The Gospel & Christian Experience

“Spiritual experience that does not arise from God’s word is not Christian experience. . . . Not all that passes for Christian experience is genuine. An authentic experience of the Spirit is an experience in response to the gospel.  Through the Spirit the truth touches our hearts, and that truth moves our emotions and effects our wills.”

-  Tim Chester and Steve Timmis, Total Church (Wheaton, Ill.; Crossway Books, 2008), 31.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Filed under: Affections, Holy Spirit, The Gospel, The word of God

The Necessity & Reality of Christ

“We never feel Christ to be a reality until we feel him to be anecessity.”

- Austin Phelps, quoted by Gordon Keddie in Preacher on the Run: The Message of Jonah (Hertfordshire, England: Evangelical Press, 1986), 85.

(HT: Of First Importance)

Filed under: Affections, Jesus Christ, Substitutionary Atonement, The Bible, The Christian Life, The Cross, The Gospel

The Spirit of Love

“When we thus think of the Holy Spirit we properly think of Him as the one who generates love towards God in our hearts…When we are thinking of the biblical ethic as motivated by and fulfilled in love to God and our neighbour, it is a caricature and travesty of this love that we entertain unless it is a love generated in us by the apprehension of the love that passes knowledge, the love of God in Christ…How vacuous and hypocritical are the pretensions of those whose religion and ethic consist in the maxim, ‘As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them (Luke 6:31), but who know nothing of the constraint of the love of Christ.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth and therefore as the Spirit of love He captivates our hearts by the love of God and of Christ to us. In the diffusion of that love there flows also love to one another. “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another” (1 John 4:11). The biblical ethic knows no fulfillment of its demands other than that produced by the constraint and claim of Christ’s redeeming love (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15;Galatians 2:20). Our love is always ignited by the flame of Christ’s love. And it is the Holy Spirit who sheds abroad in our hearts the igniting flame of the love of God in Christ Jesus. The love that is ignited is the fruit of the Spirit”

John Murray, Principles of Conduct, p. 226

(HT: John Fonville)

Filed under: Affections, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ, Love for Christ, Love for God, Sanctification, The word of God

Beholding Christ as Antidote to Worldliness

John Owen on seeing Christ’s glory:

It is by beholding the glory of Christ by faith that we are spiritually edified and built up in this world, for as we behold his glory, the life and power of faith grow stronger and stronger. It is by faith that we grow to love Christ. So if we desire strong faith and powerful love, which give us rest, peace and satisfaction, we must seek them by diligently beholding the glory of Christ by faith. In this duty I desire to live and to die. On Christ’s glory I would fix all my thoughts and desires, and the more I see of the glory of Christ, the more the painted beauties of this world will wither in my eyes and I will be more and more crucified to this world. It will become to me like something dead and putrid, impossible for me to enjoy.

–The Glory of Christ (1684)

(HT: The Gospel Coalition Blog)

Filed under: Affections, Christ our treasure, Discipleship, God's Glory, Jesus Christ, John Owen, Sanctification, The word of God, Worldliness, Worship

Piper in Germany: “Think Christ”

From Desiring God blog:

Right thinking about God exists for the sake of right feeling for God. This was the main point of John Piper’s Friday night message, “Think Christ,” at the Hirten Konferenz in Bonn, Germany.

Expanding upon Thursday night’s message, “Feel Christ,” Piper said that being satisfied in God will not glorify God if our satisfaction in God is not based on right thinking.

Piper gave 10 arguments for the indispensible role of right thinking and right knowing in the life of the Christian:

1. It is possible to have strong feelings and be lost if the feelings are not based on knowledge (Romans 10:1-2).
2. God has planned that thinking about the Bible is the means he uses to give understanding (2 Timothy 2:7).
3. Paul is given as an example of reasoning with the Bible (Acts 17:2-3).
4. Jesus assumes and requires that we will use logic in understanding both what is natural and what is spiritual (Luke 12:54-57).
5. Jesus refuses to deal with people who use their reason to conceal truth (Matthew 21:23-27).
6. Thirteen times in Paul’s letters, he asks the question, “Do you not know?” Paul assumes that if his readers knew something, they would see things differently, feel differently, and act differently.
7. The Bible tells us that Christ has given pastors and teachers to the church and tells us that they should be apt to teach—because God intends that the Bible be explained to ordinary folks who don’t have the time or ability to go as deep as God wants them to go. Christ would not have given teachers to the church if he thought they were not needed.
8. The Bible declares that we should proclaim the whole council of God (Acts 20:27). That implies that there is a coherent unified whole, a body of doctrine, that should be given to the church. It is not easy to find this whole council in a book with 1,500 pages! It’s mainly mental labor. Finding the unified biblical theology that the people need to know takes hard thinking.
9. The Bible is a book, which means that it must be read.
10. An example of how thinking and valuing and acting relate to each other is Matthew 7:7-12.

