Nick Roark's Blog, page 2

“Time has a doxological rhythm” by Tyler Wittman

“Time has a doxological rhythm. This emphasis on worship is explicit at the week’s center. The fourth day is central to the temporal pattern, because here the heavenly bodies are introduced with their purpose: They “separate the day from the night” and function to tell of “signs and festivals, and for days and years” (Gen. 1:14).

God delegates created light to the heavenly bodies so that the march of time is measurable in days and years. More importantly for the hymn’s purpose, however, is how time’s forward march is tethered to “festivals,” Israel’s seven religious feasts on which they would celebrate the gifts of their Creator and rest from their labors.

These harvest feasts and pilgrimages would celebrate the Creator’s goodness in providing food and afford households the opportunities to compare their crops and yields, identifying people who were in need, and share their bounty accordingly.

They would remind Israel that the Creator owns his creation, so the gifts of its fruitfulness should be shared with “the poor and the sojourner” rather than hoarded by the cleverest and most ruthless (Lev. 23:22). But these same feasts would point also to God’s rescue of Israel from sin and slavery so they might be free to worship him: “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Ex. 8:1).

The seventh day introduces the first of these feasts, the Sabbath (Gen. 2:2; cf. Ex. 20:8–11). This day is the reason for the numbering of the creation week’s days in the first place, tying them together into a collective portrait: a miniature liturgical calendar that gathers up the whole cosmos and sets its daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly rhythms, thereby leading it into the blessing of God’s presence.

It is the Sabbath that unifies the other days, since they count down to it. So, too, Israel’s festal calendar counts from one feast to the next (cf. Lev. 23), and the years count to the year of jubilee, in which all things are given rest and a new beginning (Lev. 25:8–55). The Sabbath comes first in the ordering of the feasts in Leviticus 23 because it is archetypal, showing how every religious feast is rooted ultimately in the Creator’s bountiful provision in creation, which looks forward to something greater (cf. Heb. 4:9–10).

Like creation itself, time is for the benefit of God’s creatures and their daily existence, but it also points beyond itself to the Creator and the end of time in his eternity. Creation’s doxological rhythm should culminate in gratitude that shares the bounty of the Creator’s generosity, and gives all God’s people the rest they need to worship him.

Much like a hymn or a call to worship, creation’s doxological rhythm orders and governs Israel’s worship, and especially its religious calendar. By that same token, it shows how God opens time to himself so that he may meet his creatures there and have time for them.

Creation is not trapped by time, so creatures don’t need deliverance from it. Rather, created time is part of God’s hospitality. The seventh day brings time to rest in God’s rest, a sign of how time is supposed to be ordered and inhabited for the flourishing of God’s creatures. “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27), on account of which it is “a delight” (Isa. 58:13).

When God met Israel in their annual cycle of feasts, this reminded them of his provision in and with the rhythm of created time: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22). Time is a fit vehicle for God’s fellowship with creatures.

As Israel ordered their lives by the calendar the heavenly bodies regulated, they ordered their earthly lives with the hospitable, doxological rhythm of heaven. For this same reason, many churches observe a liturgical calendar that structures the year by festivals and days to remember the Creator’s presence with his creatures in time.

Such practices embody the biblical sense that God creates time with purpose, meaning, and order, all of which invite and regulate our worship for our good.”

–Tyler R. Wittman, Creation: An Introduction, ed. Graham A. Cole and Oren R. Martin, Short Studies in Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 17-20.

“An entertainer of goats” by William Still

“The pastor is called to feed the sheep, even if the sheep do not want to be fed.

He is certainly not to become an entertainer of goats.

Let goats entertain goats, and let them do it out in goatland.

You will certainly not turn goats into sheep by pandering to their goatishness.

Do we really believe that the Word of God, by His Spirit, changes, as well as maddens men?

If we do, to be evangelists and pastors, feeders of sheep, we must be men of the Word of God.”

–William Still, The Work of the Pastor (rev. ed.; Fearn, Ross-shire, Scotland: Christian Focus, 1984/2010), 23″

“Surprising, amazing joy” by Jonathan Edwards

“By virtue of the believer’s union with Christ, he does really possess all things (1 Cor. 3:21-23). But it may be asked, how does he possess all things? What is he the better for it? How is a true Christian so much richer than other people?

