Your COMPASS for the Journey on the PATH of Discipleship: May 8-14, 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. In the weeks ahead, the COMPASS will lead you in an exploration of the heart of redemption. Your guide will be the seventeenth century Puritan pastor, John Flavel. The book, The Inner Sanctum of Puritan Piety, by J. Stephen Yuille will be used as a resource.
Saturday, May 14, 2011 REVIEW
We will continue in weeks ahead to look in detail at what we might call the anatomy of grace. Our guide will be a 17th century Presbyterian pastor named John Flavel. But before we move forward, let’s review what we have said so far. Stephen Yuille summarizes Flavel’s thought this way: ‘In eternity, the Father and Son enter into a covenant to save the elect. In time, the Son becomes a man to accomplish its stipulations. He does so by fulfilling the covenant of works, removing the curse through His death, and ascending to the Father’s right hand. From there, He sends forth the Holy Spirit to unite His people to Himself, so that they might partake of the blessings of His humiliation and exaltation. In this way, the covenant of grace is a certainty, resting upon God’s eternal purpose for His elect.’
As the Reformers used to say, ‘Soli Deo gloria!’ (To God alone be glory!)
Tomorrow: TWO GREAT UNIONS
Friday, May 13, 2011 THREE COVENANTS
Compass:
Ephesians 1:4 ‘…He chose us in him before the creation of the world….’
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight….
Map:
John Flavel (remember him from Sunday’s entry?) and other Reformed theologians taught that there are three covenants evident in Scripture: (1) the covenant of works in which Adam’s obedience or disobedience would be credited to us all, (2) the covenant of grace, in which Christ’s obedience or disobedience would be credited to God’s people, and (3) the covenant of redemption, made in eternity past between the Father and the Son, in which the Son would live obediently and die sacrificially for God’s people. As Scripture puts it, God ‘chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world.’
Journey:
Your salvation does not rest on your performance but on Christ’s. You cannot earn a standing with God, but, thanks to Christ, you do not have to. Christ has done it all for you. Remind yourself of this often.
Tomorrow: REVIEW
Thursday, May 12, 2011 TWO ADAMS
Compass:
Romans 5:19 ‘…the disobedience of the one man…the obedience of the one man….’
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Map:
John Calvin wrote: ‘…Our Lord came forth as true man and took the person and name of Adam in order to take Adam’s place in obeying the Father…’ (Institutes, II.XII.3). Adam represented us all, and, when, he fell, we all fell in him. But in God’s mercy, Christ became the ‘second Adam,’ representing us all. His obedience is credited to all who have faith in him.
Journey:
If we are ‘in Christ,’ we are clothed with the righteousness of Christ. God does not look at our sin but at Christ’s righteousness. This is an unparalleled gift. Today, let us offer thanks to God that, joined with Christ, we have a right standing with God.
Tomorrow: THREE COVENANTS
Wednesday, May 11, 2011 THE COVENANT OF GRACE
Compass:
Genesis 17:7 ‘I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant….’
I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you.
Map:
God relates to humanity through means of a covenant. His first promise of salvation (that the woman’s offspring would crush the tempter’s head) was expanded through covenants with Abraham and David. Called the ‘covenant of grace’ by the Westminster Confession, this bond encompasses all of God’s people throughout history.
Journey:
When you and I understand that God binds himself to us in a covenant that he will not break, it does two things for us: (1) it assures us that our salvation does not depend on us and (2) it motivates us to be faithful to the God who is faithful to us.
Tomorrow: TWO ADAMS
Tuesday, May 3, 2011 GOD’S PLAN TO SAVE
Compass:
Genesis 3:15 ‘…he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.’
And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”
Map:
The Bible reveals from beginning to end the gracious plan of God to save his people in Christ. After the disobedience of our first parents, God said to the tempting serpent, ‘…I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel’ (Genesis 3:15)
Journey:
Obviously, Christ is the ‘offspring’ of the woman. 1 John 3:8 says, ‘The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.’ Christ’s coming was a fulfillment of God’s promise from the very beginning. What does this mean for us? God’s promise is to be received by faith. We are to believe God, and we are to put our trust in Christ.
Tomorrow: THE COVENANT OF GRACE
Monday, May 9, 2011 MYSTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST
Compass:
Colossians 1:24-27 ‘…Christ in you, the hope of glory.’
24 Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.25 I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness — 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Map:
One of the prominent themes of John Flavel’s preaching was the doctrine of our mystical union with Christ. ‘How transcendently glorious,’ he asked, ‘is the advancement of believers by their union with the Lord of glory?’
Journey:
The Scriptures tell us that, through the Holy Spirit, Christ’s people have been mystically united with him. Express your gratitude to Christ for joining you to himself.
Tomorrow: GOD’S PLAN TO SAVE
Sunday, May 8, 2011 THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD
Compass:
2 Timothy 2:8-10 ‘…God’s Word is not chained.’
8 Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, descended from David. This is my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained. 10 Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.
Map:
John Flavel was a Presbyterian pastor who lived in England during the 17th century. Despite the fact that Flavel’s preaching was outlawed, his parishioners would gather in private homes or, sometimes, in the forest to hear Mr. Flavel’s sermons. Like Paul, who was imprisoned for preaching the gospel, Flavel could have said, ‘I may be in chains, but God’s Word is not chained!’
Journey:
The proclamation of the Word is God’s chosen way of calling people to faith and building them up in grace. Is it important to you to hear God’s Word on a regular basis? How is that evidenced in your life?
Tomorrow: MYSTICAL UNION WITH CHRIST
Photo Credit: Be Still by Jerry Worster
