Nick Roark's Blog, page 118

“For to me to live is Christ” by John Eadie

“Christ, says the Apostle, shall be magnified in my body by life, ‘for to me to live is Christ.’ Christ and life were one and the same thing to him.

Might not the sentiment be thus expanded? For me to live is Christ:

—the preaching of Christ the business of my life

—the presence of Christ the cheer of my life

—the image of Christ the crown of my life

—the Spirit of Christ the life of my life

—the love of Christ the power of my life

—the will of Christ the law of my life

—and the glory of Christ the end of my life.

Christ was the absorbing element of his life. If he travelled, it was on Christ’s errand; if he suffered, it was in Christ’s service. When he spoke, his theme was Christ; and when he wrote, Christ filled his letters…

And when did the Apostle utter this sentiment? It was not as he rose from the earth, dazzled into blindness by the Redeemer’s glory, and the words of the first commission were ringing in his ears.

It was not in Damascus, while, as the scales fell from his sight, he recognized the Lord’s goodness and power, and his baptism proclaimed his formal admission to the church.

Nor was it in Arabia, where supernatural wisdom so fully unfolded to him the facts and truths which he was uniformly to proclaim. It sprang not from any momentary elation as at Cyprus, where he confounded the sorcerer, and converted the Roman proconsul.

No, the resolution was written at Rome in bonds, and after years of unparalleled toil and suffering. His past career had been signalized by stripes, imprisonment, deaths, shipwreck, and unnumbered perils, but he did not regret them.

He had been ‘in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness,’ but his ardour was unchilled; and let him only be freed, and his life prolonged, and his motto still would be—’For me to live is Christ.’

It did not repent the venerable confessor now, when he was old, infirm, and a prisoner, with a terrible doom suspended over him, that he had done so much, travelled so much, spoken so much, and suffered so much for Christ.

Nor was the statement like a suspicious vow in a scene of danger, which is too often wrung from cowardice, and held up as a bribe to the Great Preserver, but forgotten when the crisis passes, and he who made it laughs at his own timidity.

No. It was no new course the Apostle proposed—it was only a continuation of those previous habits which his bondage had for a season interrupted. Could there be increase to a zeal that had never flagged, or could those labours be multiplied which had filled every moment and called out every energy?

In fine, the saying was no idle boast, like that of Peter at the Last Supper—the flash of a sudden enthusiasm so soon to be drowned in tears. For the apostle had the warrant of a long career to justify his assertion, and who can doubt that he would have verified it, and nobly shown that still, as hitherto, for him to live was Christ?

He sighed not under the burden, as if age needed repose; or sank into self-complacency, as if he had done enough, for the Lord’s commission was still upon him, and the wants of the world were so numerous and pressing, as to claim his last word, and urge his last step.

It was such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ, who placed on record the memorable clause, inscribed also on his heart—’for me to live is Christ.'”

–John Eadie, A Commentary on the Greek Text of the Epistle of Paul to the Philippians (ed. W. Young; Second Edition.; Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1884), 51–51-52.

“He could have given us nothing more excellent” by Francis Turretin

“He in whom we are beloved is Christ, the delight of His heavenly Father and the ‘express image of His person.’ He could have given us nothing more excellent, nothing dearer, even if He had given the whole universe.”

–Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology (ed. James T. Dennison Jr.; trans. George Musgrave Giger; vol. 1; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–1997), 242. (3.20.6)

“These four things” by Francis Turretin

“These four things in the highest manner commend the love of God towards us:

(1) the majesty of the Lover;

(2) the poverty and unworthiness of the loved;

(3) the worth of Him in whom we are loved;

(4) the multitude and excellence of the gifts which flow out from that love to us.”

–Francis Turretin, Institutes of Elenctic Theology (ed. James T. Dennison Jr.; trans. George Musgrave Giger; vol. 1; Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 1992–1997), 1: 242. (3.20.6)

“Being Lord He became a servant” by John Calvin

“He became obedient. (Philippians 2:8) Even this was immense humility, that from being Lord He became a servant.

