Free Book: Come Unto Me by Tony Reinke

Free book
Come Unto Me: God’s Invitation to the World
by Tony Reinke

This time last year I was staying up late and getting out of bed very early to put the final touches on my undergraduate thesis. I convinced my secular academic adviser that it would be good to clarify the contours of the biblical gospel. I’m sure he wasn’t too thrilled.

For me, the opportunity to concentrate my attention on the character of our priceless gospel was incredible. The product was the book titled Come Unto Me: God’s Invitation to the World. My primarily goal was to take advantage of an opportunity to articulate the biblical gospel — both the work of Christ and the act of faith — with my academic adviser and fellow classmates.

Secondly, my non-Christian audience pushed me to think hard at how to best articulate the biblical worldview, something I had not consciously worked through in the past.

Finally, the book helps me retain an important balance in my personal ministry. There are several contours of the gospel and each are easy to forget or minimize.

The invitation to God, from God, is a biblical message filled with rich diversity. For those who accept it, this message requires sorrow and promises inexpressible joy. The invitation comes without price and costs everything. The invitation includes an offer of a relationship to God that is both forensic (or legal) and yet conjugal (or marital). The invitation to God is a call to leave past burdens and take up new burdens.

Frequently I need to be reminded of these important contours.

And so now I offer this book for your reading. It’s free for you to download and read. Thanks to the help of gracious friends, it now comes in three mouth-watering flavors:

1. Come Unto Me in HTML format. This is the basic text format but ideal if you are interested in browsing or reading the content online. Click here for HTML.

2. Come Unto Me in PDF format. Ideal if you are interested in downloading and printing the book. This file preserves the original pagination and formatting. Click here to download the PDF file.

3. Come Unto Me in LOGOS format. Ideal if you want to incorporate my research of the biblical gospel into your own research. Thanks to my friends at StillTruth, you can download and install my book into your Logos software. Click here to access the StillTruth Webpage and download.

Blessings!

Humble Calvinism (2): Why John Calvin?

Why John Calvin?

We’re pushing off into a 5-month voyage of the life and thought of John Calvin. Where this boat will float us I cannot say. Augustine said that he wrote to learn and that’s my intention. But I can predict with certainty that these will not be easy seas. Understanding God’s motives and actions require the utmost humility. Calvin leads us off the path of human wisdom to the cliff edge of divine mystery. Scripture leads us here, so we go.

My goal is to uncover the implications of Calvinism for the Christian life (If you want a 20-point defense of limited atonement, you will not find it here). But this will not be a difficult task. Calvin never strays very far into theology without showing the practical implications.

Here are a few answers that come to mind when we ask: Why Calvin? Why now?

1. Because Calvinism is biblical. No system of theology has better (notice I did not say ‘perfectly’) displayed a consistently biblical framework. If you want to be consistent with Scripture, Calvinism is your system. Because of this, Calvinism is a firm confrontation to theological reductionism (those who build theological systems from only parts of Scripture). We must deal with themes like God’s sovereignty, our depravity, His election, etc. These Calvinistic themes are carried throughout the Old and New Testaments.

2. Because Calvinism is tested. The greatest theological minds in church history were Calvinists. Augustine, who predates Calvin by centuries, laid a foundation Calvin could easily build on (“Augustine is totally ours!” Calvin once wrote). After Calvin, men like Jonathan Edwards and John Owen stand atop the list of theological elites who were Calvinists which should not surprise since the Puritan movement itself was “a kind of vigorous Calvinism” (Joel Beeke, Meet the Puritans). John Bunyan was a Calvinist. Mathematical genius and philosopher Blaise Pascal was a Calvinist. Great evangelists like David Brainerd and George Whitefield were Calvinists (Whitefield frequently preached of election to non-believers). Calvinist theologians include B.B. Warfield, J. Gresham Machen, Charles Hodge, Cornelius Van Til and the other early Princeton Seminary leaders. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and Francis Schaeffer were Calvinists. The great preacher Charles Spurgeon equated Calvinism with the gospel itself. Representing several denominations, many contemporary Evangelical leaders are Calvinists (Al Mohler, John Piper, Mark Driscoll, C.J. Mahaney, Joshua Harris, R.C. Sproul, Ligon Duncan, John MacArthur, J.I. Packer and Mark Dever). A ministry producing some of the most powerful sermons and worship music goes by a very Calvinistic name, Sovereign Grace Ministries. And this is just a sampling. For centuries (right up to 2007) Calvinism has caught the eye of the brightest theological minds, evangelists, preachers, philosophers and musicians.

