Category Archives: Faith and Practice

Digging Low to Build High

Posted on by
Reply

The first thing that God does when He makes anyone a new creature in Christ is to send light into his heart and show him that he is a guilty sinner.

J.C. Ryle, Holiness

Anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ must certainly have a desire to grow in holiness. There is, by nature of our fellowship with Him, and the operating of His Spirit upon our lives, a transformation of our desires; a longing to be more like Christ, to enjoy fellowship with Him, to see evidences of His grace and goodness in our lives, and to be found useful in His kingdom. This, I believe, is the heartfelt desire of every sincere Christian, in some shape or form, and it may be best summed up in one word: Holiness.

As those who have been redeemed in Christ, we are called to be holy:

  • 1 Th 4:7  For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness.
  • 1 Pe 1:15–16  but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
  • 1 Pe 2:9  But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
  • Heb 12:14  Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.

So we desire to grow in holiness, and our natural tendency, the way in which we would get the process started, is to just go and be holy. We often think that simply by doing, we will eventually become what we want to be. We start taking on good works, acts of piety and holiness, taking on more disciplines, striving to become what we’ve been called to be.

And when our holiness is produced by our own striving, it will fail.

All we’ve done is put up a flimsy façade, which can never stand the test of time. We’ve put lipstick on a pig: it’s still a pig, and it’s still not pretty.

No, if we want to grow tall in holiness, first we must dig deep and deal with our own sinfulness.

When God begins to bring growth into the life of a follower of Christ, the first thing that will come is a deepening understanding of his or her own sinfulness, and an ever growing need for God’s grace and mercy in Jesus Christ.

This is often a difficult providence. We ask that God would help us to grow in faith and allow us to serve in holiness, and the first thing God does is show us our own brokenness and need. We ask God to teach us to pray, and God shows us how anemic and faithless our prayer life has been. It seems like God is giving the very opposite of what we ask for, but in reality, this is for our own good.

J.C. Ryle, in his book, Holiness, writes, “People will never set their faces decidedly towards heaven and live like pilgrims until they really feel that they are in danger of hell… We may depend upon it, men will never come to Jesus and stay with Jesus and live for Jesus unless they really know why they are to come and what is their need. Those whom the Spirit draws to Jesus are those whom the Spirit has convinced of sin… Once we see that sin is far viler and far nearer to us and sticks more closely than we supposed, we will be led, I trust and believe, to get nearer to Christ.”

If your prayer is that would you grow in holiness and Christlikeness, do not be surprised if the answer to your prayer is an ever growing awareness of your own depravity and desperate need for Christ. The closer you come to the light, the more you will see.

But do not be discouraged. For as you come to the light of Christ, he stands ready to forgive, to heal, to cleanse you from all unrighteousness, to cover you in His garments, to sanctify you through the working of His Holy Spirit.

SDG

The Sum of Saving Knowledge

Posted on by
Reply

I recently came upon this wonderful little work as it was contained in my recent purchased of the Westminster Confession of Faith (with accompanying materials). The Sum of Saving Knowledge was written around 1645 by David Dickson and James Durham, two Scottish Presbyterian Ministers and theologians. Thinking that the Westminster Catechisms were “too large and dark,” they drafted this summary and application of the standards for the edification of the church.

“The Sum” was so widely accepted and familiar among the churches, that within 20 years it was printed along with the Confessional Standards (the Confession of Faith and Catechisms), though never formally adopted as part of the standards.

One of my favorite authors, Robert Murray M’Cheyne noted in his journal in 1834 that it was through the reading the Sum of Saving Knowledge that “wrought a saving change in me.” I cannot recommend this work highly enough, it is simple and straightforward, and helps to articulate the faith and even evangelize the lost.

I have included a link here to download a .PDF or Ebook edition of the Sum of Saving Knowledge, as well as a link to a website where you can read it online. I’ve have also included the Brief Outline of the Sum below, and a quote from the Sum on the Covenant of Redemption.

Outline:

THE CONTENTS OF THE SUM OF SAVING KNOWLEDGE
Heads.

I. Our woeful condition by nature
II. The remedy provided in Christ Jesus
III. The means provided in the covenant of grace
IV. The blessings conveyed by these means

The Use of Saving Knowledge

1. For convincing of sin by the law
2. Of righteousness by the law
3. Of judgment by the law
4. For convincing of sin, righteousness, and judgment by the gospel

Warrants and Motives to Believe

1. God’s hearty invitation
2. His earnest request to be reconciled
3. His command, charging all to believe
4. Much assurance of life given to believers

Evidences of true Faith

1. Conviction of the believer’s obligation to keep the moral law
2. That the believer practise the rules of godliness and righteousness
3. That obedience to the law run in the right channel of faith in Christ
4. The keeping of strait communion with Christ, the fountain of all grace and good works

On the Covenant of Redemption:

The sum of the covenant of redemption is this: God having freely chosen unto life a certain number of lost mankind, for the glory of his rich grace, did give them, before the world began, unto God the Son, appointed Redeemer, that, upon condition he would humble himself so far as to assume the human nature, of a soul and a body, unto personal union with his divine nature, and submit himself to the law, as surety for them, and satisfy justice for them, by giving obedience in their name, even unto the suffering of the cursed death of the cross, he should ransom and redeem them all from sin and death, and purchase unto them righteousness and eternal life, with all saving graces leading thereunto, to be effectually, by means of his own appointment, applied in due time to every one of them. This condition the Son of God (who is Jesus Christ our Lord) did accept before the world began, and in the fulness of time came into the world, was born of the Virgin Mary, subjected himself to the law, and completely paid the ransom on the cross: But by virtue of the aforesaid bargain, made before the world began, he is in all ages, since the fall of Adam, still upon the work of applying actually the purchased benefits unto the elect; and that he doth by way of entertaining a covenant of free grace and reconciliation with them through faith in himself; by which covenant, he makes over to every believer a right and interest to himself, and to all his blessings.

III. For the accomplishment of this covenant of redemption, and making the elect partakers of the benefits thereof in the covenant of grace, Christ Jesus was clad with the threefold office of Prophet, Priest, and King; made a Prophet, to reveal all saving knowledge to his people, and to persuade them to believe and obey the same; made a Priest, to offer up himself a sacrifice once for them all, and to intercede continually with the Father, for making their persons and services acceptable to him; and made a King, to subdue them to himself, to feed and rule them by his own appointed ordinances, and to defend them from their enemies.

Westminster Assembly. The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition. Philadelphia: William S. Young, 1851. Print.

Happy Reading!

SDG