But he says that He went farther than this, because, while He was not only immortal but the Lord of life and death, He nevertheless became obedient to His Father, even so far as to undergo death.

This was extreme abasement, especially when we consider the kind of death, which he immediately adds to emphasize it. For by dying in this way He was not only covered with ignominy in the sight of men, but also accursed in the sight of God.

It is assuredly such an example of humility as ought to absorb the attention of all men. It is impossible to explain it in words suitable to its greatness.”

–John Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Volume 11, Trans. T.H.L. Parker (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1965), 249. Calvin is commenting on Philippians 2:8.

“Over-long sermons” by John Newton

“Secondly (as we say), as to long preaching. There is still in being an old-fashioned instrument called an hour-glass, which in days of yore, before clocks and watches abounded, used to be the measure of many a good sermon, and I think it a tolerable stint.

I cannot wind up my ends to my own satisfaction in a much shorter time, nor am I pleased with myself if I greatly exceed it. If an angel was to preach for two hours, unless his hearers were angels likewise, I believe the greater part of them would wish he had done.

It is a shame it should be so: but so it is; partly through the weakness and partly through the wickedness of the flesh, we can seldom stretch our attention to spiritual things for two hours together without cracking it, and hurting its spring: and when weariness begins, edification ends.

Perhaps it is better to feed our people like chickens, a little and often, than to cram them like turkeys, till they cannot hold one gobbet more. Besides, over-long sermons break in upon family concerns, and often call off the thoughts from the sermon to the pudding at home, which is in danger of being over-boiled.”

–John Newton, The Works of John Newton, Vol. 2 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1824/2006), 2: 163.

“Everything for us” by John Calvin

“Christ has been given us by the Father in such a way that His whole life is a mirror that is set before us. As, then, a mirror is bright, yet not for itself, but so that it may be useful and profitable to others, so Christ did not seek or receive anything for Himself, but everything for us. For what need, I ask, had He, who was equal with the Father, of a new exaltation?”

–John Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians, Volume 11, Trans. T.H.L. Parker (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1965), 250-251. Calvin is commenting on Philippians 2:9.

“There is none greater than this God” by Matthew Barrett

“This book is meant to fill the house with good theology proper, the type that will keep the demons away for good (Matt. 12:45).

That means dispensing with the modern theologian’s agenda to create a God in our own image, a God whose immanence has swallowed His transcendence, a God that can be controlled by the creature because He is not that different from the creature.

But it also means filling the house with a biblical understanding of God as the One who is, as Isaiah said, ‘high and lifted up’ (Isa. 6:1), whose attributes remain undomesticated. He is the God Jeremiah confessed, saying, ‘There is none like You, O Lord; You are great, and Your name is great in might,’ (Jer. 10:6).

There is none greater than this God, not because He is merely a greater version of ourselves but because He is nothing like ourselves.”

–Matthew Barrett, None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2019), xvi.

“All the gifts of sovereign grace are intended to give us joy” by Charles Spurgeon

“Brethren, let us think over our comforts now, for a minute, and our consolations. Have we not this for consolation—that God has loved us with an everlasting love, even the Lord who cannot change?

Hitherto He has never failed us,—He has promised that all good things shall be ours as we need them, and it has been so. Have we not this for a consolation—that He has given us Christ, and therein has given us all things?

Can He deny us anything now, after having given to us His own dear Son? Let us think how dear we are to Christ, how much we cost Him, how precious we are in His sight.

Can He leave us? Can He be unkind to us? Let us reflect upon the way in which the Lord has hitherto always appeared for us in times of difficulty, and rescued us in days of jeopardy.

Turning to the Book, and finding it written, ‘I am God: I change not,’ let us be consoled for the future, and go on our way confident that all shall be well.

