In the book “In The LORD I Take Refuge,” the author, Dane Ortlund, wrote a commentary alongside each chapter of the book of Psalms. As a Presbyterian pastor with a Ph.D., he offers reflections and observations of substantive value about the Psalter one chapter at a time. The book is with the ESV text of the Psalms prepared in a format where 150 devotions are presented to readers with the author’s encouragement, exhortation, rebuke, and the occasional call to repentance. He often echoes the Psalmists’ sentiments about the lovingkindness of the LORD through song and poetry. He also explores the range of literary meaning as the Psalms are sometimes imprecatory, messianic, prophetic, and musical in lyric and instruction. The range of inspired material prepared throughout the Psalms is covered in a practical way made relevant to readers immersed in everyday life.
The consistent pattern throughout the text is to bring practical application to the lives of believers. In a sense, this book is a work of ministry from the author to comfort readers, challenge them, and remind them of what God meant through the writers of Scripture. This book is not an academic work of interest but a personal journey of the heart and mind. To reflect on what God says to the reader about highly relevant and pertinent topics of interest. Praise, hardships, enmity, comfort, assurance, and promise are touched upon without scripture references elsewhere but are kept to the message within each Psalm at hand. The title chosen for the book is appropriate because it anchors the reader into the thread of meaning throughout the devotional commentary. In The LORD I Take Refuge covers a lot of ground as it is a call and response, or inform and response way to which the material is absorbed day by day. The book’s central point that the author returns to is the refuge of the LORD as the only true and lasting means of safety, protection, and peace from the issues of life with deep spiritual relevance.
The book’s title draws upon Psalm 11:1 phrase, “In the Lord I Take Refuge.” While the majority text, KJV and NKJV, reference the term “trust” instead of “refuge,” the critical text makes use of the translation rendering “refuge” from the original Hebrew Word defined as a place of safety or shelter. This poetic language brings to mind an image of withdrawal and separation to a place of security for protection. The title aligns with what the author intended to convey as he sought to capture what the Psalmists wrote as a body of work. There wasn’t attention placed on the structural or technical features of the text, as the book is intended as a daily companion of both practical and spiritual messages.
The author also uses the writings of historical figures within early Christianity, including the Reformers and the Puritans, to highlight substantive meaning about perspectives rendered by the Psalmists. In support of the author’s reading and comprehension of the subject matter, with its authoritative scriptural weight, correlating and pertinent perspectives from historical people of influence help drive home the points he continues to offer. The wide array of perspectives Ortlund presents from these historical people of God goes a long way to substantiate the credibility of his observations and perspective. The author likely has much to say about the scriptural references, prayers, and reflections of the Patristic fathers, the Reformers, and the Puritans. The wide use of influential people throughout history isn’t for analytical purposes but for their unique perspectives from a time and setting set apart from post-modern society.
As Crossway is the publisher of this devotional book (ISBN: 978-1-4335-7770-3; hardcover, 409 pages), it is suitable for use among numerous people within the Reformed and Renewed traditions of the universal church. While the reflections about each Psalm are from a Reformed perspective, it is evangelical in tone and delivery without compromising the truth and intended meaning of Scripture. While it isn’t recommended that devotional time should be dedicated exclusively to the Psalter, it is a valuable companion to Scripture during personal time in the Word, during family worship and reading, or as a component of private liturgy.
Mere Christianity is a profound work of theological literature written by British writer and lay theologian C.S. Lewis. First published in 1942, the book is a timeless and influential work in Christian apologetics. Much of its content originated from a series of BBC radio talks made by Lewis during World War II, from 1941 to 1944. The book is a compelling testament to Lewis’s thoughtfulness, creativity, and ability to articulate complex theological concepts in a manner that is engaging and accessible to everyone.
Having completely read through this book, it is obvious how it came to be a foundational text for many individuals exploring Christian belief. Especially as its significance lies not only in its clear, inviting prose but also in the scope and depth of its thought. Lewis’s intellectual approach to the Christian faith and his rational arguments for its principles and tenets are aimed at a broad audience. He hoped to describe a “mere” Christianity, a set of core beliefs that all Christians, regardless of their denominational background, could agree upon.
Introduction
Mere Christianity is divided into four parts, each addressing a distinct area of Christian belief and practice. The first section, titled “Right and Wrong as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe,” proposes the existence of a universal moral law that all humans innately understand. Lewis argues that this moral law cannot result from biological or social evolution but must come from a divine source, thereby providing a moral argument for the existence of God.
The second part, “What Christians Believe,” delves deeper into Christian doctrine. Here, Lewis explores the nature of good and evil, the concepts of free will, and the Christian understanding of God and the universe. He discusses the concept of dualism and then introduces the Christian understanding of God’s nature, presenting Jesus not merely as a good moral teacher, but as the Son of God, thereby addressing the crux of Christian belief.
“Christian Behavior,” the third part of the book, elaborates on the practical application of Christianity in daily life. Lewis talks about Christian morality in terms of personal ethics and the broader context of justice, charity, forgiveness, and the importance of love, amongst others. He illuminates the concept of ‘the cardinal virtues,’ the theological virtues, and discusses topics like sexual morality, marriage, forgiveness, and the love of God.
In the final section, “Beyond Personality: Or First Steps in the Doctrine of the Trinity,” Lewis explores the concept of the Trinity and explains the transformation process of a human becoming a part of the “Body of Christ.” This section presents some of Christian doctrine’s more complex theological aspects, which Lewis simplifies with brilliant and relatable analogies.
Throughout Mere Christianity, Lewis’s style is conversational yet scholarly, with a thought-provoking approach that invites believers and skeptics to examine their beliefs. The book uniquely blends philosophical argumentation, theological instruction, and spiritual encouragement. With his literary talent and depth of understanding, Lewis provides a persuasive case for the Christian faith.
At the same time, Lewis carefully avoids delving into the divisive specifics of different Christian denominations, focusing instead on the shared tenets of the faith. This is the ‘mere’ Christianity he proposes – a vision of faith that aims to be inclusive rather than exclusive. This focus on shared belief has helped the book gain wide acceptance among Christians of many different traditions.
Mere Christianity is more than just a book; it is an immersive experience in understanding one’s faith. Whether you are a devoted believer, a skeptic exploring the Christian faith, or someone interested in religious philosophy, this classic work provides deep insights and promotes thoughtful reflection. Regardless of your perspective, Mere Christianity invites you on a journey of exploration and discovery that has the potential to transform your understanding of Christianity and the world.
Book I
RIGHT AND WRONG AS A CLUE TO THE MEANING OF THE UNIVERSE
Book One of Mere Christianity begins with Lewis’s exploration of morality and the concept of right and wrong, which he uses as a clue to discerning the existence and nature of God. He argues that moral law, the internal code of conduct recognized universally by humans, points to a lawgiver—God.
The first chapter, “The Law of Human Nature,” introduces the notion that humans have an innate sense of right and wrong, an idea that transcends cultural differences. Despite varied societal norms and customs, people universally understand fundamental concepts of fairness, justice, and moral conduct. Lewis argues that this moral law or ‘Law of Human Nature’ suggests the existence of a moral lawgiver, or God.
In “Some Objections,” the second chapter, Lewis refutes the notion that morality is a social or biological construct. He suggests that while instincts may often guide our actions, the decisions we make when instincts conflict reveal a deeper moral law. He also contends that societal norms, though influential, don’t define morality because societies themselves can be corrupt or unjust.
“The Reality of the Law” is the third chapter. Here, Lewis discusses how people often fail to follow the moral code they recognize, a state he terms ‘quarreling.’ Quarreling, he argues, is an implicit recognition of a universal moral law because it entails appealing to an accepted standard of fairness when one feels wronged. Lewis implies that the regularity of quarreling in human interaction signifies the universal reality of moral law.
In the fourth chapter, “What Lies Behind the Law,” Lewis moves from discussing moral law’s existence to speculation about the universe’s nature. He proposes two views: the Materialist view, which states that the universe is a random occurrence without a higher power, and the Religious view, which argues that a mind orchestrates the universe. Lewis suggests that the existence of the moral law, which does not fit into the mechanics of the survival of the fittest, supports the religious view.
“We Have Cause to Be Uneasy” is the last chapter of the first book. Lewis concludes that God, as the moral lawgiver, must be righteous and just, implying that humans, who frequently disobey this moral law, have cause to be concerned. Despite this, he also points to the sense of comfort people find in recognizing this moral lawgiver, suggesting that the Christian journey provides hope.
By the end of Book One, Lewis lays a foundation for the Christian faith by arguing that humanity’s shared, universal morality indicates a shared source of this morality, a higher power or God. According to Lewis, moral law is not a creation of humanity but an indication of the divine within and beyond us. This line of reasoning establishes a context for Lewis’s subsequent discussion of Christian doctrine and beliefs in the remaining sections of this book.
Book II
WHAT CHRISTIANS BELIEVE
Book 2, titled “What Christians Believe,” elucidates key Christian doctrines, making them accessible to his lay readership. His central themes include the nature of God, the concept of the Trinity, the nature of good and evil, and the figure of Jesus Christ. Lewis begins this book by clarifying what God is not. He argues against the popular notion of God as a vague spiritual force, instead asserting the Christian belief in a personal God, the sort of God who has a will, can love, and can relate to us as individuals. This is the foundation of Lewis’s theistic view, where God is both the cause and the purpose of the universe.
From there, Lewis moves on to the question of the nature of good and evil, arguing against a dualistic interpretation of the universe. Dualists, according to Lewis, see the world as a battleground of equal opposing forces of good and evil. But Lewis maintains that evil is not a thing in its own right, but rather a perversion or corruption of good. Evil is parasitic on good and is only possible when good things go wrong. In this perspective, God is entirely good, and evil originated from free will when creatures chose to misuse their God-given freedom. Lewis stresses that, despite evil’s apparent power, it is ultimately subordinate to God’s goodness.
The problem of evil leads Lewis to the figure of Christ. He addresses the issue of why, if God is good, the world is filled with suffering. Lewis introduces the idea of the Fall, the moment when human beings first chose to turn away from God. According to Lewis, this choice introduced sin and suffering into the world. Yet, God, in his mercy, offered a solution to the problem of sin: Jesus Christ.
