing narrative style is plain, unembellished, matter-of-fact prose. Shakespeare's vocabulary is approximately twenty thousand words, Milton's thirteen thousand, and English translations of the Bible six thousand. Biblical writers often work with such simplified dichotomies as good and evil, light and darkness, heroes and villains. Of course there is a simplicity that diminishes and a simplicity that enlarges. The simplicity of the Bible paradoxically produces an effect of majesty and authority.
   
   
   
8. Preference for the brief unit.
   
   Linked with this simplicity is a marked preference for the brief literary unit. Biblical poets tend to write brief lyrics, for example, not long narrative poems. Most long narratives in the Bible such as the story of Abraham or the Gospels are actually cycles of stories in which the individual episodes are briefer and more self-contained than what we find in a novel. The prophetic books are actually anthologies of self-contained oracles and snatches of narrative. Other familiar biblical genres reinforce this tendency toward simplicity—proverb or saying, parable, lists of individual commands or rules, summaries of what various kings did, occasional letters (epistles) in which the author responds to a list of questions that have been asked or a crisis that has arisen in a local church.
   
   
   
9. Elemental quality.
   
   The Bible is a book of universal human experience. It is filled with experiences and images that are the common human lot in all places and times. The Bible embraces the commonplace and repeatedly shows ordinary people engaged in the customary activities of life—planting, building, baking, fighting, worrying, celebrating, praying. The world that biblical characters inhabit is likewise stripped and elemental, consisting of such natural settings as day and night, field and desert, sky and earth. Even occupations have an elemental quality—king, priest, shepherd, homemaker, missionary.
   
   
   
10. Oral style.
    
    Even though the Bible that we read is a written book, in its original form much of it existed orally. This is true because ancient cultures were predominantly oral cultures in which information circulated chiefly by word of mouth. The literary forms of the Bible show this rootedness in an oral culture. The prevalence of dialogue (directly quoted speeches) in the Bible is without parallel in literature generally until we come to the novel. Everywhere we turn in the Bible, we hear voices speaking and replying. The spare, unembellished narrative style of the Bible arises from the situation of oral circulation of the stories. Additionally, many of the nonnarrative parts of the Bible show signs of oral speech—the prophetic discourses and oracles, the psalms (which were sung in temple worship), the epistles (which were read aloud in churches), and the Gospels (where the words of Jesus are a leading ingredient).
    
    
    
11. Aphoristic quality.
    
    An aphorism is a concise, memorable statement of truth—in the words of English poet Alexander Pope, “What oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed.” The Bible is the most aphoristic book of the Western world. It is filled with sayings that are part of the common storehouse of proverbs and idioms: “pride goes before destruction” (Proverbs 16:18); seeing “eye to eye” (Isaiah 52:8); a “house divided against itself” (Matthew 12:25). This quality is present not only in the wisdom literature of the Bible, but in all parts of the Bible and most notably in the sayings of Jesus.
    
    
    
12. The literature of confrontation.
    
    When we read Shakespeare or Dickens, we find ourselves moved to agreement or disagreement, but we do not ordinarily feel that we have been confronted by someone or something that requires us to make a choice. By contrast, when we assimilate the Bible we feel as though we have been personally confronted with something that requires a response. While this choice is ultimately for or against God, the ideas of the Bible, too, require us to believe or disbelieve them. The Bible displays a vivid consciousness of values—of the difference between good and evil—with the result that it is virtually impossible to remain neutral about the ideas that confront us as we read the Bible.

Summary
Perhaps none of the twelve features noted above is unique in itself. But if we put them together, they produce a book that is unique. Reading the Bible is not just like reading another book. It has an affective power and aura of authority that cannot be duplicated. It possesses a quality of encounter that other books do not display, so that as we read we are confronted with the voice and presence of God and are virtually compelled to believe or disbelieve what we are reading. The Westminster Confession of Faith provides an apt summary of the things that make the Bible unique: “the heavenliness of the matter, the efficacy of the doctrine, the majesty of the style, the consent of all the parts, the scope of the whole [which is to give all glory to God], the full discovery it makes of the only way of man's salvation, the many other incomparable excellencies, and the entire perfection thereof, are arguments whereby it doth abundantly evidence itself to be the Word of God.”

From The Literary Study Bible, copyright 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. For more information see also my previous posts on the ESV Bible.

The fall 2007 edition of The Book Report went online a couple of weeks back. In case (like me) you missed it, I thought I'd link to it here. There are a number of brief interviews concerning books being released this year, including:

• Leland and Phil Ryken (The Literary Study Bible, ESV)
  
  
• Kelly Kapic (Communion with the Triune God)
  
  
• Justin Taylor (The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World)
  
  
• Graham Cole (He Who Gives Life)
  
  
• J. Mark Bertrand (Rethinking Worldview)
  
  
• Paul Gould (The Two Tasks of the Christian Scholar)
  
  
• Ajith Fernando (The Call to Joy and Pain)
  
  
• Jerry Bridges and Bob Bevington (The Great Exchange)

This is the last day of Mrs. W. as Adrian is back tonight. I recently read the book, Shopping For Time (by Carolyn Mahaney, Nicole Whitacre, Kristin Chesemore, and Janelle Bradshaw). They are also the authors of girltalk, a blog for Christian women. It is written by a mother and her grown-up daughters about "How to do it all and not be overwhelmed." As a mother of five young children, you can imagine I thought this was worth a read!

The book is very easy to read and fairly short. It is centered around five tips to help get your life in order, and is directed at women of all ages and stages of life. The five tips are as follows:

1. Rise early. Having implemented this tip in varying degrees since having read the book, I can certainly vouch for its effectiveness. It is possible to get up and spend time with God without any interruptions, and having done this, to plan the day and get some jobs done early.
   
   
2. Sit still. This is about spending time at Jesus' feet, and how vital this is, before beginning the activities of the day.
   
   
3. Sit and plan. I have implemented this and have bought a diary instead of relying on my calendar. So after sitting at Jesus' feet, then I can sit with my diary and plan how to most effectively use the time available.
   
   
4. Consider people. This tip was about the importance of evaluating who you are spending time with, and in what proportions. It talks about who you can be influenced by, who you are influencing, and the benefits of planning and thinking about this carefully and deliberately.
   
   
5. Plan to depend. We should not be seeking to complete our 'to do list' more than glorifying our Saviour, and he is the one on whom we depend for help. I am still learning, but this book has provided me with a lot to think about and practical encouragement.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book; it is highly practical and firmly grounded in biblical truth. It is an easy read, with personal stories and humor, but packed full of things to think about, pray about, and apply in our own lives. It is available from Crossway Books.

Literary criticism has a bad reputation amongst evangelical Christians. This is, of course, misplaced since viewing the Bible as literature is not an option. It is, after all, a book! Anyway, the good folks at Crossway have decided to do their best to help us understand how a literary view of the Bible is essential. Here is an extract of an early review of the book which is coming out next week.

"The premiere benefit of the LSB is viewing Scripture as literature, without reducing Scripture to the level of mere literature. In Leland Ryken fashion, rebuttals are given to show that viewing Scripture as literature (1) does not show a liberal bias, (2) reinforces Scripture's view of itself as literature, (3) does not reduce Scripture to fiction, (4) does not reduce Scripture to another mere piece of literature, (5) nor deny the inspiration of Scripture. In fact, the editors argue that an accurate interpretation of Scripture first requires an understanding of the many literary features of Scripture.

"To approach the Bible as literature as this literary Bible does is not like dessert — something pleasurable to add to more important aspects of the Bible. The literary approach is the first item on the agenda — the starting point for other approaches to the Bible. This has been a point of neglect among Bible readers and Bible scholars that this literary Bible aims to correct."

Because, the editors make clear, "meaning is conveyed through form, starting with language itself but moving beyond that to a whole range of literary forms and genres" and "There is no meaning without the form in which a piece of writing is expressed." Forms directly impact interpretation.

The number of identifiable biblical genres in Scripture "readily exceeds one hundred" and that does not include archetypes, motifs, styles, rhetoric, and artistry. Scripture is a wonderfully diverse collection of literature with great variety. None are better qualified to bring these to the surface than Leland Ryken."

This book started life as a series of sermons. It is an encouragement to me to see that publishers seem to be reviving the sermon-book, which at one point looked to me like it was fading from use. Bell's book is definitely aimed at the popular market, but any reader can learn much from what he has to say. If you are interested in how a charismatic interprets and applies 1 Corinthians, then this is a good place to start.

He has a simple definition of charismatics which he has borrowed from David Pawson — "Those who recognise that the gift of the Spirit is to be received and the gifts of the Spirit are to be exercised."

The whole book is a paperback with less than 130 pages. Some of the chapter titles should draw you in:

“The Mess Called Church”
“Challenges Facing Charismatics”
“Order!”
“The Clay Element”.

Stuart Bell is a writer who speaks from many years of experience and wisdom as a leader of leaders—don't let his engaging and easily understandable style make you think this is a simple book. I was encouraged by reading it and found myself stirred once more to eagerly desire spiritual gifts, and especially prophecy. (1 Corinthians 14:1)

This is the first of a series of briefer bite-sized book reviews that I intend to share with you. To read more about this book or buy it online why not visit Sovereign World Christian Book Publishers.

Crossway Books and Bibles today announced, "Growth of the ESV Bible continues to accelerate . . . worldwide sales and distribution have increased four-fold over the past two years . . . and the ESV moved up to the number three position on the CBA bestseller list in June . . . ." As a result, Crossway has outlined its new organizational structure "which focuses on two new publishing divisions and on a new strategic plan and leadership in Sales and Marketing . . . ."

According to the press release, Crossway will now be organized into two major publishing divisions, one for books and the other for Bibles. The new Bible publishing division (Crossway Bibles) will be led by Randy Jahns, as the Sr. Vice President for Bible Publishing. The new book publishing division (Crossway Books) continues to be led by Allan Fisher, as Vice President for Book Publishing.

Download the full announcement.

Sam Storms has written a two part review of PFOT. This is the must-read book of the year. It is not a light read, but it is on such a vital subject that every thinking Christian needs to get a copy. The review is in two parts. I will quote from the first, but the second part is also worth reading.

