Jesu, priceless treasure

Jesu, priceless treasure,
Source of purest pleasure,
Truest Friend to me;
Ah! how long I've panted,
And my heart hath fainted,
Thirsting, Lord, for Thee!
Thine I am, O spotless Lamb,
I will suffer nought to hide Thee,
Nought I ask beside Thee.

In Thine arm I rest me,
Foes who would molest me
Cannot reach me here;
Though the earth be shaking,
Every heart be quaking,
Jesus calms my fear;
Sin and hell in conflict fell
With their bitter storms assail me,
Jesus will not fail me.

Wealth, I will not heed thee,
For I do not need thee,
Jesus is my choice;
Honours, ye may glisten,
But I will not listen
To your tempting voice;
Pain or loss, nor shame nor cross,
E'er to leave my Lord shall move me,
Since He deigns to love me.

Farewell, thou who choosest
Earth, and heaven refusest,
Thou wilt tempt in vain;
Farewell, sins, nor blind me,
Get ye all behind me,
Come not forth again:
Past your hour,
O Pride and Power;
Worldly life, thy bonds I sever,
Farewell now for ever!

Hence, all fears and sadness,
For the Lord of gladness,
Jesus, enters in;
They who love the Father,
Though the storms may gather,
Still have peace within;
Yea, whate'er I here must bear,
Still in Thee lies purest pleasure,
Jesu, priceless treasure!

(Translated from Francke's Jesu, meine Freude by Catherine Winkworth)

Berkouwer on sanctification and faith

For Berkouwer, the Sola fide is central in all thinking about sanctification as well as justification. Quotes from Studies in Dogmatic Theology, Vol. 1: Faith and Sanctification:

The moment sanctification is ejected from the temple of faith, and hence of justification, that moment justification by faith has become an initial stage on the pilgrim’s journey, a supply-station which later becomes a pleasant memory!

...any view of regeneration, faith, and sanctification, must be weighed and tested by the criterion of whether it does justice to the forgiveness of sins as the only ground and source of sanctification.

Cf. Article 24 of the Belgic Confession:

We believe that this true faith being wrought in man by the hearing of the Word of God, and the operation of the Holy Ghost, does regenerate and make him a new man, causing him to live a new life, and freeing him from the bondage of sin.

My God, in Thee all Fulness Lies

My God, in Thee all fulness lies,
All want in me, from Thee apart;
In Thee my soul hath endless joys,
In me is but an aching heart;
Poor as the poorest here I pine,
In Thee a heav'nly kingdom's mine.

I leave to Thee whate'er is mine,
And in Thy will I calmly rest;
I know that richest gifts are Thine,
Thou canst and Thou wilt make me blest,
For Thou hath promised, and our Lord
Will never break His promised word.

Thou lov'st me, Father, with the love
Wherewith Thou lovedst Christ Thy Son,
And so a brightness from above
Still glads me though my tears may run,
For in Thy love I find and know
What all the world could ne'er bestow.

Translated from Mein Gott bei dir ist alle Fülle (Anon) by Catherine Winkworth

Schouls on the Covenant of Grace, Part III

Schouls essentially affirms the former position: covenant as objective reality, but requiring personal appropriation. He reasons:
- The covenant of grace is conditional, demanding of us repentance and faith. Its membership is not therefore limited to the elect.
- The "internal holiness" position leads to unacceptable qualifications of the covenant: some are said to be in the covenant in an external way, or under its influence but not really in it. As Schouls says, "Either they are in or they are not in."
- We should follow Calvin (in his comments on Genesis 17:7) in seeing the promise as given to all in the covenant, but needing to be ratified by faith:

Here, then, a twofold class of sons presents itself to us, in the Church; for since the whole body of the people is gathered together into the fold of God, by one and the same voice, all without exception, are, in this respect, accounted children; the name of the Church is applicable in common to all: but in the innermost sanctuary of God, none others are reckoned the sons of God, than they in whom the promise is ratified by faith.

