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Learn about One of the Most Spiritually Healthy Christians in Church History: Tony Reinke on John Newton’s Vision of the Christian Life

If I could spend an evening with one figure from church history, it just might be John Newton. He may not have been as brilliant as an Augustine or as theologically creative as an Edwards or as good a preacher as Whitefield—but I’d be hard-pressed to think of a better counselor of souls. He has always struck me as one of the most emotionally and spiritually healthy and balanced Christians—something that is not always true of the great figures.

I could not be happier with the new book, Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ, by Tony Reinke. You can read at the end of this post some testimony from others who share my enthusiasm and appreciation. As a friend recently told me, “I’m not sure there’s much we need to know about living the Christian life that isn’t found somewhere in this book.”

Here is John Piper, who wrote the book’s foreword, explaining why he is so enthusiastic about this book and why he thinks you’ll like it, too:

“Here is mastery! As the Lord Jesus Christ, crucified and reigning, was the life-giving focus of the Evangelical Revival, and as George Whitefield was its supreme awakener, and John Wesley its brilliant discipler, so ex-slave trader John Newton was its peerless pastoral counselor and perhaps the greatest Christian letter writer of all time. In his 768- footnote digest of the spiritual wisdom in Newton’s thousand-plus published letters, along with his published sermons and hymns, Reinke distills a vast flow of pure honey for the Christian heart. This is a book to read over and over again.”

—J. I. Packer, Board of Governors’ Professor of Theology, Regent College

“Linger long here. The depths and riches within these pages are truly rare and answer what your soul most hungers for: life in Christ. I will be returning to this book many, many times over.”

—Ann Voskamp, author, New York Times bestseller, One Thousand Gifts

“Newton on the Christian Life is a magnum opus (though Tony still has plenty of time to surpass it). A bold project, beautifully done. You know about John Newton; now you can be pastored by him. You will feel known by him. You will be encouraged that your struggles are like his and his congregants. And you will discover again that huge helpings of the beauty and love of Jesus are the perfect antidote for our self-consumed lives.”

—Ed Welch, counselor and faculty, The Christian Counseling and Educational Foundation

“The Christian life is Christ, as John Newton clarified so helpfully. If you are still treating Christianity as a strategy for your own self-improvement, this book will not satisfy you. But if you have despaired of yourself and are now clinging only to Christ, this book will refresh you. Newton’s practical counsel, brought vividly to life again by Tony Reinke, will lead you into the green pastures and beside the still waters that are, at this moment, awaiting you in your all-sufficient Savior. For some readers, this book may just become the most important book, outside the Bible, they will ever read.”

—Raymond C. Ortlund Jr., Lead Pastor, Immanuel Church, Nashville, Tennessee

“Best known for the iconic hymn ‘Amazing Grace,’ John Newton deserves to be equally known for his tremendous corpus of spiritual letters. In them, Newton’s gifting as a pastoral cardiologist with few peers is on full display. Many of the main struggles and joys of the human heart have not changed. And, as Reinke ably shows, Newton’s advice, given in a world somewhat different from ours, is still potent and relevant. Very highly recommended.”

—Michael A. G. Haykin, Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

“Newton’s pastoral letters are a unique and rich resource for Christians today, and both of us owe them a debt too great to describe. However, they constitute a notoriously difficult body of work in which to navigate. Many a time you can remember some gem you have read in these letters but now can’t locate. Here we have a guide to Newton’s main themes and topics, as well as considered treatments of many of his most valuable letters. This is a welcome tool for Christian growth and discipleship.”

—Tim and Kathy Keller, Redeemer Presbyterian Church, New York City

“This book is worth every minute of your time, whether or not you have any interest in John Newton. Reinke brings out Newton in all his cheer to minister to readers. The result is a Christ-exalting manual for growth into Christian joy, freedom, and fruitfulness. No, more than a manual, this is a work of beauty to be read again and again.”

—Michael Reeves, Director of Union and Senior Lecturer, Wales Evangelical School of Theology; author, Delighting in the Trinity, The Unquenchable Flame and Rejoicing in Christ

“John Newton mentored his young friend William Wilberforce into politics, which eventually led to the abolition of the British slave trade. To this day, Newton’s letters continue to disciple generations of Christians. This book draws together Newton’s key life lessons in a way every Christian can apply. As a state governor, a former member of Congress, and a Christian in public service, I am reminded by Newton that we are never more valuable to our society than after we have been humbled by the amazing grace of God.”

