Tollhouses, in Eastern Orthodox theology, refer to a somewhat controversial and debated concept about the soul’s journey after death. The term “tollhouse” is a bit of a metaphor, suggesting that just as one might have to stop at various toll stations along a road, the soul encounters various spiritual “stations” after departing from the body, where it is tested or judged for its deeds, sins, and virtues before reaching its final destination.
Here’s a general overview of the Eastern Orthodox perspective:
Theology and Origin: The concept is rooted in various patristic writings, liturgical texts, and the lives of the saints. Descriptions of the tollhouses are often allegorical or symbolic, highlighting the soul’s encounters with demons who accuse it of various sins. The prayers of the Church, the intercessions of the saints, and the merits of one’s own life can assist the soul as it journeys through these tollhouses.
Number and Nature: There are often said to be 20 tollhouses, each corresponding to a particular sin or vice. The demons at each tollhouse try to capture the soul, pointing out the sins it committed in life. If the soul is found wanting or unprepared, it can be dragged down to Hell.
Controversy: The concept of tollhouses is not universally accepted within the Eastern Orthodox Church. Some view the teaching as a useful allegory or pedagogical tool that underscores the seriousness of sin and the need for repentance. Others see it as a literal depiction of the afterlife. Still, others find it problematic or non-canonical and reject it outright. The degree of acceptance varies among different Orthodox jurisdictions, theologians, and laity.
Modern Debates: The subject has sparked debates in modern times, especially with the advent of the internet where theological discussions can spread rapidly. Some argue that the tollhouses have been an accepted part of Orthodox teaching for centuries, while others believe that they have been given undue emphasis or misinterpreted in contemporary discussions.
It’s essential to understand that the tollhouses, whether taken literally or allegorically, represent just one aspect of the rich tapestry of Eastern Orthodox eschatology and soteriology. If you’re interested in diving deeper into this topic, it would be beneficial to consult both primary sources (like the Church Fathers and liturgical texts) and secondary discussions (contemporary Orthodox theologians and scholars) to get a comprehensive understanding.
Concept of Tollhouses
The concept of the tollhouses in Eastern Orthodox theology, as mentioned previously, is not universally accepted or standardized across the entire Orthodox world. However, the concept often describes a journey through 20 tollhouses, each representing a specific sin.
Here’s a list of the 20 tollhouses, based on various sources that describe them:
Murder: This concerns not only physical murder but also includes anger and hatred.
Adultery: This includes not just the physical act but also lustful thoughts.
Theft: Greed, stealing, and unlawful possessions.
Lying: Dishonesty in all its forms.
Bribery: Love of money and the willingness to compromise integrity for gain.
Slander: Speaking ill or falsely about others.
Pride: An inflated sense of self and disdain for others.
Boasting: Excessive pride in one’s achievements.
Scoffing: Mocking or deriding others, especially concerning faith.
Unbelief: Lack of faith or trust in God.
Witchcraft: Invoking or dealing with evil spirits or practices.
Envy: Jealousy of others and their accomplishments or possessions.
Gluttony: Overindulgence in food or drink.
Laziness: Avoiding work or spiritual duties.
Usury: Unfair financial practices, especially charging excessive interest.
Injustice: Unfair treatment of others.
Ruthlessness: Cruelty or the desire to harm others.
Mindlessness: Neglect of one’s duties, especially spiritual ones.
Robbery: Taking from others unlawfully.
Fornication: Illicit sexual relations.
This sequence might slightly differ depending on the source, but these are the commonly cited sins associated with the tollhouses. It’s worth noting again that while some believers might consider the journey through the tollhouses to be a literal event that souls undergo after death, others view it allegorically, symbolizing the spiritual challenges and consequences of sin in this life.
Patristic Sources of Tollhouses in Orthodox Theology
The concept of the tollhouses, as found in Eastern Orthodox theology, has patristic roots, although the precise nature and interpretation of these sources remain subjects of debate among scholars and theologians. Here’s a brief overview of some of the patristic sources that have been associated with the tollhouse concept:
St. Athanasius the Great: In his work “On the Incarnation,” St. Athanasius describes how Christ’s incarnation saves humans from the powers of the air and the fear of death.
St. John Chrysostom: He spoke about demons accusing souls of sins as they ascend to heaven. However, his descriptions don’t lay out a specific system of tollhouses.
St. Cyril of Alexandria: He wrote about the aerial spirits that seek to hinder the ascension of souls.
St. Basil the Great: In his homilies, St. Basil makes reference to fearsome powers that challenge souls after death.
St. Gregory the Dialogist (Pope Gregory the Great): In his “Dialogues,” he tells of the vision of a certain soldier who saw souls being tested by various demonic challenges as they ascended.
St. Macarius of Egypt: In his homilies, St. Macarius speaks of the soul’s journey after death and the spirits it encounters.
The Shepherd of Hermas: This early Christian work, while not considered canonical Scripture, was widely read in the early Church. It contains visions and revelations, including depictions of spirits and challenges faced after death.
The Vision of St. Theodora: This is one of the more detailed and specific patristic sources that describe the tollhouses. St. Theodora’s vision outlines a sequence of tollhouses and the sins associated with each one.
St. Ephrem the Syrian: His writings also contain references to the soul’s ascent and the demonic challenges it faces.
It’s crucial to note a few things:
These references often do not explicitly describe a structured set of “tollhouses” in the way that later Orthodox tradition sometimes depicts them. Instead, they offer more general images of aerial spirits or demons accusing or challenging souls.
Interpretation varies. Not all Orthodox theologians or scholars agree on the exact meaning or importance of these patristic references concerning the tollhouse concept.
The tollhouse concept is part of a broader tapestry of teachings about the afterlife, judgment, and the soul’s journey. It should be studied in the context of Orthodox soteriology and eschatology as a whole.
If you are interested in the patristic foundations of this concept in depth, it would be wise to read these sources directly and consult Orthodox theological studies on the subject.
Who Were the Patristics?
The term “Patristics” refers to the study of the Church Fathers (or “Patres” in Latin), who were influential Christian theologians and writers primarily from the 1st to the 8th century AD. The Church Fathers played a critical role in shaping Christian doctrine, defending the faith against heresies, and articulating theological concepts in the early Church. They are highly respected in various Christian traditions, including Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and certain Protestant denominations.
The Church Fathers can be generally categorized into several groups based on time periods and regional contexts:
Apostolic Fathers (Late 1st to Early 2nd century): These are the earliest Christian writers who are believed to have had direct or indirect connections to the Apostles. Key figures include:
St. Clement of Rome
St. Ignatius of Antioch
St. Polycarp of Smyrna
The author(s) of the Didache
The author of the “Shepherd of Hermas”
Ante-Nicene Fathers (2nd to early 4th century): These are the Church Fathers who lived before the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD. They defended the faith against early heresies and began formulating theology in a more systematic way.
St. Justin Martyr
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Tertullian
Origen
St. Cyprian of Carthage
Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (4th to 8th century): These theologians lived after the First Council of Nicaea and during the subsequent ecumenical councils. They dealt with the Arian controversy and other theological challenges.
St. Athanasius the Great
The Cappadocian Fathers: St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, and St. Gregory of Nyssa
St. John Chrysostom
St. Ambrose of Milan
St. Jerome
St. Augustine of Hippo
St. Cyril of Alexandria
St. John of Damascus (often considered the last of the Greek Fathers)
Desert Fathers: These were early Christian monks and ascetics who lived in the deserts of Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. They are known for their teachings on Christian spirituality and asceticism. Notable figures include:
St. Anthony the Great
St. Pachomius
Evagrius Ponticus
St. John Cassian
Western Fathers and Eastern Fathers: The Church Fathers can also be divided based on their geographical and linguistic contexts. Latin-speaking theologians from the Western Roman Empire are often termed “Western Fathers,” while Greek-speaking theologians from the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) are termed “Eastern Fathers.”
The writings and teachings of the Church Fathers have been fundamental in shaping Christian doctrine, liturgy, spirituality, and exegesis. They are frequently cited in theological discussions and remain a vital part of the Christian tradition.
In the turbulent backdrop of the 16th-century Reformation, a profound voice emerged that would shape the contours of Protestant theology for generations to come. In his seminal work “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” John Calvin (1509–1564) embarked on an ambitious journey to elucidate the Christian faith in its entirety. “Institutes of the Christian Religion” is Calvin’s magnum opus and represents one of the most comprehensive and systematic presentations of Protestant theology during the Reformation. Initially published in 1536, Calvin revised and expanded it in several editions, with the final version appearing in 1559.
Introduction
The narrative of the “Institutes” begins with the human quest for knowledge. Calvin underscores that knowledge of oneself and knowledge of God are intertwined. But how can finite humans comprehend the infinite? The magnificence of creation, for Calvin, acts as a mirror, reflecting the divine attributes of the Creator. Yet, this reflection is marred by humanity’s fallen state. Sin clouds our natural faculties, leading us to suppress or distort this knowledge. Still, Calvin delves into the profound tragedy of the Fall. Adam and Eve’s rebellion in the Garden of Eden plunged humanity into a state of total depravity. Every facet of the human being—mind, will, emotions—is now tainted by sin. We are alienated from God, ensnared by death, and incapable of achieving righteousness by our efforts.
But the story doesn’t end in despair. Into this bleak tableau enters Jesus Christ—the Redeemer. Calvin paints Christ as the mediator, bridging the Holy God and sinful humanity. Christ atones for sin, defeats death, and offers reconciliation through His sacrificial death on the cross and triumphant resurrection. It’s a cosmic redemption story where love, justice, and mercy converge. So how does one partake in this redemptive act? Calvin emphatically speaks of faith – Not just intellectual assent, but a deep, heartfelt trust in Christ’s redemptive work. It’s through faith that we are justified—declared righteous before God. This is the heart of Calvin’s soteriology: justification by faith alone, apart from works. Yet, faith isn’t stagnant; it’s the starting point of sanctification—the lifelong process where believers gradually conform to Christ’s image.
Calvin’s work ventures into the communal dimension of faith. For Calvin, faith isn’t merely an individual endeavor; it thrives within the community of believers—the Church. Described as the body of Christ, the Church is where the Word of God is proclaimed, and the sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are celebrated. These sacraments act as visible signs of invisible grace, anchors that tether believers to the promises of God. So as the believer journeys through life, Calvin emphasizes the importance of prayer as a means of communion with God. Moreover, he acknowledges the challenges and tribulations that believers often face. However, with the assurance of God’s providence, believers can navigate these challenges, confident that everything, even suffering, is under God’s sovereign control.
The narrative concludes with a reflection on the Christian’s role in society. While church and state are distinct realms, both are divinely instituted. The Christian, therefore, has duties toward both. Calvin envisions a harmonious relationship between the two, with civil government maintaining societal order and the church nurturing spiritual life. So, in the vast tapestry of the “Institutes,” Calvin weaves a grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. Through meticulous exegesis and profound theological insights, he invites readers on a transformative journey to the heart of the Christian faith—a journey that transcends the annals of history and beckons souls toward eternity. Through the “Institutes,” Calvin didn’t merely pen a theological treatise; he crafted a narrative that encapsulates the Christian odyssey from the depths of sin to the heights of glory. Its echoes of grace continue to resonate in the corridors of time, beckoning every reader to the boundless love of God.
Background
Born Jean Cauvin in Noyon, France, Calvin grew up in a devout Catholic family. He was initially groomed for a career in the Church and went on to study Latin and humanities at the Collège de la Marche in Paris. Later, Calvin shifted his focus to law at the behest of his father, studying in Orléans and Bourges. While in Paris, Calvin was introduced to Renaissance humanism, which emphasized the value of classical learning and the study of the original biblical texts.
John Calvin’s father, Gérard Cauvin, was an attorney and a notary who worked for the local cathedral in Noyon, France. Gérard played a pivotal role in Calvin’s early education, intending for John to enter into the priesthood. He secured a chaplaincy for his young son, which funded John’s education. However, due to a conflict with the local bishop, Gérard advised John to study law instead of theology. Calvin’s mother, Jeanne le Franc, was known for her piety. Little is documented about her, but she bore several children before her premature death. John was very young at the time of her death, and the loss may have profoundly impacted him.
While John Calvin had several brothers and sisters, a few are noteworthy here. Charles Cauvin, one of Calvin’s brothers, followed a career in the church but faced excommunication due to his alignment with Protestant beliefs. He died in 1537. Another brother, Antoine Cauvin, joined John in Geneva and played a supportive role in his life. He worked in various capacities in the city, including as a clerk. While not much is known about Calvin’s sisters, it’s known that Marie Cauvin, one of his sisters, took refuge in Geneva following the rise of Protestant persecution in France.
In 1540, after residing in Strasbourg, Calvin married Idelette de Bure, a widow with children from her first marriage. Idelette was originally an Anabaptist but converted to Calvin’s Reformed theology. Their marriage was described as affectionate and supportive, with Idelette often aiding refugees and being actively involved in the life of the church. The couple had one child together, but the child died in infancy. Idelette’s passing in 1549 deeply affected Calvin, and he never remarried. While the exact number of Idelette’s children from her first marriage is not well-documented, it’s known that she had children from her first marriage, whom Calvin adopted as his own after their union.
Understanding Calvin’s familial ties and personal relationships offers a more holistic view of the man. His relationships, particularly the deaths of close family members, may have shaped his theological understanding of suffering, God’s providence, and the human condition. Although often overshadowed by his public persona, Calvin’s family and personal life provide a poignant backdrop against which his immense theological contributions can be more deeply understood.
In the early 1530s, Calvin was forced to flee Paris due to rising anti-Protestant sentiment in France. After a brief stay in Basel, Switzerland, Calvin intended to settle in Strasbourg. However, political and military obstacles led him to Geneva. In Geneva, Calvin was soon recruited by local reformer Guillaume Farel to assist in the city’s nascent Protestant Reformation. Though Calvin initially resisted, he eventually agreed and quickly became a leading figure in the movement. His time in Geneva was not without challenges. Differences in religious and social views led to Calvin’s expulsion from the city in 1538. However, he returned in 1541 and remained there for the rest of his life, during which he established a theocratic governance system.
Calvin’s influence persisted long after his death. The Reformed churches and various Protestant denominations can trace their roots to his teachings. Though often associated primarily with his doctrine of predestination, Calvin’s thought encompasses a wide range of theological, ecclesiastical, and social issues, making him one of the most influential Christian theologians in history.
Roman Catholicism
The Christian reform movement in the 16th century challenged the Roman Catholic Church’s doctrines and practices. Calvin’s thoughts on theology, ecclesiology, and social issues have profoundly influenced Protestantism, shaping a tradition known as Reformed theology. And by the mid-1530s, Calvin experienced what he described as a “sudden conversion.” The exact nature of this conversion remains a matter of debate among historians, but its result was clear: Calvin embraced the Protestant cause, distancing himself from the Roman Catholic Church. His theological views, crystallized in his magnum opus, “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” placed him squarely at odds with Catholic doctrine. Theological disagreements on topics like the nature of the Eucharist, the role of Church tradition, the authority of the Pope, and the doctrine of justification, to name a few, were foundational to his break with the Church.
Calvin’s association with the city of Geneva exemplified his definitive break from the Roman Catholic Church. In Geneva, Calvin aimed to create a godly city-state where every aspect of life, both public and private, aligned with Scriptural teachings. His ecclesiastical ordinances instituted a form of church government and discipline sharply distinct from the Catholic model. Calvin’s rigorous moral and doctrinal standards sometimes put him at odds even with the city’s residents, but they unmistakably distinguished Genevan Protestantism from Roman Catholicism.
Throughout his ministry, Calvin engaged in polemical writings against the Catholic Church. He criticized what he viewed as superstitious practices, corrupt clergy, and erroneous doctrines. His stance made him a significant target for Catholic apologists. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), the Catholic Church’s answer to the Reformation, denounced several Protestant teachings, including many of Calvin’s key doctrines. Calvin, not one to remain silent, responded with his writings, defending the Reformed faith against Catholic hostilities. Calvin’s relationship with the Roman Catholic Church was undoubtedly adversarial. Yet, viewing it within the broader context of the 16th-century religious upheaval is essential. To Calvin, his disagreements with the Church were not about mere theological nitpicking; they were about the essence of the Gospel and the salvation of souls. The Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, viewed Calvin (and other Reformers) as schismatics, challenging the unity of Christendom and leading many astray with their teachings.
In the end, John Calvin’s status with the Roman Catholic Church can be summarized as that of a profound reformer, a staunch critic, and an unwavering advocate for what he believed was the pure, apostolic Christianity—a Christianity he argued had been obscured by the Roman Catholic Church of his day.
Eastern Orthodoxy
In contrast to Calvin’s historical background with the Roman Catholic Church, his relationship with the Eastern Orthodox Church (often called the Orthodox Church) is less pronounced in his writings and actions. The Protestant Reformation primarily unfolded in Western Europe, where the Roman Catholic Church dominated. Eastern Orthodoxy was primarily in the eastern regions of Europe and the Near East. Thus, there was less direct contact between Reformation leaders like Calvin and the Orthodox Church than the Roman Catholic Church.
Calvin and the Orthodox Church had some overlapping criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church, especially concerning certain late medieval practices and the role of the papacy. While both Calvin and the Orthodox tradition held a high view of the early church councils and the Nicene Creed, there were still significant theological differences. The Orthodox Church did not adhere to the Reformed emphases on doctrines like predestination or sola scriptura in the way Calvin articulated them. Also, the nature of the Eucharist, liturgical practices, and church governance would have been points of divergence.
Calvin’s writings contain relatively few explicit references to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Where references exist, they are often lumped in with broader discussions about the “ancient church” or early church fathers rather than a distinct engagement with Orthodoxy as a separate tradition. It’s worth noting that later Reformed theologians and representatives interacted with the Orthodox Church. For instance, in the early 17th century, Cyril Lucaris, the Patriarch of Constantinople, showed a strong interest in Reformed theology. However, his views and subsequent declarations were highly controversial within the Orthodox context and were ultimately condemned by the Orthodox Church.
While Calvin’s primary theological and ecclesiastical engagements were with the Roman Catholic Church and other Protestant groups, his relationship with the Eastern Orthodox Church was more peripheral. His limited engagement with Orthodoxy was a function of geography, historical context, and the pressing religious debates of his day.
Prefatory Address – 1536
In the opening to Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion,” he wrote an address to King Francis I of France in 1536. This introductory letter is more than just a simple introduction; it is a profound defense of the Reformed faith and an appeal for religious tolerance. In its historical context, the address should be understood against the backdrop of the religious tensions of the time. The Protestant Reformation had been spreading rapidly across Europe, and in France, those who subscribed to Reformed views (often pejoratively called “Huguenots”) faced severe persecution. King Francis I, while initially showing some leniency towards the Lutherans, began to take a harder stance against Protestantism as the movement grew in influence and as political pressures mounted.
Calvin’s primary aim in writing to Francis I was twofold. First to defend the Reformed faith against accusations of heresy and sedition, and second to appeal to the king for protection and fair treatment of the French Protestants. As the purpose of his appeal was comprehensive, he wrote of specifics concerning various misunderstandings, the true church, the authority of Scripture, accusations against believers in Christ, religious tolerance, and personal respect.
Calvin expressed concern that the king had been misinformed about the beliefs and intentions of the Reformed believers. He sought to clear up misunderstandings and to counteract the negative propaganda spread by their adversaries. Calvin asserted that the true Church is where the Word of God is rightly preached and the sacraments are rightly administered. By this definition, he argued, the Reformed believers should be recognized as a legitimate part of the Church, not as heretics. A cornerstone of Calvin’s argument is the supreme authority of Scripture. He emphasized that the doctrines he and other Reformers teach are rooted in the Bible, not innovations. This was in contrast to the Roman Catholic Church, which Calvin argued had deviated from scriptural truths.
Calvin refuted accusations of sedition and political revolt. He emphasized that the Reformed faith teaches obedience to rulers and authorities, and the goal of the Reformers is spiritual reformation, not political upheaval. So Calvin implored Francis I to show leniency and protect the Protestants from unjust persecutions. He argues that the use of force in matters of faith contradicts the spirit of Christianity and appeals to the king’s sense of justice. Throughout the address, Calvin maintained a tone of respect for the king. While he firmly defended the Reformed faith, he acknowledged Francis I’s authority and position. While Calvin’s appeal was eloquent and impassioned, it did little to change the immediate situation for French Protestants. Persecutions continued, and the divide between the Roman Catholic Church and the burgeoning Reformed movement in France deepened. However, from a broader historical perspective, Calvin’s address to Francis I stands as a testament to the Reformers’ commitment to their faith and their willingness to defend their beliefs before the highest earthly authorities. It’s a snapshot of the larger struggles of the Reformation era, encapsulating the courage, convictions, and challenges of those tumultuous times.
Epistle to the Reader – 1539
In 1539, John Calvin prepared a new edition of his Institutes. This edition was more extensive than the first, representing a significant expansion and restructuring of his initial ideas. To introduce this work, Calvin wrote an “Epistle to the Reader,” which serves as an introduction to his expanded work and a summary of his theological aims and intentions. The “Epistle to the Reader” is Calvin’s introduction and contextualizes the revised “Institutes.” Having released the first edition of the Institutes in 1536, just three years prior, Calvin had already seen the need for more comprehensive teaching due to feedback and the further clarification he believed was necessary to counter various misunderstandings about Protestant beliefs.
Calvin wrote of the “Institutes,” even in its 1536 version, as a work of extensive labor. And it was not a hastily prepared document but was a product of careful reflection and engagement with Scripture. Aware of the myriad misconceptions and misrepresentations of Protestant doctrine, Calvin emphasized that a principal motive behind the revision was to clarify and systematically present the faith. His effort aimed to benefit those curious about Protestant beliefs and those who might be hostile to the Reformation. Calvin underscored that the “Institutes” was intended to be a comprehensive summation of the Protestant faith, an organized presentation of doctrines drawn from and aligned with the Bible. It wasn’t just about highlighting disagreements with the Roman Catholic Church but more about affirming a positive, scripturally-grounded theology.
Throughout the “Epistle,” Calvin alluded to the many accusations and misrepresentations about the Reformers. He hoped that this clarified and expanded edition would serve as a defense against such charges, demonstrating the scriptural fidelity and intellectual rigor of Reformed beliefs. Beyond just theological precision, there’s a pastoral undertone in Calvin’s letter. He expressed a deep concern for the spiritual well-being of his readers. Calvin desired that through understanding the true Christian doctrine, believers would grow in their faith and draw closer to God.
John Calvin’s Church in Geneva Switzerland – St. Pierre Cathedral
In summary, John Calvin’s 1539 “Epistle to the Reader” is a window into the Reformer’s heart and mind as he presented a more mature version of his Institutes. It reflects Calvin’s dedication to Scripture, his desire for clarity in presenting the gospel, his defense against misconceptions, and, importantly, his pastoral concern for his readers’ spiritual health and growth. The “Epistle” sets the stage for the reader, preparing them for the deep theological exploration that follows in the body of the “Institutes.”
Preface to the French – 1545
John Calvin’s 1545 preface to the French edition of the Institutes is a particularly notable piece of Reformation literature. This preface is often referred to as the “Dedication to King Francis I” or simply the “Preface to King Francis,” as it is directed towards the King of France. This preface is different from the original one penned in the 1536 Latin edition, and its significance lies not just in its theological exposition but also in its political and cultural implications. In the mid-16th century, Protestants in France, who came to be known as Huguenots, were experiencing increasing persecution. King Francis I, initially somewhat tolerant of Protestant views due to political reasons, began taking a harder stance against them as they grew in influence. This preface can be seen as Calvin’s attempt to advocate for French Protestants, seeking a reprieve from their mistreatment.
In defense of the Protestant faith,Calvin again asserted that the beliefs of the French Protestants were neither seditious nor heretical. He emphasizes the Biblical foundation of their doctrines and disputes the charges of novelty frequently levied against them. He recognized that the king had been surrounded by advisors who maligned the Protestants, and Calvin endeavored to correct the misconceptions. He argued against the idea that the Reformers were stirring up political rebellion or that their teachings were radically new or dangerous. While he acknowledged the king’s authority in civil matters, Calvin subtly challenged the idea that civil rulers should control individual consciences or dictate religious beliefs.
One of the primary aims of this preface was to urge King Francis I to show leniency to the Protestants. Calvin made a case for religious freedom, implying that threats or violence could not force true faith. Despite his disagreements and implicit criticisms, Calvin maintained a respectful tone. He again addressed the king with deference, recognizing his authority and hoping to sway him through reasoned argument rather than confrontation. In addressing the king, Calvin also offered a brief overview of Protestant beliefs. This served as a defense and an evangelistic effort, hoping perhaps to convince the monarch of the truth of the Reformed faith.
The 1545 preface to the French edition of the “Institutes” is a masterful blend of theology, apologetics, and diplomacy. While Calvin’s immediate plea for tolerance was not heeded (persecutions continued and even intensified), this document remains a testament to the Reformers’ commitment to their faith, their willingness to defend their beliefs even before the highest earthly authorities, and their passion for the clarity and truth of the Gospel.
Epistle to the Reader – 1559
John Calvin’s 1559 “Epistle to the Reader” is his final and most comprehensive edition of the “Institutes.” By this time, the “Institutes” had become not only the foundational text for Reformed Protestantism but also one of the most significant theological works of the Protestant Reformation. This final version is more extensive, detailed, and polished than the preceding versions.
Calvin acknowledged how the Institutes have grown over the years. Initially intended as a basic manual for those unfamiliar with the faith, it transformed into a thorough compendium of Reformed doctrine. Calvin spoke about the multiple editions and expansions, with the 1559 version culminating his efforts. His ongoing objective was to elucidate the beliefs of the Reformation in contrast to the misunderstandings and misconceptions propagated against them. By 1559, the Institutes had become an exhaustive defense and exposition of Reformed beliefs rooted in Biblical interpretation. Calvin consistently reflected upon pastoral concerns throughout his writings. His primary goal was always the spiritual edification of his readers. He wanted Christians to deeply understand their faith, leading to a closer relationship with God. This pastoral impulse is evident in the 1559 “Epistle,” where he underscores the practical application of theology.
The 1559 edition was carefully structured to provide a more systematic presentation of Reformed theology. Calvin highlighted this structure, guiding the reader through the logical progression of topics, which mirrors the Apostle’s Creed’s structure. This structure comprises knowledge of God the Creator, knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, the means of receiving Christ’s grace, and the effects of Christ’s redemption. Calvin wrote in this “Epistle” that the 1559 edition was the final version of the Institutes. While he never ceased studying and reflecting on God’s Word, this edition represented his mature and considered theology. Throughout his ministry, Calvin faced opposition from various quarters, including Catholics, Anabaptists, and other Protestant factions. The Institutes, particularly this final edition, served as a robust defense of Reformed doctrine against these detractors.
The 1559 epistle encapsulated Calvin’s purpose and hopes for the Institutes. While he was a systematic theologian of the highest order, Calvin was also a pastor at heart, deeply concerned with the spiritual well-being of Christians. This dual focus on rigorous theology and pastoral concern is evident throughout the Institutes, and the epistle serves as a fitting introduction to this monumental work. Calvin’s dedication to clarity, Biblical fidelity, and the edification of the Church has ensured that the Institutes remains a significant theological work to this day.
Credal Alignment
As John Calvin’s “Institutes” underwent several editions during his lifetime, the final and most comprehensive edition was published in 1559. This edition was systematically structured to mirror the Apostles’ Creed, which is a concise statement of the Christian faith. Calvin didn’t necessarily intend for the “Institutes” to be a direct commentary on the Apostles’ Creed, but the thematic connection is clear. A prominent Reformed theologian, Caspar Olevianus (or Olevian), recognized this structural alignment with the Apostles’ Creed in Calvin’s “Institutes.”
To understand the alignment, let’s first look at Calvin’s organizational structure:
Book I – The Knowledge of God the Creator
Book II – The Knowledge of God the Redeemer in Christ, First Disclosed to the Fathers Under the Law, and Then to Us in the Gospel
Book III – How We Receive the Grace of Christ: What Benefits Come to Us from It, and What Effects Follow
Book IV – The External Means or Helps by Which God Invites Us Into the Society of Christ and Holds Us Therein
Now, aligning this with the Apostles’ Creed:
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.” This corresponds with Book I of the “Institutes,” focusing on the knowledge of God as Creator.
“And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” And so on through the sections on Christ’s death, resurrection, and ascension – This can be seen in Book II, which concentrates on Christ as Redeemer.
“I believe in the Holy Spirit,” Leading into the benefits of Christ’s work – This aligns with Book III, exploring how believers receive the grace of Christ and its benefits.
“The holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.” This fits with Book IV, which deals with the external means (like the Church and sacraments) that God employs to keep believers in communion with Christ.
While Calvin didn’t write the “Institutes” as a direct exposition of the Apostles’ Creed, the alignment is evident. Olevianus, familiar with the “Institutes” and the Creed, would have recognized this thematic and structural parallelism. This observation is crucial because it illustrates how Reformed theology, as articulated by Calvin, was deeply rooted in the broader Christian tradition. The Creed served as a foundational touchstone of orthodoxy, and Calvin’s alignment with it in the “Institutes” underscores his commitment to the essential truths of Christianity.
There are various opinions and views about what it means to attain eternal salvation. And I am inclined to consult commentaries, Greek Lexicons, and other intertextual references about the meaning of the Hebrews 5:9 passage. However, the plain intended meaning from the author of the Hebrews is clear. While Christ Jesus’ redemptive work was salvific for those who believe by faith through grace, it is impossible to live a life of disobedience and attain eternal salvation. Salvation is not earned by works as commonly understood from Scripture (Eph 2:8-9), but a person who lives by authentic faith would obey. And the fruits of the Spirit in the life of a person who believes and lives by faith in Christ would demonstrate the willingness and intention to obey.
Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
– Hebrews 5:9
To bear fruit of righteousness, the first place to begin is the ten commandments. Obey those as an expression of a living faith because Christ is the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
The Ten Commandments
Number
Verse (ESV)
Reference
1
“You shall have no other gods before me.”
Exodus 20:3
2
“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”
Exodus 20:4
3
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.”
Exodus 20:7
4
“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”
Exodus 20:8-11
5
“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.”
Exodus 20:12
6
“You shall not murder.”
Exodus 20:13
7
“You shall not commit adultery.”
Exodus 20:14
8
“You shall not steal.”
Exodus 20:15
9
“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
Exodus 20:16
10
“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Exodus 20:17
The Imperatives of Christ
Number
Imperative
Verse (ESV)
Reference
1
Repent
“From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?”
“Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. “
“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. “
“But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. “
“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. “
“But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? “
“For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.”
“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. “
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. “
“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. “
“Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
“How is it that you fail to understand that I did not speak about bread? Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees. “
“And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. “
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
“It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
“And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.”
“And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
“He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
“Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
“And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment”
“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect. “
“Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you, “
“When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.”
Over the past several weeks, I made my way through the Letter of James in the New Testament. While doing so, the various passages accompanied a personal prayer. In response to each message of James (the biological brother of Jesus), I wrote a prayer that corresponds to each. This was an effort to internalize his letter to the Diaspora of the first century, but for us today as well. The text is King James to include the entire letter.
James 1:1 “JAMES, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.”
Holy Father, just as your servant James loved and honored You, let my worship, prayers, devotion, and witness of You be eternally pleasing. Let my prayers of adoration be as the flickering flame of an everlasting candle that gives a light of remembrance before You.
James 1:2-4 “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience (endurance). But let patience (endurance) have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.”
LORD, my heart is often full and overflowing by your Holy Spirit. Yet, it is too often withdrawn by anxiety and fears that overwhelm me. With the pressures of this world, I become encumbered, but you are my joy and my peace. You are my high tower and my deliverer, and I trust You even while my thoughts and actions are not always as You would have them when I face hardships.
James 1:5-8 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways.”
Lord, you have my heart, and I fully rely on you for this course of life. I will do what you want me to do and go where you want me to go. Let me not get in the way of your interests with the decisions and initiatives I pursue. It is my highest desire first to honor You and what you would want for your glory and your kingdom.
James 1:9-11 “Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also, shall the rich man fade away in his ways.”
Lord, if or when life conditions change, please let the abundance and blessings you have given to me pass toward those you love and want to use for your purposes. I have earned and achieved nothing if not from You. When life conditions change, let my deepest joy remain in You as You are my lasting hope and peace.
