I used to love Sunday lunch at my Grandpa’s house. After Church, we’d spend every Sunday lunch with Grandpa. He would make the same roast dinner every week. Succulent slices of lamb, a gravy perfected over the course of decades, perfect roast potatoes, and he even managed to make roast carrot that I looked forward to. Not before or since have I ever looked forward to eating carrot.

After lunch, one of my brothers (or me) would strike up the gumption to ask for a lolly. Grandpa would feign a very mild form of outrage, as though a secret taboo had been broken. All four of us would laugh, half for the fun of it, half for the sheer anticipation of the same thing happening every single week. Then… the magical little yellow lunch box would come down from the top cupboard, and Grandpa would give us two or three lollies each.

But the afternoon was just getting started, because not long after, one of us would – again – ask for a “nerder-bike ride.” Grandpa would slowly walk out to the old timber shed, and the quad bike would roar to life inside (or… perhaps chug to life). Grandpa would ride it out, connect the wooden trailer, all four of us would pile in, and off we go! A motor bike ride in the trailer, on bush tracks near and far. Such happy memories. Same thing, every week. Then it’s off home, ready for a sweet time of Evening Worship at 7pm. The Lord was so good to me.

These kinds of rhythms in my early years gave me a sense of, I guess you’d call it, stability. Everything from the smell and feel of those bush tracks, to the same songs sung countless times in worship, to the shared experience of four brothers together, to the fresh Tasmanian air. Warm summers and fresh winters. Beautiful countryside. Treasured people. Familiarity. There’s something grounding about having shared experiences and relationships that span decades.

I must admit, I don’t really like instability very much. It kind of feels like it somehow hollows out my soul. Maybe you can relate, maybe you can’t, but – for me – deeper relationships, rooted in long years of … “knowing”, well, to me these relationships feel like home. Instability, however, is a fact of life. Old friends wind down and depart these mortal shores. The beloved bushland of childhood gets subsidised into suburban housing.

The scriptures frequently testify to the ever changing nature of the world in which we live, perhaps none so vividly as Ecclesiastes. For everything there is a season (Ecc 3:1-8), and the seasons of life come and go. Life itself, for us, is like grass (Is 40:6-8). One minute we are twenty years old, full of life and energy. The next minute we’re forty, and our vitality is no longer what it once was. Even the angels, powerful and beyond us though they are, are subject to change – as we know some of them have fallen from their first estate of glory.

God alone changes not, and thus immutability is – properly speaking – a quality of his holiness. God’s holiness is his transcendent separation from all of his creatures. It is that ineffable state of his divine being that uniquely separates him everything else. It is the two ultimate categories: that which he has created, and he himself as the uncreated Creator. Unlike all other things in the entirety of creation, God’s is immutable in nature and thus immutability is an aspect of his holiness. His immutability reveals on a deeper level what it means for us to say that he is holy in nature. God’s immutability deepens our understanding of the nature of God’s holiness.

Psalm 102 gives us a clear portrait of this comparison: “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end.” (Ps 102:25-27).

God’s immutability is thus an essential aspect of the perfection of his holiness. We will talk more about the perfection of God later, but we need to point out now that if God were not immutable, he could not be perfect. Let me put it this way: when a person changes, they are always changing for the better or for the worse. If God were to change for the better, he lacks perfection. If he were to change for the worse, he can no longer be perfect. Scripture testifies to the perfection of God (Mt 5:48). His way is perfect (Ps 18:30). Deuteronomy 32:4 thus naturally marries together his immutability and his perfection in a single expression: “The Rock, his work is perfect.” No creature is perfect, for we are all capable of both improvement and decline. Thus, again, we arrive at our conclusion: immutability is a unique quality of God’s holiness. It is one of his perfections.

Change can be a very unsettling thing. As our bodies age, we may feel a deeper sense of insecurity. As our strength fades, we may struggle with a sense of loss. When people prove unreliable, it may shake us. When people we love grow old and then die, we feel a sense of loss – perhaps insecurity. But there is one on whom we can always count. One who is the firmest of ground beneath our feet. One who never changes, never fades, never disappears, and who can always be counted on. It is the Lord. He is the Rock of our Salvation, he is the anchor that holds firm in the storms of life. Take heart, take courage. Look to your God, and find rest alone in him who does not change. SDG.

Q. Why do we say that the Immutability of God is an aspect of his holiness?

Answer: God is immutable in his entire being, and were he subject to change, then he would not have perfection of being. Furthermore, his immutability separates him from all creation, in that he alone is changelessly perfect in being. For these reasons, which follow by good and necessary consequence from the teachings of scripture, we say that his immutability is an aspect of his holiness.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, Solomon makes this curious statement: “For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow” (Ecc 1:18). It’s not much of an incentive for growing in wisdom, is it! It is true, wisdom does bring sorrow as a handmaiden to those who embrace her. This reality does not diminish from the blessedness of gaining wisdom, and as well we should note that: the bitterness of sorrow sweetens the taste of joy when it comes. Nevertheless, we must come to accept the reality that deeper wisdom brings deeper sorrow.

It makes sense when you think about it. We live in a world of countless sorrows, and to grow in wisdom is to grow in our perception of our place in God’s world, and how we should live. Of course, then, we will come to deeper levels of understanding and perception of the sorrows of this world. In that deeply moving hymn, “Abide with me”, we find this expressed most potently:

“Abide with me; fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens; Lord, with me abide.
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see—
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

(“Abide with Me,” written by Henry Francis Lyte in 1847.)

Note those final lines: “Change and decay in all around I see, O Thou who changest not, abide with me.” These may just be the finest lines outside of scripture that were ever penned on the doctrine of the immutability of God. They begin to draw our attention to just how significant this doctrine really is, and how deeply important it is for us to understand the changeless glory of our God.

In the year of writing these words, I have turned 40 years old. I am finding that, as time goes by, my sense of sorrow grows deeper. It was something I was almost unaware of as a child, and it was likewise easily overshadowed by the energy and brightness of a youth spent in Tasmanian summer days. Since those days, it has crept in to my mind in a thousand different ways. A longing for home that has never fully been met. A hardship unlooked for. The disappearance of toddling little feet in my home (there are now many more man-sized-type feet, by the way, a joy to be sure! But still there is a sorrow). The realisation that the old, friendly, Anglican ladies of my childhood, who grew up in the 1950s and sold the best lemon butter known to man at small town fetes...well, they have departed these mortal shores, and their lemon butter is gone. I have seen sorrow in the sad trajectory of an old friend who ended up in troubles that I never anticipated. Marriages split that I thought never would. The knowledge of a last conversation with a loved one. Small things. Big things. Sorrow.

Change in a fallen world brings a deep sorrow with it. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why our Saviour was a man of sorrows, because he saw and perceived the nature of this change with perfect clarity.

In response to this “change and decay in all around I see”, it is the changeless nature of God that comforts me. What we are saying in the doctrine of the immutability of God, simply put, is that God does not change. In one sense, it is as simple as that. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17). “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed” (Mal 3:6). “Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away, but you are the same, and your years have no end” (Ps 102:25-27).

“The most stable objects in the visible universe, the ground beneath our feet and the skies above our heads, change, decay, and ultimately will be destroyed, but the Creator is of another nature than creation, and he abides forever unchanged” (Beeke & Smalley, RST Vol 1, p.688).

There are some in the history of the Church who have debated this point, arguing against it. It is tragic that this is the case, because it is an error, and potentially a heresy, that obscures his glory and erodes our own spiritual stability. But we must get this solidly down and settled in our minds: God doesn’t change. Consider this from Herman Bavinck’s perspective: “The difference between the Creator and the creature hinges on the contrast between being and becoming… All that is creaturely is in process of becoming. It is changeable, constantly striving, in search of rest and satisfaction, and finds this rest only in him who is pure being without becoming” (Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics Vol 2, p.156). If God is subject to change, then he is either not yet perfect (i.e. he is becoming better), or he has diminished from a perfection he once had (i.e. he has changed for the worse). Think about that, and you will begin to see why denying this doctrine presents such monumental problems. As Turretin put it: “He can neither be changed for the better (because he is the best) nor for the worse because he would cease to be the most perfect” (Turretin, Institutes Vol 1, p.205). So then, settle this in your mind: God does not change. SDG.

Q. What is the immutability of God?

A. God’s immutability is the changeless perfection of his being in which his every attribute, counsel, and purpose is eternally sustained without any contradiction, variation, or alteration whatever.

Q. Why do we confess that God is unchanging?

Answer: We confess that God is unchanging because it is the certain testimony of scripture, because it is necessary in order for us to properly declare his glory, and because it is necessary for our growth and assurance in faith.

Theology is a community project. That is an absolutely key thing that we need to understand. This is why Herman Bavinck was such a towering theological genius – he understood this well enough to use the word “Dogmatics” in his great set of books “Reformed Dogmatics.” Well, that’s not why he was a towering theological genius, but it is a nice little example.

“Dogmatics” is a very bold choice of word to use in the title of a book. Not so much in Bavinck’s day, but definitely today. I must confess that I wanted to call this project “Dogmatics in the Trenches”, but I wimped out. Not strictly true, I chose not to use it because I knew it would be unhelpful. I’ve given this project the title: “Theology in the Trenches.” I did that because I wanted to convey to the reader the essential flavour and purpose of what I’m trying to do here: to take theology out of the ivory tower of academia, and down into the everyday trenches of spiritual warfare. I want this project to make theology accessible to the average Christian, and I want to make sure that no elder in the Church of Christ has an excuse for not being a student of theology.

But still, there is a little theologian who lives in my imagination. His name is Cornelius, or Abraham, or something like that, and he’s telling me not to care about the reasons against using the word “Dogmatics.” He’s telling me to hang it all and call my project “Dogmatics in the Trenches” anyway. For those who want to know more about what this little theologian looks like, he’s a well-dressed 19^th century churchman, he’s got a sword in his hands, and he generally looks like he’s ready to storm the gates of hell. I digress, let’s get back to the actual value of this odd word “Dogmatics”.

Not only is “dogmatics” little used and understood today, it is also commonly misunderstood. You say “dogmatics”, and people will probably call to mind the image of a stick-in-the-mud old man in clerical garbs who is committed to boring church doctrines without any reason beyond mindless commitment to a stodgy old ecclesiastical institution. And yes, I did rather enjoy writing that sentence.

This is not the idea we should have in our minds when we think of “dogma”.

“Dogmatics” should be a word that instantly reminds us that theology is a communal project.

Now. You’re probably a little bit interested in that idea. “Dogmatics” is not a very popular word today, but “community” is. Many of us have a hunger for deeper community. But what does it mean to say that theology is a community project? It is interesting because it shifts every Christian from the position of observer to participant. Let me try and explain this for us.

Many works of theology seem to take it for granted that theology is basically individualistic (i.e. chiefly pertaining to the activity of the individual). Probably the theologians themselves don’t fall into the error, but nor do they articulate and correct it. The average Christian, then, if and when they pick up a book of theology, probably has a vague assumed notion that they, themselves, are reading a book. It is an individual act usually undertaken in a solitary setting. Perhaps the real problem is that we bring our default individualistic perception of ourselves to our reading in theology, and that’s where the problem is. Perhaps it’s part of the blindness of our age, I don’t know exactly. What I do know, however, is that our reception of God’s truth is not a purely individual activity.

In the Bible (which other people translated for you by the way), the way that we come to know the truth, to know God in fact, is wrapped up in the fact that God gives the truth – not to individuals – but to a believing community of faith. In other words: he gives the truth to the church. I generally try to avoid using bold typefaces in my writing, but I’m about to make an exception because I think it will be helpful. Ephesians 4:11 and following says it as clearly as we could like (the bold bits are the bits that imply the communal nature of theology, the italics bits are the bits that suggest theology is an individual activity):

“And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, (12) to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, (13) until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, (14) so that we may no longer be children… (15) Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, (16) from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.”

Notice how communal-orientated theology and its aims are? It’s not about being a theologian so much as being theologians together. It’s not about studying to learn the truth so much as it is about receiving the truth by faith as part of the body of Christ. And the aim of knowing God, which as we have seen is the aim of theology, is an aim that is to be reached together. I do not attain the “knowledge of God,” we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God together. Growth, knowledge, and maturity – all of it comes by virtue of our unity in the church together.

1 Timothy 3:15 is a very illuminating passage on this whole question. In it, the Apostle says: “...if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth.” Not the Early Church Fathers, not Augustine, not Aquinas, Luther, or Calvin are the buttress of the truth. Not the puritans, not the reformed confessions, not Whitefield or Spurgeon, not Bible software or your favourite parachurch ministry. It is the Church that is the pillar and buttress of the truth.

But what in the world is a buttress? A buttress is a kind of structural support. The Church itself is not the truth, but it is the buttress that upholds the truth. It’s a similar idea with the “pillar”, it’s a structural support to uphold something else. Here’s the thing: the Church, by nature, is a community. The truth, therefore, is upheld in community – the community of the Church. What this means is that God’s word is given to the Church as a community, and the truth of the Word is received in community. Your personal belief in Christ came to you by means of the Church as a community, and you now hold and confess it as part of that community yourself.

Let’s get back to Bavinck, and his wonderful insight into the virtues of the use of the term “dogma.” I can’t say it better than him, so I will simply quote him: “The designator “dogmatics” has the advantage of anchoring such study in the normative teachings or dogmas of the church” (Bavinck, RD Prolegomena, K.E. Loc 494 of 18660). The use of the term “dogma”, as Bavinck puts it, informs us that this concept “contains a social element” (Bavinck, RD Vol 1, p.30). It assumes that there is a broader recognition of the truth beyond the mere individual. Dogma is a communal confession of faith that recognises the authoritative truth of God “as it has been incorporated in the consciousness of the church and confessed by it in its own language” (Bavinck, RD Vol 1, p.30).