Lewis then takes on one of his most famous arguments: “Liar, Lunatic, or Lord,” often paraphrased as “Mad, Bad, or God.” Lewis argues against those who would relegate Jesus to the status of a great moral teacher but deny his divinity. Lewis points out that Jesus made claims that would, if not true, make him either a madman or a devil. He claims that he will forgive people their sins; he says that he has always existed; he says he is coming to judge the world at the end of time. No one who made such claims could be considered a great moral teacher but not divine. Thus, we are left with three options: Jesus was a liar (a deliberate fraud), a lunatic (a man of unsound mind), or he was who he said he was: Lord.
In the final chapters, Lewis grapples with the Christian concept of the Trinity. Lewis analogizes the Trinity with the dimensions of space. Just as a single dimension can contain an infinite number of lines, and two dimensions can contain an infinite number of lines and shapes, so too, he argues, can God be both three and one. The three persons of the Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – are distinct, but they are all contained within the oneness of God.
Lewis continues to use everyday language and familiar analogies to unpack the essential beliefs of the Christian faith. His approachable style and thoughtful arguments continue to make this book a valuable resource for both Christians seeking to deepen their understanding of their faith and skeptics exploring Christianity.
Book III
CHRISTIAN BEHAVIOR
The third book, “Christian Behavior,” lays out Lewis’s vision of what ethical conduct, under the influence of Christian teachings, should look like. In this book, Lewis explores different virtues and vices, the nature of morality, and the character of a ‘good man’ according to Christian morality. Here Lewis begins by suggesting that Christian morality is like a map. Just as maps help us navigate the physical world, so Christian morals help us navigate the spiritual world. He then proceeds to discuss the ‘Cardinal Virtues’, which are wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice. These virtues are not exclusive to Christianity and are recognized by various philosophical traditions as key aspects of good moral character.
The conversation then shifts to social morality. Lewis contends that Christianity does not dictate a specific political or economic system. Instead, it sets forth general principles that should guide human interactions. He argues that Christianity encourages a love that extends beyond personal affections. This is ‘Agape,’ an unconditional love that expects nothing in return, a love that should be extended to all, including enemies.
Lewis also emphasizes the importance of sexual morality, devoting a significant portion of this book to the subject. He clarifies that he does not see sex as evil, but argues that, like all powerful desires, it can be dangerous when not properly controlled. He is critical of the prudishness about sex and the modern casual attitude toward it. Lewis supports traditional Christian teachings about marriage and sexual purity, arguing that casual sex treats people as objects rather than as individuals with inherent dignity.
In subsequent chapters, Lewis explores a variety of other ethical topics. He argues that the Christian virtues of hope and charity should guide all aspects of life, including work, play, and even laughter. He explains that Christianity teaches the importance of individual morality and the necessity of a just and compassionate society.
He then moves to the topics of forgiveness and pride. Lewis contends that forgiveness is a crucial virtue for Christians, even when it’s hard. He acknowledges that forgiving those who’ve wronged us can be extremely difficult but asserts that it’s a necessary part of following Christ. He considers pride the ‘great sin,’ the root of all evil, and humility its antidote.
Book III concludes with a chapter on faith, in which Lewis distinguishes between the faith that affirms belief in Christian doctrines and the faith that continues to trust God even in the face of difficulties and doubts. Lewis presents the moral and ethical standards set forth by Christianity rationally and logically, aiming to demonstrate that these standards, while challenging, are designed for the good of individuals and societies alike. His discussions are not solely based on faith; they also integrate philosophical, psychological, and social perspectives to examine Christian morality comprehensively.
Book IV
BEYOND PERSONALITY; OR FIRST STEPS IN THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY
In this final book, Lewis investigates the nature of God as a trinity, a concept central to Christian doctrine but often difficult to understand. He admits that human language is inadequate to express this complex idea fully, but still, he uses accessible metaphors and analogies to give us a glimpse of the idea.
Lewis starts by discussing the distinction between begetting and making, which he uses to explain the relationship within the Godhead further. God the Father “begets” God the Son, but doesn’t “make” Him, in the sense that human parents beget their children, but a carpenter makes a table. In the former, the offspring share the same nature as the parents, while in the latter, the creation is fundamentally different from the creator. Hence, Jesus, the Son of God, shares the same divine nature as God the Father, and isn’t a created being.
Next, Lewis explores the idea of God as a timeless entity existing in the eternal present. God isn’t limited by past, present, and future constraints in the way humans are. As such, he explains that when Christians talk about Christ being begotten “before all worlds,” it doesn’t mean there was a time when He wasn’t. It means that Christ is eternally begotten, always coming from the Father but never separate from Him.
In addition, Lewis discusses the concept of the Holy Spirit and His role in the lives of Christians. Lewis presents the Holy Spirit as the very life of God living within believers, transforming them into the likeness of Christ. This transformative process, which he calls “good infection,” is the crux of Christian morality and spirituality.
Furthermore, Lewis addresses the importance of prayer and the Christian’s direct interaction with God. He emphasizes that prayer isn’t a way of making God do what we want but a process of learning to align ourselves with what He wants. He likens God to a new dimension of existence that humans can’t comprehend, and states that through prayer, a divine life enters and transforms us.
Toward the end of the book, Lewis discusses the paradoxical concept of surrendering to gain, arguing that a person can only find true life and self by giving it up to God. He also clarifies misconceptions about God’s omnipresence, asserting that God isn’t spread thinly across the universe, but entirely present at every point of it.
Lastly, he grapples with the idea of God’s joy, which results from our unity with Him. Our true nature, he says, is derived from God, and we are most ourselves when we align with His will. Lewis doesn’t aim to provide a comprehensive or exact explanation of the complex doctrine of the Trinity. Instead, he uses his unique approach to make these profound ideas more accessible and relatable, guiding readers to understand the Christian conception of God and the transformative nature of His relationship with humanity.
Having read The Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan, it is helpful to understand Bunyan’s background as the author of this widely-known book. The Pilgrim’s Progress is a long-time classic about living as a Christian throughout one’s lifetime. Pilgrim’s Progress is a comprehensive allegorical look at believers’ physical and spiritual hardships en route to Heaven, or in the Pilgrim’s case, the Celestial City. From the time of conversion to entry into the Celestial City, numerous detours, afflictions, and setbacks involved captivity and suffering unique to the Pilgrims in the story but still relevant to believers today. While each stage of the Pilgrim’s Progress is meant to mirror a believer’s faith journey, numerous scriptural principles are interwoven throughout the narrative. While believers at the time of Bunyan have a better way of relating to the setting and primitive nature of the story, the protagonist encounters still offer timeless lessons, warnings, and examples to follow.
Introduction
John Bunyan was a prominent English Puritan writer and devoted follower of Christ who lived during the 17th century. He was born in 1628 in Elstow, Bedfordshire, England. Bunyan’s family was of modest means, and his father, Thomas Bunyan, worked as a tinker, repairing pots and pans. Bunyan’s early life was marked by the turbulent events of the English Civil War, which erupted in 1642. He was raised in a period of political and religious upheaval, with the country divided between the Royalists and the Parliamentarians. As a young man, Bunyan served briefly as a soldier in the Parliamentary army during the war. After the war, Bunyan struggled with a deep spiritual crisis and feelings of guilt over his moral failings. He eventually found peace in the Puritan faith and became a committed follower of Christ in their vein of devotion and worship. Puritans pursued personal holiness and a strong work ethic and held to the absolute authority of the Bible.
In 1653, Bunyan joined a Puritan congregation in Bedford, England, led by John Gifford. This congregation consisted of Protestant Christians who refused to conform to the unbiblical practices of the Church of England, which was the State established church at the time. Bunyan’s religious convictions and objections to tradition led him to become a preacher, and he began delivering sermons and exhortations to fellow believers. However, in 1660, the political climate shifted with the restoration of the monarchy under King Charles II. The new government’s anti-Christian views were propagated through the Church of England, and Bunyan faced persecution for fellowship with other believers without the consent of the Church of England. He was arrested in November 1660 and spent twelve years in prison. Bunyan wrote The Pilgrim’s Progress during his imprisonment, published in 1678. The book, an allegorical tale of a Christian’s journey toward salvation, became immensely popular and remains a classic of English literature.
After his release from prison in 1672, Bunyan returned to Bedford and resumed activities befitting a Christian. He continued to write numerous other highly regarded works, including theological treatises, fictional novels, and spiritual reflections. Bunyan’s works have been in circulation throughout Christendom for centuries. Moreover, John Bunyan’s contributions as a writer and preacher made him one of the most influential figures of the Puritan movement. His works continue to be studied and deeply valued for their biblical insights, spiritual wisdom, literary value, and historical significance.
Review – Part I
“The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World, to That Which Is to Come” is an allegorical novel written by John Bunyan and published in 1678. Part The book has been widely translated and is considered one of the most significant works of English literature. In part 1 of the book, the story is centered on a man named Christian and his journey from his hometown, the “City of Destruction” (representing earthly existence), to the “Celestial City” (representing Heaven). The story begins in the City of Destruction, where a man named Christian lives. One day, he finds a book (the Bible) that warns of the city’s impending doom. Tormented by this knowledge and burdened by a heavy load (representing his sins), Christian leaves his wife and children to set off on a pilgrimage to the Celestial City, the only place of safety.
Along his journey, Christian encounters various characters who either aid or obstruct his Progress. Evangelist, the first character he meets, instructs him to head for the Wicket Gate, and there he will be told how to reach the Celestial City. However, he first mistakenly follows the advice of a character named Mr. Worldly Wiseman and heads towards the village of Morality to seek relief from his burden from a man named Mr. Legality. However, after much distress endured by Christian, Evangelist redirects him, setting him back on the right path toward the Wicket Gate. At the Wicket Gate, Christian is admitted by Goodwill who instructs him to follow the straight path and not to deviate. He journeys onward and reaches the House of the Interpreter, where he is shown various pictures and scenes that symbolize spiritual truths.
