Today C.J. was quoted on the Washington Post sports page by football prospect Jon Copper.
Author: Tony Reinke
Flavel on Mystical Union with Christ
At the very heart of Puritanism is the saints’ mystical union with Christ. We are in Christ! He is our wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption. From this union to Christ we experience all the blessings and delights of communion with God and find spiritual vitality for obedience, prayer, ministry and sacrificial love. This powerful union is mystical because we cannot see it with our eyes. It is a spiritually-revealed truth.
Puritan John Flavel is certainly one of the most valuable (and perhaps one of the more overlooked) of the Puritans. The theme of
mystical union with Christ is threaded throughout his entire ministry and now a study of Flavel on this theme has been published titled The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John Flavel’s Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ by J. Stephen Yuille (RHB).
John Flavel (1628-1691) had an eventful life on the run as a nonconformist preacher (see Beeke’s bio of Flavel here). He is remembered for his books The Mystery of Providence, The Method of Grace, Christ Knocking at the Door of the Heart, The Fountain of Life, and Keeping the Heart. His complete works are still in print and available from the Banner of Truth in six volumes ($99). These works remain strikingly valuable for contemporary readers (read my full review here.)
Back to our specific theme. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “If you have got hold of this idea [i.e., mystical union with Christ] you will have discovered the most glorious truth you will ever know in your life.” It is glorious because it reminds us that in all things, at all times, Christ is central to our lives. All of our spiritual vitality and life comes through Christ. Christ is the “Head” from whom the whole Body is nourished, knit together and grows (Col. 2:19). Paul’s phrase for Christ is simply “who is your life” (3:4) and says our lives are hidden in Christ (3:3). This glorious truth of being united to Christ is at the core of the Christian life.
And Flavel “got hold” of this idea. It became central to his ministry and from this center flowed his understanding of pursuing obedience, prayer and communion with God. Now, Yuille has taken the highlights of Flavel’s teaching on this theme and systematized them into one short volume (128 pages).
Yuille covers the full spectrum of the doctrine in this book. I have taken the index and provided it to the right. The comprehensiveness of this volume does not make it unreadable
or overly academic. Yuille was a prof at Toronto Baptist Seminary, but he is a pastor, too. And this book shows the intellectual awareness of a scholar and the experiential sensitivities of a pastor.
Whether this is your introduction to the full scope of the mystical union with Christ, or your introduction to John Flavel (or both!) this short work will richly bless your soul. Yuille has well-captured the precious truth of our union with Christ through the ministry of a first-rate Puritan.
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Title: The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety: John Flavel’s Doctrine of Mystical Union with Christ
Author: J. Stephen Yuille (forward by Michael A. G. Haykin)
Table of Contents: scanned and posted online [click here]
Boards: paperback
Pages: 128
Topical index: yes
Scriptural index: no
Text: perfect type
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Year: 2007
Price USD: $12.00/$9.00 from RHB
ISBNs: 9781601780171
Piper on Writing
“…In my English class [in 1963], the desire to read serious books and the desire to write serious essays and poems was born. This has never gone away. Writing has been an almost daily habit since then—in one form or another—notes, letters, journal entries, poems, ideas, reports, essays, and more. Writing became the lever of my thinking and the outlet of my feelings. If I didn’t pull the lever, the wheel of thinking did not turn. It jerked and squeaked and halted. But once a pen was in hand, or a keyboard, the fog began to clear and the wheel of thought began to spin with clarity and insight.”
-John Piper, “The Pastor As Scholar: A Personal Journey,” Chicago, April 23, 2009.
…Yet He Wants Books
During his sermon on 2 Timothy 4:13 (“Paul—his Cloak and His Books”), C.H. Spurgeon said:
He [Paul] is inspired, and yet he wants books!
He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books!
He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!
He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books!
He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books!
He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!
The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, “Give thyself unto reading.” The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains of his own. Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritan writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master’s service. Paul cries, “Bring the books”—join in the cry.
Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven
Timothy Keller, during his recent 2009 Gospel Coalition message on idolatry (The Grand Demythologizer: The Gospel and Idolatry), said the following,
If you want a far better version of the message your getting from me right now, you might want to look up an old worthy Puritan named David Clarkson whose three volume set of works was published by the Banner of Truth a long time ago. In the second volume Clarkson has an unbelievably thorough, typically Puritan, sermon called “Soul Idolatry Excludes Men out of Heaven.”…He says, honestly, physical idolatry, bowing down with your body to a physical image, is not really all that different, and a lot less prevalent, than the real sin which is what he calls “soul idolatry”—bowing down to some thing that probably doesn’t have a physical image, in your heart. In other words you can make anything into an idol—anything at all. Doesn’t have to be a statue. It almost never is.
When I returned home from the conference I pulled Clarkson’s sermon from his works (which are still in print and available for a paltry $42). Here is the full sermon for download:
Soul Idolatry Excludes Men Out of Heaven (37 pages, PDF, 11.4 MB).