This dogmatic perspective ought to fundamentally shape how we go about writing or reading works of theology. This is not “every man to his Bible” (Trueman, C. R. “Lecture 3: The Clarity of Scripture” SCRBPC 2014, 4 Nov 2014). There is a great theological conversation of which we are part, and which has been going on right through church history. When it comes to the part where we consider the Triune nature of God, for example, we ought not to ignore the Apostle’s Creed, or the Athanasian Creed. We’d be foolish to do so. We should build on those marvellous creeds and, more importantly, learn from them. As Bavinck says, we need to anchor our studies in the normative teachings or dogmas of the church.

There are lots of questions that arise out of this such as: What are the implications of this for interpreting scripture? How exactly should we view the creeds and confessions? What do we do with creeds and confessions that oppose each other? How are we to know which creeds we ought to adhere to? We will get to those questions and more, if the Lord spares us. But for now I say this: God gives his truth to his people together, and that is how it is to be received. I do try to write with a healthy appreciation for this fact.

So… how about you? Did you realise that your growth in the truth is part of a community project? As we learned in the doctrine of the Illumination of the Holy Spirit, it is a communion with God. But we must also see it is a communion with all believers as well.

Have you taken the time to study the great creeds and confessions of the Church?

Are you actively engaged in your own local church community? This is absolutely crucial.

May the Lord help us to grow together, with a deep and affectionate dogmatic confession of the truth he has given in his word, and with a sincere love for our Saviour. SDG.

Question 61: Does the Holy Spirit work illumination in the hearts of individual believers alone?

Answer: No. The Holy Spirit gives illumination to the people of God together, that they may know, confess, and walk in the truth of His Word as the communion of saints, in fellowship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Though each believer is personally enlightened, the Holy Spirit works in the members of Christ’s body together, that all may grow in the knowledge of God and in obedience to him.

“Book 1”, focusing on a study of the Truth of God, which is an introduction to theology, is basically finished!

All the articles are on my Substack, so you don’t have to wait for a release, but I am currently polishing a manuscript so that they are all tidily available in one place. Stay tuned for that, hopefully they will be available for print on demand too, so you can order some to give to other people.

The entire contents of Book 1 can also be listened to in lyrical form! This would be a great way to get it all settled more deeply into your mind. Across two albums, you can conveniently recall to mind everything we’ve been learning:

#1 - God is Truth

#2 - Spirit of Truth

Happy listening!

If you’d like to support the project, and you have Apple tech., you might like to jump on to Apple Music to purchase the albums. They’re also freely available on a whole pile of other music platforms as well.

Remember: this is an easy way to share some good theological content with people who might not read so much. Please share them around!

SDG.

People are often very perplexing. Let me give you an example. Joe joins your church. He’s kind of quiet, but also has a bit of energy about him. He’s happy to be at church, and he quickly connects with people. It’s not long before he kind of feels like a real “staple” in the church community. People notice him. He even starts turning up regularly to the Prayer Meeting – which the majority of members even neglect. You talk to Joe, and he seems authentic. Really authentic. Like, his joy in Jesus is almost palpable. But Joe gets connected to a girl from another church. Ok, not a massive deal. Maybe the church is not in your church’s stream, but at least it’s broadly evangelical. Two months later, Joe disappears. What happened? People wonder where he went. Joe has blocked you on his social media, and it’s as though he never existed. What went wrong?

Proverbs 18:4 says that “The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters”. There’s a lot that goes on in people’s hearts that we just can’t see. The Apostle Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians 4:5: “do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.” “For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (1 Sam 16:7). When we’re talking about the doctrine of the Holy Spirit’s work of illumination in the heart, a good deal of what we’re talking about unfolds in the realm of the heart’s deep waters.

Let’s talk about the reformed doctrine of “regeneration”, for example. The concept of spiritual regeneration is one which most reformed Christians are pretty well aware of. Why? Well, it’s a central aspect of the way that we see and understand salvation. If we were born dead in our trespasses and sins (Eph 2:1), totally unable to seek God of ourselves (Rom 3:11), then being spiritually born again by the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:1-8) is an essential lynchpin in the life of every true Christian. As the Canons of Dort put it: “without the grace of the regenerating Holy Spirit (all people) are neither willing nor able to return to God, to reform their distorted nature, or even to dispose themselves to such reform” (Canons of Dort, 3^rd and 4^th Main Points, Art 3).

The tricky thing about regeneration, however, is that while it is a certain spiritual reality, it is not a reality that we can directly observe. It is a hidden, invisible work of the Holy Spirit. Sure, we can discern something about it by examining fruit in our own lives and the lives of others. But, in practice, scripture gives us less direct ways of engaging with the reality of spiritual regeneration. For example, we are not even called to presume upon our own regeneration, but rather we are called to make our election sure by self-examination and testing (2 Pt 1:10). We are told that there are wheat and tares in the Kingdom of God (Mt 13:24-30). Wheat and tares look the same to the naked eye, and only judgment day truly and fully reveals what people really are. We are very prone to making mistaken judgments when it comes to matters of spiritual regeneration, which is why we are told to make sure we do not judge hidden things before the time, but leave it to the Lord (1 Cor 4:5).

All this to say, when we are talking about the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life, we are dealing with an aspect of the Christian life that is – in many ways – unobservable to us. We must be careful, then, about attempting to discern these things in the lives of ourselves or of other people. In this particular meditation, we’re thinking about whether or not the Holy Spirit testifies in the hearts of unbelievers. It is a fact that he does, as we’ll see, but it is also a fact that we likely won’t be able to discern with certainty – at any given time – the people in whom he is doing this work. He may be regenerating a soul, or testifying to one who is destined to remain unregenerate. In either case, it may well be impossible for us to discern which of those two things is happening at any given point.

Tread carefully here, that’s all I’m saying. Consider the principles we’re looking at, make your own calling and election sure, and be careful not to judge before the time what God may or may not be doing in another person’s heart.

With those things in mind, let’s narrow down the discussion to look at how it is that the Holy Spirit testifies to the truth in the hearts of unregenerate people. There are two main ways that the Holy Spirit does this: by means of common grace, and by means of covenantal privilege.

As to common grace, Romans 1 is one of the clearest parts of scripture that explains how this works. Firstly, let’s briefly consider: What is Common Grace? It’s a subject we’ll turn to in more detail another time, Lord willing. But, in general terms, God’s common grace refers to the undeserved gifts that he gives commonly to all people without distinction. The Lord Jesus makes reference to this in Matthew 5:45. Getting back to Romans 1, we see that God testifies to unbelievers by means of his Natural Revelation (which we considered earlier). Natural Revelation is a creative, sustaining act of God in which he clearly, truly, and authoritatively reveals himself and his works to all men through the natural, created order, so that his people can worship, glorify, enjoy, love, know, and serve him forever. This witness, as the Apostle says, is sufficiently clear to leave all people “without excuse” (Rom 1:20). This common grace witness also includes the spiritual faculty of the conscience, which God has given to all mankind (Rom 2:15).

As to the Holy Spirit’s witness by means of covenantal privileges, let’s just establish what we mean by covenantal privileges. In previous articles we have made a two-fold distinction when it comes to God’s work of revelation. Question 13: How does God reveal himself and his works to us so that we can know him? Answer: In two ways. First, through his creative and sustaining work of natural revelation; and second, through his redemptive revelation in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit’s witness to unbelievers follows the same pattern. We’ve already talked about his witness by means of common grace. The Spirit’s witness by means of covenantal privileges refers to his use of the means of redemptive revelation to testify to unbelievers of their need to come to Christ. Let’s refresh our minds on this:

Question 16: What is God’s redemptive revelation?

Answer: The redemptive revelation of God is his saving revelation of himself, formerly through various acts, words, appearances, and symbols, and finally and ultimately culminating in the incarnate word himself: Jesus Christ.

Question 17: How can we know Christ?

Answer: Christ is to be known today through the reading, preaching, and teaching of the Word of God, as contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. In this way, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is continually preached and speaks that we may have life and life abundant.

The Spirit uses covenantal privileges, preeminently the reading, preaching, and teaching of the Word of God, to bear witness to unbelievers. To start with, the Book of Acts gives many accounts of the gospel being preached to unbelievers. Acts 19:10 records that “all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.” 1 Cor 14:24-25 describes how an unbeliever may come under conviction of sin by entering in to a worship service of God’s people. “But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.” This is a description of the Spirit using covenantal privileges to bear witness to an unbeliever. The Hebrews warning passages likewise reveal the reality that – even among the covenantal community of God’s people – there will be unregenerate people who hear the Spirit’s witness and ultimately reject it (e.g. Heb 6:4-6; 10:29).

You won’t be able to tell, at any given time, what may or may not be going on in the heart of another person. The things we’ve just talked about may look, in a season, like a person being saved. Or they be may the Spirit’s witness to one who remains dead in trespasses and sins. I think taking a hopeful, prayerful, generous, but reserved assessment is a safe course, for example, when you have a loved one that you are uncertain about. The real point here is much more on self-examination, however. How have we responded to the Spirit’s witness? That is the question.

But let’s bring this all home. In Matthew 13, the Lord Jesus gives us the parable of the sower. Every heart is a different kind of ground. Some ground is stony, and the seed of the gospel cannot grow with deep roots. It burns away in the heat of trial. Some hearts are like a pathway. The seed falls on it, and then the birds devour the seed. Nothing grows. Some hearts are like ground full of weeds. The seed starts to grow, but the weeds choke it out. Some hearts are like good soil. The seed takes root, grows, and bears a harvest. How’s your heart? SDG.

Question 59: Does the Holy Spirit conduct his work of illumination in the hearts of the unregenerate?

Answer: No. Although the Holy Spirit does graciously and clearly testify to the truth in the hearts of all unregenerate people he does not efficaciously apply the truth to them in a saving manner. Thus, because of their wilful unbelief, their hearts remain unchanged, and even hardened, as they continue on the broad way of destruction.

Question 60. How does the Holy Spirit graciously and clearly testify to the truth in the hearts of unregenerate people?

Answer: The Holy Spirit graciously and clearly testifies to the truth in the hearts of unregenerate people firstly by means of his providential gifts of common grace and general revelation, including especially the gift of our conscience, and secondly he testifies by means of covenantal privileges, especially by means of the outward call of the gospel, and the hearing of the Word of God.

Francis has recently discovered reformed theology. He’s been excited to find preaching that focuses on what the Bible says! And he can’t believe that he never saw what the Bible says about God’s sovereignty – it’s everywhere in scripture! One thing keeps bugging him though. If God predestines us to salvation, and chooses us, and we can’t choose him… why was it that if feels so much like he chose God when he first became a Christian? It feels like this doesn’t make sense.

Suzie has been taught all about the Bible since she was a little girl. She knows that her salvation depends on God’s promises in Christ, not on how she’s performing as a Christian. The problem is, she doesn’t feel confident about her faith. She is constantly asking herself: “If I really belonged to God, wouldn’t I feel more certain about it?” She can’t escape the confusion, and sometimes the anxiety feels overwhelming.

Jimmy is perplexed. He wants to be an obedient boy to his parents, but sometimes he feels like he can’t stop himself from doing the wrong thing. He gets angry at his siblings, and then later feels so sad about doing the wrong thing. Aren’t children supposed to obey their parents? That’s what God says. Why does he find himself disobeying so often? And why does his anger seem to be getting worse?

Does what you believe or understand in your faith ever feel like it clashes with what you experience in your life? As Jacob and Esau wrestled within her womb, Rebekah was perplexed, and wondered why this was happening to her (Gen 25:22). We, too, can feel perplexed as we experience the inner turmoil of what we understand from scripture, and what we experience in life. Like Rebekah, we would do well to inquire of the LORD to help us understand. And, like Rebekah, we may find that the Lord has some larger purpose in our struggle.

Our understanding and experience of the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives is probably the most acute point at which we sense this tension between doctrine and living. Let me give you an example. In Romans 8:13 we read: “if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live…” The options are starkly and clearly obvious here. Live by the flesh, and you will die. Put to death the deeds of the body and you will live. I think we can clearly put our finger on the pulse of the tension in our experience by looking at this example.

Let’s elaborate. Consider an example of when you have “mortified the flesh” in your life. Let’s say you experienced some sinful urge, and you turned yourself away from that sinful urge – body and soul. You have mortified the flesh in that moment! You didn’t look at the thing you weren’t supposed to look at. You didn’t say the thing you weren’t supposed to say. Praise be to God! It seems reasonably clear that you mortified the flesh in that moment. But did you really mortify the flesh “by the Spirit”? How do you know that it was by the Spirit? That seems to me to be a tricky question to answer. What exactly does it mean to mortify the flesh “by the Spirit”? Does it mean that we have a supernatural awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence in the moment of mortifying our sinful desire? Does the text suggest that, in some sense, the Holy Spirit is somehow at our disposal to be – for want of a better word – “used” for mortification? After all, the text suggests that we are the ones doing the mortification, but we do it “by the Spirit”. What does that actually mean? And how can we be sure that we’re actually doing it the way God wants us to do it?

I want to try and explore and understand the answers to these tricky questions. I believe that it can be explained by a deeper and fuller insight into the nature of the Holy Spirit’s work of illumination.

To start with, we must acknowledge that there is a degree of mystery in this equation. In John 3, as Jesus talked with Nicodemus, he referred to the sense in which the work of the Holy Spirit is a mystery. “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn 3:8). There is a sense in which the Holy Spirit’s work in a soul is beyond our comprehension (a topic we will return to another time if the Lord permits).