- The covenant can be likened to a marriage, which we can despise and reject.

I think Schouls is right in his conclusion:

We believe this to be main-line Reformed. We believe this ... stresses squarely what should be: faith and repentance... Without faith it is not possible to please God (Hebrews 11:6) and unless a man is born again, which is made evident in his repentance, he cannot even see the kingdom of God, let alone enter it (John 3:3). This is true, also of covenant children.

Schouls on the Covenant of Grace, Part II

His notes on differing understandings within the Dutch tradition of the meaning of covenant membership are very interesting. Two differing positions developed out of the 1834 Secession churches:

Covenant as objective reality

- De Cock entertained a broad view: the covenant is an objective reality for all those baptized into it. To be in the covenant means to have the benefits of Christ promised to one; the reality of the covenant does not depend on an act of faith, although faith is needed in order personally to apprehend the promises.
- This view distinguishes between covenant members and the elect; the promises of the covenant are by nature conditional on personal repentance and faith.
- Pieters and Kreulen asserted that the holiness of children referred to in 1 Cor. 7:14 is the external holiness belonging to all in the covenant (rather than the internal holiness of the regenerate).
- Many of those who broke from the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands (see below) to form the Reformed Churches (Liberated), including Schilder, adopted this position.

Covenant as the regenerate only

- Scholte emphasized that only those who could confess their faith, and confirm it by their walk of life, could be seen as true covenant members. These members are the regenerate, possessing internal holiness.
- Joffers said that the covenant was made with the elect only.
- This view did not necessarily imply a narrow view of who was in the covenant. Joffers appeared to view all baptized infants as regenerate/elect. A. Kuyper promoted the belief that infants were to be baptized on the presumption of their regeneration (his belief that all infants possess the "root" of faith lent support to this belief).
- While Kuyper affirmed that one must be vigilant in preaching faith and repentance, since the presumption might turn out, on future evidence, to have been mistaken, some of his followers failed to do this, leaving a legacy of presumed spiritual life.
- The 1905 synod at Utrecht of the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (a new union including most of the Secession churches) affirmed the teaching of presumed infant regeneration "until... the opposite should be shown from their walk or doctrine". The justification, however, for infant baptism is simply the command and promise of God. (NB The Christian Reformed Church of North America adopted these decisions at the 1908 synod at Kalamazoo.) Schouls comments that in this system preaching typically urges the hearers to live as the regenerated people they are presumed to be.
- Kersten (who in 1908 united several independent congregations into the conservative Netherlands Reformed Congregations) held a similar but stricter, less optimistic view. Consistent with seeing true covenant membership as being the elect only, his preaching tended towards an introspective self-examination for "marks of grace".

Schouls on the Covenant of Grace

Found some very interesting lectures on The Covenant Of Grace: Its Scriptural Origins and Development in Continental Reformed Theology. They were originally delivered at the Niagara Ligonier Study Centre, March and April of 1996 by Rev. C. A. Schouls, who at that time was the Pastor of the Free Reformed Church in Vineland, Ontario, Canada. They deal mainly with developments in the Dutch tradition from individuals such as A. Kuyper, Kersten and Schilder.

Horatius Bonar on justifying faith

Horatius Bonar reminds us that the faith which justifies us is in no sense our meritorious contribution to salvation, but is rather the utter renunciation of all our own works and righteousness:

Faith is not work, nor merit, nor effort; but the cessation from all these, and the acceptance in place of them of what another has done—done completely, and forever. (From Bonar's The Everlasting Righteousness)

Joel Beeke on justifying faith

Some wise words from an article I read on "The Highway" site:

Too many Christians live in constant despondency because they cannot distinguish between the rock on which they stand and the faith by which they stand upon the rock. Faith is not our rock; Christ is our rock. We do not get faith by having faith in our faith or by looking to faith, but by looking to Christ. Looking to Christ is faith.

