Letter to a Wife

Because of travel John Newton and his beloved wife Mary were often separated for several weeks and even for months at a time. On April 17, 1774 John Newton wrote the following letter to Mary [as it appears in the published collection Letters to a Wife (London, 1793; now long op)]:

Though I miss you continually, I am neither lonely nor dull. I hope the Lord will give me a heart to wait upon Him, and then I shall do well enough till you are restored to me. I need not wish the time away. It flies amazingly fast, and alas too poorly improved. These little separations should engage us to seek his blessing that we may be prepared for the hour (which must come) when one of us must have the trial of living awhile without the other. The Lord, who appoints and times all things wisely and well. He only knows which of us will be reserved for this painful exercise. But I rely on his all-sufficiency and faithfulness to make our strength equal to our day. It will require a power above our own, to support us under either party of the alternative, whether we are called to leave, or to resign. But He who so wonderfully brought us together, and has so mercifully spared us hitherto, can sweeten what would otherwise be most bitter to the flesh. If he is pleased to shine upon us all will be well. His presence can supply the loss of the most endeared creature comforts as a candle may be easily spared when the sun is seen.

John Newton’s beloved wife Mary died on December 15, 1790 after a long battle with cancer. John Newton was by her side when she died. He later wrote: “When I was sure she was gone, I took off her ring, according to her repeated injunction, and put it upon my own finger. I then kneeled down, with the servants who were in the room, and returned the Lord my unfeigned thanks for her deliverance, and her peaceful dismission.”

Upheld by God’s sustaining grace, John Newton lived under the trial of living without his bride for 17 years.

The essence of the Christian religion

“The essence of the Christian religion consists in the reality that

the creation of the Father,

ruined

by sin,

is restored

in the death of the Son of God,

and re-created

by the grace of the Holy Spirit

into a kingdom of God.”

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, 1:61.

Holiness

From Herman Bavinck‘s Reformed Dogmatics (4:248),

To understand the benefit of sanctification correctly, we must proceed from the idea that Christ is our holiness in the same sense in which he is our righteousness. He is a complete and all-sufficient Savior. He does not accomplish his work halfway but saves us really and completely. He does not rest until, after pronouncing his acquittal in our conscience, he has also imparted full holiness and glory to us. By his righteousness, accordingly, he does not just restore us to the state of the just who will go scot-free in the judgment of God, in order then to leave us to ourselves to reform ourselves after God’s image and to merit eternal life. But Christ has accomplished everything. He bore for us the guilt and punishment of sin, placed himself under the law to secure eternal life for us, and then arose from the grave to communicate himself to us in all his fullness for both our righteousness and sanctification (1 Cor. 1:30). The holiness that must completely become ours therefore fully awaits us in Christ.

Grave Digger

You may remember that my kids are rednecks who love monster trucks. Well, one of the discoveries that awaited us as we traveled through North Carolina was the home of monster truck Grave Digger in the town of Kill Devil Hills—a fittingly named hometown for a fierce monster truck. Outside on the property four old models of the monster truck were spread out (the Grave Digger legacy is now 22 models deep). The public was invited into the workshop and the gift shop. While we were there I grabbed this picture of the kids:

And here is video of a run by GD in the 2007 freestyle competition in Atlanta. Having watched this 20 or more times I think this is the family favorite YouTube clip:

His lightnings light up the world

Chicago has seen a fair bit of wild storms this week. Last night a Craig Shimala filmed lightning hitting three of Chicago’s tallest towers at the same time. Insane shot. Amazing God.

The Glamour of Grammar

Journalism guru Roy Peter Clark is the author of one excellent book for writers, Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies for Every Writer. A free podcast summary of each tool can be found here.

I see Clark has a new book slated for release in mid August, The Glamour of Grammar: A Guide to the Magic and Mystery of Practical English. Looks fabulous.

Hard Thoughts

C. H. Spurgeon:

Let us repent heartily of every hard thought we have ever had of our God and Father. I am forced to look back upon some such sins of thought with much distress of mind. They have come from me in serious pain and depression of spirit; and now I pray the Lord of his great mercy to look at them as though I had never thought them, for I do heartily abhor them, and I loathe myself in his sight that I should ever have questioned his tender love and gracious care. If you have similarly transgressed, dear friends, in your dark nights of trouble, come now, and bow your heads, and pray the Lord to forgive his servants concerning this thing; for he is so good, so gracious, that it is a wanton cruelty to think of him as otherwise than overflowing with love.

New Testament Theology

In his biblical theology of the New Testament lectures Gordon Fee proposes a unifying principle that must include at least four items:

1. The church as an eschatological community, who form the new covenant people of God.
2. The eschatological framework of their existence and thinking.
3. Their being constituted by God’s eschatological salvation effected through the death and resurrection of Christ.
4. Their focus on Jesus as Messiah, Lord, Son of God.

Or to put in another way:

• Foundation: A gracious and merciful God, who is full of love toward all.
• Framework: Eschatological existence as already/not yet.
• Focus: Jesus, the Son of God, who as God’s suffering servant Messiah effected eschatological salvation for humanity through his death and resurrection, and is now the exalted Lord and coming King.
• Fruit: The church as an eschatological community, who, constituted by Christ’s death and the gift of the Spirit, and thus restored into God’s likeness, form His new covenant people.

Fee puts this together in a condensed summary:

Through the death and resurrection of his Son Jesus, our Lord, a gracious and loving God has effected eschatological salvation for his new covenant people, the church, who now, as they await Christ’s coming, live the life of the future by the power of the Spirit.

e-Interlinear

The features of Logos Bible Software 4 for Mac continue to roll out. With the latest pre-release (Alpha 22.1) the ESV reverse interlinear text is now functional. Users can choose to display the following along with their ESV Bible text and cross-references:

• Manuscript (Hebrew/Greek)
• Manuscript transliteration
• Lemma
• Lemma transliteration
• Morphology
• Strongs number (hyperlinked)
• Louw-Nida number (hyperlinked)

Each feature can be turned on/off to the user’s liking.

The beauty of the electronic version is in its cleanliness. The tradition printed interlinears spread the English text out and make it difficult to read. This problem is handled well in Logos. See for yourself. Here’s John 3:16–17 with all the features engaged (click for larger image):

Beautiful.

The Imitation of Christ

“Always, when the Scriptures exhort the believer to be as Christ, they point to the act of his love in the atonement for sin. This may seem strange since this act is his alone and we can and may recognize him as Mediator in this act alone, but the fact remains that the entire New Testament is in agreement on this point. This required conformity to an exclusive act of love would be a contradictory demand if it were a conformity to a law illustrated in the life of Christ: but it is possible nonetheless, and makes good sense, when it presupposes and flows from the Atonement. … The imitation of Christ could never be part of the Good News, or the Evangel of Grace, were it a Via Dolorosa whose goal was God’s grace; but because it receives its impetus from the revelation of God’s antecedent grace, a grace unapplied for and unsolicited, therefore it is a wonderfully enriching evangelical truth.”

—G. C. Berkouwer, Faith and Sanctification (Eerdmans, 1952), pages 149–150.