Having said that, I also believe that there are some very clear things we can say about the Spirit’s work of illumination, and how his work flows in to our spiritual experience. Let’s go back to our example – and also make it more specific. A man wants to look at an attractive woman in a lustful way, let’s say. It is a common temptation, and the principle works with all forms of temptations across both sexes. Anyway, back to our example, this Christian man notices the woman approaching in his peripheral vision as he walks down the street, especially since she is dressed in a fairly immodest way. He feels the urge to look at her. However, he finds within himself a resistance to look as well. Part of him wants to look, another part of him wants to keep his eyes pointed straight ahead. In that moment, as his desires wage war on each other, he remembers some passage from the Book of Proverbs, and it steels his resolve. He wants to honour God in this situation. The desire to keep his eyes in the right direction solidifies into a decision, and he walks by without a first or a second glance.

Our initial impression is that he has been the sole acting agent here. That’s why we might puzzle and question over whether or not he has mortified the flesh “by the Spirit.” After all, just where was the Holy Spirit in that situation? Let me respond to that query with a counter-question. How can he truly desire something good at all? How can a sinner who is dead in sin (Eph 2:1) act in any way contrary to his sinful nature? The answer is that this man is no longer a sinner dead in sin at all. He has been made alive with Christ (Eph 2:4-6) and is indwelt by the Spirit (Rom 8:9-11) His sincere desire to do what is righteous and please God is not so ordinary after all, when you think about it. In fact, not only is it more than ordinary, it is evidence of a supernatural transformation. He can hate lust and love righteousness only because he has been transformed by the Spirit, and with the Spirit now working in him. This is the very rebirth that Jesus was talking about with Nicodemus in John 3.

Let’s consider the same thing from a different angle. Why did this man remember a passage of scripture in that moment? Why did he care to listen to the scriptures at all? Why was he concerned about committing sin against God? Why did he think about pleasing God and desire it? How did the faculty of his will do something other than act in accordance with the normal, fallen impulses of mankind’s natural corruption? Why in the world does he even believe in the true and living God in the first place? There is no one good, not so much as one. No one seeks after God, and by nature we suppress the truth in unrighteousness. All of these questions suggest the obvious truth: this man has been supernaturally transformed by the Holy Spirit, and thus – by the Holy Spirit – he has indeed put to death the fleshly deed of lust. The answer to these questions is that these good things in his heart are all the fruit and result of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.

Unless the Holy Spirit renews our mind by God’s word, we would not have even have believed in God – much less desired to please God. Unless the Holy Spirit had turned this man’s affections toward Christ, there would have been no good inner resistance toward the temptation and sinful desire to lust that he felt within himself. Returning to our original question: Where is the Holy Spirit in this situation? His finger-prints, so to speak, are everywhere on the soul of this man’s response. Does the man chose the right thing by the Spirit? Clearly yes. He was a wholly active agent. But is the Spirit also the agent and author of this response? Also clearly yes. The Spirit transforms us, we chose what is right (by the Spirit), and the Spirit continues to work our transformation.

But there is a little more we might say to understand this on a deeper level. Not only does the Holy Spirit work within the hearts of God’s people to transform them, he does so by the Word of God. Paul makes this clear in Galatians. How did we receive the Spirit in the first place? “Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?” (Gal 3:2). Only one of those two options can be correct, and one of them is certainly correct. Paul’s point is clear, and he reiterates it in verse five: we receive the Spirit by hearing with faith. But Paul does not just suggest that this is how we received the Spirit, but that it is also how we ought to go on in the Spirit (Gal 3:3). We must continue on, keeping “in step with the Spirit” (Gal 5:16-26). And how do we go in on the Spirit? In just the same way that we began: by hearing with faith.

As we feed on the Word of God, and the Spirit illumines the Word in our hearts, we commune with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, and we are “transformed from glory unto glory” (2 Cor 3:18). So then, the Holy Spirit is not so very absent from our mortification as our experience may initially suggest. We cannot “see” the Spirit, as we might see our pastors, and so we might suppose that he is absent. But it is not so. The Spirit is and has been actively at work to transform us, to turn our thoughts and will, by the illuminating work of the Word of God. He effects this transformation, and so we mortify the flesh in the decisions we make. We make the decision. The Spirit also originates and effects the decision. Furthermore, we make the decision empowered by the Spirit. It is hard to fully understand logically how all these things fit together, and yet all these things are true. That which is revealed belongs to us (Deut 29:29), let us therefore be diligent in feeding on God’s Word.

So what does this mean for Francis, Suzie, and Jimmy? Francis did, indeed, engage his will wholeheartedly in coming to Christ. But that movement of the will was ordained and enabled by God (Phil 2:13). Suzie is deeply concerned about the state of her soul. That in itself is a Spirit wrought concern! As the Holy Spirit gives her clarity on the things we’re talking about here, even as she herself diligently searches God’s word to grow in understanding, she will come to a deeper experience and understanding of assurance. And dear little Jimmy, if he could only clearly realise that God has been merciful to him in his early years, and has already given him the gift of spiritual life and awakened him, he would rejoice and continue all the more on the path of sanctification. And so he shall, for the Lord is faithful to complete that which he begins. SDG.

Question 58: What is the nature and purpose of the Spirit’s work of illumination?

Answer: The Holy Spirit’s purpose in his work of illumination, in accordance with the saving purposes of the Father and the Son, is to raise us up from our state of spiritual death, transform us into the likeness of Christ, and to ultimately bring us into abundant and eternal resurrection life and fellowship with God. He accomplishes this work in us by the ministry of the Word of God in our lives, through which he draws us into divine fellowship with the Father through the Son, and makes us wholeheartedly ready and willing to live for him.

One of the key aims with this Theology in the Trenches project has always been to make theology accessible.

There are so many wonderful theological riches available today - more than could be read in a lifetime!

But the reality is that most Christians will not read all four volumes of “Reformed Dogmatics” by Herman Bavinck. The vast treasure trove of puritan literature will not be opened, and most Christians will have no idea who Charles Hodge, Wilhelmus A’Brakel, or Petrus Van Mastricht actually are.

One of the reasons I write Theology in the Trenches is simply to give myself a structured way to be disciplined to read (I’d be doing this project even if nobody read it… and did for years). Believe it or not, it is incredibly challenging even for a pastor to find any extra time whatsoever to read theological literature. I know pastors and elders who simply don’t read (and I sympathise… a little tiny eensie weensy bit).

Be all that as it may, this post is about something new I’ve been doing to make theology even more accessible. Because even though my articles are bite-sized and simplified to be digestible chunks of theology for the average Christian... for many even that is too much.

Only about 37% of my subscribers actually read these articles!

So - what is this new venture, I hear you ask?

Simple.

Lyrical theology.

Poetic theology.

Theolo-joy.

Truth in song.

In other words: theology in the trenches now has a soundtrack.

It sounds odd, I know. But we live in a strange world - so let me tell you the story.

I was reading one of my children’s school books the other day for a moment, and came across something that astounded me.

The subject was poetry.

I know, if you were already disinterested in this post, probably talking about poetry will not help me to engage you.

But hang in with me here, because this will pay off.

I know, the world has lost touch with poetry today. Well, it kind of has, but also kind of hasn’t. Anyway, the book was giving some basic lessons in poetry. Things like: poetry is written in lines and stanzas, as opposed to sentences and paragraphs like prose.

It doesn’t sound striking, but it was. Let me just skip the details and show you the bit that was striking. The book gave a comparison between prose and poetry. Here’s the prose example that the book gave to show the difference:

“The Simple Truth: We always tell the simple truth because we love it. Nothing is ever so bad or so big that it can overcome the truth. A lie, like a shadow or a bubble, is worthless. In fact, it brings only trouble. On the other hand, truth is like a golden robe that brings honour. Nothing shall ever spoil its beauty; no lie shall ever destroy it.”

That was the paragraph. Already kind of fitting for theology, especially since “Book 1” of this project is focused on the topic of “God is Truth.” The paragraph is true. Well said. It gives a few apt and colourful illustrations.

Then it got interesting.

The book presented the paragraph using poetry. Here it is (and if you’re reading this, read it out loud):

The Simple Truth.

We always tell the simple truth,

We do so, for we love it.

There’s nothing bad or big enough

To get the better of it.

A lie is like a shadow, or

A wordy, windy bubble;

It holds no good, it has no use,

It brings us only trouble.

Inexplicably, I found myself grinning as I read the lines. They wrapped the truth in beauty, and rendered it somehow… pleasing to the soul.

But something else clicked as well, and here’s where this connects with theology.

Poetry presents remarkable theological opportunities. You actually already benefit from them if you’ve ever sung a good hymn (or rendering of a psalm). Consider the following lines of poetry:

“When I survey the wondrous cross

On which the Prince of Glory died,

My richest gain I count but loss,

And pour contempt on all my pride.”

As my son’s schoolbook points out, poetry has a number of characteristics that prose doesn’t have. It can do certain things in ways that prose can’t do. A couple of the most important that come to mind are that:

1. Poetry can say much in a few words. How much is contained in those few lines of “When I survey”!

2. Poetry can effect our feelings. Not that prose can’t, but - especially when combined with music - poetry has a surpassing ability to touch our feelings.

As well as making theology more accessible, theology in the trenches has also had another key goal.

I want theology to touch people’s feelings.

I want theolo-joy. That’s what I want for me, and for you.

And now we’re really getting to why I wrote this “special edition” article. I’m not writing to give a theological defence of poetry (though I can do that emphatically in just four words: “The Book of Psalms”).

I’m writing… because theology in the trenches, as well as continuing with your normal program of (hopefully) un-boring articles, is unexpectedly branching out in a new way…

Let me fill you in.

In recent times I’ve been toying around in my spare moments with what’s become a new part of this theology project. It started with a photo slide show from our Church Camp a few weeks ago.

The slideshow was a lovely selection of photos of all the precious people in my local church. Our Church Camp had four wonderful sessions of teaching, from Prof. Murray Capill (Reformed Theological College, Aus), from the Book of Ecclesiastes.

The soundtrack was a wonderful accompaniment to the slideshow, and - in particular - one of the songs was an acoustic folk interpretation of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8. It touched my soul. I asked my friend, who - with his wife - had made the slideshow, where the music came from. I was wondering to myself how I had never heard this artist before.

To my surprise, he said that he discovered it on YouTube, and it turned out to be an AI-assisted song.

Now I was in a conundrum. And maybe your warning antennas are up to.

Ah. AI music. No thanks - goodbye!

Ok. I hear you. I didn’t feel particularly inclined to add AI music to my playlist either, and I’d never really even thought about the possibility of AI music actually being good. But here we are. Strange world.

To the doubters, I ask only two things: (1) finish reading this article; and (2) listen to just one single song from the first album link below. Then continue on in your anti-AI ways if you wish. And go with my blessing! BUT… only if you do those two things.

Anyway, let’s continue with the article.

So, there I was, full of AI musical skepticism.

Except for one thing… that Ecclesiastes song was sooooooo good.

I looked it up, discovered an entire playlist, listened to it, and got addicted to the whole playlist for about a week. It was, in my opinion, in the top tier of any music I’d ever discovered. The main reason for that was not because it was musically the best thing I’d ever heard (I don’t think AI is superior to or can actually replace human musical mastery), but because it so effectively and movingly conveyed the truths of the Book of Ecclesiastes. The music was the carrier, the meaning and truth of the text was where the real “weight” of the playlist was. But, it was definitely enhanced by the music.

You can check it out and have a listen here:

But we’re still not at the theology connection yet. At some point I found myself wondering: What if I could put theology in the trenches to music? That would help me to learn it more thoroughly.

I toyed around with it, more out of curiosity than anything else. I took a few of the catechism questions from this project, and fed them in to ChatGPT with the prompt: Give me a hip-hop lyrical version of this.

What came out was… well, it was something to start with. Chat isn’t very good at nailing the metre, and it’s rhyming ability is about Year 9 English level mostly. It’s also prone to accidentally slipping theological heresies into the lyrics (some real howlers).

So I edited the lyrics, tightened up the rhymes and metre, added my own lines and replaced the bad ones from Chat, got the theology ironed out, and dropped it in to a music generation app called “Suno” with a prompt to give me some variety of hip hop adaption of the lyrics.

Most of the songs sounded kinda generic or not what I wanted. But one of them sounded… amazing.

I then noticed that Suno has a better music-generation opportunity for paying customers.

At this point, I’d like to thank the small handful of you who are subscribing, paying supporters of this publication. I’d like to publicly acknowledge you and say: thank you! To those who have supported this project, I used some of what you have given to experiment with a month long subscription to Suno. I believe it was a good use of your money - I’ve certainly enjoyed it!

The paid version of Suno was substantially better, and I started making songs on it.

Initially, the songs, like all my theology in the trenches writing, were for my own benefit to help me nail down my learning in my own mind.

However, I thought it would be worth sharing - and thus this post.

Why hip hop? (and what about the ethics of AI? We’ll get to that…).

Hip-hop is naturally lyric-heavy. And because of that, it is uniquely capable of handling very dense theology. And it is insanely catchy. It rewards you the more times you listen to it, and the more you catch the rhymes and rhythms the more you memorise deep theological concepts - with ease and feeling. You could literally cover the entire contents of a prolegomena seminary course in theology in about 20 tracks of music.

You can also access listeners who have never read a book of theology in their lives.

Don’t like hip hop? I’ve got a couple of other musical genres on the go too… (at the bottom of the article).

But what about the AI?

