Reformed Baptist Congregation Exaltation | Edification | Evangelism
The Threefold Use of the Law (triplex usus legis)
It was “free will” that got us all into trouble to begin with. What fools we are to imagine that it will get us out of that trouble now. As Luther said, the will is “unfree.” The will of man is always bound to the nature of man. Is that nature sinful or holy? It is sinful therefore, the will only does that which it nature dictates, i.e.; sin. So much for having a free will – they can keep it. Far better to have that will changed by the sovereign intervention of God in regeneration. Now I am free to choose – either to sin or not sin, yet the freedom to sin is also bondage, so it really is not truly free. For that I must wait to be with the Lord, for then I shall be like the Lord.
As we come to this subject, the Evangelical Cause from the Reformation to the Great Awakening, it would be right, firstly, to ask the question, why start with the Reformation and why end with the Great Awakening? Surely, Evangelicals existed before and after such great events. The answer is, of course they did and still do. So why these two as starting point and end? The answer is, because these two events (the Reformation and the Great Awakening) were events of such singular magnitude. There have simply been no other events like them in the history of the Christian Church. Second, why is it necessary to speak about the Evangelical cause? Surely, Evangelicals know who they are and what they believe. It is sad to have to remind ourselves that this is no longer true. Most Christians do not know who they are or what they believe or where they have come from. This was not the case during the Reformation, through the Puritan Age and on to the Great Awakening. The Christians of those times knew precisely who they were and what they believed. The word evangelical has come under scrutiny for good and for bad in recent times. In fact, more than any other time, Evangelicals themselves, do not seem to know what it means to be evangelical. If this is the case, and I am convinced it is, then this is a very important issue. [Read more…]
Genesis 2:24 speaks of leaving & cleaving as a man’s responsibility when he takes a wife to himself. It is interesting to note from the English perspective that the word “cleave” offers two distinct meanings. Both are verbal: one means to adhere to and the second means to divide or split asunder. The Hebrew word “dabaq” signals “to cling to”, “to be joined to” and the Latin “adherebit” confirms this. The second English meaning apples to the “leaving” part – for a man does divide from his father and mother to form a new union. Marriage really is the Big Cleaver and thank God for it.
“Long have I held that war is an enormous crime: Long have I regarded all battles as but murder on a large scale” (from – “India’s Ills and England’s Sorrows,” September 6, 1857, Music Hall, Royal Surrey Gardens).