James 1:12-15 “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.’
Lord, I beg you for a heart of repentance all my days. I am a sinful man in thoughts, words, and behaviors. They are my fault, and I am sorry when sin is conceived within me against You. I am responsible as I have wronged You and others, and I desperately need Your mercy, cleansing, and renewal so I would not repeat that which causes alienation and death. After everything You’ve done, it is unacceptable that there would ever be any wickedness in me, and You are worthy of my full surrender.
James 1:16-18 “Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.”
Lord, You are abundantly good, and I delight in worshiping You because of who You are. The witness and presence of Your Holy Spirit make clear how good You are and the good gifts You provide. You have my love, devotion, and affection; please let me see your glory in the good that You do and the good gifts You pour out.
James 1:19-20 “Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”
Holy Father, by Your Spirit, let the fruits You desire become evident by what I think and speak. You are my hope, You are my strength, and You are my anchor, so over my inclinations, set aside my critical spirit and set within me an ability to better listen to You and others. Let all resentment and sources of anger dissipate within before they settle and take root. Let Your peace and joy within me abundantly overflow to insulate me from what harm I perceive.
James 1:21-25 “Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
Lord, I want to memorize Your imperatives. I want to hide Your Word within me. The worship that pleases You is my heart’s desire. The messages that are rooted in Your word are what I want to retain. Anything I hear or see that brings me close to You is what I want to remember and act upon. Let the men and women you place in my life be a meaningful and lasting source of sanctification as I desire to be permanently holy before You.”
James 1:26-27 “If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
Lord, this is an area that brings me a lot of concern. I’m not doing enough for You and Your kingdom. I have given a lot of money in offerings, I have discipled people You love, I have given to missions, and I have served You in various ways, but You are far more worthy than the limits of my being. In exchange for all shortcomings, I would gladly exchange any crown or reward for your continued and eternal presence within. Just let me remain with You. I love You no matter what.
James 2:1-13 “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”
Lord, I don’t just want to be good at the right things to say. Or to steer ideas, conversations, or preferences that are in the way and do not glorify you or edify others. Please develop within me the desire and mindset to readily encourage people. Help me empty my natural mindset and live out the Spirit within to bear the fruit You desire.
James 2:1-4 “My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?”
Father, You have given me a heart for the homeless, and by Your Spirit, You’ve enabled me to help them in various ways. By Your grace, and leading, please bring new opportunities to further help through my church and by the opportunity of personal effort. It seems there have been less access and opportunity in recent months and I need your guidance about what and where I could be of a continued blessing to those in need in this way.
James 2:5-13 “Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called? If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well: But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law. So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty. For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.”
Lord Jesus, the abundance of Your Spirit within is what is needed to offer the spiritual service of worship that pleases You. The neglected, socially unfavored, weak, and undesired at church is who I want to love through You in a tangible, lasting, and meaningful way. Give me the eyes to see where I could better love and serve those that you honor.
James 2:14-19 “What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.”
My King, that Your brother would form these words is such an abundant act of mercy that my heart is full by reading them to living them out. Your instructions through Your brother are a blessing that brings gravity to the truth and value of your work. Living out your Word is my desire. All that I am and all that I have, are willingly transferred to all that You are.
James 2:20-26 “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”
Lord, it isn’t sufficient to be passive in my expression of love for You, Your Word, and who You are. I desire to have an active life full of the fruit of the Spirit. To live out the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control that translates to interpersonal conduct among people I meet to help where needed. Please let your Spirit dwell richly within me to work the faith and grace You have given to me.”
James 3:1-2 “My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.”
Lord, it is so apparent that the overflow of my heart and mind becomes present by what I say and write. It is my desire to be pleasing and holy in this way. Defilement by what is said is displeasing to you, and it’s my heart’s desire to keep my words in check. By Your Spirit, reform my heart and mind so that I would not sin against you or others by intentional or unintentional words spoken or written.
James 3:3-12 “Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body. Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth. Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth! And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell. For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind: But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be. Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.”
Lord, it is not enough to abstain from coarse talk. Rather, it is my desire to be completely surrendered to what is best according to your will. Let not my passions prevail over your Spirit, so that I would walk according to Your Word and that your Word would be on my lips.
James 1:14-15, 3:3-4, 11-12, 18, Matt 7:17, Ps 19:14 “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. And see if there be no wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Oh Lord, let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, You who are my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.”
Lord, I feel at times that I’ve gone too far and that my words are too many. Form within my heart and mind an attitude of discretion. I desire to become slower to speak and more graceful in what I write. This is my continued plea as I trust in You to walk according to Your word and by the fruit of the Spirit.
James 3:13-18 “Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”
Lord, there is so much error and trouble in this world, it at times is tough to hold my tongue and set aside thoughts that are just unfruitful. The influences and pressures of this world weigh heavy, and I need your Spirit and instruction from Your Word to light my path. Your wisdom is what I desire, but so often I get in the way. Please be merciful to me Your neglectful servant.
James 4:1-6 “From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
Lord, Your Word pierces through to me on this because of my military and work background. This is a real sore spot, as You know, and I just ask for a softened heart and a mindset that my struggle with people is spiritual and not physical. Father, I really need help with this because I can’t manage it on my own. I surrender to your Spirit and trust in Your way and Your grace to strengthen me to live as You want.
James 4:7-10 “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.”
Lord, Your Word through Your servant James tells me that this is an effort on me. It is my responsibility and effort to draw near to you. You know that is what I do each day. Your Word says you will draw near to me by doing so. I’m counting on You to make certain and effective the sanctifying work of Your Holy Spirit. Even while my efforts are hit-and-miss, I trust in you for ever-increasing consistency in thought, word, and deed.
James 4:11-12 “Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?”
Lord, I don’t want even the appearance of slander to be named of me. Both directly or indirectly, it is my desire to be blameless before you and others in this way. Knowing intentional or unintentional verbal harm toward others is displeasing even in the slightest way, I want to be ever-sensitive out of a spirit of love and honor. Amen.
James 4:13-17 “Go to now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”
Lord, it at times is alarming that I run my own course as a matter of urgency and expectations for desired outcomes. In this regard, I am an overachiever, but I confess not enough toward your kingdom. Only because I do love You and You know my affections for You. Who You are and Your presence is more valuable than anything to me, and I don’t want to squander our relationship from my own misguided pursuits.
James 5:1-6 “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.”
Lord, You know my view that everything that You’ve given belongs to You. What You’ve given as mine is Yours because my heart is Yours. Everything that I have been entrusted to keep is a blessing as belongings and a source of safety, livelihood, and well-being. Let my tithes, offerings, and giving be an acceptable form of worship where You are glorified, and Your Church is well-formed.
James 5:7-11 “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door. Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.”
Lord, I delight in the cry of Your saints, Maranatha! The hope of Your return brings joy to my heart and a lasting source of refreshment to my soul. How abundant are Your mercies and promises and that we should be named Your servants and friends brings within me an overwhelming gratitude for what you’re going to do.
James 5:12 “But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath: but let your yea be yea; and your nay, nay; lest ye fall into condemnation.”
Lord, may I not even reserve in the minds of others profane thoughts by what I imply. Purity in thought and verbal expression is my desire so that I might be a more effective witness to you. Either among your people, while in fellowship, or with people who don’t know you, it is my desire to speak in love and in confidence in an assertive way. Without passivity or abrasive speech, but gentle yet at times firm when necessary. Amen.
James 5:13-18 “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any merry? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he has committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
Lord, it is my heart’s desire that the church would feel safe for people who attend. For everyone, either planted or those who attend, both seasoned and new where Your love and Spirit are apparent throughout members and attendees at various levels. We need Your grace, and may it never be that I am a source of undue friction. Let what I say and think in the presence of others be edifying and encouraging to those who are seeking You.
James 5:16-18 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit.”
Lord, I ask that You hear my prayers as I go about my day and as I appear before you on my knees. Let not my sinful ways inhibit your hearing of my worship, praise, gratitude, confessions, and petitions. Let my prayers be heard as they are given voice from Your Word and from others’ needs that come before You. Amen.
James 5:19-20 “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him; Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.”
Lord, it is my prayer that You would restore to You those who are close to me. Family, friends, and co-workers who have become distant from You need Your grace and mercy. As You are the source of life and well-being, may Your peace return to those who have sought You in the past. If there is any way in which I can be an instrument for that purpose, I am available and willing to serve in this way.
This post examines how Puritans of the 17th-century thought and wrote about the biblical topics of sin and repentance. As this topic is explored from historical writings of well-known Puritans of their time, various additional perspectives from numerous sources also come into view. While the views and writings of Puritans Thomas Watson and John Owen are central to this post, their convictions about sin and repentance are of tremendous significance. Their teachings, lectures, sermons, and literary work are voluminous as these two men devoted themselves to God, family, and ministry. They shared a deep and abiding concern for the human condition as people separated from God by their sin were cause for alarm.
Introduction
Historically, the Puritans of England were a people who were protestant in faith with a biblically-centered view of life, faith, and practice. They were of the Reformed heritage of belief and confession, which had a bearing on their lifestyle, worship, faith, and practice. As people who sought and lived simple lives, they were an interconnected community of believers who valued education as they lived with a strong work ethic. Watson and Owen, who were leaders as pastors and theologians of their time, often engaged in culture against social pressures and were outspoken on the urgent message of the gospel. They were among numerous Puritans, common, notable, and well-known, who loved God’s word, the fellowship of believers, the sharing of their faith, the communion of the saints, devotion to prayer, and worship in church and among family. They were moved by the Spirit and inner motivation to live as spiritually anointed people consecrated from England’s and greater Europe’s society. They lived out the gospel’s implications to holy living and a commitment to love God and one another. The Puritans have a well-known reputation for an orderly life faithful to God by the authority of Scripture and the inner presence of the Holy Spirit.
Background
The history of the Puritans from the Reformer’s roots extending back to the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) involved the Church of England (COE) and its leadership. As this history was contentious, the specific issues and objections of the Puritans centered upon Catholicism as a whole system of belief. As Catholicism propagated the term “protestants” as a pejorative to non-Catholic Christians, the Puritans, in turn, wrote and spoke of Catholics as “papists.” The separation between the Catholics of tradition, which confer authority of the magisterium alongside the Scripture, and Christians, who place the supremacy of Scripture as the center of holy living, faith, and obedience, was squarely centered upon where authority rests. While the RCC and COE believed that ultimate spiritual authority is shared between Scripture, tradition, and the catechism of the magisterium, Puritans of the 17th century strenuously objected common to the doctrines and biblical beliefs of the Reformers.
Thomas Watson was a highly educated preacher and writer, having attended and graduated from Emmanuel College, among other Puritans of the time. John Owen, a highly popular author and speaker was thoroughly educated and influential before, during, and after serving as vice-chancellor of Oxford University. Watson and Owen were at the public’s service as ministers but never really were accepted in their own country as such, according to J.C. Ryle (1816 – 1900), a widely known Anglican Bishop of England. The Puritans, educated, influential, and fearless of men, greatly feared God in their life and work, as evidenced by their writing, preaching, and pastoral duties. English Puritan ministers numbered in the hundreds with far more congregant believers, including Scottish and Dutch populations served by men as non-conformists of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, and the Roman Catholic Church.
The inner sense of Puritan devotion to God and His Word brought the ministers to a place of outspoken concern that urged people to know God, love Him, and serve Him from growing faith, devotion, and obedience. The Puritan interest in personal sanctification was intense, and their spiritual development involved lasting attention to holy living. The presence of sin in a believer’s life was intolerable. The presence of sin in an individual, the community, and the church was a frequent object of piercing attention, particularly among the leadership of Puritans, Watson, and Owen. Their views were spoken and written about at length concerning the specifics of sin and the urgent need for repentance. The immediate specifics about sin and repentance as a soteriological concern were pressing. Not purely as a general interest, as both Watson and Owen significantly contributed to Puritan theology and doctrine, but as a practical matter. To them, it just was not enough to write about the anthropological concerns about the sinful human condition. The prevailing concern was about what that meant to anyone who must repent for reconciliation to set a new course in pursuit of God and rebirth into a spiritual life of regeneration for the right standing of the growing converted.
17th Century Puritan Thought on Sin
To the Puritans, sin in the life of the regenerate and unregenerate alike was a major and lasting concern. The development of Puritan theology about the effects of sin arises from a biblical conviction that it is corruptive as it separates the soul from God, the Creator. The imputation of Adam’s guilt upon persons down through redemptive history is rooted in Puritan thought as it had explanatory power about its indwelling and inherently corrosive effects (Romans 5:12-21).1 Anthony Burgess (1600 – 1663), another Puritan of the 17th century, wrote in his Treatise of Original Sin about the necessity of Christ’s imputation of His righteousness in believers as developed within the Puritan doctrine of justification. His treatise examined the necessity of Christ’s imputation of His righteousness as Adam’s sin imputed his guilt upon humanity.2Within Puritan thought, sin was imputed and inherent in persons, whether redeemed or not. Yet it was by mercy made necessary to redress that guilt through the “washing of regeneration” (Titus 3:5 NASB) by a covenant of grace that God implemented through the work of Christ Jesus. Puritan thought on the depth and profound meaning of the gospel continues to have a bearing upon soteriological doctrines in the church today as Scripture reveals Christ’s work inclusive of atonement “for the sins of many” (Hebrews 9:28).
The “atonement” concerning sin is often understood as “at” and “one” as it is derived from the English use of both terms and their meaning. The term “atonement” is an etymological marker that describes reconciliation between God and sinners made effective through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross.3 This definition of atonement has an explicit meaning that is thoroughly historical and biblical. From the earliest books of the Torah and throughout the canon of Scripture, readers can find acts of atonement as a redemptive matter to recover people from their sins. Whether through sacrificial offerings (Exodus 29:37, Leviticus 5:6), to the imagery of John’s revelatory vision (Revelation 5:9), readers recognize the atoning work of God through His incarnate presence to reclaim humanity from the separation of imputed and inherent sin. His work is a means of deliverance to return people to Himself for his glory and the salvation of a regenerated people He decides to bring to Himself. It is necessary to become regenerated from a corrupted nature and clothed with another to enjoy Christ eternally.4
Thomas Watson
Thomas Watson (1620-1686) was an English, Puritan preacher and author. He was among the thousands of Puritan ministers ejected from their parishes by the Church of England (COE). From the Restoration of Charles II, the monarch of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the State used its power to remove Puritan ministers from the COE to enforce conformity to its doctrines and liturgical practices. The State sought to assert its place within the COE under the pretense of Christian unity among the Anglo kingdoms. As the COE separated from the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, it sought to impose its form of prescribed worship throughout the kingdoms according to State dictates. The Church of England and the government of England under Charles II betrayed faithful ministers of Christ by instituting the Clarendon Code. The Clarendon Code was a State-enforced public “cancellation” of individuals who did not conform to the COE but instead held to emergent and formative Reformed traditions centered upon the exclusive authority of biblical meaning toward faith and practice.
Free Church Persons (“non-conformist protestants”) were actively persecuted by penal laws that involved forfeiture, civil penalties, criminal sanctions, and cultural isolation that excluded ministers from public life and society. For example, university degrees and access to public services were some of the fallout of the political dismissal and removal of ministers faithful to the gospel and holy living according to the imperatives of Christ and supremacy and sufficiency of God’s Word. Various historical figures of notable reputations have assailed the actions of the COE, and over time “England succumbed to a culture of liberalism, overrun with cold, dead churches awash in apostasy and spiritual darkness.”5
Among the thousands of other Puritans scattered after the Great Ejection of August 24th, 1662, Thomas Watson continued to minister privately without ordination within the Anglican church. After Thomas Watson was removed by dismissal, according to the Church of England and the State’s use of force, the COE never recovered, just as J.C. Ryle speculated. Three years after the Great Ejection, the bubonic plague struck England and killed over 100,000 people. Shortly after, London was engulfed in a large fire that destroyed over 13,000 homes, nearly one hundred churches, and St Paul’s Cathedral. The Church of England has been fraught with controversy and apostasy for centuries and has fallen out of communion with other Anglican churches in various countries. The Church of England continues to self-assert its authority over Scripture as it grows into an ecclesial agency for public interests in service of the State. The Anglican church today is nothing close to what it once was with its historically influential members (C.S. Lewis, John Stott, J.C. Ryle, N.T. Wright, and others).
Thomas Watson continued ministry after being removed from his London parish after the Great Ejection but continued to preach privately. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was noted for remarkably intense study. In 1646 he commenced a 16-year pastorate at St. Stephen’s, Walbrook. While Watson held strong Presbyterian views during the civil war; however, in 1651, he was imprisoned briefly with some other ministers for his share in Christopher Love’s plot to recall Charles II of England. He was released on June 30th, 1652, and was formally reinstated as vicar of St. Stephen’s Walbrook. He obtained great fame and popularity as a preacher until the Great Ejection, when he was removed from the Church of England for nonconformity. Notwithstanding the rigor of the acts against dissenters, Watson continued to exercise his ministry privately as the opportunity presented itself. After preaching there for several years, his health declined, and he retired to Barnston, Essex, where he died suddenly while praying in private. He was buried on July 28th, 1686.
The Effects of Sin Upon Persons
Watson offers nine specific considerations concerning the effects of sin on persons. Beginning with the shame it causes, across the pages of his questions and discourse, his verbatim thoughts from the 1600s are outlined as follows:6
1. Every sin makes us guilty, and guilt usually breeds shame.
2. In every sin, there is much unthankfulness, and that is matter of shame.
3. Sin hath made us naked, and that may breed shame.
4. Our sins have put Christ to shame, and shall not we be ashamed?
5. Many sins which we commit, are by the special instigation of the Devil, and will not this cause shame?
6. Sin, like Cyrcies enchanting cup, turns men into beasts, and is not that matter of shame?
7. In every sin, there is folly (Jeremiah 4:22).
8. That which may make us blush, is, that the sins we commit are far worse than the sins of the Heathen (Indian): we act against more light
9. Our sins are worse than the sins of the Devils.
a. The angels never sinned against Christ’s blood
b. The devils never sinned against God’s patience
c. The devils never sinned against examples made for them by any fallen before
Watson further points out that sin is not an offense as a singular one-off as it often is, but a condition prevalent within as a whole. He clarifies that before a person can come to Christ, he must first come to himself, as persons are veiled by ignorance and self-love and cannot see the deformity of their souls. It darkens the intellect and reasoning. Moreover, justification of sin, indifference to it, and crafting a theology to suit one’s interests from socially loaded interpretations of Scripture forms iterative self-deluded thought about sin and its consequences.
To further understand the effects of sin within the Puritan mind, it is helpful to recognize it as a personified enemy (Genesis 4:7). To review the theological meaning or definition of sin without secular taint or influence requires a summary of historical doctrine rooted in Scripture. To thoroughly hate and loathe sin, it is necessary to attempt a meager view of what it is as a personified enemy. As sin in all its forms is an enemy to believers, it is enough to only see it as evil thoughts, feelings, words, actions, and omissions that violate the moral standard of God. Sin is the transgression of something forbidden, or it ignores something required by God’s law or character. Yet, Apostle Paul’s understanding of sin involves an analysis of anthropology and soteriology from his written letter to the church in Rome (Rom 7-8). While he writes of sin as an echo personified, actual human sinning always remains in full view of resistance against God. To this extent, its personification helps us recognize sin as the totality of human failure and depravity.7 Moreover, to quote Puritan Ralph Venning (1622-1674), “Sin is worse than Hell.… There is more evil in it, than good in all the Creation.”8 He elaborates further to explain that there is more evil in sin that hurts people than all of the good within Creation that does us good.
To Watson, the absence of shame among the impenitent places them farther from repentance. The unjust know no shame (Zephaniah 3:5), and many sin away the capacity to know or feel shame. Historically, the LORD branded His people, the Israelites, due to their shame. That they had no shame was their shame. They were branded that way (Jeremiah 6:15). Worse yet, Watson observes that those without shame grow to become proud of their sins and glory in them (Philippians 3:19). More plainly, those without shame can come to parade their offenses against God and become proud of them. To the believer, Watson urges the penitent to blush, as described by Ezra (Ezra 9:6). Believers who claim Yahweh as their God without shame stemming from personal sin live or think by the hypocrisy that affects their view of His grace.
To further recognize the severity of sin, Watson observed that the frequency of sin a person commits has a bearing upon the difficulty in which it is possible to repent. Watson compares the Angel with a flaming sword and a person’s conscience to contrast the severity of succumbing to temptation. Finally, to make his point scripturally grounded, he references Job 24:13, where there is the prospect of sinning against the light. As light is necessary for the growth of trees to produce fruit, it cannot, as sin darkens the soul against it. As Watson vividly illustrates, sin within an impenitent bears a fruitless, barren, and desolate heart and cannot intake the grace, mercy, and provision to recover. While Apostle Paul informs his readers, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20), Watson illustrates the blacksmith’s metal plunged into the fire, where it does not melt or become refined and has little hope. The tree cannot produce fruit as it is darkened and whithered by sin. It becomes cursed and does not bear fruit (Mark 11:15-21). Watson clearly distinguishes the condition of persons affected by sin as those who sin for want of the light compared to sinning against the light (Job 24:13). However, Watson does not offer a written rationale here about Christ Jesus’s urging for forgiveness up to seventy-seven times (ESV, NIV, NRSV, NRSVCE, NABRE) or seventy times seven (LSB, NASB, ERV, KJV, NKJV, HCSB, RSV, ASV, AV1873, RSV2CE, ESV-CE, CSB, NLT, LEB) in Matthew 18:21-22 to render forgiveness to the penitent.
Persons’ Proper View of Sin
From the Puritan perspective, it is necessary to understand that numerous evils explain what sin truly is. The scope and depth of offense concerning sin are immeasurable, but its effects help readers understand what it is by what it does. At least from a human perspective, sin has tangible effects as it has a bearing on people at various levels. However, as the view of sin is from a horizontal perspective, it is urgent to recognize it as a vertical matter between God and people, which is of grave importance. While sin estranges people from God (Isaiah 1:4, Jeremiah 2:5), it is a matter of walking contrary to God and His intentions. To Watson, with every step the soul goes further from God, the nearer it approaches misery and darkness.
Theologically, sin is described in Scripture as having wages. When Apostle Paul wrote to Romans that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), he chose the term “wage” to convey the idea of payment for sin. The semantic range of the Greek term for wages (opsōnia) is very limited, but it refers to the idea of payment or compensation for a rendered act of a worker or soldier.9 Where a person who sins renders payment for it, and its currency comes in the form of death. For both imputed guilt of sin through Adam and inherent sin in a person’s life, death is an inevitable consequence, and it serves as a payment for rendered wrong against God, oneself, and others. While the first sin we know about originates from Satan as attempting to elevate himself above God, the effects of sin on humanity extend back to Eden. As the spiritual death of Adam and Eve accompanied their decay and death, so does it to everyone without Christ.10
The theological topic of hamartiology is the study of sin. It is a biblical and systematic theology topic with numerous intertextual references rendered within Scripture throughout revelatory history. With numerous fields of thought among historical Puritan writings and theologians today, a contemporary and popular systematic theology defines sin as follows: “Sin is any failure to conform to the moral law of God in act, attitude, or nature. Sin is here defined in relation to God and his moral law. Sin includes not only individual acts, such as stealing, lying, and committing murder, but also attitudes that are contrary to the attitudes God requires of us.”11 Sin more explicitly understood as disobedience to the ten commandments (Exodus 20:1-17) extended more broadly from Christ Jesus’ sermon on the mount found within the gospel of Matthew, chapters 5 through 7 reveal to us that the intentions of the thoughts and heart also constitute sin. In the New Testament context and throughout Scripture, God incarnate reveals the spirit of the law and grace through all covenants. Particularly from the protoevangelion to the eschaton, Christ Jesus fulfills the law (Matthew 5:17-20) and renders His righteousness to sinners saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).
To the Puritan way of thinking about sin, it is a manner of being that must be “mortified.” The old English term “mortification” is a Puritan way of saying “put to death.” As old English translators interpreted Apostle Paul, “For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13 KJV). It is this reference that “putting to death” the deeds of the flesh are widened to mean “putting to death sin,” or as phrased by Puritan John Owen and John MacArthur Jr., “the mortification of sin”12 to convey the proper gravity of the total message.
John Owen
John Owen (1616 – 1683) also wrote about the “Mortification of Sin” to aid the reader’s views about sin and the severity of its effects and what it does. Before beginning with Owen’s views representing Puritan thought on sin, a brief introduction of him is in order. As John Owen was called the “prince of the English divines,” “a genius with learning second only to Calvin’s,” and “indisputably the leading proponent of high Calvinism in England in the late seventeenth century,”13 he demonstrated at an early age his trajectory to become an astute theologian, speaker, author, and pastor. Owen was an effective advocate for Reformed theology and Puritan piety. His life was remarkable as a shepherd, manager of university groups, statesman, chaplain, minister, and author of numerous works. His speaking drew numerous people to him as his messages were impressive and of considerable influence to people of political and religious power. He was also a chaplain to thousands of soldiers involved in harrowing conflicts who pleaded for Parliament’s mercy upon the Irish from English soldiers trained and ministered to around Puritan piety.
Owen’s family and career were difficult with trials and hardships compared to others during the Puritan era. Of 11 children born to him and his wife Mary Rooke, ten did not survive past their infancy. Their daughter, who did survive into adulthood, did not live a full life and died of tuberculosis (consumption) just after marriage. His career in ministry was fruitful but often was accompanied by uncertainty, instability, and disappointment. While interpersonal relationships from early in Owen’s career for years into midlife were characteristically productive and rewarding, he eventually became estranged from the fellowship of colleagues related to the Great Ejection imposed by the Church of England.
During his later years, he was without interpersonal influence, even while invited to serve in ministry elsewhere and support fellow ministers where he could. Instead, he wrote volumes that were published and remain in print today. His work ranges from more theological topics that further develop doctrines within the Church. He wrote a Biblical Theology, treatises, expositional commentaries, and practical guides to godly living. His many sermons were later transcribed and published for church development, instruction, and advancement.14 The following correspondence quoted verbatim gives the reader a sense of sentiment and scale.
TO MRS COOKE OF STOKE NEWINGTON
MADAM,—Four years ago the world was favoured, through your means, with a volume of Dr. Owen’s sermons which never before appeared in print; and it is at your instance that the following Sacramental Discourses of that same venerable divine are now made public. Hereby, madam, you at once express your high value and just esteem for the memory and works of that incomparable author, with your generous concern and prevailing desire of being serviceable to the cause of Christ;—a cause much more dear to you than all the worldly possessions with which the providence of God has blessed you.
With the greatest sincerity it may be said, your constant affection to the habitation of God’s house,—your steady adherence to the peculiar doctrines of Christianity,—your kind regards to the faithful ministers of the gospel,—your extensive benevolence to the indigent and the distressed,—your affability to all you converse with,—and, in a word, your readiness to every good work, are so spread abroad, that, as the apostle says to the Thessalonians, “There is no need to speak any thing.”
That the Lord would prolong your valuable life, daily refresh your soul with the dew of his grace, and enable you, when the hour of death approaches, to rejoice in the full prospect of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, is the prayer.
Madam,
Of your affectionate and obedient servant, RICHARD WINTER
TOOKE’S COURT, CURSITOR STREET March 4, 1760.
From among the numerous volumes and sermons that originated from Owen, this segment of the post captures some of his thoughts on the subject of sin just as it concerned Watson and various other Puritans. Aside from Owen’s work entitled Indwelling Sin, an exposition of Psalm 130, he wrote The Mortification of Sin, as earlier indicated in this post, to correct the “dangerous mistakes” of various ministers who had fallen into error.15 While Owen’s treatise on the mortification of sin is embedded deep within this volume of work, it is also separated out as informative subject matter for modern readers to process personal understanding and application.
Sin as a Mortal Enemy
John Owen wrote his treatise on killing sin many years before its publication in 1862. Still, the subject matter was carried forward differently and directly for a more thorough understanding within the Puritan church in England. Owen’s effort included a comprehensive message concerning what Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Rome and Colossae. Specifically, the 17th-century Puritan was highly concerned about the presence of sin in the lives of believers, and he wrote a widely read examination of what putting sin to death looks like. While the mortification of sin was John Owen’s pressing concern, he offered encouragement, exhortation, clarity, and guidance to understand what sin is and does. He had specific thoughts about what it is to eradicate its root by the Spirit and the involvement of the believer’s intentional will. In old English parlance familiar to Owen:
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” – Romans 8:13 KJV
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” – Colossians 3:5-6 KJV
Sin is so grave that it eternally damns people, according to Scripture. Owen, just as Paul did, wrote of “mortifying” it. As mortification is an old English translation rendering, it corresponds to “putting to death” among modern translations (ESV, NIV, NKJV, HCSB, and more). The term “mortify” is translated the same in both references in Romans 8:13 and Colossians 3:5, while their Greek root terms are different.
Furthermore, to Owen, mortification, or to mortify, is understood from multiple perspectives, all consistent in meaning. The act of self-denial or the “putting to death” of sinful instincts or cravings is to render a person free from sin to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. The NT stresses that this act of humiliation comes about through the grace of God. It is the result of, not the condition for, conversion. The key passages Paul wrote correspond to numerous principles Owen stressed as they support the Reformed tradition together.
To further elaborate, mortification is “the process of ‘putting to death’ one’s sinful nature as the old self continually struggles because of the reality of indwelling sin. This process takes place in the lives of believers who, while they have been set free from sin’s dominion by the indwelling Holy Spirit who unites them to Christ, are called to live in light of God’s grace.”16 As persons actively work out their salvation, “if it is truly part of sanctification, it must be accomplished through the Spirit of Christ in dynamic interplay with a believer’s response of repentance; mere human effort does not result in increased freedom from sin, even if it changes outward behavior.”
To Owen’s discourse in his volume on mortification, while a person could successfully overcome sinful behaviors, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the instincts and cravings were put to death. Compared to Reformed theology, Catholicism also emphasizes Galatians 5:24, where it is necessary to “crucify the flesh.”17 As some English translations render “consider as dead” (NASB, LSB) in a passive sense, many other translations (including various Catholic translations) are active with the “put to death” language. For example, the “Little Rock Catholic Study Bible,” “New American Bible: Revised Edition” (NABRE), “The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition” (RSVCE), “Douay-Rheims Bible” as mortify (D-R), and the “Ignatius Bible: Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition” (RSV2CE) all express the same meaning. When delving further into the definition of the terms nekroō (νεκρόω) in Colossians 3:5 and thanatoō (θανατόω) in Romans 8:13, they both correlate to the “put to death” sense of meaning. The Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament ties both terms together as figurative in suggestive meaning where intended readers understood the original root manuscripts as conventional figures of speech to communicate the same idea.18
Owen is clear in his volume that mortification is not a passive posture of sin in the flesh as mere recognition or consideration from a believer. He stresses that it is an active conscious effort of someone as a converted person who became a believer by faith and repentance. However, he also recognizes that the process of mortification is lifelong, and it depends solely upon the Spirit of Christ to definitively accomplish the continued crucifixion of sin in the life of a believer. The believer is participative by necessity but is not the practical and final means of mortification. The Spirit of Christ is who does the work. As sin was put to death in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ Jesus, the law of death is applied to sin itself in the lives of believers. Where there Spirit lives within believers, there is the law of life by the Spirit as long as there is no yield to sin. That sin is persistently, iteratively, and ruthlessly killed actively about particular offenses. Mortification is “the slaying of the disease of the soul, and by slaying this disease, it restores and invigorates the soul’s true life.”19 Still, mortifying the flesh is an intentional effort of faith, necessary to sanctify believers who work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13).
Sin in the Life of a Believer
As it is impossible to earn salvation through works or efforts that yield positive outcomes and the removal of sins, if efforts of mortification are not by faith, they are of no spiritual value. Owen asserts that such progress involves the replacement of sins with others in the absence of necessary faith through the heart of a believer concerning the treacherous and destructive nature of sin. Under the authority of God’s Word as written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, those who live by the flesh will die. In contrast, those who live by the Spirit shall live. To be more explicit, regarding the term “flesh” (Rom 8:13 KJV), John Chrysostom (347 – 407 A.D., Archbishop of Constantinople) refers to it as follows: “what Paul means by the flesh in this passage is not the essence of the body but a life which is carnal and worldly, serving self-indulgence and extravagance to the full.”20
Owen’s readers might also remember Jesus’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). And specifically, verse 25: “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish (see Luke 6:24; Job 21:13; Ps. 17:14). The comparative man who fared “sumptuously” (Luke 16:19) was condemned. Where the rich man in the parable was delighted, glad, and enjoying himself in celebration and rejoicing by dining and merriment, there was apparent opulence that highlighted the disparity between him and Lazarus.