Let me begin with the Foreword. Count on John Piper to say it straight and true. He pulls no punches as to why this issue is necessarily at the forefront of evangelical dialogue: "For if God did not punish his Son in my place, I am not saved from my greatest peril, the wrath of God" (14). That may strike some as odd language, but only because we have lost sight of that from which we most need to be saved and delivered: God! We have only one hope, says Piper and it is "that the infinite wisdom of God might make a way for the love of God to satisfy the wrath of God so that I might become a son of God" (14).

I suppose I should begin as the authors do with a definition of penal substitution. In the opening paragraph of the Introduction, they write: "The doctrine of penal substitution states that God gave himself in the person of his Son to suffer instead of us the death, punishment and curse due to fallen humanity as the penalty for sin" (21). You may find it shocking that this would even be up for debate, for "this understanding of the cross of Christ," say our authors, "stands at the very heart of the gospel" (21).

There simply can be no Christian gospel apart from the truth that Jesus Christ has endured and suffered in himself, on the cross, the wrath of God due to sinners, thereby propitiating or satisfying said wrath on behalf of those for whom he died. Yes, indeed, it is shocking that professing evangelicals should call it into question or, worse still, describe it as tantamount to "cosmic child abuse."

Among those who have questioned or utterly rejected penal substitutionary atonement (hereafter, PSA), thus calling for this book to be written, are C. H. Dodd (from a generation ago), Stephen Travis, Eleonore Stump, Colin Gunton, Paul Fiddes, Vernon White, Stephen Sykes, Timothy Gorringe, Tom Smail, Joel Green, Mark Baker, J. Denny Weaver, John Goldingay, Steve Chalke, Alan Mann, and Brian McLaren.

Those who in past years have come to the exegetical and theological defense of PSA include Leon Morris, Roger Nicole, John Murray, J. I. Packer, John Stott, Mark Meynell, Henri Blocher, David Peterson, D. A. Carson, Tom Schreiner, A. T. B. McGowan, Robert Reymond, and numerous others, all of whose books are mentioned in the Introduction. One volume in particular, written to honor the life and ministry of Roger Nicole, is especially important: The Glory of the Atonement, edited by Charles E. Hill and Frank A. James III (IVP, 2004).

The focus of Pierced is summarized by its authors: "In brief, we argue that penal substitution is clearly taught in Scripture, that it has a central place in Christian theology, that a neglect of the doctrine will have serious pastoral consequences, that it has an impeccable pedigree in the history of the Christian church, and that all of the objections raised against it can be comprehensively answered" (31).

UPDATE - I have commented on criticism this post has received in a post entitled "Who is preaching another gospel?"

The history of the Church is quite simply the history of unlikely heroes who God raises up to meet the challenges of the hour. It was a great delight for me to recently spend some time with two such heroes—Dr. Andrew Sach and Dr. Steve Jeffery. They are both Anglican ordinands studying at Oak Hill Theological Seminary and yet, together with their new Principal-Elect, Dr. Mike Ovey, they have written a book that is shaking the evangelical world.

As we sat and ate mushroom soup in a very ordinary flat, I couldn’t help but give thanks to an extraordinary God who uses ordinary people for His purposes.

Pierced For Our Transgressions is a substantial theological book, yet it outsold its first print-run in just a few days. It has also had the longest list of endorsements of any recent evangelical book. When I spoke with Andrew and Steve, it had not been long since N. T. Wright had issued his strong rejection of their work as “profoundly unbiblical.”

I asked the two of them how they felt about Wright’s rejection of their work and the acclaim it had received from others. They both exuded the quiet, unconcerned response of those who know they have been commissioned by God. Yes, they had expected opposition, but no, they hadn’t realised it would come from N. T. Wright. As far as the long list of endorsements is concerned, this was to them not so much a reflection on the quality of the book itself as on the absolute importance of the topic to such a broad sweep of evangelical leaders. This is what Andrew said:

“We’ve been teased a bit about the length of the endorsements list! And some people have misunderstood it, thinking that it’s there just as a marketing ploy, or as evidence that we are very insecure! But those pages and pages of names at the start of Pierced for Our Transgressions are not there primarily because everyone loves the book. They are there because those people believe that penal substitution is of critical importance, and they fear that the Church will lose the Gospel if it is abandoned. The fact that such a range of people is represented—bishops, seminary professors, church leaders, songwriters, charismatic and non-charismatic, Baptist and Presbyterian, British, American, African, Australian—is testimony to the consensus that exists: penal substitution is fundamental ...

On another level, the endorsements do help with our insecurities! We’re not Old Testament specialists, and so to have top-rate scholars like T. D. Alexander or Tremper Longman III say “They got that right!” is a huge comfort. The same goes for the likes of Don Carson or Peter O’Brien on the New Testament. We’re humbled and surprised by the calibre of people who have backed us, to be honest, but if that strengthens the credibility of our work, especially in the face of opposition like that we’re getting from N. T. Wright, then we’re thankful.”

Their sense of commissioning by God was so palpable that it was no great surprise to hear from them a very similar story to what I had heard from Liam Goligher about the origins of his book on the atonement.

Andrew’s involvement in the current atonement controversy began at Spring Harvest Word Alive in 2004, when Steve Chalke’s book, The Lost Message of Jesus, first hit the shelves. One of his friends in their chalet read out the now infamous portion which speaks of penal substitution as “cosmic child abuse,” and Andrew realised that some kind of response was needed. A couple of weeks later he teamed up with his tutor, Mike, to write a review of the book for the newspaper Evangelicals Now.

Later that year, the Evangelical Alliance hosted a public debate in response to the furore caused by The Lost Message. During the debate, a friend leaned over to Steve and simply asked, “Where is the book that responds to this?” To Steve this came as a challenge that wouldn’t leave his mind. Whilst there were plenty of books that taught penal substitution—John Stott’s classic, The Cross of Christ, for example—they did not deal with recent objections. Steve felt an unshakable conviction that he should do something—he put it down to “providence.” At this point we had a good laugh about how what he had called providence I might well have called prophecy.

Before long Steve had Andrew and Mike on board and the book was born. A publishing contract with IVP UK was obtained, and the American rights have now been taken up by Crossway (rather than American IVP, who have recently published material opposed to penal substitution). Andrew and Steve spoke glowingly of the joy writers experience when they have a publisher behind their book who really cares about the message and not just the profit margin. They were eager to thank the team at IVP UK that helped them so much.

The style of the book is a little different from many previous theological works. They have revived an old model of doing theology which states your position and then interacts with every possible objection to it. At times it almost reads like blogging. I think a book like this serves us well in the age of the online conversation. Interaction and discussion can only help to bring clarity, and ultimately strengthens us theologically. Whilst the writers cannot possibly anticipate every objection, certainly the major ones are highlighted and addressed.

Andrew and Steve are two charming, gentle men who are, however, clearly passionate about our view of the cross. We spent some time discussing the implications of recent events in the evangelical scene—especially in the UK. We all agreed that a reconfiguration of the evangelical culture seems inevitable. Old alliances have broken, and new ones will be forged. Suddenly the old dividing lines do not seem to be as important as what is quite definitely the most important issue facing evangelicalism today. Andrew said:

“We were worried that things could split along charismatic versus conservative lines. Prominent critics of penal substitution, such as Steve Chalke in the UK and Brian McLaren in the States, have most influence in charismatic circles, whereas Steve, Mike, and I—and Liam Goligher for that matter—would probably be identified as “conservatives.” The fact is, though, that there are many charismatic brothers who stand exactly where we are. Mike Pilavachi of Soul Survivor has identified himself as an ally; Greg Haslam from Westminster Chapel has written a passionate article supporting penal substitution for Christianity magazine; New Frontiers are with us, and many in New Wine.

In the States they have this thing called “Together for the Gospel” which has brought together Christians from very different places on the charismatic/non-charismatic spectrum, united by their common commitment to the evangelical essentials. I think we’re beginning to see the same thing over here with New Word Alive. It’s very exciting.

But, yes, there are those who have taken the other side, and we must have the courage to part company with them.”

These two gentlemen do not pull any punches when required, as this short extract from the book which interacts with the now infamous section from Steve Chalke shows:

Consider this extract from Steve Chalke and Alan Mann's book, The Lost Message of Jesus:

John's Gospel famously declares, 'God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son' (John 3:16). How then have we come to believe that at the cross this God of love suddenly decides to vent his anger and wrath on his own Son? The fact is that the cross isn't a form of cosmic child abuse—a vengeful Father, punishing his Son for an offence he has not even committed. Understandably, both people inside and outside of the Church have found this twisted version of events morally dubious and a huge barrier to faith. Deeper than that, however, is that such a concept stands in total contradiction to the statement 'God is love.' If the cross is a personal act of violence perpetrated by God towards humankind but borne by his Son, then it makes a mockery of Jesus' own teaching to love your enemies and to refuse to repay evil with evil.” (Steve Chalke and Alan Mann, The Lost Message of Jesus (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003), pp. 182-183.

This example has it all. First, penal substitution is criticized, but in vague and unspecified terms; it is said to contradict the Christian teaching about God's love, but we are not told exactly how; it is said to be 'morally dubious', but we are not told why; it is said to contradict the Sermon on the Mount, but there is no careful exegesis to enable us to assess this claim.

Secondly, penal substitution is misrepresented. Whoever said that God's decision to punish his Son was 'sudden,' as if to imply that it was a capricious outburst of rage? Certainly no proponent of penal substitution we have read. Was the penal suffering of the cross not carefully planned, even prophesied in Isaiah 53 many centuries before the event?

Thirdly, there is the ultimate example of guilt by association. Penal substitution is portrayed as 'a form of cosmic child abuse.' This sticks in the mind, tugging at the conscience, for there are few crimes more despicable than violence towards an innocent, defenceless child.

The fact is that none of it is true. Nowhere in Chalke and Mann's book do they even attempt to argue that it is true. The above quotation amounts to a form of verbal bullying, a scare tactic calculated to coerce people into abandoning long-held beliefs out of fear of being associated with something nasty.”