3. Because Calvinism is a relevant worldview. We are not talking merely about theology and doctrine! Calvinism puts every detail of this world – not in the hands of mere men or fate or luck – but in a personal God who is working all of world history towards one final goal. To say it another way, “there is nothing casual nor contingent in the world.” So what does a Calvinist look like? B.B. Warfield wrote, “He [the Calvinist] has caught sight of the ineffable Vision, and he will not let it fade for a moment from his eyes – God in nature, God in history, God in grace. Everywhere he sees God in His mighty stepping, everywhere he feels the working of his mighty arm, the throbbing of His mighty heart.” Calvinism is a worldview that embraces music, art, history, natural sciences, medicine, politics, economics, labor and race relations. Fittingly, McGrath closes his biographical account of Calvin with these words: “Although Calvin lies buried in an unmarked grave somewhere in Geneva, his ideas and influences live on in the outlooks of the culture he helped to create” (p. 261).

4. Because Calvinism brings reverence and trust in God. According to Calvin, without reverence towards God and worshipping Him as the giver of all things, we cannot know God. Understanding God is not about scholarship and academic degrees but of piety, submission and love towards God. A true study of Calvin and Calvinism will help us foster these godly characteristics.

5. Because Calvinism protects the church. Whether we are talking about open theism, theological liberalism, religious relativism, emergent church movement, church-growth methods, new perspectives of Paul or misunderstandings of the fundamental differences between the gospels of Evangelicalism and Roman Catholicism, Calvinism will keep our attention on Scripture. In the book The Doctrines of Grace, Boice and Ryken write, “The pathway from Calvinism to liberalism – and even atheism – is well worn, and it usually passes through Arminianism” (p. 66). Churches who preach a god unable to sovereignly manage the world to his own glory become vulnerable to the most grave errors.

6. Because Calvinism brings comfort. When life is tough, there is no comfort in a powerless god. Only when we understand God to be firmly in control of our pain and discomforts can we say with Job, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!” And only then can we say with Paul, “All things work together for the good of those who love God.” Only a sovereign God can comfort us in our deepest trials.

7. Because Calvinism is high. If you want to grasp God, you must stand on the highest plateau to get a glimpse of his majesty. Steven Lawson’s newest book reminds us that Calvinism is where “The lofty truths of divine sovereignty provide the greatest and grandest view of God” and “The doctrines of grace serve to elevate the entire life of the church.” Calvinism forces us to climb higher than we imagined, to see bigger things then we thought possible, and elevates the worship and reverence of the church beyond the routine and mundane.

8. Because Calvinism is cool. That’s right. Last Fall Christianity Today called Calvinists, “Young, Restless and Reformed,” which is another way of saying Calvinists are now the cool kids in school. Seriously, people can see through the wafer thin glazing of seeker sensitive church growth movement. Confusing conversations and open theism simply will not do. Christians want the mighty God of Scripture. One who sits high and exalted, who shakes the heavens and whose right hand controls every detail of life to His own glory and to the good of believers. Calvinism is very relevant today.

Conclusion

Loraine Boettner wrote of John Calvin that he “ventured boldly but reverently upon the brink of that abyss of speculation where all human knowledge is lost in mystery and adoration.” And in pursuing the depths of Scripture, Calvin has set before us the Christian life as it flows from the most profound theology.

Together we will learn Humble Calvinism. Will you join us?

