Grace Creates Worship

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - Romans 12.1

Therefore and by the mercies of God both point to the previous exposition of God's compassion in action as the ground for the exhortation. The grace of God, expounded in chaps. 1-11, expect a certain response. Apart from this grace this response would not only be unanticipated, but also impossible. Thus, the mercies of God are not merely a motive for the obedience enjoined in chaps. 12-15, but the fountain from which it flows or the soil in which it grows. It is instructive that Paul does not refer to the economy of salvation just expounded as "doctrines" but as "mercies" or more fully "compassion in action."

The words present . . . . sacrifice and worship are cultic concepts derived from the OT worship at the Tabernacle/Temple. The product of and proper response to God's grace in Christ is worship. That this is not limited to activities at particular sacred spaces and sacred times is made clear by the object (your bodies) and the character (spiritual) of the worship.

The use of the word bodies makes the imagery of OT sacrifice all the sharper, and emphasizes the totality of devotion called for. All of our existence, in everything we bump into in this life, is to be offered to God. The word spiritual or reasonable clarifies that this cannot be merely external conformity, or going through the motions. The use of these two words (bodies and spiritual) together can correct perverse thoughts about the Christian life. On the one hand, there are those who believe that what they do matters very little as long as they "believe." Sinful behavior is often excused by saying, "God knows my heart." But the word of God says, "present your bodies" and "glorify God in your body" (1 Cor 6.20). On the other hand are those who pride themselves on their external conformity to the commands of Scripture, but are not inwardly changed. True worship is spiritual or reasonable, as Douglas Moo explains, "in the sense of 'appropriate for human beings as rational and spiritual creatures of God': a worship that honors God by giving him what he truly wants as opposed to the depraved worship offered by human beings under the power of sin (see Rom 1.23-25)." (Moo, Romans, NICNT).

This sacrifice of our bodies is living because we have been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life (6.4-11). This sacrifice is holy because, having been set free from sin, we are set apart as God's servants (6.22). This sacrifice is acceptable because we are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, "if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you" (8.8-9).

Do not be mislead by those expositors who wrongly say that the aoristic aspect of present implies a once-for-all presentation of the self to God. The aorist is the default tense of the infinitve in the NT, hense it is the least marked tense. If the present or perfect tense were used, then something could be said regarding the kind of action. The aorist alone does not define the kind of action (progressive, perfected, etc.). The fact that Paul is writing to a church whose members would no doubt be at different maturity levels spiritually is a good argument for seeing this presentation as a repeatable discipline, not a one-time act.

In light of the dawning of a new year and this exhortation of Holy Spirit, let us resolve, as Jonathan Edwards did on the twelfth day of January, 1723, "frequently to renew the dedication of myself to God."

Josh Owen

John Owen's Echo

As I mentioned in one of my responses recently, I have been reading quite a bit of John Owen lately. I have adopted him as my "witness" from among the great cloud of witnesses to learn from. In this, I am following the advice of John Piper which I heard him offer at a conference of the Jonathan Edwards Institute several years ago. He recommended that we find one theologian/pastor/missionary from church history to study, and to learn all that we can from that person. Of course, it must be someone who is exemplary in conduct and orthodox in teaching. The person must also have enough published writings available to make a thorough study possible. Piper had chosen Jonathan Edwards. At this conference, he held up the two volume copy of Edwards' works published by Banner of Truth and said, "If you can't buy any other book on the book tables, you need to buy these. Don't buy a Piper book. If you've read one Piper book you've read them all. I only have one message that I repeat over and over in every book. Besides, I'm only an echo of Jonathan Edwards." I'll add that having read both men there is no denying the profound influence Edwards has had on Piper, for the glory of God and the splendor of Christ's Bride, the church. After reading several of Owen's works, though my heart's desire is ultimately to be conformed to Jesus Christ, I believe it would honor God if I were but an echo of John Owen. I came across this statement of Richard Daniel's from his book The Christology of John Owen on www.johnowen.org/.

…there is one motif so important to John Owen, so often and so broadly cited by him, that the writer would go so far as to call it the focal point of Owen’s theology…. namely, the doctrine that in the gospel we behold, by the Christ-given Holy Spirit, the glory of God "in the face of Christ" and are thereby changed into his image…. (92)

Jamie, I can't think of anything more in line with the vision of this blog: Convinced of the truth that we will become what we focus on. Therefore we focus on beholding Christ in the hope that we will become like Him.

Expect to hear many echos of John Owen in the days ahead.

Josh Owen

Book Review - Life and Diary of David Brainerd

In the past year I have been twice challenged to read great books. Old books that have stood the test of time and been useful for generations. New books that are having a significant impact. The first of these challenges occurred in a seminary class (Dr. Wright's Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism) where our professor was shocked that some of us had never read certain great books. I took this personally as a challenge and have added to each new stack of books to read books that would fit into that category. The second of these challenges occurred while listening to the Sovereign Grace podcast on the Pastor and his reading. (found here http://www.sovereigngraceministries.org/Blog/page/Leadership-Interview-Series.aspx)

The first of these books was The Life and Diary of David Brainerd edited by Jonathan Edwards. I spent an embarrassing length of time reading this book. This was for a couple of reasons. First, I have never read a diary before and found adjusting to this format wasn't easy for me (also embarrassing), I also had developed the habit of reading five (or more) books at a time (also embarrassing and not helpful to boot) and this book usually got the short end of the stick in reading time. However, when I got to the part of the book when God began to bless his Indians with a powerful revival I found that I couldn't put it down.

Now in light of all that I want to say that this truly is a great book, modern American readers may struggle with the style (it does feel like an old book) and some of the older language (even evangelical lingo changes) but it would be well worth investing the time and developing the discipline to read.

Here we find a child of God that struggled deeply with depression, yet was able to be faithful to God in his ministry. Here we find a man whose heart was completely ravished with the glory of Christ yet his body was slowly but surely deteriorating. This for me was the great value of the book. The reports on the revival were amazing and encouraging, and they also give one hope that God in His sovereignty will choose to bless our ministries. But the deepest value was seeing in Brainerd an imperfect saint that in his deep love for Christ persevered to the tragic end.

Repeatedly in the diary we hear of his ups and downs, one day he is gloriously caught up in devotion to Christ, then the next five days his heart is far away and he is distraught by it. I was challenged by his awareness of the lukewarm status of his heart and his passion to regain his intimacy with God. We too often simply accept lukewarm as the status quo and never get worked up about it. A close reading of Brainerd would challenge us to pursue with a greater fervency.

In conjunction with this book I would recommend reading Marsden's biography of Edwards, there we see more of the time that Brainerd spent with the Edwards' and of his romance with Edwards daughter.

Well worth the read. *****