I’m currently in the Shannon, IRE airport as I await my connnecting flight to London, where I will spend two days with my brother and his wife before flying to N. Ireland to participate in one of my dearest friend’s weddings, Stephen Witmer.
Coming off a weekend marriage conference, no doubt, this wedding will be especially endearing. This past weekend I was reminded of the marvelous blessing of God my wife is!
Michael McMullen has released a second volume of Edwards previously unpublished sermons: The Glory and Honor of God
As many of you may know, Yale is launching a new Jonathan edwards online site with tons of previously unaccessible manuscripts made available. I am beta testing it and it looks pretty good so far. For more go to: Jonathan Edwards online
Many evangelicals worship Christ, sometimes the Father and rarely the Spirit. Many of these doxological binitarian evangelicals are monotheistic (not trinitarian) in practice. Many of these Christ-worshipping monotheists only know Christ as “Savior.” They love and worship and follow Jesus because of his substitutionary, reconciling death and resurrection. A few know him more intimately and can explain the treasures of redemption in Christ by pointing out our Lord’s work of expiation, propitiation, imputation, reconciliation, etc. Such christology is narrow. The gospel of Christ and the Christ of the gospel are so much more, but certainly not less. To be sure, Christ is a mediator, the Mediator (1 Tm 2.5), but he is mediator of more than “salvation.” Jesus Christ is mediator of creation, redemption and consummation. He is mediator on behalf of God and on behalf of man, between the Spirit and God and man and God. Perhaps teh most overlooked aspect of christology today is Christ as consummator. We all agree that he is coming back to wrap things up and “take us home.” However, Christ as consummator is infinitely more. Jonathan Edwards knew this well and explains the necessity of Jesus as consummator in a previously unpublished sermon on 1 Tm 2.5. Read it. Re-read it. Think about it. Think about him. Worship him afresh; worship him in unison with Father and Spirit:
“God had a design before the foundation of the world of gathering all things to himself. Since all things are of him and through him, so he intended they should be to him and also of uniting all chosen creatures one to another in one society in perfect union, one unto another. When he made the world, it was with this purpose. When he made heaven an d made the angels in it, it was with this design. When he made this lower world and made man in it, it was with this design. His Son was the person pitched upon and chosen of God, by whom and in whom this great event should be brought about. He was to be the head of the union, that all might be united in him and by him to himself. Therefore, God created all things by Jesus Christ (Eph 3.9-11).”
Taken from “Jesus Christ isteh Great Mediator and Head of Union,” in The Blessing of God, ed. Michael D. McMullen
Many thanks to Josh Otte for turning me on to Reggie Kidd’s With One Voice. Here’s a quote on Kidd’s redemptive-historical, Jesus-centered book on worship:
“When Paul tells his churches to “let the word of Christ dwell
. . . richly” among them by means of “psalms, hymns and spiritual
songs” (Col. 3:16 niv), he’s inviting them to do more than use
music as a “warm-up” to the sermon. The song is not ornamentation;
it is participation in the very redemption of all creation. It
plays its own role in God’s showcasing his saving power before
humans and angels (Eph. 3:10).”