A surface reading of Owen’s treatise on sin to get a topical understanding of what he wrote doesn’t offer the best outcome for retention and application. More fully grasping what Owen wrote here concerning the killing of sin is challenging because it is a large and weighty subject. So this is a volume to iterate upon as John Owen is so widely read and studied for evident reasons. Nevertheless, his pressing concern about the lifelong urgency of killing sin within is not just a daily call to repentance but a persistent and ruthless inward campaign to find and destroy anything remotely innate or inherent that raises itself against God and the Spirit of Christ.
17th Century Puritan Thought on Repentance
Of particular interest during the Puritan era was the persecution of the Church of England while they were called to repentance by numerous people of the Reformed tradition. Numerous Puritan figures, such as Thomas Watson and John Owen, spoke and wrote of the urgency of persons to repentance. That effort extended to academic institutions, churches, parishes, and individuals in a desperate spiritual condition, estranged from God and proper worship for ongoing discipleship and sanctification befitting the Kingdom. The Puritan chorus of repentance was loud and clear, whether on a corporate scale or to individuals.
Thomas Watson
To include Watson’s work on repentance, he wrote correspondence to readers about its importance. He wrote that biblical repentance should not be spoken of as difficult and offered various influential people’s perspectives about what it does and why it is so necessary. He wrote that excellent things deserve labor, and it is better to enter Heaven with difficulty than to Hell easily. He inferred that repentance is difficult by comparison, but not to draw upon the reader’s attention or the impenitent to dissuade its necessity somehow. Watson used figurative illustrations often and one of digging for gold through ore to indicate that the effort of repentance is not worth discussion or concern by comparison because gold is the object of labor. The work of digging or smelting is not meant to dwell upon, contemplate, or resist. Repentance involves difficulty, but it is incredibly inappropriate and off-minded to think of it as such compared to what it yields. In so many words, Watson highlights that the absence of repentance in a person means a life of misery, scorn, and alienation from God.
Watson further stresses that accepting repentance as urgent and perpetual is of utmost necessity. Making peace with God on this side of the grave is putting sins to their death as a figurative act of drowning them in a deluge of water rather than having the soul burn in a symbolic unquenchable fire. Watson calls readers to consider what the Saints of old have done to imbitter themselves against sin, sacrifice their lusts, and put on sackcloth of the heart in the hope of the white robes of purity. Example after example, Watson’s reader is presented with historical figures who repented by bemoaning and humbling themselves to prevent and correct unacceptable thoughts and behaviors hideous before God.
Watson’s treatise on repentance is supported by a helpful understanding as it is biblically and confessionally defined. As Scripture carries the greatest and final weight of authority in terms of intended meaning rendered by the Holy Spirit through the biblical writers, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) larger catechism offers the following (WLC Q76):
What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace, (2 Tim. 2:25) wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit (Zech. 12:10) and word of God, (Acts 11:18,20–21) whereby, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, (Ezek. 18:28,30,32, Luke 15:17–18, Hos. 2:6–7) but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, (Ezek. 36:31, Isa. 30:22) and upon the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, (Joel 2:12–13) he so grieves for (Jer. 31:18–19) and hates his sins, (2 Cor. 7:11) as that he turns from them all to God, (Acts 26:18, Ezek. 14:6, 1 Kings 8:47–48) purposing and endeavouring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience. (Ps. 119:6,59,128, Luke 1:6, 2 Kings 23:25)21
The WCF is a confessional document that helps define individuals’ beliefs aligned with the biblical meaning of topics rooted in the Scriptures’ authoritative supremacy. Biblically, repentance is a critical element of conversion. To define and understand “conversion,” it must include faith and repentance, as commonly understood by the Greek term metanoia (μετανοέω).22
As the gospel reader first sees the term in the opening proclamation of Jesus’ ministry (Matt 4:17), it is defined through various cultural and Old Testament correlated references. Moreover, the term conveys the idea that it is about changing one’s mind with a feeling of remorse (Matt 3:2, 4:17, 11:21, Mark 1:15, 6:12, Luke 10:13, Acts 17:30, 26:20). While it is essential to recognize that repentance involves a change of mind, it also includes a changing of the will. It is the turning away from something as the conscious effort of a whole person away from personal self-destructive thoughts and behaviors offensive to God and people.
Unacceptable thoughts, words, and actions, biblically referred to as “sin,” are rejected as a whole toward a life commitment of faith to God through Christ. This is conversion. As one internally moves from one state of rejection (or indifference) involving a life of sin and selfishness to a faith commitment and devotion, Christ becomes Lord and King to a believer who chooses to surrender through grace. Conversion is by faith and a rejection of sin in part and as a whole, both retroactively and in the future, as defined through the pages of Scripture according to the intent of the biblical authors and not by reader-response interpretation.
Watson sets up a proposition within his treatise on repentance. He further makes biblically certain in his text, The Doctrine of Repentance, “Christ has purchased by His blood repenting sinners who shall be saved.” He reinforces that those who are made alive in Christ by a seed of faith have the spiritual capacity to repent, and as they do, they put to death sin as a prevailing matter of eternal consequence. Those who sin in the absence of the gospel of grace for repentance shall spiritually die without recourse (Galatians 3:10). Among the first and last words Jesus spoke from the pages of Scripture was “repent” (Matt 3:2, Luke 24:47). In fact, this was the urgency of the Apostles as they were sent out and preached, “people should repent” (Mark 6:12 ESV). They proclaimed that all should undergo a change of heart and mind. To abandon their former disposition with a new self, course of behavior, and regret over former life choices and dispositions. The abundance of their message concerning repentance was recorded in numerous locations throughout the New Testament (μετανοέω metanoeō repent (36x); Matt 3:2; 4:17; 11:20–21; 12:41; Mark 1:15; 6:12; Luke 10:13; 11:32; 13:3, 5; 15:7, 10; 16:30; 17:3–4; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 17:30; 26:20; 2 Cor 12:21, Rev 2:5, 16, 21–22; 3:3, 19; 9:20–21; 16:9, 11).
Watson did not wish to argue whether or not faith or repentance comes first, while he was inclined to think that faith does precede repentance. He only sets the proposition that all people should repent, as conveyed by Christ Jesus and the urgency of the Apostles. The blood of Christ and the gospel of grace makes salvation to eternal life possible as people would repent. As persons repent and live by faith, they are saved by God’s doing, not their own. From grace and faith, people are saved through no other means (Ephesians 2:8-9). However, it is clear that without repentance, people will spiritually perish. Watson makes this point clear, as does Scripture. Watson wrote, “sin and die,” where the covenant of works (Mosaic law) offered no admittance through repentance. The law required personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience, where all eventually came under a curse. Under the new covenant of grace, Christians are solemnly urged to repent and be converted so that their sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19).
Confession and Authentic Repentance
From Watson’s perspective, it is necessary to understand counterfeit repentance compared to authentic repentance, and to this end, he zeroes in on what false repentance is. He provides three critical specifics and examples that inform readers about what is necessary to recognize and understand what repentance is not. As a warning about what not to conclude concerning changes in behavior, attitudes, and motives, the absence of repentance remains in a person from three sources of false thinking about the matter. An unrepentant heart within a person represents no inward heart change about sin. As a person may delude himself with counterfeit repentance, these are the three warnings Watson wrote about:
Counterfeit Repentance: “Legal Terror”
Pain and trouble are not sufficient for repentance. Repentance requires a change of heart. If there is no change of heart, there is no repentance. An internal awareness of guilt that a person cognitively recognizes does not in itself mean that a change of heart has occurred. Watson contrasts self-aware guilt to an “infusion of grace” that infers the authenticity of repentance from Divine initiative and human reception. The differences between Reformed and Catholic doctrines of justification involve a change in the status of believers about how they are justified. While Reformed doctrine on justification holds to the principle of imputation of Christ’s righteousness to people of faith, Catholic doctrine decreed that justification involves an infused grace that changes a person’s internal nature and inclinations for sanctification and the remission of sins all at once (Council of Trent Decree concerning Justification, session 6, chapter 7).23 Whereas to Protestants, Christ’s righteousness is imputed into a believer once as a final justification (simul justus et peccator), to Catholics, infused righteousness is changed righteousness within the life of a believer as a result of faith and baptism.24 Here, Watson’s use of the phrase “infused grace” indicates a constituent gift of God that includes the ability of a believer to repent according to Divine intent and action (Ezek 36:27). More specifically, Watson wrote that infused grace breeds repentance.25
Counterfeit Repentance: “Resolution Against Sin”
To reject sin as a matter of self-determination and effort isn’t repentance. It is self-will that doesn’t accompany heart change from behaviors, thoughts, actions, or omissions offensive to God and contrary to what He expects. Counterfeit repentance in this form is a commitment to stop sinning, but for the wrong reasons. Resolutions against sin under these circumstances don’t hold, and some sins are replaced by others where the state of a person is the same or worse than before.
Resolutions against sin aren’t because sin is sinful but because it is painful. There remains no change of heart, conviction, remorse, or awareness of offended God, whom a person sins against.
Motivation to stop sinning from a position of alarm over judgment, evil, death, and Hell doesn’t win over a person’s love of sin. Love of sin will prevail over the dread of its consequences.
The sin of one type or another continues to surface because the old heart has not changed. New temptations continually overcome the old heart.
Counterfeit Repentance: “Leaving Sinful Ways”
A person who leaves numerous sins behind with a more righteous lifestyle doesn’t mean a person is repentant. Without a heart change, the person still in sin remains unrepentant. Watson wrote of leaving sin “from the strength of grace” compared to leaving on moral grounds. Selectively, some sins are retained while others are dropped and exchanged for others. The inclinations of the heart and its affections have not changed when a person remains captive to the appeal and love of sin. As Watson wrote that infused grace causes a cessation of sinful acts, grace is a gift and enablement of consistent holy living.
As it is necessary to understand what repentance is not, it is also essential to recognize what it is from Watson’s treatise. In comparison, Watson wrote more extensively on authentic repentance and the necessity of it than in all other chapters. He organized his thoughts into several categories where they must all be present for repentance to retain its virtue. He composed these categories as ingredients with Scripture references accompanying Watson’s points. Assertions and rationale about sin and the necessity of repentance resonate from his time to us who encounter his exhortations, rebukes, and encouragements. Beginning with these ingredients of repentance, we must fully grasp its meaning while checking our heart’s condition and motivations. All taken together, sin is the issue, and it bears acceptance that it is also a mortal enemy.
Watson wrote of the ingredients of authentic repentance as a mix of elements in contrast to counterfeit repentance. They are sequential or linear understandings to include the proper and correct view of sin, sorrow for it, the consequential experience of shame, personal hatred of sin, and finally, to turn from sin as a new life direction. Watson’s writings were formed from written lectures on the topic of repentance, including these categorical elements, and his materials were often presented pastorally. However, between all these points, Watson wrote at length about his views and verbal illustrations with Scriptural references to support his continued pressing argument. The inference was that readers were expected to retain the thread of rationale to hold together all ingredients without reinforcement and continued underlying support.
It is necessary to confess known sins before Lord when a believer becomes aware of them. This, too, is necessary for repentance. In confession, Watson makes the point that confession is self-accusation before God, where the adversary has no strength of argument against believers as they have already taxed themselves of pride, passion, and infidelity. Confession is a way to prove that we have judged and sentenced ourselves (1 Corinthians 11:31). Accusation of ourselves is, as Watson puts it, —me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum26— (Me, I am here that I have done, turn the iron upon me). As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we will not be judged if we judge ourselves. By Cyprian, judicio, quod poenitentiae humanae severitas protulit, aliquid justitia coelestis apponit (to the judgment which the severity of human penitence brought forth, adds something of heavenly justice). Yet as we read various confessions within the biblical record, Watson makes a series of observations about what true confession is:
Confession is voluntary as it acknowledges sin against God and Heaven.
Confession is with deep resentment, burden, and compunction against sin.
Confession must be sincere.
Confession is without particularity.
Confession is from an acknowledgment that the penitent is polluted by sin.
Confession of sin is with all its circumstances and aggravations
Confession is a charge upon ourselves so as to clear God that He has done no wrong.
Confession is with a resolution never to act on them again.
To further understand the purpose of confession, Watson elaborates upon two areas of thought that demonstrate why rightful confession is necessary for repentance. In contrast, on the one hand, there is appeal and protest in prayer with partial confession, yet on the other, sincerity. So, as confession is a necessary ingredient in repentance, Watson wrote that four types of people do not fully accept the range and depth of it. And while Watson makes a compelling point about each, it does appear that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive from one another. Watson further frames his treatise around the idea of indictments. There are four of them against persons as if they were in a court of law to prosecute the abstention of full confessions that inhibit or block effective personal repentance.
Hidden Sins – While it is possible to conceal sins from people, keeping them hidden from God is impossible.
Partial Confessions – There is no expectation to confess a catalog of unknown sins but those we know about. All of them best we can where all sins shall be confessed, and nothing held back.
Minced Words – Equivocations, Extenuating Circumstances, and Excuses (Genesis 3:12, 1 Samuel 15:24).
Arguments – Self-justification and special pleading efforts at vindication (John 4:9).
In contrast to “repentance” of self-determination, penitents are sincere in confessing the specifics of their sin to demonstrate the heart and mind of repentance fully. The uses of confession in these ways are magnificent as they are by design and redemptive intent. They are pleasing to God and cause angels to rejoice. To outline Watson’s views of favorable repentance, they are as follows:
Confession gives glory to God.
Confession is a means to humble the soul.
Confession gives vent to a troubled heart.
Confession purges out sin.
Confession of sin endears Christ to the soul.
Confession of sin makes way for pardon.
Confession is reasonable and easy.
It is rational to reconcile with your Creator, who enables you to live peaceably with people who are hostile to you and who themselves consider you their enemy. While evil people of darkness live in enmity with people of faith, grace, and repentance, it is unreasonable for forgiven believers to reciprocate by hatred. As God forgives believers who confess their sins, He expects us to forgive others. Christ requires that we forgive others (Matt 6:14-15) and love those who live in enmity with people (Matt 5:43-45) who live by the authority of His Word.
The first covenant (Mosaic law) compared to the second covenant (covenant of grace) is night and day different. The first covenant required death and sacrifice. While in the second, Christ is the atoning mediator who redeems believers and makes possible the covenant of grace for the redemption of humanity (i.e., those who would call upon him and convert by faith and repentance). By humble confession, Christ is our surety. Watson wrote, only acknowledge your iniquity, indict yourself, and you will be sure of mercy.
To whom we confess sin is of concern, as Watson wrote about the papists and hearers of confessions from believers who turn to people rather than God, who promises them forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). While we are instructed to “confess sins one to another” (James 5:16), Catholic priests do not confess to the people as the people confess to the priests. Like the common man, Priests certainly confess their sins to one another, but confession is not reciprocal as a body of believers from one class structure to another. Priests do not confess specific sins to believers of a congregation or mass, as do believers who appear before priests at confession for absolution. The Catholic church and priests aligned with the State are ready to hear confessions of sins against God and others but also sins against social order and the contradictory interests of the State, which insists upon its citizens’ loyalty above God (Eph 6:12). Confession in this way is a form of State surveillance.
Watson made the point that confession to priests is a profitable endeavor. Opening the mouth of a parishioner through guilt and the admission of guilt renders a return on effort in the form of restitution for absolution. For a price, donation as penance is Watson’s point about the folly of confession to some Catholic priests disinterested in restoring one believer to God, people, and the church. Watson does not support confessions to priests as given by papist doctrine.
The Necessity and Conditions of Repentance
The call to repentance is not a request toward people inclined to hear a passing suggestion. Both Watson and Owen spoke of repentance as imperative, necessary, urgent, and salvific. Moreover, Watson offers specifics about why repentance is a necessity.
God, with ultimate authority, instructs and directs all people to repent (Acts 17:30). This is a command. Yet, it is reminiscent of the famous quote from Augustine, “Thou commandest continency (self-control); give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.”27 The work of repentance is a sovereign work of God through the free will of people. Paradoxically, to the command to repent, it is a gift granted (2 Tim 2:25).
God will not accept anyone unless there is repentance (Ex 23:7, Isa 1:16, 2 Cor 6:14).
People who continue in impenitence are not within Christ’s commission (see his commission, Isa. 61:1). He has been sent to the brokenhearted. As Watson puts it, “if ever Christ brings men to Heaven, it shall be through Hell’s gates” (Acts 5:31). It is Watson’s view that Christ will not save someone regardless of a person’s repentant heart.28
We have, by sin, wronged God. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for the sin committed. We set to our seal that God is righteous if He should destroy us: thus, we give glory to God and do what is in us to restore his honor.
Watson further continues, “if God should save men without repentance, making no discrimination, then by this rule he must save all; not only men, but Devils, as Origen once held; and so consequently the decrees of Election and Reprobation must fall to the ground; which how diametrically opposite it is to sacred writ, let all judge.
At this point, it is necessary to make side observations about the role of Scripture in terms of its necessity toward repentance. It was Origen’s understanding that the Scriptural text is “sacramental,” according to Torjesen in her work, Hermeneutical procedure and theologicalstructure in Origen’s exegesis (Patristische Texte und Studien). 29 She references de Lubac in her work about the literal and spiritual nature of interpretation. Henri de Lubac was a progressive Catholic priest early in life. Still, he later became accepted and admired after the second Vatican council and a lengthy period of alienation and censorship from the Catholic church.
While it is of interest to understand what de Lubac’s views were of Origen and the necessity of mysticism, there is significant thought and interest about the spiritually transformative nature of Scripture. The work and presence of the Holy Spirit are written as mystical to converted readers the text, and Gohl makes the following written assertion:
“For Origen, when Christians come into contact with the text, they are coming into contact with the Logos (Christ Jesus) Himself. Through this contact, the Logos instructs and transforms the Christian soul into His own likeness (2 Corinthians 3:18).”30 As this reference corresponds to Colossians 3:16 (“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”), Origen’s views are better supported by James 1:21, which informs readers, “humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.”
John Owen
The introduction of John Owen given earlier in this post offers some limited insight into his thoughts concerning sin. Yet further throughout his volumes are topics of justification and sanctification that involve the doctrines of repentance. Regeneration, saving faith, and conversion translate to the work of the Spirit, as repentance is given as a gift to believers who place their faith in Christ Jesus and draw near to Him in surrender. Owen makes clear the work of the Spirit within the believer to render the work of repentance and sanctification.
The Laboring of Repentance
Owen’s views about labor for repentance largely appear within his writings concerning apostasy. More specifically, concerning a departure from the holiness of the gospel, as warned about at length, to render an understanding of its consequences. To Owen, repentance was about abandoning sin for the right reasons and adopting holy living by forsaking known habitual sins. To overcome sin by continually striving against it until gone was to repent of it in Owen’s mind. The virtues of faith, love and various others intermingled with repentance as it is integral to remaining in a state of open-hearted confession and transparency before God as indwelling sin is perpetually put to death. While the Spirit is at work in the believer to mortify sin, the believer is mentally, physically, and spiritually exerting effort against the personal sin nature. Not merely by its actions or outcomes but to the source or root of it to cut off affections and inclinations from a changed heart that yields to the interests of God. The spirit is made alive with thoughts and intentions acted upon to recognize sin, and patterns of sin, that get attention to thwart it and cut it off. To Owen, this is an outworking of personal exertion and an inworking of the Spirit to judge and burn away what remains persistent (Isaiah 4:4). The cause and effect of mortification of sin and repentance are by the Spirit of God upon the spirit of a person. The Spirit, as the cause, presents affected outcomes to persons yielded to God through faith by grace.
Owen raises the question about how we are exhorted to repentance if it is to be the work of the Spirit alone. The question of obedience compared to the work of the Spirit appears as a paradox. On the one hand, He “works in us to will and to do of his own good pleasure” (Phil 2:13), while on the other hand, the Spirit works “all our works in us” (Isa. 26:12).
The Place of Granted Repentance
Owen is thoroughly clear and understood concerning his views about the work of Christ as a gift to believers who live by faith. He further reinforces this rationale from the John 15:5 passage: “Without Christ we can do nothing.” From the gift of repentance given to persons, the actual work of the Spirit is within and upon believers. Where the Spirit acts upon and within a person is the work of the Spirit alone. Incredibly, while Watson and Owen highlight the call to repentance, just as Christ Jesus did (Matthew 4:17), it is clear from Luke, “This One God exalted to His right hand as a Leader and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins” (Acts 5:31 LSB). This giving of repentance extends from Christ as the Father has exalted Him. The Spirit that proceeds from the Father and Christ is the source of power to produce repentance and the killing of indwelling sin to assure personal sanctification.
The work of the Spirit as the helper is the gift of God from Christ the Son as God the Father has exalted Him to elevated stature and glory. In keeping with the rationale of repentance given as a gift, it is granted as an action that leads to knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 2:25). When this question is asked of Owen concerning sanctification, “What is repentance?” He answers, “Godly sorrow for every known sin committed against God, with a firm purpose of heart to cleave unto him for the future, in the killing of sin, the quickening of all graces, to walk before him in newness of life.” He again follows up with a new question: “Can we do this ourselves?” With a definitive answer, “No; it is a special gift and grace of God, which he bestoweth on whom he pleaseth.” As it is written, it is God’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32), so it is with the gift of repentance to His pleasure, interests, and glory.
Conclusion
This research project was an exhilarating, sobering, and joyful experience. The Puritans of the 17th century offer a deep and rich perspective on godly living from the Reformed tradition we can all aspire to reach. There is much to learn from Puritan theology and their way of life. John Owen and Thomas Watson were gifted among numerous ministers of the Puritan era. They lived through an appointed time in history that God used to bring the message of sin and repentance to their generation and numerous others that extend across generations. The message to the people and the church of England concerning sin and repentance is just as relevant today as it was back during their time. Owen and Watson’s views are centered squarely on Scripture and not on tradition or a certain class of theology to which they are obligated to abide. The refreshing perspectives of careful and biblical thought from the Puritans of the 17th century offer a model of ministry, exposition, and work ethic that resonates strongly within the church today.
Citations
________________________________ 1 Joel R. Beeke and Mark Jones, A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012), 205 2 Anthony Burgess, A Treatise of Original Sin … Proving That It Is, by Pregnant Texts of Scripture Vindicated from False Glosses / by Anthony Burgess, Early English Books Online (London: s.n, 1658), 46. 3 Donald K. McKim, The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014), 22. 4 Stephen Charnock, The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, vol. 3 (Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co.; W. Robertson; G. Herbert, 1864–1866), 15. 5 John MacArthur, “The Danger of Calling the Church to Repent,” April 11th, 2022, https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B181008/the-danger-of-calling-the-church-to-repent. Accessed 12/02/2022. 6 Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, Useful for These Times by Tho. Watson, Early English Books Online (London: R.W. for Thomas Parkhurst .., 1668), 42. 7 M. de Jonge, “Sin,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 782. 8 Ralph Venning, “Sin, the Plague of Plagues, or, Sinful sin, the Worst of Evil,” 1669, https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A64834.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext. Cambridge University Library. Accessed 02/19/2023. 9 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 747. 10 John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 475. 11 Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 619. 12 John F. MacArthur Jr., “Mortification of Sin,” Master’s Seminary Journal 5, no. 1 (1994): 4. 13 Joel R. Beeke and Randall J. Pederson, Meet the Puritans: With a Guide to Modern Reprints (Grand Rapids, MI: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006), 455. 14 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 9 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 519. 15 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 2. 16 Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 76. 17 Charles G. Herbermann, Edward A. Pace, et al., eds., “Mortification,” The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church (New York: The Encyclopedia Press; The Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1907–1913). 18 Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 660. 19 Ibid. Herbermann. 20 John Chrysostom, “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans,” in Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. B. Morris, W. H. Simcox, and George B. Stevens, vol. 11, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889), 434–435. 21The Westminster Larger Catechism: With Scripture Proofs. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996). 22 Ibid. William Arndt et al. 640. 23 Theodore Alois Buckley, The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (London: George Routledge and Co., 1851), 33-34. 24 Michael Glazier and Monika K. Hellwig, The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 453 25 Ibid. Watson, 9. 26 P. Vergilius (Virgil) Maro, “Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics Of Vergil,” ed. J. B. Greenough (Medford, MA: Ginn & Co., 1900). 27 Augustine of Hippo, “The Confessions of St. Augustin,” in The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustin with a Sketch of His Life and Work, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. G. Pilkington, vol. 1, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 155. 28 Ibid. Watson, 76. 29 Justin M. Gohl, “Origen,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016). 30 Ibid. 31 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 20. 32 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 1 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d.), 487–488.
Bibliography
Alois Buckley, Theodore. The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. London: George Routledge, 1851.
Arndt, William et al. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.
Beale, G.K., and D.A. Carson. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007.
Beeke, Joel R, and Mark Jones. A Puritan Theology: Doctrine for Life. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2012.
Burgess, Anthony. A Treatise of Original Sin … Proving That It Is, by Pregnant Texts of Scripture Vindicated from False Glosses. London: Early English Books Online, 1658.
Charnock, Stephen. The Complete Works of Stephen Charnock, Vol. 3. Edinburgh; London; Dublin: James Nichol; James Nisbet and Co., 1864–1866.
Chrysostom, John. “Homilies of St John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans.” In A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, by Philip Schaff, J.B. Morris, W.H. Simcox, & George B Stevens, 434-435. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889.
de Jonge, M. “Sin.” In Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible, by Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, & Peter W van der Horst, 782. Leiden, Boston, Koln, Grand Rapids, Cambridge: Brill, 1999. Glazier, Michael, and Monika K Hellwig. The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2004.
Herbermann, Charles G, and Edward A Pace. “Mortification.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church. New York: The Encyclopedia Press, 1907-1913.
Hippo, Augustine of. “The Confessions of St. Augustin.” In The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustin with a Sketch of His Life and Work, Vol. 1, by Philip Schaff, & J.G. Pilkington, 155. Buffalo: Christian Literature Company, 1886.
Kapic, Kelly M., and Wesley Vander Lugt. Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2013.
Logos Research Systems, Inc. The Westminister Larger Catechism: With Scripture Proofs. Oak Harbor, 1996.
Louw, Johannes P, and Albert Eugene Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains. New York: United Bible Societies, 1996.
MacArthur, John F. Jr. “Mortification of Sin.” The Master’s Seminary Journal 5, No.1, Spring 1994: 2-22.
Maro, P. Vergilius. Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics of Vergil. Medford: Ginn & Co. 1900, 1900.
McKim, Donald K. The Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2014.
Owen, John. The Works of John Owen, Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, N.D.
—. The Works of John Owen, Vol. 6. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, N.D.
—. The Works of John Owen, Vol. 9. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, N.D.
R, Beeke Joel, and Randall J Pederson. Meet the Puritans: With a Guide to Modern Reprints. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2006.
EEBO – Early English Books Online. 1669. https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A64834.0001.001/1:5?rgn=div1;view=fulltext (accessed 02 19, 2023).
There are several parts to this book, and within them, numerous chapters span across topics that the authors wrote to help researchers write papers for academic interest and to produce written work of literary significance. In addition to carefully reading through the material of each chapter, it is necessary to zoom out and view the material and the intended purpose of the entire body of work to understand the authors’ point. The methods and techniques given are broadly relevant to academics and researchers who wish to organize, substantiate, and bring together material in a formatted way according to conventional standards and expectations.
While the read subject matter is understood and of pertinent interest, the following book review is given here to demonstrate the reading was completed as an acknowledgment of the material written to guide students in projects or their coursework.
Through my reading of the book, I’ve highlighted numerous areas with notes about what the authors meant about research to begin. The definition of research is explored with a discussion about its types, what it is to conduct research, and how to understand it as a process. The method of research isn’t mechanistic but organic, as it’s a process that isn’t linear but iterative. At least in terms of how sources are collected, read, and understood. And how data is organized to support assertions and conclusions.
Research makes its way into various kinds of writing. The numerous types are given at length, from short essays to Ph.D./Th.D. dissertations, with many more in between. It is helpful to recognize what authors clearly define or share as academic writing types, but it would be of further interest to see examples of those types and their length ranges. For example, the authors wrote that a book review is a short paper (1-4 pages), but I have written various book reviews that go well beyond that as I trace historical backgrounds, citations, and source materials.
The authors try to inform readers that research is not biased, emotional, or charged with loaded terms for dramatic effect. Research for theology students is not a sermon. Research is not embellished and makes use of neutral terms. Assuming the authors mean that terms chosen to convey meaning are gender-neutral, what material is written, and how it is presented. Generally, intentional or not, I believe there is no such thing as a complete absence of bias. While research should be derived from data, not information, sometimes that isn’t possible.
As the authors further wrote about the value of research, they listed the apparent favorable outcomes of problem-solving capacity, character development, and writing skill improvement, there are other research merits as well.
The seven steps to performing biblical exegesis are reminiscent of the hermeneutics coursework completed earlier in the program. With a lot of attention toward the resource types, readers are informed about concordances, dictionaries, atlases, software, commentaries, apparatuses, and the like. What’s especially useful is step (6) about how to establish the original theological meaning of the text under study. As this is a critical step to understand and follow, it is not appropriate to apply an interpretation developed and understood, but make certain the original meaning is understood and accepted even if contradictory to denominational interests, tradition, or popular reading.
It is especially beneficial to follow the outline structure given in this section. Categorical separation of key facts surrounding the interpretive work of a paper support conclusions and applications with ease of acceptance or push-back. This is the best outline I’ve seen of an exegetical presentation, as it covers relevant areas of interest. In fact, to serve as a template, it is repeatable for indexing, tagging, and retrieval.
This chapter’s primary points of interest concern the use of primary and secondary sources, theological analysis, and historiography during the course of research. Distinctions between primary and secondary sources are essential to understand as they pertain to the historical origination of the material. Primary sources closest to the origin serve as the highest documentary evidence as rationale or justification for material gathered and processed for research. Primary source materials come in many forms.
While secondary sources are generally one step removed from the source, they can reference primary sources that may no longer exist. These are source materials that include discussions and commentaries about primary material. There are numerous examples of secondary sources from many resource types (e.g., articles, monographs, reference works, testimonies, inscriptions, historical records, and so forth).
The authors clearly explain that the objective of theological research is to “document an orderly and coherent account of theistic beliefs.” Furthermore, Biblical Theology concerns topics derived from Scripture to further narrow macro or micro exegetical forms of literary research that concern theology students. Conversely, there are theological comparison studies that help researchers understand the historical positions of theologians.
The authors close the chapter by touching upon historiography and pastoral theology to indicate their types as having a bearing on how materials are analyzed, collated, and applied. The guidance about historical events, theology, and people together is helpful to scope time intervals and select figures by available materials. If it isn’t possible to focus on an individual during a theological course of study, it is helpful to redirect concentration to an institution.
The overall gist of choosing a topic rests on reading the relevant subject matter and asking content and feasibility questions about the material. Once the topic is chosen, the task then turns to limiting the scope and depth of the research project. Setting parameters in advance is necessary to accomplish research objectives within a defined period of time. The book’s authors lead readers to understand the differences between undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate research in terms of breadth and coverage of the subject matter.
There are basic steps offered to plan for the research undertaken. They together contribute to how a research project is proposed. Before outlining the elements of a proposal, it is first necessary to define the problem to resolve. Once it is determined what problem exists, what question is unanswered, or what gap in knowledge there is, it is then necessary to determine the research project’s purpose. For example, an analysis of a matter or event could be pursued to develop an understanding of a specific topic. The range of possibilities here is enormous, so determining the research project’s purpose is a necessary step to keep focus and remain within the boundaries established as the paper sets about resolving the problem. Finally, it is advised to design a methodology concerning the assembly and delivery of the research. By the examples given in the book and the final paragraph in this section (page 150), the author suggests that methodological reasoning should be deductive rather than inductive or abductive.
The proposal area developed here is very helpful for organizational effort, too. By beginning with the end in mind, the various elements of the proposal point to what effort and resources contribute to a successful outcome. The explanatory strength of each proposal area is of significant help in the preparation of the overall project. All three steps in the planning process also support the outline to build the paper’s body as it develops. The outline structure that guides the writing and interfacing elements of the subject matter enables coherent thought throughout the reading of the entire project. It is always best to use a conventional outlining format according to the institution’s guidelines where the research is conducted (if one should exist).