That kind of courage and direct talking is much needed in the Church today. I am very glad that Steve, Andrew, and their Principal-Elect, Mike Ovey, have been raised up by God to make such a spirited and needed defence of the Gospel.

It struck me that despite the fact that the church I attend is just a few miles from Oak Hill, if it had not been for the recent attacks on the atonement, I would probably not have met these too delightful servants of God. Sometimes theological controversy in the Church has a helpful outcome. If there had not been ancient heretics, we would never have had the creeds.

Our opponents think we are divided, think that we care more about modes of baptism and the definition of prophecy than we do about the cross. They are wrong. There is a newfound mood of determination among many confessional evangelicals such as Andrew and Steve; the list of endorsements shows a willingness for people from across the evangelical spectrum to unite around the Gospel.

Whilst many in the evangelical movement in the UK are eager only for peace and would prefer that we did not speak about issues like the atonement, the words of people like Andrew and Steve are definitely finding a resonance in many ears. A new generation is rising up who are not prepared to be silent. A generation who are saying “Enough is enough!” A generation who are convinced that our views of the cross must not be modified to become more acceptable to the culture.

As I left them I couldn’t help but be grateful for the way God chooses unassuming people like Andrew and Steve for great tasks in His Church. I suspect that they never dreamt that they would write a book which would become something of a touchstone for a generation of Christians. This issue and this book of theirs demands a clear response that will bring definition to a movement rapidly drifting into oblivion.

Where do you stand? Will you join arms with Andrew, Steve, and a whole generation of those of us who feel this issue is quite literally one of life and death?

Or will you seek to compromise, maybe downplay the importance of precisely how Jesus saves us, and adopt a gospel message that, whilst sounding more acceptable to the modern ear, is in the opinion of many of us nothing less than “another gospel.”

The stakes couldn’t possibly be higher.

“But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:8)

There is little doubt as we continue a short look at the attributes of God, inspired by the Together for the Gospel Statement, that possibly the attribute which currently has the most controversy surrounding it is that of God’s foreknowledge.

For some neoliberals, it is preferable to think of a God who is every bit as surprised by the actions of people as we are. God can — according to some of them — sympathize with people's hurt because He, too, is shocked by how events unfold. He is either powerless to stop certain events or has chosen to limit His power. It is my belief that this view of God strips Him of His dignity and sovereignty and creates a “god” in our own image who no longer deserves the name of the God of the Bible.

Steve Roy’s book, published in 2006, aims to be a comprehensive biblical study on the subject of the foreknowledge of God. I believe he achieves his goal in every way. Roy is not afraid to address the concerns of the “open theists,” and lists their arguments, addressing the Scriptures that they commonly use to support their view of God.

Roy doesn’t merely counter the arguments of the detractors, he restates, explains, and supports from the Bible the traditional Christian view of a God for whom the whole of time is as a twinkle in His eye — who knows the end from the beginning.

I cannot recommend this book strongly enough. It was such a help for me when I was preparing for my talk on the attributes of God.

Here are just a few quotes from the book:

“God knows the future! His foreknowledge has rightly been prized hy Christians of all generations. Much of the confidence, hope, and joy of the Christian life traditionally has heen based on the conviction that God knows the future . . . Thus throughout the various traditions of the church, Christians have taken great comfort in God's response to their prayers, precisely because He knows all things perfectly, including all of the future. Indeed, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus encourages his disciples to a robust life of prayer precisely because "your heavenly Father knows what you need before you ask" (Matthew 6:8).

“In what ways could God's repentance be different from human repentance? John Calvin is helpful here. He seeks to understand how humans might come to change their minds and then asks whether any or all of those factors might be present in God. Calvin proposes that a change of mind can come in a human being when one is "ignorant of what is going to happen, or cannot escape it, or hastily and rashly rushes into a decision of which he immediately needs to repent.” In other words, human beings might repent if they learn something new that they had been previously ignorant of, or if they realize they do not have the power to do what was originally planned, or if they develop a new perspective in which what was originally thought to be a good plan is now understood to be not so good. Calvin, then, argues that none of these conditions (lack of power, lack of knowledge, lack of a proper perspective) apply to God. "Concerning repentance, we ought so to hold that it is no more chargeable to God than is ignorance, or error, or powerlessness ...”

“So how should we understand the repentance of God if we affirm his foreknowledge of free human decisions? I suggest that divine repentance denotes Gods awareness of a change in the human situation and his resulting change of emotions or actions in light of this changed situation . . . this does not necessarily imply that the changed human circumstances were unforeseen by God and that God has learned something new as a result of these free human decisions.”

The book ends with the following words from Isaiah 46, which seem to me to be pretty conclusive:

“I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning
and from ancient times things not yet done,
saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
and I will accomplish all my purpose’
...I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass;
I have purposed, and I will do it.”

We have been speaking about preaching and the importance of Christians understanding the message of the Bible. We are drawing near to the end of this extended series. I felt, however, that I should not leave the series without sharing a few resources with you that are still fairly new and will definitely help you to study the Bible yourself.

The last year or so has been a great year for Christian publishing, with some fantastic books being published. The following list is some of the best of these newly-published books that will serve as good tools to help you explore the Bible.

My only regret is that, as far as I know, only one of the following books is available as an electronic version that will work with Logos Bible Software. These days I prefer to have books that I can search on the PC, but I know that is not everyone's desire. It is also nice to have a row of good reference books on the shelf to turn to for years to come.

ESV Reverse Interlinear

First up is a revolution in publishing. I'm talking about the ESV reverse Interlinear edition of the Bible — which is also the only book with a Logos-compatible edition. The concept is a simple, yet revolutionary, idea. Instead of jumbling the English words as a traditional Interlinear does, why not reorder the Greek words so that it is easy to read the English translation? The words are numbered so that in the unlikely event that you know enough Greek to understand the rare times that word order actually can change the meaning, you can reorder them in your own mind. For most of us, though, having the Greek re-ordered really doesn't make any difference.

If you have this book you will probably be as impressed with it as I am. It comes from a collaboration between my two favorite Christian companies — Crossway and Logos Bible Software. You guys both rock — please do more together!

The ESV version of the Bible is taking the theological circles I move in by storm, and for good reason. Owning this will help you see why. Even as a non-expert, you can begin to understand how almost every word in the ESV New Testament corresponds in some direct way to a Greek word in the original.

You do not even have to be able to read Greek letters as there are three lines — one the ESV, the other re-ordered Greek words to correspond to their English counterparts, and the final one a transliteration

Even my 8-year old son, Henry, understands the concept and has been caught having taken this Bible into his bed to read. He is learning how some of the Greek words are translated. He is beginning to value the original words, asking me once, "Why is kai left out of the English sometimes, Dad?"

This version will give the advocates of non-literal translations a headache as it will allow even non-Greek experts to understand something of the way in which our English versions come to us. Once we begin to value the original words we will want our translation to be as close as possible to the word-for-word meaning of those words.

They say knowing a little Greek is a dangerous thing (and, no, I don't mean the guy who runs that kebob shop round the corner!) but surely it is less dangerous than knowing none at all?

Apart from my wide-margin journaling ESV with its growing collection of notes and underlinings, this is my favorite paper Bible. The Logos edition of the Interlinear (only available with the library compilations) allows me to search the Bible for an individual Greek word and get a list of verses in English as a result, among all kinds of other tricks. If you just want to sit down with a paper Bible and study on your own, this is an invaluable buy.

Mark Dever — Promises Made and Promises Kept, The Message of the Bible

It is one thing to read the Bible, it is another thing to understand it. The next two books I want to recommend are both by Mark Dever. Many people want to buy a guide to the Bible, and it is good to do so — I will, in fact, be recommending a couple further on in this review. Dever has gone a step further, and in the course of these two books helps us understand the unifying message of this book.

I like this series because it is based on a series of sermons — one per book of the Bible, and overviews of each Testament and the Bible as a whole. Because of this route in preaching, the books make the Bible live today in a way that a more purely academic guide cannot. If you can only buy one "introduction" to the Bible, this should be it.

I cannot commend these books highly enough, but I thought I would include a few testimonials about them which speak for themselves:

"Many Bible readers are familiar with individual trees, while failing to see the forest. They are in great danger of misinterpreting the parts of the Bible they read because they do not see the entire structure of a Gospel like John or an Epistle like Ephesians. Mark Dever fills a gaping need with his sermons on each of the individual books." (Thomas R. Schreiner)

"These expositions are theologically rich, biblically faithful, and loaded with superb introductions, illustrations, and applications." (Ligon Duncan)

"Whether you are a Christian seeking a better understanding of the Bible, or a pastor seeking to preach 'the whole counsel of God,' this unique and invaluable resource provides a wealth of insight that will serve you for years." (C. J. Mahaney)

"Is biblical exposition a lost art? Not if this book is any indication. This book is a gem and it belongs on every Christian's bookshelf." (R. Albert Mohler, Jr.)


Moo and Carson's Introduction to the New Testament

Moo and Carson are surely two of the most widely respected evangelical scholars of today. This new introduction to the New Testament certainly lives up to the expectations we would have of such men of God. It deserves its place on my shelf, and will be dipped into for years to come.

Full of information and references to the published literature, yet simple to read, this is a textbook that I am sure will serve the seminary student, as well as the beginning student of the Bible. Due to its recent publishing date, it is more up-to-date with scholarship than many similar resources from the past.

Don't look to this book to have the same pastoral wisdom as the two books by Mark Dever I have already mentioned. It is not written with that in mind — and as such, if budget is not an issue, having both of these on your shelves is a good idea.

Alec Motyer - Discovering the Old Testament

A small paperback of just 200 pages, this is an accessible and concise introduction to the Old Testament. The book describes its mission as taking the reader on a journey through the Old Testament. Its aim is to show how the Old Testament has the same message as the New. Motyer is well known to us through his commentary on Isaiah. This popular treatment of the message of the Old Testament should be understandable by all.

Unfortunately, it seems to only be available from IVP books in the UK at the moment.

IVP Introduction to the Bible
This book has the advantage that it is a single volume covering the Bible — and a slim one at that. It does, of course, mean that it is not as in-depth as some of the others. I will forgive it for using the TNIV. I am convinced that it is a useful introduction for the student of the Bible. It has earned a place on my shelf and will be referred to from time-to-time for years to come.

