Rumination's on Hymns: "Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven"

Praise, my soul, the King of heaven, To his feet thy tribute bring; Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven, Who like me his praise should sing? Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise the everlasting King. Praise him for his grace and favour To our fathers in distress; Praise him still the same as ever, Slow to chide, and swift to bless: Alleluia! Alleluia! Glorious in his faithfulness. Father-like, he tends and spares us, Well our feeble frame he knows; In his hands he gently bears us, Rescues us from all our foes: Alleluia! Alleluia! Widely as his mercy flows. Angels, help us to adore him; Ye behold him face to face; Sun and moon, bow down before him, Dwellers all in time and space: Alleluia! Alleluia! Praise with us the God of grace. --H. F. Lyte (1793-1847) Praise God for all he has done for us! How much we owe him and how little we give and show our appreciation to our Redeemer and Shepherd. Give thanks to God and Praise the King of Heaven!

Switch: Spare yourself the insanity

I confess and repent: I am a negligent blogger. I do not have another post ready, so I though this would be fun and pass some time.

Rumination's on Hymns: "I Know Whom I Have Believed"

I know not why God’s wondrous grace To me He hath made known, Nor why, unworthy, Christ in love Redeemed me for His own. Refrain But I know Whom I have believèd, And am persuaded that He is able To keep that which I’ve committed Unto Him against that day. I know not how this saving faith To me He did impart, Nor how believing in His Word Wrought peace within my heart. I know not how the Spirit moves, Convincing us of sin, Revealing Jesus through the Word, Creating faith in Him. Refrain I know not what of good or ill May be reserved for me, Of weary ways or golden days, Before His face I see. Refrain I know not when my Lord may come, At night or noonday fair, Nor if I walk the vale with Him, Or meet Him in the air. Refrain Words: Daniel Webster Whittle, 1840-1901 Music: James McGranahan, 1840-1907 After the service Sunday morning, I was a concerned over which hymn I would choose this week. I elected to blog this hymn for a few reasons. 1) I am writing a paper on the means of assurance this semester. 2) The words impacted me, reminding me of God's grace in revealing himself to us, but is also redeeming us. 3) The emphasis on the Spirit's work was a great joy to me: the Holy Spirit has been an abused member of the Trinity, and I always appreciate those who emphasize his work and personality. 4) The immanency of Christ's return and words of the rapture always cause me to reflect on how I live day to day. Assurance: what a tough and at times sticky subject. I intend to later blog on assurance (when my research is done :) because it is so vital to the Christian. Can I know that I am saved? If so, how? Let's keep these questions in mind as we/I look forward to that series.

Alienation, Reconciliation, and Perseverence in Colossians 1:21-23, Part 4

I thought I would take time in this post to address reconciliation a bit more. Pittsley had earlier directed me to a previous discussion found here. At the risk of repeating that discussion, I will interject some thoughts. KWM's discussion reflected the "man" position that I had earlier mentioned. That is, Man is the one reconciled to God. His discussion is excellent: he interacts with multiple texts and even some authors. I would like to cite some authors that have championed the "man" position. S. Lewis Johnson, Jr. stated: The important thing to remember about both words (katallasso and apokatallasso) is that they never denote mutual reconciliation after mutual hostility... --"Studies in the Epistle to the Colossians: Part IV: From Enmity to Amity" Bib Sac 119 (Spring 1962): 143 Geisler addressed Col 1:19-20 stating that there are, two sides ... the objective side, the potential for which Christ accomplished for all humankind (v. 19), and the subjective side, by which we actually become reconciled to God (v. 20). Once again, the whole world is reconciled in the sense of being made savable by Christ (v. 19), but not in the sense of being saved (see Rom. 5:10; 2 Cor 5:20). It is also noteworthy that God is not reconciled to us; we are reconciled to Him. God does not move in relation to the sinner; the sinner moves in relation to Him. --Systematic Theolo, 4 vols. (Minneapolis: Bethany, 2004), 3:226 Reymond provides some cogent counterpoints relating to Rom 5:10-11 (esp. v. 10): It is beyond all possibility that Paul intended to say: "At the very time when we were hostile to God, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son," meaning thereby that our hostility toward God was removed through the death of God's Son, an operation which in fact did not occur. It is clearly God's active hostility toward men and the means which he provided to remove it rather then men's attitude toward God that is in the forefront of Paul's teaching on reconciliation. --A New Systematic Theolog, p. 646 Also: ... 5:10 implies that Christ's punctiliar reconciliatory work which shall save us from the divine wrath was also Godward in its reference. --Ibid, p. 647 Johnson counters stating that: Reconciliation is manward, not Godward, in its direction. It is God's reconciling of man "unto himself" (v. 20). God never has had to be reconciled to man; He has always love man. --"From Enmity to Amity," p. 143 While I agree with Johnson that God has always loved man, how can he argue that God does not need to be reconciled with man seeing as how God hates sinners (Ps 5:5)? Geisler is on the same page with Johnson, stating that it is not God that has moved, but Man. I cannot, however, shake off the arguments of Reymond, Murray, and Berkof. I feel that in my previous post, Berkof left me no option but the "both" position. Due to this, I have to issues with singing the hymn by Wesley as either "My God is reconciled" or "I am now reconciled." Both parties enjoy a state of peace. While some may disagree with this conclusion, I think that we can all agree on this: ... at the very time when he had every reason to loathe us and in fact felt a holy hostility toward us, yet out of love for us he saved us. --Reymond, Systematic, p. 646.