All the covenant promises are meant to console us. All the gifts of sovereign grace are intended to give us joy. The attributes of God are springs of consolation for us.

The human nature of Christ in which He comes near to us is a source of bliss. The gentleness and tenderness of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us on purpose to be our Comforter are dear subjects of delight.

Indeed, if we be down cast, we must blame ourselves. ‘Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him.’ The consolations of the Spirit are ‘waters to swim in.’

Beloved, we must draw to a close upon this one thought of abundance. Just think of what God has done for us by way of making us happy.

He has not only pardoned us, but He has received us into His family, and He has taken us there, not to be His hired servants, as we once thought He might do, but He has made us His own sons; and what is more than that, He has made us heirs, and not secondary heirs either, but ‘joint-heirs with Christ Jesus’; so that we have come right up from the place of the slave into the position of the heir of all things.

Our Lord Himself, our dear and ever blessed Saviour, was not content to pluck us like brands from the burning—not content to make us His sheep, whom He should watch over with tender care—but He has taken us to be His spouse, and He calls us His beloved.

Yea, He has done more. He has taken us to be members of His body, and we are of His flesh and of His bones. Was there ever such an exaltation as this?

When Scripture speaks of lifting a beggar from the dunghill, and setting him among princes, surely it falls short of this wonder—that of taking a worm of the dust, a sinful wretch that was only fit for Hell, and putting him into union with Christ Jesus, so that he should be a part of the mystical body of the Son of God.

This is marvellous; and, as I think of it, I feel that I have brought you to the sea shore and shown you an ocean to swim in, the depth of which you cannot fathom. Oh the depths of the mercy of God!”

–Charles H. Spurgeon, “‘Waters to Swim In,’” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. 18 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1872), 18: 317–318.

“Give Me thy burden, give Me all thy sins” by John Owen

“How do the saints hold communion with Christ as to their acceptation with God?

They hearken to the voice of Christ calling them to Him with their burden, “Come unto Me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden.’ ‘

‘Come with your burdens; come, thou poor soul, with thy guilt of sin.’ Why? What to do?

‘Why, this is mine,’ saith Christ, ‘this agreement I made with My Father, that I should come, and take thy sins, and bear them away: they were my lot. Give Me thy burden, give Me all thy sins. Thou knowest not what to do with them; I know how to dispose of them well enough, so that God shall be glorified, and thy soul delivered.”

They lay down their sins at the cross of Christ, upon His shoulders.

This is faith’s great and bold venture upon the grace, faithfulness, and truth of God, to stand by the cross and say:

“Ah! He is bruised for my sins, and wounded for my transgressions, and the chastisement of my peace is upon Him. He is thus made sin for me. Here I give up my sins to Him that is able to bear them, to undergo them. He requires it of my hands, that I should be content that He should undertake for them; and that I heartily consent unto.”

This is every day’s work; I know not how any peace can be maintained with God without it. If it be the work of souls to receive Christ, as made sin for us, we must receive Him as one that takes our sins upon Him.

Not as though He died any more, or suffered any more; but as the faith of the saints of old made that present and done before their eyes which had not yet come to pass (Heb. 11:1), so faith now makes that present which was accomplished and past many generations ago.

This it is to know Christ crucified.”

–John Owen, The Works of John Owen, Volume 2: Communion With God (ed. William H. Goold; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1850-53/1997), 194.

“The measure of God’s kindness to you” by Tim Chester

“Each day reflect on how God is being kind to you. And think of Jesus as the Father’s kindness in person.

‘But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour appeared,’ says Paul in Titus 3 v 4-5, ‘He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.’

The Father’s kindness ‘appeared’ and it looks like Jesus. If you want to see the kindness of God, then look at the life and death of Jesus.

This is the measure of God’s kindness. This is divine kindness clothed in human flesh. This is His kindness to you.”

–Tim Chester, Enjoying God (Purcellville, VA: The Good Book Company, 2018), 64.