—Mike Pence

“Reinke takes us well beyond the hymn ‘Amazing Grace’ to explore John Newton’s stirring pastoral ministry and soaring vision of the believer’s life in Christ. I am delighted to recommend this book.”

—Thomas S. Kidd, Professor of History, Baylor University; author, The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America

“This book, by one of the brightest writers in contemporary evangelicalism, examines the life lessons of a hymn writer, a freedom fighter, and a gospel preacher. Even if you don’t think you like church history, you will love this book. Reinke ties Newton’s life and thought to practical applications for every believer. I encourage you to read and savor anew the grace that saved wretches like us.”

—Russell D. Moore, President, The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission; author, Tempted and Tried

“You may think you are acquainted with John Newton: converted slave trader, pastor, writer of the hymn ‘Amazing Grace.’ Get ready to meet the man you only think you know. Reinke guides us on a tour of Newton’s theology through his life and letters. This book is pastoral theology at its finest. Newton was a man captured by Christ, exalting Christ, and caring for God’s people by pointing them to Christ and him crucified.”

—C. J. Mahaney, Senior Pastor, Sovereign Grace Church of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky

“Although he authored what would become America’s best-loved hymn, John Newton’s contemporaries thought his best gift was letter writing. Rarely, if ever, has so much wisdom, love, sanity, balance, genuine affection, and wonderfully down-to-earth-because-full-of-heaven practical counsel been expressed in letters written in the English language. Underneath them all runs knowledge of the Word of God, a devotion to the Son of God, and a love for the people of God. Newton makes us feel, even two centuries later, that he was writing for us, and that he knew us well. Reinke has done the whole church a service by recovering Newton’s letters from obscurity. Newton on the Christian Life is a taste of spiritual manna that will make us want to read the letters of Newton for ourselves.”

—Sinclair B. Ferguson, Professor of Systematic Theology, Redeemer Seminary, Dallas, Texas

“This book presents valuable lessons from the ministry of John Newton. His perception of grace permeated his theology, his thinking, his experience, his hopes, his ministry, and even his dying. As Reinke writes, grace was ‘the air he breathed.’ Here we catch glimpses into the workings of Newton’s heart as he focused unreservedly on living for and through the Lord Jesus Christ.”

—Marylynn Rouse, Director, The John Newton Project

Here are the books published so far in Crossways’ Theologians on the Christian Life series:

Fred Zaspel, Warfield on the Christian Life 
William Edgar, Schaeffer on the Christian Life
Stephen J. Nichols, Bonhoeffer on the Christian Life
Fred Sanders, Wesley on the Christian Life 
Dane Ortlund, Edwards on the Christian Life: Alive to the Beauty of God
Carl Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life: Cross and Freedom
Tony Reinke,  Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ
Sam Storms, Packer on the Christian Life: Knowing God in Christ, Walking by the Spirit

Here are the volumes coming later this year:

John Bolt, Bavinck on the Christian Life: Following Jesus in Faithful Service (August)
Michael A.G. Haykin and Matthew Barrett, Owen on the Christian Life: Living for the Glory of God in Christ (September)
Gerald Bray, Augustine on the Christian Life: Transformed by the Power of God (October)

And here are volumes coming after that:

Michael Reeves, Spurgeon on the Christian Life
Jason Meyer, Lloyd-Jones on the Christian Life
Derek Thomas, Bunyan on the Christian Life

Jonathan Edwards Would Like to Ask a Few Questions of Your Troubled Soul

If you only know the Jonathan Edwards of “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” you need to read his sermon on “The Excellencies of Christ.” There he celebrates the “admirable conjunction of diverse excellencies” found in Jesus Christ.

At one point in this sermon to his flock at Northampton, he directly addresses “the poor, burdened, distressed soul.” He would like to ask you a few questions if you are hesitant to close with Christ:

What are you afraid of, that you dare not venture your soul upon Christ?

Are you afraid that he can’t save you, that he is not strong enough to conquer the enemies of your soul? But how can you desire one stronger than “the mighty God”? as Christ is called (Isaiah 9:6).

Is there need of greater than infinite strength?

Are you afraid that he won’t be willing to stoop so low, as to take any gracious notice of you? But then, look on him, as he stood in the ring of soldiers, exposing his blessed face to be buffeted and spit upon, by them!

Behold him bound, with his back uncovered to those that smote him! And behold him hanging on the cross! Do you think that he that had condescension enough to stoop to these things, and that for his crucifiers, will be unwilling to accept of you if you come to him?

Or, are you afraid that if he does accept of you, that God the Father won’t accept of him for you?

But consider, will God reject his own Son, in whom his infinite delight is, and has been, from all eternity, and that is so united to him, that if he should reject him he would reject himself?