The journey is fraught with peril, and Christian passes through places like the Slough of Despond, where he almost drowns in the mire of his guilt and doubts, and Vanity Fair, a place of worldly temptations, horrific abuses, and deadly persecution. He climbs the Hill of Difficulty, survives the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and later fights the monster Apollyon (allegorical of Satan or a demon figure).
Christian also meets several other characters, such as Faithful and Talkative, who either represent good qualities or pitfalls along the spiritual journey. Faithful is martyred in Vanity Fair, showing the price of faith in the face of worldly opposition. Eventually, Christian and his new companion, Hopeful, come to the Delectable Mountains, which the Lord of the Celestial City owns. Here they are refreshed and warned of coming difficulties. They are shown sights such as a man who could look no way but downwards and the land of Conceit, which is ruled by a tyrant named Despair who holds people captive.
Christian and Hopeful continue their journey and are trapped by the Giant Despair in the Doubting Castle. However, Christian remembers he has a key called Promise, which opens any door in Doubting Castle, and they manage to escape.
Ultimately, Christian and Hopeful reach the Celestial City, but it’s only accessible by crossing the River of Death. Christian is initially afraid to cross but is encouraged by Hopeful. As they cross, Christian is nearly drowned by doubts and fears, but he makes it to the other side, where he is welcomed into the Celestial City, shedding his burden once and for all.
In essence, “Pilgrim’s Progress” Part 1 is an allegory for the Christian journey of faith from the burden of sin and destruction to salvation in the Celestial City, a representation of Heaven. The narrative explores themes of faith, persistence, and redemption through various trials, tribulations, and encounters.
Review – Part II
The Pilgrim’s Progress Part II continues John Bunyan’s allegorical narrative, following the journey of Christiana, Christian’s wife, who is motivated by her husband’s successful pilgrimage and the invitation from Evangelist to follow in his footsteps. She decides to journey to the Celestial City, taking her four sons and a neighbor, Mercy, with her. Although the core allegorical structure remains similar to Part 1 — a journey from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City — the narrative is expanded upon by including new characters and incidents, providing a more nuanced perspective on the Christian faith. Part 2 begins with Christiana, who, after receiving a divine revelation in a dream, regrets not having embarked on the journey with her husband. Convinced by her dream and her neighbor, Mrs. Timorous, Christiana decides to follow in Christian’s footsteps, taking their four sons (Matthew, Samuel, Joseph, and James) along with her.
In Part II, Bunyan expands on many themes from the first part, providing additional nuance and depth. He also introduces several new characters and emphasizes the role of women in the Christian faith, reflecting meaningful contributions complementary to the religious and social landscape of his time. Christiana’s journey begins when Secret, a divine messenger, delivers a letter to her. Inspired by the letter and disturbed by dreams of Judgment Day, she decides to set off for the Celestial City with her children. Accordingly, Mercy, Christiana’s young neighbor, asks to join her, despite knowing the journey could be perilous. However, Christiana and her group remain resolute and continue. The journey is not easy, and they have to navigate several challenges and obstacles, such as the Slough of Despond and the Hill Difficulty.
Like Christian in the first part, Christiana and her companions also stop at the Interpreter’s House, where they are given guidance and shown various allegorical pictures and scenes. The House proves to be a place of learning and reflection, helping travelers understand their spiritual journey better. The journey continues, and the group visits several significant sites, such as the Cross, the Sepulchre, and the Hill of Difficulty.
Under Great-Heart’s guidance, the group overcomes many physical and spiritual challenges. These include the fight with Giant Despair at Doubting Castle and the crossing of the Enchanted Ground. Through these trials, the pilgrims learn about the power of faith and the importance of perseverance. In contrast to the first part, the second part greatly emphasizes community and fellowship. Christiana’s group grows throughout the journey, welcoming new members like Standfast and Valiant-for-Truth. These characters contribute their unique insights, reinforcing the idea that all believers have a role in the body of Christ.
Finally, Christiana, Mercy, and the remaining group reach the River of Death, the final barrier before the Celestial City. Christiana crosses first and is joyously welcomed into the City. The others follow each greeted with a similar celebration. The journey of each pilgrim ends in successful entry into the Celestial City, marking the completion of their spiritual journey. “Pilgrim’s Progress Part II” is a rich and complex allegory detailing Christiana’s spiritual journey. Bunyan uses the characters and obstacles Christiana encounters to explore deeper themes of faith, perseverance, fellowship, and the nature of the Christian journey. In contrast to the first part, it provides a broader picture of the Christian experience, reflecting diverse experiences and insights.
Pilgrims’ Locations
The City of Destruction: The journey begins here, which represents the unenlightened world. Christian is distressed by the burden (sin) on his back and is seeking salvation.
Slough of Despond: Christian falls into this swamp of despondency and despair, which represents feelings of guilt and fear due to the recognition of sin.
House of the Interpreter: Here, Christian learns important lessons through several visions and allegorical figures that Interpreter shows him.
Cross and Sepulchre: At this point, Christian loses his burden (sin) at the sight of the Cross, symbolizing the redemption and forgiveness of sins through Christ’s sacrifice.
Hill Difficulty: Christian’s faith is tested when he needs to climb this difficult hill.
Palace Beautiful: Christian receives hospitality, rest, and further instruction in the Christian faith at this place, symbolizing the Church.
Valley of Humiliation: Here, Christian faces and defeats the monster Apollyon, representing Satan.
Valley of the Shadow of Death: Christian continues his journey through this treacherous valley, enduring dangers and darkness.
Vanity Fair: This town represents the worldly temptations. Christian and Faithful, his companion by this point, are put on trial for their beliefs.
Doubting Castle and Giant Despair: Christian and Hopeful, another companion after Faithful’s death, are imprisoned and tortured by Giant Despair, but they escape using the key of Promise.
Delectable Mountains: These represent the joys and comforts of the life of grace. Christian and Hopeful are refreshed and receive more instructions for their journey here.
Enchanted Ground: A dangerous place where drowsiness and laziness threaten to halt the pilgrims’ progress.
Land of Beulah: This land represents spiritual abundance and rest before the final leg of the journey. Here, Christian and Hopeful prepare themselves for their crossing of the River of Death.
River of Death: Christian and Hopeful cross this river to finally reach the Celestial City, symbolizing the passing from life into eternity.
The Celestial City (Heaven): Christian finally reaches his destination, the place of eternal salvation and joy. He and Hopeful are welcomed with trumpets and a chorus of angels.
A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Confessions by Augustine. It was the first written work of Augustine I read as a whole, and it is a classic on a personal reading list of patristics. I’ve read sections of Augustine’s more comprehensive work in the City of God for research purposes on topics of theological interest. So there weren’t expectations going into the reading, but only an impression about who Augustine was and what others said and wrote about him. He is cited a lot and followed closely by devoted followers of Christ Jesus among all traditions of Christianity. Catholics often claim Augustine as an early Catholic church father for a time as he served within its early traditions.
The following is a synthesis of Confessions, a book-by-book summary produced by personal research that corresponds to my first reading of Augustine’s entire work.
INTRODUCTION
Augustine of Hippo (354-430 AD), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian, philosopher, and bishop of the North African city of Hippo Regius, located in present-day Annaba, Algeria. He is one of the most significant figures in the development of Western Christianity and a key figure in the history of Western philosophy. Augustine was initially a follower of Manichaeism and later Neoplatonism. Still, after converting to Christianity in 386 AD, he became a prominent Christian theologian and eventually the Bishop of Hippo in 396 AD.
Augustine’s writings, including his autobiographical work “Confessions” and his magnum opus “The City of God,” have profoundly impacted the development of Christian doctrine and the Western intellectual tradition. He tackled various theological issues, such as original sin, predestination, the nature of the soul, and the relationship between faith and reason. Augustine’s ideas have influenced many subsequent philosophers and theologians, including Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, and John Calvin.
In addition to his theological works, Augustine made important contributions to the fields of ethics, epistemology, and political philosophy. His ideas on the relationship between church and state, the nature of the just war, and the role of government in maintaining peace and order have had a lasting impact on Western political thought.
BOOK I – Childhood
In Book 1 of Confessions, Augustine begins his spiritual autobiography by addressing God and reflecting on the nature of sin and human frailty. The book primarily focuses on his early childhood, exploring how even as a young child, he was prone to sin and driven by desires that led him astray.
Augustine describes his early years in the Roman African city of Thagaste (present-day Souk Ahras, Algeria). He notes that he was born into a Christian family, but was not baptized as an infant due to the cultural practice of waiting until later in life. He also provides an account of his education, recounting his learning of Latin, reading, and writing, as well as his exposure to Roman literature.
Throughout Book 1, Augustine frequently returns to the theme of sin, illustrating it with anecdotes from his childhood. He mentions instances of selfishness, deceit, and disobedience, highlighting the sinful nature inherent in humans. A famous example he provides is the story of stealing pears from a neighbor’s tree, not out of hunger or necessity, but simply for the thrill of doing something forbidden.
Augustine also delves into the topic of human desire and its role in leading people away from God. He explores the idea of “concupiscence,” which he defines as disordered desires or lusts that distract individuals from pursuing God.
Overall, Book 1 of Confessions serves as an introduction to Augustine’s life and thought, setting the stage for his journey towards faith and his eventual conversion to Christianity. It highlights themes of sin, desire, and the human inclination towards wrongdoing, all of which will be further explored in subsequent books.
Book I Synopsis
He admires God’s Majesty and is inflamed with a deep desire to praise him
Man hath his being from God; and that God is in man, and man in God
God is wholly everywhere and is not by parts contained by the Creature
An admirable description of God’s Attributes
He prays for the forgiveness of sins and the Love of God
That he hath received all blessings from God: and how he hath been preserved by him
That even his infancy was subject to sin
A description of his childhood
The hatred that children bear for Learning, and their Love for Playing
How, for his play, he neglected his Parents’ Commandments
How he fell sick and how recovering, his Baptism was deferred
He is forced to his Book: which God turned for good purpose
With what studies he was chiefly delighted
Of the Greek and Latin Tongues
His Prayer to God
Against lascivious fables
The way of exercising youth in repeating and varying verses
That Men care more about observing the Rules of Grammar than the Laws of God
How he was more careful to avoid Barbarisms of Speech than the corruption of Manners
He thanked God for his Benefits
BOOK II – Teen Years
In Book 2 of Confessions, Augustine continues his spiritual autobiography, shifting his focus to his teenage years and examining the nature of lust, the consequences of sinful behavior, and the longing for God’s grace.