I thought one of the most helpful ways you could compare and contrast these books would be to share short excerpts from each of them on two books in the Bible. I have chosen Genesis and Ephesians.

GENESIS

"Interestingly, the early church presented Noah's ark as a symbol of Christ. Some of the earliest drawings of Christ are representations of an ark affixed to a cross, indicating that Christ is our ark. He is the vessel of mercy that we, once inside, can safely ride through the floods of God's judgment. God has always been merciful, and never more so than by giving Himself in Christ. Our only hope is God's mercy. As Christians, we have no ground for pride. We have sinned against God and are morally bankrupt. We have completely spent our small resources and now cannot provide for our most basic spiritual needs. We are entirely dependent upon God's mercy and grace for salvation.

This is why the cross of Christ must always be at the center of our worship, whether public or private. I don't mean a physical cross for us to stare at, but an understanding and a pronouncement of what God has done in the cross of Christ. These first chapters of Genesis present no hope for the human race apart from God's mercy! We know today with clarity what the characters in Genesis only dimly perceived: how God would specifically accomplish our salvation by giving himself in Christ. So we should praise God as Creator and Redeemer. We should sing of His truth and His mercies. We should praise the Lamb who was slain for us. As we sing in the hymn, God, All Nature Sings Thy Glory — "Our sins have spoiled Thine image; Nature, conscience only serve as unceasing, grim reminders of the wrath which we deserve. Yet Thy grace and saving mercy in Thy Word of truth revealed claim the praise of all who know Thee, in the blood of Jesus sealed." Isn't that a marvelous truth about God? The holy one is the merciful one! Yet this leaves us with another question: How can he do that? How can God act with such holiness and mercy?" (Mark Dever — The Message of the Old Testament)

"We must now step back into the shorter opening section of the Pentateuch, the eleven chapters with worldwide themes, with which Genesis opens. As with all Bible history-writing, we are not told everything we might wish to know, but only what we need to know. The narrative fixes our attention on three typical events: the fall (Genesis 3-6), the flood (6-9), and the scattering (11:1-9). They are all stories of loss: how mankind, by sin, lost its home in God's Garden, brought destruction on his world, and shattered human fellowship. Each loss found us blameworthy and brought us under divine judgment, but each time judgment was inexplicably mingled with mercy.

God is Still on the Throne
The theme of these chapters is not really the world at all, but the sovereignty of God over the world. It is one of their most striking features that when, in Genesis 3, the great rebellion has taken place and mankind, in the individual Adam, has made its bid to be 'like God', the Lord God steps into the Garden with his sovereignty unimpaired. The once voluble serpent is now silent, and neither the rebellious human pair nor anything else in all creation can resist the sovereign will which decrees a curse upon a world of sinners (3:14-19). Yet the curse is not the whole story." (Alec Motyer — Discovering the Old Testament)

"The contribution of Genesis to a biblical understanding of both God and humanity cannot be underestimated for it establishes the basis and agenda for redemptive purposes in the world. Genesis poses other questions, which can only be noted here without discussion. Its historical veracity has often been assessed negatively on the grounds that no known extra-biblical sources confirm the Genesis record of the patriarchs. While this is undeniably so, we are dealing with accounts that relate to around 2000 B.C. and are largely concerned with the lives of a semi-nomadic family that migrated from north Mesopotamia to the land of Canaan. Not surprisingly, archaeological investigations and extant texts are highly unlikely to provide explicit evidence about the biblical patriarchs and their families. Such limitations need to be remembered when assessing views for and against the truthfulness of the Genesis record.

Other considerations need to be taken into account when considering the historicity of the early chapters of Genesis. This is especially so regards ch. 1, given modern theories about how the world was created. We need to appreciate that this chapter sets out to answer the question, 'Why did God do it?' not 'How did God do it?' As many biblical scholars now recognize, the entire chapter is a literary-artistic representation creation, designed to establish the status, in relation to each other, of objects and creatures mentioned within it. Since ch. 1 is not an attempt to describe the 'how' of creation, the chapter sheds little light on the mechanism by which God created the world. We need to remember the biblical writers want to communicate particular truths. As readers we need to attune ourselves to what these ancient authors wished to say, not impose our present-day agenda on their writings. We must not expect the biblical text to answer questions that its authors were not addressing." (IVP Introduction to the Bible)

EPHESIANS

"Wow, doesn't that get your heart? There is Paul in prison, an old man, praying and asking others to pray that God would make him fearless. "Paul," you might ask, "how much more fearless can you get? You are giving your whole life away, choosing to be in prison because you want to reach people like me, a Gentile, with the gospel." Paul knew courage was needed to continue, and he knew God's Spirit had to provide what did not come naturally. So he asked for it. It was plain and obvious that sitting in prison was his duty, given by God. His suffering could not obscure God's design. Indeed, Paul's instructions on submission in this letter were hard-won. Languishing in prison, Paul certainly knew what was involved in submission, as much as any slave. Yet he knew he had the freedom to obey. No authority on earth could take that away from him.

Is it an accident that two of the New Testament's clearest statements on God's sovereignty come from the pens of two older men in captivity—John exiled on Patmos in the book of Revelation, and Paul in a Roman prison here? When this world exerts its fullest powers to oppose the gospel, it only serves to reveal the powerlessness of rebellion against God." (Mark Dever — The Message of the New Testament)

"The letter's emphasis on the church is unmistakable; Ephesians clearly tells us more about the church than do other writings in the Pauline corpus. This has generated a great deal of discussion. For many, this focus on the church is a natural and acceptable development, but for Kisemann (among others) it is a distortion of the real Christian message. In Ephesians, he writes, "the gospel is domesticated." The world "may be its sphere. But it is so only as the frame into which the picture of the church fits." He goes on to complain that here "Christology is integrated with the doctrine of the church .... Christ is the mark towards which Christianity is growing, and no longer in the strict sense its judge." Yet in some ways this is too narrow a perspective. The massive vision of a new humanity, a new household of God, rising together to reconcile warring human beings to each other and to God (chap. 2)-and all of this the product of God's predestining love (1:3-14) and unqualified grace (2:8-10)-is entirely in line with Pauline emphases on God's sweeping sovereignty in constituting his people (Rom. 9-11) and giving them the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5). More theologically telling are those studies that recognize distinctive emphases in Ephesians, but relate such emphases to central themes in the Pauline corpus. For example, Lincoln examines what it means to be seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6) and concludes that it is a kind of spatial equivalent of inaugurated eschatology. Caragounis and Bockmuehl have examined many traditions that are reflected in the letter. Peter T. O'Brien finds that much of the language of the prayers in Ephesians can be paralleled in the Qumran literature." (Carson & Moo — An Introduction to the New Testament)

"Paul wrote Ephesians from prison (3:1; 4:1; 6:20). The letter is fairly general in content and may even have been a kind of circular letter intended for several congregations in Western Asia Minor since some early manuscripts do not have 'Ephesus' as the specific destination in 1:1. However, certain emphases in the letter do suggest some of Paul's reasons for writing. The emphasis on the unity of Jewish and Gentile Christians may well be intended to address tensions in the church. Additionally, the fact that the devil and various 'powers' are mentioned sixteen times in the letter suggests a concern to encourage believers in their struggle with pernicious spirit-forces. Acts 19 associates demonic activity with Ephesus, and archaeology has uncovered ancient Ephesus as a center for magical practices, the Artemis cult, and a variety of Phrygian mystery religions and astrological beliefs. Paul wrote Ephesians to celebrate God's mighty work of redemption, which includes the forgiveness of sins and raising up of believers, both Jews and Gentiles, to new life in the power of the Spirit . . . The letter has a basic two-part structure, with chs. 4-6 setting out conduct appropriate to the gospel which Paul expounded in chs. 1-3. The transition comes in 4:1: 'I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling [to salvation] you have received.'

Ch. 1 opens with an inspiring thanksgiving for the gift of salvation, planned from eternity past and now being realized in the lives of believers. Paul then prays for the spiritual progress of his readers in light of Christ's supreme power in the universe. Ch. 2 recalls the readers' hopeless situation of death and condemnation and God's astounding deliverance. The barriers between Jews and Gentiles have now been demolished and their reconciliation through the cross has been achieved. Those who believe in Jesus are now united in one body on an equal basis. (IVP Introduction to the Bible)

Regular readers of my blog will be aware of my love for Doctor Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Back in August I did a summary post listing my regular posts from the Doctor. I thought that today I would link to the posts I have written and then speak about an exciting way that you can easily get your hands on a wealth of material from the Doctor. (If you want to cut to the chase see the following two links: Selected Works of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Exposition of Ephesians.)

It is important that I stress that the Doctor is not merely someone of interest to one section of the church or another. During his life and subsequently, he was almost unique in his time for his appeal to people from all different denominational backgrounds. He truly was a gift of God to the whole church, and if you have never read or listened to the Doctor you need to right away! So to whet your appetite, here are some posts since August 2006 in which I mention him:

• The Effects of Preaching and Religious Experience
• Blogging the Gifts - Tongues and Interpretation
• Something Worth Fighting For, Part 4
• Car-jacking, Missional Swim Trunks, and the Holy Spirit
• So What Did We Miss?
• DG06 - Session 3 - Tim Keller
• Something Worth Fighting For, Part 3
• Something Worth Fighting For, Part 2
• Something Worth Fighting For, Part 1
• A Love Letter to Bethan
• Preaching to Yourself
• What is the Gift of Tongues?
• The Doctor Changes His Mind

The Doctor was a great believer in the need for us to think carefully and study carefully God's Word. There is no doubt that the books of his sermons and talks are some of the most perceptive, well-argued, and yet passionate materials ever written. As an example of his love for the truth of the Bible here is a quote taken from Authentic Christianity (1st U.S. ed., page 53, Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books.)

"So the first effect of Christianity is to make people stop and think. They are not simply overawed by some great occasion. They say, “No, I must face this. I must think.” That is the work of the Spirit. The people in Acts thought again. They repented—the Greek word is metanoia—they changed their mind completely. The Spirit always leads people to think, and, as I have been showing you, the greatest trouble is that men and women go through life without thinking. Or they think for a moment but find it painful, so they stop and turn to a bottle of whiskey or television or something else—anything to forget.