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Click here to access previous posts in the Humble Calvinism index.

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Humble Calvinism: Why Calvinism?

“The world should realize with increased clearness that Evangelicalism stands or falls with Calvinism.”

- B.B. Warfield

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Between January and May here at The Shepherd’s Scrapbook we will be focusing our attention on French reformer John Calvin (with other posts and topics scattered along the way).

Calvin was a lawyer-turned-Reformer whose written works provide readers a 51-volume depository of Reformed theology and exegesis of Scripture. His commentaries, systematic theology (The Institutes), letters and sermons continue in print nearly 500 years after his birth.

We are focusing on Calvin, but not because he was perfect. He had character faults. Calvin was irritable, distant and a bit cold (not unlike myself at times). Nor was Calvin infallible. At some secondary points in his teachings I must disagree. John Owen said of the patristic writers we should take the gold and leave the dung. There is much gold in Calvin, but not all of it. Would Calvin want to be considered an infallibly guide anyways?

Why do Calvin’s massive works live on? Charles Spurgeon wrote: “Calvin is a tree whose ‘leaf also shall not wither’; whatever he has written lives on, and is never out of date, because he expounded the word without bias or partiality.” Calvin wrote — not as a man defending an extra-biblical framework — but as an honest man seeking to discover the biblical framework.

Calvin is an incredible example for us today. He buffeted his body and made it his slave for the sake of the gospel. Calvin strove to be a great preacher, a great theologian and a diligent pastor to his flock. He is an example for all pastors. His testimony exhorts me to preach boldly, think clearly and minister personally. When I reflect on Calvin (or Spurgeon for that matter) I am reminded just how fruitful one life can be for the gospel. Bearing the fruit of Calvin requires the self-denial of Calvin.

So whether were looking at his radical self-discipline, sober critical thinking, careful exegesis of Scripture, command of the Greek and Hebrew languages, clear and simple expositions from the pulpit or his brilliant theological framework, Calvin remains a giant of church history.

The life and teaching of John Calvin (and the many books in print about him and by him) we believe are worthy of extended study.

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Click here to access previous posts in the Humble Calvinism index.

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A slave beaten … a Son killed: Illustrating the weight of Sin (John Owen)

“To see a slave beaten and corrected, it argues a fault committed; but yet perhaps the demerit of it was not very great. The correction of a son argues a great provocation; that of an only son, the greatest imaginable. Never was sin seen to be more abominably sinful and full of provocation, than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God. God having made his Son, the Son of his love, his only begotten, full of grace and truth, sin for us, to manifest his indignation against it, and how utterly impossible it is that he should let the least sin go unpunished, he lays hand on him, and spares him not.”

- John Owen, Communion with God from The Works of John Owen (Banner of Truth), 2:96.

A Christmas Tree in the Courtroom

The contemporary church measures sin primarily by its effect upon marriages (divorce), the Internet (pornography), kids (rebellion towards parents), culture (racial tension, crime), nature (floods, tsunamis), and physical pain (sickness, cancer, death). These are all effects of sin. But the bible points us to a greater reality, beyond the reach of counselors, doctors, Internet filters, global warming and social scientists. I am talking about measuring sin by God’s Law and seeing our condemnation under it (see Romans 4:15).

John tells us that, “sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). Sin is a breach of God’s Law by sinners who – by breaking one Law – are guilty of every Law (James 2:10). We have a legal problem and we need a legal solution.

This week Horatius Bonar has been supplying us excellent material for meditation. His words on this subject are fitting.

“Man has always treated sin as a misfortune, not a crime; as disease, not as guilt; as a case for the physician, not for the judge. Herein lies the essential faultiness of all mere human religions or theologies. They fail to acknowledge the judicial aspect of the question, as that on which the real answer must hinge.”

-Horatius Bonar, The Everlasting Righteousness (Banner of Truth: Edinburgh) 1874/1993, p. 3.