To answer this, I’ll tell you what I mean by “possessing all things.” I mean that God three in one, all that He is, and all that He has, and all that He does, all that He has made or done— the whole universe, bodies and spirits, earth and heaven, angels, humans and devils, sun, moon and stars, land and sea, fish and fowls, all silver and gold, kings and potentates— are as much the Christian’s as the money in his pocket, the clothes he wears, the house he dwells in, or the victuals (ie. food) he eats; yes, properly his, advantageously his, by virtue of the union with Christ; because Christ, who certainly does possess all things, is entirely his: so that the Christian possesses it all, more than a wife the share of the best and dearest husband, more than the hand possesses what the head does. It is all his.

Every atom in the universe is managed by Christ so as to be most to the advantage of the Christian, every particle of air or every ray of the sun; so that he in the other world, when he comes to see it, shall sit and enjoy all this vast inheritance with surprising, amazing joy.”

–Jonathan Edwards, “Miscellany ff,” The “Miscellanies”: (Entry a–500), ed. Thomas A. Schafer and Harry S. Stout, vol. 13, The Works of Jonathan Edwards (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2002), 13: 183–184.

“A greater power cannot be imagined” by Stephen Charnock

“This creation of things from nothing speaks an infinite power. The distance between nothing and being has been always counted so great that nothing but an infinite power can make such distances meet together, either for nothing to pass into being or being to return to nothing.

To have a thing arise from nothing was so difficult a text to those who were ignorant of the Scripture that they knew not how to fathom it and therefore laid it down as a certain rule that of nothing, nothing is made, which is true of a created power but not of an uncreated and almighty power.

A greater distance cannot be imagined than that which is between nothing and something, that which has no being and that which has. And a greater power cannot be imagined than that which brings something out of nothing.

We know not how to conceive a nothing, and afterward a being from that nothing, but we must remain swallowed up in admiration of the cause that gives it being and acknowledge it to be without any bounds and measures of greatness and power.

The further anything is from being, the more immense must that power be that brings it into being. It is not conceivable that the power of all the angels in one can give being to the smallest spire of grass.

To imagine, therefore, so small a thing as a bee, a fly, a grain of corn, or an atom of dust to be made of nothing would stupefy any creature in the consideration of it— much more to behold the heavens with all the troop of stars, the earth with all its embroidery, and the sea with all her inhabitants of fish; and man, the noblest creature of all, to arise out of the womb of mere emptiness.”

–Stephen Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, ed. Mark Jones, Updated and Unabridged, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2022), 2: 942-943.

“The union of great ferocity with extreme tenderness” by C.S. Lewis

“The Kilns,
Headington Quarry,
Oxford
Jan. 16, 1959

Dear Mr. Lofstrom

1. I am afraid I don’t know the answer to your question about books of Christian instruction for children. Most of those I have seen—but I haven’t seen many—seem to me namby-pamby and ‘sissie’ and calculated to nauseate any child worth his salt. Of course I have tried to do what I can for children—in a mythical and fantastic form—by my seven ‘Narnian’ fairy tales. They work well with some children but not with others. Sorry this looks like salesmanship: but honestly if I knew anything else I’d mention it.

2. Of course. ‘Gentle Jesus’, my elbow! The most striking thing about Our Lord is the union of great ferocity with extreme tenderness. (Remember Pascal? ‘I do not admire the extreme of one virtue unless you show me at the same time the extreme of the opposite virtue. One shows one’s greatness not by being at an extremity but by being simultaneously at two extremities and filling all the space between’).

Add to this that He is also a supreme ironist, dialectician, and (occasionally) humourist. So go on! You are on the right track now: getting to the real Man behind all the plaster dolls that have been substituted for Him. This is the appearance in Human form of the God who made the Tiger and the Lamb, the avalanche and the rose. He’ll frighten and puzzle you: but the real Christ can be loved and admired as the doll can’t.

3. ‘For him who is haunted by the smell of invisible roses the cure is work’ (MacDonald). If we feel we have talents that don’t find expression in our ordinary duties and recreations, I think we must just go on doing the ordinary things as well as we can. If God wants to use these suspected talents, He will: in His own time and way. At all costs one must keep clear of all the witch-doctors and their patent cures— as you say yourself.

Yours sincerely

C.S. Lewis”

–C.S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C. S. Lewis: Narnia, Cambridge, and Joy, 1950-1963, , ed. Walter Hooper, vol. 3 (New York: HarperCollins, 2004–2007), 3: 1010–1011.

“Christ is enough” by Richard Sibbes

“Christ must be preached wholly and only. We must not take anything from Christ, nor join anything to Christ.