During this period of his life, Augustine admits to being heavily influenced by his sensual desires, driven by lust and the impulses of his youth. He recounts the story of stealing pears from a neighbor’s tree, an act that has become emblematic of his exploration of sin. Augustine emphasizes that the theft was motivated not by hunger or need, but by the sheer enjoyment of wrongdoing, which reveals the depths of human depravity.
Augustine also discusses his education and his early interest in literature and rhetoric. Although he acknowledges the value of acquiring knowledge, he criticizes the fact that his studies were often guided by ambition and the pursuit of worldly success, rather than by a desire for truth or closeness to God.
Throughout Book 2, Augustine reflects on the role of human will and its susceptibility to temptation. He recognizes that even though he was aware of the difference between right and wrong, he often chose to act against his better judgment, succumbing to temptation and sin. This realization leads him to contemplate the need for God’s grace to guide and transform human will, allowing individuals to overcome their sinful inclinations.
In summary, Book 2 of Confessions delves into Augustine’s teenage years, examining the pervasiveness of sin, the weakness of human will, and the necessity of God’s grace. It reveals how Augustine’s early experiences with desire and ambition eventually led him to seek a deeper understanding of God and the nature of human existence.
Book II Synopsis
He enters upon the Years and Sins of his Youth
He accuses his youth spent in the heat of Lustfulness
Of his Travels for his Studies’ sake and his Parents’ Purpose in it
How he robbed a Pear-tree
No man sins, but provoked by some Cause
All those things which under the show of Good invite us to sin, are in God alone, to be found True and perfect
He returns thanks to God for remitting these sins, and for keeping him from many others
What he loved in that his theft
Bad Company is infectious
Whatsoever is good, is in God
BOOK III – Teen Years and Early Adulthood
In Book 3 of “Confessions,” Augustine recounts his time as a young man in Carthage, where he pursued his education and grappled with the seductions of worldly desires. This book explores Augustine’s intellectual and moral development, highlighting the influence of Manicheism, a dualistic religion he embraced for nearly a decade, and his struggle with lust.
Upon arriving in Carthage, Augustine is confronted with a city filled with temptations and distractions. He becomes entangled in a passionate love affair and struggles with the allure of lust and sexual desire, which he later sees as a significant obstacle to his spiritual journey.
Augustine also encounters Manicheism, a religious movement that offers an appealing explanation for the existence of evil in the world. Manicheism posits a dualistic cosmos in which two opposing forces, Good (the spiritual realm) and Evil (the material realm), are engaged in an eternal struggle. Augustine is initially drawn to this religion, as it seemingly addresses his concerns about the problem of evil and provides a framework for understanding the human condition. However, over time, he becomes disillusioned with Manicheism due to its intellectual inconsistencies and the inability of its adherents to answer his deeper philosophical questions.
Despite his preoccupation with worldly desires and his involvement with Manicheism, Augustine never loses sight of his thirst for truth and wisdom. He continues to study and explore various intellectual disciplines, including rhetoric, philosophy, and the works of Cicero. His search for truth eventually leads him to discover the beauty and depth of the Christian faith.
In summary, Book 3 of “Confessions” narrates Augustine’s experiences in Carthage, as he wrestles with the temptations of worldly desires, grapples with the allure of Manicheism, and pursues his passion for knowledge. This period of his life lays the groundwork for the profound intellectual and spiritual transformations that await him in the years to come.
Book III Synopsis
He is caught with Love, which he hunted after
Of Stage Plays
His conversation with young Lawyers
How Tully’s Hortensius provoked him to study Philosophy
He sets lightly by the Holy Scriptures because of the simplicity of the style
How he was ensnared by the Manichees
The absurd doctrine of the Manichees
Heinous offenses what be, and how punished
The difference that is betwixt Sins, and betwixt the Judgment of God and Men
He speaks again of the Fig-tree, and derides the Manichees’ foolish conceits about it
His Mother’s Dream
The answer his Mother received from a Bishop, concerning his Conversion
BOOK IV – Early Adult Years
In Book 4 of Confessions, Augustine focuses on his early adult years, specifically his time as a teacher of rhetoric in Carthage and his growing dissatisfaction with the Manichaean religion. He also addresses themes such as ambition, pride, and grief as he delves into his personal relationships and professional life.
During this period, Augustine’s ambition and desire for worldly success drive him to become a successful teacher of rhetoric. However, he acknowledges that his pursuit of material wealth and fame often distracts him from seeking deeper truth and genuine wisdom.
Augustine discusses his continued involvement with Manichaeism, revealing that he began to find inconsistencies in its teachings and became increasingly disillusioned with its explanations of good and evil. As his skepticism grows, he starts to search for a more satisfying spiritual framework.
One of the central events in Book 4 is the death of a close friend, which deeply affects Augustine and causes him to reflect on the impermanence of life and the nature of human attachment. He confronts his own grief and recognizes that his attachment to temporal, earthly things ultimately leaves him unfulfilled and unsatisfied. This realization further motivates him to seek lasting truth and happiness beyond the material world.
Book 4 of Confessions portrays Augustine’s growing awareness of the limitations of worldly ambitions and the inadequacies of the Manichaean religion. Through his personal experiences and his exploration of loss, he becomes increasingly aware of the necessity for a more profound understanding of life and a closer relationship with God. This period in his life marks an important turning point in his spiritual journey, setting the stage for the subsequent phases of his conversion.
Book IV Synopsis
How long, and what ways he seduced others
He teaches Rhetoric, and despiseth a Wizard who promised him the Victory
Giving himself to Astrology, he is reclaimed by an ancient Physician
He relates the sickness and Baptism of his Friend, whom himself had affected with Heresy: he grievously laments his Death
Of Tears in our Prayers for, and Bewailing of, the Thing Beloved
He tells with what great Affection he loved his Friend
The impatientness of grief constrains us to shift our dwellings
Time cures Sorrow
The comparing of Human Friendship with Divine
All Beauty is from God, who is to be prayed for all
All things are created mutable in themselves, and immutable in God
Love of the Creatures is not forbidden, provided that in those which please us, God be loved
Love, whence it comes
Of his Book of Fair and Fit
How his Understanding being overshadowed with corporeal images, he could not discern the spiritual
The admirable Aptness to Learning, and the great Understanding St. Augustine had
BOOK V – Rome, Milan, and Manichaeism
In Book 5 of Confessions, Augustine recounts his departure from Carthage to Rome and then his appointment as a teacher of rhetoric in Milan, Italy. This period in his life is marked by significant events and encounters that play a crucial role in shaping his intellectual and spiritual development.
One key event during this time is Augustine’s disillusionment with Manichaeism. While teaching in Rome, he meets a famous Manichaean bishop named Faustus, hoping to find answers to his doubts about the religion. However, Augustine becomes disappointed when he realizes that Faustus cannot provide the intellectual depth or satisfying explanations he is seeking. This meeting further erodes Augustine’s confidence in Manichaeism and accelerates his journey toward Christianity.
Upon moving to Milan, Augustine encounters the influential Bishop Ambrose, a renowned theologian and preacher. Ambrose’s eloquence, intelligence, and deep understanding of the Christian faith greatly impress Augustine. His exposure to Ambrose’s sermons and teachings, as well as his interpretation of the Scriptures, begins to dismantle Augustine’s previous objections to Christianity. Additionally, Ambrose’s personal kindness toward Augustine fosters a relationship that serves as a significant catalyst for Augustine’s conversion.
While in Milan, Augustine also becomes acquainted with Neoplatonism, a school of philosophy that synthesizes elements of Plato’s thought with other philosophical and religious traditions. Neoplatonism helps Augustine gain a new perspective on the nature of evil, which he comes to understand as the absence of good rather than a positive force in itself. This insight aids in reconciling his previous struggles with the problem of evil in Christian doctrine.
Book 5 of Confessions depicts crucial moments in Augustine’s spiritual journey, as his disillusionment with Manichaeism leads him to engage more deeply with Christian thought. His encounters with Ambrose and Neoplatonism provide him with a new understanding of Christianity, setting the stage for his eventual conversion in Book 8.
Book V Synopsis
He stirs his own Soul to praise God
God’s presence can no man avoid, seeing he is everywhere
Of Faustus the Manichee: and of Astrologies
Only the Knowledge of God makes happy
The rashness of Faustus, in teaching what he knew not
Faustus was eloquent by Nature, rather than by Art
He falls off from the Manichees
He takes a Voyage to Rome, against the will of his Mother
Of a shrewd Fever that he fell into
His Errors before his receiving the Doctrine of the Gospel
How he compared the Manichees’ Tenets with the Catholics
The cunning Tricks put at Rome by Scholars upon their Masters
He goes to Milan to teach Rhetoric, and how St. Ambrose there entertains him
Upon his hearing of St. Ambrose, he by little and little falls off from his errors
BOOK VI – Milan
In Book 6 of Confessions Augustine further explores his time in Milan, focusing on the development of his relationships and the spiritual progress he made while grappling with his attachment to earthly desires.
During this period, Augustine’s mother, Monica, joins him in Milan. Monica is a devout Christian who has long prayed for her son’s conversion. She seeks advice from Bishop Ambrose, who assures her that Augustine will eventually find his way to Christianity. Her faith and prayers play a significant role in Augustine’s spiritual journey.
Augustine also forms friendships with fellow seekers of truth, who engage in discussions about philosophy, religion, and the nature of happiness. These friendships provide intellectual stimulation and foster a sense of community that helps him in his quest for understanding.
Despite his growing attraction to Christianity, Augustine continues to struggle with his desires, particularly lust and ambition. He is involved in a long-term relationship with a woman who has borne him a son, Adeodatus, but he is hesitant to commit to a life of celibacy, which he believes is necessary for genuine conversion.
Augustine’s attachment to material success and worldly ambitions also hinders his full acceptance of Christianity. He finds it difficult to reconcile his desire for professional achievement with the humility and self-denial that he perceives as essential to the Christian life.