Maybe some of you won’t be at all interested in this because of the AI usage.

Firstly, that’s fine. No worries. Don’t listen to it if you don’t like it! I think human taste will ultimately justify that AI music has a place, or condemn it to the waste-bin of history. Actually, I think that AI music may just eventually reinvigorate real-life musical enjoyment. Like having actual pianos in your living room. But I do digress.

But here’s why I think this adds some value here, for what it’s worth.

AI is technology. Like all technology, it can be used and misused.

I think that there are a lot of dangers with AI. Especially because it has the capacity to facilitate laziness on a whole new level. I think it should generally be kept out of education for our children - because they need to actually develop skills and capacity themselves.

However, I think it can be used well too.

Take a car, for example. Let’s say you drive to work in your car, and when you get to work, your boss starts shouting at you: “I can’t BELIEVE you drove to work! That’s pathetic!! You’ve got legs, why did you cheat by using a car? I expect you to accomplish things off your own steam in the future! Don’t let me see you using a car ever again!”

Ludicrous, right?

Technology allows us to accomplish things that we couldn’t otherwise accomplish. Like composing a professional sounding theologically focused hip hop soundtrack in the space of a week. Or driving 10km in 10 minutes.

Sure, AI can be used to allow lazy people to fake competency (although that is becoming increasingly obvious with all the AI slop lying around the place - Proverbs warns us not to try and make a quick buck, AI hasn’t changed that).

But AI can also be used to enhance vocational effectiveness.

I studied Graphic Arts for a year at a Graphic Arts school in 2004. You can do a lot with a pencil and paper if you spend the years developing the skills of drawing. But what you can’t do is produce a digital logo for a website with it - no matter how many years you spend mastering drawing. You need technology to do that. A great Graphic Designer is someone who blends their artistic skillset with technological effectiveness. They didn’t design photoshop, and they’re not cheating to use it. It enhances their vocational effectiveness. In this sense, AI is nothing particularly new.

The way I see it, maybe here is a good question for AI use: What skill and mastery are you bringing to your use of AI? Is the tech enhancing your existing abilities? Or is it just the tech producing some slop with no abilities of yours on the table?

Nate Wilson on his podcast, Stories are Soulfood (insert hyperlink), rightly criticises the person who brags because their robot bench pressed weights for them, or because their robot ran a marathon for them. You didn’t do those things, the robot did it. But the Graphic Designer who used photoshop… sure, there’s a lot he didn’t do in using that technology. But… rightly used, there’s a lot he can do with photoshop.

What about AI generated hip hop music with theological lyrics?

The songs I’m sharing with you in the link below represent hours of theological work. Hundreds of hours. Actually, I just looked up the stats on the word document for my “God is truth” hours. 5559 hours of editing on that document. That’s over 250 24 hour days. I’ve been working on it since before I started my theology degree. I blended that 5559 hours with AI tech, produced something new and… voila! Something different has now appeared.

That’s what I think, anyway. I think that the world will be a better place, however small the increment, for having these songs in it.

You be the judge.

Maybe I’ll write some more on AI some time.

At any rate, what’s left to say?

Not much right now.

For now… I do hope you enjoy the music I’ve shared below! I hope it helps you to find theology more accessible.

My only rule musically speaking for this project has been: I haven’t published a single song I don’t love.

Again, you be the judge. Add it to your playlist. Or don’t.

And now, for the soundtrack(s)…

Album 1: Sure Guide to Heaven. The Puritan Joseph Alleine wrote a book called “A Sure Guide to Heaven”, or “Alarm to the Unconverted.” It deals with the topic of conversion, and is both theologically comprehensive, and pastorally focused. It doesn’t deal with conversion like a theological lecturer. It deals with it like a preacher desperately seeking to snatch souls out of the grip of Satan. But it’s theology is heavy enough and full enough for any seminary course as well. It’s a wonderful book. And now… it has a hip hop soundtrack. Maybe hip hop is not so much your thing, but if you listen to these songs and study them - you will get what Alleine is saying. Give it a listen… “make your calling and election sure.” Use it as a pathway toward reading the book. You can access it on Spotify below, but it’s also available on YouTube music, Apple Music, and a number of other platforms.

Album 2: God Eternal. This album summarises the series of articles I wrote on the eternal nature of God in recent months. If you memorise the lyrics of these songs, you will know more about the Eternal Nature of God than what would ordinarily be taught in a seminary course in theology. It’s also a whole lot easier to listen to these tracks than it is to go back and re-read all the articles. You can access it on Spotify below, but it’s also available on YouTube music, Apple Music, and a number of other platforms.

Album 3: God is Truth. This album summarises close to a half of all the articles I have written on my Substack. If you memorise the lyrics of these songs, you will have basically learned 1/8 of what a theological student would have learned in a normal seminary course in theology (and yes, the tracks actually include the text of the catechism questions we’ve covered in our articles). You can access it on Spotify below, but it’s also available on YouTube music, Apple Music, and a number of other platforms.

So… while I’m on leave for the next three weeks… happy listening!

Final words…

I hope these songs benefit you. I’ve been finding them very useful, instructive, and edifying. Maybe you don’t like Hip Hop. That’s fine, I have a few things I’m working on that are not in that genre. I’ll drop them into your inbox whenever they land, or if you follow “Theology Engine” on spotify, etc. you will be able to stay up to date.

These resources also present an opportunity. If you do benefit from them, they also give you an easy way to help other believers deepen their theological knowledge.

There may be Christians you know who wouldn’t sign up for my substack. But they might add “Theology Engine” to their spotify playlist.

Share it with them!

That is your call to action.

Let’s work together to deepen theological knowledge in the Church of Christ.

You in your small corner, and I in mine.

SDG.

Your alarm wakes you up at 6am. Thankfully, you deliberately kept it out of reach to anticipate the ever-tempting snooze button. You open your eyes blearily, and drag your body into a sitting position on the side of your bed. Most days, you succumb to the temptation to immediately check all your favourite apps on your phone, but lately you’ve been getting better at avoiding this. You set yourself to avoid checking your screens at least until after you’ve taken some time to read your Bible and pray. That’s why you’re up at 6am, after all.

You walk to the kitchen, mostly awake now, grab a drink of water, and set up your coffee plunger. You want to be the kind of person who stretches and does a few light exercises at this point, but you’re not there yet. Coffee in hand, you make your way to the spot where you normally do your devotions. Your habit is to read a chapter from the Old Testament, a chapter from the New Testament, and perhaps a proverb or psalm. This morning you read about not boiling a kid in its mother’s milk in Exodus 23. Beyond that perplexing verse, you note in the rest of the chapter that God takes justice in society seriously. In the New Testament you read Romans 4, and it encourages you somewhat after the rough time you had with Romans 2 a couple of days ago. But you’re still not sure about Romans 2.

You take some time to pray, focusing on the Lord’s Prayer, and expanding out each petition to be a bit more specific on what’s going on in your life. And then… the day kicks off. People are moving in the house. Quiet time is over, it’s time to go. Time to go to work. Time to go to school. As the day unfolds, and you get on with your stuff, the question pops up in your mind a few times: Is that what my devotional time is supposed to be like? Shouldn’t it be… deeper? Richer? Something?

There is a doctrine in the reformed and presbyterian tradition that addresses some of these questions, at least in part. It’s called: the Doctrine of the Illumination of the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t tend to get discussed a lot, but it is an often used piece of furniture in the house of reformed theology. The most obvious place to find it summarised is in the Westminster Confession, Chapter 1, Article 6. It goes like this: “… we acknowledge the inward illumination of the Spirit of God to be necessary for the saving understanding of such things as are revealed in the Word…”

The idea is that – as we read God’s Word – we need the Holy Spirit to illuminate our hearts so that we can see, understand, and be transformed by what we read. It’s not limited to personal reading, of course, but covers any engagement with God’s Word, including when we come under the preaching of his word. In 1 Cor 2:12-14 we see this clearly: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” That’s about as clear as it comes! Without the Spirit’s enabling work, we simply are not able to understand spiritual truths. The Apostle Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 1:15-17 also shows our need for the Spirit’s illuminating work in our hearts. Psalm 119:18 likewise expresses this reality in the psalmist’s prayer: “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.”

But, as with most confessional statements, or even theological statements, there is more to be said, and there are deeper places we might go. The infinite depths of God’s being and work can never be fully plumbed by us. Yes, the Holy Spirit is shining his light of illumination into our souls as we read his word. He is giving us the capacity to see what’s there when we would not otherwise be able to see it, the ability to rightly understand and interpret spiritual truths. But it’s also important to consider that this act of illumination is not merely an act of enabling us to read words on a page. It is deeper. It is personal (no doubt the Westminster divines would agree, but you can’t say everything all the time!). Illumination is, as Ike Miller puts it, “human participation in the Son’s knowledge of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Miller, Seeing by the Light, p.1). I suggest that those words from Ike Miller are heavier than the universe in what they contain, I recommend reading them again. In fact, I’ll quote them again. Illumination is “human participation in the Son’s knowledge of the Father by the power of the Holy Spirit”.

I stumbled across Miller’s quote in another book by Paul C. Uyen. It’s called: “In your light we see light: A Reformed Theology of the Divine Illumination.” It is an absolutely masterful and wonderful work of theology (though I believe he follows in the stream of the likes of John Owen on the nature of illumination - so it’s not anything too innovative, as such! Anyway, I commend it to your bookshelf). My thoughts here are a kind of summary taster, but your thought on this doctrine will be wonderfully expanded if you get yourself a copy of Uyen’s book and read it. Oh, one more thing: Don’t forget to read it! Too many books on my bookshelf have suffered from that malady. They look good, but they must be read! But I digress. Let me give you, at least, the main idea that Uyen is trying to get across to us.

As he points out: “Discussion on illumination… limits itself to the interpretation of Scripture” (Uyen, In your light, p.14). I think he’s correct. For my part, whenever I have heard the doctrine discussed, it has focused in more on the interpretation of scripture. Uyen gives us a much fuller understanding of what’s going on when the Spirit illuminates our hearts. As we read the scriptures, “In contemplative union, we participate in the Son’s knowledge of the Father and the Father’s knowledge of the Son through the Spirit from glory to glory” (Uyen, In your light, p.18). When you think about it, this makes perfect sense in light of what we considered about the relationship between Christ and the Word of God under Question 20: What is the nature of the relationship between Christ the Word of God, and the scriptures as the word of God? Answer: The scriptures are the living voice of Christ in the Church and in the world.

Question 20 was also built on our earlier consideration of the personal nature of God’s Word under Question 7. Question 7: What is the word of God? Answer: Jesus Christ is the living and abiding Word of God the Father, truly and fully reflecting and revealing his heart, being the very image of the invisible God in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Through Christ the Word, God created all things and upholds them continually for his good pleasure. Through the reading, preaching and teaching of the word of God, as contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, Jesus Christ is continually preached and speaks that we may have life and life abundant.

Since Jesus Christ is the living abiding Word of God the Father, and that he speaks to us through the Word of God, revealed in the Old and New Testaments, it is perfectly logical to arrive where Uyen does. The Holy Spirit’s work of illumination is one which goes beyond the mere reading of a book. It is spiritual intercourse with God the Father, revealed in Christ the Son, in the power of God the Holy Spirit. “The economy of illumination is the trinitarian operation of God, the Father, Son, and Spirit, to make their knowledge ours, transforming and perfecting us with the knowledge of God’s glory in the face of his Son” (Uyen, In your light, p.17).

Does Uyen’s claim stand up to scrutiny in the light of scripture? A thousand times yes. Let’s consider a few key passages that show this.

First, John 16:13-15. “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” The Holy Spirit, as he guides us into all spiritual truth, is not just sharing words on the page of a book. He’s giving us the “mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16) which the Book of Books gives to us. We might share what’s on our mind in a written letter or email, but the Holy Spirit shares God’s mind with us through the written Word of God.

Second. Matthew 11:27. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus sent the Holy Spirit (Jn 16:13), and the Spirit’s work is to reveal God the Father to us through God the Son. Illumination is deeply personal, it is a divine act of self-revelation.

Third, 1 Cor 2:10-12. “...these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.” This passage explicitly shows us that the Holy Spirit knows the mind of God, and it is God’s mind which he reveals to us in the process of illumination. It’s all the more clear when we realise that it proceeds one of the classic texts on illumination that we considered earlier: 1 Cor 2:12-14. 1 Cor 2:10-14 is, perhaps, the single clearest text we have that marries the traditional notion of illumination with the deeper thesis that Uyen brings to our attention.

Fourth, 2 Cor 4:6. “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This passage tells us that God shines into our hearts through the apostolic proclamation (2 Cor 4:5), now infallibly recorded in scripture for us. As the apostles bring the gospel proclamation to believers, the light brings the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. This is the very process of stepping into communion with the Most High God, through Christ Jesus.

Fifth, 2 Peter 1:3-4. “His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.” It is by the knowledge of God, revealed in Christ, that he grants us life – and even that he makes us partakers of the divine nature. This passage does not make explicit reference to the word of God as the means by which he gives this knowledge to us, but the scriptures amply testify that this is indeed the case (e.g. 2 Tim 3:15).

“To have union with another person is to share his heart and mind” (Uyen, In your light, p.15). When the Holy Spirit illuminates our hearts in the reading and hearing of God’s Word, it is not just an enlightened reading of the books of the Bible. It is the active experience of our union with Christ. It is the experience of a living, dynamic, spiritual communion with Christ.