The Galatians did but believe the necessity of ceremonies with Christ; and the apostle tells them, ‘Ye are fallen from Christ,’ Galatians 5:4. It is a destructive addition, to add anything to Christ.

Away with other satisfaction. The satisfaction of Christ is enough.

Away with merits. The merits of Christ are all-sufficient.

Away with merit of works in matter of salvation. Christ’s righteousness is that that we must labour to be found in, and ‘not in our own,’ Philippians 3:9. All is but ‘dung and dross,’ Philippians 3:8, in comparison of the excellent righteousness we have in Jesus Christ.

You must hear, and we must preach all Christ and only Christ. St Paul saith, he was ‘jealous with a holy jealousy’ over those he ‘taught.’ Why? ‘Lest Satan should beguile them, and draw them from Christ,’ to any other thing, 2 Corinthians 11:2. Why is the Church of Rome so erroneous, but because she leaves Christ and cleaves to other things?

Therefore we must labour to keep chaste souls to Christ, and those that are true preachers, and ambassadors, and messengers, they must be ‘jealous with a holy jealousy’ over the people of God, that they look to nothing but Christ.”

–Richard Sibbes, “The Fountain Open,” The Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 5 (ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1638/2001), 5: 509-510.

“To preach is to woo” by Richard Sibbes

“To preach is to open the mystery of Christ, to open whatsoever is in Christ; to break open the box that the savour may be perceived of all.

To open Christ’s natures and person what it is; to open the offices of Christ: first, He was a prophet to teach, wherefore he came into the world; then he was a priest, offering the sacrifice of himself; and then after he had offered his sacrifice as a priest, then he was a king.

He was more publicly and gloriously known to be a king, to rule. After he had gained a people by his priesthood and offering, then he was to be a king to govern them.

But his prophetical office is before the rest. He was all at the same time, but I speak in regard of manifestation. Now ‘to preach Christ’ is to lay open these things.

And likewise the states wherein he executed his office. First, the state of humiliation. Christ was first abased, and then glorified. The flesh he took upon him was first sanctified and then abased, and then he made it glorious flesh. He could not work our salvation but in a state of abasement; he could not apply it to us but in a state of exaltation and glory.

To open the merits of Christ, what he hath wrought to his Father for us; to open his efficacy, as the spiritual Head of his church; what wonders he works in his children, by altering and raising of them, by fitting and preparing them for heaven: likewise to open all the promises in Christ, they are but Christ dished and parcelled out.

‘All the promises in Christ are yea and amen,’ 2 Cor. 1:20. They are made for Christ’s sake, and performed for Christ’s sake; they are all but Christ severed into so many particular gracious blessings. ‘To preach Christ’ is to lay open all this, which is the inheritance of God’s people.

But it is not sufficient to preach Christ, to lay open all this in the view of others; but in the opening of them, there must be application of them to the use of God’s people, that they may see their interest in them; and there must be an alluring of them, for to preach is to woo.

The preachers are paranymphi, the friends of the bridegroom, that are to procure the marriage between Christ and his church; therefore, they are not only to lay open the riches of the husband, Christ, but likewise to entreat for a marriage, and to use all the gifts and parts that God hath given them, to bring Christ and his church together.

And because people are in a contrary state to Christ, ‘to preach Christ,’ is even to begin with the law, to discover to people their estate by nature. A man can never preach the gospel that makes not way for the gospel, by shewing and convincing people what they are out of Christ.

Who will marry with Christ, but those that know their own beggary and misery out of Christ? That he must be had of necessity, or else they die in debts eternally; he must be had, or else they are eternally miserable. Now, when people are convinced of this, then they make out of themselves to Christ.

This therefore must be done, because it is in order, that which makes way to the preaching of Christ; for ‘the full stomach despiseth an honeycomb,’ Prov. 27:7. Who cares for balm that is not sick? Who cares for Christ, that sees not the necessity of Christ?

Therefore we see John Baptist came before Christ, to make way for Christ, to level the mountains, to cast down whatsoever exalts itself in man. He that is to preach must discern what mountains there be between men’s hearts and Christ; and he must labour to discover themselves to themselves, and lay flat all the pride of men in the dust; for ‘the word of God is forcible to pull down strongholds and imaginations and to bring all into subjection to Christ,’ 2 Cor. 10:4.

And indeed, though a man should not preach the law, yet by way of implication, all these things are wrapped in the gospel. What need a Saviour, unless we were lost? What need Christ to be wisdom to us, if we were not fools in ourselves? What need Christ be sanctification to us, if we were not defiled in ourselves? What need he be redemption, if we were not lost and sold in ourselves to Satan, and under his bondage?