Edwards continues:

What is there that you can desire should be in a Savior, that is not in Christ?

Or, where in should you desire a Savior should be otherwise than Christ is?

What excellency is there wanting?

What is there that is great or good?

What is there that is venerable or winning?

What is there that is adorable or endearing?

Or, what can you think of that would be encouraging, that is not to be found in the person of Christ?

Would you have your Savior to be great and honorable, because you are not willing to be beholden to a mean person?

And, is not Christ a person honorable enough to be worthy that you should be dependent on him?

Is he not a person high enough to be worthy to be appointed to so honorable a work as your salvation?

Would you not only have a Savior of high degree, but would you have him notwithstanding his exaltation and dignity, to be made also of low degree, that he might have experience of afflictions and trials, that he might learn by the things that he has suffered, to pity them that suffer and are tempted?

And has not Christ been made low enough for you?

And has he not suffered enough?

Would you not only have him have experience of the afflictions you now suffer, but also of that amazing wrath that you fear hereafter, that he may know how to pity those that are in danger of it, and afraid of it? This Christ has had experience of, which experience gave him a greater sense of it, a thousand times, than you have, or any man living has.

Would you have your Savior to be one that is near to God, that so his mediation might be prevalent with him?

And can you desire him to be nearer to God than Christ is, who is his only begotten Son, of the same essence with the Father?

And would you not have him near to God, but also near to you, that you may have free access to him?

And would you have him nearer to you than to be in the same nature, and not only so, but united to you by a spiritual union, so close as to be fitly represented by the union of the wife to the husband, of the branch to the vine, of the member to the head, yea, so as to be looked upon as one, and called one spirit? For so he will be united to you, if you accept of him.

Would you have a Savior that has given some great and extraordinary testimony of mercy and love to sinners, by something that he has done, as well as by what he says?

And can you think, or conceive of greater things than Christ has done?

Was it not a great thing for him, who was God, to take upon him human nature, to be not only God, but man thenceforward to all eternity?

But would you look upon suffering for sinners to be a yet greater testimony of love to sinners, than merely doing, though it be never so extraordinary a thing that he has done?

And would you desire that a Savior should suffer more than Christ has suffered for sinners?

What is there wanting, or what would you add if you could, to make him more fit to be your Savior?

 

Jonathan Edwards [1734], Sermons and Discourses, 1734-1738 (WJE Online Vol. 19), ed. M. X. Lesser, 584-86.

An Interview with Sam Storms and Leland Ryken on the Life and Legacy of J. I. Packer

Timothy George says that Sam Storms’ new book, Packer on the Christian Life: Knowing God in Christ, Walking by the Spirit (Crossway, 2015), “is one of the best books on J. I. Packer I have read. It gets to the heart of this great theologian’s central concern, what Henry Scougal called ‘the life of God in the soul of man.’ For those of us who have sat at Packer’s feet for many years, this is a delightful reprise and refresher. For new Christians just getting to know Packer, fasten your seat belts!”

And Michael Reeves writes of Leland Ryken’s forthcoming J. I. Packer: An Evangelical Life (Crossway, October 2015): ”Without a doubt, this is now the definitive, most up-to-date biography of J. I. Packer, and it deserves high praise. With the sensitivity, wisdom, and sheer humanity that a fine biographer needs, Leland Ryken allows us to see the life, mind, and heart of this quiet but highly influential man. Traversing the notoriously complex and hazardous terrain of UK and US evangelicalism with impressive sure-footedness, Ryken not only helps us to understand the man and his context, but ourselves as evangelicals.”

Here’s a 20-minute conversation I had with the two authors about this giant of modern evangelical history:

The Bible and Same-Sex Relationships: Tim Keller’s Review Article of Books by Matthew Vines and Ken Wilson

In a new review article, Tim Keller suggests that Matthew Vines’s God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships (Convergent Books, 2014) and Ken Wilson’s A Letter to My Congregation (David Crum Media, 2014) seem to be two of the most widely read books today affirming the compatibility of monogamous homosexuality and biblical Christianity.

Keller identifies five basic arguments made by these authors and others in their camp, having to do with:

Knowing gay people personally.
Consulting historical scholarship.
Re-categorizing same sex relations.
Revising biblical authority.
Being on the wrong side of history.

Keller responds to each of these points, and then argues that the authors have sadly missed the biblical vision of sexuality and marriage.

It’s worth reading the whole thing.