Nor is it perfect faith, great faith, fruitful faith, strong faith that justifies. If we start qualifying our faith, we destroy the gospel. Our faith may be weak, immature, timid, even indiscernible at times, but if it is real faith it is justifying faith (Matthew 6:30).

What is the Bible basically about?

Voes and Esch: all monkery forsaking

Welcome to my blog!

I thought it fitting to begin with a commemoration of the Reformation's first martyrs, Johann Esch and Heinrich Voes. These Belgian Augustinian monks and followers of Luther were burned at the stake in the Grand' Place of Brussels on 1st July 1523. In response, Luther wrote his first hymn, a ballad recounting the martyrdom of these two young men.

1. A new song now shall be begun,
Lord, help us raise the banner
Of praise for all that God has done,
For which we give Him honour.
At Brussels in the Netherlands
God proved himself most truthful
And poured his gifts from open hands
On two lads, martyrs youthful
Through whom He showed His power.

2. One was named John, a name to show
He stood in God’s high favour.
His brother Henry, well we know,
Was salt of truest savour.
This world they now have left behind
And wear bright crowns of glory.
These sons of God had fixed the mind
Upon the Gospel story,
For which they died as martyrs.

3. From where the Foe in ambush lay,
He sent to have them taken
To force them God’s Word to betray
And make their faith be shaken.
Louvain sent clever men, who came
In twisting nets to break them.
Hard played they at their crooked game,
But from faith could not shake them.
God make their tricks look foolish.

4. Oh, they sang sweet, and they sang sour,
They tried all their devices.
The youths stood firmly like a tow’r
And overcame each crisis.
In filled the Foe with raging hate
To know himself defeated
By these two lads, and he so great.
His rage flared high, and heated
His plan to see them burning.

5. Their cloister-garments off they tore,
Took off their consecrations;
All this the youths were ready for,
They said Amen with patience.
They gave to God the Father thanks
That He would them deliver
From Satan’s scoffing and the pranks
That make men quake and shiver
When he comes masked and raging.

6. The God they worshipped granted them
A priesthood in Christ’s order.
They offered up themselves to Him
And crossed His kingdom’s border
By dying to the world outright,
With ev’ry falsehood breaking.
They came to heaven pure and white;
All monkery forsaking,
They turned away from evil.

7. A paper given them to sign -
And carefully they read it -
Spelled out their faith in ev’ry line
As they confessed and said it.
Their greatest fault was to be wise
And say, “We trust God solely,
For human wisdom is all lies,
We should distrust it wholly.”
This brought them to the burning.

8. Then two great fires were set alight,
While men amazed did ponder
The sight of youths who showed no fright;
Their calm filled men with wonder.
They stepped into the flames with song.
God’s grace and glory praising.
The logic choppers puzzled long
But found these new thing dazing
Which God was here displaying.

9. They now regret their deed of shame,
Would like to slough it over;
They dare not glory in their blame,
But put it under cover.
They feel their gnawing infamy,
Their friends hear them deplore it.
God’s spirit cannot silent be,
But on Cain’s guilty forehead
He marks the blood of Abel.

10. The ashes of the lads remain
And scatter to all places.
They rise from roadway, street, and lane
To mark the guilty faces.
The Foe had used a bloody hand
To keep these voices quiet,
But they resist in ev’ry land
The Foe’s rage and defy it.
The ashes go on singing.

11. And yet men still keep up their lies
To justify the killing;
The Foe with falsehood ever tries
To give the guilt clean billing.
Since these young martyrs’ holy death
Men still continue trying
To say, the youths with their last breath
Renounced their faith when dying
And finally recanted.

12. Let men heap falsehoods all around,
Their sure defeat is spawning.
We thank our God the Word is found,
We stand in its bright dawning.
Our summer now is at the door,
The winter’s frost has ended,
Soft buds the flowers more and more,
By our dear Gard’ner tended
Until He reaps His harvest.

Martin Luther
tr. F. Samuel Janzow (1913-2001)