A further area of significant interest is the researcher’s library access and use. Whether institutional, municipal, regional, personal, or some mixture, efficient information mining and retrieval are necessary to produce a research paper. While the book has much to say about using physical hard copy books, that is a vital area of interest. However, too often, meta-data and the parsing of narrative verbiage within the body of such content don’t exist. From the book, it is clear that libraries have a lot of digitized subject matter available in databases. Still, when it comes to EBSCO or Atla Religion for journals and historical research papers, those two might be among the more prominent libraries and wouldn’t be found among municipal or community libraries. Universities and Seminaries often contract or subscribe to both for students and alumni. Master’s University provides both for its students, and they significantly help with assignments, research projects, and overall spiritual development. Master’s University does not provide access to EBSCO and Atla Religion databases for alumni. As I don’t live near a library that carries access to either, a few years ago, it was necessary to begin building a personal digital library as a permanent download via purchase and licensing. After continuous persistence, a personal library has grown to over 30,000 titles, mostly purchased (except for journals, which are a low-grade subscription to everything common to EBSCO and Atla Religion.
The purpose is not to hoard but to establish a framework to which retrieval of data and information is made feasible by materials derived and indexed from numerous locations (historiographical, literary, academic, and biblically sound institutions). To run logic or boolean operators upon parsed data, whether tagged or not, yields a canvas of weighted results that help save time, minimize cost, and filter what’s most meaningful or relevant. It also becomes more readily possible to retire what becomes outdated. With subscriptions and outright digitized copies of scanned texts, it is better to gather, collate, and index for speedy retrieval everything written as scanned into the record (such as popular patristics, puritans, theologians, and philosophers down through the centuries). It is too inefficient to return to the days of exclusively working through hardcopy texts to complete a research project or even a robust intertextual bible study on a given point of interest. ProQuest is an institutional-only access database for theses and dissertations, so it will not be possible or of interest to begin seeking its value for research ahead. PQDT is now ProQuest and no longer an open-source application for use. Access to theses and dissertations is an exclusive service to academics or anyone with a library that hosts ProQuest.
The authors of this book take a well-spent time to cover the basics of reading. And how to take notes on that reading. There are helpful tips about what applications to use for various circumstances and purposes, whether notes are taken manually or via computer. For example, a “Word Processor,” “Database,” and “Spreadsheet” are the types of applications that the authors identify as helpful and common among researchers. This review is written with a Word Processor. The subject matter covered here is really very basic. Further discussion is offered about life balance around studying and reading, such as rest and physical exercise.
While the book covers specific details about how to format bibliographical data and citation references in Turabian or other styles, not all academic institutions accept the book’s guidance in each area of character, terminology, or registration. The book provides general guidelines for using Turabian, but individual mileage may vary from institution to institution that requires Turabian.
The book extends further into the composition of the research paper. It covers familiar ground as graduate students have already learned how to form sentences with independent and dependent clauses, appropriate grammar, and punctuation to communicate meaning within the structure of a paragraph. Transitional terms, phrases, and sentences within paragraphs, or as ideas and subject matter, that flow from one paragraph to another, readers can track through in a coherent way to arrive at an understanding the writer wants. The book’s authors make a compelling case for the need to research English and learn from examples that help both experienced and novice writers. When the writing process of a research paper begins, the applied craft of composition takes shape. From the author’s experience, there are numerous valuable points to consider during the editing and revision process of the paper. The caliber of their guidance makes clear that the writer of a research project should have mastery of the written English language to set it apart from other literary genres. That is to say, according to the authors, it is not enough to be well-developed in terms of research, analysis, investigation, reconstruction, and the derivation of biblical, historical, and philosophical truth, but the capability and fluency of writing at the same caliber is expected. Time and energy spent on biblical and theological research should be matched by how that research is written.
As this text serves as a reference handbook, it is a go-to resource for handling the parts of a research paper when laying it out in an organized manner. The various elements expected in the research paper are covered to show effective placement and orientation for readability and interpretation. To Turabian style, proportionality, and other parts of the paper, the initial pages, introduction, main body, summary, conclusions, appendixes, and bibliography are covered to reinforce further adherence to the document standard for uniformity of research papers developed and formatted to convention for the benefit of readers and institutions.
Chapters 18, 19, 21, and 22 of Quality Research Papers: For Students of Religion and Theology, Fourth Edition together amount to 53 pages of reading that this short paper summarizes. The sections concerning these chapters are about the structure and substance of a research paper. More specifically, the range of topics covered includes the necessary elements of a research paper. Namely, this concerns the paper’s documentation, statistics, tables, graphs, footnotes, bibliography, the Turabian standard of citations, and styling of various literary and media materials. The subject matter ranges in substance to aid the research writer in preparing and presenting the material. The book largely serves as a narrative guide with explanatory value and a handbook for continued reference.
As the author prepares the subject matter for the layout and construction of the research paper, it is organized by relevant sections of interest around types and categories. All four areas of the paper’s development touch on common points of reference to guide a reader through the text of the paper. Including annotations, visual aids, quantitative illustrations, and sources accompanying the researcher’s text body, each area addresses a paper’s segments or components to conventional standards for conformity to the expected readership style.
Various examples are presented about referencing notes and formatting them throughout a paper for retrieval, source verification, and further research. Beginning with supporting documentation declared within the research paper. As notes are produced within a paper from authors of primary, secondary, or tertiary sources, those sources to substantiate those notes are cited or quoted by necessity. The way to do that is given with the rationale concerning the use of source materials, along with examples to format them properly. Footnotes, or endnotes, that specify cited source references follow conventional standards (Turabian) requirements for consistent readability. With each source reference cited alongside the various others within a paper, they together form a coherent means of support of what the research author conveys among various points made.
Of considerable clarity, beyond citing sources using reference notes in a consistent format, is the proper way of producing second and later references. The correct way of using abbreviations that are succeeding citations involving the Ibid term is especially helpful. Moreover, Bible versions and the use of translations with changes as exceptions are understood by the research student to follow for continuity and thorough use consistent within a paper. Furthermore, content notes that consist of explanatory messages are of significant utility. The proper method and format of those notes given by examples enable the writer to augment the paper without disrupting the research flow and narrative.
As the book’s author turns attention to statistics, tables, and graphs, there are various topics centered on quantitative reasoning in which calculations make a point in support of the research project. The range of coverage on the topic is wide enough for what a research paper would convey for purposes of analytical comprehension. Numerical and visual representation of calculated probabilities, standard deviation, averages, median values, frequency, weight, and distribution further reinforces an understanding of claims or assertions about a matter of interest. For example, demographics, population samples, tendencies, and correlation are focal areas of conclusive interest from data collected and presented compellingly through statistics.
While the focal area of reading does not include chapter twenty, there are various additional aids given about how to format the pages of a paper’s text body. Further guidance about page numbering, titles, headings, and preliminary pages is also covered in useful detail. The basics about proper spelling, punctuation, and grammatical concerns are discussed as expected, but with respect to a research paper unique to various different forms of writing. Additional details about footnotes and quotations aside from the previously presented details and examples are relative to their placement, when to use them, their methodology of inclusion, and their considerations.
As researchers encounter various source materials, the authors of this book present an exhaustive range of examples, both Footnote and Bibliography style and Author-Date style. Writers of their papers use these as examples from either parent category of citations. As such, this section serves as a handbook for placing citations according to source type. Rather than prepare rationale or guidelines for producing cited references according to source author, periodicals, monographs, commentaries, general books, specialized books, or unpublished materials, meticulous detail is given as examples. Numerous explanatory notes accompany those examples, but they have less instructional value as a comparison. Among the many examples interspersed throughout source categories, alternate formats are also given.
Among both examples by group, the examples mechanistically indicate where source names, titles, dates, locations, page numbers, and more are placed on a research paper with consistency. Writers must use one type or another depending on the institution, convention, journal, or agency requirements. Accordingly, citation designations have general rules and guidelines with numerous exceptions fluent with an editor very adept and all the particular source reference entries. The format and elements within a citation vary widely by source type (whether published or unpublished materials), whether as a note, second note, or bibliography entry.
Overall, across four major book sections, the authors took meticulous care to walk readers through what research is and what it involves. With copious details about biblical and theological research, there are many clarifying details about what the practice of research is with appropriate definitions. How readers or students conduct research is not just about methods of analysis and conclusions drawn internally by the researcher. The analysis, writing, formation, and presentation of discoveries, propositions, claims, arguments, and warrants constitute the integral nature of a research project. More meaningfully, research completed around biblical and theological interests leads readers and researchers together toward application-oriented learning and pastoral theology that informs individuals in ministry who love and serve people. Any effort to conduct research for the sole purpose of learning itself is an empty endeavor. Research should be for the edification of the church or individual or to challenge, educate, and inform people to love and do good works (Hebrews 10:24).
The further historical and literary value of analysis in support of research (as guided by this book) is constructed and presented so that the subject matter doesn’t just serve the academy or institution but people overall from the researcher’s contribution. So this book is a standing reference for what, how, and why research is done to write about biblical, theological, historiographical, or literary subjects with the necessary convention and format elements necessary to reach people with credible and lasting interest. As topics selected and researched carry practical value, it is also a fruit of labor that supports personal growth, the growth, knowledge, and development of others, and a form of worship that glorifies God. Research inclusive of written materials has lasting meaning, purpose, and value for faith and practice. It contributes to a larger ongoing conversation about what it means to love God and others well.
To begin the book, there are preliminary thoughts about becoming a researcher as a prologue to forthcoming topics that elaborate upon what it is to develop research as a craft. As the authors set about laying the groundwork for the practice of research, they draw our attention to research itself and its researchers through interaction among readers who are engaged with the subject matter.
Immediately before consideration of the roles between researchers and readers, the authors first define what research is and how to understand it as a discipline. As it is formed and delivered by means of a formal paper, the written work of the researcher isn’t only for the readers but for the researcher himself. The work of research includes written expressions of thought, understanding, rationale, and remembrance to convey ideas, discoveries, and conversations worth exploring. To ask questions and answer them or to encounter problems and seek resolution can involve the formation of projects where a pertinent subject matter of interest is developed as a topic of concern.
The work and product of research together form the body of research projects that have a bearing on readers’ views about topics as either questions or problems that further an overall community conversation about a subject. While the research material itself is central to the work of research and the written labors of researchers, a larger conversation is likely occurring about the topic at hand. The inputs to research, in the form of source materials, experiments, and data analysis, correspond to outputs researchers produce as they together become processed in a coherent fashion. The process by which research inputs are transformed into outputs in the form of answered questions, problems solved, recommendations, or advancements in the total conversation, bears out a range of methods to arrive at practical, abstract, or theoretical solutions. This book guides the student through what it looks like to ask questions, state problems, understand topics, and develop an interest in a research subject among readers.
An essential method of turning a question into a problem involves three steps (pg 49).
Topic: I am studying __________
Question: because I want to find out what / why / how __________,
Significance: in order to help my reader understand __________.
Whether the topic of study is a research problem or a conceptual problem, the distinctions between them should be clearly understood to solve what is relevant about a specific matter of interest. So as researchers work with problems, questions are formed either of practical concern or as a prospective and conceptual interest in an effort to arrive at solutions. Questions that researchers transform into problems to solve must be those problems readers think are worth solving. Meaning, there must be significance or merit to questions answered and problems solved in order to understand the research work undertaken.
The book points out that research supports answering questions and solving problems to satisfy the community. That is the end object to the practice of research according to the authors rather than for personal understanding, worship, or God’s glory for the work performed while seeking truth according to general or special revelation through Scripture. In this regard, the practice of research as a discipline doesn’t belong to the community or society, as the authors insist. In fact, it is subordinate to the purpose and practice of research that individual researchers bear fruit by what questions are answered and problems are solved. Individual exceptionalism for its own end, with or without benefit to society, is of far greater concern. As many individuals, in their pursuit of research excellence, produce work that bears upon society as a by-product, the community stands to gain from that. Otherwise, societies, communities, the State, etc., might not be valuable enough for research endeavors of more meaningful value (whether purely theoretical or applied). Researchers must love objective truth directed to something of much greater weight or more lasting significance over themselves or the spectacle of corrupt societies and communities for research work and its outcomes. This book places too much emphasis on the supremacy of society and the researcher’s role within it as a fulfillment of some “social contract.” As if the researcher’s first and overriding obligation to anyone and anything is to that of society.
While the book offers meaningful rationale about how to structure problems and frame questions around matters of interest, the authors set up statements and examples of very basic conditions and responses that guide students through the work of understanding a problem. Questions formed and reshaped to problems that set up a “so what?” form of inquiry. To derive problems from questions to answer where research opportunities arise of interest to readers. The effort is not to purely find new problems to solve but to derive them and set them up as valid with defensible premises and data to support their investigation. Coherence to truth and resolution for a specific purpose doesn’t necessarily correspond to what’s of value to answer a “so what?” question. The book begins with these chapters to set the means by which research techniques come together for students to understand questions and problems, form them, and derive answers for research. As a sort of call-and-response approach to research, the authors write of linear thinking to deductively adduce factors that have explanatory power as evidence to form conclusions or pursue research to answer “so what?” questions.
The various examples and conditions authors set up help students work with problems they can find and solve. There doesn’t seem to be support for canvasing a subject matter of interest to traverse at some level topically. To find answers to good research problems, authors begin with the notion that researchers must answer questions toward practical applications with a level of high granularity to benefit readers. There is a top-down approach to practical applications (“so that” or “so what”) from the course of research at a narrowing perspective to arrive at conclusions stemming from a chosen topic and its significance. This is an A + B + C must equal D framework of reason that begins with the end in mind. An overarching upper-level topic is selected with conceptual questions and significance to follow in support of questions to answer and problems to solve. Where the effort is not purely for purposes of defensible rationale but a justification for conclusions formed. Rather than follow where research leads, the authors advocate the derivation of questions transformed into problems that appeal to readers by answering “so what?” questions in their interest or that of society.
As the reading and review of these chapters cover the subject matter of interest, it must be said that much of the material is very basic, with principles and facts grounded by common sense. The range of content extends from basic ideas about what research is, why it’s important to write about it, and the roles of both you as a writer and your readers. Understanding research and how to produce it as written material is about developing organized thinking for the clarity of meaning about the subject matter of interest. The authors of this text make a clear connection between research as a practice and discipline to the total effort of conversing with readers.
The book further considers the topic of sources, which involves a bibliography with annotations that pertain to the research material. An argument constructed from reading during research takes shape to form a thesis or a statement in the form of a problem or proposition. Arguments developed from claims become supported by source materials of differing levels of credibility in proximity to the subject of interest. A body of rationale about the subject matter constitutes the research carried out to develop an understanding of statements or propositions that support a research project to draw conclusions and arrive at an understanding of facts or assertions related to material of interest.
As research development progresses and the material is committed to writing, claims are made from developed reasoning and evidence constructed through sources. Claims and arguments are supported by sources and external facts or assertions from cited references, or they’re directly refuted or indifferent to those claims. The book makes a clear link between the researcher’s work and his claims to sources that support those claims. As questions are asked with answers sought during the course of the research, they are concentrated on the problems and propositions made evident to readers, where logic and rationale are made to withstand counter-claims or counter-productive assertions that contradict the research.
Further research effort is placed around the assembly of reason and evidence in support of a research project. The organization and planning around reason and evidence involve order, structure, layout, and evaluation as research is performed to identify and build it for proper consideration. Arguments supported by sources and evidence are then reinforced by arguments using acknowledgment, observation, reason, and logic to settle understanding. It is one thing to acknowledge and understand claims and arguments supported by evidence and sources, but another to accept them or internalize understanding by comprehension and a new awareness concerning the research subject matter.
Before planning a paper and drafting it, a final subject of warrants bears attention. As it is necessary to connect reasons to claims, readers might not understand arguments, or readers may challenge reasoning that supports claims made, so warrants are developed and explicitly stated to trace a line of argument. As a cause-and-effect line of reasoning forms as circumstances give rise to consequences, connections are made between reasoning and claims. Implications and inferences are developed between general and specific circumstances to general and specific consequences that support acceptance of claims made from arguments that stem from logic and reason. To further examine the merits of warrants as they are applied to reasoning and claims, they are tested to assess their validity or how well they apply to arguments as they become challenged. There are several criteria for acceptance of a warrant that researchers investigate in the form of questions. The book offers these questions in the following outline (pg 160), with further explanation to follow.
Is the warranty reasonable?
Is it sufficiently limited?
Is it superior to any competing warrants?
Is it appropriate to this field?
Is it able to cover the reason and claim?
When asking if the warrant is reasonable, the researcher inquires about the acceptability of its consequence from its circumstance. If readers cannot accept a consequence, warrants then must become claims as having their own arguments while supported by reasons and evidence.
It follows that a warrant is reasonable if it is limited. The book specifies “most warrants” as the scope or limits to assertions, but exceptions cannot then exclude reasons and claims. Sufficiently limited warrants with equivocations and qualifications have to consider exceptions where they cannot exclude reasons for claims made.
A warrant can be contradicted even if it is limited and reasonable. A contested warrant that requires one to prevail over another implies the necessity of further argument in support of the one offered superior to another. The book further explains that contested warrants can be reconciled by limiting them. Again, according to the book, without further strength of argument having reason and evidence, a warrant is reconciled by placing a limit on one or the other. There is no discussion about disproving the claims or evidence of a competing warrant, nor is there consideration given to the comparative weight of probability of one warrant over another.
As the strength of a warrant is put forward as reasonable, sufficiently limited, and superior to others, it must be narrowed to the particular area of research to which it pertains. If it does not pertain to the field of research of interest, it can be rejected on the grounds of inappropriate consideration.
The researcher must understand a warrant’s general circumstances and consequences is subordinate to or within the reason and claim asserted in support of an argument or proposition. The logic of arguments claimed and supported by reason and evidence with warrant may not be acceptable to a reader if it doesn’t cover what concerns the contested claim or warrant. Strict or pure logic is a relative proposition that pertains to the general circumstances and consequences to the reader who may accept or reject a warrant offered by a researcher. The topic of warrants is further developed in the book to explain when it is suitable for use and why it can test arguments made. Warrants can also be stood up to challenge others’ warrants against propositions or arguments made within a research project. Reasoning from arguments and propositions made is not always clear or obvious to readers, so warrants must be stated under the following occasions outlined in the book.
Readers are outside the researcher’s field
A new or controversial principle of reasoning is used in an argument or proposition
If a reason or claim for an argument is rejected because readers don’t want it to be true, it becomes necessary to state warrants as further evidence and reason.
The researcher relies upon the reader’s rationality to accept arguments and claims based on logic to advance an understanding of a matter, even if the claims of an argument are unwanted, disbelieved, or confrontational.
Going further to understand the value of warrants, they can also be used to test arguments. As all arguments have implicit or explicit warrants, they are instruments by which a researcher can check the validity of an argument. Specific circumstances that do not fit a warrant’s general circumstances can invalidate an argument. Imagining the circumstances in which a warrant is applied can render further clarity about the viability of an argument to determine its acceptability and alignment with claims and whether or not they’re true. Justified claims made in support of an argument must accompany valid warrants. Instances of warrants that do not fit as evidentially valid of a warrant’s general circumstance can dismiss arguments.
Challenges to arguments can appear to claim endlessly, what about this? Or what about that? Under such circumstances, readers object to a researcher’s reasons that are not based on sound evidence. Or reasons that are not relevant to a claim should themselves be tested. Anecdotal evidence, dismissals, or counter-claims in support of the whataboutisms of readers who do not want to accept testable and sound evidence in support of arguments or propositions must bear the burden of rationale and evidence on the merits and truth of contested assertions. The book offers the notion that the researcher bears the burden of finding better evidence or providing a warrant that makes reasoning and rationale relevant to the reader. I reject this perspective from the book’s authors on the ground that reason with evidence and objective truth with valid warrants are sufficient for acceptance regardless of a reader’s interests. The book assumes readers are always purely objective and without bias or predisposition against the researcher’s material, worldview, or the researcher himself for personal reasons.
What a research community accepts is not the criteria by which arguments or propositions from reason and claims are understood as true with valid warrants. An entire research community or a subgroup of it can be incorrect about a matter concerning the research. The authors give further attention to challenges by categorizing them as types or as having conditions. Researchers who persuade and influence readers through arguments with associated claims and supporting evidence have clear methods of delivering facts and warrants. Still, some challenges come from beliefs or concerns outside of the various forms of reason and logic.
According to the book, warrants are challenged by:
Experience
This attempt to challenge a warrant rests upon the reliability of the experience. If a reader can challenge the reliability of the experience stated within the research with valid evidence to its contrary, the warrant is dismissed or weakened. Conversely, special case counter-examples can have a detrimental effect on warrants.
Authority
A source of a challenge based on the charisma, position, status, or expertise of a person or group is the easiest and doesn’t necessarily have all the evidence to support warrants. Even if all the evidence was in the possession of figures in positions of authority, that authority alone is not sufficient to challenge the warrants of a researcher. People in positions of authority who borrow on that authority and challenge warrants by consequence damage counterarguments, dismissals, or assertions to the contrary have less to contribute to the overall conversation concerning the research in question.
Systems of Knowledge
Irrelevant facts that come into question when warrants are challenged have no bearing on the systems of knowledge to the contrary. According to this book’s authors, warrants backed by systems definitions, principles, or theories often withstand challenges. Facts under these circumstances are irrelevant.
Cultural Warrants
Social pressures, cultural traditions, and heritage can challenge warrants, but these challenges carry less weight or have a reduced strength of argument because “common sense” is rooted in social sensibilities. Readers who resist warrants from a position of beliefs stemming from cultural inclinations have very little bearing on the merits of well-crafted research and its results.
Methodological Warrants
The means by which a researcher can arrive at warrants comes into question and could get challenged if argumentation is not supported by the practical implementation of generally accepted patterns of thought. Principles in support of a methodological warrant can fall apart when they are applied to specific cases.
Articles of Faith
The authors of this book don’t allow for evidence that arises from faith (Hebrews 11:1). Meaning proofs are given in support of assured things through propositions or arguments from research unseen yet with facts and revelation attested through the testimony of witnesses and other forms of evidence. Warrants of belief that challenge warrants of research do not always come contrary to evidence as the authors of this book wrote. While that can be true in a general sense, it’s not true from correct biblical understanding about reasonable faith and associated merits of belief contrary to warrants from research contrary to faith claims upon evidence in numerous forms.
As compared to prior chapters of the reading of this book, the next two chapters concern the practical assembly of a research paper. More specifically, the paper is planned and drafted in an organized and coherent way suitable to the interest of readers. With attention to detail concerning the arguments made within the paper, the plan of a research document follows a thoughtful path that corresponds to the following draft. The plan in which a paper comes together corresponds to meaning that comports with the delivery of arguments, propositions, rationale, claims, reason, and warrants that offer compelling interest to the reader.
The book further delves into the introduction and body of the research paper to include storyboard sketches of what the subject matter concerns for each given paragraph that conveys a central idea. The introduction parses the sections of the paper where the reader is given a set of expectations about the subject matter ahead. As the paper groups together the major sections of the material, the researcher identifies key concepts early in the paper to run a thread of interest for the reader’s benefit. Once the introduction section is drafted with the sections and top-level ideas presented, the researcher turns his attention to the body of the paper itself.
The book continues to guide the researcher through suggestions concerning the body of the paper as it is structured to guide the reader. Rather than begin writing outright without a plan to construct a coherent series of part-by-part ideas or a cause-and-effect sequence of pointed interests, there is an order assembled by the researcher in which meaning is stitched together to support and develop an understanding of the arguments or propositions claimed. The order and complexity to which the body of the document is assembled depend largely upon the subject matter of the research and the intended reader. As the planning in this way is iterative to develop a draft, edits and refinement of the paper further support clear and coherent points partitioned by sections and subsections to guide the reader. Sections are organized in such a way as to present evidence for arguments and warrants for claims made. In anticipation of what readers might think about the subject matter, the researcher acknowledges them and responds accordingly.
Before the arguments are organized, further discussion is offered about how to avoid the development of flawed plans. As a researcher turns an organized plan into a draft document, sufficient support is needed concerning the substance of the document while supported by the format and layout for readability. The structured organization for the paper to include headers, spacing, positioning of argumentation, placement of claims, and reasons must flow for readability to the reader’s liking. Where the readability and organization don’t get in the way of the subject matter presented.
While the drafting and editing of the document consist of proper paragraph structure, dependent and independent clauses for sentence formation, correct punctuation, and so forth are the mechanics that are in service of the messages formed along the body of the paper. While there are numerous pitfalls in how a paper is written to convey its ideas, arguments, and propositions, the book offers guidance about how it is revised to improve organization and readability. Arguments strengthened in revisions of the paper from research has a significant bearing on both readability and the reader’s views about the researcher’s quality of research and how it is presented.
The publishing company, Banner of Truth, produces a great little book entitled The Doctrine of Repentance, authored by Thomas Watson. Watson wrote this short book on May 25th, 1668. Banner of Truth modernized the language from Old English and reorganized the reading while keeping intact the core message. As I read the book from the original manuscript1 to make comments, highlight points of interest, and write observations about what I have learned, I paid close attention to the ancient form of the English language with careful thought about the definitions at the time of their use. Moreover, I gave close attention to the use of Latin where it is found and translated it to post the verbiage accordingly, as I had notes or observations about Watson’s subject matter. Each passage reference cited was validated, and I chose to retain material Banner of Truth has removed. There are numerous places where Watson refers to Latin as it was applied to the text to make a point about earlier writings of patristics, literary materials, and historical church figures.
The various chapters that outline material of specific interest will appear in this review the same way, with limited editing to render terms more commonly understood without going beyond their semantic range. Except for quotes, or where primary materials are cited, archaic words were updated to current spelling without affecting the meaning. If terms, phrases, and language are used by Watson to add to the effect of meaning, the rendering I use will remain original. There shall be no effort to reconcile contradictions if they might appear among points made as Watson expresses his views. However, I will highlight such instances if there is a difference between what Watson asserts and the intended meaning of what the biblical writers wrote insofar as root language definitions and context. Where I can recognize those differences concerning Scripture, I will not try to mediate differences in perspective between Watson, English culture, the Church of England, or the Catholic church.
Background
Thomas Watson (1620-1686) was an English, Puritan preacher and author. He was among the thousands of Puritan ministers ejected from their parishes by the Church of England (COE). From the Restoration of Charles II, the monarch of the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, the State used its power to remove Puritan ministers from the COE to enforce conformity to its doctrines and liturgical practices. The State sought to assert its place within the COE under the pretense of Christian unity among the Anglo kingdoms. As the COE separated from the Roman Catholic Church in Europe, it sought to impose its form of prescribed worship throughout the kingdoms according to State dictates. The Church of England and the government of England under Charles II betrayed faithful ministers of Christ by instituting the Clarendon Code. The Clarendon Code was a State-enforced public “cancellation” of individuals who did not conform to the COE but instead held to emergent and formative Reformed traditions centered upon the exclusive authority of biblical meaning toward faith and practice.
Free Church Persons (“non-conformist protestants”) were actively persecuted by penal laws that involved forfeiture, civil penalties, criminal sanctions, and cultural isolation that excluded ministers from public life and society. For example, university degrees and access to public services were some of the fallout of the political dismissal and removal of ministers faithful to the gospel and holy living according to the imperatives of Christ and supremacy and sufficiency of God’s Word. Various historical figures of notable reputations have assailed the actions of the COE, and over time “England succumbed to a culture of liberalism, overrun with cold, dead churches awash in apostasy and spiritual darkness.”2
Among the thousands of other Puritans scattered after the Great Ejection of August 24th, 1662, Thomas Watson continued to minister privately without ordination within the Anglican church. After Thomas Watson was removed by dismissal, according to the Church of England and the State’s use of force, the COE never recovered, just as J.C. Ryle speculated. Three years after the Great Ejection, the bubonic plague struck England and killed more than 100,000 people. Shortly after, the city of London was engulfed in a large fire that damaged and destroyed more than 13,000 homes, nearly one hundred churches, and St Paul’s Cathedral. For centuries the Church of England has been fraught with controversy and apostasy, and it has fallen out of communion with other Anglican churches in various countries. The Church of England continues to self-assert its authority over Scripture as it grows into an ecclesial agency for public interests in service of the State. The Anglican church today is nothing close to what it once was with its historically influential members (C.S. Lewis, John Stott, J.C. Ryle, N.T. Wright, and others). Under the leadership of archbishop Rowan Williams (2002-2012), the Anglican Church has largely surrendered to social and State interests concerning civil liberties contrary to imperatives of moral living as made evident within Scripture.
Thomas Watson continued in ministry after he was removed from his London parish after the Great Ejection, but he continued to preach privately. He was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, where he was noted for remarkably intense study. In 1646 he commenced a 16-year pastorate at St. Stephen’s, Walbrook. Watson showed strong Presbyterian views during the civil war; however, in 1651, he was imprisoned briefly with some other ministers for his share in Christopher Love’s plot to recall Charles II of England. He was released on June 30th, 1652, and was formally reinstated as vicar of St. Stephen’s Walbrook. He obtained great fame and popularity as a preacher until the Great Ejection when he was removed from the Church of England for nonconformity. Notwithstanding the rigor of the acts against dissenters, Watson continued to exercise his ministry privately as he found opportunity. Upon the Declaration of Indulgence in 1672, he obtained a license to preach at the great hall in Crosby House. After preaching there for several years, his health gave way, and he retired to Barnston, Essex, where he died suddenly while praying in secret. He was buried on July 28th, 1686.
The Epistle to the Reader
To begin his book on repentance, Watson wrote a short letter to readers about its importance. He wrote that biblical repentance should not be spoken of as difficult and offered various influential people’s perspectives about what it does and why it is so necessary. As Watson wrote, excellent things deserve labor, and it is better to enter Heaven with difficulty than to Hell easily. He infers that repentance is difficult by comparison, but not to draw upon the reader’s attention or the impenitent to dissuade its necessity somehow. Watson uses a figurative illustration of digging for gold through ore to indicate that the effort is not worth discussion or concern by comparison because gold is the object of labor. The work of digging or smelting is not meant to dwell upon, contemplate, or resist. Repentance involves difficulty, but it is incredibly inappropriate and off-minded to think of it as such compared to what it yields. In so many words, Watson begins the book in his letter to the reader that the absence of repentance in a person means a life of misery, scorn, and alienation from God.
Furthermore, he stresses that it is of utmost necessity to accept why repentance is urgent and perpetual. Making peace with God on this side of the Grave is putting sins to their death as a figurative act of drowning them in a deluge of water rather than having the soul burn in a symbolic unquenchable fire. Watson calls readers to consider what the Saints of old have done to imbitter themselves against sin, sacrifice their lusts, and put on sackcloth of the heart in the hope of the white robes of purity. Example after example, the reader is presented with historical figures who repented by bemoaning and humbling themselves to prevent and correct unacceptable thoughts and behaviors hideous before God.
It is helpful to understand what repentance is as biblically and confessionally defined. As Scripture carries the greatest and final weight of authority in terms of intended meaning rendered by the Holy Spirit through the biblical writers, the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF) larger catechism offers the following (WLC Q76):
What is repentance unto life?