In this Christmas season we can sing, ‘Joy to the world!’ not because sin and it’s effects have been removed from the world, but because guilty sinners can now enter the courtroom of God’s Law and be judged innocent of sin! Let us think of baby Jesus being born “under the law” (Galatians 4:4) to live and die to be the end of the law for everyone who believes (Romans 10:4). Christ has come, He has been crucified and He has taken away God’s judgments against us (Zephaniah 3:15)!

Here is my personal prayer this Christmas season: I want to search deeper into what it means to be justified – declared perfect! – in the courtroom of God’s Law. I want to see more clearly that because this baby lived and died “there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1).

Joy to the Word! Christ has come to ransom sinners! Let the criminals walk free.

- Tony

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Have a wonderful Christmas season!

Book review: The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (Lux Publications)

Book review:

The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (Lux Publications)

I build my Christian library around dead guys — not because I think everything old is better — but because I love reading literary affection towards Christ. There was a time when people wrote books (and read books!) simply on the beauty of Christ. No, I’m not kidding.

For the Puritans, the attention shown to every doctrine helps sculpt theological art that cannot help but point our affections towards Christ. The great examples are men like John Owen, John Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Rutherford.

// 1808-1894

But I am likewise growing fond of a pocket of writers contained in the nineteenth century with similar passions. I speak of Charles Spurgeon [1834-1892] who was — and I believe remains — the greatest preacher in church history. By sheer mass of published material he is unrivaled. Another man, Octavius Winslow [1808-1878], has become my favorite writer. His deeply devotional writing reminds me of Spurgeon, but is a bit more concise and pointed. His Precious Things of God and The Fullness of Christ are treasures! William G.T. Shedd [1820-1894] was a great theologian and preacher whose works remain in print today (if you’ve read them you know why). And then there is Andrew Bonar [1810-1892], a capable writer himself, he focused much of his time making sure the life of M’Cheyne and the letters and sermons of Puritan Samuel Rutherford were not forgotten. And he wrote a heartwarming commentary on the book of Leviticus. Can you believe it?

Worthy to be named as one of the preeminent men of the 19th century is Andrew’s brother, Horatius Bonar [1808-1889]. Horatius was a prolific preacher, author, editor and writer of over 600 hymns! His diverse literary talents remind me of Bunyan, his focus on the Cross and his ability to confront doctrinal concerns of the day remind me of Spurgeon.

// Books

Horatius Bonar wrote my favorite book on my favorite topic, The Everlasting Righteousness. In it, he succeeds in simple and passionate explanation of how sinners are made right with a perfect God (justification). If you are having trouble communicating this concept to others, this book would be a great boost!

And there is God’s Way of Holiness, which exhorts believers to fight hard against sin and take holiness seriously. “It is to a new life that God is calling us; not some new steps in life, some new habits or ways or motives or prospects, but to a new life.”

He also wrote books like “The Rent Veil,” “The Blood of the Cross,” and “God’s Way of Peace.” Each of these books grabs the reader to turn our eyes from the hollow worldliness around us towards the eternal beauty of Christ.

His books drip with the blood of Christ as the only foundation for eternal life, as the greatest pursuit of the Christian life and the focus of our eternal delight. No topic, no sermon, no theme, no hymn veers too far from the blood of Christ.

// Cross

Characteristic of these eminent men of an earlier century, Horatius Bonar can (at length) focus his attention on the Cross. No matter the subject. When we need strength for the Christian journey, Christ is our meat and drink. His blood is “a refuge” for “a troubled conscience and a wounded spirit” and “a resting place” for the “sad and weary.” We look to the cross of Christ to be saved and to be comforted.