Why, then, doesn’t it feel more mystically spectacular when we read our Bibles? If we are entering into the experience of mystical communion with Christ when we read his word, shouldn’t it be some kind of otherworldly experience of infinite wonder? Well, go back to our last quote from Uyen: “To have union with another person is to share his heart and mind” (Uyen, In your light, p.15). Perhaps, in some ways, it’s not so mystical after all. If a loved one went to war and wrote home, how precious would that letter be to those who received it? It would read, and re-read, and treasured. More importantly, in the reading there is a conveying of the mind to the reader, an exchange of the soul. When the soldier comes home, the letters over the course of time have deepened the relationship, and are an important part of lovers reunited. In his Holy Word, God has written a letter to us, as it were (literally, when it comes to the Epistles). As we read, as God’s mind through Christ is revealed to us by his Holy Spirit, we share in his heart and mind.

It is deeper than a human letter, it’s true, because the Holy Spirit dwells in us. But it is also, in some ways, quite similar. Yes, there is something mystical and incomprehensible about this experience. The Spirit does as he will, and who can say where he comes from or where he goes? (Jn 3:8). And yet, as you prayerfully open up your Bibles each day, take a moment to be still in the presence of the Lord. Ask him to speak to you. Pour out your heart. Thank him for being with you. Tell him you long for the day when your communion will no longer be one of faith, but you long to see him. The intimacy we shall have in that day, when all sin is done away with, and we are bodily in the presence of the Lord Jesus, is of an order we now only dimly begin to understand. Nevertheless, our union and communion with him now is real, and is the highest blessing we have in this life. Praise God for the Spirit’s work of illumination in our hearts through Christ, his word. May our time with him in his word be sweet! SDG.

Question 57: What is the illumination of the Holy Spirit?
Answer: The illumination of the Holy Spirit is the gracious work of God whereby, through the Word, the Spirit opens our hearts and minds to understand spiritual truth, and through which he brings us into living communion with the Father through the Son.

Have you ever experienced an extraordinary providence, and found yourself wondering about whether or not God was saying something to you? I can remember an occasion during my seminary years, I felt deeply discouraged and sorrowful. As I drove along in my car one day, a song on my playlist began. It was an arrangement of a portion of Psalm 37, as composed by the Australian music group “the Sons of Korah” (I heartily commend their ministry, by the way). They have put many of the psalms to music for the edification of the saints. But on this occasion, Psalm 37 began playing. Here is how it went:

“If the Lord delights in your ways, he will make your footsteps firm. And though you stumble, you won’t fall, for the Lord will hold your hand… yes the Lord will hold you by the hand.”

Words cannot express the musical ministry of the psalm to me in that moment. I began to weep as I drove. The psalm gave voice to my soul, and by the stumbling that the psalm spoke of, the Holy Spirit pierced my heart. How profoundly weak I felt. How painfully aware I was of my stumbling, sinful ways. And yet, the sweetness of the words that followed was a healing balm to my wound! The Lord will hold me by the hand, even though I stumble. To know the Lord’s comfort in that sense of my weakness, that he would not abandon me because of my failures, it was an inexpressible experience of the Lord’s great love for me. There’s nothing extraordinary about Psalm 37 appearing on my playlist, it has happened many times. But the ministry of the psalm in that moment was one of the most potent providences I have ever experienced. It was precisely the help that I needed, and it arrived in the Lord’s perfect timing.

Many a more “spectacular” providence has unfolded in church history, and even in my own life, and likely yours as well. I think of an episode in the life of John G Paton, who was a missionary to the pacific islands of the New Hebrides (today Vanuatu). In 1862 (or thereabouts), Paton was forced to cross the island in the dark, being hunted by cannibals. He recounted later that the perils he escaped in the dark could scarcely have been managed in daylight, and counted it a clear act of the Lord’s providence that he was not killed. There are countless other tales of providence we could draw from church history. The mere fact that the Reformation itself happened was the result of a veritable cocktail of unimaginable providence.

Certainly we should recognise God’s hand of providence in our lives and church history, and worship him with thankfulness for his perfect provisions. But the question remains: Does God ever speak to us through our providences in the moment? Should we ever “read” our providences for a divine indication of what action we ought to take? The answer is no. Providence will not add any guidance that scripture is lacking. An action or decision may become perfectly clear in light of providence, but we must keep our eyes fixed on God’s word for the wise direction that we need (Deut 29:29). “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17).

Job’s three friends are the example par excellence of the ease with which we are prone to misreading providence, and the dangers that accompany such attempts. When God, in his providence, allowed Satan to take away Job’s wealth, health, possessions, and children, the three friends jumped to the conclusion that God was punishing Job. In times of hardship, you might easily jump to a similar conclusion concerning yourself, or – worse – in judgment of other people. In the course of articulating what they thought was an obvious reading of providence, the three friends sinned greatly against God in their speech (Job 42:7-9).

Jesus teaches us about the damger misreading of providence in Luke 13:1-5. “There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

It would be wrong to jump to the conclusion that someone is a worse sinner than most because they suffered some unusual providence ending in e.g. an early death. Earthly suffering, according to the Lord, is a portent or warning of final judgment, and in that sense we ought to take our suffering as an opportunity to prayerfully examine ourselves and repent. Scripture thus wisely guides us into how to respond well to providence (the Book of Job is an excellent example). But we will bring down errors and confusion upon our own heads if we attempt to read providence as some sure-fire prophetic revelation that God is giving to us in any given moment.

The best way to respond wisely and well to providence is to know your Bible deeply. The Book of Job will school you well in responding to difficult providences. The Book of Ecclesiastes and Proverbs will teach you a good deal about the patterns of providence. The law as a whole, along with all the didactic teaching of the Word of God will teach you your duties which stand regardless of providence (i.e. you will know how you ought to be living under every circumstance). In the more mystical traditions of the church, including modern day pentecostalism to some extent, there is a good deal of confusion and uncertainty both about providence, and on how to live in response to God’s providence. By the getting of wisdom, however, we may avoid instability of the soul (James 1:5-8), and know with confidence how to respond to God’s good providence. SDG.

Question 56: Should we look for the Holy Spirit’s guidance in the workings of God’s providence?

Answer: While God, by his providence, wonderfully orders and directs our lives, we ought not to look for special prophetic revelations in his workings of providence, nor should we attempt to discern God’s hidden purposes thereby. Rather, we ought to wisely interpret and respond to God’s ways of providence in our lives by the careful and judicious use of that which God has revealed in his Holy Word. As God has testified in scripture: the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of his law.

Imagine what it would be like to live in a cult? When I lived in Canberra, I had a friend, Elizabeth Coleman, who didn’t need to imagine. She had spent a chunk of her life experiencing it. Let me share a few excerpts from her book to give you a feel for what it’s like to live in a cult:

“I was born in 1974, in Canberra, Australia. My parents already belonged to this closed religious group that refused to give itself a name. In fact, I was fourth-generation one side and third generation the other. We referred to our group as The Way, The Truth, The Fellowship or The Meetings, and called each other The Friends or professing. We refused a formal label, seeking to emphasize the point that we were not just another church, but the One True Way” (Coleman, Cult to Christ, K.E. Loc. 244).

Elizabeth goes on to describe what it was like to live as a member of this community: “Like most cult adherents, I was strongly convinced that our way was the only ‘right way’ of salvation on earth. I did not, of course, identify myself as being in a cult… The inner world of the cult is a parallel world, an alternative reality, where we were aliens even within our own nation, race, culture and society. The first allegiance was not to God, family or friends, and submission was not firstly to the law. Above all else was submission to the leaders, and allegiance to the system, protecting its reputation at all costs… The fundamental nature of a cult is about authority reinforced by fear and control. The designated leaders wield extraordinary power over their underlings, who have no option but to respond in submission unless they want to risk being cast out into the world…” (Coleman, Cult to Christ, K.E. Loc. 260, 265, 279).

Imagine if you’d been born into this kind of community? Your life is completely shaped by the only society you’ve ever known, the rules are unspoken but dominant. The way you live your life is subtly controlled by patterns of behaviour and words so wily that you barely even realise you’re under their influence. Fear and control direct your lifestyle, though a lot of the time you wouldn’t really realise that. How could you even break out of this fog when you were born into it? As far as faith and salvation are concerned, it’s even more murky. Elizabeth goes on to describe her experience on this as well:

“It is very hard to define the doctrines of The Way, as we claimed to have no written creeds, doctrine or theology. The workers always said, “our doctrine is in the Bible.” Most importantly, we did not have an earthly founder. No mere mortal had initiated our group…despite being cosily ensconced in the nest of God’s true people, the possibility of actually gaining salvation seemed as uncertain and fleeting as a shadow...There was a chance of salvation by virtue of being a professing member of The Way, but we still had to meet many conditions and live by many unwritten rules” (Coleman, Cult to Christ, K.E. Loc. 249, 293-5).

Most of us don’t live under the entrapment of a cult, but life under the control and fear of a cult is, in one sense, nothing more than a uniquely concentrated form of the bondage into which we are all born. And which one of us could truly say that we have never felt the pulling power of the fear of man? Fearing men represents a spiritual snare to us (Prov 29:25). It pulls on our desire for accolades from other people (Jn 12:42-43).

The doctrine of scripture’s sufficiency gives us protection from the bondage that comes with being bound by the rules of men. Jesus gave us a warning against this danger in Matthew 15:8-9, which says: “This people honours me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.” God teaches us in scripture that the whole duty of man is to fear God and keep his commandments (Ecc 12:13). There is neither need, warrant, nor safety in adding the rules of men to our Christian duties, and we must jealously guard the boundaries of what duties we place upon ourselves. In fact, we are commanded to keep ourselves free from being in bondage to mere men: “You were bought with a price; do not become bondservants of men” (1 Cor 7:23). Article 6 of the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church captures this well: “Holy Scripture contains all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.”

Guarding those boundaries will mean that we need to be serious, prayerful, active students of scripture all the days of our lives. And when I say serious, I mean serious. The kingdom of heaven is taken by force, not by those who don’t bother to pick up their Bibles and feed on God’s word daily. “Gather the people to me, that I may let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days that they live on the earth, and that they may teach their children so” (Deut 4:10). The psalmist’s example shows us what this looks like in real life: “How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps 119:9-11). Is that what you are like? SDG.

Question 54: How can we properly search out the nature of life’s duties by the light of scripture, fulfill these duties, and ensure that we are not bound by the rules of men?

Answer: We may properly search out the duties of life by diligently reading, studying, hearing, and meditating upon the Holy Scriptures, especially with attendance to the teaching of the teachers whom Christ supplies. The scriptures alone contain all things necessary for salvation and are the only infallible rule of faith and obedience; and we ensure that we are not bound by the rules of men by requiring nothing as necessary to salvation or duty but what is commanded in God’s Word, and by refusing all doctrines and commandments that rest only upon human authority.

Who is influencing you? There are always people in our lives who have a certain social pulling power over us. They are the people that we listen to. People we respect. People we admire and imitate. And these days, they are also people we don’t even know. There are people and pastors producing video content watched by millions on social media platforms. The pervasive power of influence can turn up in anything from the choice of shoes that we wear (oh how desperately I wanted to wear Nike shoes in year six!), right through to the worldview, doctrines, and beliefs that we embrace. It can effect (or dominate) our choice of hobby, what we do or don’t eat, or the next choice of vacuum cleaner what we buy. Influence can suck us in to freely giving hours of our attention and time to scrolling our social feeds. Influence is significant, and it’s one of the most crucial things to think about in your life. So, who’s influencing you?

As Christians, especially in the digital age in which we live, we have a fresh challenge before us as well. As well as the usual influencer noise of our culture, there are also more preachers and ministers to listen to today than there has been ever in history. There is more content to watch than what you have time in your entire life. There has been a revolution of accessibility to good Christian literature. You can read all of Spurgeon’s sermons. You can get access to a vast vault of puritan literature. You can listen to a thousand sermons by John Piper and become a disciple of Christian Hedonism. You can plug in to the “Moscow mood”, listen to nothing but John MacArthur, or cultivate your own select list of the “best” Presbyterian preachers on an internet sermon archive. People start ministries, schools, and publishing houses based on confessional convictions, and even take the names of specific individual theologians or preachers as the name of their institution.

Now, it is true, you can benefit from all or some of these resources – and I strongly support that. You can also be shaped to an unhealthy degree by any of them. This I do not strongly support! Where can we draw the line? How can we discern the difference in our own lives between benefitting from some teaching or literature, and allowing that teaching to have the wrong kind of influence on us?

One answer is that we must be spiritually grounded in the local church, but that is a topic for another time. Another answer is that we must anchor our perception of ourselves in Christ rather than in a church movement, denomination, individual, or tradition, for our identity in truth is defined by our union with Christ (Gal 2:20; Col 3:1-4; 1 Cor 6:17). That too is a topic for another time. The answer I’d like to focus on here is simply this: the scriptures, God’s word, are the standard by which we must measure every creed, confession, doctrine, and teaching. If we learn to rightly evaluate the teaching we receive by God’s word, we will tend to maintain spiritual balance, and benefit from what’s good in the teaching that we receive – regardless of where in the Church of God it comes from. By the way, testing teaching by the standard of the Bible applies right down to how you listen to your own pastor when he preaches. The Berean Christians have the eternal honour of being the scriptural example par excellence in this regard, as they: “received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so” (Acts 17:11).

When it comes to the pitfalls of accessing online ministry resources, the Westminster Confession of Faith has some timeless theological wisdom for us. It’s a one-two knockout blow. In Chapter 1 (Article VI) we read: “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture: unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelations of the Spirit or traditions of men.” What this means is that every preacher, teacher, creed, or confession has a subordinate role to scripture. These resources are not supposed to be original, but rather to be faithful ministrations of the truth found in God’s word. When you’re accessing online ministries, consider this: How prominent is scripture in their message? Is what they are saying clearly coming out of scripture?