In summary, Book 6 of Confessions portrays Augustine’s increasing engagement with Christian thought and the obstacles he faces as he moves closer to conversion. His struggles with lust, ambition, and his attachment to worldly success serve as the backdrop for the deepening of his relationships and his ongoing search for spiritual truth.
Book VI Synopsis
How St. Augustine was neither Manichee, nor good Catholic
His Mother is turned from her country Superstitions
The Employments and Studies of St. Ambrose
Of the Letter and the Spirit
Of the Authority and necessary Use of the Holy Bible
The Misery of the ambitious, shewn by the example of a Beggar
He dissuades Alypius from his excessive delight in the Circensian Games
Alypius is taken with a delight of the Sword-plays, which before he hated
Alypius was apprehended for suspicion of thievery
Of the great Integrity of Alypius, and of Nebridius’ coming
He deliberates what course of life he were best to take
A Contention between Alypius and Augustine, about Marriage and Single Life
Augustine lays out for a Wife
A new Plot is laid and broken
How his old Concubine goes away from him, and he gets another
Of the Immortality of the Soul
BOOK VII – Neoplatonism
In Book 7 of Confessions, Augustine recounts a crucial period in his intellectual and spiritual journey, as he delves deeper into Neoplatonism and comes closer to embracing Christianity. This book details the intellectual breakthroughs that bring him to the threshold of conversion, while also exploring his internal struggles and the obstacles he still needs to overcome.
Augustine’s engagement with Neoplatonism provides him with new philosophical perspectives that help clarify his understanding of the nature of God, evil, and the soul. Through Neoplatonism, he comes to see evil as a privation of good rather than an independent force, which helps resolve his long-standing struggles with the problem of evil. He also gains a deeper understanding of the immaterial nature of God and the human soul, allowing him to better appreciate the spiritual aspects of Christianity.
Simultaneously, Augustine becomes more familiar with the Bible, particularly the writings of Saint Paul, which resonate with his personal experiences and spiritual struggles. He finds solace in the message of divine grace, realizing that human beings are incapable of achieving salvation through their own efforts and need God’s assistance to overcome sin.
Despite these intellectual breakthroughs, Augustine still faces significant obstacles on his path to conversion. He continues to struggle with his desires, particularly lust, and finds it difficult to abandon his old habits and fully commit to a Christian lifestyle. He acknowledges his own internal conflict, expressing a longing for spiritual transformation, yet hesitating due to his attachment to worldly pleasures.
Book 7 of Confessions represents a pivotal stage in Augustine’s spiritual journey. As he grapples with Neoplatonic philosophy and deepens his understanding of Christian teachings, he is brought to the brink of conversion. However, his internal struggles and the lingering attachment to earthly desires still need to be overcome before he can fully embrace the Christian faith.
Book VII Synopsis
How rejecting corporeal Images, he began to know God to be incorporeal
Nebridius confutes the Manichees
Free Will is the cause of Sin
God cannot be compelled
He pursues his enquiries after the root of sin
Divinations made by the Mathematicians are vain
He is miserably tortured in his Enquiry after the Root of Evil
How the Mercy of God at length relieved him
What he found in some Books of the Platonists, agreeable to the Christian Doctrine
Divine things are more clearly discovered unto him
How Creatures are, and yet are not
All that is, is Good
All created Things praise God
To a sober Mind, none of God’s Creatures are displeasing
How there is truth and falsehood in the Creatures
All Things are good, though to some Things not fit
What things hinder us of God’s Knowledge
Only Christ is the Way to Salvation
What he thought of Christ’s Incarnation
Of divers Books of the Platonists
What he found in the Holy Scriptures, which was not in the Platonists
BOOK VIII – Conversion to Christianity
In Book 8 of Confessions, Augustine reaches the climactic point of his spiritual journey – his long-awaited conversion to Christianity. The book focuses on his internal struggle to overcome his remaining barriers to faith, as well as the crucial events and encounters that ultimately lead to his surrender to God’s grace.
Augustine continues to wrestle with his attachment to worldly desires, particularly lust, which prevents him from wholeheartedly embracing the Christian faith. Although he has intellectually accepted the truth of Christianity, his will remains divided, unable to break free from his past habits and fully commit to a new life.
Several key events and encounters in this book play a significant role in Augustine’s ultimate conversion:
The story of Victorinus, a prominent Roman rhetorician and philosopher who converted to Christianity late in life, serves as an inspiration for Augustine, demonstrating that it is possible to leave behind a life of worldly success for the sake of faith.
Augustine meets Simplicianus, a wise and experienced Christian who shares the story of the conversion of St. Ambrose’s mentor, the Neoplatonist philosopher Marius Victorinus. This story further emphasizes the transformative power of Christianity and its ability to transcend philosophical differences.
Augustine hears the account of the conversion of two officials in the imperial court, Ponticianus and his friends, who were deeply moved by the life of St. Antony, a renowned Egyptian hermit. Their transformation after reading the story of Antony challenges Augustine to reexamine his own priorities and confront the barriers that prevent him from embracing Christianity.
The culminating event in Augustine’s conversion occurs in a garden, where he hears the voice of a child singing, “Take up and read.” Interpreting this as a divine command, Augustine picks up a nearby copy of the Bible and reads a passage from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans (13:13-14), which urges him to cast off his old ways and embrace the teachings of Christ. This powerful, transformative moment marks the beginning of Augustine’s new life as a Christian.
Book 8 of Confessions, captures the final stages of Augustine’s journey to Christianity, detailing the internal struggles, external influences, and divine interventions that culminate in his conversion. With this pivotal transformation, Augustine begins a new chapter in his life, dedicated to the pursuit of truth, wisdom, and holiness through the Christian faith.
Book VIII Synopsis
How being inflamed with the Love of Heavenly Things, he goes to Simplicianus
How Victorinus, the famous Orator, was converted
That God and his Angels do rejoice the more, at the conversion of a greater Sinner
Why we are more to rejoice in the Conversion of a great Sinner
What hindered his Conversion
Ponticianus relates the Life of St. Anthony
He was out of Love with himself upon this Story
What he did in the Garden
Why the Mind is so slow to Goodness
The Will of Man is various
The Combat in him betwixt the Spirit and the Flesh
How he was converted by a voice
BOOK IX – Baptism and Death of Augustine’s Mother
Book 9 of Confessions, marks the beginning of Augustine’s new life as a Christian, focusing on the immediate aftermath of his conversion, his baptism, and the death of his mother, Monica. This book explores themes of spiritual transformation, the power of grace, and the importance of community in his journey of faith.
Following his conversion in Book 8, Augustine decides to resign from his position as a teacher of rhetoric and dedicate his life to serving God. Together with his close friends and his son, Adeodatus, he forms a small Christian community where they devote themselves to prayer, study, and contemplation. This period of retreat allows Augustine to further deepen his understanding of Christianity and prepare for his upcoming baptism.
In Milan, Augustine, Adeodatus, and his close friend Alypius are baptized by Bishop Ambrose during the Easter Vigil. This significant event symbolizes the beginning of their new lives as Christians and their commitment to living according to the teachings of Christ.
One of the central events in Book 9 is the death of Augustine’s mother, Monica, which takes place shortly after his baptism. Augustine reflects on her life, faith, and the profound influence she had on his spiritual journey. He recounts a moving conversation they shared shortly before her death, in which they discussed the nature of eternal life and the joys of heaven. Monica’s passing prompts Augustine to contemplate the transient nature of earthly existence and the promise of eternal life in the presence of God.
In summary, Book 9 of Confessions, narrates the transformative experiences following Augustine’s conversion, including his retreat, baptism, and the death of his mother. This book emphasizes the importance of spiritual growth, the power of divine grace, and the role of supportive relationships in helping individuals navigate the challenges and joys of the Christian faith.
Book IX Synopsis
He praiseth God’s Goodness; and acknowledgeth his own wretchedness
He gives over his Teaching of Rhetoric
Verecundus lends them his Country House
What things he wrote with Nebridius
Ambrose directs him what Books to read
He is Baptized at Milan
A Persecution in the Church miraculously diverted
The Conversion of Euodius. A Discourse of his Mother
His Mother Monica’s carriage towards her Husband. A description of a rare Wife
Of a Conference he had with his Mother about the Kingdom of Heaven
Of the Extasy and Death of his Mother
He laments his Mother’s Death
He prayed for his dead Mother
BOOK X- Theology of Memory, Nature of Prayer, Self Examination
In Book 10 of Confessions, Augustine shifts from recounting his personal narrative to offering a profound meditation on memory, self-examination, and the nature of prayer. He examines his current relationship with God and reflects on the human condition, exploring the various dimensions of human desire and the longing for divine union.
Augustine delves into the concept of memory, marveling at its vastness and complexity. He acknowledges the crucial role of memory in shaping his understanding of God, as well as its function in retaining knowledge and experiences. Augustine sees memory as a repository of his past sins and errors, but also as a space where he can encounter God’s grace and presence.
As he engages in self-examination, Augustine reflects on the nature of temptation and the ongoing struggle against sin, even after his conversion. He acknowledges that while he has made progress in his spiritual life, he still faces the challenge of resisting various forms of desire and attachment, such as the temptations of the senses, pride, and the allure of worldly success. He emphasizes the necessity of God’s grace in overcoming these temptations and maintaining the pursuit of holiness.
Throughout Book 10, Augustine offers a series of prayers and reflections on his relationship with God. He seeks divine guidance and assistance in his quest for spiritual growth, acknowledging his reliance on God’s grace to transform his desires and align them with the divine will. Augustine also meditates on the ultimate goal of human existence, which he sees as a longing for union with God, a state of perfect happiness and eternal fulfillment.
In summary, Book 10 of Confessions represents a departure from the autobiographical narrative of the earlier books, focusing instead on a profound exploration of memory, self-examination, and prayer. Through these meditations, Augustine deepens his understanding of his relationship with God and the ongoing challenges he faces in his spiritual journey, revealing the complexity and dynamism of the human desire for divine union.