Therefore all is to make way for Christ, not only to open the mysteries of Christ, but in the opening and application to let us see the necessity of Christ. In a word, being to bring Christ and the church together, our aim must be, to persuade people to come out of their estate they are in, to come and take Christ.

Whatsoever makes for this, that course we must use, though it be with never so much abasing of ourselves. Therefore the gospel is promulgated in a sweet manner. ‘I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God,’ &c. The law comes with ‘Cursed, cursed;’ but now in the gospel Christ is preached with sweet alluring.

‘I beseech you, brethren,’ and ‘We as ambassadors beseech you, as if Christ by us did beseech you,’ &c., 2 Cor. 5:20. This is the manner of the dispensation in the gospel, even to beg of people that they would be good to their own souls.

Christ, as it were, became a beggar himself, and the great God of heaven and earth begs our love, that we would so care for our own souls that we would be reconciled unto him. It was fitter, indeed, that we should beg of him.

It was fit we should seek to be reconciled to him, but God so stoops in the dispensation and ministry of the gospel, that he becomes a beggar and suitor to us to be good to our souls. As if he had offended us, he desires us to be reconciled.

The wrong is done on our part, yet he so far transcends the doubtings of man’s nature, that he would have nothing to cause man’s heart to misgive, no doubts or scruples to arise. He himself becomes a beseecher of reconciliation, as if he were the party that had offended.

This is the manner of the publication of the gospel. I do but touch things, to shew what it is to preach Christ.”

–Richard Sibbes, “The Fountain Open,” The Works of Richard Sibbes, Volume 5 (ed. Alexander Balloch Grosart; Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 1638/2001), 5: 505-507.

“Be deeply Trinitarian” by Sinclair Ferguson

“At least in some of our churches, not a Lord’s Day passes without the congregation confessing one God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But as is commonly recognized, Western Christianity has often had a special tendency to either an explicit or a pragmatic Unitarianism, be it of the Father (liberalism, for all practical purposes), the Son (evangelicalism, perhaps not least in its reactions against liberalism), or the Spirit (Charismaticism with its reaction to both of the previous).

This is, doubtless, a caricature. But my concern here arises from a sense that Bible-believing preachers (as well as others) continue to think of the Trinity as the most speculative and therefore the least practical of all doctrines. After all, what can you “do” as a result of hearing preaching that emphasizes God as Trinity? Well, at least inwardly if not outwardly, fall down in prostrate worship that the God whose being is so ineffable, so incomprehensible to my mental math, seeks fellowship with us!

I sometimes wonder if it is failure here that has led to churches actually to believe it when they are told by “church analysts” and the like that “the thing your church does best is worship . . . small groups, well you need to work on that . . . .” Doesn’t that verge on blasphemy? (Verge on it? There is surely only One who can assess the quality of our worship. This approach confuses aesthetics with adoration).

John’s Gospel suggests to us that one of the deepest burdens on our Lord’s heart during his last hours with his disciples was to help them understand that God’s being as Trinity is the heart of what makes the gospel both possible and actual, and that it is knowing him as such that forms the very lifeblood of the life of faith (cf. John 13–17). Read Paul with this in mind, and it becomes obvious how profoundly woven into the warp and woof of his gospel his understanding of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is.

Our people need to know that, through the Spirit, their fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Would they know that from my preaching?”

–Sinclair Ferguson, “A Preacher’s Decalogue,” in Some Pastors and Teachers: Reflecting a Biblical Vision of What Every Minister is Called to Be (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2017), 756-757.

“God’s glory in human form” by Joel Beeke

“The incarnation of Christ is an unrepeatable event, just as surely as the incarnate Lord is a unique person. But the incarnation has great practical applications for life. In light of it, we should do the following.

First, seek after Christ through the gospel. Thomas Watson said, “So look unto him, as to believe in him, that so Christ may not only be united to our nature, but to our persons.”

Second, receive Christ as the only Mediator. Thomas Goodwin urged, “Is Christ every way so fit a Saviour? Then choose him, and rest in him alone.”

Third, magnify God’s love for giving us his Son. Goodwin said, “For him to be made a creature is more than for us to become nothing, or for an angel to become a worm.”

Fourth, marvel at Christ as the supernatural Savior. Christ is a living miracle, God’s glory in human form. Owen said that Christ’s incarnation “is above all miracles.”