For more on this issue from Keller, see his review of Wes Hill’s Washed and Waiting and Sam Allberry’s Is God Anti-Gay?, along with his post responding to the revisionists’ charge that Christians are inconsistent in rejecting laws of the Old Testament when maintaining prohibitions of same-sex behavior.

Did Darwin Refute the Argument from Design?

Stephen Meyer (PhD, University of Cambridge), the director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute, is the author of two big books on intelligent design:

Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design (HarperOne, 2009)
Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design  (HarperOne, 2013) [read my interview with him here about this book]

On July 14, 2002, he gave a talk to the Philosophy of Religion section at the Tyndale Fellowship in Cambridge, England, which you can watch below. (The talk begins at 4:05 and goes to 54:27, followed by interaction with an audience of theologians, scientists, and philosophers.)

Dr. Meyer argues that Darwin did not refute the design argument (nor did Hume), but that Darwin did make two significant contributions to the debate: (1) he established the legitimacy of the question of design (real or apparent), and (2) he formulated of a powerful method of scientific explanation (namely, inference to the best explanation). Meyer uses this standard scientific form of investigation and explanation in order to argue that the specified complexity we see in biology is best accounted for by an intelligent mind.

For Meyer’s more introductory presentation on intelligent design, delivered to a church, try this.

Christian: Are You Ready for Stage-2 Exile?

Steve McAlpine, writing at TGC Australia, has the post of the day.

Here’s how he begins:

The Western church is about to enter stage two of its exile from the mainstream culture and the public square. And it will not be an easy time.

In case you missed it, Exile Stage One began a few decades or so ago, budding in the sexual revolution of the sixties before building up a head of steam some 20 years ago. Finally some Christians sat down to talk about it 15 or so years ago, and that set the ball, and the publishing companies rolling.

For those of us in ministry who were culture watchers, Exile Stage One was a heady time. Only we never called it Exile Stage One. We simply called it “Exile”, and pored over biblical texts such as the exilic book of Daniel and its New Testament counterpart 1 Peter. After all no one ever called World War One “World War One” before World War Two came along, right? It was simply the Great War.

So too with exile. Cafes were taken over for morning conversations between up and coming exilic leaders; pubs were used for exilic church; MacBooks were bought in bulk; and emerging/missional trailblazers employed coffee quality as a spiritual boundary marker, with a zeal that would have made any adherent of Second Temple Judaism weep with recognition.

In Exile Stage One the prevailing narrative was that the Christian church was being marginalised, Christendom was over, the church needed to come up with better strategies to strip away the dross, and all of this in order to reconnect Jesus with a lost world. We were all about “ad fontes“, a second Reformation getting back to the ecclesiastical source—hopefully utilising the Bible—or at the very least the Early Church Fathers and a bunch of candles (now-now – Sarcastic Ed).

The biggest problem the church had, according to Exile Stage One thinking, was that no one was talking about us anymore. And as Oscar Wilde wryly observed, the only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about. So in Exile Stage One the conferences and front-room conversations were busy talking about what it was like not being talked about. We’d been marginalised; locked out of interesting rooms; been abandoned at a rate of knots; discarded. Only a few perceptive people had seen it happening. How many? Well probably no more than in this front room with us, and perhaps a few others who meet at pub church every third Sunday.

And oh, everyone was quoting Lesslie Newbigin, or at least the only line of his they knew about the congregation being the hermeneutic of the gospel or some such. Everyone was discussing what it meant to have Christian convictions, but be post-foundational. Christendom was collapsing, and isn’t that a good thing, given all the fighting and crusades and bad stuff priests did? Were we not sick of simply being chaplains to the culture? Time to refresh. Time to do organic/total/on-the-other-side/radical church. For Exile Stage One adherents there was a kind of glee that Christendom was falling. And if it was holding out in some areas such as North America, so what? Who wants to be a Southern Baptist anyway, what with single malt and cigars being so tasty and all?

Of course, I am being a little facetious, and in a way I have a right to be. I got involved in this Exile Stage One process and it has informed much of my thinking and that won’t change. I also met amazing people, creative thinkers and theologians who deserve a hearing and a reading.

But here’s the problem. Exile Stage One thinking has left Christians completely unprepared for Exile Stage Two reality. There were a set of assumptions made by Exile Stage One-rs that have not lined up with what is going to pan out over the coming three or so decades if the last five years are any indication.

McAlpine identifies two mistaken assumptions and one mistaken tactic: (1) we assumed Athens, not Babylon; (2) we assumed a neutral culture, not a hostile world; (3) we loosened our language, just when cultural elites were tightening theirs.

