GospelDrivenLife

The Deep Things of God with addendum

Fred Sanders, Biola Professor, on the faculty at their Torrey Honors Institute, and a recent teacher of my daughter, has written a barnburner.  That is pretty amazing for theology.

This book is easily on my list of best books in the last year, would be on my top books of the last ten years, and may become one I read again and again.  That latter list is very short.  God has given us a gift of grace through this book. 

Why would I say this?

It is well written. It is rare for me to start into a book and not want to put it down. That is especially true with theology books, and more so with books on the doctrine of the Trinity. That is because most theologians could use a course in good writing.  This book is clear and deep.  It develops the glory of the Godhead and does so without superficial summary or theological jargon. That does not mean it is simplistic.  It will call you to engage with the revealed God of glory.

It is mature. This is not an off the cuff work.  There is depth here.  There are clearly years of reflection.  The author has read widely and thoughtfully in his field. He holds the jewel of the Trinity up in the light and explores its many facets.  That God is Triune is not lightweight, but this truth does not have to be esoteric. Because he has reflected on this for years, Sanders makes a deep subject sing.  He connects the dots clearly and winsomely.  He offers critique with humility and humor.  He offers a grander Gospel and a grander worship and a grander reading of the Bible by showing the meaning of the doctrine of the Trinity.

It is timely. I have grown to see the redemptive center of the Bible.  I am an advocate of Gospel-centrality.  Sanders is gospel centered, but he calls us to revisit the background to the Gospel.  He notes that while our emphasis is the Gospel, when we lose the eternal glory of the Godhead, the Gospel is diminished or narrowed or reduced. 

I think he is correct.  There has been a lack. 

A few, like Piper in God is the Gospel, hinted at it.  Sanders mines it. He takes us back to the eternal glory of God -- the happy life of the Trinity.  What he insists on is this: God as God the Father, Son, and Spirit is the deep foundation of the Gospel.  The goodness of the good news is rooted in the happy and blessed fullness of the Triune God.  In the Gospel this God, our of sheer generosity, gives himself to us.

Sanders picks up where Piper left off. He develops the doctrine more. He notes that while we are emphatic about Christ, grace, sacrifice, atonement, faith, justification -- those emphases become shallow when they are not set deep in the Triune God. 

That is a bit shocking.  I think he wonderfully makes the case.  On the other side of my justification is more than imputed righteousness.  I have been imputed righteous so that God may give himself to me as my God, and I may see his glory.  I think the prayer of John 17, especially vesres 21-26 have taken on a new meaning.

But that is just one instance.  Many times I had flashes of light (as in Eph 1:14-23) come to my heart as he connected the dots.  This is the first book in a long while that has compelled me to stop my reading and adore my God.  It has fueled my sight of the beauty of God in worship on Sunday.  It has stirred new faith for preaching. 

Preachers -- your people need this.  They need a vision of the glory to which the God of grace calls them.

Each chapter is a stand alone, fruitful for extended study and meditation. He shows that this is not just for scholars. Considering the glory of the Godhead is not something I recall thinking about, but Susannah Wesley (mother of 17 I think) did and found it glorious and practical while she tended house.  I do not remember the last time I considered that my prayer or the reading of the Word were Trinitarian.  I could go on.  The quotable quotes are many and fun (that one about Nicky Cruse writing the only book on the Trinity that has a knife fight!)

It is in the Great Tradition. But one more item. I have become more and more persuaded that my calling is to be as unoriginal as possible.  I am passing on the deposit of faith, entrusted to the Apostles.  I have also become more and more persuaded that history informs my grasp of Scripture.  I am an heir to the Great Tradition. 

For some years now I have been dipping into writings on the Trinity and the early church fathers. I have noted their influence on early Protestants too.  I am one who, without reading them, used to think the fathers missed it.  I now think, and Sanders confirms, that they got it better than I do.  When they wrote the Trinitarian creeds, they had a grasp of the deep source of our salvation.  God the Father Almighty, his only Son our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son are working symphonically to save, to redeem, and to exalt the bride of Christ into their presence. Chalcedon was profound.  

Some may not have missed these rich resources of faith.  Perhaps I have just been in the narrow confines of sectarian American evangelicalism. But the early church fathers had a grasp on God in Trinity and the Incarnation that is rooted in Scripture and life-shaping. I want to consider it more.

Fred is in that Tradition, though he carefully confines his citations to the rich resources within Protestant evangelicalism. He is not calling us to become liturgical.   He is calling us to bring out of the background what we know to be true,  He is calling us to rediscover the resources of our our tributary of the Great Tradition. 