Is it not obvious that the world, speaking spiritually and intellectually, is in a doped condition? In all sorts of ways men and women evade the facts. They can do this with great energy, they can be very intellectual, but ultimately they end up with nothing.

What does the Spirit make us think about? Well, not first and foremost about ourselves. I must emphasize that Christianity does not start with us. It does not say, “Do you want to get rid of that sin that is getting you down? Do you want happiness? Do you want peace? Do you want guidance?” That is not Christianity. That, again, is the approach of the cults. No, these people in Jerusalem were made to think about Jesus Christ! They were given the objective, historical facts about this person . . .

The next point is that the . . . Spirit now makes us go on to realize the relevance of Jesus Christ, and everything concerning Him, to ourselves personally . . .

You can sit in a chair and read a book about Jesus Christ, you can read about Him in your Bible, and you can read books of theology. Very interesting. To an intelligent person there is no study more entrancing. It has been the occupation of some of the greatest minds of the centuries. But you can do all that and still not be a Christian. It is the Holy Spirit who makes each of us see the relevance of Jesus to ourselves, so that we are no longer spectators, no longer critics, no longer people taking a wonderful, objective view. No, no, I am under criticism myself. The relevance of this has come to me. I see that I am involved in all this, and I had not realized it."

Now, it may well be that having read so many quotes from the Doctor here, you are eager to get a hold of his books. They can, of course, be purchased from Amazon.com, and many of his audio sermons can be downloaded from the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recording Trust. There is no doubt in my mind that reading his material will do you good and help you to, as he puts it, "think".

In the rest of this post, I want to introduce you to another way that you can get a hold of some of the amazing books that have been produced from his sermons. This is, of course, to purchase electronic copies of two fantastic resources from Logos. Logos has two Lloyd-Jones CDs available. The first of these is Selected Works of Martyn Lloyd-Jones and is a collection of no fewer than ten separate books by the Doctor, including more than 3,300 pages of Lloyd-Jones' highly relevant and well-loved works. Imagine being able to easily search all the following books at once for either a Bible verse key word, or a specific subject that you are interested in. These are some of the Doctor's most well-known and well-loved works.

• Revival - this book is based on a series of talks given on the 100th anniversary of the Great Revival which started in Wales and swept across England, throughout the United States, and to the far corners of the world. It is a critical book for us to read if we want to understand the biblical view of revival - "I do not think that our age has seen any more powerful or profound treatmentof revival than this book."—Dr. J. I. Packer
• The Assurance of Our Salvation - Based on John 17, this book explores how we as Christians can be sure of our salvation. The book is practical, pastoral, and inspiring.
• Great Doctrines of the Bible (3 vols.) - This is a complete systematic theology written by the Doctor and it will help you grasp the theological and emotional impact of the message of the Bible.
• Studies in the Book of Acts (4 vols.) - These sermons will inspire you as you consider afresh the birth of the church, the coming of the Holy Spirit, and the advance of the early church.
• Seeking the Face of God - The Doctor brings his scapel to nine passages from the Psalms. You will discover just why the book of Psalms is so precious to many of God's saints.

The second, Exposition of Ephesians series, is about 3,000 pages worth of in-depth analysis of the book of Ephesians and is one of the most thorough commentaries available on this vital New Testament book. Based on years of careful preaching verse after relentless verse. One of the Doctor's most well-known sermons is contained in this series. He managed to preach an entire sermon on the phrase "But God" from Ephesians 2!

"With these two words we come to the introduction to the Christian message, the peculiar, specific message which the Christian faith has to offer to us. These two words, in and of themselves, in a sense contain the whole of the gospel. The gospel tells of what God has done, God’s intervention; it is something that comes entirely from outside us and displays to us that wondrous and amazing and astonishing work of God which the apostle goes on to describe and to define in the following verses." (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. (1972). God's Way of Reconciliation chapter 2, page 59) Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.)

Lloyd-Jones shows how the book of Ephesians gives us a unique overview of Pauls's teaching. Many critical subjects are covered, including our salvation, predestination, the work of the Spirit, the Church, spiritual warfare, and many other aspects.

All these books mentioned above are a treasure trove, but their size makes them somewhat unwieldy - particularly if you want to use them in a 21st century manner. I am sure that for many of my readers going through a big book sequentially is just not something that they are going to do. As helpful as a paper book is for reading from beginning to end, increasingly many of us want instead to dip in and out of a book when we are interested in a particular subject. Locating that passage that you know is in one of your books that you have read is hard enough. Imagine being able to find a highly relevant passage in a book you haven't even read yet!

You can search the entire series of Lloyd-Jones books by word, passage, or topic, so you’ll never have to hunt through countless pages looking for that certain quote. What's more, all Bible references function as hotspots, immediately presenting the cited verse whenever the mouse cursor rolls over them. And by clicking on the citation, your favorite Bible translation will immediately open to the chapter and verse. This transforms your electronic library into a searchable index of amazing passages and chapters that are at your fingertips when you most need them.

Of course, these books work hardest when they are included on the same system as one of the core libraries. Then, you can quite literally type a Bible verse into the passage guide, click "go," and within seconds results will be flooding you from Lloyd-Jones and all your other books! This is not to encourage plagarism which everybody knows is when you copy one person. When you are inspired by and integrate ideas from many people into your own work it is not plagarism, it is scholarly research!

For some reason when I installed these items a collection was not automatically formed - but fortunately it is a simple matter to create one yourself (tools-define collections) and then to include that collection in the resources that are searched on a home page when you click passage guide (preferences on the homepage).

If you love Lloyd-Jones material, these works will stand on their own, but will be so much more useful as an add-on to a fuller Logos library system. At very least, you need a Bible to work with them. Even without what they call a "core library" - a critical mass of Bibles, commentaries, and lexicons - these two resources will still allow you to browse the books, search, annotate, Copy/Paste with Footnotes, Visual Mark-up, Topic Browser, Reference Browser, History, Favorites, Bookmarks, Define Collections, Zoom, and Auto-Lookup. From the right-click menu, standard functions like Copy, Print, Speed Search This Resource, etc. will work.

It really is the search that will wow you - you can search an individual book, the MLJ collection, or your entire library by word, phrase, topic, and Bible verse. Where relevant, there will be hot-linking within and between texts, footnote pop-ups, and Bible reference pop-ups (if you own at least one Bible). For example, simply enter a search like topic (Trinity) and it will find all the places MLJ talks about the topic of the Trinity - some of which may not be where you expect! If such a search doesn't return enough hits, simply search for the keyword "Trinity" instead, perhaps adding an "OR 'Father Son and Holy Spirit'" or something similar!

Navigation within and between the books is a breeze, and the convenience of not needing yet more shelving should mean your spouse's vote is with digital over paper every time! These resources are on sale at Logos and are not part of the 25% reduction given to readers of my blog on core libraries.

To Purchase materials from Logos Bible Software visit

Selected Works of Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Exposition of Ephesians.

25% off Logos Core Libraries

More information about Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones is availabe from Wikkipedia.

Today I begin a series of book and other resource reviews for those who want to study further following our recent charismatic debate.

I begin with this well-known, easy-read paperback. I first read this a number of years ago, and still recommend it today as a good introduction - especially for those coming from a cessationist background.

It is important to point out that due to the wide spectrum of different opinions and interpretations — especially on some of the more minor points — I do not necessarily endorse every point of view made in all the resources I am going to review. I will, however, be concentrating on those resources that come from a more moderate charismatic position. I would be interested in any of my cessationist readers recommending books that may change my mind in such a way that Dan Phillips has so clearly failed to do!

The following comes from the back cover of this book:

"What caused a former Dallas Seminary professor to believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit are being given today? What convinced someone sceptical about miracles that God still speaks and heals? A dramatic change took place in Jack Deere's life when he took a fresh look at the Scriptures. He discovered that his arguments against miraculous gifts were based more on prejudice and lack of personal experience than on the Bible. As soon as Deere became a seeker instead of a sceptic, the Holy Spirit revealed Himself in new and surprising ways. In Surprised by the Power of the Spirit, Deere provides a strong biblical defence for the Spirit's speaking and healing ministries today. He also describes several reliable cases of people who were miraculously healed or who heard God speak in an unmistakable way. Finally, he gives sound advice for using spiritual gifts in the church. Written in a popular style, with the care of a scholar but the passion of personal experience, this book explores: the real reason Christians do not believe in miraculous gifts, responding to charismatic abuses, whether miracles were meant to be temporary, and why God still heals."

This book has been much criticised by some cessationists, which is perhaps precisely why, like many others, I continue to recommend it! The book does interact with the biblical material and makes exegetical arguments, but it is definitely a popular book aimed at the mass market.

Deere begins by telling the story of how a single phone call took him on a journey from being a “dry” traditional cessationist to becoming a fully fledged charismatic. As all good cessationists know, no one is safe — even the most ardent opponent of the gifts can be converted on this issue!

Deere is careful to point out that he was convinced not by an experience - as in fact many are -but rather by a phone call with the author, John White, which he describes in a most engaging manner. Deere was discussing with him the reasons for his cessationist views, but realised that his first argument was an argument from silence. He then quickly examined the next three arguments he would usually use and realised that each of them was fatally flawed. He then says something that inspires me greatly when it comes to this blog. He says ". . . my belief that miraculous gifts had ceased had never seriously been challenged before. I had never needed to examine these arguments that closely because everyone in my circle accepted them as true."

This blog exists, at least in part, to challenge your opinions on the charismatic issue, and indeed other issues. I love having my doctrinal positions challenged as I am convinced that if I go back to the Bible I will always be on firm ground. After that phone call, Deere went back and studied the Bible for himself. I would encourage you to do the same thing. Reading others' descriptions of their journey in this area and of their understanding of the biblical data is a great help to this process as well, however. I think you can do a lot worse than starting with this book and its sequel, Surprised by the Voice of God.

Crossway has now put the contents page of What Jesus Demands from the World by John Piper and, indeed, the rest of the text of the book online. Pre-orders are being taken and the book should be out in a few days' time.