Building on this foundational authority of scripture, Chapter 20 gives some more specific direction when it comes to the doctrines and instructions we might hear elsewhere: “God alone is Lord of the conscience, and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are, in any thing, contrary to His Word; or beside it, in matters of faith, or worship. So that, to believe such doctrines, or to obey such commands, out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience” (WCF XX.II). In other words, if some preacher or Christian tries to bind our conscience in some way, and what they are saying doesn’t find its origin in scripture, then we are free from it, and ought to ensure that we remain free from it’s influence on our lives. It can be so easy to allow unbiblical ideas to influence our thought and lives because we have not followed the example of the Bereans. This is especially true if the error comes from someone we respect. But even the best of teachers have impurities in their doctrine.

In addition to listening carefully with an open Bible, it will be helpful if we make sure that we’re not going about elevating preachers, teachers, ministries, other believers generally, or even our church tradition or confession. The Apostle Paul gave us the antidote to Christian celebrity status way back in the first century (oh yes, it is an old problem!): “it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one may say that you were baptized in my name. (I did baptize also the household of Stephanas. Beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized anyone else.) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power” (1 Cor 1:11-17).

Unquestionably, George Whitefield was one of the most famous preachers in history. He was a massive influencer back in the 18^th Century (i.e. 1700s). Countless multitudes have been converted and edified by his ministry, both in his own life and beyond in his preaching, writing and influence. Few men in church history have had as much reason to become prideful of their influence as have George Whitefield. Yet listen to these words from Whitefield himself, which reflect his thoughts on the question of influence: “Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted… But what is Calvin, or what is Luther? Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all— So that He is preached... I care not who is uppermost. I know my place... even to be the servant of all. I am content to wait till the judgement day for the clearing up of my reputation; and after I am dead I desire no other epitaph than this, “Here lies G.W. What sort of man he was the great day will discover.”

Whitefield is worth imitating, and worth holding up as a test for the attitudes of modern day “influencers.” Whitefield, in turn, no doubt took the example of John the Baptist as his model, who said: “...He must increase, but I must decrease.” (Jn 3:30). Every preacher or teacher in the church must use his influence, whether it is global or limited to the local church, in accordance with this pattern. There is no place for boasting, only Christ must be exalted. In one sense, then, it matters not if your publishing house fails, your church closes it’s doors, or if some respected teacher you admire gets caught out in some public sin. Even the best of preachers and theologians are but a blade of grass that withers before evening comes. But Christ is our Great High Priest, and he is one who can never die, and who ever lives to intercede for us. Magnify him! SDG.

Question 53: Why ought we to test the teaching and preaching of all men in light of the sufficiency of scripture?

Answer: Because scripture alone authoritatively reveals the whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for his glory and our salvation, all ministers, teachers, and traditions are subject to it, and may not bind the conscience beyond or against the Word of God. For this reason we must test the teaching and preaching of all men in light of the sufficiency of scripture.

It was a youth meeting in my local church, and a pastor had come to visit. I was about 24 years old. My church, at the time, was not your everyday church. Yes, it was pentecostal. But my two pastors were, like me, calvinistic. They are both men whom I love and respect to this day. But on this particular occasion, we had a visiting preacher from another local pentecostal church. I can’t remember his sermon at all. I can remember about three things from that night. First, vague memories of typical young adult meeting fun – games, laughing, something involving a giant gym mattress, things like that. Second, I can remember one point in the night where the visiting pastor invited anyone who wanted a personal prophetic word from God to come to the front, line up, and receive it. I remember seeing the line of my friends, one of them with eyes closed, hands held out waiting. I joined the line myself. After all, who wouldn’t want to receive a personal, prophetic word from the Lord!

The third thing I can remember, with absolute crystal clarity, is one phrase from the pastor when he got to me. I can’t remember what I shared with him when we spoke, but at that point, the question of pursuing marriage was looming large in my mind. It was a source of both desire and perplexity in my life. The comment that the pastor made in his words to me included the following phrase: “God has got something special in mind for you.” I thought, and have thought, much about those words.

Many times I asked myself in the days following: What does that mean specifically? Am I going to have a dream marriage of high romance? Will I meet a very special person uniquely chosen by God for me? Would it mean something else entirely? I have now been married to my wife for 14 years. I have moved away from the majority of my pentecostal doctrines. Still, occasionally I have mused upon his words, and although they no longer have the same kind of pulling power they did when I was more pentecostal in my doctrine, I still weigh them in my mind from time to time.

What does God want me to do? Every Christian has wrestled with this question. In my pentecostal days, I looked for a part of my answer in the “prophetic words” of fellow believers. My experience with that search was that I had a disturbing lack of clarity. It came with uncertainty. It might easily have come with anxiety. It came with a good deal of wasted mental energy. I sometimes wondered if my doubts about pentecostal practices meant that I was grieving the Holy Spirit and experiencing God’s displeasure.

While I do believe that, in part, the pentecostal wing of the church today has something that the broader church needs, and represents a conversation that the broader church needs to have, there are nevertheless vast tracts of error in pentecostalism (see John MacArthur’s helpful book “Charismatic Chaos” for deeper insight on this). But one of the great losses that comes with the many errors in pentecostal doctrine in a believer’s life is a lack of spiritual clarity and, as a consequence, a certain lack of confidence in living.

I believe that the Church as a whole would be well-served to trade the mystical aspects of the pentecostal tradition for the spiritual faculty of wisdom taught in scripture. A man who has prayerfully mastered the Book of Proverbs is a man whose insight for living will be profound. He is a man who will see his own life, and the life of others, with great clarity. He will watch the patterns described in Proverbs unfolding in real life, and he will know how to respond. He is a man who will move confidently in his decisions, and prudently avoid many common dangers that others fall into (Prov 27:12). He is a man who will not need a prophetic word about who he may or may not marry, because he will have all the wisdom he needs to make that decision and make it well.

In the course of time, I came to realise more fully that the chief way in which the Holy Spirit ministers to the Christian soul is by the Word of God. This is why the Apostle Paul taught us to think about God’s word as “the sword of the Spirit” (Eph 6:17). This is why Jesus taught us that the life-giving ministry of the Holy Spirit is given through his words (Jn 6:63). 1 Corinthians 2:12-13 is particularly clear on this point: “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.” God has given us his Spirit – why? That we might understand what he has given us in his word.

What I really want to do here is to teach you to think about guidance for decision making in a fresh way. In one sense, it is simply this: whenever you are unsure about what to do in your life, live with the faith-filled expectation that God’s word is sufficient to give you the guidance that you need.

This is not to say that God will not give you help and direction by means outside of scripture. Scripture itself testifies that God provides direction and wisdom in all manner of ways. For example, he gives parents to provide direction (Proverbs 1:8–9); he gives counsellors and teachers (Proverbs 11:14; Ephesians 4:11-12); he gives faithful friends (Proverbs 27:17); he gives husbands (Ephesians 5:23); and he gives wives (Proverbs 31:10-12). What I am saying, however, is that all these secondary means of guidance must be subjected to authoritative revelation of God’s Holy Word. Man shall not live by the advice of people, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4; Deuteronomy 8:3).

Having said that, we must nevertheless be clear: scripture is wholly sufficient to be the supreme and full guide that you need to make wise decisions and live a godly life. You can confidently go to scripture with the expectation of finding guidance and wisdom. You need not ever entertain the conclusion that scripture is insufficient to give you what you need to make your decisions. 2 Timothy 3:16–17 shows this more obviously than most other passages: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.”

Some believers, whether by default, habit, or unbelief, act at times as though scripture is insufficient to direct and guide us. And, to be sure, it does not seek to replace God’s book of natural revelation. We will not find detailed directions on how to fix our plumbing. But it does give us full, comprehensive, and sufficient spiritual direction in all wisdom and moral guidance.

This is why the Lord would have us meditate on it day and night (Psalm 1). This is why the kings of old were expected to hand-write out their own copies of God’s law (Deuteronomy 17:18–19 – perhaps not a bad practice for us to get back into…). This is why we are called to search in his word as though searching for gold, jewels, and silver (Proverbs 2:1–4). This is why the blessed man delights in the law of the Lord and hides God’s word in his heart that he might not sin against Him (Psalm 119:11, 97). I exhort you, then, to study God’s word with diligence all the days of your life. Take action on what you hear, even if the action is not perfect (it never will be on this side of the grave!).

As you are making your decisions in life, don’t rely on the personal prophecy given to you by a pentecostal pastor. Go to the law and to the testimony (Isaiah 8:20). Bring this paradigm to your every decision: “What saith the word of God?” (Romans 4:3). It is what is revealed that has been given to us (Deuteronomy 29:29), and it is to what is revealed that we must limit ourselves for all the authoritative guidance we need in our decisions. Don’t look elsewhere, except as scripture itself guides you to look elsewhere. Define your duties, the very shape of your expectations for your own life, by this question: What does God’s word say? SDG.

Question 55: How ought we to seek our supreme guidance for life’s decisions from God’s Holy Word?

Answer: By living with the faith-filled expectation that God, by his Holy Spirit, will certainly guide us by the right use of scripture, and that we need not seek his guidance from any other source.

Everybody thought Harry was one of the most solid Christians in their church. He was a family man. Steady. Stable. Committed to church life. He was involved, and he was present. His kids were good kids. Harry had served as an elder in the church. He didn’t have a hidden porn problem, he was honest with his money, he had all the good books of theology on his book shelf, and he’d read a plenty of them. His colleagues at work would say he was friendly and a hard worker. He added value to his team. His lawn was generally mowed, and he was exercised daily in his personal devotional and prayer life. He was the sort of guy that no one asked: “Are you ok?”, because everyone naturally assumed that he was.

But if you could read Harry’s mind, it was quite a different story. Harry had questions. Not: “Does God exist?” type questions, but: “Am I really saved?” type questions. What if I’m not a true believer? Is there really evidence of spiritual growth in my life? Does that recurring pattern of sin in my life mean that I’m under sin’s dominion? What if I am under sin’s dominion? What if I’m not even born again? How can I get solid answers to my questions? Harry didn’t ever ask anyone these questions, but they were constantly revolving around his mind. And nobody even knew it.

I wonder if you’ve ever asked the kinds of questions that Harry was asking? I’ve got news for you: it’s a normal part of the Christian life to wrestle with questions like these. I don’t need to be able to read your mind to know that, because I’m able to read my Bible, and God tells us that it’s true. For example, every Christian is specifically instructed to: “be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election” (2 Pt 1:10). This process naturally entails the reality of a sense of spiritual uncertainty in our experience. To make our calling and election sure, we must ask serious questions about the possibility that our calling and election is truly real. We must ask serious questions of ourselves about the possibility that our profession of faith is hypocritical.

In fact, God has given us an entire epistle dedicated to answering this question. It’s the Apostle John’s first epistle. In 1 John 5:13 John says: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” The whole design of John’s letter is to help us to examine ourselves and come to a firm conviction that we do, indeed, have eternal life. At various points in the epistle, John makes it explicitly clear that this assurance of faith and salvation is precisely what he is aiming to help us with (e.g. 3:19; 4:13; 4:24). Every believer ought to make a diligent study of 1 John for this purpose.

The Apostle walks us through a good many essential traits of a true believer. Do I confess my sin? Unbelievers deny that they have sinned (1:5-10). Is my life marked by a growing conformity of obedience to God’s law? (2:3-4). Do I hate my Christian brothers and sisters? It is a sure mark of unbelief (2:11). Do I love the world? It is another mark of an unbeliever (2:15). Do I deny that Jesus is the Messiah? The Son of God? That false doctrine too is the sure mark of an unbeliever (2:21). John provides a rigorous spiritual regime for the testing of our faith, and for the strengthening of our assurance of salvation. It is a book not to be neglected. Be sure to make a careful and rigourous study of John’s First Epistle – especially if assurance of salvation is something that you lack.

There are many other portions of scripture that are serviceable to this great end. The topic is addressed elsewhere in the epistles – be sure to read each one with an eye out for it (e.g. 2 Pt 3:1-11; Rom 8; the warning passages of Hebrews; etc.). A careful study of the Sermon on the Mount will be a great help, in the Beatitudes the Lord Jesus gives an outline of the characteristics of those who are citizens in the Kingdom of Heaven (Mt 5-7). A study in the spirituality of the psalms will also be of great help. If you find the psalms unrelatable in your own experience, it may indicate that your faith is immature, or perhaps absent altogether. If you find, however, that the psalms are reflective (and directive) of your spiritual experience, it is a good and encouraging sign that you are on the pathway of life.

Beyond this, the works of the puritans will prove to be a great help in making your calling and election sure. Those great doctors of the soul left a vast legacy of spiritual literature applying the medicine of scripture for the purpose of true conversion and assurance in faith. John Owen’s “Gospel Evidences of Saving Faith”, Joseph Alleine’s “A Sure Guide to Heaven”, William Greenhill’s “Stop Loving the World”, and George Swinnock’s “the fading of the flesh and the flourishing of faith” are but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. These men of God from the past are a great help in explaining and applying the scriptures on just these questions. Take up and read!! SDG.

Question 50: What is the doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture?

Answer: The doctrine of the sufficiency of scripture teaches us that God, by his Holy Spirit, has given us, in Holy Scripture, everything that we need for salvation and for living a life that glorifies him.

Note: Go back and check out Episode 48 for a refresher:

Question 51: How ought we to live in light of the sufficiency of scripture?