On the final point, John Piper said that thinking is necessary to get meaning from a text and to then present it to others. In particular he pointed to the first word in verse 12.

I read Matthew 7:12 for 25 years before I asked how it relates to the previous verse. Why does verse 12 begin with “so”? Because confidence that God will meet our needs is what frees us to take radical risks in loving other people. “Do unto others . . .” because you know God is going to answer your prayers and take care of you.

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in him. But that satisfaction in God does not glorify him unless it is based on right thinking and right knowing. God is all-satisfying because he’s a Father who gives us everything we truly need. And that kind of deep unshakeable satisfaction in our Father causes us to value things differently than the world. Therefore, we will love our neighbors. Right thinking with right feeling changes our behavior.

Saturday morning is Piper’s final message in Bonn, titled “Preach Christ.”

Filed under: Affections, Biblical exposition, Discipleship, Doctrine, Jesus Christ, John Piper, The Bible

Beholding Glory and Becoming Whole: Seeing and Savoring God as the Heart of Mental Health

Last night John Piper addressed the American Association of Christian Counselors (AACC) at their world conference in Nashville on the topic “Beholding Glory and Becoming Whole: Seeing and Savoring God as the Heart of Mental Health.”

The manuscript of John’s message is available here.

Here’s a sample:

[...]

God has done everything with a view to one great end—namely, that the glory of his grace should be praised by innumerable redeemed human beings. You, and everybody you counsel, were made by God to praise him. More specifically, you were made to praise his glory. And more specific yet, you were made to praise the glory of his grace.

[...]

This is why we were created. This goes to the heart of what it means for us to be fully human and for God to be fully honored. And the amazing thing is that the two happen together. They happen in the same act. God is profoundly honored and glorified in the very act of our being profoundly and completely satisfied in him. God exists to be glorious. We exist to see glory—and savorthat glory, and to give it expression in praise.

That is the ultimate goal of redemption, and so I take it to be a statement about the ultimate meaning of human wholeness. If praising God’s glory is our final destiny, then seeing and savoring and praising God’s glory must be at the heart of what it means to be fully human. Seeing and savoring God is, therefore, the heart of mental health.

[...]

My point is that praising the glory of God’s grace is the apex of human wholeness, not the pursuit of it. Praising the glory of God’s grace is the all-satisfying goal of human existence, not how you get there. And seeing that glory in the person and work of Jesus is the way this grace—this “grace upon grace,” this grace of wholeness—comes into our broken lives. Beholding glory, we are becoming whole.

(HT: Desiring God blog)

Filed under: Affections, Christ-centred, Discipleship, Doctrine, Evangelical, God's Love, God's grace, Jesus Christ, John Piper, Sanctification, The Christian Life, The Cross, The glory of Christ, The word of God, Worship

Chandler: Two Questions for Sanctification

From Leadership ’s interview with Matt Chandler:

Sanctification here at The Village begins by answering two questions. What stirs your affections for Jesus Christ? And what robs you of those affections? Many of the things that stifle growth are morally neutral. They’re not bad things. Facebook is not bad. Television and movies are not bad. I enjoy TV, but it doesn’t take long for me to begin to find humorous on TV what the Lord finds heartbreaking.

The same goes for following sports. It’s not wrong, but if I start watching sports, I begin to care too much. I get stupid. If 19-year-old boys are ruining your day because of what they do with a ball, that’s a problem. These things rob my affections for Christ. I want to fill my life with things that stir my affections for him. . . .

We want our people to think beyond simply what’s right and wrong. We want them to fill their lives with things that stir their affections for Jesus Christ and, as best as they can, to walk away from things that rob those affections—even when they’re not immoral.

You can read the whole thing here.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Filed under: Affections, Christ-centred, Sanctification

New affections: the fruit of regeneration

James Buchanan (1804–1870) Church of Scotland minister and theologian. Here he is on the converting work of the Spirit:

“The man is a new creature because he has been endued with new affections or rather his affections have been directed to new and worthier objects. Formerly, they were withdrawn from God, and as they must have some object they were centred on some wordly thing – power or pleasure or wealth or fame – and hence he was ungodly, as having no supreme affection for God and subject to worldly lusts…these lusts are not eradicated by conversion; they may no long continue to be to the believer what the Canaanites were to Israel…But their power is broken, when, under the teaching of the Spirit, the mind is turned from lying vanities to the living God and new, and holier and better objects are embraced by the heart’s affections.”