Bonar writes,

“The cross has many aspects, and embodies marvelous truths; all these connected with the Son of God. We learn much of Him in looking to that cross, and reading all its mysteries. No wonder that Paul should so glory in that cross. It contains so much of that which meets the whole case of every needy sinner. It brings out so much of the riches of the grace of God and exhibits to us, in Him who was crucified, the free love of God, that free and perfect love which casteth out fear. The cross contains peace, and the sight of the cross draws forth that peace, and fills our souls with it. The cross contains health, and the sight of it brings all that health into us. The cross is like the sun in the sky, which contains everything which our earth needs for light, and warmth, and health, and gladness. We look, and we are saved. We look, and we are comforted. There is the blood of the great sin-offering, the blood that cleanseth from all sin. There is the fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. There is the well of living water, springing up into everlasting life. That cross is both death and life; condemnation and pardon, weakness and strength, shame and glory. It kills, and makes alive; it wounds, and it heals. It is wrath, and it is love; it is terror, and it is tenderness; it is righteousness, and it is grace. It is Satan’s victory, and it is Satan’s overthrow; it is the world’s triumph, and it is the world’s destruction. It saves in crucifying, and it crucifies in saving. All hell is there, and all heaven is there; rebellion is there, and reconciliation is there. That cross seems the embodiment of man’s unpardonable sin, and consequent rejection and banishment; yet it is the embodiment of an eternal pardon, the meeting place between God and the sinner, the link that is to bind earth and heaven together for evermore.”

-Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 729. (Posted with permission from publisher.)

// Life and Works of Bonar

So my excitement was justified when I recently learned that Lux Publications released The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar on CD-Rom. The CD contains biographies, photographs, hymns, sermons, books, articles and unpublished manuscripts. At over 13,000 pages long, this set is easily the largest collection of Horatius Bonar works available today.

The library of works comes in 146 indexed pdf files. The biggest drawback to this collection is the inability for researchers to run text searches on all the works at once. This would be very beneficial.

Even without this search capacity, I was struck with the care taken to compile these works into electronic form. For the first time in decades, these rare works are now preserved for a new generation of readers.

Bottom line: This is an affordable and superb resource for digging deeper into the beauty of Christ and will be easy to integrate into sermon preparation and devotion time. If you are not familiar with Horatius Bonar, I would encourage you to read him.

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UPDATE: For two weeks I was unable to open the index files on my Mac but later successfully opened them on my PC. Even on my Mac, opening and searching these files through Adobe Reader 6.0 was a breeze. Contrary to my initial review, this CD-Rom is very easy to search. For more tips on how to search electronic works efficiently, please read our series on The Puritan Study and especially part 6.

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Related: Tony’s Book Club pick #3: The Everlasting Righteousness by Horatius Bonar
Related: Preach Christ and Him crucified
Related: “Round the cross”: Bonar and the Centrality of the Cross
Related: “Go as a sinner”: Bonar on humbly approaching Christ
Related: “Overlaying the Gospel”: Bonar on the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel

“Overlaying the Gospel”: Bonar on the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel

“Overlaying the Gospel”: Bonar on the temptation to be ashamed of the Gospel

“The apostle so knew it, as to be able to say, ‘I am not ashamed of it,’ [Romans 1:16] — just as elsewhere, speaking of the cross, he says, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ’ [Galatians 6:14]. He was not ashamed of it at Jerusalem, or Athens, or Rome. Many things were there to make him ashamed of it — Jewish prejudice and Gentile pride. But these prevailed not. In spite of contempt and hatred, he held it fast.

We are apt to be ashamed of it. It looks weak, foolish, unintellectual, unphilosophical. It lags behind the age. It has become obsolete; or rather, it refuses to become obsolete. It is beginning to be supplanted by learning and eloquence. Men are apt to shun the gospel as a feeble, childish thing, that has done its work in time past, but is giving place to something higher, and more in accordance with the ‘deep instincts of humanity.’

There were some places in which the apostle might have been specially tempted to be ashamed of the gospel, or afraid of preaching it: at Jerusalem, for there the whole strength of Jewish ritualism rose against it; at Athens, for there it was confronted by the power of Grecian wisdom; at Ephesus, for there the dazzling subtleties of heathen magic rose against it; at Corinth, for there the torrent of human lust and pleasure rushed against it; at Rome, for there was the concentrated energy of earthly idolatry. Yet none of these things moved him. He was not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, though all that was intellectual, and eloquent, and sensual, and refined, and powerful in humanity protested against it, or mocked it as folly.