Repentance unto life is a saving grace, (2 Tim. 2:25) wrought in the heart of a sinner by the Spirit (Zech. 12:10) and word of God, (Acts 11:18,20–21) whereby, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, (Ezek. 18:28,30,32, Luke 15:17–18, Hos. 2:6–7) but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, (Ezek. 36:31, Isa. 30:22) and upon the apprehension of God’s mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, (Joel 2:12–13) he so grieves for (Jer. 31:18–19) and hates his sins, (2 Cor. 7:11) as that he turns from them all to God, (Acts 26:18, Ezek. 14:6, 1 Kings 8:47–48) purposing and endeavouring constantly to walk with him in all the ways of new obedience. (Ps. 119:6,59,128, Luke 1:6, 2 Kings 23:25)3
The WCF is a confessional document that helps define individuals’ beliefs aligned with the biblical meaning of topics rooted in the Scriptures’ authoritative supremacy. Biblically, repentance is a critical element of conversion. To define and understand “conversion,” it must include faith and repentance, as commonly understood by the Greek term metanoia (μετανοέω).4 As the gospel reader first sees the term in the opening proclamation of Jesus’ ministry (Matt 4:17), it is defined through various cultural and Old Testament correlated references. Moreover, the term conveys the idea that it is about changing one’s mind with a feeling of remorse (Matt 3:2, 4:17, 11:21, Mark 1:15, 6:12, Luke 10:13, Acts 17:30, 26:20). While it is essential to recognize that repentance involves a change of mind, it also includes a changing of the will. It is the turning away from something as the conscious effort of a whole person away from personal self-destructive thoughts and behaviors offensive to God and people. Unacceptable thoughts, words, and actions, biblically defined as “sin,” are rejected as a whole toward a life commitment of faith to God through Christ. This is conversion. As one internally moves from one state of rejection (or indifference) involving a life of sin and selfishness to a faith commitment and devotion, Christ becomes LORD and King to a believer who chooses to surrender by sovereign grace. Conversion is by faith and a rejection of sin in part and as a whole, both retroactively and in the future, as defined through the pages of scripture according to the intent of the biblical authors and not by reader-response interpretation.
Chapter 1 – A Preliminary Discourse
Watson sets up a proposition within the opening chapter of his book. He further makes biblically certain in his text, “Christ has purchased by His blood repenting sinners who shall be saved.” He reinforces that those who are made alive in Christ by a seed of faith have the spiritual capacity to repent, and as they do, they put to death sin as a prevailing matter of eternal consequence. Those who sin in the absence of the gospel of grace for repentance shall spiritually die without recourse (Gal 3:10). Among the first and last words Jesus spoke from the pages of Scripture was “repent” (Matt 3:2, Luke 24:47). In fact, this was the urgency of the Apostles as they were sent out and preached, “people should repent” (Mark 6:12 ESV). They proclaimed that all should undergo a change of heart and mind. To abandon their former disposition with a new self, course of behavior, and regret over former life choices and dispositions. The abundance of their message concerning repentance was recorded in numerous locations throughout the New Testament [μετανοέω metanoeō repent (36x); Matt 3:2; 4:17; 11:20–21; 12:41; Mark 1:15; 6:12; Luke 10:13; 11:32; 13:3, 5; 15:7, 10; 16:30; 17:3–4; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 8:22; 17:30; 26:20; 2 Cor 12:21, Rev 2:5, 16, 21–22; 3:3, 19; 9:20–21; 16:9, 11].
Watson does not wish to argue whether or not faith or repentance comes first, while he is inclined to think that faith does precede repentance. He only sets in place the proposition that all people should repent, as conveyed by Christ Jesus and the urgency of the Apostles. The blood of Christ and the gospel of grace makes salvation to eternal life possible as people would repent. As persons repent and live by faith, they are saved by God’s doing and not their own. From grace and faith, people are saved through no other means (Eph 2:8-9). However, it is clear that without repentance, people will spiritually perish. Watson makes this point clear, as does Scripture. Watson wrote, “sin and die,” where the covenant of works (Mosaic law) offered no admittance through repentance. The law required personal, perfect, and perpetual obedience, where all eventually came under a curse. Under the new covenant of grace, Christians are solemnly urged to repent and be converted so that their sins may be blotted out (Acts 3:19).
From this preliminary discourse, we can conclude that Watson warns his readers about the necessity of repentance. This point cannot be misconstrued or interpreted any other way to escape the requirement of repentance to maintain a lifestyle consistent with prior life choices in rejection of the Word and the warnings we read within it.
Chapter 2 – How Repentance Works
It doesn’t go unnoticed that the method by which a person repents must be thoroughly understood, accepted, and internalized where there is no remote possibility of misunderstanding what repentance involves and what it takes to attain it as a final perpetual disposition for life. To repent of sin and all grievances against God according to His Word as the reader and person attentive to the gospel does what is necessary as a rightful response to what Christ has accomplished. Watson offers two specifics about what repentance entails. Specifically, repentance comes from God through the Spirit as He reaches people through His Word.
The Word of grace and the gospel are what effects repentance. As clearly recorded in Acts 2:37, the hearers of Apostle Peter’s message were cut to the heart and urgently asked, “Brothers, what shall we do?” They understood what had occurred and what was at stake. They were responsible for the physical death of Christ (Acts 2:23), and that fact was made plain to them as they needed to understand the severity of what they had done. Their Messiah was crucified, and the blood of Christ Jesus was given to purchase the salvation of those who would repent and be made holy. The hearing of the testimony of Peter concerning the events of the immediate past concerning Jesus and His ministry prepared their heart in response.
The Holy Spirit was at work among the listeners of the Word of God through His messengers as the apostles spoke of the truth of Christ Jesus’s redemptive work as Messiah. Acts 10:44 explicitly informs the biblical reader, “while Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the Word.” As Watson compares the Word to a Hammer and a Fire (Jer.23:29), one is meant to break the heart, and the other is meant to melt it. Hearers of the Word are either receptive to it or not, as the Holy Spirit carries its message to the consciences of some and not others. People who receive divine unction are spiritually anointed to hear and respond through the power of the Word (1 John 2:20). The Spirit of God and the Word of God work together to reach those receptive of some whose consciences are fertile ground of the truth. It cannot be overstated how repentance is attained through Word and the Spirit who reaches believers for salvation. If there is a pressing desire to repent, immerse yourself in the Word of God and be receptive to the Spirit through prayer, contemplation, and worship.
Chapter 3 – The Nature of False Repentance
Watson titles his third chapter, “Discovering the Deceits of Repentance.” As compared to the Banner of Truth title “Counterfeit Repentance” (chapter two), Watson zeroes in on what false repentance is. He provides three critical specifics and examples that inform readers about what is necessary to recognize and understand what repentance is not. As a warning about what not to conclude concerning changes in behavior, attitudes, and motives, the absence of repentance remains in a person from three sources of false thinking about the matter. An unrepentant heart within a person represents no inward heart change about sin. As a person may delude himself with counterfeit repentance, these are the three warnings Watson wrote about:
Legal Terror
Pain and trouble are not sufficient for repentance. Repentance requires a change of heart. If there is no change of heart, there is no repentance. An internal awareness of guilt that a person cognitively recognizes does not in itself mean that a change of heart has occurred. Watson contrasts self-aware guilt to an “infusion of grace” that infers the authenticity of repentance from Divine initiative and human reception. The differences between Reformed and Catholic doctrines of justification involve a change in the status of believers about how they are justified. While Reformed doctrine on justification holds to the principle of imputation of Christ’s righteousness to people of faith, Catholic doctrine decreed that justification involves an infused grace that changes a person’s internal nature and inclinations for sanctification and the remission of sins all at once (Council of Trent Decree concerning Justification, session 6, chapter 7).5 Whereas, to Protestants, Christ’s righteousness is imputed into a believer once as a final justification (simul justus et peccator), to Catholics, infused righteousness is changed righteousness within the life of a believer as a result of faith and baptism.6 Here, Watson’s use of the phrase “infused grace” indicates a constituent gift of God that includes the ability of a believer to repent according to Divine intent and action (Ezek 36:27). More specifically, Watson wrote that infused grace breeds repentance.7
Resolution Against Sin
To reject sin as a matter of self-determination and effort isn’t repentance. It’s self-will that doesn’t accompany heart change from behaviors, thoughts, actions, or omissions offensive to God and contrary to what He expects. Counterfeit repentance in this form is a commitment to stop sinning, but for the wrong reasons. Resolutions against sin under these circumstances don’t hold, and some sins are replaced by others where the state of a person is the same or worse than before.
Resolutions against sin aren’t because sin is sinful but because it is painful. There remains no change of heart, conviction, remorse, or awareness of offended God, who a person sins against.
Motivation to stop sinning from a position of alarm over judgment, evil, death, and Hell doesn’t win over a person’s love of sin. Love of sin will prevail over the dread of its consequences.
The sin of one type or another continues to surface because the old heart has not changed. New temptations continually overcome the old heart.
Leaving Sinful Ways
A person who leaves numerous sins behind with a more righteous lifestyle doesn’t mean a person is repentant. Without a heart change, the person still in sin remains unrepentant. Watson wrote of leaving sin “from the strength of grace” compared to leaving on moral grounds. Selectively, some sins are retained while others are dropped and exchanged for others.
The inclinations of the heart and its affections have not changed when a person remains captive to the appeal and love of sin. As Watson wrote that infused grace causes a cessation of sinful acts, grace is a gift and enablement of consistent holy living.
As it is necessary to understand what repentance is not, it is also essential to recognize what it is. In Watson’s next chapter, he wrote more extensively on this matter than in all other chapters. He organized his thoughts into several categories where they must all be present for repentance to retain its virtue. These ingredients to repentance are covered at length in several sections in the pages ahead.
Chapter 4 – The Nature of True Repentance
From this point, Watson continues to detail the ingredients of repentance, but his writing about the same parent subject matter, “The Nature of True Repentance,” extends to another chapter with more ingredients. The summary here continues within chapter four with further ingredients covered. Chapter three is entitled “The Nature of True Repentance (I),” and chapter four is “The Nature of True Repentance (II).” However, the numbered sequence of the various ingredients straddles both chapters (which makes it more difficult to follow his continuity of thought with the structural interruption as written and formatted. This discussion will continue the coverage of the ingredients but without the chapter separation.
The discussion area below consists of the ingredients that compose true repentance from Watson’s perspective. With Scripture references accompanying Watson’s points, his assertions and rationale about sin and the necessity of repentance resonate from his time to us who encounter his exhortations, rebukes, and encouragements. Beginning with these ingredients of repentance, we must fully grasp its meaning while checking our heart’s condition and motivations. All taken together, sin is the issue, and it bears acceptance that it is also a mortal enemy. These are the ingredients of true repentance that Watson wrote about:
Ingredients
Sight of Sin
Sorrow for Sin
Confession of Sin
Shame for Sin
Hatred of Sin
Turning from Sin
Between all these points, Watson wrote at length about his views and verbal illustrations with scriptural references to support his continued pressing argument. While Watson’s outline is confusing and underdeveloped, a continued thread of fragmented thought is sequenced together. The inference is that readers are expected to retain the thread of rationale to hold together all ingredients without reinforcement and continued underlying support. Watson’s writing is formed as a written lecture, having an elaborate outline where if this material were presented verbally or pastorally, it would be complicated to track and follow for adequate adoption into a person’s life. In the following pages, through the remainder of his written discourse, there are further points and subordinate points that weigh heavily on the intellect. Much of the material reads as an entangled stream of thought with edits and addenda to develop the doctrine as he described it.
Sight of Sin
To begin, Watson points out that it is necessary to see sin within and perceive it for what it is before it is possible to reject it and live on without it in repentance. Not of offenses as singular one-offs as they often are but as a condition of sin prevalent within as a whole. He makes it clear that before a person can come to Christ, he must first come to himself. I would surmise that what Watson meant was that he has to come to the end of himself. He infers that “coming to himself” is the recognition that he becomes aware of his distance from God through the course of his sin and sinful nature. Not just from poor and unacceptable moral or ethical choices but from his inclination and propensity to sin. Self-aware recognition and conviction about where the person stands as far separated from his Creator by a disposition to corruption is a mercy where it becomes possible to return in repentance by infused grace.
Sorrow for Sin
What a person prefers to understand and conclude about sin and repentance contrary to biblical principles, as intended by the biblical authors, isn’t relevant. How a person reads his inner self, social attitudes, and Scripture to self-liberated attempts of contorted interpretation about sin and grace doesn’t make a difference. As Watson points out in his treatise, the self-serving matter is “Inter peccandum c•… i sumus”8, and as such, a form of perpetuated and darkened reasoning as someone is often outwardly in the midst of sin. Watson further informs his readers that sorrow for sin is a necessary ingredient for repentance. Justifying sin, indifference to it, and crafting a theology to suit one’s own interests from contemporary interpretations that forms of self-deluded thought about sin and its consequences.
Confession of Sin
It is necessary to confess known sins before Lord when a believer becomes aware of them. This, too, is necessary for repentance. In this confession, Watson makes the point that confession is self-accusation before God, where the adversary has no strength of argument against believers as they have already taxed themselves of pride, passion, and infidelity. Confession is a way to prove that we have judged and sentenced ourselves (1 Cor 11:31). Accusation of ourselves is, as Watson puts it, —me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum9— (Me, I am here that I have done, turn the iron upon me). As Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we will not be judged if we judge ourselves. By Cyprian, judicio, quod poenitentiae humanae severitas protulit, aliquid justitia coelestis apponit (to the judgment which the severity of human penitence brought forth, adds something of heavenly justice). Yet as we read of various confessions within the biblical record, Watson makes a series of observations about what true confession looks like:
Confession is voluntary as it acknowledges sin against God and Heaven.
Confession is with deep resentment, burden, and compunction against sin.
Confession must be sincere.
Confession is without particularity.
Confession is an acknowledgment that the penitent is polluted by sin.
Confession of sin is with all its circumstances and aggravations.
Confession is a charge upon ourselves so as to clear God that He has done no wrong.
Confession is with a resolution never to act on them again.
First Use of Confession
To further understand the purpose of confession, Watson elaborates upon two areas of thought that demonstrate why rightful confession is necessary for repentance. In contrast, on the one hand, there is appeal and protest in prayer with partial confession, yet on the other, sincerity.
As confession is a necessary ingredient in repentance, Watson wrote that four types of people do not fully accept the range and depth of it. While Watson makes a compelling point about each, it does appear that they are not necessarily mutually exclusive from one another. Watson further frames his monologue around the idea of indictments. There are four of them against persons as if they were in a court of law to prosecute the abstention of full confessions that inhibit or block effective personal repentance.
Hidden Sins – While it is possible to conceal sins from people, it is impossible to keep them hidden from God.
Partial Confessions – There is no expectation to confess a catalog of unknown sins but those we know about. All of them best we can where all sins shall be confessed, and nothing held back.
Minced Words – Equivocations, Extenuating Circumstances, and Excuses (Gen 3:12, 1 Sam 15:24).
Arguments – Self-justification and special pleading efforts at vindication (John 4:9).
Second Use of Confession
Penitents are sincere in confessing the specifics of their sin to demonstrate the heart and mind of repentance fully. The uses of confession in these ways are magnificent as they are by design and redemptive intent. They are pleasing to God and cause angels to rejoice.
Confession gives glory to God.
Confession is a means to humble the soul.
Confession gives vent to a troubled heart.
Confession purges out sin.
Confession of sin endears Christ to the soul.
Confession of sin makes way for pardon.
Confession is reasonable and easy.
It is Reasonable
It is rational to reconcile with your Creator, who enables you to live peaceably with people who are hostile to you and who themselves consider you their enemy. While evil people of darkness live in enmity with people of faith, grace, and repentance, it is unreasonable for forgiven believers to reciprocate by hatred. As God forgives believers who confess their sins, He expects us to forgive others. Christ requires that we forgive others (Matt 6:14-15) and love those who live in enmity with people (Matt 5:43-45) who live by the authority of His Word.
It is Easy
The first covenant (Mosaic law) compared to the second covenant (covenant of grace) is night and day different. The first covenant required death and sacrifice. While in the second, Christ is the atoning mediator who redeems believers and makes possible the covenant of grace for the redemption of humanity (i.e., those who would call upon him and convert by faith and repentance). By humble confession, Christ is our surety. Watson wrote, only acknowledge your iniquity, indict yourself, and you will be sure of mercy.
To whom we confess sin is of concern, as Watson wrote about the papists and hearers of confessions from believers who turn to people rather than God, who promises them forgiveness and cleansing (1 John 1:9). While we are instructed to “confess sins one to another” (Jas 5:16), Catholic priests do not confess to the people as the people confess to the priests. Like the common man, Priests certainly confess their sins to one another, but confession is not reciprocal as a body of believers from one class structure to another. Priests do not confess specific sins to believers of a congregation or mass, as do believers who appear before priests at confession for absolution. The Catholic church and priests aligned with the State are ready to hear confessions of sins against God and others but also sins against social order and the contradictory interests of the State, which insists upon its citizens’ loyalty above God (Eph 6:12). Confession in this way is a form of State surveillance.
Watson made the point that confession to priests is a profitable endeavor. Opening the mouth of a parishioner by way of guilt and the admission of guilt renders a return on effort in the form of restitution for absolution. For a price, donation as penance is Watson’s point about the folly of confession to some Catholic priests disinterested in restoring one believer to God, people, and the church. Watson does not support confessions to priests as given by papist doctrine. However, he does concede that there ought to be confessions to men under three circumstances.
Public scandal where people become aware of sins that are an offense to some and a falling out to others should require open acknowledgment (2 Cor 2:6-7). This way, repentance by confession is visibly and widely recognized.
When a person’s conscience is weighed about a matter, even after confession to God, Watson makes it clear that it is appropriate to confess to a pious and trustworthy friend in due season (Jas 5:16). It is good to rely on trustworthy friends who we can confide in as a salve to the conscience. If a friend can remove a thorn of distress within the conscience after due confession, that is a ministry of immense value.
When harm is done to another person’s credibility or status through slander or by other means that negatively affects someone, Watson’s views coincide with Jesus’s imperative about reconciliation (Matt 5:23-24). This reconciliation comes through confession, provided forgiveness is attained, but confession is a necessity nonetheless. However, Watson further explains that God will not hear our prayers until we have appeased our brother’s or sister’s anger through confession.
Shame for Sin
So far, Watson has written about three ingredients necessary for repentance. The sight of Sin, sorrow for Sin and confession of Sin precede the next necessary ingredient, shame for Sin. There are nine specific considerations that Watson offers. Across pages of questions and discourse, his listing verbatim from the 1600s is given here:
Every sin makes us guilty, and guilt usually breeds shame.
In every sin there is much unthankfulness, and that is matter of shame.
Sin hath made us naked, and that may breed shame.
Our sins have put Christ to shame, and shall not we be ashamed?
Many sins which we commit, are by the special instigation of the Devil, and will not this cause shame?
Sin, like Cyrcies enchanting cup, turns men into beasts, and is not that matter of shame?
In every sin, there is folly (Jer 4. 22).
That which may make us blush, is, that the sins we commit are far worse than the sins of the Heathen (Indian): we act against more light
Our sins are worse than the sins of the Devils.
The angels never sinned against Christ’s blood
The devils never sinned against God’s patience
The devils never sinned against examples made for them by any fallen before
To Watson, the absence of shame among the impenitent places them farther from repentance. The unjust knows no shame (Zeph 3:5), and many sin away the capacity to know or feel shame. Historically, the LORD branded His people, the Israelites, due to their shame. That they had no shame was their shame, and they were branded that way (Jer 6:15). Worse yet, Watson observes that those without shame grow to become proud of their sins and glory in them (Phil 3:19). More plainly, those without shame can come to parade their offenses against God and become proud of them. To the believer, Watson urges the penitent to blush, as described by Ezra (Ezra 9:6). Believers who claim Yahweh as their God without shame stemming from personal sin live or think by the hypocrisy that affects their view of His grace.
Hatred of Sin
The ingredients of repentance are further assembled as they together dwell within the penitent in opposition to sin. To review the theological meaning or definition of sin without secular taint or influence requires a summary of historical doctrine rooted in Scripture. To thoroughly hate and loathe sin, it is necessary to attempt a meager view of what it is. As sin in all its forms is an enemy to believers, it is enough to only see it as evil thoughts, feelings, words, actions, and omissions that violate the moral standard of God. Sin is the transgression of something forbidden, or it ignores something required by God’s law or character. Yet, Apostle Paul’s understanding of sin involves an analysis of anthropology and soteriology from his written letter to the church in Rome (Rom 7-8). While he writes of sin as an echo personified (Gen 4:7), actual human sinning always remains in full view of resistance against God. To this extent, its personification helps us recognize sin as the totality of human failure and depravity.10
Watson makes a series of specific points about how hatred for sin is present in the penitent believer. It is a necessity for true repentance as Watson wrote an elaborate interwoven rationale and narrative about what hatred of sin looks like.
A. There is a hatred of abomination or loathing (Ezek. 36:31).
B. There is a hatred of enmity.
When a man’s spirit is set against sin.
True hatred of sin is universal.
True hatred of sin is quatenus sin (in all its forms).
True hatred of sin is implacable.
Sin is opposed by authentic believers who oppose sin in others.
With further clarity about the hatred of sin, to love it is worse than committing it.
Turning from Sin
As Watson finishes his discourse on the nature of true repentance, he offers several ingredients for the reader to recognize the same within themselves or among others. The final ingredient must include a forsaking of it where the impenitent leaves the sinful life behind. There are specifics about what turning from sin involves and why it must be final without regret or return.
Turning from sin must be from the whole heart.
Turning from sin cannot be partial. It must be from all sin.
It must be a turning from sin for spiritual reasons.
Turning from sin must include turning to God.
Turning from sin must be final and without return. a. “It is against clear light: against the illuminations of the Spirit.” b. To return to sin reproaches God. “He that returns to sin interpretively charges God with some evil. If a man puts away his wife, it implies he knows some fault in her. To leave God and return to sin is tacitly to asperse the Deity. God who hates putting away (Mal 2:16) hates that he himself should be put away. To return to sin gives the Devil more power over a man than ever (Matt 12:43). When a man turns from sin, the Devil seems to be cast out of him, but when he returns to sin, here is the Devil entering into his house again and taking possession, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.”
Turning from sin should be a permanent change for these reasons:
There is justice and punishment without it (Matt 12:45).
Periodic turning from sin with less frequency is still damnable (Jer 8:5, Ezek 33:11, Acts 26:28).
If we turn to God, He will turn to us (Zech 1:3).
Chapter 5 – Repentance is Compelling and Obligatory
The call to repentance is not a request toward people inclined to hear a passing suggestion. The imperative to repent is necessary, urgent, and salvific.
God, with ultimate authority, instructs and directs all people to repent (Acts 17:30). This is a command. Yet, it is reminiscent of the famous quote from Augustine, “Thou commandest continency (self-control); give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou wilt.”11 The work of repentance is a sovereign work of God through the free will of people. Paradoxically, to the command to repent, it is a gift granted (2 Tim 2:25).
God will not accept anyone unless there is repentance (Ex 23:7, Isa 1:16, 2 Cor 6:14).
People who continue in impenitence are not within Christ’s commission (see his commission, Isa. 61:1). He has been sent to the brokenhearted. As Watson puts it, “if ever Christ brings men to Heaven, it shall be through Hell’s gates” (Acts 5:31). It is Watson’s view that Christ will not save someone regardless of a person’s repentant heart.12
We have, by sin, wronged God. By repentance, we humble and judge ourselves for the sin committed. We set to our seal that God is righteous if He should destroy us: thus, we give glory to God and do what is in us to restore his honor.
Watson further continues, “if God should save men without repentance, making no discrimination, then by this rule he must save all; not only men, but Devils, as Origen once held; and so consequently the decrees of Election and Reprobation must fall to the ground; which how diametrically opposite it is to sacred writ, let all judge.
At this point, it is necessary to make side observations about the role of Scripture (i.e., sacred writ) in terms of its necessity toward repentance. It was Origen’s understanding that the Scriptural text is “sacramental,” according to Torjesen in her work, Hermeneutical procedure and theological structure in Origen’s exegesis (Patristische Texte und Studien). Torjesen is an academic studying gender, feminism, and indigenous peoples. She references de Lubac in her work about the literal and spiritual nature of interpretation. Henri de Lubac was a progressive Catholic priest early in life. Still, he later became accepted and admired after the second Vatican council and a lengthy period of alienation and censorship from the Catholic church.
While it is of interest to understand what de Lubac’s views were of Origen and the necessity of mysticism, there is significant thought and interest about the spiritually transformative nature of scripture. The work and presence of the Holy Spirit are written as mystical to converted readers the text, Gohl makes the following written assertion:
“For Origen, when Christians come into contact with the text, they are coming into contact with the Logos (Jesus Christ) Himself. Through this contact, the Logos instructs and transforms the Christian soul into His own likeness (see 2 Cor 3:18).”13 As Gohl cites Torjesen and functions as an Episcopal academic leader, he likely has post-modern progressive views overall. As this reference corresponds to Colossians 3:16 (“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…”), Origen’s view in this regard is better supported by James 1:21, which informs readers, “humbly accept the word God has planted in your hearts, for it has the power to save your souls.”
Chapter 6 – The Difficulties of Repentance
It will be harder for some to repent than others. The conditions and circumstances where some will find it exceedingly difficult to repent. Watson implicitly concludes that the act of repentance rests upon persons who are not made distinctions between believers and unbelievers. As if it were a final act to infer that repentance during conversion and profession of faith precedes continuing repentance necessary in the life of a believer whether habitual sin is present or not.
1. Fruitless, barren, and desolate of heart cannot intake the grace, mercy, and provision to repent. Watson applies three vivid illustrations here.
Watson references Hebrews 6:8 without citing the passage, “ But if it bears thorns and thistles, it is worthless and near to being cursed, and its end is to be burned.” He infers that the impenitent is unable to drink the rain to bear the fruit of repentance. As such, he is subject to cursed status.
The blacksmith’s metal plunged into the fire, where it does not melt or become refined, has little hope.
Historically, God has sent to his people prophet after prophet, messenger after messenger, to get them to repent, but they would not.
The fig tree that Jesus encountered was cursed as it bore no fruit. The tree withered and died (Mark 11:15-21).
2. The frequency of sin a person commits has a bearing upon the difficulty in which it is possible to repent. Watson compares the Angel with a flaming sword and a person’s conscience to contrast the severity of succumbing to temptation. Finally, to make his point scripturally grounded, he references Job 24:13, where there is the prospect of sinning against the light.
Geneva (Masoretic Text; Closer Rendering of Watson’s Bible): “These are thei, that abhorre the light: thei knowe not the waies thereof, nor continue in the paths thereof.” – Geneva Bible (Geneva: Rovland Hall, 1560), Job 24:13.
KJV (Masoretic Text; Closer Rendering of Watson’s Bible): “They are of those that rebel against the light; they know not the ways thereof, nor abide in the paths thereof.”
English Standard Version (ESV; Modern Translation): “There are those who rebel against the light, who are not acquainted with its ways, and do not stay in its paths.”
There is a difference between sinning for want of the light and sinning against the light. Where to do so would give rise to the unpardonable sin, as Watson puts it. However, Watson does not offer a written rationale here about Christ Jesus’s urging for forgiveness up to seventy-seven times (ESV, NIV, NRSV, NRSVCE, NABRE) or seventy times seven (LSB, NASB, ERV, KJV, NKJV, HCSB, RSV, ASV, AV1873, RSV2CE, ESV-CE, CSB, NLT, LEB) to render forgiveness to the penitent.
Chapter 7 – Reprehensibility of the Impenitent
To quote Watson further, his views on the permanence of sin become apparent. As he wrote, “Tis not falling into the water drowns, but lying in it: ‘Tis not falling into sin damns, but lying in it without repentance,” his views are in alignment that the spiritual harm sin causes is not permanent. What makes it permanent is the absence of repentance. Stubborn resistance to repentance of known sin is the same as remaining within it. Where holding onto it brings a person to condemnation according to scripture. Hearts not broken by the practice of sin are holding onto it because the personal value of sinful offense is greater than what repentance is and does. What’s worse, to become mentally entangled in justification while developing perspectives about sin is an investment contrary to the intended meaning of what God makes clear.
Chapter 8 – Serious Exhortations to Repentance
As Watson puts it, this chapter begins with two branches in chapter nine. The first concerns motives, and the second concerns speed. Watson’s writing from under 400 years ago is not formatted conventionally according to the layout and organization of the subject matter within this chapter. The subordinate imperatives concerning Watson’s exhortation are covered in two sections entitled with headers as Chapter IX. It doesn’t become clear that there are these two overall exhortations with various reasons and means until reading into the second chapter IX (“speedy repentance”) to understand that it’s a “second branch.” And by inference, “motives” are the first. The layout and format of this written work and the old English terms demonstrate that his Doctrine of Repentance is structurally an underdeveloped message. For this summary document, the following title was applied to capture Watson’s effort at conveying his message about the motives and speedy repentance: The Motives and Timeliness of Repentance.
Exhortations
Repentance is Necessary
Repentance is Necessary for All Persons
The Great Ones and Nobles
The Flagitious Sinners of the Nation
The Cheating Crew
For Civil Persons
For Hypocrites
For God’s People
Repent of Rash Censuring
Repent of Vain Thoughts
Repent of Vain Fashions
Repent of Decays in Grace
Repent of Non-Improvement of Talents
Repent of Forgotten Sacred Vows
Repent of Unanswerableness to Blessings Received
Repent of Worldliness
Repent of Your Divisions
Repent for the Iniquity of Your Holy Things
Repentance is Necessary for all Sins
Chapter 9 – The Motives and Timeliness of Repentance
As entitled by this chapter, this is the “first branch” of “serious exhortations” to repentance, with the second to follow as an exhortation to “speedy repentance.” The following motives are given and enumerated without headers or titles but simply through sentences with the following content concerning the subject matter with meaning. The terms in use and the assembly of phrases again point to old English during the 1600s when this document was written.
Motives
Sorrow and Melting of Heart Fits us for Holy Duty (Acts 9:11, 2 Chron 34:19)
Repentance is Highly Acceptable (Ps 51:17, Luke 7:38)
Repentance Commends all our Services to God (Luke 18:14, Acts 2:37)
Without Repentance, Nothing Will Avail Us
Repenting Tears are Delicious (John 16:21-22)
Great Sins Repented of Shall Find Mercy (Isa 1:18, Matt 18:22)
Repentance is the Inlet to Spiritual Blessings (Luke 7:47, 2 Cor 3:16, Gal 5:22)
Repentance Ushers in Temporal Blessings (Job 22:23, Hag 1:6)
Repentance Brings Awareness of the Great Cost to Christ (Dan 9:26)
Repentance is the End of Afflictions (Deut 8:2, 2 Chron 33:12-13)
Repentance Brings an End to Mourning (Rom 7:17)
Repentance Brings Reward (Rom 6:22)
Impenitency is Evil (Mark 3:5, Rev 2:21)
There is a Day of Judgment Coming (Acts 17:31)
Timeliness
Now that the “second branch” of exhortations is identified as “speedy repentance,” they follow the 16 various “motives” from the prior section above. The nested subject matter about the motives and speed of repentance indicates that in the 1600s, Watson or the publisher (LONDON, Printed, by R. W. for Thomas Parkhurst, at the Sign of the Golden Bible on London-Bridge. 1668.), did not correctly understand or apply more helpful outlining conventions using numerals and alphanumerics to organize formed thoughts and written work. Nevertheless, the following four arguments below were listed in the original work of 1668 to persuade readers to repent “speedily.” These are to be taken into consideration with the 16 motives presented above.
Now is the season of Repentance, and everything is best done in its season (2 Cor 6). Now is the accepted time.
The sooner you repent, the fewer sins you will have to answer for.
The sooner we repent, the more glory we may bring to God.
It is of dangerous consequence to put off repentance longer.
The days of grace are past when the conscience no longer reaches a person
When a person is in such a spiritual lethargy that nothing will work upon him or make him sensible.
Everyone’s days are numbered; what assurance do we have to live another day?
To further outline additional subject matter concerning the speed at which one should repent, there are three reasons why it’s dangerous to procrastinate, delay, or prolong the time to repentance until sickness or the final days upon the death bed.
How do you know you will have a time of sickness?
Suppose you should have a time of sickness; how do you know you shall have the use of your senses?
Suppose you should have your senses, yet how do you know your frame of mind will allow for such a work as repentance?
How do you know if God will give you the grace to repent if you wait until your sick bed or death bed?
Chapter 10 – The Trial of Our Repentance
The apostle Paul gives us the means to examine whether personal repentance is authentic. More precisely, we learn from his second letter to the church in Corinth in first-century Asia minor. The attestation Paul presents to the church is what we learn and apply to us today about testing our repentance. Two versions of scripture are compared to understand what Watson explains about this trial. First, a modern translation from the Legacy Standard Bible, and second, the KJV that Watson used during the development of his treatise.