Book X Synopsis
The Confessions of the Heart
Secret Things are known unto God
The Confession of our ill deeds, what it helps us
Of the great Fruit of Confession
That Man knoweth not himself thoroughly: and knows not God but in a glass darkly
What God is, and how known
God is not to be found by any Ability in our Bodies
The Force of the Memory
The Memory of divers Sciences
Our Senses convey things into our Memory
The Forms of things are in the Soul
The Memory of Mathematicians
The Memory of Memory
How, when we are not glad, we call to mind things that have made us glad
We remember absent Things also
There is a Memory of Forgetfulness also
A threefold Power of Memory
Of the Remembrance
What Remembrance is
All Men desire Blessedness
We also remember what we never had
True Joy, is this blessed Life
A blessed life; what, and where it is
That the Memory containeth God too
In what degree of the Memory God is found
Whereabouts God is to be found
How God draws us to himself
The Misery of this Life
Our Hope is all in God
The deceitfulness of Dreams
The Temptation of Eating and Drinking
Of our Delight in Smelling
The Pleasures taken in Hearing
The Enticements coming in by the Eyes
Of our Curiosity in knowing
The Sin of Pride
Praise and Dispraise, how they move us
Virtue is endangered by Vain-glory
Of Self-love
His Striving against Sin
God and a Lie cannot stand together
Angels cannot be our Mediators
Christ only is the all-sufficient Intercessor
BOOK XI – Theological Inquiry on Time and Creation
In Book 11 of Confessions, Augustine transitions from an introspective examination of his own life to a broader inquiry into philosophical and theological questions. Focusing primarily on the nature of time and creation, Augustine reflects on the opening verses of the Book of Genesis and offers insights into God’s relationship with the temporal world.
Augustine begins by considering the nature of time, asking what it is and how it can be understood. He acknowledges the complexity and elusiveness of time, examining its properties and the difficulty humans have in grasping its true essence. He distinguishes between past, present, and future, asserting that only the present truly exists, while the past and future are mental constructs.
Turning to the subject of creation, Augustine contemplates the nature of God’s creative act as described in the Book of Genesis. He rejects the idea that God created the world in a temporal sense, as he believes that God exists outside of time, being eternal and unchanging. Instead, Augustine proposes that creation occurred simultaneously with time, both having their origin in God’s creative act.
Throughout his reflections on time and creation, Augustine emphasizes the limitations of human understanding when it comes to comprehending divine realities. He acknowledges that human language and concepts are insufficient to fully grasp the nature of God and the mysteries of creation.
Book 11 of Confessions, marks a significant shift in focus, as Augustine moves from a personal exploration of his own experiences to a broader philosophical and theological inquiry. By contemplating the nature of time and creation, Augustine deepens his understanding of God’s relationship with the temporal world and underscores the limitations of human knowledge in the face of divine mysteries.
Book XI Synopsis
Why we confess unto God who knows all
He sueth to be delivered from his Sins and Errors, and to be guided unto the true Knowledge
He desires to understand the Holy Scriptures
The Creatures proclaim God to be their Creator
How the World was made of Nothing
He disputes curiously what manner of Word the World was created by
The Son of God is the Word co-eternal with the Father
The Word of God is our Teacher in all
How the Word of God speaketh unto the Heart
God’s Will knows no Beginning
God’s Eternity not to be measured by the parts of Time
What God did before the Creation of the World
That before those Times which God created, there was no Time
Of the Nature and three Differences of Time
No Time can be said to be long
Of our measuring of Times
Where Time past, and to come, now are
How Times past, and to come, are now present
He demands of God, how future Things be foreknown
These three differences of Times, how they are to be called
How Time may be measured
He begs of God the Resolution of a Difficulty
He clears this Question, what Time is
Time it is, by which we measure the Motion of Bodies
He prayed again
The Measuring of the Feet and Syllables of a Verse
He begins to resolve the former question, how we measure time
We measure Times in our Mind
How the Mind lengthens out itself
He goes on in the same Discourse
How God is known, and how the creature
BOOK XII – Theology of Creation, Scripture, and Tradition
In Book 12 of Confessions, Augustine continues his in-depth exploration of the Book of Genesis, focusing on the interpretation of Scripture and the theological implications of creation. He emphasizes the importance of humility and charity in approaching the study of Scripture and delves into various perspectives on the creation narrative.
Augustine acknowledges that Scripture can be interpreted in multiple ways, stressing the importance of embracing an attitude of humility and openness when engaging with the text. He suggests that different interpretations can be valid, as long as they do not contradict essential Christian teachings and are guided by the principles of charity and love.
To illustrate the range of interpretations, Augustine examines various understandings of the creation story in Genesis, particularly the phrase “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). He engages with multiple perspectives, including those that interpret creation as occurring in a literal sequence of days, as well as those that view it allegorically or symbolically.
Through his analysis of creation, Augustine emphasizes the distinction between God’s eternal, unchanging nature and the mutable nature of the created world. He asserts that all things find their origin in God, who transcends time and created everything from nothing (creatio ex nihilo). Augustine also explores the nature of God’s Word (the Logos) and its role in the creation process, recognizing that the Word is the means through which all things were made.
Book 12 of Confessions extends Augustine’s theological inquiry into the interpretation of Scripture and the nature of creation. His emphasis on humility, charity, and intellectual openness when approaching the Bible, as well as his exploration of various interpretations of the Genesis narrative, demonstrate the depth and complexity of Augustine’s thought and the richness of the Christian intellectual tradition.
Book XII Synopsis
’Tis very difficult to find out the Truth
That the Heaven we see is but Earth, in respect of the Heaven of Heavens, which we see not
Of the Darkness upon the Face of the Deep
Of the Chaos, and what Moses called it
That this Chaos is hard to conceive
What himself sometimes thought of it
Heaven is greater than Earth
The Chaos was created out of nothing, and out of that, all things
What that Heaven of Heavens is
His Desire to understand the Scriptures
What he learned of God
Of two Creatures not within Compass of Time
The Nature of the Heaven of Heavens described
The Depth of Holy Scripture
The Difference betwixt the Creator and the creatures. Some Discourses about the Heaven of Heavens
Against such as contradict divine Truth: and of his own Delight in it
What the Names of Heaven and Earth signify
Divers Expositors may understand one Text several Ways
Of some particular apparent Truths
He interprets Genesis 1:1 otherwise
These Words, the Earth was void &c., diversely understood
That the waters are also contained under the names of Heaven and Earth
In interpreting of Holy Scripture, Truth is to be sought with a charitable Construction
The Scripture is true, though we understand not the uttermost Scope or Depth of it
We are not to break Charity about a different Exposition of Scripture
What Style was fit to write the Scriptures in
The best Drawing at the fountain
How diversely this Scripture is understood by others
How many Ways a Thing may be said to be First
The Scriptures are to be searched, with honorable Respect unto the Penman
Truth is so to be received; whoever speaks it
He prays to obtain right Meaning
BOOK XIII – Theology of Creation, Trinity, and Spiritual Formation
In Book 13, the final book of Confessions, Augustine continues his reflections on the Book of Genesis, focusing on the creation narrative, the nature of the Holy Trinity, and the process of spiritual renewal. Augustine also meditates on the role of Scripture and the Church in guiding individuals on their path to God.
Augustine explores the meaning behind the seven days of creation, offering both literal and allegorical interpretations. He sees the days as representing various stages in the spiritual development of human beings as they progress toward union with God. In his analysis, Augustine emphasizes the role of divine grace in transforming the human soul and enabling spiritual growth.
Throughout his reflections on Genesis, Augustine consistently refers to the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, contemplating the roles of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in creation and the process of redemption. He sees the Trinity as the source of all being, goodness, and truth, and highlights its importance in understanding the nature of God and the dynamics of the Christian faith.
Augustine also meditates on the Church as the body of Christ, emphasizing the importance of community and the role of the Church in nurturing spiritual growth. He views the Church as a vehicle through which individuals can receive divine grace, participate in the sacraments, and grow closer to God.
In the concluding passages of Confessions, Augustine offers a prayer of gratitude and praise to God, acknowledging the transformative power of divine grace in his own life and the lives of others. He reaffirms his commitment to a life of faith, seeking to deepen his relationship with God and share the insights he has gained throughout his spiritual journey. In summary, Book 13 of “Confessions” brings Augustine’s work to a close by reflecting on the creation narrative, the Holy Trinity, and the process of spiritual renewal. His emphasis on the importance of Scripture, the Church, and the role of divine grace in guiding individuals toward union with God provides a fitting conclusion to this deeply personal and profoundly theological work.
Book XIII Synopsis
He called upon God
Of the Creatures’ dependency upon their Creator
All is of the Grace of God
God needs not the Creatures, but they Him
His Confession of the Blessed Trinity
Of the Spirit’s moving upon the Waters
Of the Effect or Working of the Holy Spirit
How God’s Spirit cherishes feeble Souls
Why the Spirit only moved upon the Waters
All is of God’s Gift
Of some Impressions or Resemblances of the Blessed Trinity, that be in man
The Water in Baptism is effectual by the Holy Spirit
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.
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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).
This post is a book review of C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters. To track and understand what Lewis wrote from the perspective of Screwtape in his correspondence to Wormwood, I wrote these summaries in the way that Lewis cast Screwtape. Yet, in the same tone, meaning, voice, and manner to get a slight glimpse of what he had to say. Letter after letter, these are summaries as a review method to understand how they work together and what they intend to do to the reader. This is a role play by prose to get a sense of disgust and alarm that we are meant to understand. The consistent thread among all Screwtape’s letters to Wormwood constitutes areas of attack on the whole person. Whether toward virtue, interests, or values, every area of a person’s life is subject to constant animosity and relentless degradation until final and total separation from God.
SUMMARY OF CORRESPONDENCE
Concerning efforts to secure the damnation of a young man, these are letters from uncle Screwtape to Wormwood outlined for summary understanding. Together, they represent the courses of action between an old devil Screwtape and his young demonic protégé, Wormwood. Following C.S. Lewis’s rationale (and satire) concerning the alarming methods and intentions of adversarial efforts of spiritual enemies, we learn what we’re up against from among Screwtape’s letters.
