Faith

In its essence, faith is not a subjective experience or decision but a knowledgeable assent to and belief in Jesus Christ as he gives himself to us in the gospel.

Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way

Spurgeon Sermon Collection, Preface

The word Calvinism, is frequently used here as the short word which embraces that part of divine truth which teaches that salvation is by grace alone, but it is not hence to be imagined that we attach any authority to the opinion of John Calvin, other than that which is due to every holy man who is ordained of God to proclaim his truth. We use the word simply for shortness of expression, and because the enemies of free grace will then be quite sure of what we mean. It is our firm belief, that what is commonly called Calvinism, is neither more nor less than the good old gospel of the Puritans, the Martyrs, the Apostles, and of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Here, the proud legalist, the conceited believer in the unaided strength of man, and the self-exalting moralist, will discover very little suitable to their corrupt palate and much to excite their enmity; but the humbled sinner may possible find words of comfort, and the self-loathing believer will perhaps obtain a glimpse of his Lord.

Our hope is, that inferior matters in dispute will not so much be regarded, as “the things which we have spoken touching the king.” Jesus is the Truth.

We believe in him—not merely in his words. He himself is Doctor and Doctrine, Revealer and Revelation, the Illuminator and the Light of Men.

He is exalted in every word of truth, because he is its sum and substance.

He sits above the gospel, like a prince on his own throne. Doctrine is most precious when we see it distilling from his lips and embodied in his person.

Sermons are valuable in proportion as they speak of him and point to him.

A Christless gospel is no gospel and a Christless discourse is the cause of merriment to devils. The Holy Ghost who has ever been our sole instructor, Idol we trust, teach us more of Jesus, until we comprehend with all saints, what are the heights and depths, and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, only have we labored to extol: may the Lord himself succeed our endeavors.

Spurgeon’s Sermons (63 vols.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit and New Park Street Pulpit (Spurgeon-Sermons), by Charles Haddon Spurgeon, This edition ©2012 Oaktree Software, Inc., Accordance edition hypertexted and formatted by OakTree Software, Inc., Version 1.0

Philip Schaff - The Nature of Church History

The central current and ultimate aim of universal history is the KINGDOM OF GOD ESTABLISHED BY JESUS CHRIST. This is the grandest and most comprehensive institution in the world, as vast as humanity and as enduring as eternity. All other institutions are made subservient to it, and in its interest the whole world is governed. It is no after-thought of God, no subsequent emendation of the plan of creation, but it is the eternal forethought, the controlling idea, the beginning, the middle, and the end of all his ways and works. The first Adam is a type of the second Adam; creation looks to redemption as the solution of its problems. Secular history, far from controlling sacred history, is controlled by it, must directly or indirectly subserve its ends, and can only be fully understood in the central light of Christian truth and the plan of salvation. The Father, who directs the history of the world, “draws to the Son,” who rules the history of the church, and the Son leads back to the Father, that “God may be all in all.” “All things,” says St. Paul, “were created through Christ and unto Christ: and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the head of the body, the Church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the pre-eminence.” Col. 1:16–18. “The Gospel,” says John von Müller, summing up the final result of his lifelong studies in history, “is the fulfilment of all hopes, the perfection of all philosophy, the interpreter of all revolutions, the key of all seeming contradictions of the physical and moral worlds; it is life — it is immortality.”

Philip Schaff, Apostolic Christianity (History of the Christian Church 1; Accordance electronic ed. 8 vols.; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1910), n.p.

Mark 1

You are a Christian in the first century. Your Bible is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. You have heard many sermons from Isaiah and Malachi, especially those passages that speak of the coming Messiah - the man, the God, you know as your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. You know many stories about the works and teachings of Jesus, passed along from eyewitness accounts. Some of the stories are true, some false and many of them an interesting mix of fact and fiction.

Then one day a document arrives from one known as a faithful follower of Jesus. The elder of your church begins to read, "The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God . . . ."

This is the type of person who first heard the book we call The Gospel According to Mark. It is this person’s perspective we need to consider when we interpret the stories contained in the Gospels of the Greek Scriptures. Too often we interpret the gospels from the point of view of the participants in the stories. This is a mistake. The point of view of the participants in the narrative is only important when the author makes it so.

“He saw the heavens being torn open.” The improper approach would ask what did those around Jesus see and how did they react. Since Mark makes no comment on these questions, they are irrelevant to his point. Our first century Christian would have a very different reaction to these words. Because he knows that when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn open as well. And that, is the good news!