I for one want to go back to learn from those men and the ones who went before them.  I am grateful for this book which I hope sells out and is reprinted and circulated to as many people as possible.  It is a gift to see the glory of the Triune God as the root and foundation of our redemption.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

Addendum: This is Dr Sanders life message.  Its implication and applications and connections to life can be worked out for many years to come.  My wife, who is a woman soaked in the Word and in the Triune God, wants to apply this to her daily life.  She is asking for a chapter in a future book called, "The Tacit Trinitarianism of Housework" and with it, "The Tacit Trinitarianism of Marriage and Family." 

Peter and Gospel truth, Gospel story, 1

For years I have been a student of Paul.  Much like my Reformed mentors, my heart was full of the logic of Romans and the magisterial words of Ephesians.  It was almost as though I had a red letter Bible and the red letters were not Jesus's words, but Paul's. 

I would reject any teaching that said one portion of Scripture was any more or less of God than another.  That is why I pay no attention to red letter bibles.  Yet, in practice, I esteemed Paul more highly than Peter or John. 

That has all begun to change with my study of 1 Peter.  How little did I know of Peter's rigorous  application of the Gospel to all of life! Peter calls the believers to whom he writes to apply the Gospel to their lives at every point.

Indwelling sin and the Gospel, 3

People think that a serious doctrine of sin is depressing -- on the contrary it is hope-giving.  Only when we face the depth of our disease can we find the infinite remedy in the Savior's death.  If I treat the illness superficially, I will only prolong the illness.

  I will let Dorothy Sayers speak to this.  She was a contemporary of CS Lewis, an apologist, literary, and wrote murder mysteries (with Lord Peter Whimsey as the detective).  She says things in a fresh way even if we wish to critique the fine points:

Kingdom Building

I am studying through Ezra-Nehemiah these days as we lead the church in understanding how God fulfills his promises for his everlasting kingdom.  Set in the century after the exile, these books record the activity of God to rebuild the temple, the law, and the city of Jerusalem. 

It would be very easy to study these for purely historical interest.  Or, more commonly, to study these for "leadership principles."  Neither of these is true to a Gospel driven approach.  All biblical narrative is about Messiah-Jesus.  This is not exception. 

The opening verses of Ezra are a thunderclap about God's ways.

Who is our enemy?

It was twenty years ago when I listened to the entire set of 70 tapes on Pastoral Theology by Al Martin, pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in NJ.  His well-studied and mature views of ministry were a formative influence on my thinking and practice.  But I well remember the day when he addressed how we look on those who differ with us in the faith -- Arminians, Paedobaptists, Egalitarians, even people who apply common convictions differently.  It was a truth I would hold on to and fight for in my heart in the years that have followed . . .

The Liberty of the Christian, 4

The Gospel is mighty to change people's lives -- and it does so in very context and culture of the world.  It is not bound to a particular culture -- converted people do not all wear coats and ties.  But whatever fruit it bears looks like godliness -- the fruit of the Spirit, a pursuit of holiness. 

The Liberty of the Christian, 3

Living under my own conscience and protecting liberty is a tough balance.  But it is precisely what the Apostle Paul calls us to do in Romans 14:1-15:7.  I want to give a few thoughts from this passage on what this looks like.

The Liberty of the Christian, 2

To summarize the last post:  I am not to think myself wiser than God and add to the word of God details of moral instruction for the lives of everyone -- when God has not been pleased to give me those details.  I am not to "reason" my way to a conclusion that I uphold as THE word of God.  (As one person told me after my sermon on wine, "God may have made grapes, but man made wine" -- as thoigh that finalized it -- God also made cows and man made steak).  But I am responsible for developing my personal convictions.  People reacting to legalism tend to think they can leave all decisions about details open ended. This is one place I see the anti-legalists not seeing clearly.

The Liberty of the Christian, 1

There is an excellent post over at Girl Talk on the difference between opinion and suggestion. That post plus recent conversations have reminded me that the issue of Christian liberty is always present.  If one reads the statements at the time of the Reformation, one finds some very thoughtful reflections on the liberty of the conscience.  What does that mean? 

It has been an issue for centuries -- where do we draw certain moral lines when the Scriptures do not speak to the specifics of our day?

I am also reminded that the swinging pendulum continues always. What do I mean by that?  People raised in legalistic contexts switch to libertine patterns, and vica versa.   People mistake their liberty as a reason for indifference or carelessness.  Years of ministry have shown me this is one very hard to get right but I wanted to BLOG on it anyhow.

The Nature of True Virtue, 3

Enough abstraction for now -- back to it soon.  Let me give two examples of men who understood that Christians were not to position themselves as "against everything" with angry and shriveled hearts.  You can check out their biographies.  These were folks with hearts enlarged by the work of grace upon them.