We are tempted in our day to be ashamed of the gospel. It is thought to be bare, unintellectual, almost childish, by many. Hence they would overlay it with argument and eloquence, to make it more respectable and more attractive. Every such attempt to add to it is being ashamed of it.”

-Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 828. (Posted with permission from publisher.)

“Go as a sinner”: Bonar on humbly approaching Christ

“Go as a sinner”: Bonar on humbly approaching Christ

“God, be merciful to me, a sinner!” (Luke 18:13) were the words that brought me to saving faith in the Fall of 1999. To this day, those simple words and others like them (i.e. “Just as I am”) are so profound that I simply don’t fully grasp the depth of God’s mercy that He would invite me to come to Him, honestly, with all my sin. I naturally seek to please God through self-improvement and compare myself to other worse sinners. I naturally want to appease Him by being good and doing good. This is Cross-neglecting legalism!

God wants us to press close to Him in the honest truth – I am a sinner, empty of righteousness and undeserving of everything but hell forever and that I don’t typically feel like it.

We need to impress our friends, our hearers, our congregations to come to Jesus. Be honest, sincere and open. Even if you cannot feel your sin, take that honesty to Him. And even there, in the honesty of ignorance and in spiritual numbness, you may find truth and rest for your souls in the everlasting righteousness of Christ!

O, that we would stop trying to appease ‘seekers’ with scientific proofs and stop trying to appease legalists with more duties. Let us press everyone we know to go to Jesus honestly, just as they are, in the soiled garments of sin and ignorance. Let sinners come in their tattered rags!

On this topic, yet another gem from Horatius Bonar (1808-1889):

Faith may seem a slight thing to some; and they may wonder how salvation can flow from believing. Hence they try to magnify it, to adorn it, to add to it, in order that it may appear some great thing, something worthy of having salvation as its reward. In so doing, they are actually transforming faith into a work, and introducing salvation by works, under the name of faith. They show that they understand neither the nature nor the office of faith. It saves, simply by handing us over to the Saviour. It saves, not on account of the good works which flow from it, not on account of the love which it kindles, not on account of the repentance which it produces, but solely because it connects us with the Saving One. Its saving efficacy does not lie in its connection with righteousness and holiness, but entirely in its connection with the Righteous and Holy One …

The blood of the cross is that which has ‘made peace;’ and to share this peace God freely calls us. This blood of the cross is that by which we are justified; and to this justification we are invited. This blood of the cross is that by which we are brought nigh to God; and to this blessed nearness we are invited. This blood of the cross is that by which we have redemption, even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace; and this redemption, this forgiveness, is freely set before us. It is by this blood that we have liberty of entrance into the holiest; and God’s voice to each sinner is, ‘Enter in.’ It is by this blood that we are cleansed and washed; and this fountain is free, free as any of earth’s flowing streams, free as the mighty ocean itself, in which all may wash and be clean.

These are good news concerning the blood, — news which should make every sinner feel that it is just what he stands in need of. Nothing less than this; yet nothing more.

And these good news of the blood are no less good news of Him whose blood is shed. For it is by this blood-shedding that He is the Saviour. Without this He could not have been a Redeemer; but, with it, He is altogether such a Redeemer as suits the sinner’s case. In Him there is salvation, — salvation without a price, — salvation for the most totally and thoroughly lost that this fallen earth contains. Go and receive it.