Answer: The sufficiency of scripture shows us that all we need for righteous living is revealed in the pages of the Word of God. By his word, then, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, we ought to: make our calling and election sure; seek and find assurance in our salvation; test the teaching and preaching of all men; search out the nature of all life’s duties by the light of scripture and do them; study to ensure we are not bound by the rules of men; and seek our supreme guidance for life’s decisions from God’s Holy Word.

Question 52: How does the sufficiency of scripture show that the Holy Spirit uses scripture to help us make our calling and election sure and enable us to seek and find assurance in our salvation?

Answer: God commands us in his word to be diligent to confirm our calling and election. God the Holy Spirit thus helps us through the scriptures to make our calling election sure. He does this firstly by showing us that it is our duty to do so, and secondly by providing the means by which we may seek and find assurance in our salvation. The Apostle John was especially used by God to this end, in the writing of his First Epistle, and believers ought to make a diligent study of this epistle unto this end.

Hi All!

Change of pace this week…

The next 2-3 episodes (including this one - and our last two episodes), are doing a bit of re-cap work for the “theology in the trenches” project.

I write an article every week… but the articles are not stand alone pieces (though I try to design them to stand alone as well). They are designed to fit into a much bigger picture…

So we are doing a mini-series of podcasts recapping pretty much everything we covered in episodes 1-50.

Unfortunately, I’m still having trouble with my transcription software, so I don’t have a full written version of the episode. I would encourage you to hit the play button and give it a listen on the substack app or on spotify.

Lord willing, we’ll get back to the regular article format in the near future.

Here are the questions that we re-covered in this episode:

Question 4: What does it mean to say that God is truth?

Answer: To say that God is truth means that God himself exists as the ultimate ground and source of all that is, was, or will be; that his Word perfectly reflects, conforms to, reveals, and expresses the divine mind, determining also that which exists in creation; and that, in his Spirit, he perfectly, fully, and truly perceives all things in himself, and reveals such truth to us as he determines in his good pleasure.

Question 13: How does God reveal himself and his works to us so that we can know him?

Answer: In two ways. First, through his creative and sustaining work of natural revelation; and second, through his redemptive revelation in Jesus Christ.

Question 14: What is a revelation?

Answer: A revelation is an authoritative act of God wherein he reveals himself and his works to men to glorify his name.

Question 15: What does it mean to say that Christ is the redemptive word of God?

Answer: Christ, as the redemptive word of God, is God’s word spoken to us that we may be raised from our state of spiritual and bodily death, and may have life, and life abundant, in fellowship with God.

Question 16: What is God’s redemptive revelation?

Answer: The redemptive revelation of God is his saving revelation of himself, formerly through various acts, words, appearances, and symbols, and finally and ultimately culminating in the incarnate word himself: Jesus Christ.

Question 17: How can we know Christ?

Answer: Christ is to be known today through the reading, preaching, and teaching of the Word of God, as contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. In this way, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is continually preached and speaks that we may have life and life abundant.

Hi All!

Change of pace this week…

The next 2-3 episodes (including this one - and our last episode), are doing a bit of re-cap work for the “theology in the trenches” project.

I write an article every week… but the articles are not stand alone pieces (though I try to design them to stand alone as well). They are designed to fit into a much bigger picture…

So we are doing a mini-series of podcasts recapping pretty much everything we covered in episodes 1-50.

Here’s the transcript of the episode - hope you benefit from it! (although I recommend listening to the podcast episode for the full experience).

Hello and welcome to another episode of Theology in the Trenches.

This is episode 81 and we are continuing our little mini-series summarizing God is Truth.

And I think in considering the truth of God, we’re really looking at the foundations of theology as an entire discipline.

And we’ve covered a lot of ground and looked at a lot of different things across a lot of episodes in this question of God is truth.

So for last week, this week, and maybe a couple more weeks after this, we’re doing a bit of a recap. So this is the second part of our recap of God is truth.

So last week we looked at basically what theology is, what it means to say that God is truth, and we got this three-fold idea of truth:

• Objective truth: that which exists

• Propositional truth: the truth of words (what we say and speak)

• Subjective truth: our reception of the truth

We looked at objective truth last week and the parallel between God the Father and the idea of objective truth.

And we’re picking up this week with question seven:

What is the Word of God?

The answer is that Jesus Christ is the living and abiding Word of God the Father, truly and fully reflecting and revealing His heart, being the very image of the invisible God in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Through Christ, the Word, God created all things and upholds them continually for His good pleasure. Through the reading, preaching, and teaching of the Word of God as contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament, Jesus Christ is continually preached and speaks that we may have life and life abundant.

This is a kind of summary of the second branch of truth.

Let me remind you of question four, which is an overall summary of this whole doctrine of the Truth of God:

What does it mean to say that God is truth?

Answer:
To say that God is truth means:

• God himself exists as the ultimate ground and source of all that is, was, or will be

• His Word perfectly reflects, conforms to, reveals, and expresses the divine mind, determining also that which exists in creation

• In His Spirit, He perfectly, fully, and truly perceives all things in Himself and reveals such truth to us according to His good pleasure

So there is a Trinitarian structure in the nature of truth. Let’s continue.

Question 8: In what way does Christ reflect and reveal the Father to us?

Answer:
Christ, being the Word and Son of God, fully and perfectly reflects and conforms to His character, fully reveals and expresses His mind, and is Himself fully God, the one in whom the fullness of God wholly dwells.

We are dealing with profound mysteries here, but these are things we see in Scripture:

• He is the Word of God (John 1)

• He perfectly reflects God’s character (Hebrews 1)

• He fully reveals God and is Himself fully God

“The Word was with God and the Word was God.”

So there is a mysterious sense in which Christ is both Word and Son of God.

Question 9: How can Christ be both Word of God and Son of God?

Answer:
Christ, as the full pouring forth of the life and Spirit of God, is the Word of God—being the complete, perfect, and full expression of the Father’s heart. In this pouring forth, He is also the Son of God, proceeding spiritually from the Father (not bodily). This is called Christ’s eternal generation as the only begotten Son of God.

The idea is that just as the Word proceeds from the Father, so the Son proceeds from the Father. These are not identical descriptions, but they express the same reality.

Question 10: What do we mean when we say that all truth proceeds from God?

This means that the created order, as God’s natural revelation of His glory:

• Was made by Him

• Is sustained by Him

• Is designed to conform to His purposes

Creation itself is like an open book of God’s natural revelation. All truth exists within God, and all truth in creation proceeds from Him.

Question 11: How did God create all things?

Answer:
Through Christ, who is the Word of God and the very Word of His power, God created all things and upholds them continually for His good pleasure.

All persons of the Godhead were active in creation, but Christ as the Word is a key agent. Creation was made through Christ and is sustained in Him.

This challenges the secular view of the world. There is no part of creation where God is absent. Everything is created and sustained in Christ.

Question 12: What is natural revelation?

Natural revelation is a classic theological concept referring to creation itself.

Creation declares the glory of God (Psalm 19:1), and God’s invisible attributes are evident in creation (Romans 1).

Answer:
Natural revelation is a creative, sustaining act of God in which He clearly, truly, and authoritatively reveals Himself and His works to all people through the created order, so that His people may worship, glorify, enjoy, love, know, and serve Him forever.

This shows that the purpose of creation is worship and relationship with God. Ultimately, in the new heavens and new earth, this purpose will be fully realized.

Thanks for listening. Have a great week, and stay tuned for the next recap.

PS. Here are the questions we re-cap in this episode:

A Catechetical Summary of God’s Truth for memorisation.

Question 4: What does it mean to say that God is truth?

Answer: To say that God is truth means that God himself exists as the ultimate ground and source of all that is, was, or will be; that his Word perfectly reflects, conforms to, reveals, and expresses the divine mind, determining also that which exists in creation; and that, in his Spirit, he perfectly, fully, and truly perceives all things in himself, and reveals such truth to us as he determines in his good pleasure.

Question 7: What is the word of God?

Answer: Jesus Christ is the living and abiding Word of God the Father, truly and fully reflecting and revealing his heart, being the very image of the invisible God in whom all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. Through Christ the Word, God created all things and upholds them continually for his good pleasure. Through the reading, preaching and teaching of the word of God, as contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, Jesus Christ is continually preached and speaks that we may have life and life abundant.

Question 8: In what way does Christ reflect and reveal God the Father to us?

Answer: Christ, being the Word and Son of God, fully and perfectly reflects and conforms to his character, fully reveals and expresses his mind, and is himself fully God and the one in whom the fullness of God wholly dwells.

Question 9: How can Christ be both Word of God and Son of God?

Answer: Christ, as the full pouring forth of the life and Spirit of God, is the word of God, being the complete, perfect, and full expression of the Father’s heart. So also in this pouring forth we see him to be the Son of God, proceeding spiritually, as he does, from the Father. This we call Christ’s eternal generation as the only begotten Son of God.

Question 10: What do we mean when we say that all truth proceeds from God?

Answer. All truth proceeds from God means that the created order, being God’s natural revelation of his own glory, was made by him, is sustained by him, and is designed to conform to his purposes.

Question 11: How did God create all things?

Answer: Through Christ, who is the Word of God and the very word of his power, God created all things and upholds them continually for his good pleasure.

Question 12: What is natural revelation?

Answer: Natural Revelation is a creative, sustaining act of God in which he clearly, truly, and authoritatively reveals himself and his works to all men through the natural, created order, so that his people can worship, glorify, enjoy, love, know, and serve him forever.

Hi All!

Change of pace this week…

The next 3-4 episodes (including this one), are doing a bit of re-cap work for the “theology in the trenches” project.

I write an article every week… but the articles are not stand alone pieces (though I try to design them to stand alone). They are designed to fit into a much bigger picture…

Here at Episode 80, we are doing a mini-series of podcasts recapping pretty much everything we covered in episodes 1-50.

I was planning to simply post the transcript of the recording here (normally I actually write and post here). Alas! The transcipt tech has failed me.

So… for this episode, and the next two or three, we are having podcast episodes only.

The good news is that it’s super easy for you to just listen to the episode. Just hit the play button. Get onto the substack app and hit play. It’s also on spotify.

To those who are accustomed to reading the articles - my apologies! If I can rectify the problem I will. Normal written articles will resume at about episode 84.

Thanks for listening! Thanks for reading!

I pray that this project may be some small help to give a few people a bigger vision of our Great God, through Christ our Saviour, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

SDG.

PS. Here are the questions we re-cap in this episode:

A Catechetical Summary of God’s Truth for memorisation.

Question 1: What is theology?

Answer: Theology is our practice of receiving God’s truth about himself and his works.

Question 2: Why ought we to pursue the calling of theology?

Answer: Because there is no greater thing than to understand and know God.

Part 1: God is truth (objective truth).

Question 3: What is truth?

Answer: Truth is that which exists in, and proceeds from, the mind of God, encompassing all that exists.

Question 4: What does it mean to say that God is truth?

Answer: To say that God is truth means that God himself exists as the ultimate ground and source of all that is, was, or will be; that his Word perfectly reflects, conforms to, reveals, and expresses the divine mind, determining also that which exists in creation; and that, in his Spirit, he perfectly, fully, and truly perceives all things in himself, and reveals such truth to us as he determines in his good pleasure.

Question 5: Why do we say that God himself exists as the ultimate ground and source of all that is, was, or will be?

Answer: We say that God himself exists because holy scripture affirms it, and the creation itself bears witness to his divine power and majesty. Furthermore, we say that he is the ultimate ground and source of all that is, was, or will be because by faith in his word we perceive that he made all things.

Question 6: In what way is truth essential to life?

Answer: As the means by which we may know God, savingly perceive Christ, and move forward into greater degrees of spiritual maturity, as well as being the means by which we may understand all things rightly and thereby order our thoughts, will, affections, and actions properly, the truth is essential unto life for all people.

Time is running out. Do you think about that very often? Is it creeping in on your awareness? Death paints our hairs grey, one by one, while we’re distracted by the troubles of the day. That grim reaper wears down our bones, sucks the strength out of our frame little by little, and slowly but surely it dawns upon us that we are getting old. Our death is steadily approaching.

I know – what a cheery paragraph that was! I’m sure you were delighted to read it! I understand your distaste, and I sympathise (I like you, after all, am also dying), but even if I were to give you a delightful paragraph on your favourite topic it would not change the reality of what I’ve said. It is negligent to give no thought to the day of our death.

But what comfort is there to be found in the face of death? What confidence can we have as we contemplate this dark reality? The doctrine of God’s eternity is a precious help in response to these questions.

You see, death presents no mystery to God (Job 38:17). It is no threat to him. It presents no challenge at all. One of the reasons for this is because time itself, upon which death depends to operate, flows according to his will, and is held in his hands. God transcends time, and therefore he transcends the very reach of death.

The psalmist knew this, and he thus knew that the only possible confidence he could have in the face of death was to entrust his times into the hands of the eternal God. “My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors!” (Ps 31:15). Indeed, in Isaiah 25:8 we find a most startling and remarkable discovery: “He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken” (Is 25:8).

Do you understand the significance of this declaration? Death, that great devourer of our bodies, will itself one day be swallowed up by the eternity of God. There will be no death in glory. God is able to deliver us from death! “Our God is a God of salvation, and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death” (Ps 68:20).

The question, then, is: How may we be sure that God will deliver us from death? God, in all his being, transcends time. His love for us in Christ transcends time, and his word as an expression of his will also abides in his eternal perfections. That means that his covenant, the covenant made in the blood of Christ, is eternal! In Psalm 89 King David appeals to the eternal trustworthiness of God, sealed in his covenant of grace:

“How long will your wrath burn like fire? Remember how short my time is! For what vanity you have created all the children of man! What man can live and never see death? Who can deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah. Lord, where is your steadfast love of old, which by your faithfulness you swore to David? Remember, O Lord, how your servants are mocked, and how I bear in my heart the insults of all the many nations, with which your enemies mock, O LORD, with which they mock the footsteps of your anointed. Blessed be the LORD forever! Amen and Amen.”