This is going to be an imporant book. It is 400 pages long. It covers 50 direct commands given to us by Jesus Himself. When God speaks to us, we would do well to listen and obey!

I cannot wait to get my hands on a copy of this book. Here is what the Crossway website has to say about it:

---

In What Jesus Demands from the World, John Piper has gathered many of Jesus' demands from the four Gospels. He begins with an introduction that puts the demands in a redemptive-historical context, then concisely examines each demand. The result is an accessible introduction for thoughtful inquirers and new believers, as well as meditative meat for veteran believers who want to know Jesus better.

The four Gospels are filled with demands straight from the mouth of Jesus Christ. These demands are Jesus’ way of showing us who He is and what He expects of us. They are not the harsh demands of a taskmaster. For example, the demand that we come to Jesus is like the demand of a father to his child in a burning window, “Jump to me!” Or like the demand of a rich, strong, tender, handsome husband to an unfaithful wife, “Come home!” What Jesus demands from the world can be summed up as: “Trust and treasure me above all.” This is good news!

“The Christian gospel is more than just a wonderful offer of saving grace; it is a demand for supreme loyalty, for surrender to the lordship of Jesus. We forget this too easily in our contemporary church, besieged as we are by a philosophy of pluralism that rejects ultimate authority and a culture of rights that scorns submissiveness. But John Piper reminds us of the real truth: obedience to Christ’s commands is our absolute duty; yet, paradoxically, in His service is perfect freedom and joy!” William J. U. Philip, Minister, St George’s-Tron Church, Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

“John Piper reveals in his ‘Word to Biblical Scholars’ his familiarity with the literature and subject matter of the life and teachings of Jesus, and in his comments on the individual demands of Jesus he applies them to everyday living.” Robert H. Stein, Senior Professor of New Testament Interpretation, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“This is now my favorite book by John Piper. In the best tradition of Adolf Schlatter’s Do We Know Jesus? and his ‘hermeneutic of perception,’ What Jesus Demands from the World has changed my life and will certainly change yours because it is based on the pure words of Jesus as revealed in the four Gospels. A must-read for every true follower of Christ.” Andreas J. Köstenberger, Editor, Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society; Professor of New Testament and Director of Ph.D. Studies, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary.

“This book is a special gift from the pen of John Piper. How long has it been since you carefully reflected upon the authoritative commands of Christ? Through these pages you will encounter the Savior and experience the transforming effects of the gospel. Few endeavors are more worthy of your time.” C. J. Mahaney, Sovereign Grace Ministries.

“Scholars, popularists, and now even novelists are falling over each other today in a blind passion to discover an alternative Jesus to the One so magnificently portrayed in the biblical Gospels. In stark and refreshing contrast, John Piper clear-sightedly grasps the obvious—the biblical Jesus is worth living for and dying for.” Sinclair Ferguson, Senior Minister, The First Presbyterian Church, Columbia, South Carolina

“This is a peculiar book. It assumes that the four Gospels are true and unified. It assumes that Jesus not only does things for us but also makes demands of us. And it assumes that Jesus has authority over everyone regardless of their religion, gender, race, income, sexuality, nationality, or culture. You will likely not agree with every point. But you will hear from a Jesus who is more than a soft-spoken, effeminate, marginalized, Galilean hippie-peasant in a dress and has the peculiar notion that He alone is Lord.” Mark Driscoll, Pastor, Mars Hill Church, Seattle.

This newly released 600-page book needs to quickly become part of the library of every preacher who wants to learn what some of the most influential preachers in the UK think of our shared art, which some have called the highest calling any man can ever receive.

Based on an extended preaching conference, this book includes contributions by a wealth of the very best UK preachers.

Editor Greg Haslam begins the book with an introduction to preaching and ends it with appendixes on the relationship between being filled with the Spirit and preaching and on the so-called "Ephesians 4 ministries." Greg spent over twenty years pastoring a newfrontiers church, so if my recent coverage of the Together on a Mission conference has whetted your appetite, the book is worth buying just for this section.

John Stott follows up with a chapter on the paradoxes of preaching. It is amazing to think that he is still preaching. I will never forget hearing him in the flesh — as he put it, "a preacher preaching to preachers about preaching.”

Liam Goligher surveys preaching in church history and argues that preaching presupposes a view of the Bible as the "book that speaks for itself.” Mark Stibbe discusses the gift of teaching and what we can learn from Jesus' model of preaching.

Michael Eaton explains his view of "God-centered" preaching, and introduces us to expository preaching through books of the Bible. Phillip Greenslade focuses on the priestly effects of preaching and how to "preach the big story.”

Greg Haslam asks, "What makes a good sermon?" whilst David Pawson describes how his own style of preaching evolved over the years through several different forms, and also how to preach to the whole person.

Terry Virgo boldly describes three of the ascension gifts of Jesus — the apostle, prophet, and evangelist — and focuses in on what he calls apostolic preaching, as well as what it means to give ourselves to the word of God and prayer.

An entire section is devoted to the anointing of God and preaching for a response — David Holden and Colin Dye contribute much of this. This is followed by a very practical section about the "nuts and bolts" of sermon preparation and connecting with the real world, brought to us by Stuart Reid, Chris Wright, Mike Pilavachi, Greg Haslam, and Jeff Lucas.

Preaching can bring both unity and division in local churches and between different types of churches. Joel Edwards (head of the UK's Evangelical Alliance) hopes for the former — but with Haslam's chapter on prophetic preaching, we may have to concede sometimes the latter is appropriate! Doug Williams explores Pentecostal and black preaching, as well as the spiritual warfare aspects.

Another big section is devoted to preaching into the culture, and the evangelistic effects of preaching. J. John, Michael Ramsden, and Mark Stibbe bring their insights here.

The book itself ends with a section on the making of a preacher — the famous answer to that question we all hate: "How long did it take you to prepare that sermon?" "Thirty years!" springs to mind here. Steve Brady, Jeff Lucas, and Greg Haslam discuss the calling, making, maturing, and where necessary, recovery of the preacher.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is available online from a UK website, but will be posted anywhere in the world. Buy a copy for yourself, for your pastor, for your missionary friend overseas — in short for anyone with an interest in preaching!

The book is available from Sovereign World, who will deliver it to you wherever you are and I will close with what they say about it themselves:

In changing times, one thing does not change: the quiet, but insistent, call of God to preach the Gospel. Yet there has been a widespread loss of confidence in the Scriptures and growing confusion about their message. As a result, our witness has often been muted, timid, and unclear.

One of the greatest casualties has been the decline of bold, authoritative, and powerful popular preaching. Many critics have predicted the total demise of preaching from church life altogether, since it is increasingly seen as an outmoded relic of a former age. The result of this loss has been a widespread leakage of spiritual power, declining numbers, and stunted spiritual growth in many churches.

In the autumn of 2003, at Westminster Chapel, we embarked upon a preaching school that sought to provide a remedy for this problem. It was simply called Preach the Word! My hope was that it would help raise the calibre, profile, and effectiveness of authentic biblical preaching across every denomination and stream in the Body of Christ.

A wide range of outstanding teachers, preachers, and communicators were invited to share their skills, wisdom, and strongest convictions on a host of themes related to this great task, and a large number of delegates gathered each month to give them an enthusiastic hearing. The transcripts of these teaching sessions have been edited and distilled into this single volume in an effort to reach and engage an even wider audience. These presentations will encourage renewed confidence in the importance of this ministry, and impart practical know-how in its development, both in beginners just 17 starting out on this call, as well as those considerably more experienced in the work. Men and women of all ages who are called to this task will benefit greatly from this extraordinary collection.

A regular speaker at newfrontiers conferences, John KpiKpi is a man dear to my heart. He is someone who has run after his dream and is well on the way to seeing it fulfulled. John leads a church in Ghana, and oversees the work of newfrontiers in West Africa.

His book is well summarised on the newfrontiers resource site as follows:

God is about a great work in the earth which encompasses all the tribes and nations of the world. But just what is the nature of this work and what is God�s goal? What should be the relationship between us and our tribes after we have been joined to God�s people through the cross of Christ? What is the relationship between us and people through the cross of Christ? What is the relationship between us and people from other tribes and races who have become joined to God�s people? And what about cherished customs and traditions of the tribes we come from? Do we continue with them? Do we select some and drop the others? In this book, John Kpikpi grapples with these questions, which he believes are foundational issues for the planting and building of local churches all over the world. There is a prophetic call to God�s �called out� ones to discover their true identity in Christ, and in Christ alone, and to live out the full implications of their new life to the glory of God and the one and only Son of God who loved them and gave himself for them.

John challenges our perceptions that the only problem we have to face is racism. Rather, our prejudice about the tribe we belong to is a real barrier to God's purpose to build a truly multi-coloured church. The principles in this book are as relevant to the West as they are to the African context in which they are written.

John explains the problem as follows:

"One such horror is that, disturbingly, we seem to be able to live quite comfortably with tribalism, the idea that one's own tribe is superior to all the other tribes. Widespread discrimination, injustice, division and wars have resulted fromt this sinful belief that has taken root in people's minds. Furthermore, the exhalting of our tribal identities prevents us from fully embracing God's way of life, which He has clearly revealed to us in His written word. As a result we allow our customs and traditions to take precidence over the holy word of God."

John goes on to detail specific examples of this. He bemoans the fact that so many churches are monotribal and do not integrate different kinds of people. This does not, in his view, reflect the heart of God.

"...it seems the restoration of the people of this world should involve the reuniting of these scattered peoples under one God with the shared intention of pleasing and hounouring God rather than one of making a name for themselves (or for their tribes!)"

If you are serious about building a multicultural church that is welcoming to those of different backgrounds to yourself, this book is an essential read. It is available to purchase wherever you are in the world direct from the newfrontiers website.

The Indigent Intern: has a list of books given to the delegates which I presume is accurate - I have been blessed to receive some of these already as free books to review by publishers - the rest do sound interesting and I would be open to review any more if any marketeers are reading!

This list of books has every mark of being very carefully chosen and we would do well to consider begging borrowing or buying any of them we dont already have! If you have any thoughts on this choice of books do feel free to share them!