Summary
In the detailed sermon, Clarkson labels 13 manifestations of “soul idolatry.” He argues that secret and inner idolatry is equally sinful as physical and open idolatry. Clarkson writes, “He that serves his [inner] lusts is as incapable of heaven as he that serves and worships idols of wood or stone” and later writes, “there are thirteen acts of soul worship; and to give any one of them to anything besides the God of heaven is plain idolatry, and those idolaters that so give it.”
But Clarkson is quick to remind believers of the soul idolatry that remains in us. “Those natures that are most sanctified on earth are still a seminary of sin; there is in them the roots, the seeds of atheism, blasphemy, murder, adultery, apostasy, and idolatry.”
He then presents a list of 13 “soul idols”:
1. Esteem. That which we most highly value we make our God. For estimation is an act of soul worship.
2. Mindfulness. That which we are most mindful of we make our God. To be most remembered, to be most minded, is an act of worship which is proper to God, and which he requires as due to himself alone.
3. Intention. That which we most intend we make our god; for to be most intended is an act of worship due only to the true God; for he being the chief good must be the last end.
4. Resolution. What we are most resolved for we worship as God.
5. Love. That which we must love we worship as our God; for love is an act of soul-worship.
6. Trust. That which we most trust we make our god; for confidence and dependence is an act of worship which the Lord calls for as due only to himself.
7. Fear. That which we most fear we worship as our god; for fear is an act of worship.
8. Hope. That which we make our hope we worship as God; for hope is an act of worship.
9. Desire. That which we most desire we worship as our god; for that which is chiefly desired, is the chief good in his account who so desires it; and what he counts his chief good, that he makes his god.
10. Delight. That which we most delight and rejoice in, that we worship as God; for transcendent delight is an act of worship due only to God; and this affection, in its height and elevation, is called glorying.
11. Zeal. That for which we are more zealous we worship as god; for such a zeal is an act of worship due only to God ; therefore it is idolatrous to be more zealous for our own things than for the things of God; to be eager in our own cause, and careless in the cause of God; to be more vehement for our own credit, interests, advantages, than for the truths, ways, honour of God; to be fervent in spirit, in following our own business, promoting our designs, but lukewarm and indifferent in the service of God; to count it intolerable for ourselves to be reproached, slandered, reviled, but manifest no indignation when God is dishonoured, his name, worship, profaned; his truths, ways, people, reviled.
12. Gratitude. That to which we are most grateful, that we worship as God; for gratitude is an act of worship.
13. When our care and industry is more for other things than for God. We cannot serve God and mammon, God and our lusts too, because this service of ourselves, of the world, takes up that care, that industry, those endeavours, which the Lord must have of necessity, if we will serve him as God; and when these are laid out upon the world and our lusts, we serve them as the Lord ought to be served, and so make them our gods.
But this is only a brief summary of about a quarter of Clarkson’s message. I entrust to you the entire sermon.
How can bloggers steward the teaching of the young, old, and the dead?
[The manuscript of my message for the 2009 Band of Bloggers gathering (theme: “Servants and Stewards”) presented in conjunction with The Gospel Coalition Conference on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 at the Rosemont Conference Center in Chicago, IL.]
INTRO…
In the movie National Treasure, the adventure leads to a climactic event in New York City. Nicolas Cage enters an old church building and eventually works his way to the basement and finds the church crypt, a secret entrance into an underground maze of stairwells and hidden doors. Eventually Cage enters a huge dark room and with his torch he lights the tray of oil that slowly illuminates the entire room, revealing billions of dollars of treasured artifacts. You know the story.
This is an image that comes to mind when I think about blog stewardship. The surface of the blog world is a busy place—much like the NYC pavement. Yet, buried under our feet—in the church basement—are neglected spiritual riches.
Bringing up spiritual gold from the basement and into the blogosphere is my primary role in the blog world. I am a blog steward.
STEWARDSHIP EXAMPLES…
I thought of different ways to talk about blog stewardship and I think our brief time will be best spent providing you with a six brief examples from my experience.
1. Puritan literature. As I have grown in the faith, I have grown in my appreciation for the Puritans. They display skill in connecting doctrine to the heart. They are rich both theologically and experientially. I started my blog “The Shepherd’s Scrapbook” (this one) to share various quotes from the Puritans that I believed were especially relevant to contemporary pastors. This vision soon expanded into recommending books in print by Puritan authors, which expanded into developing what I believe to be an optimal library of Puritan resources in a series called “The Puritan Study.” In the series I tried to explain the different ways an expositor can use printed and electronic Puritan resources in their sermon research. I was seeking to steward Puritan literature.