Mathetes - The Manners of the Christians

For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., The Apostolic Fathers With Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (ANF I; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p.

St. Clement

May God, who seeth all things, and who is the Ruler of all spirits and the Lord of all flesh — who chose our Lord Jesus Christ and us through Him to be a peculiar people — grant to every soul that calleth upon His glorious and holy Name, faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffering, self-control, purity, and sobriety, to the well-pleasing of His Name, through our High Priest and Protector, Jesus Christ, by whom be to Him glory, and majesty, and power, and honour, both now and for evermore. Amen.

Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., The Apostolic Fathers With Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (ANF I; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p.

1 Cor. 4

This is how one should regard us,

as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.

1 Cor 4:1, ESV

What is the great mystery of the Christian faith? Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. However, it is not the sole responsibility of the steward to dispense the gospel. He is to defend the gospel, preach the gospel, and teach the gospel in such a way that all Christians proclaim it accurately.

Micael Horton

Hence, the Reformation churches affirmed a threefold use of the law: (1) to arraign us before God’s judgment and prove the world guilty; (2) to remind all people, even non-Christians, of their obligations to the moral law written on their conscience, and (3) to guide believers in the way of gratitude.

The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way

Oswald Chambers

No matter what changes God has performed in you, never rely on them. Build only on a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the Spirit He gives. - My Utmost for His Highest

Christ as an Example of Humility

For Christ is of those who are humble-minded, and not of those who exalt themselves over His flock. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Sceptre of the majesty of God, did not come in the pomp of pride or arrogance, although He might have done so, but in a lowly condition, as the Holy Spirit had declared regarding Him. For He says, “Lord, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? We have declared [our message] in His presence: He is, as it were, a child, and like a root in thirsty ground; He has no form nor glory, yea, we saw Him, and He had no form nor comeliness; but His form was without eminence, yea, deficient in comparison with the [ordinary] form of men. - The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians

Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe, eds., The Apostolic Fathers With Justin Martyr and Irenaeus (ANF I; Accordance electronic ed. 9 vols.; New York: Christian Literature Company, 1885), n.p.

Michael Horton

Shared from The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way

kindle.amazon.com

I. MODELS OF REVELATION Dulles offers the following models:

 

Model 1: Revelation as Doctrine (God as Teacher) 

Model 2: Revelation as History (God as Actor) 

Model 3: Revelation as Inner Experience (God as Guest) 

Model 4: Revelation as Dialectical Encounter (God as Judge) 

Model 5: Revelation as New Awareness (God as Poet)

Job

Is God just? This seems to be the central question addressed in the book of Job. The issue is analyzed in light of the suffering of the righteous. However, the real purpose of the story is to display the fact that our ability to understand life is limited and that the purposes of God are beyond our comprehension.

Consider the interchange between Job and his friends, concerning who is truly wise. Then reflect on God's response to all, that only He is wise. It is not always ours to understand the why; trusting God is more important than understanding Him. God is making a righteous man better, while his friends condemn him for failure. Only fools presume to know what God is doing.

G. C. Berkouwer

Sanctification is not a “process,” certainly not a moral process, but it is being holy in Christ and having part, through faith, in his righteousness. - G. C. Berkouwer, Studies in Dogmatics: Faith and Sanctification, p. 104

Michael Horton

Unlike the Athenian philosophers, Jesus Christ did not offer himself merely as a teacher of the path to truth and happiness, but as “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6). He is not only the guide; he is the destination. - Michael Horton, The Christian Faith: A Systematic Theology for Pilgrims on the Way.

Daniel B. Wallace

Much in language that is easily misunderstood is outside the scope of syntax, even broadly defined. Although a decent grasp on syntax is a sine qua non for sound exegesis, it is not a panacea for all of one’s exegetical woes. Only rarely does the grammar hand the exegete his or her interpretation on a silver platter. In most cases, the better we understand the syntax of the NT, the shorter is our list of viable interpretive options. - Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: an Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Accordance electronic ed. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), 9.

Psalm 65

1 Praise is due to you, O God, in Zion, and to you shall vows be performed.

2 O you who hear prayer, to you shall all flesh come. 

3 When iniquities prevail against me, you atone for our transgressions. 

4 Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts!

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple!

G. C. Berkouwer

God does not merely illuminate the mind of believers - confront them with new data - but powerfully changes heart and will. - G. C. Berkouwer, Studies In Dogmatics: Faith and Sanctification, p. 94

John Calvin

Some comforters have but one song to sing, 

and they have no regard to whom they sing it.