“For behold what earnestness this very thing—this godly sorrow1—has brought about in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what alonging, what zeal, what bavenging of wrong! In everything you cdemonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.” – 2 Cor 7:11 LSB
1 Literal: sorrow according to God, a2 Cor 7:7, b2 Cor 2:6, cRom 3:5
“For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed bafter a godly sort, what ccarefulness it wrought in you, yea, whatdclearing of yourselves, yea, whatindignation, yea, whatefear, yea, whatfvehement desire, yea, whatfgzeal, yea, whatgrevenge! In all things ye have happroved yourselves to be clear iin this matter.” – 2 Cor 7:11 KJV
bver. 9 marg., cver. 12. ch. 8:7, 8, 16. Wisd. 14:17 in the Gk. See Rom. 12:8. dActs 22:1. & 25:16. 1 Cor. 9:3. 2 Tim. 4:16. 1 Pet. 3:15 in the Gk, ever. 15. See Eph. 6:5., fver. 7., gComp. ch. 2:6., hGal. 2:18 (Gk.). See Rom. 3:5. & 16:1., i1 Thess. 4:6 marg.
Watson parsed a segment of Paul’s letter to examine the meaning of separate relevant terms and how they work together to fully understand what authentic repentance is and what it does within a person from an apostolic perspective. By order of appearance, each term is listed as outlined. It must be understood that the context of this historical passage concerns the church in Corinth that Paul rebuked for its spiritual condition in his first letter. After the church at Corinth had corrected its behaviors, he commended the nature of their repentance as a body of believers.
Carefulness This is a careful shunning of all temptations to sin. By a spirit of diligence, the true penitent flees from sin. In the words of Ambrose, “Qui peniter solicitus est ne peccet,” which is to say that the penitent is thoroughly anxious not to sin.
Clearing of Ourselves The penitent doesn’t let sin lie festering in his conscience. The penitent believer can’t let indwelling sin remain within as he pours out tears before the Lord. He judges himself for his sin, and he begs for mercy in the Name of Christ. He persists in begging for mercy until his conscience is cleared.
Indignation The penitent believer loathes sin and rises against it. He is indignant about sin that presents itself, and the penitent hates it with utter disgust. Watson further wrote, “God is never better pleased with us than when we fall out with ourselves for sin.” Moreover, to quote Augustine, “Quid est poenitens nisi homo iratus sibi?” which translates as, “What is a penitent but a man angry with himself?”
Fear Another factor found within the penitent is the presence of fear. After sin has made its way into a believer, it is bitter. The penitent is afraid to go near to sin again as he is afraid to lose God’s favor. The possibility of a hardened heart terrifies the believer (Prov 28:14). As Job 41 informs readers, a sinner is like the Leviathan, made without fear. While a repenting person fears and sins not, a graceless person sins and fears not.
Vehement Desire The penitent desires more power against sin and to be released from it. While the sinner is freed from Satan, he still goes about with a chain around his ankle and greatly desires to be free from it. He has a lasting and burning desire to be free from corruption (Rom 7:24).
Zeal Desire and zeal work together to stir the believing penitent to salvation. It quickens the pursuit of God’s glory. It tramples upon danger, emboldens opposition, and encounters difficulty. It causes persistence in Godly sorrow. To Watson’s point, “Paul before conversion was mad against the Saints (Act 26:11). And after conversion he was judged mad for Christ’s sake (Acts 26:24). “Paul, thou art beside thy self” was the proclamation of Festus, but it was zeal, not frenzy. Zeal spurs duty and fervency (Rom 12:11).
Revenge The penitent has a holy malice in the pursuit of the death of sin. He crucifies his lusts (Gal 5:24). The penitent actively looks for ways to kill the presence of sin and even a hint of it with relentless intent. The source of sin and temptation is sought to take revenge against it when trespasses or iniquities surface. For every sin committed, revenge is taken against it with judicious, meticulous, hostile, or submissive and heart-rending action against it. Books are burned, music is severed, thoughts are repudiated, the internet is filtered, social media is limited, certain users are blocked, and sinful influences are forsaken. The depth and range of sin that presents itself upon a believer are countered with double ill intent.
Together, as Watson puts it, are the “blessed fruits and products of Repentance.” These are the criteria by which believers can know they are repentant. The following chapters, 11 and 12, concerning cautions and comforts, are included in “The Doctrine of Repentance,” published by The Banner of Truth. However, Watson’s manuscripts separated these into individual chapters.
Chapter 11 – A Necessary Caution
To understand the full effect of Watson’s cautions, he warns of two errors about what it is for, what it is for, and what it is supposed to do. For those who have solemnly repented, it is necessary to properly understand cautions concerning how the Catholic church views it.
Repentance is not a Sacrament “Though repentance is necessary and excellent, as you have heard, take heed that you do not ascribe too much to repentance. The Papists are guilty of a double error; First, they make repentance a Sacrament. Yet Christ never made it so; and who may institute Sacraments, but He who can give virtue to them? Repentance can be no Sacrament because it wants an outward sign. A Sacrament cannot properly be without a sign.”
Repentance is not Meritorious “The Papists make repentance meritorious: they say it doth ex congruo (altogether fitting) merit pardon; this is a gross error. Indeed, repentance fits us for mercy. When the plow breaks up the ground, it fits it for the seed: So when the heart is broken up by repentance, it is fitted for remission, but it doth not merit it. God will not save us without repentance, nor yet for it. Repentance is a qualification, not a cause. I grant repenting tears are precious; as Gregory said, they are the fat of the sacrifice. And as Basil said, the medicine of the soul. And as Bernard, the wine of Angels; yet tears are not satisfactory for sin. We drop sin with our tears; therefore, they cannot satisfy. Austin (Augustine) saith well, I have read of Peter’s tears, but no man ever read of Peter’s satisfaction. Christ’s blood only can merit pardon. We please God by repentance, but we do not satisfy him by it. To trust our repentance is to make it a Savior. Though repentance helps to purge out the filth of sin, it is Christ’s blood that washes away the guilt of sin; therefore, do not idolize repentance: Do not rest upon this, that your heart hath been wounded for sin, but rather, that your Savior has been wounded for sin. When you have wept, say as he, Lord Jesus, wash my tears in your blood.” The quote applied here is edited to modern English from Watson’s original manuscript without changing the meaning of his treatise.
Chapter 12 – Comfort to the Repenting Sinner
Watson asks readers if God has given them a repentant heart. If He has given that to the Christian, there is everlasting comfort in three areas.
Your Sins are Pardoned A repentant condition is a pardoned condition. Furthermore, God looks upon the repentant as if no offense was committed. And He becomes a friend and father who puts the robe upon the prodigal who has returned. As Isaiah 44:22 portrays sin as a cloud, it is cleared away by repentance to obtain mercy.
God Will Pass an Act of Oblivion As the Parliament of England implemented the Indemnity and Oblivion Act of 1660 (12 Cha. II c. 11), it pardoned many who committed crimes during the English Civil War. Watson uses the same principle here. Only as from an ultimate governing authority about crimes committed by the believer through sinful thoughts, actions, behaviors, or omissions. As God remembered the sins of Israel no more (Jer. 31:34), He is said to no longer remember the sins of the penitent. He is said to have cast sins into the depth of the Sea (Micah 7:19). As Watson puts it, “not as cork, but as lead,” so the Lord will never account for them or recall them. The sins of the penitent are blotted out of His record of wrongs (Isa. 43:25). To punctuate the finality of this removal further, Watson’ elaborates:
“Some move the question, whether the sins of the godly shall be mentioned at the last day. The Lord has said, He will not remember them; and He is blotting them out: So that if their sins be mentioned, it shall not be to their prejudice, for the debt-book is crossed.”
Conscience Will Now Speak Peace The flowers of joy are plucked as the Christian conscience is in a state of solace (2 Cor. 1:12)—Tranquilla conscientia tranquillat omnia (A calm conscience calms everything). With peace, the Christian can look to death with comfort as the penitent believer is an heir to the Kingdom (Luke 6:20). The believer’s life in repentance has been a life of tears, but at death, now the tears shall be wiped away. Until then, the Christian at peace can approach God with boldness in prayer and look to Him not as a judge but as Father.
Chapter 13 – Prescribing Some Means for Repentance
This chapter of Watson’s treatise (chapter XV) numerically skips forward from his written work just prior (chapter XII) to indicate it is redacted or missing material. And as the final section of his treatise consists of numerous sections of practical means, he wrote to Christians with Scriptural support.
Serious Considerations
Take into dire account what sin truly is. There is enough evil in sin to make us repent. And as it is, Watson covers twenty evils to explain why that is so.
Every sin is a recession from God (Jer.2:5). Elongat hominem à Deo— It estranges man from God (Jacob de Valent).
Sin is walking contrary to God
Sin is an injury to God
Sin is profound ignorance
Sin is a piece of desperateness
Sin is a spiritual filthiness
In sin is odious ingratitude
Sin is a debasing thing
Sin is a damage
Sin is a burthen
Sin is a debt
There is deceitfulness in sin
Sin is a spiritual sickness
Sin is a bondage
Sin hath a spreading malignity in it
Sin is a vexatious thing
Sin is an absurd thing
There is cruelty in every sin
Sin is a spiritual death
Sin without repentance tends to final damnation
The second serious consideration to work repentance is to consider the mercies of God.
1. Private Mercies
Intervention over Fears
Free Grace
2. Positive Mercies
God as Bountiful Benefactor (Gen. 48:15)
God as Merciful Deliverer (Judg. 2:4)
Consider God’s afflictive providences to refine hearts toward Him.
Answerable for Sin
Consider how much we shall have to answer for if we do not repent. Rather than answer for heaped-up sins over a lifetime, Christ will answer for them. His blood will wash away the sins of the penitent.
Settled Determination
A third means conducive to repentance is a settled determination to leave sin. Even from an inability to leave sin, become bound to Christ and engage His strength to mortify corruption.
Earnest Prayer
The fourth means conducive to repentance is earnest supplication. Pray for a repentant heart because it is a gift and a blessing.
Seek God
The fifth means is to endeavor after a clearer discovery of God. In seeking after God, get a clearer view of self and its corruption to repent in dust and ashes (Job 42:5-6). As the glory and purity of God are sought while reaching for personal holiness, personal blemishes fall away.
Labor for Faith
Lastly, labor for faith. There is no separation from sin without union with Christ.
Citations
1 Thomas Watson, The Doctrine of Repentance, Useful for These Times by Thomas. Watson, Early English Books Online (London: R.W. for Thomas Parkhurst, 1668). 2 John MacArthur, “The Danger of Calling the Church to Repent,” April 11th, 2022, https://www.gty.org/library/blog/B181008/the-danger-of-calling-the-church-to-repent. Accessed 12/02/2022. 3 The Westminster Larger Catechism: With Scripture Proofs. (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1996). 4 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 640. 5 Theodore Alois Buckley, The Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (London: George Routledge and Co., 1851), 33-34. 6 Michael Glazier and Monika K. Hellwig, The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2004), 453. 7 Ibid. Watson, 9. 8”•” Indicates a letter or number is illegible or missing in the manuscript. 9 P. Vergilius (Virgil) Maro, “Bucolics, Aeneid, and Georgics Of Vergil,” ed. J. B. Greenough (Medford, MA: Ginn & Co., 1900). 10 M. de Jonge, “Sin,” ed. Karel van der Toorn, Bob Becking, and Pieter W. van der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (Leiden; Boston; Köln; Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge: Brill; Eerdmans, 1999), 782. 11 Augustine of Hippo, “The Confessions of St. Augustin,” in The Confessions and Letters of St. Augustin with a Sketch of His Life and Work, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. G. Pilkington, vol. 1, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company, 1886), 155. 12 Ibid. Watson, 76. 13 Justin M. Gohl, “Origen,” ed. John D. Barry et al., The Lexham Bible Dictionary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2016).
For quite a long time, I’ve had an abridged version of John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin published by Banner of Truth. Its length is only about 130 pages, and it spans 14 short chapters, just like the unabridged version. However, it was written in significantly different prose to retain thoughts throughout the structural layout and format of the book. As it was so different and written this way as “easy to read” (as indicated by its cover), the editor (Richard Rushing) updated John Owen’s old English literary expression to modern terms and phrases. The text changes went quite a bit further than that compared to Owen’s written work. So, I turned my attention to the unabridged version and went through that until completion. The written copy I have is from The Works of John Owen Volume 6 of 16, part 1 (“The Mortification of Sin in Believers”).1 John Owen wrote this treatise on killing sin many years before this publication date of 1862, but the subject matter was carried forward differently and directly for a more thorough understanding.
While this book section, The Mortification of Sin in Believers, is short, it is highly dense in meaning and urgency. This first pass was an effort to clear through the book (section 1 of volume 6) without analyzing or stopping time to dwell upon anything. The overall effort was to get the message and meaning as a read-through about a Puritan’s perspective concerning what the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Rome and Colossae. Specifically, the 17th-century puritan was highly concerned about the presence of sin in the lives of believers, and he wrote a widely read examination of what putting sin to death looks like. While the mortification of sin was John Owen’s pressing concern, he offered encouragement, exhortation, clarity, and guidance to understand what sin is and does. He had specific thoughts about what it is to eradicate its root by the Spirit and the involvement of the believer’s intentional will.
“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” – Romans 8:13 KJV
“Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience.” – Colossians 3:5-6 KJV
This is not a book that is simply readable once as a pass-through without much contemplation and self-reflection. Sin is so grave that it eternally damns people, according to scripture. Owen, just as Paul did, wrote of “mortifying” it. As mortification is an old English translation rendering, it corresponds to “putting to death” among modern translations (ESV, NIV, NKJV, HCSB, and more). The term “mortify” is translated the same in both references in Romans 8:13 and Colossians 3:5, while their Greek root terms are different.
Furthermore, mortification, or mortify, is understood from multiple perspectives, all consistent in meaning. “The act of self-denial or the “putting to death” of sinful instincts or cravings in order to have freedom from sin and to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. The NT stresses that this act of humiliation comes about through the grace of God. It is the result of, not the condition for, conversion.” The key passages Paul wrote correspond to numerous principles Owen stressed as they together support the Reformed tradition.
Mortification: The process of “putting to death” one’s sinful nature as the old self, which continually struggles because of the reality of indwelling sin. This process takes place in the lives of believers who, while they have been set free from sin’s dominion by the indwelling Holy Spirit who unites them to Christ, are called to live in light of God’s grace as they actively work out their salvation. …. if it is truly part of sanctification, it must be accomplished through the Spirit of Christ in dynamic interplay with a believer’s response of repentance; mere human effort does not result in increased freedom from sin, even if it changes outward behavior.2
To Owen’s point in his book, while a person could successfully overcome sinful behaviors, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the instincts and cravings were put to death. Compared to Reformed theology, Catholicism also emphasizes Galatians 5:24, where it is necessary to “crucify the flesh.”3 As some English translations render “consider as dead” (NASB, LSB) in a passive sense, many other translations (including various Catholic translations) are active with the “put to death” language. For example, the “Little Rock Catholic Study Bible,” “New American Bible: Revised Edition” (NABRE), “The Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition” (RSVCE), “Douay-Rheims Bible” as mortify (D-R), and the “Ignatius Bible: Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Edition” (RSV2CE) all express the same meaning. When delving further into the definition of the terms nekroō (νεκρόω) in Colossians 3:5 and thanatoō (θανατόω) in Romans 8:13, they both correlate to the “put to death” sense of meaning. The Louw-Nida Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament ties both terms together as figurative in suggestive meaning where intended readers understood the original root manuscripts as conventional figures of speech to communicate the same idea.4
Owen is clear in his book that mortification is not a passive posture of sin in the flesh as mere recognition or consideration from a believer. He stresses that it is an active conscious effort of someone as a converted person who became a believer by faith and repentance. However, he also recognizes that the process of mortification is lifelong, and it depends solely upon the Spirit of Christ to definitively accomplish the continued crucifixion of sin in the life of a believer. The believer is participative by necessity but is not the practical and final means of mortification. The Spirit of Christ is who does the work. As sin was put to death in the sacrifice and resurrection of Christ Jesus, the law of death is applied to sin itself in the lives of believers. Where there Spirit lives within believers, there is the law of life by the Spirit as long as there is no yield to sin. That sin is persistently, iteratively, and ruthlessly killed actively about particular offenses. Mortification is “the slaying of the disease of the soul, and by slaying this disease, it restores and invigorates the soul’s true life.” 5
To further give careful thought about directions, general rules, assertions, means, and the heart, it is of salvific concern to camp on Owen’s written views as supported by scripture. He doesn’t attempt to assign weight to tradition or works of the law. Still, that mortification of the flesh is an intentional effort of faith, necessary to sanctify believers who work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil 2:12-13). As it is impossible to earn salvation through works or efforts that yield positive outcomes and the removal of sins, if efforts of mortification are not by faith, they are of no spiritual value. Owen asserts that such progress involves the replacement of sins with others in the absence of necessary faith through the heart of a believer concerning the treacherous and destructive nature of sin. Under the authority of God’s Word as written by the Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul, those who live by the flesh will die. In contrast, those who live by the Spirit shall live. To be more explicit, regarding the term “flesh” (Rom 8:13 KJV), John Chrysostom (347 – 407 A.D., Archbishop of Constantinople) refers to it as follows: “what Paul means by the flesh in this passage is not the essence of the body but a life which is carnal and worldly, serving self-indulgence and extravagance to the full.” 6
Owen’s readers might also remember Jesus’s parable of the rich man and Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31). And specifically, verse 25: “But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish (see Luke 6:24; Job 21:13; Ps. 17:14). The comparative man who fared “sumptuously” (Luke 16:19) was condemned. Where the rich man in the parable was delighted, glad, and enjoying himself in celebration and rejoicing by dining and merriment, there was apparent opulence that highlighted the disparity between him and Lazarus.
While this is a short book review on the unabridged version of The Mortification of Sin, it is about the abridged version from Banner of Truth Trust and the more comprehensive version in volume 6 from T&T Clark as part of the sixteen-volume set published in 1862 (MDCCCLXII). The first pass through the book is insufficient for a reader to grasp the necessary points of study and understand the subject matter. A surface reading to get a topical understanding of what Owen wrote doesn’t support the best in terms of retention and application. To more fully grasp what Owen wrote here concerning the killing of sin is a weighty subject. Whether a reader’s immersion in the text is through the abridged or unabridged version, this is a book to iterate upon. My first time through this book thoroughly informed me about why John Owen is so widely read and studied. Nevertheless, his pressing concern about the lifelong urgency of killing sin within is not a daily call to repentance but a persistent and ruthless inward campaign to find and destroy anything innate that raises itself against God and the Spirit of Christ.
Citations
___________________________________________ 1 John Owen, The Works of John Owen, ed. William H. Goold, vol. 6 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, n.d., 1862). 2 Kelly M. Kapic and Wesley Vander Lugt, Pocket Dictionary of the Reformed Tradition, The IVP Pocket Reference Series (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), 76. 3 Charles G. Herbermann, Edward A. Pace, et al., eds., “Mortification,” The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church (New York: The Encyclopedia Press; The Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1907–1913). 4 Johannes P. Louw and Eugene Albert Nida, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains (New York: United Bible Societies, 1996), 660. 5 Ibid. Herbermann. 6 John Chrysostom, “Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, on the Epistle of St. Paul to the Romans,” in Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistle to the Romans, ed. Philip Schaff, trans. J. B. Morris, W. H. Simcox, and George B. Stevens, vol. 11, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1889), 434–435.
In recent months, I’ve had a growing interest in prayer, and I’ve been gathering subject matter about the reasons for it and how its continued use is critical within the believer’s life of faith and practice. Prayer is how people communicate with God, and there are many biblical examples within the Old and New Testaments concerning what that means and involves. Jesus spoke of prayer to teach His followers how to pray properly in spirit, sincerity, and truth according to individual and group needs according to God’s will and interests (Matt 6:5-15). With some further interest, I’ve brought together additional relevant titles that shall be read to understand prayer at a greater depth, but this written work is from R.A. Torrey’s short book, How to Pray.
Background
From a Protestant perspective, they are from Reformed and Wesleyan traditions to get a narrowly diverse view about what prayer is, how it functions, and its purposes by examples from within Scripture. Catholic & Orthodox perspectives are considered for further understanding and review in forthcoming separate reviews. These titles are read and closely tracked with notes to clarify what prayer is from various traditions and confessional commitments. The book, How to Pray is a public-domain classic historically read widely among evangelicals. The author has written numerous books and comes from a faith tradition relevant to early perspectives from 20th-century Western Christianity to today. The book review and summary presented here are from the unabridged text within the Moody Classics series from Moody Publishers (ISBN-13 978-0-8024-5652-6).
R.A. Torrey’s “Little Book on Prayer” is 121 pages in a 5” x 7” format, and it covers vital concerns about life in “conversation” with God. While his writing comes from the worldview of Torrey as an early 20th-century Protestant minister, it is clear that the terms and principles come from language inherent in Western civilization at the time. The book has a wild-west tone as Torrey’s spiritual development is from the late 1800s. The book was written and in circulation just after the U.S. Civil War (1861–1865) but before World war I (1914–1918) and II (1939–1945). While How to Pray was written after the industrial revolution between about 1820 through 1840, Western civilization slid into decades of moral descent while humanity underwent the historical “development” of modernity beginning about 1910. After modernism peaked in the 1960s, U.S. cultural and sexual revolutions gave a further pretext for postmodern worldviews to shape societies, governments, academia, economies, and liberalism.
Before some evangelical denominations from liberal traditions sank into moral relativism and decay through their participation in postmodern society’s interests, it surrendered biblical imperatives concerning racial, social, and economic justice with warnings about moral and sexual ethics contrary to centuries of Scriptural interpretation according to the intent of Old and New Testament writers. As R.A. Torrey’s written views come from this era, he objected to the pressures of modernity upon seminaries and the church. And while he didn’t ascribe to a single denomination,1 he was a proponent of Keswick theology,2 which was a partition of theological persuasion aside from the “Arminian strain of Wesleyan thought” and unlike Methodist leaders who dominated the Holiness Movement. As Keswick theology was more within the Calvinist tradition,3 Torrey was a congregationalist in alignment with presbyterian polity. Torrey routinely informed his audiences that he was ‘Episcopresbygationalaptist!‘
From the 19th century to today, the historical presence of Wesleyan thought, and feminist ideology among Methodist traditions of evangelicalism had a significant bearing on the development of Western Protestantism. In contrast to the social and ecclesial priorities of Methodist interests concerning capitulations to modernity, R.A. Torrey was a revivalist and anti-modernist. He was one of the founders of the fundamentalist movement4 before broader evangelicalism superseded it to import various denominations with hidden egalitarian leanings to assert progressive “unity” and soften the edge of biblical adherence of believers to Scriptural faith and practice within modern society. “Fundamentalism” had become a pariah and a pejorative within Western Christianity, just as “Protestantism” was to Catholicism for different reasons. Today, the readership of R.A. Torrey’s How to Pray is situated within evangelicalism that is largely spiritually weak, biblically illiterate to a significant extent, and either in denial or uninformed concerning what Christ expects of His church.
As indicated before, this title, How to Pray, is accompanied by further reading among other faith traditions. Namely, these additional titles shall be reviewed and cited among various others to balance how I begin with Torrey’s work. Eastern Orthodox and Puritan writings on prayer shall also get due attention, but these are well-known with favorably earned reputations.
The Complete Works of E.M. Bounds by E.M. Bounds – The Essentials of Prayer, The Necessity of Prayer, The Possibilities of Prayer, Power through Prayer, Prayer and Praying Men, Purpose in Prayer, The Reality of Prayer, The Weapon of Prayer
An Exposition on Prayer in the Bible by Dr. James Rosscup – Volumes 1 through 4, Expositions from Genesis to Revelation
Fire Within by Dr. Thomas Dubay – St. Teresa of Avila, St. John of the Cross, and the Gospel – on Prayer
R.A. Torrey’s book on prayer spans 12 chapters concerning methods of communication with God involving preparation, state of being, and intentionality. As Christ Jesus taught His disciples how to pray (Luke 11:2-4), He provides a model to follow (Matt 6:5-15). Moreover, he gave guidelines about what not to do during prayer. It is His prayer that sets the New Covenant baseline model for prayer, but there are numerous prayers throughout Scripture that serve as examples. Prayers offered to YHWH originate from the patriarchs and extend to kings, priests, prophets, poets, saints, and puritans throughout the centuries. God heard the prayers we read in Scripture, and believing readers are inspired and motivated to understand their meaning to pray familiarly as models for us to aspire. The prayer of God incarnate to God the Father is the pedagogical model we witness in Scripture, but we also have Jesus’ prayer within the gospels to learn much from. For example, the prayer through John 17 is for all people to marvel at its substance and beauty as the LORD’s relationship to the Father is of enormous spiritual significance.
Yet during the course of daily life, as a disciple asked Jesus how to pray, these were His words for us today.
The Lord’s Prayer
And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.
– Luke 11:2-3 KJV
In The Dark Hallway of Prayerlessness
The editor of this book, Dr. Rosalie de Rosset, wrote an utterly delightful introduction to Torrey’s little book on prayer, How to Pray. Dr. Rosset is a retired Literature, English, and Homiletics professor at Moody Bible Institute. She earned an M.A. in English from Northeastern Illinois University, M.Div. from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, and Rhetoric from The University of Illinois at Chicago. Her summary of Dr. Torrey’s life work was also recounted with her own experiences and affections about prayer that draw the reader into the book with a fresh and open perspective. As prayer is a blessing and privilege, she reminds us that the discipline of it is a source of reward that suggests peace, joy, rest, and contentment. She read numerous books on prayer, both old and new, and she served as a wonderful and fitting editor of this book by R.A. Torrey. Her passing through the dark hallway of prayerlessness was written touchingly by her reading and heartful presentation of this little prayer book. A book that should inspire anyone who may want to draw close to God and speak.
The Importance of Prayer
As Torrey begins his book, he answers the questions about why prayer is essential. He specifically wrote that prayer must be constant, persistent, sleepless, overcoming, and necessary. There were eleven reasons Torrey listed to explain why prayer carries such an urgency to remain disciplined and continuously about it.
There is a devil -An evil influence that seeks to ensnare believers who relax in prayer.
Prayer is God’s appointed way of obtaining things, and the great secret of all lack in our experience, in our life and in our work is neglect of prayer.
Men whom God set forth as a pattern of what He expected Christians to be—the apostles —regarded prayer as the most important business of their lives (Rom 1:9, Eph 1:15-16, Col 1:9, 1 Thess 3:10, 2 Tim 1:3).
Prayer occupied a very prominent place and played a very important part in the earthly life of our Lord (Mark 1:35 Luke 6:12).
A startling quote from this section of the book: “a man or woman who does not spend much time in prayer cannot properly be called a follower of Jesus Christ.”5
Prayer that seems if possible even more forcible than this, namely, praying is the most important part of the present ministry of our risen Lord (Rom. 8:34, Heb. 7:25).
Prayer is the means that God has appointed for our receiving mercy, and obtaining grace to help in time of need (Luke 11:8, Heb. 4:14-16).
Prayer in the name of Jesus Christ is the way Jesus Christ Himself has appointed for His disciples to obtain fullness of joy (Ps. 16:11, John 16:24).
With thanksgiving, every care, anxiety, and need of life is the means that God has appointed for our obtaining freedom from all anxiety, and the peace of God which passes all understanding (Phil 4:6-7).
Prayer is the method that God Himself has appointed for our obtaining the Holy Spirit (Luke 11:13).
Prayer is the means that Christ has appointed whereby our hearts shall not become overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life, and so the day of Christ’s return come upon us suddenly as a snare (Luke 21:34-36, Acts 4:31, Acts 8:15, Eph. 6:18).
Prayer accomplishes the following: a. Prayer promotes our spiritual growth as almost nothing else, indeed as nothing else but Bible study; and true prayer and true Bible study go hand in hand. b. Prayer brings power into our work. c. Prayer avails for the conversion of others. d. Prayer brings blessings to the church.
Torrey doesn’t offer scriptural support on this last point (11).
Praying to God
Torrey makes the point that the recipient of prayer is God and that it is necessary to offer prayer to Him constantly. However, he begins by noting that this continuous prayer is also about how to pray with power. To at least infer that the length and intensity by which prayer is offered have a bearing on the recipient when two or more believers gather together in prayer. He elaborates further on three areas of interest.
In the twelfth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, we have the record of a prayer that prevailed with God and brought to pass great results (Acts 12:5).
The second secret of effective praying is found in the same verse, in the words without ceasing. Rendered as “earnest” in other translations, it carries the tone of a serious, persevering, eager, fervent, and constant heart and intent.
A third secret of right praying is also found in this same verse, Acts 12:5. It appears in the three words “of the church”; there is a special blessing as Torrey interprets Matthew 18:19. Translated quote of Christ Jesus: “If two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”
Note: The word “touching” (προσψαύω) rendered by the KJV, ASV, or ERV doesn’t appear in early manuscripts [4th-century Alexandria (Sinaiticus majuscule)].
The duration and intensity of group prayer appear to have a bearing on how effective prayer is in terms of power. Still, it must be said that God is not beholden to group pressure or the substance of a group’s prayer (and its persistence or intensity) to get what’s requested, even if motives are pure. God’s promises are true, and He fulfills them as recorded within Scripture; however, as He does fulfill His promises, it is by His will and sovereign intent about how He does that.
Obeying and Praying
The book comes to a critical point regarding the relationship between prayer and obedience. Torrey brings the reader’s attention to 1 John 3:22, where the biblical author makes clear a correlation between what we ask and receive to doing what He instructs and what pleases him. In this context, the term “because” is set as a conjunction, not to indicate a cause-and-effect relationship between an antecedent and result but a correlation between obedience, loyalty, and love with answered prayer.
“Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.” – 1 John 3:22
Torrey stresses the point that it is necessary to do what pleases God, not only that which constitutes simple obedience according to His Word through Scripture. The spirit of what pleases God in a believer’s faith and practice is a matter of principle according to what the Spirit produces as fruit (Galatians 5:22). Moreover, an internal conviction of the Holy Spirit that serves as a source of discernment shall be sought and honored to please God as well.
Praying in the Name of Christ and According to the Will of God
Consistent with each chapter of this book on prayer, Torrey structures his points in an ordered and numbered fashion. Previous chapters pertain to the reasons for prayer, prayer directed to God individually or in the corporate gathering of believers, and the necessity of obedience with a right heart of love for God. In this way, the believer is advised to pray in the name of Christ Jesus, as the name of Christ has power with God. God the Father is well pleased with Jesus Christ. Christ Jesus, the Great Advocate of believers, is heard by God the Father.
It was a wonderful word about prayer that Jesus spoke to His disciples on the night before His crucifixion, “Whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in My name, I will do it.”
Great light is thrown upon the subject “How to Pray” by 1 John 5:14-15: “And this is the boldness which we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His Will, He heareth us: and if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of Him.”
To further understand the will of God either by general or special revelation from Him, Torrey draws the reader’s attention to Scripture as the Word of God (Luke 11:13, James 1:5) and by the help of the Holy Spirit. To quote Torrey’s emphasis on God’s word to discern the Lord’s will, he wrote the following:
“To study the Word to find what God’s will is as revealed there in the promises, and then simply take these promises and spread them out before God in prayer with the absolutely unwavering expectation that He will do what He has promised in His Word.”6
Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome (Rom. 8:26-27) concerning the help from the Holy Spirit as He intercedes for us. He prays for the saints according to the will of God. As the Holy Spirit intercedes for us, Torrey also draws our attention to the confidence we have in Christ, as made clear in 1 John 5:14-15. Furthermore, this love banishes self-condemnation, resulting in confidence in every believer’s relationship with God.7
Praying in the Spirit
Torrey references two passages that call attention to prayer in the Spirit. Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20 explicitly refer to “praying in the Spirit” to indicate a person’s state of being while communicating before God. The Holy Spirit helps believers in Christ before the Father (John 14:16-17) through personal weakness (i.e., “the Spirit helpeth our infirmity” according to Romans 8:26). Torrey says explicitly that the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray.8 And that “true prayer is prayer in the Spirit; that is, the prayer the Spirit inspires and directs.” Torrey makes this point about the authenticity of prayer because of a concern over praying for the right things in the right way. Where to accompany joy and power, prayer in the Spirit is a necessity. However, his accurate observations from authoritative Scripture appear to be about requests, supplications, or petitions and not explicitly about confession, thanksgiving, or adoration. These further categories of prayer involve praying in the Spirit yet are unaddressed in this chapter.
Over and over again in what has already been said, we have seen our dependence upon the Holy Spirit in prayer.
If we are to pray with power we must pray with faith.