MACHINATIONS
Erratum 1:
Keep him from science and the ability or interest of proper season. He must remain preoccupied with the ordinary. Your job is to keep him focused on “real life.”
Erratum2:
On the displeasing news that he becomes a Christian, keep him entangled in improper habits and values as long as possible to impede his spiritual growth. While continuing to think he is doing his church a favor by attending services, his mind must remain occupied with comparisons between what is observed among church congregants and how he thinks church members should be.
Erratum3:
It is of utmost importance that the relationship between the young man and his mother is a constant series of annoyances. The domestic life of family must be aggravating even in the slightest way possible, but with pin-prick persistence in tone, mannerisms, and words chosen during conversation that does subtle yet cumulative harm. Develop circumstances in which offense and grievance are paramount among family members at the slightest interaction. Pay more attention to the young man’s concern about the spiritual condition of the mother as he is focused on the condition of the soul and sins of the past. If the young man should begin to guide his mother in prayer, or spiritual development, make sure that the effort is fruitless. If he is to pray for his mother, his prayers are to be on the grounds of uniformed and reckless concern.
Erratum 4:
It’s best to keep the young man, the patient, from praying. However, if prayer is to occur, it must be kept inward, informal, and unregularized. Any cognitive effort during prayer shall not be present within the patient, but a vague sense of devotion shall be the main course of prayer. It is unacceptable for the patient to pray out loud or on his knees. Prayer is to be superficial as it is among those very far advanced in the Enemy’s service. As this effort continues, keep the patient focused on their own minds and direct their gaze elsewhere from any service to the Enemy. Try to stimulate feelings within the patient to misdirect his intention. Look into the patient’s mind to find as much dirt as possible while he is praying and focused on God. Finally, keep the patient praying to the object through which his imagination is anchored.
Erratum 5:
The anguish of a human soul is nothing to be exuberant about. Don’t let it go to your head. If you trap the human soul and eternally secure his fate forever, the patient will belong to you while he is in despair, horror, and astonishment. To undermine faith and the development of virtues, it is necessary to render a complete account of the patient’s reactions to the war in Europe about to get underway. Do your best to make the patient an extreme patriot or ardent pacifist, as humans undergo extreme suffering in service of your father below.
Erratum 6:
It is desirable to have the patient in a continuous or periodic state of anxiety and uncertainty. Blocking a human’s mind against the Enemy is of concern as there’s an effort to preoccupy what will happen to him. The Enemy wants the patient to be concerned about what he does and not what he thinks about himself or his state of mind. In the midst of mental suffering, direct the patient’s thoughts and prayers upon himself where he has no interest in directing his attention upon the Enemy or others. Direct the patient’s concentration and mind to the object and circumstances and never upon the Enemy or others.
If the patient does happen to have concern and anguish about the state of society, world affairs, or the war, direct the malice of the patient to those around him. Suppose he should develop compassion or empathy toward people. In that case, they are to be directed to people at a distance among people unknown. Inflamed hatred of immediate surroundings among neighbors begins to transfer to family, friends, fellow students, and the patient’s employer. Distant care and empathy remain imaginary.
Erratum 7:
It is not acceptable to reveal your existence to the patient. The father below does not permit it. If the patient begins to wonder about it, direct his thoughts and passions elsewhere by distraction and suggestive interests. Keep the patient confused and oblivious to the existence of spirits, demons, and devils where no suspicion is permitted to surface. Suggest anything contradictory to the existence of dark influences. Redirect attention to base interest concerning cravings, lusts, and passions. Passivism or patriotism taken to heightened interest can become a source of workable influence on the spiritual demise of the patient. Hatred and pride must be permitted to form and fester where the patient continues to abide by it with people of common interest. Cliques within the church that keep it small with no outreach due to its insular posture against the more immediate community help to shunt access to relief for spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical well-being. So long as the patient is more concerned about his passions rather than his spiritual formation, the sacraments, prayer, scripture, charity, and devotion to the Enemy, he remains in the realm of the father below.
Erratum 8:
Humans are both flesh and spirit, so their interests and imaginations continually change. It is expected that the patient will have seasons of spiritual ups and downs during the course of life. Peaks and valleys of spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical well-being are characteristic of people who are devoted to the Enemy. Intervals of vacant feelings, hopes, and desires will be interspersed with joy, faith, and love. Periods of dry existence are certain. So during these periods, the Enemy will likely use the circumstances for the betterment of the patient. Determine what the Enemy is doing, and make it your efforts to do the opposite. The Enemy relies on hard times to take permanent possession of those He loves. As this is a direct conflict of interest, people to us are cattle who serve as spiritual food. As they are captured and enslaved, they abide by the will of the father below and all his constituents.
It is understood that the Enemy will not override people’s will to assimilate them as He desires them to be one with Him by their choices. By sovereign intent, He will, at times, make His presence known, which will help the patient to overcome temptations with encouragement, peace, and emotional delight in the Enemy. So when the Enemy withdraws from the patient for him to stand on his own, the more temptation you direct toward him, the better. If the Enemy is served and obeyed when the patient is distant or convinced he is forsaken, He is pleased, and that is when significant damage is done to the interests of the father below.
Erratum 9:
During the valleys of spiritual growth, the best areas of temptation are about the sensuality of the patient. When a person’s life is empty and without warmth or the color of life, that is drawn into perversion and disappointing sexuality. Any form of physical defilement is where the temptation for pleasure is focused. Capture the person’s soul through his or her own interests, especially through periods of mental or spiritual dryness. This will lead to doubt about spiritual matters and religion and that it is only helpful to a point. Your efforts at deception would involve terms and accusations that characterize periods of doubt as phases of life. Reason, intellect, and thought were adversaries during this time, whereas platitudes and seeds sown as catchphrases and terminology of popular social interests arose as the paramount concern. Keep the patient’s mind off of notions of true and false with gradations and nuances of meaning.
Erratum10:
The vanity of the patient is of considerable use. In the areas of social, intellectual, cultural, and sexual interest, the patient can betray who he really is, and by doing so often and long enough, he might become what he pretends to be. The patient’s life among circles of friends who are different from who he really is (his values, capabilities, understanding, station in life) can become an entanglement that is difficult to get free from. Here, it is useful to attack the patient’s virtues or even his wonder about what they are. Then feed this vanity and do not let the patient think of his friends as circles to which he pretends to be someone he is not. With precipitous reinforcement, the patient will, under false pretenses and treachery, come to feel satisfied with the neglect of himself, his mother, and those responsibilities others rely on.
Erratum11:
Laughter and joy are not useful to the objectives before you. Nor is music with harmony and rhythm. As fun is associated with joy, it is an undesirable artifact of human existence. It promotes virtues that work against the objectives of what you’re set to do. Laughter, fun, and joy turned in on itself with perverse intent is a course of action that is the better way to go.
Erratum12:
As the patient is pressed to error and spiritual undoing, make him imagine that all his choices are revokable. He is allowed to retain the habits of a Christian externally, but his spiritual state must remain the same without recognizing sin. Do not allow genuine repentance to develop and inhibit the patient’s desire and interest in the Enemy. Waste his time because the gradual and precipitous slide into Hell is more certain with enough care and attention to detail. Be not as concerned about outright grievous sins, but keep him from doing anything. While efforts are directed to distractions from his purpose, you are to seek numbness of the heart with vanity, flippancy, and habits. Separate the patient from the Enemy into nothing.
Erratum13:
Simple pleasures that positively affect a person’s faith are disastrous to the cause. It is not acceptable to permit the patient to be satisfied in what makes him sufficiently refreshed or restored, whether of the heart, mind, or spirit. The patient is instead to want the best of anything that appeals to the appetite, contrary to what leads to both repentance and active obedience to the Enemy. The patient can undergo a change of mind or a change of heart, but he must not do anything about it.
Erratum14:
Make the patient proud. Even if incrementally and conceal the end result of humility. Make him value an opinion for some quality other than Truth. Dishonesty and false belief about a counterfeit virtue as something more prized. Run interference to the Enemy and all His intentions. It is imperative to destroy any self-perceived notion of glorious and excellent things where the desire for consistent attention to the Enemy’s interests is well-served. Virtues that enable Godly self-love that positively affects neighbors is the harm done to the cause.
Erratum15:
Keep the patient worried. Live in the future or the past, but not the present or the eternal. However, it is better to focus on the future to stir and perpetuate worry. The future is the least like eternity. Nearly all vices are rooted in the future. Fear, lust, avarice, and ambition have interrelated temporality. The sin that is conceived and born happens before it is committed. Conversely, if in the present, the patient’s view and confidence about the future is a source of peace and contentment, that is an area to attack.
Erratum16:
As a recent convert, it is advisable to send the patient to various churches if he should become dissatisfied with his existing fellowship. Even if the patient is faithful to a church for a long while, it is time and effort well spent to stir up division among congregants and the leadership. Even if the patient were to attend other churches nearby, they practice their faith in an abundance of error. The teaching is mainly erroneous and limited, whereby the spiritual development of congregants is stunted no matter where he goes.
Erratum17:
Press in on a deadened conscience about gluttony as that is to be concentrated on delicacy and not only excess. Gluttony of this sort is a sensuality that leads to other areas of damage to the soul. It also has a devastating effect on social and interpersonal relationships concerning the patient as he must get exactly what he wants no matter how small or the grief it causes others. While it might appear that the patient is practicing temperance, in reality, the opposite happens on another scale. The stomach represents the appetite for sensual pleasure as it translates to incremental want beyond the interests of others.
Erratum18:
Marrying for any other reason than love, such as procreation, is to culture a cynical view of what it means to become one flesh for a mutually inward purpose: the Enemy demands either monogamy or complete abstinence. There is a sense of entitlement among those who wish to marry that there must be love that brings them together as the exclusive reason to which they could marry. As it is naturally evident, the method of reproduction comes through copulation between a man and a woman. Yet, the union between them is a physical representation of the members of the three as God. As a couple marries and comes together as one flesh, they represent the tri-unity of the Creator. So as couples do not have mutual feelings of affection and love to give cause for marriage, even while they’re a suitable fit for one another to grow in a fruitful and loving relationship, there is a viable opening to keep any such couple separated.
