Theology

Dear Sister,

I’ll admit it. I don’t know as much as I’d like to know about them nor have I read as much as could be desired from the actual Puritans. Oh yes, I’ve read lots about them. I’ve read books and posts and articles summarizing various authors and their writings—and I pray right along with them some of their beautiful and insightful prayers. And each quarter a little booklet arrives at our home with various excerpts from the likes of Thomas Watson, John Flavel, or Isaac Ambrose. I haven’t actually read a lot of John Owen, though two of his well-known books arrived recently from my favorite used-book seller. Nor have I read much from Richard Sibbes, Stephen Charnock, Anne Hutchinson, or Increase Mather. But John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”, child’s version for my kids and adult’s version for myself, has been part of my reading repertoire. And who is not familiar with Jonathan Edwards’s sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” from our high school literature textbooks?

And yet, I love them. I love these Puritans from the 16th through 18th centuries, originating in England and then to America, because of what I know about them and what I have read. I love them for their desire to purify the Church of England from vestiges of “popery”. I love them for their depth of knowledge of—and hatred for—sin, for their desire to live pure and holy lives, for their precise articulation of doctrinal truths, for their love of Christ and His majesty, for their love of Jesus’s love and mercy, for their biblical worship, for the Confessions they magnificently produced…

The more the growth in Christ, the greater impatience is experienced in the slow sanctification process. Change me now, God. Yet, in saner moments, there is much gratitude He does not often use a scalpel and go for the jugular with my sin, but in tender-kindness and mercy and lovely patience He usually wields His gentler instruments of discipline for the conforming of my heart to the image of the Savior. The Puritan’s prayers have been invaluable in getting to the heart of my heart in these matters of impurity, pride, filthiness, and idolatry. As I read, my soul resonates with the words of these “dead old men”, as some refer to them, men who understood their sin, their frailties, the “odious rooms” of their hearts. In this understanding, they clung to God’s great love and mercy, without which, they and we would be lost forever.

Get a flavor for their prayers in this sample from Valley of Vision:

“Of all hypocrites, Grant that I may
not be an evangelical hypocrite,
Who sins more safely because
grace abounds,
Who tells his lusts that Christ’s
blood cleanses them,
Who reasons that God cannot cast
him into hell, for he is saved…
My will is without power of decision
or resolution.
My heart is without affection, and
full of leaks.
My memory has no retention,
so I forget easily the lessons
learned, and Thy truths seep away.
Give me a broken heart that yet
carries home the water of grace.”

https://banneroftruth.org/us/devotional-series/the-valley-of-vision-devotional/

The Puritans get a bad rap at times—especially from the world. Goody two-shoes. Victorian. No fun. Even unsuspecting Christians buy into the caricature. It’s true. They had much to say about sin and were called Puritans for a reason. They were about purifying the Church and keeping their lives unspotted from the world, but the reason they had much to say about our fallen nature and acts of rebellion against God is because they understood the majesty and holiness and beauty of Christ. They knew that sin and purity must not, cannot exist together. Their failures were never sugar-coated. They fell on their faces in contrition and repentance and worship in the face of the Holy. When they saw their hard and darkened hearts, by the mercy of God, when they understood His unmeasured forgiveness in Christ’s payment for sin, they could do no other but worship. And so, sin was mortified and Majesty was lifted high. ‘Theology gave way to doxology’, I read recently.

I heard a lecture not long ago about Jonathan Edwards. His most famous sermon, mentioned earlier, is a frightening picture of God’s wrath against sinners. “The bow of God’s wrath is bent and the arrow is ready to be flung”, the teacher quoted. God’s anger is the reputation of this sermon, but I was reminded, as I listened, that “Christ has flung the door of His mercy wide open and stands in the way, crying unto poor sinners, ‘Come in. Come home.’ “ The problem and punishment defined. The remedy revealed. Edwards was not all about God’s anger. The lecturer revealed that his favorite words were joy, pleasure, happiness, and happified-yes, happified, the state of the soul when knowing the loveliness of the Savior. So much for being a kill-joy.