As Torrey makes Scripturally sound points about praying in the Spirit, he also covers the point about praying with faith. Jesus informs His followers that belief is necessary for effective prayer (Mark 11:24), and Torrey includes faith or belief as a component of prayer that requires due attention. Together, prayer in the Spirit and prayer in faith work as a methodology or condition about communication with God that bears undeniable merit as the points are grounded in Scripture, and the teachings of Christ are clear and unambiguous in this area. However, it is essential to recognize that the wider context of Christ’s teachings extends to the scope and the state of the heart of prayer. Carefully observing the gospel witness accounts of prayer serve as a model for prayer, yet what Jesus further said about prayer in the context of faith and reconciliation carries enormous weight.
And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” – Mark 11:22-25
Later in the book (chapter 9), Torrey lists various hindrances to prayer. Reconciliation is one of them (Mark 11:25). However, this prayer in faith is spiritually affected by the interpersonal status of relationships we have among believers and people in general, where resentments, grudges, and attitudes of unforgiveness remain held against those who have offended. Faith, as a required state of mental and spiritual belief in the absence of doubt, represents a stable mind confident of who God is and what He can do (James 1:5-6).
It is reasonable to ask where faith comes from where there is no faith and faith is expected for prayer. Torrey points to Scripture as the origination and development of faith as supported by Romans 10:17. More specifically, the “word of Christ” produces faith where it becomes further possible to pray in the Spirit in a growing way among the spiritual lives of believers. As people read or intake the words of Christ, faith is developed to support prayer for various purposes, as outlined in chapter one of this book. It is yet unwise to let it go unrecognized that faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8). At the same time, faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). This faith is “a confident trust and reliance upon Christ Jesus and is the only means by which one can obtain salvation.”9 The passage in Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,” captures the gift’s essence to include grace and faith as one gift together. There is providence and sovereignty at work in the lives of believers in this area of confidence and belief involving faith given to those who would decide to trust Christ Jesus.
In contrast to prayer in the Spirit and by faith, recited prayers and benedictions stand alongside the examples given in Scripture and what Torrey wrote about in this book. Torrey doesn’t touch upon this form of devotion expressed as prayer, but the presence of it in the lives of believers is undeniable. Psalms and prayers are sung and read from prepared materials from Scripture, the Church, Spirit-indwelt individuals, institutions, and the magisterium, where there are true and important spiritual facts and principles that contribute to the development of personal and public faith. Furthermore, fellowship and outreach have an additional effect on the development of faith as believers acknowledge every good thing they have in Christ Jesus (Philemon 1:6). A growing, effective and powerful prayer life rests upon faith as it is formed through the Holy Spirit, Scripture, fellowship among believers, and outreach toward society as belief and spiritual truth is proclaimed. There are benedictions, both written and spoken in person and written in the Word, that have significant biblical and theological meanings. More specifically, the Aaronic and apostolic benedictions commonly appear in ceremonial, worship, and instructional settings directed to YHWH God for His glory and the edification of the saints (Num 6:24-26, Rom 15:13, 2 Cor 13:14, Heb 13:20-21).10
Prayers among believers from structured writings offer a consistent and formatted use of terms, phrases, and recited truths directed inward, just as they are in prayers of sincere reflection and outward expression of petitions. Aside from confessional documents that summarize doctrines, prayer books serve as acknowledgments, devotional, and liturgical aids that help frame spiritual thought and practice. Prayer books appear among theological traditions and denominations that are recited by millions of people and across generations. The Common Book of Prayer is an example of verbiage prescribed and applied by faithful followers of Christ who follow methods of spoken words uttered and thoughts formed to communicate to God about events, instruction, devotion, and worship as a matter of recited effort. Either as empty words outward or to the inward life of the mind. Also, they are as heartfelt words claimed and recited, just as benedictions are to convey meaning and personal or corporate interest within the Church.
Prayer in the Spirit and by faith as an attitude of the softened heart given by God to commune with Him and others is an authentic mode of prayer that substantiates how prayer is formed. Prayers both as free-form thoughts to speak and as read and recited with a warmth of conviction to yield a personal heart of faith and fellowship in the Spirit. Prayers in the Spirit and by faith are not auto-repeated (vain repetitions) empty words that Christ taught against (Matt 6:7) but appropriated words that speak through us and for us by the Spirit as an expression of faith. Singing the Psalms, reciting the Lord’s prayer, and repeating the Aaronic and apostolic benedictions are just a few examples.
Always Praying and Not Fainting
In this section (chapter 6), Torrey wrote about persistence and stamina in prayer. Torrey draws upon the parables of Christ directly from passages within the gospel of Luke. Among two parables, Jesus spoke to His followers about the necessity of continuous prayer as a matter of persistence and great faith. As God is pleased by the faith of His people, it can take continued attention from a believer to press in prayer what is desired to please Him, worship Him, serve Him, and love others through service. Beginning with Luke 11:5-13, Jesus invited understanding about what it meant to ask, seek, and knock, as necessary to receive in faith what was sought. People who appear before God in prayer have, at times, a need to remain persistent as an expression of faith where their importunity demonstrates the sincerity and urgency of petitions. This importunity (Luke 11:8) is a lack of sensitivity about what is proper, and it is a carelessness about the opinion of others. It is a shameless immodesty without concern for propriety or one’s own dignity, and it ignores convention.11 In a manner of speaking, it is shameless persistence.
The example given to us about this importunity is from the Syro-Phœnician (Canaanite) woman who appeared before Jesus in desperation concerning her daughter, who was oppressed by a demon (Matt 15:21-28). While Jesus was initially unresponsive to her and then declined her request for help, she remained persistent with Him in her pleas for help. As Jesus’s disciples were disturbed about her manner of approach and wanted her sent away, her request was heard even after Jesus reasoned that she was not entitled to “the children’s bread.” Jesus’ made the point that His ministry wasn’t for the Gentiles, who were foreign to the work of the Messiah at the time. Jesus’ use of the term “dogs” was correlated to Gentile peoples (Matt 1:26), while the lost people of Israel were “sheep” (Matt 1:24). The sheep were lost, and the dogs were not entitled or eligible as they were not of the house of Israel. While she knew she was an outsider, her persistence prevailed as she confessed and proclaimed Him as Lord and Master. Jesus granted her prayer, and He acknowledged her dignity as a woman who would see her daughter delivered while her faith was made evident before God and the lost sheep of Israel.
An important takeaway in this parable of the Canaanite woman is the recognition that persistence in prayer shows “great faith” that pleases God immensely. We are reminded that without faith, it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6), and persistence in prayer is a way to exercise faith to gain what is sought, but more importantly, to please God by seeking Him continually and, when necessary, with importunity.
Abiding in Christ
When considering what it means to abide in Christ, it is easy to miss how this imperative relates to prayer. Apostle wrote to the church what he witnessed of Christ’s teaching, “If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). What Jesus spoke is a conditional proposition. That is, specifically, “if you abide in Me” and “My words abide in you” results in an outcome involving prayer that pleases God (by inference from the point above). Abiding in Christ is inseparable from abiding in His words. It is impossible to abide in Christ without dwelling upon what He said. And by what was recorded in Scripture to state what He said. What Christ spoke and what the biblical writers convey to generations and all nationalities reach individuals who would appear before God in prayer with the grace and mercy to be heard. Torrey further parses the verse between phrases for readers to understand the conditions for answered prayer.
The first condition is, “If ye abide in Me.”
But there is another condition stated in this verse, though it is really involved in the first: “And My words abide in you.”
The words of Christ settled within and richly observed afresh in the hearts and minds of believers yield a disposition of “abiding in Christ.” It isn’t enough to become familiar with God’s Word and the words of Christ by reading the Bible once or less than infrequently and expect to be heard in prayer. It is necessary to feed upon the word. Dwelling in the Word, living in the Word, and spiritually washing oneself in the word bring sanctification (John 17:17) as a means of worship in spirit and truth. Prayers thought and spoken are in the absence of neglect of the Word for petitions to be heard, accepted, and answered insofar as God chooses.
Torrey makes a further point that is quite astonishing. He asserted, “The Holy Spirit works His prayers in us through the Word, and neglect of the Word makes praying in the Holy Spirit an impossibility” (Rom 8:26-27). In contrast to empty ritualistic words uttered by a person in dry prayer and worship, the Spirit works with believers’ meditations upon God’s Word. And by this assertion of Christ, “if you abide in Me, and My words abide in you,” we understand and sit upon the ground of faith for the Spirit to intercede before God the Father on our behalf. God answers the prayers He inspires by His Word indwelt within believers who live by faith.
Of significant interest as a counter-weight to Torrey’s assertion here, consider the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (Luke 18:12-14). Notice the contrast between the religious leader immersed in the Torah as Old Covenant Scripture as compared to the tax collector, an adversary of the Jewish people, who lifted his eyes and pleaded in desperation, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner!” That man in Christ’s parable was heard and went away justified, even as an illustration of spiritual truth, the LORD hears those who reach out to Him in faith. To further reinforce this point, consider the thief on the cross executed alongside Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you enter into your Kingdom” (Luke 23:42). God incarnate heard the man’s petition and, by His mercy, gave him the grace to die in peace assured of God’s presence to come. There isn’t a contradiction here about what Jesus teaches us about prayers heard and answered. Torrey highlights that those in a relationship with Jesus are expected to abide in His words as necessary for His people to be heard.
Praying with Thanksgiving
In addition to what apostle Paul wrote about thanksgiving during the course of prayer (Phil 4:6-7), Jesus spoke of gratitude beforehand during His ministry. Torrey points out, “God is deeply grieved by the thanklessness and ingratitude of which many of us are guilty.” He telegraphs Jesus’ experience to people today according to the healing of the ten lepers (Luke 17:11-19) at a village between Samaria and Galilee. As the gospel record makes clear, Jesus sent them on their way to present themselves to priests, and as they went, they were healed. As glorious as this miraculous event was, one Samaritan returned to praise God in gratitude to Jesus. Ten percent of the people who were obedient to present themselves to the priests returned to thank Jesus for the cleansing. They asked for help, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us” (Luke 17:13), and their request was answered with a miracle Jesus performed. One out of ten returned in gratitude. All could have returned to praise God and glorify Him with thanksgiving to Christ and then go to the priests as instructed. One might surmise that the Samaritan did return to Christ Jesus as the high priest in a spiritual sense because He gave the cleansed leper freedom to “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well” (c.f. Mark 10:52). In any case, the Samaritan’s attitude was of praise to express authentic, heartfelt gratitude by faith that pleased God.
While Apostle Paul stressed the necessity of thanksgiving during prayer to the church at Philippi (Phil 4:6-7), he also wrote to the church as Thessalonica, “in everything give thanks” (1 Thess 5:18). It is in these passages that we recognize that relevant, valid, and necessary methods of prayer extend beyond supplication, intercession, and petition. And even with the Lord’s model, prayer is recorded in Matthew 6:5-15 where there isn’t a specific meaning of terms to indicate a heart or words spoken of gratitude. Prayer with meaning from believers by faith includes thanksgiving as fitting the occasion for prayer. However, thanksgiving is never neglected.
Hindrances to Prayer
There are several hindrances to prayer that Torrey wrote about over 120 years ago. Taken together, they constitute selfish motives [(1) James 4:3], personal sin [(2) Isa 59:1-2], idolatry [(3) Ezek 14:3], neglect of the poor [(4) Prov 21:13], unforgiveness [(5) Mark 11:25], spousal dishonor [(6) 1 Pet 3:7], and doubt or disbelief [(7) James 1:5-7]. The following list is what Torrey offers as hindrances. While Torrey cites scripture from the English Revised Version (ERV), the English Standard Version (ESV) translation is substituted here for improved readability.
The first hindrance to prayer we will find in James 4:3 (ESV): “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.”
The second hindrance to prayer we find in Is. 59:1-2 (ESV): “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
The third hindrance to prayer is found in Ezek. 14:3 (ESV): “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them?” Idols in the heart cause God to refuse to listen to our prayers.
The fourth hindrance to prayer is found in Prov. 21:13 (ESV): “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself call out and not be answered.”
The fifth hindrance to prayer is found in Mark 11:25 (ESV): “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
The sixth hindrance to prayer is found in 1 Peter 3:7 (ESV): “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you1 of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.” Here we are plainly told that a wrong relation between husband and wife is a hindrance to prayer.
The seventh hindrance to prayer is found in James 1:5–7 (ESV): “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;” Prayers are hindered by unbelief.
Torrey titles chapter nine, “Hindrances to Prayer.” However, when reading the verse references carefully, Torrey accurately proves from Scripture what conditions negatively affect prayer in believers’ lives. However, there doesn’t appear to be room for reading some of these verses as impediments per se as compared to prayers outright obstructed for various reasons. Apostle Peter applied the term “hindered” (ἐγκόπτεσθαι) in 1 Peter 3:7 concerning prayer impediments due to spousal dishonor, whereas that same term doesn’t appear among the other verses where Torrey makes his points about prayers going unheard or unanswered. However, there isn’t another term among these concerns that indicates “hindrance” with a wider semantic range of understanding. The term “hindrance” Torrey uses here indicates the presence of something that interferes, delays, or damages prayers accepted and heard. Compared to the loosely applied word “hindrance,” which infers a strained reach in prayer as opposed to a sense of obstruction or obstacle that altogether prevents the hearing and answering of prayers as an apparent interpretation according to the intent of the biblical authors. There is a big difference between hindered and blocked prayers, and both situations appear as biblical truths from the translations we read.
When to Pray
While not explicitly made evident, the “when” question is answered in terms of chronology, durations, intervals, and events. In this sense, Torrey indicates the circumstances in which it is appropriate and necessary to pray. He rightfully draws upon Christ’s life and ministry examples to answer questions about “when to pray.” As this classic book is entitled “How to Pray,” this chapter offers thoughts about “When to Pray.” In a limited way, Torrey’s various chapters answer questions about when, where, how, why, and what to pray. The verse passages Torrey quoted here are kept in the ERV.
In the 1st chapter of Mark, the 35th verse, we read, “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, He went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.” See Mark 1:35 ESV as a comparison.
In the 6th chapter of Luke in the 12th verse, we get further light upon the right time to pray. We read, “And it came to pass in those days, that He went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.” See Luke 6:12 ESV as a comparison.
Jesus Christ prayed before all the great crises in His earthly life. (Luke 6:12, 13; Luke 9:18, 21, 22; Luke 3:21, 22; Mark 1:35–38; Luke 22:39–46)
Christ prayed not only before the great events and victories of His life, but He also prayed after its great achievements and important crises. (Matt 14:23, John 6:15).
Jesus Christ gave a special time to prayer when life was unusually busy. He would withdraw at such a time from the multitudes that thronged about Him, and go into the wilderness and pray. For example, we read in Luke 5:15-16 (ERV), “But so much the more went abroad the report concerning Him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed of their infirmities. But He withdrew Himself in the deserts and prayed.” (Mark 3:20, 6:31, 33, 46)
Jesus Christ prayed before the great temptations of His life. (Mark 26:36)
In 1 Thess. 5:17 we read, “Pray without ceasing,” and in Eph. 6:18 (ERV), “praying at all seasons.” In the life of the mind, prayers thought and offered should accompany spoken prayers out loud. As a constant walk in communication with God, prayer should be an ever-present state or presence before God with thanksgiving, adoration, confession, and supplication.
General Revival and Its Preparatory Prayer
The final two chapters of Torrey’s book are about his views concerning a pressing need for spiritual revivals during a historical period where such events were more culturally recognized than the old-time thought of revival to modern sensibilities today. From a biblical perspective, spiritual renewal is a theologically relevant matter of interest. The sapiential value of renewal, where people become spiritually restored and reoriented toward a rightful life of faith and practice, there is repentance and a prevailing heart’s desire to return to God and remain with Him.
Torrey was an independent congregationalist educator committed to revival events with a reputation for bringing spiritual renewal to thousands of people. Known for his organizational capabilities, Torrey was an influential Christian leader in the late 1800s and early 1900s who wrote over 40 books and reminded Protestants about the fundamentals of the faith. His contributions to the Kingdom in this little book about prayer now also comes at a time today when his message and guidance are urgently needed.
Citations
___________________ 1 John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion & 2, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles, vol. 1, The Library of Christian Classics (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 926. 2 Jack W. Hayford and S. David Moore, The Charismatic Century: The Enduring Impact of the Azusa Street Revival (New York City, NY: FaithWords, 2009). 3 Daniel G. Reid et al., Dictionary of Christianity in America (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990). 4 W. V. Trollinger, Jr, “Torrey, Reuben Archer,” ed. Timothy Larsen et al., Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 675. 5 St Augustine et al., Moody Classics Complete Set: Includes 18 Classics of the Faith in a Single Volume (Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers, 2010). 6 Reuben Archer Torrey, How to Pray (Chicago; New York: Fleming H. Revell company, 1900), 55. 7 John F. MacArthur Jr., The MacArthur Study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2006), 1 Jn 3:21. 8 Ibid. Torrey, 58. 9 Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2265. 10 Leland Ryken et al., Dictionary of Biblical Imagery (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 87. 11 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 63.
This post aims to develop an understanding of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer in Christ today. The scope of this project is concentrated mainly upon New Testament facts, instruction, details, and principles concerning the Spirit, but there are related areas of interest within the Old Testament this post shall draw upon for a broader old and new covenant perspective. The activity of the Holy Spirit among people serves various purposes throughout Scripture, yet there is His continuous personal work throughout the course of historical events.
Introduction
From creation, the formation and development of humanity, to the upheaval and strife among the nations across centuries, the Holy Spirit is actively at work in building the Kingdom of God. The disinherited nations at Babel, who were dispersed, set the canvas of peoples who would form a Kingdom where Christ Jesus would reign as its King. Incubated and grown to large populations that fill the earth, the harvest of souls brought into the Kingdom by the work of the Spirit is God’s divine means of redemption. Millions of people who form the Kingdom of God on earth, regardless of era, language, culture, nation, time zone, or generation, would enter before God’s presence as redeemed people who glorify and worship God while in eternal fellowship with Him and one another.
As this post is developed, it will more closely explore the Spirit’s work among people as souls are harvested out from a corrupt and evil world alienated from God. As the nations of old were given over to spiritual rulers who are both then and now involved in the affairs of humanity, the Spirit of God thoroughly works among them to reclaim humanity. Through covenants and longstanding persistent mercies, grace, judgments, prophetic utterances, and messianic promises, the Holy Spirit provides a way for people to return to God, their Creator.
Background
The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is an area of study that interacts with the person and work of the Spirit of God. The term that identifies the study of the Holy Spirit is pneumatology. It is derived from the Greek terms pneuma and logos as they describe the topic’s meaning together. With a particular interest in the salvation of people redeemed, the Holy Spirit performs numerous functions while having characteristics unique to Him as the third person of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God and a person who exists in triadic union with God the Father and God the Son. Having cognitive intellect, a will, and emotions, the Holy Spirit is self-aware. The identity of the Holy Spirit is established by His role from divine revelation concerning Creation, historical events, and transcendent supernatural activity. While comprehensive, the whole of the Holy Spirit’s presence and work goes well beyond a ministry to people. He, in various ways, ministered to Christ while retaining His functional purposes as transcendent and immutable God of the Universe.
The Holy Spirit in the Old Testament is identified by the Hebrew term ruakh, while in the New Testament, He is identified by the Greek term pneuma. As these are not names but descriptions of the Holy Spirit’s identity, His name is Yahweh (יהוה, yhwh), often referred to as the Tetragrammaton: YHWH. The divine name of the Holy Spirit originates from the encounter Moses had before God in Exodus 3:14. The Holy Spirit, as the I AM, is the existing One who causes to be. That is to say, while the Holy Spirit is the Creator of the physical Universe, He is the cause of all that exists Spiritually. His presence throughout all existence as omnipresent God also inhabits people as sacred space within believers. The Spirit is among His people and within them. From the time of Pentecost (Acts 2), the active presence of the Spirit among believers today is a prominent witness to His existential reality.
Formulated Doctrine
The Trinitarian persons of the Godhead are God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. As formulated from intertextual narrative and testimonies from Scripture, the Holy Spirit is the Most High God. Old and New Testament surveys of His person and work are abundantly evident as people perceive Him as permitted through special revelation. To further compose an understanding of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of God, the Westminster Confession of Faith articulates some specific biblical references to substantiate this doctrinal assertion (WCF 2.3) that the Holy Spirit is God.1
“In the unity of the Godhead there be three persons, of one substance, power, and eternity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost: (1 John 5:7. Matt 3:16–17, Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14) the Father is of none, neither begotten, not proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; (John 1:14, 18) the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son. (John 15:26, Gal. 4:6).”
As the identity and deity of the Holy Spirit are established from divine revelation through Scripture, it becomes further possible to understand His work from the beginning of human existence to the eschatological outcomes expected from further events prophetically foretold. Tracing His work and activity in the lives of believers begins from the Old Testament, but as the events of the new covenant are revealed, His presence is far more understood in a redemptive context in light of Christ’s accomplishments.2 As the work of Yahweh is understood from God the Father and God the Son, the Spirit of God is there together to apply what both have been decreed according to an eternal and sovereign plan.
The Holy Spirit is not a passive and impersonal force applied to people as if God somehow works from a distance. The specifics of His work are detailed here in major categorical areas with various attributive characteristics made evident by who He is and what He does. Functions, activities, and outworkings of the Spirit are interspersed as a historical matter of interest as experienced by people and recorded in Scripture. Even as literary encounters with the Spirit are observed, what He does is not a corporeal embodiment of human or anthropomorphic expression or production. Innumerable intangible acts of the Holy Spirit have a bearing on people, events, and circumstances to orchestrate what divine intentions are sought and fulfilled.
The Presence of the Spirit
Before the prophetic promises of the New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:33 and Ezekiel 36:26 were cast into the distant future, it was a common understanding of ancient Judaism that Yahweh dwelled among His people, whether in the wilderness, in the tabernacle, or the temple. The Spirit of God was exterior to the lives of His people but with them nonetheless. Compared to the Spirit interior to people under the new covenant, a different spiritual reality corresponded to old covenant Jews and their status before Yahweh. The work of the Holy Spirit was largely external as an abiding presence yet sometimes limited presence among the inhabitants of Israel. The Spirit of God’s presence upon specific individuals appears among prophets and political figures but not among ordinary people.3 The governing presence of the Holy Spirit was a ministry of protection, social order, guidance, inspiration, and the development of individual capabilities.4
From the time of creation (Genesis 1:2), through the ancient formative years of humanity, to the patriarchs, the Davidic and Solomonic kingdoms, the Assyrian and Babylonian captivity to second-temple Judaism, the Spirit of God remained thoroughly active within and among His chosen people. Yet His activity was within the context of the Old Testament covenants and what was necessary to fulfill divine intentions for the inevitable arrival of the Messianic prophet, priest, and king. The Spirit of God, who shaped the history of His people, guided the sovereign and intended redemptive outcomes with an incorporeal power5 that explains what He did in time differently than what He does under the new covenant. The essence of God as Spirit as He is transcendent over matter, space, and time. God doesn’t consist of material and spirit as humans do. The essence of God, the Holy Spirit, is a single “substance” as spirit yet further considered within the doctrine of divine simplicity.
By general means of human sensory perception, the presence of the Holy Spirit is detectable by processing and interpreting His actions, messages, and influence, through available matter, whether it is physical (air, gas, matter, plasma, fluid) or spiritual (metaphysical, supernatural, transcendent). The overlap of both in which His presence is observable or perceived renders an awareness of who the Holy Spirit is (God) and what He is doing. The sensory perceptions of sight, sound, taste, touch, or smell don’t yield a tangible or physical awareness of the Spirit within space occupied by matter or its properties unless it is somehow made evident by the Spirit. The Spirit otherwise perceived is Spirit to spirit today, where there is a transcendent and intangible reality that becomes manifest (for example, an internal heaviness, a softening, a washing, a filling, a conviction, or some other extra physical and non-cognitive origination without the use of physical or sensory faculties).
The Anointing Spirit
Historically attributed to the kingly accession of rulers, appointed prophets of the Old and New Testaments (e.g., Samuel, John the Baptist) anointed men as King over Israel. As a cultural and religious consecration ritual, the practice usually involved pouring or smearing oil on a person’s head or forehead as a symbolic way of bestowing divine favor upon a person for an appointment to a place or function.6 While the valid application of oil upon a person carried with it divine authority, it also came to represent the outpouring of the Spirit upon the recipient to attain a holy status or position to impart a charter or mandate. Before Christ Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil, his baptism was an anointing by John the Baptist where the Holy Spirit would come upon Him for Jesus’ ministry that was just beginning. To accede as King of the Jews, it was necessary for Christ to overcome an adversary and do so by the anointing of a prophet.7
The anointing of the Holy Spirit was placed upon Jesus, where His public ministry would begin. After Christ’s anointing with the power of the Holy Spirit, He overcame Satan’s temptation and entered Jerusalem for His kingly procession (Isaiah 40:3, John 1:23, John 12:12-13). The anointing of the Holy Spirit accompanied Jesus during His wilderness trial and His ascent as King as necessary to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy. While the prophetic anointing that occurred at baptism was for Christ’s royal accession, it was a baptism to anoint Him for the work of ministry nonetheless. The messianic events that unfolded after Jesus’ anointing (baptism), the defeat of a supernatural foe, and His triumphant arrival into Jerusalem all together signified what believers to as a matter of Christlike accession from death to life.
Baptism in the Spirit
The baptism in the Spirit is an event that occurs among all believers who are regenerated and undergo new spiritual birth. United in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, all believers are together made a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). The baptism of the Holy Spirit unites all believers who were born again, as made clear by Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (1 Cor 12:13). Further references to the new birth as baptism in the Spirit makes a distinction about the baptism of water for repentance (Mark 1:8, John 1:33, Acts 1:5, 11:16). It is this baptism in the Spirit as regeneration that precedes belief, saving faith by grace, and baptism by water for repentance. As John baptized the body of individual believers by immersion with literal water, the Spirit baptizes believers spiritually by “fire” (Matt 3:11, Luke 3:16).
The historical and biblical precedent for the Spirit of Baptism comes from Moses’s encounter with Yahweh from Numbers 11:15-17. Moses asked the Lord to kill him as the burden was too great for him alone to lead His people. As the Lord heard the petition of Moses, He instructed Him to choose 70 elders to lead the people. Yahweh, speaking to Moses, said he would “take some of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them, and they shall bear the burden of the people with you, so that you may not bear it yourself alone.” The anointing of the Lord upon the 70 elders endowed them to help Moses to lead and support His people. It was ultimately Moses’ wish that Yahweh would put His Spirit upon all people (Numbers 11:29).
The prophet Joel later appropriated Moses’ desire and applied it to all of God’s people as he spoke of coming judgment and redemption. “It shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit” (Joel 2:28-29). The pouring of the Spirit of God upon the 70 elders by divine decree was an indication that later this bestowment would become the means by which people would become baptized by the Holy Spirit, beginning with the Pentecost event in Acts 2:2-4.8
The Scriptural passages concerning baptism in the Spirit accompany baptism by water. The baptism in the Spirit is for salvific purposes as regeneration occurs among believers. Baptism by water immersion is a loyalty oath as it symbolically represents the believer’s death, burial, and resurrection in Christ. The practice of baptism in this was to take a side and affirm by a pledge that the supernatural authority of spiritual rulers over the gentiles was displaced or removed.9 To further assert the difference between baptism by fire and water, Colossians 2:8-15 informs readers that burial with Christ is by baptism to infer immersion as believers are submerged in water to represent spiritual allegiance within the Kingdom of God. As a believer is saved by fire, or baptism in the Spirit, it is in due course that person proclaims a loyalty oath by water baptism to impart an anointing for the Kingdom that involves surrender (repentance) and dedication to the Lordship of Christ.
The 1 Peter 3:14-22 passage further deepens the significance of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection and the reasons it correlates to the Colossians 2:8-15 reference. As the crucifixion meant victory over every demonic force,10 Jesus’ declaration to the “spirits in prison” was about his triumph over sin and death to inform them that they were still condemned. His ascension to authority at the right hand of God was set over all angels, authorities, and powers. Baptism is a personal and spiritual loyalty declaration of unity by Christ’s death and resurrection.
To further develop baptism as a loyalty pledge that corresponds to an anointing of the Holy Spirit, observe verse 21 of 1 Peter 3:14-22 (ESV).
“Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.”
The terms “appeal” and “conscience” in this passage have a wider semantic range that broadens the interpretive meaning rendered from numerous English translations.
② a formal request,appeal (ἐπερωτάω 2) συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς ἐ. εἰς θεόν an appeal to God for a clear conscience1 Pt 3:21. • But cp. a pledge (s. L-S-J-M s.v. 3 with pap ref.; also the vb. in PYadin 17, 38) to God proceeding from a clear conscience; 11
② the inward faculty of distinguishing right and wrong,moral consciousness, conscience • σ. ἀγαθή a good conscience (cp. Herodian 6, 3, 4; PRein s.v. καλός 2b) Ac23:1; 1 Ti 1:5; 1 Pt 3:21 (on the topic cp. FSokolowski, Lois sacrées des cités grecques, Supplément ’62 no. 108, 4–7 ‘one who enters the temple … must be pure, not through bathing but in mind’); 12
Furthermore, the term appeal as rendered pledge appears to produce a reading as a pledge to God for a good conscience. Whether as a pledge or appeal, the effect of baptism with a good conscience is one of repentance to where Jesus is accepted by oath as Lord. The Spirit at work in the believer at baptism is a corresponding spiritual form of anointing similar to Christ at His baptism (Mark 1:9-11). As Christ was anointed at baptism, believers are. As Christ died, was buried, and resurrected, believers are, too, by the process of baptism of water.
The Indwelling Spirit
Regeneration by the Holy Spirit as baptism in the Spirit does not constitute the indwelling of the Spirit. Regeneration of a person simply means that a person is given divine enablement to believe. From belief (i.e., grace through faith), a person is converted as faith and repentance together constitute saving faith in Christ for salvation. When this occurs in the life of a believer, Scripture informs us that Christ will take up residence in the believer (John 7:39, 14:17, 20:22). In contrast to the statements of regeneration (John 3:3-8, 6:63), where God gives people the willingness to believe, there are specific conditions that exist within a believer as the Holy Spirit is to inhabit him. This habitation of the Holy Spirit is more inward evidence of spiritual rebirth because, without the Spirit, it is impossible to be born again.
Apostle Paul also informed the early church that believers are individually the temple of God’s Spirit (1 Cor 3:16, 6:19, 2 Cor 6:16). It is well-understood that this divisible indwelling is not exclusive to corporate fellowship (Matt 18:2) but within each separate life of the believer (1 Cor 3: 17). The presence of the Spirit within the church as a corporate body, and within the body of an individual believer is not mutually exclusive theological principles supported by Scripture.13 The Spirit of God, as promised among the composite body of believers, as the Spirit of God inhabits each of them, includes those who are repentant and full of faith who, by grace, worship in spirit and truth. The Spirit is both with believers and in believers, as the Holy Spirit is their eternal Paraclete (John 14:15).14 The Holy Spirit as Paraclete is an advocate or counselor (John 14:16, 26), and this is significant as it pertains to the ministry of the Spirit among believers who have come to saving faith in Christ Jesus. Paraclete is an old Greek term, “called in aid.”
The Filling of the Spirit
The work of the Spirit in the lives of believers continues through their sanctification as they grow in Christ (Ephesians 2:10). Furthermore, the spiritual maturity developed among believers is toward ongoing personal holiness. After regeneration and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit at spiritual rebirth, believers undergo a lifelong sanctification process. To become sanctified is to be made more holy.15 While regeneration is a one-time event or occurrence, and the indwelling of the Spirit (Romans 8:9) either happens instantaneously at the same time or at a later point in life, the filling of the Spirit is yet another Scriptural distinction to recognize.