2. Calvin’s Institutes. Of all the books I owned as a newly converted 22-year old Christian, Calvin’s Institutes was the most intimidating. Yet when I began reading, I began to understand, and the intimidation vanished. It was here that I began learning about revelation, the gospel, and I vividly remember the day I first learned about the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit (testimonium internum Spiritus Sancti). Wow! On my blog I wanted to share what I learned, but more importantly I wanted other readers to read the Institutes for themselves. I wrote blog series under the title “Humble Calvinism”—a title ripped off of the New Attitude slogan, “Humble Orthodoxy.” It was my way of getting others to read Calvin for themselves.
3. Herman Bavinck. About three years ago I was introduced to Herman Bavinck, an 19th and 20th century Dutch theologian. I began reading Bavinck and immediately benefitted. I began to see a unique combination of gifts in Bavinck—he was a very careful biblical scholar, a man committed to biblical authority and exegesis, yet a man who retained a wide knowledge of historical theology and church history, a guy who could think as a systematic theologian and simultaneously as a biblical theologian, and all the while being ethically minded, pastoral, affectionate, and aware of contemporary culture. On top of my personal interest in Bavinck I noticed a perfect storm brewing: (1) In 2008 Bavinck’s 4-volume Reformed Dogmatics were to be fully translated into English, which I knew would fuel further interest in him in the Unites States. (2) And I noticed that Bavinck became a point of unity for reformed Christians of different stripes. Bavinck brought together Dutch Reformed folks, Reformed Baptists, Presbyterians, Reformed Charismatics,* and others. And Bavinck unifies pastors and scholars of all ages. I soon realized that Bavinck was not only a rich source of theology, but he also provided a point of doctrinal harmony among a diversity of reformed Christians. So I started HermanBavinck.org, a blog devoted to collecting all things Bavinck (in the English language).
[Pause. How many of you are right now thinking: “I need to check out this Bavinck guy”? That is the power of blog stewardship. I just used a moment of this presentation to persuade you to read Bavinck without ever saying it. Blog stewards can exert tremendous influence in the blog world.]
4. Local church. When I arrive at church on Sunday to hear God’s Word preached, I am a steward. I am personally accountable before God for the message. I am also accountable for making sure my family understands and applies the message. But as a blog steward I further take upon myself the responsibility to pass along particularly important messages to others. Here is one recent example. Recently my pastor, Joshua Harris, preached a sermon series on the economy titled, “The Good Recession.” The two-part message did not receive much attention online. So I decided to transcribe 5 important sections from the series for my blog readers and provide an outline of the messages (see here). My goal was to encourage others to listen to the messages for themselves, and to provide a link-point for other bloggers. My blog post was a way of stewarding a sermon I heard within the context of my local church.
5. C.J. Mahaney. I am honored to work for my living hero of the faith—C.J. Mahaney. Nobody has taught me more about living a cross-centered life than C.J. On applying the gospel to marriage, parenting, pastoral ministry, C.J. communicates very clearly. But C.J. is not a writer. Armed with a desire to see him communicate more frequently to a broad audience, I now work with him, equipping him to speak to the online blog world. His series on “Biblical Productivity” is one recent example where I played the role of catalyst and scribe—provoking him to articulate his process of time management and then documenting that for all to read. Serving directly for C.J. is a unique opportunity, a humbling and valued opportunity to serve the blog world as a steward. Are there men around you whom you could serve?
6. Books. I love books. I love to read books, collect books, and I enjoy promoting my favorite books. And I discovered a quick and effective way to promote good books. Using a digital SLR camera, a wide-angle lens, and a homemade light box I began photographing books—which, I found, was more effective than quoting excerpts and giving my opinions through a lengthy review. If I want to promote a book, I photograph it, and those photographs—uploaded to Flickr—become viral, appearing in magazines, book catalogs, websites, and blogs. Photography has become a fun means of stewarding important resources (although Tim Challies has publically poked fun at this). My unboxing of the ESV Study Bible is one recent example.
As you can see, serving as a blog steward can take different shapes. What does not change is that the blog steward uses his blogging skill and influence to pass along the valuable teaching of others.
FIRST STEPS TO BLOG STEWARDSHIP…
So you may be asking: Where do I go from here? Three steps.
1. Identify your passions. What do you love to do, love to read, love to talk about? These are your passions. Blog about them.
2. Research. Sink yourself in books, sermons, lectures, websites, blogs, magazines, journals—whatever will educate you about your passions. The deeper you go, the more effective your stewardship. Become a disciplined reader. If you are not a disciplined reader, you will likely not go deep, and you will not blog very long or very well. Discipline yourself and research deeply.
3. Share. In your research, identify content that you find most helpful and share it. Develop creative ways to communicate and share content online. [Undeveloped theme: Cross platform conversions of content].
If you do this well, you will not need to find an audience—they will find you.
Identify your passions, research, and share. This is to contribute as a “blog steward.”
Questions? Thoughts? Please leave them in the comments…
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* Wayne Grudem writes that Bavinck is “one of this century’s most brilliant spokesmen for a Reformed theological position” and labels Reformed Dogmatics as “great” [Systematic Theology (IVP 1994) p. 1224].
Tony Reinke 