Do you ask, How am I to find salvation, and how am I to go to that God, on the blood of whose Son I have trampled so long? I answer, Go to Him in your proper and present character — that of a sinner. Go with no lie upon your lips, professing to be what you are not, or to feel what you do not. Tell Him honestly what you are, and what you feel, and what you do not feel. ‘Take with you words;’ but let them be honest words, not the words of hypocrisy and deceit. Tell Him that your sin is piercing you; or tell Him that you have no sense of sin, no repentance, no relish for divine things, no right knowledge of your own worthlessness and guilt. Present yourself before Him just as you are, and not as you wish to be, or think you ought to be, or suppose He desires you to be …

Appear before Him, taking for granted just that you are what you are, a sinner; and that Christ is what He is, a Saviour; deal honestly with God, and be assured that it is most thoroughly impossible that you can miss your errand. ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found;’ and you will see that He is found of you. ‘Call upon Him while He is near;’ and you will find how near He is.

-Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 584-585. (Posted with permission from publisher.)

“Round the cross”: Bonar and the Centrality of the Cross

“Round the cross”: Bonar and the Centrality of the Cross

Horatius Bonar (1808-1889) was no handsome man but he was a fantastic writer. Few, if any, writers in church history have better fixated their extended attention upon the beauty of the Cross of Christ. And so I was very excited to learn that Bonar’s massive compilation of works are published electronically by Lux Publications.

The following quote showcases Bonar’s ability to point out falsehood and point the church back to the Cross as the center of its life. Christians are “men alive from the dead” with a message about bloody propitiation and legal transference of guilt. Let the church build around and hold fast to this truth!

Bonar’s words are a good corrective to an age of church-ianity that tends to center around everything but the bloody Cross.

The Errors Of The Age, by Horatius Bonar (published in 1870)

Transfer the divine element to creation at large, you have pantheism; to images of brass or stone, you have idolatry; to the priest or the church, you have Romanism; to forms, and rites, and sacraments, and you have Ritualism; to the visible things of the senses, and you have materialism; to the invisibilities of disembodied spirits, and you have spiritualism; to the intellect, and you have rationalism; to the fancy, and you have religious pictorialism; to the feelings, and you have religious sentimentalism; transfer it to man, simply as man, and you have the last form of Antichrist, — the de-thronization of the divine, the enthronization of the human, the rejection of the God-Man, and the exaltation of a man into His place as the only Messiah of the race, the world’s only Redeemer and King.

Most subtle is the error that would have us deal with religious truth as a mere bundle of abstractions, or ideas, or speculations, of which every man is at liberty to form his own opinion. The essence of the Bible, the Alpha and Omega of revelation, is not truth alone, nor religion alone, but Christianity, a Christianity which is not presented to us merely as the communication of doctrines, but as the settlement of the great personal question between the sinner and God, the solution of the difficulty which law and conscience necessarily raise as to righteousness and grace.

And what is Christianity? Not metaphysics, not mysticism, not a compilation of guesses at truth. It is the history of the seed of the woman, — that seed the Word made flesh: — the Word made flesh the revelation of the invisible Jehovah, the representative of the eternal God, the medium of communication between the Creator and the creature, between earth and heaven.

And of this Christianity, what is the essential characteristic, the indispensable feature from first to last? Is it incarnation or bloodshedding? Is it the cradle or the cross? Is it the scene at Bethlehem or at Golgotha? Assuredly the latter! Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, is no mere outcry of suffering nature, the cross is no mere scene of human martyrdom, and the great sepulcher is no mere Hebrew tomb. It is only through bloodshedding that conscience is purged; it is only at the cross that the sinner can meet with God; it is the cross that knits heaven and earth together; it is the cross that bears up the collapsing universe; it is the pierced hand that holds the golden sceptre; it is at Calvary that we find the open gate of Paradise regained, and the Gospel is good news to the sinner, of liberty to enter in.