Erratum19:
The idea that the Enemy loves people is an impossible proposition. Nevertheless, it is worth your time and effort to make the patient believe that love is both intrinsically meritorious and irresistible if your patient is gullible. Determine what type of man is the point of concentration to which your project seals him in final and eternal condemnation. If he is proud, lead him to asceticism, where the body is disconnected from humanized and physical intimacy. These conditions can set the groundwork for adultery, suicide, and worse. At the very least, please do your best to ensure the patient marries someone you identify from the local community who would make it impossible for him to live out his faith.
Erratum20:
If it’s impossible to persuade the patient that chastity is unhealthy, it then becomes a priority to bring him into a marriage unsuitable to him and his faith. The preference is to perpetuate the common belief that the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it, but there are extenuating circumstances here. If the only option is to make the patient fall in love with a woman, two conditions must follow. You must select one of two types of women. An exceedingly arrogant woman or an excessively withdrawn and cowardly female with a heightened form of feminity will do. In either instance, the likelihood of bearing children is reduced to satisfy our mutual interests.
Erratum21:
You must ensure that the patient, who is devoted to the Enemy, believes that all his days and hours are exclusively his time. Cultivate within the patient a sense of ownership of time and what he believes rightfully belongs to him.
Erratum22:
[ Letter 22 from Screwtape to Wormwood was a complete meltdown. Upon learning that the patient has come to a loving relationship with a Godly woman full of the Spirit, with virtue, peace, and grace, Screwtape flies off into a tirade with insults directed at everyone around him. The likeness of Christ within her and the echoes of Heaven in their home set him in a verbal rage when suddenly he is transformed into a centipede (which is reportedly a transformation that arrives from the inner self). Screwtape attributes the unexpected yet periodic shape change to an act of God. As his letter to Wormwood is interrupted, Screwtape’s undersecretary “Toadpipe” takes dictation to finish the written message to Wormwood. Toadpipe signed the letter, For his Abysmal Sublimity Undersecretary Screwtape, TE, BS, Etc. ].
Erratum23:
While it becomes possible and certain that spirituality cannot be removed from the patient, it becomes necessary to corrupt it. To do that, you must inject a “historical Jesus” centered on interest involving liberalism, humanitarian efforts, Marxism, and social justice. This is to direct people’s devotion off of Jesus and onto other pursuits and interests. Jesus must become just a great moral teacher only. To further corrupt spirituality, the devotional life of people must be destroyed. The root of corruption grows into allowing people to form their political, professional, social, and personal lives for advancement and gain. Efforts toward spiritual revival for the betterment of society are an empty course of practice as the Enemy will not stand for being leveraged in this way. So, this is what you must specifically do in an effort to corrupt the spiritual development of the patient and the believers around him. Even if the effort is to develop a smaller piece of a false and counterfeit form of service and devotion, that is time and energy well spent.
Erratum24:
[As Wormwood is in charge of the young man’s sought-after demise (the patient), another demonic entity has dark spiritual authority over the young woman the patient has grown to love. Screwtape writes further to Wormwood about correspondence with Slumtrimpet, the dark authority in charge of the malevolence against the young woman.]
As it is observed that the patient is introduced to other believers, he is naturally interested in learning more to grow spiritually. The young girl, in her innocence, could be useful in this regard. As she has an ability to recognize what is authentic and counterfeit, or imitation, this can be made to influence the patient into hideous Spiritual Pride. As the patient learns from more spiritually mature believers, he is to be made that his learning is his own. He earned what he has come to understand, and he has come into a stature where he now belongs to ‘his people.’ He then turns from segments of society as they are beneath him or separate, as they are no longer entertaining or of value. Making the patient believe that by his interpersonal circles, formed through his delight in the young woman, he will come to know his fellowship as “his people.” He must begin to feel entitled to people he believes are “his” people as a unique set and the right kind of people. Sinful social vanity is one thing, but Spiritual Pride is another, and you will want to concentrate on the latter.
Erratum25:
It is also a particular desire to associate Christianity with some other corresponding interest as an attached and interdependent concern of the faith. Christianity and social justice, Christianity and tradition, Christianity and prosperity, Christianity and social well-being, and so forth are circumstances to cultivate within the patient. Work on their horror for the familiar. It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, and so change must be made with some regularity. Not for change as a pleasurable experience but as a continuity of novelty and demand for gratification. The point is to reduce healthy pleasure for ever-increasing desire with a growing outcome toward avarice (extreme greed for wealth or material gain). The nonsense of the intellect can further corrupt the will on the incessant path of modernity. So, get the patient to ask if faithful interests, Christian practices, and devotion are in step with the progressive trajectory of social and civil order. This philosophy or pattern of thought renders people susceptible to distraction where their wills are bent toward what the father below prescribes.
Erratum26:
Perpetual self-sacrifice in the form of self-righteous generosity can lead to an inability to seek the needs of others through proper outreach, charity, and love. Watch for opportunities to breed hidden resentment or subtle conflict between the patient, his young woman, and related families.
Erratum27:
Encourage the patient to reject prayers for help about a wandering mind or distractions as he has become more attuned to temporal happiness now that he has a love for a young woman. As concerns spill over into other areas that work against his more immediate happiness, interject thoughts with intellectual difficulties that lead to flawed rationale about his state of mind during prayer. Through this, you aim to persuade him that petitionary prayers are ineffective. As the patient becomes more familiar with the current state of thinking among scholars and spiritual leaders concerning the historical writings of ancient authors, guide him toward those who assert that history, which comports with Truth and the Enemy’s work throughout Creation, is false.
Erratum28:
You’re to keep the patient alive as long as you can during his course of life. He would not be consigned to Hell if he were to die today because he has surrendered himself to the Enemy. He has remained close to the Enemy and seeks to obey Him at every turn. The longer the patient is alive after he has given himself to the Enemy, the more hope there is to win him to the father below. If he is permitted to live and remain protected while he settles into earthly living, he might become more susceptible to compromise during attacks until his final demise.
Erratum29:
Muddle the patient’s virtues. Evaluate the best target for the most favorable outcomes against the patient. Some existing virtue is necessary to develop and magnify a man’s wickedness. Using people with virtues to betray one’s own is a deception and a trade worth making. It is necessary to recognize virtue and what it is or does in order to see it in others and betray it. Even if temporarily by confusion.
Erratum30:
The continued erosion of virtue while the patient is tired, exhausted, or afraid is of significant interest. Because when he is attacked under these conditions, what is spiritually real can become questionable. Where doubt sets in, different choices can be made with devastating consequences. Blinding people to the existence of virtues or their absence can render individuals aware or oblivious to lapses in moral values and behaviors. With increased fear, there is the potential for anger and anxiety.
Erratum31:
[ Screwtape is displeased with Wormwood as the patient had escaped their grasp just as he passed away. The patient’s soul has slipped through their temptations despite their machinations. Screwtape is extraordinarily angered by Wormwood getting outmaneuvered. And Screwtape lamented what was revealed to the patient upon death. The patient’s explicit knowledge of sin and what Wormwood and his associates had done faded into shadow as salvation was finally attained. All the temptations and attacks of Wormwood were futile in the end. The patient would encounter pain, suffering, and trial no more. As Screwtape was assured and obnoxious about Wormwood’s failures at tempting the patient to drag him to Hell, he sank into further misery and angst about the rejection of their work.
As Screwtape signed off on each letter, he wrote, “Your affectionate Uncle SCREWTAPE,” but this time, he made sure that Wormwood would have to settle with him about the loss. Screwtape’s final signoff was especially ominous. ]
SCREWTAPE PROPOSES A TOAST
These were diabolical letters. An exercise in twisting the mind. A projection into a dark view of humanity and its depravity. The use of diabolical ventriloquism was a view of what spiritual temptation looks like with provocateurs of evil origin. As the errata closed, the author returned later with the Screwtape figure as an honored guest in Hell who proposed a toast to his contemporaries within an esteemed academic institution. His gesture of celebration and appeal to mutual congratulation for the work of seasoned professionals and newcomers was a scene of vile contempt with reason and wicked persuasion. Screwtape drew attention at his college address to the individuals, cliques, modern society, and evil systems of government who were quite capable of putting themselves squarely in Hell without any aid of devils, demons, or other evil influences. All those in attendance in Hell were given a discourse on precisely how lost, socially misled, and self-corrupted people are perfectly capable of doing the work of Hell’s appointed occupants.
For quite a long time, I’ve had an abridged version of John Owen’s The Mortification of Sin published by Banner of Truth. It’s about 130 pages long and spans 14 short chapters, just like the unabridged version. However, it was written in significantly different prose to retain the thoughts throughout the book’s structure and format. As it was so different and written in an “easy to read” style (as indicated by its cover), the editor (Richard Rushing) updated John Owen’s old English to modern terms and phrases. The text changes went far beyond 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 dwelling on anything. The overall effort was to convey the message and meaning through a read-through of a Puritan’s perspective on what the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Rome and Colossae. Specifically, the 17th-century Puritan was deeply concerned about sin in the lives of believers, and he wrote a widely read examination of what it means to put sin to death. While the mortification of sin was John Owen’s pressing concern, he offered encouragement, exhortation, clarity, and guidance on what sin is and what it 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 can be read once and passed through without much contemplation or 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, it corresponds to “putting to death” in modern translations (ESV, NIV, NKJV, HCSB, and more). The term “mortify” is translated identically in both references in Romans 8:13 and Colossians 3:5, even though their Greek roots are different.
Furthermore, mortification, or mortify, is understood from multiple perspectives, all of which are consistent in meaning. “The act of self-denial or the ‘putting to death’ of sinful instincts or cravings 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, and together they 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 can successfully overcome sinful behaviors, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the instincts and cravings have been 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 treats both terms as figurative, with suggestive meanings, where intended readers understood the original root manuscripts as conventional figures of speech to convey the same idea.4
Owen is clear in his book that mortification is not a passive posture of sin in the flesh, nor is it mere recognition or consideration from a believer. He stresses that it is an active, conscious effort on the part of someone who has become 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 the 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 against 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 replacing sins with others in the absence of the 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.