(HT: Adrian Reynolds)

Filed under: Affections, Christ our treasure, Conversion, Evangelical, Holiness, Holy Spirit, Love for God, New Birth, Regeneration

Ortlund and Storms: “The Convergence of Doctrine and Delight”

The audio from the May 2009 Clarus Conference is now online:

• Ray Ortlund: “True Spirituality: Delighting in Truth” (Psa. 1)
• Sam Storms: “Jonathan Edwards on Religious Affections: The Soul Set on Fire for God”
• Ray Ortlund: “False Spirituality: Flirting Around” (2 Cor. 11:1-4)
• Sam Storms: “Enjoying Election: Finding Delight in God’s Decree”
• Panel Discussion 1
• Ray Ortlund: “Dangerous Moderation: The Nausea of Christ” (Rev. 3:14-22)
• Panel Discussion 2
• Ray Ortlund: “Break Through: No Other Desire” (Psa. 73)
• Sam Storms: “Delighting Ourselves in the Lord: Why Joy in God Matters” (Psa. 37:4)

Audio from previous Clarus conferences is here.

(HT: Justin Taylor)

Filed under: Affections, Christ our treasure, Christian hedonism, Discipleship, Doctrine, Election, Evangelical, False conversion, Jonathan Edwards, Preaching, Ray Ortlund, Sam Storms, The Christian Life, The word of God

Preaching Is…

I like this from Marcus Honeysett:

.

How to define preaching… By my desk I have a (mis)quote from Sam Seabourne in The West Wing: Great preaching should blow the doors off. (Of course you know its also a slight misquote from Michael Caine in The Italian Job). I will never find words quite glorious or encompassing enough for this wonderful task. Here are a few incomplete and inexhaustive definitions. Keep looking for fresh, biblically-rooted, glorious ways of defining the great task.

.

• taking God’s word and proclaiming it in such as way as his all-supremacy is seen and rejoiced in. Or…
• presenting the light of God, that is his truth, in order that, through the Holy Spirit, people might get taken up with the person of God. Ps119 talks about the word being a lamp and a light. Jesus says “I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will not walk in darkness.” 2 Cor 4 says that our gospel that we proclaim shines in people’s hearts to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. Proclamation of the eternal light in order that people encounter him. Or…
• speaking the words of God in order to extend the reign of God in people’s hearts, affections and wills. So that they yearn with David “as the dear pants for streams of water so my heart longs for you.” Or…
• proclaiming good news of peace with God in order to achieve the submission of rebels to God and their subsequent enjoyment of him forever. Or…
• presenting the surpassing treasure of God so that our hearers will love him more than life. Or…
• Leading in the ways of God for the edification, training and direction of his people. So that he is seen and known among us. So that we might be the church, well taught, corrected, reproved and trained in righteousness, equipped for every good work
• If I were to plump for one easy to remember definition of what we are doing, I would pick Cotton Mather’s definition “restoring the throne and dominion of God in the hearts of men.” That is magnificent!

Filed under: Affections, Biblical exposition, Christ-centred, Doctrine, Evangelical, Gospel-centred, Preaching, The Christian Life, The Gospel, The word of God

Emotions and the Aim of Preaching

From John Piper:

Here is one of the most insightful and influential quotes on preaching I ever read. It’s from Jonathan Edwards:

I don’t think ministers are to be blamed for raising the affections of their hearers too high, if that which they are affected with be only that which is worthy of affection, and their affections are not raised beyond a proportion to their importance, or worthiness of affection.

I should think myself in the way of my duty to raise the affections of my hearers as high as possibly I can, provided that they are affected with nothing but truth, and with affections that are not disagreeable to the nature of what they are affected with.

Filed under: Affections, God's Glory, John Piper, Jonathan Edwards, Love for God, Preaching, The Christian Life, The word of God, Truth, Worship, Zeal

Understanding affections

Jonathan Edwards writes:

We see the world of mankind to be exceedingly busy and active; and the affections of men are the springs of the motion: take away all love and hatred, all hope and fear, all anger, zeal and affectionate desire, and the world would be, in a great measure, motionless and dead; there would be no such thing as activity amongst mankind, or any earnest pursuit whatsoever. ‘Tis affection that engages the covetous man, and him that is greedy of worldly profits, in his pursuits; and it is by the affections, that the [sinfully] ambitious man is put forward in his pursuit of worldly glory; and ’tis the affections also that actuate the voluptuous man, in his pursuit of pleasure and sensual delights: the world continues, from age to age, in a continual commotion and agitation, in a pursuit of these things; but take away all affection, and the spring of all this motion would be gone, and the motion itself would cease. And as in worldly things, worldly affections are very much the spring of men’s motion and action; so in religious matters, the spring of their actions are very much religious affections: he that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion.

-Jonathan Edwards, Religious Affections (Yale) 2:110.

(HT: Tony Reinke)

Filed under: Affections, Evangelical, God centredness, Jonathan Edwards, The Christian Life