Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship: May 15-21, 2011
Posted by Isaac Butterworth | Filed under Discipleship, Puritans, Spiritual Disciplines, Spiritual Formation
Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship is a daily resource designed to help you find direction in your walk with Christ. This week, the COMPASS continues with an exploration of the heart of redemption. Your guide is the seventeenth century Puritan pastor, John Flavel. The book, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety, by J. Stephen Yuille is being used as a resource.
Saturday, May 21, 2011 REVIEW
We will continue in the weeks ahead to follow John Flavel’s discussion of the anatomy of grace. In anticipation of that, it may be helpful to review this week’s reflections. Stephen Yuille stresses the necessity of Christ’s threefold office to our salvation. He quotes Flavel as follows: ‘Had [Christ] not as our Prophet opened the way of life and salvation to…men, they could never have known it; and if they had clearly known it, except as their Priest he had offered up himself to…obtain redemption for them, they could not have been redeemed…; and if they had been so redeemed, yet had he not lived in the capacity of a King, to apply this purchase of his blood to them, they could have had no actual, personal benefit by his death; for what he revealed as a Prophet, he purchased as a Priest; and what he so revealed and purchased as a Prophet and Priest, he applies as a King.’
As the Reformers used to say, ‘Soli Deo gloria!’ (To God alone be glory!)
Tomorrow: THREE COVENANTS
Friday, May 20, 2011 CHRIST THE KING
Compass:
Revelation 19:11-16 ‘…King of kings and Lord of lords’
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. 14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.
Map:
According to Flavel, Christ convicts us of our sin, then ‘hangs forth the white flag of mercy before the soul, giving it hopes it shall be spared….’ Thus does Christ win us. He then ‘imposes a new law’ upon us and enjoins us to be obedient. Finally, he endows us with privileges: We are set free from the curse of the law. We are released from the dominion of sin. We are assured that Christ bears our burdens. We enjoy the peace of God. And we possess everlasting salvation. In these ways, he reigns over us as King.
Journey:
Surrender your will to Christ today. Refuse to give him mere lip service. Do not simply call him Lord, but do what he says (see Luke 6:46). Subject yourself to him, and find your true freedom.
Tomorrow: REVIEW
Thursday, May 19, 2011 CHRIST THE PRIEST: HIS INTERCESSION
Compass:
Hebrews 7:23-25 ‘…He always lives to intercede for them.’
23 Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; 24 but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. 25 Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Map:
Christ’s priesthood includes not only his sacrificial death but his intercession on behalf of his people. Flavel says that Christ ‘acted the first part on earth in a state of deep abasement…but he acts [the second part] in glory’ in order to ‘give the work of our salvation its last completing act.’
Journey:
As your great High Priest, Christ prays for you. Because of this, you are empowered to live a life that reflects his glory. Pray daily that you may witness in your life not your great effort but his unfailing power.
Tomorrow: CHRIST THE KING
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 CHRIST THE PRIEST: HIS SACRIFICE
Compass:
Hebrews 10:11-14 ‘…This priest…offered for all time one sacrifice for sins….’
11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
Map:
As our Priest Christ offered his life as a sacrifice on our behalf. Christ was both the priest who offered the sacrifice and the sacrifice that was offered. Flavel says that Christ’s blood is ‘complete and all-sufficient.’ Its virtue ‘reacheth backward as far as Adam and reacheth forward to the last person of the elect.’
Journey:
Christ is ‘the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world’ (John 1:29). It is not your effort that overcomes sin; it is Christ’s blood that washes it away. Remind yourself often that you are free from guilt.
Tomorrow: CHRIST THE PRIEST: HIS INTERCESSION
Tuesday, May 17, 2011 CHRIST THE PROPHET
Compass:
Luke 24:17-19 ‘…Jesus of Nazareth…was a prophet in word and deed….’
17 He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
They stood still, their faces downcast. 18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, “Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?”
19 “What things?” he asked.
“About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.
Map:
According to John Flavel, Christ fulfills the role of Prophet through revelation and illumination. By revelation, Christ declares to us the mind of God. By illumination, he opens our hearts to receive his message.
Journey:
Christ speaks to us through Scripture and the preached Word, but, unless the Holy Spirit works in us, we cannot understand Christ’s message. Before reading any passage from the Bible, before listening to a sermon or a lesson from Scripture, ask the Holy Spirit to illumine your mind and open your heart.
Tomorrow: CHRIST THE PRIEST: HIS SACRIFICE
Monday, May 16, 2011 CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
Compass:
Hebrews 12:22-24 ‘…You have come…to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant….’
22 But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, 23 to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, 24 to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.
Map:
Why did God become a human being? According to John Flavel, it was ‘to qualify and prepare him for a full discharge of his mediatorship, in the office of our Prophet, Priest, and King.’ As mediator, Christ fulfills on our behalf the conditions of the covenant of grace, which are his sinless life and his sacrificial death. What is required of us is faith in his redemptive work.
Journey:
Faith is not simply intellectual assent to Christian doctrines. It is that, to be sure, but it is more. The exercise of faith, according to the Shorter Catechism, is to ‘receive and rest upon [Christ] alone for salvation’ (Q. 86). Do you ‘receive and rest upon him alone?’
Tomorrow: CHRIST THE PROPHET
Sunday, May 15, 2011 TWO GREAT UNIONS
Compass:
John 1:14 ‘The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Map:
For John Flavel, God’s salvation of his people is linked to two great unions: (1) the union of the divine and human natures in Christ and (2) the union of Christ and believers by the Holy Spirit. Christ must become one with us in his incarnation in order for us to become one with him in our salvation.
Journey:
This week, our focus is going to be on the first union, in which the eternal God became a human being, taking upon himself our flesh. By doing so, he entered a state of humiliation. Humble yourself today before him who humbled himself for you.
Tomorrow: CHRIST THE MEDIATOR
Photo Credit: The Holy Spirit by Lawrence Lew, OP