The MacArthur Study Bible
Not yet seen this! I wonder if it is the same as the electronic version available with libronix?

A paperback copy of the ESV translation of the Bible
I love it of course! Extensively reviewed by me HERE

The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter
I am almost certainI read this one more than a decade ago- I really ought to read it again!

The Deliberate Church by Mark Dever
Fantastic! Reviewed by me HERE

Getting the Gospel Right by R.C. Sproul
Not heard of this one....

Why Only One Way? by John MacArthur
Nor this.....

God is the Gospel by John Piper
A GREAT book - reviewed by me HERE

Counted Righteous in Christ by John Piper
Some quotes and comments on this book with a link to the free PDF HERE

Give Praise to God edited by Ligon Duncan, Derek Thomas, & Philip Ryken
Another new one one me!

Humility by C.J. Mahaney
An absolutely ESSENTIAL read - reviewed by me HERE.

Sex, Romance, & the Glory of God by C.J. Mahaney
An abreviated form of this book appears as two chapters of Sex and the Supremacy of Christ which I reviewed HERE.

Speaking the Truth in Love by David Powlison
This I HAVE to get my paws on, I have heard such good things about him but never read him.

Women's Ministry in the Local Church by Ligon Duncan & Susan Hunt
New one on me....

Pathway to Freedom by Alistair Begg
Again, another new one!

Every now and then an author writes a book that so hits the mark that I conclude that in my humble opinion every Christian should read them at least once in their life. This year Mahaney has gone and written two.

Regular readers of my blog will remember my review of Humility and my interview with CJ. Today, I will review his new book �Living the Cross Centered Life�.

The cross is so central to CJ�s ministry that up until now two of his books were about it. This new volume combines the material in both of these books and incorporates new material to make what is arguably the definitive introduction to the doctrine of the cross. Certainly as a practical book which applies the doctrine to our daily lives this has no equal in any book I have read.

CJ begins his book by quoting Stott �The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us�
He then challenges us to consider what is the main thing in our lives- what defines us? CJ then reminds us that according to Paul that which was of first importance was simply this �Christ died for our sins�.

�If there is anything in life we should be passionate about, it�s the gospel. And I don�t mean passionate only about sharing it with others; I mean passionate in thinking about the gospel, reflecting upon it, rejoicing in it, allowing it to colour the way we look at the world and all of life�

Perhaps like many Christians you feel that you have grasped the implications of the cross and are looking for fresh insights elsewhere. Mahaney shares one of his favourite quotes with us �We never move on from the cross, only into a more profound understanding of the cross�.

CJ is not at all embarrassed to stand with Anslems view of the cross:- �The debt was so great that while Man alone owed it only God could pay it�. Not for him any modern doubts about substitutionary atonement. CJ is clear about the implications of a wrong understanding of the gospel of the cross � he quotes a friends letter which says of his pastoral experience �very small errors in a person�s understanding of the gospel seemed to result in very big problems in that persons life�.

For Mahaney, a proper understanding of the gospel begins with a proper understanding of our sin. �For when you are deeply aware of your sin, and of what an affront if is to God�s holiness, and of how impossible it is for Him to respond to this sin with anything other than furious wrath- you can only be overwhelmed with how amazing grace is.�

But don�t think that pastoral sessions with this father in the faith are all doom and gloom. CJ is clearly eager to point out the love of God to people: �As a pastor few things affect me more than interacting with those who�are unaware of Gods personal love for them. Normally there isn�t a week that goes by where I�m not talking with someone who hasn�t understood this truth �Christ loved me and gave himself for me�- in personal experience�

Our personal experience is a vital part of being a Christian. CJ describe the ways we can lose our focus on the cross and hence lose our joy. One of the chief of these is legalism which he defines excellently

�Legalism is seeking to achieve forgiveness from God and justification before God through obedience to God. A legalist is anyone who behaves as if they can earn Gods forgiveness through personal performance�It says to God in effect �Your plan didn�t work. The cross wasn�t enough and I need to add my good works to it to be saved�legalism is essentially self-atonement for the self-glorification and ultimately for self-worship. �

CJ shares as part of the antidote to legalism a wonderful quote from the prince of preachers �All the love and acceptance which perfect obedience could have obtained of God, belong to you because Christ was perfectly obedient on your behalf�

CJ is keen in this book not to merely teach theology but goes on to explain how to live a cross-centred life one day at a time. This little book is a wonderful, wonderful book that can only benefit the reader. Buy yourself a copy, buy your friend a copy, buy your pastor a copy. I suspect this is a book that I shall read many times over the next few years.

There are few subjects that are both as critical to the church and as poorly understood and practiced as humility. There are few men more qualified to teach us on the subject than C.J.Mahaney. When I had the priviledge of an interview with CJ by email a few weeks back I was again reminded of his amazing humility and have not been disappointed in the content of his new book.

As I discovered a couple of years ago when it fell to my lot to preach on meekness there is little in print on such subjects. I understand and sympathise with the pain that CJ had to bear but am glad that he went through it and produced this fantastic book.

I guess when you are plucked from obscurity as he was and end up leading a whole group of churches without any formal training it is going to send you one of two ways. You will either think "now I finally arrived....." or you will be forever in awe of the amazing grace of God that can take you to places you never imagined possible. Despite his attempts to claim to be a man who has struggled more than most with pride I am convinced that C.J. has taken the latter view.
Why is humility so critical? C.J. launches straight in to tell us in the opening of his book- because "humility draws the gaze of our sovereign God"

...this is the one to whom I will look:he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word. (Is 66:2)

C.J is most helpful in his definition of humilty which he says is "honestly assessing ourselves in the light of God's holiness and our sinfulness".

C J quotes Jerry Bridges definition of pride as "contending for supremacy with God" and elaborates that pride seeks "to rob God of legitamate glory and to pursue self-glorification"

Seen this way, and given the fact that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble it is little wonder that C.J. aggrees with Stott's assessment that "pride is our greatest enemy and humility our greatest friend"

Mahaney wisely points us towards a sermon Spurgeon preached on the subject of pride and humility and thanks to my friend Phil Johnson we can read it online. Spurgeon's sermon is based on a revealing scripture:

"Before destruction the heart of man is haughty, and before honor is humility."�Proverbs 18:12.

C.J. urges us to learn to simply "serve others for the glory of God" urging us to realise that pride is quite out of place for the Christian - C.J. quoted Carl Henry as saying "how can anyone be arrogant when he stands beside the cross"

C.J. masterfully outlines some practical ways for us to cultivate humility and holds before us another reason to do so "the humble are genuinely care free"

One of the things my pastor Tope Koleoso has taught me to do is to look for the gaps- ie to look for the throw away comments which may not be on the subject at hand but which reveal much that has not been fully said. Sometimes these throw away comments tell us something which comes so naturally to the person that made the comment that they almost do not think it needs explanation. For the rest of us, though that hidden wisdom is sometimes the pearl worth seeking in the whole book. One such pearl that C.J. writes in this book is "I guess I never do anything passively. Im never just observing". I pray God will help us to be so purposeful in our approach to life.

C.J.s deliberate pursuit of the God of the humble has achived much in his lifetime. We can all do well to learn from the wisdom distilled in this, his finest book so far.

I have no hesitation at all in adding this book to my list of books I feel every Christian should read at some point in their Christian lives.


This book review was organised by the diet of bookworms where you can read more reviews by bloggers.

Other Books every Christian should read

With this book Piper raises the bar. It is clearly his argument that Joy in God is the goal of the gospel itself. He really did mean it when he said the chief purpose of man is to glorify God BY enjoying him forever. Now, he makes plain that it is God himself who makes the gospel good news. Before we get into the review proper, why not

• Read the Introduction and Chapter 1
  
• Listen to the Audio introduction by John Piper

Piper's book opens as follows:

From the first sin in the Garden of Eden to the final judgment of the great white throne, human beings will continue to embrace the love of God as the gift of everything but himself. Indeed there are ten thousand gifts that flow from the love of God. The gospel of Christ proclaims the news that he has purchased by his death ten thousand blessings for his bride. But none of these gifts will lead to final joy if they have not first led to God. And not one gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel's greatest gift was not the Lord himself.

"Gospel" means good news ?but what makes the good news good? What is the goal of the gospel, without which it is no longer good? It is that Christ's death brings sinners to God! Were it to bring us anywhere else we would be left hopeless. But the gospel is that God gives us himself Christ died to give us Christ, and this self-giving is his highest mercy to us and the best news for us! The most profound, most exceedingly gracious, final and decisive good of the good news is Christ himself as the glorious image of God revealed for our endless satisfaction."

This morning my pastor Tope preached on a similar theme. He said that the "one thing" that is necessary is God. We must seek presenceense and worship more than everything else. When we do this everything else will fit into its own place. By the end I was convicted. He challenged his hearers to respond by raising a hand if they wanted to recommitt to putting God first in their lives. It was only my foolish pride and the fact that he used the word "backslidder" in his description of the people he wanted to respond that stopped me from raising my own hand.

Foolishly we put many things above the "one thing" - work, family, even Gods good gifts can take the place of God. We can busy ourselves with much serving and miss the real presence of God in hurry. Even salvation itself is not the goal.

Piper says "The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God."

When we have experienced the good news like this, it will thrill us and change our lives. Piper is eager that this gospel is proclaimed in all its fullness, and says that if we have heard it right it is inevitable we will want to share it. "That is what a person does who has heard good news. He tells it"

In support of his central thesis, Piper examines the use of the greek word euangelion and highlights that the biblical gospel includes at least the following (you may recognise some of this from my own attempts at summarising the gospel here and here.