What a beautiful thing...

My wife loves Yankee Candles and purchased one just the other day. Little did she know it would make my day: the scent she chose was Macintosh, and what a beautiful thing it was!

Rumination's on Hymns: "Hallelujah! What a Savior"

Man of Sorrows! what a name For the Son of God, Who came Ruined sinners to reclaim. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned He stood; Sealed my pardon with His blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior! Guilty, vile, and helpless we; Spotless Lamb of God was He; “Full atonement!” can it be? Hallelujah! What a Savior! Lifted up was He to die; “It is finished!” was His cry; Now in Heav’n exalted high. Hallelujah! What a Savior! When He comes, our glorious King, All His ransomed home to bring, Then anew His song we’ll sing: Hallelujah! What a Savior! --Phillip P. Bliss (1838-1876) I think the hymn says it all. What praise we ought to offer for our Lord who humbly accepted the task set before him. What a debt we owe to the one who redeemed us. What humiliating shame he endured for me. Praise God for the cross work of Christ and for the precious blood. Today and in every day make much of Christ: What a Savior!

Alienation, Reconciliation, and Perseverence in Colossians 1:21-23, Part 3

This conversation has the potential of becoming a hot topic. My hope is that as we think things through we may find some clarification on reconciliation and grow in grace because of what it means for us. The last post dealt mainly with alienation and its ramifications in the relationship of God and man. Unregenerate man and God are at enmity with one another. In this post I will address reconciliation and its theological ramifications. The looming question is "Who is reconciled?" Is it God? Man? Both? At the risk of leading readers into ambiguity, I will state that I intend to argue for the "both" position. In Col 1:22, God is the subject of the verb "reconciled" ("But now he has reconciled you"). The Colossians were reconciled to the one who they were previously at enmity with. (Note: The verse continues stating "by Christ’s physical body" indicating the means by which reconciliation is accomplished.) God has reconciled believers to himself. While it seems I have proven the "Man" argument, I would like to interject some thoughts related to my previous post. 1) Is not God also at enmity with Man? 2) Does not this enmity also require some type of appeasement? Or must it be called something different? Man is reconciled to God, and God is now "ok" with Man (but not reconciled). Murray provides some very cogent thoughts: The liability to which the reconciliation is directed is the unmistakable index to that which constitutes the reconciliation both as action and result. As action it is the removal of the alienation characterized as exclusion from the favour of God and from the privileges which his favour insures and bestows. As result it means that those who were at one time far off, separated from God and his fellowship, are brought nigh to God and are at peace with him (cf. Eph 2:13, 14, 17; Col 1:20). Liability, action, and result all converge to establish the basic concept of alienation removed and peace constituted. --"The Reconciliation." WTJ 29 (Fall 1966): p. 5. I feel Berkhof brings the "both" argument full circle: ...the atonement was intended to propitiate God and to reconcile Him to the sinner... But it should be borne in mind that this is not equivalent to saying that the sinner is atoned, which would mean that God made amends or reparation, that He rendered satisfaction to the sinner. And even when we speak of the sinner as being reconciled, this must be understood as something that is secondary. The reconciled God justifies the sinner who accepts the reconciliation, and so operates in his heart by the Holy Spirit, that the sinner also lays aside his wicked alienation from God, and this enters into the fruits of the perfect atonement of Christ (italics added). --Systematic Theology, p. 373 So that my post is not unreadibly long (yes, I made that word up), I will reserve some thoughts for the next post.

Alienation, Reconciliation, and Perseverence in Colossians 1:21-23, Part 2

I would like to address each of these topics individually, pursue each a bit, and hopefully propose some meaningful conclusions. The first of these topics is, alienation. In the context of Col 1, the Colossians were at one time alienated from God. This is true of all those who are unregenerate. For everyone who is regenerate, there was a past period of time in which they were apart/estranged from the Creator. Not only were they estranged from him, they were at enmity with him. There is a bit of controversy as to whether the Greek term is adjectival ("hostile") or substantival ("enemies"). Either option does suggest the activity (hostility) and even grammarians are divided. I prefer "hostile" but I also recognize that "enemies" strongly suggests the activity of being hostile. Either way, what is communicated is that unregenerate persons rebel against the Creator because their hearts and minds are dark, and they are indeed his enemy. We must remember that alienation works both ways. We were alienated from God and he was alienated from us: the cause, of course, is sin. We are estranged from God because we hate him and display that in our evil deeds, and he is estranged from us because he is holy. What is it then that can reconcile the two parties? Col 1:22 provides the answer: it is the cross work of Christ. This is the solution to alienation: this is how the two parties could be reconciled. It was by Christ's real, physical body and his real, physical death that reconciliation could take place, and estrangement removed. Alienation and Reconciliation are closely tied together so please do not think that I have not considered one without the other. Reconciliation presupposes alienation. With that being said, I will attempt to address reconciliation in light of alienation in my next post (which I hope will be sooner than later :).