Paul wrote to the church in first-century Ephesus (Eph 5:18), “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And Luke’s record of Acts explicitly informs its readers:
“And when they (the disciples) had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” – Acts 4:31
The continuity of the Spirit’s presence among believers regenerated, anointed, and indwelt also involves an outpouring for specific missional purposes. Namely, the outpouring is generally expressed in Scripture as having a Kingdom intent. That is, to extend the Kingdom as Paul urges the church to be filled with the Spirit. Receiving the Spirit in this way is not just a passive endeavor, as believers indwelt by the Spirit today are active through the means by which they obtain this outpouring (James 4:8) through Scripture, prayer, and worship.17
The Fruit of the Spirit
Consistent with the doctrine of Sanctification, the Holy Spirit continuously transforms us into the image of Christ. While the fillings of the Spirit are individual and recurring events, the Spirit, who indwells us, shapes us into ever-increasing levels of holiness that please God. Necessary for our access to God, Scripture informs us that without holiness, no one will see the Father (Hebrews 12:14). Both the continuous indwelling of the Spirit and the filling of the Spirit produces fruit in the lives of believers. To more clearly understand what the filling of the Spirit is and does, Apostle Paul informs us about the specifics in his letter to the Galatians (Gal 5:16-22). While Galatians 5:22-23 specifically informs readers what the fruits are, it is necessary to recognize the historical and prophetic allusions to the fruitfulness of a new age. The prophet Isaiah points Old Testament and New Testament believers to a time when there will be the qualities of the Spirit written about by Paul (Isa. 32 and 57).18
Paul wrote of the “first fruits of the Spirit” (Romans 8:23) that point to believers among the whole creation effort of the Holy Spirit. As G.K. Beale eloquently informs us, the Spirit first raises the saints from the dead spiritually and then creates these fruits in them.19 Authentic believers who were regenerated and indwelt by the Holy Spirit will participate in the eschatological course of history by producing fruits of the Spirit to become what God sovereignly intends for His Kingdom. As believers keep in step with the Spirit, they glorify God as they reflect back to Him the holiness developed among His people. With the mutual indwelling of Christ (Gal 2:20) and the Spirit within believers (1 Cor 6:19), they produce fruit.20
The presence of fruit in believers’ lives is evidence of the Spirit within. The absence of the fruit of the Spirit indicates an absence of the Spirit. The pericope lesson of Mark 11:12-14, 20-21, in a sense, informs readers about the displeasing nature of people as believers who do not bear fruit. Not merely that they produce works of the flesh (Gal 5:19-21), as Paul warns the churches in Galatia, but that there are no fruits as described in Galatians 5:22-23 is an unacceptable condition that implies consequences. The Holy Spirit who indwells His people will cause them to bear fruit as they strive to produce fruit of their efforts. As the Holy Spirit has a direct bearing on the sanctification of believers, He also works through human agency to yield the qualities described as the traits of Christ.21
As a further up-close look at the fruit of the Spirit within the lives of believers, Apostle Paul wrote specific details about what they are (Gal 5:22-23). They are described in three triad groupings of Christ lived out in a Christian. The “fruit” of the Spirit (singular ), as compared to the “fruits” of the Spirit (plural) in this passage, renders an intended understanding of the unity of attributes within believers who are yielded to the Spirit.22 They are all present within believers, who are indwelt and, at times, filled by the Holy Spirit. As a matter of faith and practice, Paul tells the church, “walk in the Spirit” (v.16), be “led by the Spirit” (v.18), and “live by the Spirit” (v.25). This is life by the Spirit in contrast to a believer being gratified by the flesh. As trees produce literal fruit, so do believers who first walk by the Spirit, become led by the Spirit, and ultimately live by the Spirit throughout life. The only way to overcome the desires of the flesh is to live according to what Paul counsels in this passage. Being yielded to the Spirit is the way in which a believer escapes the deadly desires of the flesh that works against the Spirit (v.17).
It is, therefore, crucial to understand the fruits of the Spirit to walk by them. Living out the fruit of the Spirit by faith while yielding in surrender to Him is the way to abide in union with Christ against the desires and appetites of the flesh. To understand more specifically, the triad groupings of this fruit consist of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The first three, love, joy, and peace, are habits of mind. The second three, patience, kindness, and goodness, reach out to others. The final three, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, guide the general conduct of the believer.23
The Gifts of the Spirit
The work of the Spirit doesn’t end with His internal presence among believers for personal sanctification. God’s grace is extended to believers through the Holy Spirit for the church’s benefit, edification, and growth. The spiritual gifts as “pneumatika” are translated to “spiritual gifts” from the Greek (1 Cor 14:1, 12, 2:13; 12:1) to render a sense of inspiration from the Holy Spirit toward a functional purpose and conversely translated, “charismata” or “gifts of grace,” derived from the Greek term charis,24 (Latin, gratia). Charisma, as a gift of grace, is distributed among believers as God’s people are restored to harmony and wholeness to fulfill the restorative purposes of people within the church. Spiritual gifts are given to people of the church who are regenerated, indwelt, anointed, and filled to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Alongside the sanctification process, the Holy Spirit places upon people gifts of supernatural and natural origin and effect. Either one or the other corresponds to the measure of faith within a believer. Gifts imparted to believers are apportioned to them as a “manifestation of the Spirit” (1 Cor 12:7).25
As the gifts are meant to build up the church, they serve as examples of what it is to become enabled by the Spirit to fill specific functions that the church needs. When paying close attention to the specific gifts outlined in Scripture, they represent natural and supernatural capabilities characterized by the benefit of people as recipients. In Apostle Paul’s letters to Rome and Asia-Minor, he describes specifics to the early church as relevant for us today. The various gifts in the New Testament are not all-inclusive but represent what they are for the edification of the church. In the table below, Thomas Schreiner organizes the gifts Paul wrote about in the following way. While fitting to the early church, they’re, in principle, what the Holy Spirit does to produce or apply capabilities to people for the church and not for individual self-interest.
Romans 12:6-8
1 Corinthians 12:8-10
1 Corinthians 12:28
Ephesians 4:11
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us
To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good
And God has appointed in the church
And he gave
Apostles
Apostles
Prophecy
Prophecy
Prophets
Prophets
Distinguishing of spirits
Evangelists
Teaching
Word of wisdom and word of knowledge
Teachers
Pastors and teachers
Exhortation
Miracles
Miracles
Healing
Healings
Serving
Helps
Leading
Administration
Various kinds of tongues
Various kinds of tongues
Interpretation of tongues
Giving
Faith
Mercy
Table 1. – Biblical Gifts of the Spirit 26
The gifts are tangible exterior outworkings applied to people distinct from the internal fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit originates as a grace for personal sanctification and blessing, while the gifts of the Spirit are for fellow believers who comprise the missional church for discipleship and sanctification of its members. The examples of gifts of the Spirit illustrate what underlying Scripturally supported development methods pertain to the church for eschatological Kingdom objectives, to honor Christ as head of the church, and to glorify God. The gifts of the Spirit according to Catholic tradition (i.e., Summa Theologiae) do not correspond to the biblical definition of the “gifts of the Spirit” as narrated by the example above. Still, they could include them as gifts as a matter of practice without claiming biblical authority and explicit meaning. None of these gifts are included in Paul’s description of gifts to highlight what types of natural skills and talents, or supernatural capabilities could be given to persons. As with the virtues defined by Aquinas,27 these are not counterfeit gifts, but they originate from the Summa Theologica to derive the theological tradition and catechism of the Catholic church.28
The Seven Gifts of the Spirit
The Seven Virtues
The Seven Deadly Sins
Wisdom
Chastity
Lust
Understanding
Temperance
Gluttony
Counsel
Charity
Greed
Fortitude
Diligence
Sloth
Knowledge
Kindness
Wrath
Piety
Patience
Envy
Fear of God
Humility
Pride
Table 2. – Catholic Gifts of the Spirit
Further interest concerning the gifts of the Spirit includes the Charismatic traditions often viewed as controversial and fraught with theological and biblical error. In many cases, to the charismatic believer, the gifts of the Spirit are about the uninformed personal experience with God as a filling and gifting of the Spirit as an admixture of an often faked encounter. The imaginations of often well-meaning people leave less room for the sober, intentional, and self-controlled manner of faith and practice in exchange for frequent healings, prophetic words of knowledge, miracles, and other transactional means of personal experience with others.
The subjective and personal experiences of Charismatic traditions outside instructions about church conduct can often contradict the biblical imperatives of being rational and sober-minded in fulfilling ministry and not carnal desires (1 Pet 4:7, 5:8, Titus 2:2, 6, 1 Cor 15:34).29 Self-control is a fruit of the Spirit. If a gift of the Spirit, according to Charismatic doctrine, contradicts the intended interpretation of Scriptural meaning about gifts of the Spirit, there is a difference that the authority of God’s Word must resolve. The heart, mind, and spirit are informed by Scripture what it means to worship in spirit and truth. However, gifts of the Spirit are defined in God’s Word and not by subjective experiences and imaginations of spiritual predators or well-meaning people in a spirit of error.
Often, Charismatic and Pentecostal traditions are closely joined to prosperity preaching and social gospel activists who find their subjective roots in theological liberalism. Schleiermacher, the father of protestant liberalism, denied his faith in a letter to his father and adopted Romanticism early in his faith. While Ritschl, who believed that Christianity ought to be defined by social justice imperatives and ethics, insisted upon a theologically liberated society.30
Opposing Views
There is a wide array of counterpoint perspectives concerning much of the historically orthodox views of the Church. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of believers today is Scripturally described and presented as authoritative by the biblical writers as intended. A common thread among the various opposing views appears centered around special interest concerning tradition, appeal to historical instruction and conditions, and spiritually interfering predilections that bring confusion, error, contradictions, and uncertainty. False or unorthodox beliefs and practices contrary to the clear teaching of Scripture would seemingly run counter to the human conscience of regenerated people indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Yet, there is a multitude of subjective perspectives. This post presented two examples of alternative views around the gifts of the Spirit between confessional Christian belief, Catholicism, and Charismatics. The range of differences is pronounced, but they all, to some extent, diverge from what Scripture specifically reveals about the Holy Spirit, who He is, and what He does in the life of believers.
Wesleyans, Pentecostals, Roman Catholics, and others have differing views about justification, what constitutes saving faith, and the role or function of the Holy Spirit to regenerate people, indwell them and shape their spiritual development during the course of personal sanctification (i.e., whether salvific and consecrated status is immediate, earned, and synergistic, etc.). Additional alternative interpretations in the church also range much further than liberal and neo-orthodox perspectives.31 However, while all these perspectives affect faith and practice, theological conclusions formed from biblical and objective truth carry the lasting weight of God’s specific revelation about what He does through His Spirit.
Historical Positions
In addition to matters of interpretation to suit personal, congregation, institutional, or state interests aside from biblical instruction, there are also matters of control that people want to retain. From the governing perspectives of the Church, the State, and cultures throughout civilization, social and economic interests have a bearing upon what people come to believe and understand with respect to faith and practice. Historical traditions of people among nations that are not in alignment with God’s intentions concerning His Kingdom and its eschatological trajectory are entirely, thoroughly, and utterly spiritual. People believe what they are given to believe. From Yahweh as Creator God, or the spiritual rulers of nations that govern access and the substance of belief, through God’s sovereignty, the historical development and acceptance of orthodox doctrines are under the subjection of what He has already decreed.
Under the care and persistent work of the Holy Spirit, the church will grow as Christendom increases in size to a geometric scale. While the various historical positions of theologians, philosophers, and politicians run in and out of alignment with Scripture, God’s purposes shall prevail. He will have His Kingdom. Humanity will be restored to Him and there will be nothing humanistic culture or secularism can do about it. If fact, by design, the hand of people as free-will human agents will be instruments of God’s intended purpose for Creative intent as it belongs to Him.
Conclusion
In numerous ways, this post resolved open questions about what the Holy Spirit does in the lives of believers today. Within our limited line of sight, there is what we know by what is revealed in His Word. Accordingly, believers also experience what the work of the Holy Spirit corresponds to what readers observe in both the Old and New Testaments. Among the covenants, to the redemptive work of Christ and the ongoing sanctification of regenerated believers indwelt, anointed, and filled, they are given spiritual gifts to build the church for its edification and development. The church exists for God’s purposes, His glory, and His good pleasure. Our place is to abide in Christ and live by the Spirit so as to fulfill His interests about the Kingdom as we love Him, each other, and His plan for our lives together.
Citations
1 Westminster Assembly, The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition (Philadelphia: William S. Young, 1851), 21–25. 2 John MacArthur and Richard Mayhue, eds., Biblical Doctrine: A Systematic Summary of Bible Truth (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2017), 334. 3 James M. Hamilton Jr., God’s Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old & New Testaments (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2006), 27. 4 Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, ed. Gerald Bray, Contours of Christian Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 21–22. 5 Basil of Caesarea, “The Book of Saint Basil on the Spirit,” in St. Basil: Letters and Select Works, ed. Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, trans. Blomfield Jackson, vol. 8, A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, Second Series (New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895), 15. 6 J. A. Motyer, “Anointing, Anointed,” ed. D. R. W. Wood et al., New Bible Dictionary (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1996), 49. 7 W. Brian Shelton, “An Ancient Israelite Pattern of Kingly Accession in the Life of Christ,” Trinity Journal 25, no. 1 (2004): 72. 8 R. C. Sproul, What Is Baptism? First edition., vol. 11, The Crucial Questions Series (Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2011), 44. 9 Michael S. Heiser, Demons: What the Bible Really Says about the Powers of Darkness (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 229. 10 Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible, First Edition. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015), 338. 11 William Arndt et al., A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 362. 12 Ibid. 967-968. 13 Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 718–719. 14 James M. Hamilton Jr., God’s Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old & New Testaments (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2006), 181. 15 Joel R. Beeke, Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism (Lake Mary, FL: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2008), 216. 16 Thomas R. Schreiner, The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2013), 490. 17 John M. Frame, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2013), 927. 18 G. K. Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2011), 588. 19 Ibid. 20 Leon Morris, The Epistle to the Romans, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: W.B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press, 1988), 307–308. 21 Guy P. Duffield and Nathaniel M. Van Cleave, Foundations of Pentecostal Theology (Los Angeles, CA: L.I.F.E. Bible College, 1983), 291–292. 22 Donald K. Campbell, “Galatians,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 608. 23 Ibid. 24 Ralph P. Martin, “Gifts, Spiritual,” ed. David Noel Freedman, The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992), 1016. 25 Herman Bavinck, John Bolt, and John Vriend, Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, vol. 4 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 299. 26 Thomas R. Schreiner, New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 719–720. 27 Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, n.d.), STh., I-II q.61-62 a.1-5. 28 Catholic Church, Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2nd Ed. (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997), 450. 29 John F. MacArthur, Strange Fire: The Danger of Offending the Holy Spirit with Counterfeit Worship (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2013). 30 Ibid. 31 Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology: Spirit-Given Life: God’s People, Present and Future, vol. 3, Integrative Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1994), 174-184.
Bibliography
Aquinas, Thomas. “Question LXI Of the Cardinal Virtues.” In Summa Theologica, 44 Volumes, by Thomas Aquinas, STh., I-II q.62 a.3. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1265 – 1274. Arndt, William et al. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000. Assembly, Westminster. The Westminster Confession of Faith: Edinburgh Edition. Philadelphia, 1851. Bavinck, Herman, Bolt John, Vriend, John. Reformed Dogmatics: Holy Spirit, Church, and New Creation, vol. 4. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. Beale, G.K. A New Testament Biblical Theology: The Unfolding of the Old Testament in the New. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011. Beale, G.K., and D.A. Carson. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2007. Beeke, Joel R. Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism. Lake Mary: Reformation Trust Publishing, 2008. Caesarea, Basil of. “The Book of Saint Basil on the Spirit.” In St. Basil: Letters and Select Works, by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, 15. New York: Christian Literature Company, 1895. Church, Catholic. Catechism of the Catholic Church. Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1997. Demarest, Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Integrative Theology: Spirit-Given Life: God’s People, Present and Future, vol. 3. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1994. Ferguson, Sinclair B. “The Holy Spirit.” In Contours of Christian Theology, by Gerald Bray, 21-22. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1996. Frame, John M. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief. Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2013. Guy P. Duffielld, Nathaniel M Van Cleave. Foundations of Pentecostal Theology. Los Angeles: LIFE Bible College, 1983. Hamilton Jr., James M. God’s Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old & New Testaments. Nashville: B&H Academic, 2006. Heiser, Michael S. Demons. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2020. Heiser, Michael. The Unseen Realm. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2015. Liddell, Henry George et al. A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996. Martin, Ralph P. “Gifts, Spiritual.” In The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary, by David Noel Freedman, 1016. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Mendenhall, George E, Gary A Herion, and David Noel ed. Freedman. The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary. New York: Doubleday, 1992. Motyer, J.A. “Anointing, Anointed.” In New Bible Dictionary, by D.R.W Wood et al, 49. Downers Grove: Intervarsity Press, 1996. Schreiner, Thomas R. New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2008. —. The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2013. Shelton, Brian W. “An Ancient Israelite Pattern of Kingly Accession in the Life of Christ.” Trinity Journal 25, no. 1, 2004: 59-72. Sproul, R.C. What is Baptism? Orlando: Reformation Trust, 2011.
John Frame is a well-known seminary professor and theologian in the Reformed tradition. John Frame is an author, lecturer, and teacher of far-reaching significance. Frame’s magnum opus is his Systematic Theology which covers a wide range of doctrines of conventional orthodox Christianity. This paper covers a limited review of selected parts eight and nine—namely, the doctrines of Christ and the Holy Spirit. A review of this subject matter traverses across biblically anchored truths that originate as divine revelation to conclude the necessary understanding of Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit as two persons of three within the triadic union.
The Doctrine of Christ
In part eight, through chapters 37 and 38, Frame extensively writes about Christ across two categorical areas of crucial interest. The Person and Work of Christ as separate and distinct areas of interest help the reader understand the deity, humanity, incarnation, attributes, and His two natures in hypostatic union. Moreover, Christ Jesus’ offices as King, Priest, and Prophet get significant attention as the intended interpretation is derived from the biblical text. As the work of Christ is more closely understood from Scripture, it becomes clear that Jesus was a prophet who foretold all the Old Testament and eschatological eventualities. He was and is a king who led and ruled His people. He was and is a high priest who interceded for His followers as He atoned for the sins of His people.
Frame describes Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords and extols His status as Creator and Ruler over all existence. As Yahweh the Lord, Jesus is over the covenants with humanity throughout redemptive history. Within His kingship, as God incarnate, He does what God the Father does. Everything made was made through Him, and all things are held together by Him. He is the radiant glory of God the Father. While the royalty of Christ originates through the lineage of David, His power and authority are far more prominently recognized by His resurrection from the dead. By the work of Christ as King, He triumphed over sin and death to make atonement as the high priest over we who died with Him. Severed from sin, having died to it, we are united with Him in resurrection while He is Priest and King over all His people.
While Frame doesn’t extensively cite numerous primary or secondary footnoted sources during his systematic theology’s development, he provides various endnote resources for further study at the end of each chapter. These are helpful resources within the Reformed tradition for further study, including numerous materials from Puritans, influential faith leaders, institutional scholars, and seminary academics. While Frame uses journal articles to support his conclusions and propositional content, he far makes far more use of Scripture references throughout the body of his written work. While he sometimes references scholars who would dispute his Scripturally sound conclusions, assertions, and propositions, he always returns to Scripture with corresponding intertextual weight to reinforce his points and arrive at biblical certainty before moving on.
While Frame further develops the doctrine of Christ, he does so in concert with the larger Westminster Larger Catechism (WLC). The two states of Christ’s stations involve His exaltation and humiliation. And questions 46 through 56 are posed by the WLC and answered in due course within the same. Namely, the Scriptural specifics about Christ’s exaltation by his resurrection, ascension, and coronation together situate Him above all as revered throughout the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. With Christ exalted at the right hand of God’s seat of power, Christ Jesus has power over all things in heaven and earth. As head of His church, Christ reigns over all humanity, all kingdoms past, present, and future, and all nations in an eschatological sense through redemptive history.
After Christ’s humiliation by crucifixion and death on the cross was followed by his “descent into hell,” according to the Apostolic Creed, He rendered to God redeemed people of the Old Testament and New Covenant believers fellowship as those who were adopted among the elect before eternity past. I agree with Frame that, contrary to some Baptist and King James Bible literalist perspectives, Christ’s descent wasn’t to hell because He was brought to a place of punishment. He “descended” to Hades, where those in Abraham’s Bosom were gathered and spiritually resurrected to dwell in heaven. Moreover, while in Hades, he appeared to the rebellious, disembodied, and fallen angelic creatures imprisoned in “chains of gloomy darkness” to proclaim victory over sin and death before His resurrection. After Jesus’ sacrificial death and descent into Hades, Christ’s physical and spiritual enemies were overcome by His triumphal resurrection, ascension, and coronation.
Christ’s presence before the Father as intercessor was now made possible for the elect in Christ. The latter were adopted as sons and daughters before the Priest-King, given to the Father in fellowship as intended before eternity past. According to Frame, as articulated within the WCF, the path to reconciliation was set for believers as the elect, adopted, and redeemed. As further believers are gathered before the Father through and “in Christ,” the eschatological already but not yet trajectory was set toward the final redemptive conclusion. Through passion, blood, story, drama, and apocalyptic intent, historically prophetic realization was assured from the proto-Evangelium to the Parousia.
Frame concludes His exposition on the doctrine of Christ by closely examining what it is to be in union with Him. Through an entire sequence of Christ’s work, there are blessings that must continually be heralded as God is to be worshiped and glorified. Frame threads Christ’s accomplishments with the following blessings toward believers. Our lives are blessed through election, calling, regeneration, faith, justification, adoption, sanctification, perseverance, and glorification. Through all this work, as believing recipients, this is what it is to be “in Christ.” This range of meaning substantiates union with Jesus Christ as people redeemed through the gospel. As born-again believers who inhabit His kingdom, we are sons and daughters in Christ who inherit a state of union while belonging to Him.
The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit
In part nine, through chapters 39 and 45, Frame’s systematic theology thoroughly examines the identity, events, and work of the Holy Spirit. As a more general understanding of the redemptive functionality of the triune God, the Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies (as Frame puts it). In addition to Frame’s comprehensive approach to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, various triad illustrations correspond to the subject matter concerning His identity and work. Each triad corresponds to the doctrine’s normative, situational, and existential view, where together they comprise of coherent epistemological and theological perspectives about a given subject.
These triperspectival illustrations appear in key locations through the reading on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. This model presents a way of understanding matters of interest coherently without missing important details about corresponding points of relevant meaning.
The doctrine of the Holy Spirit begins with understanding God as a personal Spirit, not an impersonal force. To further provide context about the Holy Spirit within the triadic union of God, Frame makes the following general distinctions: The Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies. Understanding the person of the Holy Spirit must precede cognitive recognition of His work, as abundantly evident throughout Scripture. Like the Father, and the Son, as God, the Holy Spirit is interpersonally situated within the Trinity. He is recognized by His attributes and worthy of worship, just as the Father and Son are. The Spirit is equal to the Father and the Son. The Spirit has a personality and a mind. He communicates in the first person.
Throughout the pages of Frame’s systematic theology about the Holy Spirit, extensive biblical passages are called upon to substantiate what the Holy Spirit does. Chapters of section nine are dedicated to doctrinal areas about the work of the Spirit in the lives of believers. More specifically, the Ordo Salutis is used as a pedagogical instrument to walk a reader through the overlapping, sequential, and biblically supported components of the Holy Spirit’s work. While Frame makes it clear that the linear orientation of the Ordo Salutis is not biblically supported, he does use its meaning to structure an understanding of what happens in the life of a believer where the Holy Spirit dwells.
The breadth and depth of the Spirit’s work in the lives of believers are astonishing. In elaborate detail, Frame effectively captures the biblical references in support of Baptism, the filling of the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, miracles, prophecy, tongues, and healings exhibited among Old and New Testament believers. With careful attention to the work of the Spirit among believers today, Frame asserts the potentiality of God concerning miracles and supernatural gifts of the Spirit while calling attention to the effects of the indwelt Spirit among believers. In further and growing detail, this work is more understood as developed among numerous biblical passages. Frame does not at length rely upon scholars to form his views or arguments. Still, he occasionally cites orthodox confessions and the Heidelberg catechism to draw conclusions and illuminate further paths of understanding. Where there are exceptions, controversies, or counterpoint arguments to particular views, Frame will identify the source and corresponding specifics by name.
The clarity with which Frame organizes his thoughts and topics complements his substantively biblical views about the work of the Holy Spirit. The order of topics is summarized as follows.
Calling
Regeneration and Conversion
Justification and Adoption
Sanctification
Perseverance and Assurance
Glorification
Taking each area of work as a free-standing point of interest is a thoroughly helpful way to understand each category within the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. Beginning from who the Spirit is as a divine person to what He does, there is specific intentionality about Him ordered among believers and, to a limited extent, unbelievers. While there is a specific and separate focus on the work of the Spirit, it is clear that this work is cooperative and participative among all persons of the Holy Trinity. The work of the Spirit in these areas of doctrine is not the isolated endeavors of this person as God.
Calling
A distinction is made between two types of calling by the Holy Spirit. Frame separates them as a gospel call that can be resisted by individuals and an effectual call that cannot. The gospel call is the message of God’s redemptive invitation to everyone who can comprehend the meaning of Christ’s redemptive work, our guilt from sinful, and each person’s need for reconciliation with God in the form of salvation. Individuals can hear or perceive this message and respond either favorably or disfavorably, with lasting outcomes made sure by belief or disbelief. As many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14), the many will reject the gospel call and remain within their condemned state.
In contrast to the gospel call of individuals, the effectual calling is Scripturally sound, as it is declared in Paul’s letter to the Romans as it is sometimes referred to as the Ordo Salutis (Romans 8:29-30):
“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”
The calling in this reference is preceded by the predestination declaration, which includes the status believers will attain as brothers to Christ. People predestined and called are brought into regeneration and faith with justification, adoption, and sanctification to follow. While this arrangement doesn’t necessarily hold in sequential order, the effectual calling in this passage does adhere to the meaning of a predestined status of believers. Effectual calling predicated upon predestined selection renders the will of God preeminent over the active or passive will of people left to their autonomous capacity to choose God while “dead in their sins” (Eph 2:1).
The Holy Spirit’s work in the effectual calling of each person is definitive and final as unbelievers who are chosen before the beginning of the world are brought into the Kingdom of God (Ephesians 1:4). Frame artfully collates the Scripture references that inform his readers about the Holy Spirit’s summoning of chosen people to the following outcomes.
The blessings of effectual calling: “the kingdom (1 Thess. 2:12), holiness (Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:2; 1 Thess. 4:7; 5:23–24), peace (1 Cor. 7:15), freedom (Gal. 5:13), hope (Eph. 1:18; 4:4), light (1 Peter 2:9), patient endurance (1 Peter 2:20–21), God’s kingdom of glory (1 Thess. 2:12), eternal life (2 Thess. 2:14; 1 Tim. 6:12; Heb. 9:15; 1 Peter 5:10; Rev. 19:9). So this calling is “high” (Phil. 3:14 KJV), “holy” (2 Tim. 1:9), and “heavenly” (Heb. 3:1). Ultimately it calls us into fellowship with Christ (1 Cor. 1:9).”
The Ordo Salutis, as the “Order of Salvation” in Latin, also pedagogically describes the work of the Holy Spirit as having additional effectual purpose. Specifically, Frame collectively orders the following formative efforts of the Holy Spirit to involve the spiritual development of people.
Regeneration and Conversion
The application of redemption by the Holy Spirit, made possible from the plan of the Father and what Christ accomplished includes the regeneration of unbelievers to people who are made holy and righteous before Him. From the effectual calling of a person, unbelievers undergo regeneration toward further spiritual formation. As faith is necessary for salvation, spiritual life is formed by the Holy Spirit through regeneration as a sovereign act of God. Regeneration precedes saving faith as good works and belief are the products of it. As Ephesians 2:8-9 specifically informs readers that grace and saving faith are a gift of God, the Holy Spirit renders power upon and within people to make them believe.
While Frame makes it clear that effectual calling is from the Father, the regeneration of an unbeliever is an act of the Holy Spirit. In both acts, the new birth of regeneration involves the passive acceptance of people to new life. To become born again is to become regenerated; the new believer has nothing to do with that process. To believe and live by faith through grace requires preceding regeneration, as indicated in John 3. However, as 1 Peter 1:23 and James 1:18 indicates that regeneration follows faith, the order of salvation is not necessarily a linear path as both meanings are rendered ambiguous in their sovereign relationship to one another.
As regeneration initiates a reorientation of the mind, will, and affections toward God, faith and repentance together constitute conversion. While it is explicit in Scripture that faith is a gift (Ephesians 2:8) and repentance is a gift (2 Tim 2:25), they are both something we practice as believers. Both belief and repentance are personal choices made by the cooperative intention of the Holy Spirit. Frame further develops the meaning of conversion as the work of the Holy Spirit. He draws attention to faith and repentance as components of conversion. Salvation is by grace through faith, but it also involves repentance. To Frame, faith and repentance are two sides of the same coin. Faith is the positive expression of belief, while repentance is the negative form of it. Both faith and repentance are necessary for salvation.
Justification and Adoption
Returning to the triperspectival view of epistemic knowledge concerning the work of God, Scripture informs us that justification is associated with regeneration and conversion. As believers are justified before God through Christ and His sacrificial atonement, we are adopted as sons and daughters of God. To attain justification is to be both declared righteous and made righteous.
To make adoption as children of God possible by the Holy Spirit, we must not only be brought to new life but made righteous, good, and holy. Justification as works of God through His forensic declaration upon believers and the imputed righteousness of Christ placed within them changes people’s legal and familial status. As Christ is Lord and brother in the sense we are adopted as sons and daughters, that requires more than a baseline status of declared justification. We must be made righteous and be righteous. We must be made holy and be holy.
Furthermore, the sins of justified believers are placed onto Christ as they are no longer attributed to those renewed for adoption. The constitutive declaration of believers as justified involves all persons of the Trinity necessary to attain union with Christ. God declares the regenerated converted as justified through Christ. Christ’s righteousness is imputed to believers, while the sins of believers are imputed to Him. A double imputation to establish the effective ground of justification is necessary for the spiritual growth and sanctification of the Spirit and adoption of believers. While there is punishment for unbelievers due to the wrath of God for sin, there is no punishment for believers adopted as sons and daughters. There is chastisement and correction through the Holy Spirit as He is involved in sanctification to render believers righteous and holy. Believers are the workmanship of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Sanctification
The work of God to sanctify believers is to make them holy. It is an intentional work of God through grace to bring us into conformance with Christ. According to Frame’s biblical analysis, two types of sanctification are relevant to our interests. First, definitive sanctification is an instantaneous act of God upon a believer at a point in time concurrent with regeneration. More specifically, according to Frame, “Definitive sanctification is a once-for-all event, simultaneous with effectual calling and regeneration, that transfers us from the sphere of sin to the sphere of God’s holiness, from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of God” (Heb. 9:13–14; 10:10; 13:12). Through this type of sanctification, there is a separation of believers as holy from unbelievers in the world. It is an event by which there is a severing from sin (Rom. 6:11; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:3) as believers are joined with Christ as it is said that it overlaps regeneration.
Progressive sanctification is a process of continued spiritual development. Made more holy, believers gradually increase through good works and maturity to bear the fruits of the Spirit. While the work of the Spirit present with believers increases their sanctification, He does so through their human effort. Progressive sanctification is a continuous intentional effort among believers to actively yield to God’s instructions for moral living, good works, and obedience.
Perseverance and Assurance
In the most simple terms, Frame calls attention to the Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF 17.1) to highlight what perseverance is: “They, whom God hath accepted in his Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified by his Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.” More concisely, the regenerate in a saving union with Christ cannot lose their salvation. In a more startling passage, John 10:27-29 informs believers that if anyone believes in Jesus now, they cannot lose their salvation. This salvation is in reference to eternal life once any person passes away at death. This is to escape God’s wrath and come into eternal fellowship with Christ. There is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1). So when believers place their trust in Jesus, their past, present, and future sins are immediately and permanently forgiven. Believers are guarded until the end.
Glorification
The final area of Frame’s doctrine of the Holy Spirit concerns the glorification of believers. Along the path of the Ordo Solutis, of glorification of God includes his presence in the lives of believers. Where people who bear the image of God reflect back to Him the work of the Spirit, there is an effect of God’s glory made apparent on us. The work of the Spirit through regeneration, conversion, justification, sanctification, and adoption returns as a shekinah glory within yet reflected back to God for His cumulative and ongoing glory. The glory of God involves and includes His presence as it is unique and utterly foreign to a person’s natural sense. We can see and experience His glory with and through His presence and throughout creation, but our state from the Holy Spirit’s indwelling is a derivative glorification that abides.