And then we glimpse their view of the Lord Jesus Christ. These Puritans had much to say about His beauties and the necessity for studying Him. Listen to these words from John Flavel:

The study of Jesus Christ “is the most sweet and comfortable knowledge. What is it to be studying Jesus Christ but to be digging among all the veins and springs of comfort? And the deeper you dig, the more do these springs flow upon you. How are hearts ravished with the discoveries of Christ in the gospel! What ecstasies, meetings, transports do gracious souls meet there?…A believer could sit from morning to night to hear discourses of Christ: ‘His mouth is most sweet.’ “

For these reasons alone, apart from all the other treasures about to be encountered as their writings are delved into, I love them, for they, in an inimitable manner, articulate far better than I, the repinings as well as the longings of my own heart for “not only being chiseled, squared, or fashioned, but separated from the old rock where I have been embedded so long, and lifted from the quarry to the upper air, where I may be built in Christ forever.”

Perhaps your appetite has been whetted. Read the Puritans while you’re young or whatever your age and learn of Christ deeply. I’ve waited far too long.

Learning with you,

Cherry

Dear sister,

We have all given counsel. Most of it is never done officially in an office, yet we do it everyday. We have given it to countless strangers, friends, and family. We have been helpful and probably not so helpful, done it well and done it poorly.

Sisters, we love to talk and share our stories and opinions to others. Think about a time when someone told you of a person with a particular health issue or someone who was pregnant, what did you do? If you are like me, you replied with a story of someone YOU knew of that had/has the same thing and what the outcome was. Then I told the person what they should or should not do based on this account. Look back this day or week and just think of the counsel you have given your husband, child, friends, or stranger. How did it go? Was it biblical counsel?

As believers, we all are called to give biblical counsel (Acts 20:20, Rom 15:14, Col1:28). We are to instruct, teach, admonish, and encourage people to live their life to the glory of God. But how do we do that? Crazy enough, the Bible actually shows us how to give Godly, biblical counsel for any and all circumstances. The Lord inspired Paul and others to write letters to many Christian churches who were struggling with every day issues and questions and Paul gave them biblical counsel. But that begs the question: how did he counsel? From the cross.

Paul starts almost all of his letters with rich theology. He reminds the believers of their history, how they were dead in their transgressions and deserved God’s eternal wrath. That their good works done in righteousness got them no where and are like filthy menstruation rags (that’s the picture the Greek word paints). Then at the right time, Jesus came and bore their sin debt on the cross and granted them forgiveness for all time and put His perfect righteousness on them! Now they are seen by their creator as perfect and adopted into His eternal family as a son complete with all spiritual blessings and inheritance. In light of this theology, he then gave counsel on how they should behave and convicted them of any sin that was seen. He counseled them to love their wives as Christ loves the church, for wives to respect and submit to their husband, for children to honor their parents. He told fighting people to make up, to not get drunk, to always work hard, to not quarrel about what spiritual gift the Lord has given you. He tells believers to rejoice always, to be humble like Christ, to think on right things and not to gossip or speak ill of others. He tells them to love God and love their neighbor. Not to earn favor, but out of thankfulness and joy from what they have in Christ.

Oh sister, the Word is full of counsel for us to give and take. It says that we have an active-responsible heart and not a passive-reactive-victim heart. It says that we may have things that have contributed to our lives but they have not determined our lives. It says we are sinners that need to be forgiven not a being that simply needs more self-esteem. It tells us to repent, have faith, renew our minds, and that we are being sanctified, not that we need our inner needs met or to have more self-worth and confidence. Our worth and confidence need to be in Christ alone (remember what our own righteousness looks like)! Scripture tells us that our Lord is sovereign over all things and to get to know Him and trust Him, not to think that He doesn’t care or see us in some of our most sticky situations.

Can you see and feel the difference? Our counsel should be full of hope! We can face anything because of Christ! There is an answer and ultimate cure for every situation…the Bible says so! Counsel at the heart level…where we think and what we believe…is wise counsel. And wise counsel comes from scripture. Can you see how daily reading of the Word helps with our counsel? Can you see being overwhelmed with Christ’s grace and mercy helps view circumstances differently? Can you counsel someone in light of the sovereignty and character of God? This is discipleship in action. We are commanded to give it. Oh sister, read your Bible, pray, go to a Godly church, feed your mind on spiritual meat so when people come to you for counsel, you can give counsel based on the cross.

~Colleen

Tag: Theology

Those Dead Old Men (And Women)!

Counsel From The Cross