Fifth, look to Christ to reveal God’s glory to you. The Word became flesh (John 1:14). Thus, as James Ussher said, Christ is “God revealed in the flesh.”

Sixth, know Christ as your elder brother. Christ “is not ashamed to call them brethren” (Heb. 2:11). Wilhelmus à Brakel said, “This yields boldness and familiarity to bring all our needs before Him, who, being man Himself, understands man’s frame of mind when he suffers pain.”

Seventh, follow Christ in holiness. Goodwin said, “As he took our nature, let us take his; [let us labor] to be changed into his image, being made partakers of the divine nature [2 Pet. 1:4].”

Eighth, imitate Christ in humility. William Perkins said, “Christ’s incarnation must be a pattern unto us of a most wonderful and strange humility. … He was content to lie in the manger, that we might rest in heaven.” We should also humble ourselves to serve others.

Ninth, defend the doctrine of Christ against errors. Caspar Olevianus said, “Satan has always tried … to deny or at least to weaken one of the natures in the Mediator of the covenant. When the root of a tree is damaged, the branches wither and there can be no hope for fruit.”

Tenth, glorify the incarnate Son. Herman Witsius said,

Hosanna, blessed Jesus, thou true and eternal God, thou true and holy man! In the unity of thy person, we recognize both natures, each possessing its own distinct properties. Thee we acknowledge. Thee we worship. From thy hand alone we expect salvation. May the whole world of thine elect unite in knowing, acknowledging, and adoring thee, and thus be saved through thy blessed name! Amen.

–Joel R. Beeke and Paul M. Smalley, Essentials of Reformed Systematic Theology (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2025), 394–395.

“Veiling the rays of His majesty” by Herman Witsius

“Is it not the most incredible of all miracles, that the eternal Son of God, the Lord of glory, veiling the rays of His majesty, became a creature;—and among creatures, not one of the seraphim or cherubim, but a man (and how little is man to be accounted of!) and among men, not a king or a monarch, but “a servant of rulers.”

Truly He was pleased to converse familiarly with us, and to live in a condition which might obtain for us the name of brethren.

“In all things” He was “made like unto us, that He might be a merciful and faithful High-priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.”

“For we have not an High-priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.”

In short, He submitted to the lowest degree of our vileness, that He might exalt us above the rank of men, and make us partakers of his own, that is, of “a divine nature.”

O compassion! O almost incredible vehemence of love! O how far doth this love exceed the tenderness of a brother’s or a father’s affection! With what emotions of gratitude wilt thou be acknowledged! With what returns of love wilt thou be recompensed! What heart is so cold and frozen as not to be dissolved, warmed, and kindled into flames, by the ardours of so boundless a love!

If we wish to have a solid foundation for our joy in the incarnation of Christ, it is necessary that the same person who was once fashioned in the womb of the Virgin after the likeness of a man, be formed also in our hearts, that He live there, that He be nourished there, that He grow up there “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.”

Since He was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost, it is not for us to pretend to be His brethren, unless we give evidence by a holy course of life, that we are renewed by the same Spirit after the image of God. And as He would not be conceived by any but a virgin, we too must embrace Him with a pure and chaste mind, which detests every appearance of a whorish attachment to the world, and is animated with a virgin love to God alone.

Just as at His birth, choirs of heavenly Angels praised the incarnate Son of God in joyful strains, it is incumbent upon us to celebrate that great mystery of godliness, and God the author of it, with devout and unceasing praises.

The blessed Angels begin the song; let us follow them with the voice and the heart. “Glory to God in the highest,” who has exhibited a brighter display of his admirable perfections in this illustrious work, than He did of old in the creation of the whole universe!

Glory to the Father, who has raised up, admitted, and given us such a Surety!

Glory to the Son, who clothed himself with human flesh, and so cheerfully accomplished his surety-undertaking on our behalf!

Glory to the Holy Spirit, the revealer and witness of so deep, so momentous, so precious a truth; and the earnest of so invaluable and longed-for a salvation!

Hosanna, blessed Jesus, thou true and eternal God, thou true and holy man! In the unity of Thy person, we recognise both natures, each possessing its own distinct properties.

Thee we acknowledge. Thee we worship. From Thy hand alone we expect salvation.

May the whole world of Thine elect unite with us in knowing, acknowledging, and adoring Thee, and thus be saved through Thy blessed name! Amen.”

–Herman Witsius, Sacred Dissertations on the Apostles’ Creed, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage, 1681/2012), 2: 33-35.