Let men, with the newly sharpened axes of rationalism, do their utmost to hew down that cross; it will stand in spite of them. Let them apply their ecclesiastical paint-brush, and daub it all over with the most approved of mediaeval pigments to cover its nakedness, its glory will shine through all. Let them scoff at the legal transference of the sinner’s guilt to a divine substitute, and of that Surety’s righteousness to the sinner, as a Lutheran delusion, or a Puritan fiction, that mutual transference, that wondrous exchange, will be found to be wrapped up with Christianity itself. Let those who, like Cain of old, shrink from the touch of sacrificial blood, and mock the ‘religion of the shambles,’ purge their consciences with the idea of God’s universal Fatherhood, and try to wash their robes and make them white in something else than the blood of the Lamb; to us, as to the saints of other days, there is but one purging of the conscience, one security for pardon, one way of access, one bond of reconciliation, one healing of our wounds, the death of Him on whom the chastisement of our peace was laid, and one everlasting song, ‘unto him who loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood.’

… It is round the cross of God that all truth revolves; and hence all error connected either with His person or His work must be perilous. The revelation of the cross begins at the beginning, and sweeps round a vast circle. It takes up the whole question between the sinner and God, and gives judgment upon every part of it. It condemns man and justifies God. It pronounces authoritatively both as to the way of life and the way of death.

It does not accept earnestness as a substitute for truth, nor a justification or extenuation of error. It does not show man how to lay the foundation of the great settlement for eternity; it lays the foundation, and presents us with everything on God’s side, as finished. It begins by announcing what God has done, before it says one word of what man is to do; it shows us God as the doer and the giver, man as the receiver, setting aside unsparingly every religion and every doctrine which would make man, either in whole or in part, his own Saviour; or which would make worship or service a thing of proxy, and shift the personality and the responsibility of the great transaction between the soul and God, to a priest, or a minister, or a church, or a ceremony, or a sacrament, or a creed.

Thus it is that through the belief of God’s testimony to the great propitiation, we are not only justified, but we know, we are assured, that we are; and thus it is, that through the simple reception of the glad tidings, all the gladness which they contain is transferred to us. Believing, we rejoice, we are saved, we have everlasting life.

The revelation of ‘the Christ’ embraces in it the revelation of the church in Him, as His temple, His body, His bride, His present witness on earth, and the watcher for His return in glory. This church, even on earth, is no mere association of men holding certain opinions, — no mere corporation favoured with certain privileges, — but a body chosen and called out of a world of darkness. Its legislation is divine, not human; its laws are not its own ideas of expediency and order, but the commandments of its head. The essence of its constitution is not socialism, nor republicanism, nor despotism, nor anarchy, but an unearthly organization, founded on entire subjection to its heavenly head; an organization working itself out in order, unity, growth, fruitfulness, love, and zeal. Its ministers are not philosophers, nor lecturers, nor theorists, nor humourists, nor orators, nor priests, but messengers of God’s free love, expositors of the word, shepherds of the flock, and executors of government and discipline. Its members are not politicians, nor lovers of pleasure, nor worshippers of gold, nor men who are trying to make the best of both worlds, but men alive from the dead, through the power of the Holy Ghost; possessors of a heavenly peace, bearers of a cross, yet heirs of a kingdom; strangers upon the earth, yet citizens of the New Jerusalem, which cometh down from God out of heaven.

…It is truth that makes us free, for all error is bondage. If, then, you would be freemen, grasp the truth tenaciously, bravely, calmly; bind it round you as a girdle, treasure it in your heart of hearts. ‘Buy the truth and sell it not;’ that is, get it at any cost, part with it never. Error is sin, for which every man shall give an account to God; and sin is no mere mischance or misfortune that claims pity only, but not condemnation nor punishment; else what means the fiery law? What means the cross of the sin-bearer? What means the great white throne? What means the everlasting fire? ‘Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about with truth,’ remembering your high calling as witnesses for the truth and the True One. Let neither your words nor your lives give any uncertain sound. Every man to whom the Bible comes is responsible for believing all the truth which that revelation proclaims, and for rejecting all the error which it condemns. Cleave, then, to the Word of the living God; and sit, as teachable disciples, at the feet of Him who has said, Learn of me.

-Horatius Bonar, The Christian Treasury in The Life and Works of Horatius Bonar (CD-Rom, Lux Publications) pp. 1207-1212. (Posted with permission from publisher.)