• There is a God who created the world (Acts 14.15)
• God God reigns and his sovereign rule is being revealed (Ro 10.15, Mk 1.14)
• Jesus has arrived on planet earth (Lk 2.10-11) it is the gospel of Christ (Gal 1.7)
• Jesus paid a ransom for us with his life (Mk 10.45)
• Jesus was raised from the dead (1 Cor 15.1,3-4)
• The Holy Spirit has been sent to guarentee what is coming. (Lk 3.16,18)
• Salvation is available by the power of God for everyone who believes (Ro 1.16)
• True peace can be found only through Jesus (Acts 10.36)
• All types of people are to be blessed through the gospel (Gal 3.8)
• It is the gospel of the undeserved grace of God (Acts 20.24)
  

To Piper two 2 Cor 5.21 makes it very clear that substitutionary atonement and justification is the heart of the gospel. As it also says in 1 Pet 3.18 "Christ suffered once for sin, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God"

Piper is very clear in his statement though that "Until the gospel events of Good Friday and Easter and the gospel promises of justification and eternal life lead you to behold and embrace God himseld as your highest joy, you have not embraced the gospel of God"

He seems to imply that our churches might be full of false converts- something which obviously concerns Mark Dever as well.

To Piper, the The gospel of Galatians and the rest of the New Testament can be summarised
by the declaration of Is 40.9 which in the LXX has two uses of the word we translate "evangelist". Thus, the whole Gospel can be summed up in one catchphrase: "Behold your God"

The gospel is only good news because it brings us to God.

Piper puts his cards firmly on the table, declaring that he believes those who do not prize God above all things have not been truly converted. The gospel is only good news he says because it is the way back to a relationship with God.

Piper also refers to 2 Cor 4.4-6 to support the notion that the gospel is about seeing the glory of God. The gospel is the glory of Christ and a work of creation has occurred in our hearts causing us to see the light of Gods glory in the face of Jesus. Seeing that light is according to Piper
what liberates us from the power of Satan.

Says Piper "The gospel is Gods instrument for liberating people from exulting in self to exulting in Christ."

Piper goes onto explain the work of the Holy Spirit in pursuading us of the truth of the gospel. Today many exponents of rerformed theology are curiously silent about the work of the Spirit. Not Piper, who quotes Calvin as follows "...the Word will not find acceptance in mens hearts
before it is sealed by the inward testimony of the Holy Spirit".

He also believes that the work of the Holy Spirit in causing us to value Christ is essential to our lives as Christians. "The work of the Holy Spirit in changing us is not to work directly on our bad habits but to make us admire Jesus Christ so much that sinful habits seem foreign and distasteful"

Although in this book he doesn't explicitly mention the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, he certainly has elsewhere. Like many others, it is clear he believes we need a clear, conscious and distinct experience of the Holy Spirits work in our lives.

As I read all this, it made me think of hero-worship. We have a natural tendancy to value our heroes so highly that we want to be like them. Thus, if we value Christ we will also want to be like him. This puts an interesting perspective, not explored by Piper on how we should relate to
those more mature than us in the Christian faith. Where our admiration of them points behind them to an admiration of Christ it would seem entirely reasonable to use the understandable desire to be like them as a motivation for life change. After all Paul says to his hearers "follow me as I follow Christ"

The passion that Piper feels is infectious. He could almost be a member of a pentecostal or charismatic church like mine. Yet, in his wisdom he ensures that his writings have a much wider impact than merely appealing to that growing section of the church. You will not feel alienated if you are a cessationist, although I challenge any "strict" cessationist to demonstrate the reality of a relationship with God as outlined here.

Piper is eager to point out, however, that with all his talk of delighting in God he is no triumphalist. He believes that for the Chrisitan sorrow and joy are actually entwined. Our joy in Christ produces regret and sorrow over sin which in turn produces the joy of forgiveness. According to Piper "life is a battle for joy in the midst of sorrow". We are in the words of 2 Cor 6.10 "Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing"

A true understanding of the gospel "does not make a person presumptuous-it makes him meek. It produces brokenhearted joy."

There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this book is the most important I have read this year. I would urge everyone who can to read it. I feel it is the best book that Piper has written so far. Reading it will cause you to understand in a fresh way the gospel of Christ. No matter where you are on your Christian journey this book will be of great assistance.

I pray the book may unsettle us from our passivity and cause us not to want to settle for a flat, emotionless Christianity. I come away from this book, and my pastors sermon this morning with a fresh hunger for an encounter with the God I say I believe in.

It is a real challenge to us. Can we say truthfully to people who we meet that they should come to our church, or even look at our lives and in so doing see God's activity. Is there a sense of awe in our meetings so that we could turn to each other and say "Behold your God".

Do we really believe in a God who acts today? If so, lets cry out to God for more of his active presense in our personal lives, and in the lives of our churches.

I have no hesitation whatsoever in commending this book in the highest possible terms. It has been added to my list of books I feel every Christian should read. Go and buy yourself a copy as soon as you can. This book review was organised by diet of bookworms where you can read other bloggers views.


Books every Christian should read

Nancy's acclaimed book has hit the shelves with a new study guide eddition. Here is my previous interview with her, and here's the press release:

World Journalism Institute is happy to announce that the study guide edition of Total Truth:Liberating Christianity from Its Cultural Captivity is now in bookstores. Total Truth is an award-winning book on Christian worldview by Nancy Pearcey, WJI's Francis A. Schaeffer Scholar.

The new study guide edition is a great resource for Sunday School classes and study groups. It goes far beyond the typical guide by offering 30 pages of significant new content--fresh stories, examples, and illustrations to bring the book's themes to life. Each chapter also suggests on-going activities to guide readers in detecting worldview themes in their work and daily experience.

Nancy Pearcey has "road-tested" the material with students in WJI's journalism courses and their feedback has been highly enthusiastic. Many say it greatly enhanced their reading of the book.

"Virtually every day I get emails from readers who want to know if there is a study guide available for Total Truth," Pearcey told WJI. "The book is being used by churches, schools, and study groups around the country--even by reading groups among Capitol Hill staffers."

The study guide edition is an outstanding tool to help readers dig deeper into the text and learn how to be equipped with a Christian worldview. It is available from your local Christian bookstore or Borders, or online from Amazon, Christianbook.com, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstores. Total Truth won the Award of Merit in the Christianity & Culture category in the Christianity Today Book Awards for 2005, and the ECPA Gold Medallion Award for best book of the year in the Christianity & Society category.

"Most of all Jesus loves you" by Noel Piper is simple and to an adults eye I initially thought it would not interest many of my kids. With four kids ranging from 4-8 we have a fairly good laboratory to test books out.

When I first read this book to our two year old Joel and our four year old, Charis it was a real hit. Charis asked all kinds of questions about God, and we had one of the best chats yet.

After having it read to him, our six year old Henry asked to take this book to bed with him. For several nights he read the book to himself after we had said goodnight. He said that he sometimes thought about bad or scary things and that this book helped him to feel better. Reading Jesus loves him helped him to conquer some of these fears which he hadnt even told us about.

Even our eight year old likes to read this book to her younger brothers and sister. It is colourful, engaging, simple but taught an important truth to my kids. I cant recommend it highly enough, especially for the 6s and under age group.

This book review was organised by diet of book worms where you can read what other bloggers thought.

This book was for me a book of two halves. The first half outlined the thesis of the authors, namely that it is God's word and in particular the gospel that should be allowed to set the direction of the church. The opening chapters were quite simply outstanding. I liked the fact that Dever is clear that we do actually need to do something quite deliberate if we want healthy churches that will grow in the right way. The following quote is in my opinion worth its weight in gold-

"In whatever we do we want to be careful about allowing Gods word to set our trajectory, power our progress and govern our methods........When the gospel enjoys functional centrality, the church gains traction in the culture, because the gospel is the power of God for salvation.......The gospel fights the church's enemies, such as doctrinal error and moral wickedness..... In short. Gods word, encapsulated in the Gospel, builds the church......... Our goal as preachers and leaders is to keep our methods basic and plain so that the Gospel is cast in bold relief against the backdrop of our own admitted weakness"

Mark Dever outlines and explains 4 Ps which he told his church was what he would rely on to build the church- Preaching, prayer, personal discipleship and patience.

When I finally get to sharing my thoughts on Rick Warren, you may be surprised to see the overlap between what Warren and Dever actually say. Take this example: Warren encouraged pastors to stay put for the long haul. He believes that God is always playing the long game, and sometimes we need to learn to do the same. God is not in a hurry, and according to Rick

"We tend to overestimate what can be accomplished in a year and underestimate what can be accomplished in a decade."

In his book, Dever says

"The best way to lose your place of influence as a pastor is to be in a hurry, forcing radical (even if biblical) change before people are ready to follow you and own it. It would be wise for many of us to lower our expectations and extend our time horizons........God is working for eternity and he has been working from eternity. He's not in a hurry, and we shouldn't be either. So it is wise to show care for the congregation and concern for the unity of the church by not running to far ahead of them that people start falling behind. Run at a pace that the congregation can keep. Of course, there are some things you might need to change rather quickly. But as much as possible, do these things quietly and with an encouraging smile, not loudly and with a disapproving frown...... Make haste slowly......and kindly.....patience in the pastorate requires thinking in terms of twenty, thirty, forty or even fifty years of ministry"

You might also be surprised to know that Rick Warren describes preaching as the number one factor in how healthy your church will be. Mark Dever says

"The one thing necessary is the power of Gods word. That's why preaching and prayer will always be paramount- no matter what fad tops the charts. Stake your ministry on the power of the Gospel"

Mark is also passionate about us ensuring our hearers actually understand the gospel rather than assuming they know what it is-

"...when we assume the Gospel instead of clarifying it, people who profess Christianity but don't understand or obey the gospel are cordially allowed to presume their own conversion without examining themselves for evidence of it- which may amount to nothing more than a blissful damnation.....being a Christian in name only has spread in our churches like gangrene, and misunderstandings about the gospel abound among professing evangelicals."

He sums up the gospel in four words "God, man, Christ, response" and says "Remember its not evangelism without the evangel"

"Benefit evangelism fills our churches with people who are taught to expect everything to go their way just because they became christians. But Jesus promises persecution for following him, not worldy perks"

He is dismissive of gimmick and techniques-
"The gospel of Christ has never needed the gimmicks of man to effect conversion in the soul"

"Churches are most healthy when the gospel is most clear, and the gospel is most clear when are evangelistic methods are most plain"

Mark describes his approach to ensuring his people are genuinely Christians. On his arrival at the church not only did he decide to interview personally every new member, but also to work through everyone already in the church- to ensure they had all responded to the gospel. In these interviews he asks to hear their tes