Here is his conclusion:

Second Stage exiles do not place their hope in a city here, be it Athens or Babylon, but seek a city that is to come (Hebrews 13).

Second Stage Exiles do not need the approval of the culture, neither do they need to provoke the culture in order to feel good about themselves.

No, true exiles can live out their time in exile with confidence, love and hope because they trust in him “who is able to keep [them] from stumbling and to present [them] before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy” (Jude 1:24).

I encourage you to read the entire thing. It’s worth your time.

HT: @znielsen

How Caitlyn Jenner Reaffirms Traditional Gender Norms, Even As He Attempts to Flee from Them

Daniel Davis:

For years, a major aim of the sexual revolution has been to deconstruct gender differences as being “social constructs,” mere cultural projections of what maleness and femaleness are and mean. This critique evacuated gender of any physical meaning and reduced it to an existential feeling—a feeling of being male or female, regardless of one’s sexual biology.

The effect of this critique has been to relativize gender, and thus to abolish it as a meaningful category. Because you can no longer tie “femaleness” to a normative set of traits or acts (for example, wearing dresses or marrying men), the category itself cannot help but lose its meaning. To call any particular act a “male” or “female” act would be to revert back to antiquated, repressive, patriarchal norms—norms that only serve to foster social inequality.

This is the ideology that governs liberal sexual philosophy, and it collides head-on with major aspects of the transgender movement. Transgenderism is unavoidably based on a kind of gender essentialism. It recognizes gender identities as being associated with certain socially accepted norms. What does it mean, for example, that Jenner’s “gender” is female? It means that he gets a sex change. It means that he poses in traditionally female attire for the cover of Vanity Fair. It means that he reaffirms traditional gender norms, even as he attempts to flee from them.

In fact, he cannot help but reaffirm them, for they are the only tangible way of expressing gender. Inner feelings must inevitably take on flesh, and gender—understood as a mere feeling—must inevitably express itself in material form.

This is a problem for the broader liberal sexual movement. It wants to celebrate transgenderism, but it cannot do so without referring to—and thus, at least tacitly affirming—gender norms. To celebrate Jenner’s femininity is actually to commit a liberal heresy: to revert back to a form of gender essentialism.

There’s a flip side to this coin. As we noted, liberal sexual philosophy strips the term “gender” of all normative meaning. It reduces gender to a cultural phenomenon. In doing this, it robs transgenderism of its key claims to gender authenticity, and therefore of its right to moral affirmation. Consider it this way: If gender has no real connection to biology and certain social traits, then someone’s claim to a gender identity is virtually meaningless. And if it is meaningless, how can we be morally obliged to recognize it—let alone even understand it?

Read the whole thing.

Andy Crouch on the Connection between Human Flourishing and Religious Liberty

Andy Crouch, speaking at QIdeas in Nashville (April 24, 2015):

All of us have been very young.

Most of us will be very old.

Almost all of us at some point will be frail.

And in those moments of our lives, we will desperately hope we live in a society that is characterized by the pursuit of the common good.

Crouch’s argument is that “If you care about the flourishing of persons—especially the vulnerable in community—you will care about freedom of religion.”

Religious freedom, Crouch argued, “is not easy, it is not natural for human societies, and that is why it never flourishes unless it is actively protected.”

You can watch the whole thing below:

Your Salvation: The Gift of God

Moving Works on The Gift of God (Ephesians 2:1-8):

God Never Grows Tired of Doing Us Good

John Piper:

God is never irritable or edgy.

He is never fatigued or depressed or blue or moody or stressed out.

His anger never has a short fuse.

He is not easily annoyed.

He is above any possibility of being touchy or cranky or temperamental.

Instead he is infinitely energetic with absolutely unbounded and unending enthusiasm for the fulfillment of his delights.

This is hard for us to comprehend, because we have to sleep every day just to cope, not to mention thrive.

We go up and down in our enjoyments.

We get bored and discouraged one day and feel hopeful and excited another.

We are like little geysers that gurgle and sputter and pop erratically.

But God is like a great Niagara—you look at it and think: surely this can’t keep going at this force for year after year after year. It seems like it would have to rest. Or it seems like some place up stream it would run dry. But, no, it just keeps surging and crashing and making honeymooners happy century after century.

That’s the way God is about doing us good. He never grows weary of it. It never gets boring to him.

Let those who desire my vindication shout for joy and be glad, and say evermore, “Great is the LORD, who delights in the welfare of his servant!” (Psalm 35:27)

—John Piper, The Pleasures of God: Meditations on God’s Delight in Being God, rev. ed. (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2000), 185.