David asks the question: Who can deliver from the grave? He appeals, then, to God’s covenant faithfulness. God is beyond the reach of death. We are not. Our only hope, then, is if God should commit himself to deliver us. This he has done through the covenant he has made with us in Christ’s blood. It is because Jesus entered the realms of time, became one of us, and died to save us, that the eternal protection of God’s love has been extended to us. And so with the prophet, we declare: “Are you not from everlasting, O LORD my God, my Holy One? We shall not die” (Hab 1:12). SDG.

Q. How does the doctrine of God’s eternity give us confidence in the face of death?

A. Because God is eternal and stands above time and death, our hope and confidence in the face of death rests in him alone. He has pledged in his everlasting covenant, sealed by the blood of Christ, to deliver his people from death. Therefore we entrust our times and lives to him, knowing that our God our Saviour, the one who alone has power over death, will also preserve us in Christ Jesus unto eternal life.

Q. How does the eternity of God come as a summons to give to God unending praise?

A. In the revelation of the excellency of God’s eternity, we come to see that in no way is God limited by time as we are, but that with God our times are in his hands. For this reason no thing past, present, or future is able to frustrate, spoil, or undo his good and perfect will toward us in Christ Jesus. With this comfort, together with an everlasting vision of his glory, we thus see that the God of all eternity is worthy of our never-ending praise and worship.

The doctrine of the eternity of God is not just some dusty, boring, theological idea. When you start to get it, it’s wondrous beyond comprehension. Here, let’s do a thought-experiment to try to open this up. Imagine if none of the limits of time applied to you. Take a moment to think about that, because it takes a little bit of thinking to start to get it. Let’s put it this way: In what kind of ways does time normally limit you? Let’s try and explore that question.

To start with, it takes time to get things done doesn’t it? Time limits us in terms of what we can achieve. I’ve got a list of things that I need to achieve on my day off each week and – frankly – the list keeps growing, and there are only so many things I can get done on any given Tuesday (that’s the day I take off). I’ve got to fix the fence, mow the lawn, patch up a couple of plasterboard holes, and try and figure out what’s going on with my printer. On top of that, there are other jobs to do too. But imagine if you were not limited by time. You’ll get every single one of those jobs knocked off, and then you’ll read for a few hours, and then have a family outing – what a great day off! Anything else you want to do? No worries! You’ve got all the time you need. With God, this is eternally true! God doesn’t have a limit on what he can get done. He can get all the things done anytime he wants. There is no limit on what he can achieve!

What else? Time comes with possibility. Thinking forward about how to use your time on any given day, there’s a range of possible things you can choose to do, but you can’t do them all. Should I try and knock off the Sunday morning sermon today? I’ll try and squeeze in some time to read up on that area that I’m struggling with in life. Should I play with the kids for half an hour? Or should I do some research on that new thing we need for our house? The possibilities are endless! And that doesn’t even take into account the possibilities that I haven’t thought of yet. Whoops! I think I’m coming down with something, that just changed everything about what’s possible today. We are so limited in the range of possibilities we can choose, and we’re limited in our ability to even know what those possibilities are. As an eternal being, God knows no such limitation. Possibility? “With God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26). He can and does choose every possibility that pleases him, and he sees all possible eventualities. Hollywood seems to be enamoured with the idea of a multiverse at the moment. God’s mind is the real multiverse, and within himself he grasps and sees all possibilities and he then directs history on the course that he sees to be the best and most perfectly wise way.

In what other ways does time limit us? It limits us from undoing what has been done. We can’t go back in time! How many things in your life would you go back and change if you could? It’s kind of a scary question! God doesn’t go back in time, per se, but at all times he exists and is bringing his good and perfect plan to pass. He sovereignly and perfectly executes every single second, and is free from being bound by the flawed and sinful decisions we so often make. In fact, he ordains and uses even the mistakes and failures of our past to bring about his good and perfect plan. He is not limited by the past, but rather has sovereignly and perfectly ordained all that comes to pass. The past perfectly conforms to his good and perfect plan. Imagine being able to look back on your life without a single regret? Without wishing to change a single thing? Only God alone is able to do that. Hallelujah, what a Saviour!

As we consider the fact that God is free from all the temporal limitations that we experience, even the barest insight that we glean begins to show us the glory of his eternity. God’s eternity is a never-ending summons and call to worship (Beeke and Smalley, RST Vol 1, p.670). In Ephesians 1:6 we thus read that God “predestined us for adoption according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace.” The past, and everything about it, has been wonderfully designed by God for our salvation, and ultimately for the display of his glory in our salvation. The eternity of God reveals a foundation stone of his glory! The glory of a thing is the sum total of its excellencies, and the eternity of God is certainly one of his excellencies. In Nehemiah 9:5 the sons of Israel said: “Stand up and bless the LORD your God from everlasting to everlasting.” And so too we should, from everlasting to everlasting, for such is his glory, and such also ought to be the praises that we bring. “To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever” (Eph 3:21), “To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen” (1 Tim 1:17). SDG.

Q. How ought the eternity of God to humble us in light of his magnitude?

A. By reminding us that we ought not presume to question God’s wise judgments, but to submit ourselves to his decrees in the knowledge that all is known to him from the beginning to the end, and that his experience and insight are perfect and infinite from everlasting.

One of the uniquely amusing things about being a parent is hearing your young children pontificate. In the vastness of their 6 or so years of life, apparently they have gathered enough insight to put them at least on par with their parents, and oftentimes it’s very straight forward: it’s the parents who need straightening out! It’s not all bad, of course, it really is a delight to see their excitement when their minds are broadened in some way and they can’t wait to share it with you. At times gentle instruction is needed, and at times stern correction when their pride tempts them to be argumentative.

I point out this quality in children, not because adults ought to feel superior about it, but because such behaviour is so very like us (our children learn much by way of imitation!). Of course, we ourselves were the same as children, which is reason enough in itself to be humble, but even still is this not an apt way of describing our own attitude with our Heavenly Father? Here we are, having now lived lives that have spanned the vast chasm of our decades, and having gathered wisdom constantly across the course of those years, we too have come to think ourselves ready for a bit of our own pontificating! Though, of course, we would not choose that word, we might prefer a word more… measured, like “explaining” or “helping”, or “illuminating”.

The book of Job furnishes us with a wonderful example of this kind of problem. Job was, indeed, a godly man. Even God himself said of Job: “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” (Job 1:8). Surely, if ever there was one qualified to pontificate, it was Job! He was a mature, wise, and godly man. And yet as God permitted Job’s affliction and suffering, Job in response was ultimately tempted to demand an answer of God. As he engaged with his three erring friends, he started more reasonably, saying things like: “If one wished to contend with God, one could not answer him once in a thousand times” (Job 9:2). And yet, it is not long after that we find Job doing just that! “Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments. I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? No; he would pay attention to me” (Job 23:3-6).

When the Lord did, in his perfect timing, respond to Job (who had laid out his complaint and defended his innocence), his first words were these: “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Dress for action like a man; I will question you, and you make it known to me. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?” It’s interesting, and I’d never noticed it before, but God’s reproof starts with an eternal recalibration for Job. This God, with whom we have to do, is the eternal one. He was there at the start, and he has been there to witness and sovereignly direct every moment from that time until now. Our temerity in questioning God is far more arrogant than that of our children toward us!

Job suffered profoundly. He lost his children, his wealth, and his health. I doubt any one of us would do so well under the same circumstances. And yet, though not to Job’s extreme, we might still ask ourselves: How do I respond when, in his providence, God ordains hardship for me? Do I groan and complain? Do I question God? Do I think that I have been hard done by? Do I think that I deserve better? These kinds of thoughts are not uncommon for us in our trials and difficulties. In Psalm 73, for example, Asaph was “envious of the arrogant” when he “saw the prosperity of the wicked.” He too needed an eternal recalibration, which he found when “went into the sanctuary of God” and discerned their end. In spite of his present trial, he recalled that the wicked will be “destroyed in a moment”, but that the righteous will be received into glory, and that God would their portion forever (Ps 73:26).

When we question God and struggle with his hard providences, we too need to be reminded of and humbled by God’s eternity. His wisdom and experience is infinitely vast, and has been steadfastly applied and displayed right throughout history. Who are we, who have existed for mere decades, to question God? Or to match wits with his insight? Job was rightly humbled, and came to express that which all of us ought to express:

“Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further… I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge? Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know….I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes have seen you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 40:4-5; 42:6)

In conclusion, please take a moment now to read these words from Stephen Charnock. Read them well, and re-read them a few times. Ponder them, and weigh them in your mind. Read them out loud and slowly, he expresses this all much more potently than I. Charnock says: “...shall we, that are of so short a being and understanding as yesterday, presume to measure the motions of eternity by our scanty intellects? … The counsels of a boundless being are not to be scanned by the brain of a silly worm, that hath breathed but a few minutes in the world… Whenever, therefore, any unworthy notion of the counsels and works of God is suggested to us by Satan, or our own corrupt hearts, let us look backward to God’s eternal and our own short duration, and silence ourselves with the same question wherewith God put a stop the reasoning of Job – “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” (Job xxxciii. 4), and reprove ourselves for our curiosity...” (Charnock, The Existence and Attributes of God, K.E. Loc 6286 of 24771). Let us be patient in the face of suffering, knowing that our times are in the hands of our almighty and eternal, loving Heavenly Father. SDG.

Q. How does the eternity of God cause us to entrust him with our lives?

A. By revealing to us that God alone holds our lives in his hands, and that God alone is able to eternally secure our souls.

Security and certainty for the future are very desirable things. I can remember moving out of home at the age of 18, I moved from Tasmania to Sydney to further my studies. It was my first time moving out of home, and in many ways I felt insecure and uncertain. In the first few weeks of my time in Sydney, I sensed that very acutely in my living situation. I had four weeks of accommodation lined up in Sydney for when I arrived, but beyond that I had no concrete plans and no connections except for the tenuous contact of a friend-of-a-friend. My dad also kindly came and stayed with me for my first week as I settled in and began to find my feet.

I have to say, at few points in my life have I experienced anxiety in the way that I did in that first week. The thought of knowing that my time was limited, and that I needed to organise a place to stay for when my accommodation expired was a source of continual concern and anxiety. Of particular concern to me was that I wanted to find a good church to go to and Christians to live with. I’d seen a few older friends head to university, get wrapped up in the wrong crowd, and walk away from Christ. I didn’t want that to happen to me. I met up with the friend-of-a-friend, and the contact turned out to be a fizzler – nothing came of it. As I talked it over with Dad, and shared my anxiety with him, his advice to me was to trust in the Lord and pray about it.

Now this was very much in keeping with what I guess you could call my dad’s chief legacy to me. In my first Bible, dad penned Proverbs 3:5-6 in the cover: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not on your own understanding; in all of your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” Trust in the Lord – that was Dad’s advice that day in Sydney. Now trusting in the Lord does not always mean that things will go as we expect or desire, but it was within the week of praying that prayer with my Dad that the Lord provided for me in a special way.

The friend-of-a-friend was an Anglican Pastor, who himself was supposed to be connected to someone who may have had accommodation. The person didn’t have accommodation, but a couple of days later the Pastor called me back and said that his family had a spare room that they’d be willing to let me stay in. The accommodation was ridiculously affordable by Sydney standards, the family was lovely and provided food for me as part of the arrangement, and the Church where I would worship and be nurtured for the year was right across the road. God knew my weakness in that time, and the anxieties of my heart. And, in his grace, he provided for me in a startling way, and it has always remained with me as a reminder of his goodness and provision toward a fearful boy.

At that point in time, I felt very keenly that the clock was ticking and that I needed to arrange new accommodation quickly. At no point did God feel that pressure! (though he remembered that I was but dust, and knew my weakness well). From his sovereign and eternal perspective, he knew what he had in mind for me that year, and he knew exactly when and how he wanted that plan to unfold – and so it did! In Psalm 31, King David was very acutely aware of this reality. David was in far greater straits than I was in Sydney, as he recalled in his prayer:

“Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief; my soul and my body also. For my life is spent with sorrow, and my years with sighing; my strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away. Because of all my adversaries I have become a reproach… For I hear the whispering of many – terror on every side! – as they scheme together against me, as they plot to take my life.”

It is not only in the small things of life, such as finding accommodation (Mt 6:25-33), but also far more profoundly in the very depths of the valley of the shadow of death. As David faced this harrowing trial, he would go on to pray: “But I trust in you, O LORD; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in your hand; rescue me from the hand of my enemies and from my persecutors! Make your face shine on your servant; save me in your steadfast love!”

Our times are in his hands. Every moment, of every day, of every week, of every year – all of it. Our times are in his hands. We all desire security and certainty, and part of what the doctrine of God’s eternity reveals to us is that – in fact – we do have that security and certainty. Our lives are certainly and surely ordained by God, and we remain in his hand at all times. Nothing takes him by surprise. The difficulty for us, at times, is that we find the strangeness or difficulty of his providences beyond our understanding – and thus we are tempted to doubt and feel insecure where no insecurity actually is.

Consider the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 8:38: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor ruler, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” And so with Habakkuk, who lived on the verge of utter national catastrophe, we too may say: “We shall not die” (Hab 1:12). He is able to secure our souls and has in fact already done so through the work of Christ. “Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock” (Is 26:4). SDG.