magnifcent obsession

2006-04-14T17:05:00.000+01:00

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us for it is written “cursed be everyone who hangs on a tree” Galatians 3v13

In the book of Galatians the believers are questioning as to whether they should go back and try to earn salvation and become more holy by living according to the law. The apostle Paul writes a letter to show them the folly of this approach to the Christian life.

The verse before us comes after one of Paul’s argument about the futility of trying to work for salvation by obeying the law. Saying that if anyone wants to work for their salvation by obeying certain rules and make sure they are saved by obeying the law then they have to live by it or have to do everything in it. V 12. V 10 makes clear that everyone who does not do everything in the law is under a curse and so because no body can keep all of Gods requirements then everyone is under a curse. Who can claim that they have loved the lord their God with all their heart mind and soul and loved their neighbour as themselves. Failure to do this means that you are under the curse of God.

The curse of the law that everyone is under because they have not been able to fulfil is in the words of John Flavel “The curse of the law is its condemning sentence whereby a sinner is bound over to death even the death of soul and body.” the curse of the law is a sentence that is placed on sinners like you and me whereby we face the very judgement of God for our disobedience to his requirements revealed to us ever through our conscience or the word of God.
Again Flavel writes “The curse of the law is the most dreadful thing imaginable it strikes at the life of a sinner yea his best life the eternal life of the soul and when it hath condemned no reformation can lose the guilty sinner for it requires for its reparation that which no mere creature can give even an infinite satisfaction.”

No one can get rid of the curse of the law on their law it requires infinite satisfaction it is a debt that we cannot pay. But God had a plan of redemption to rescue us from the law. Commenting on the use of the idea of redemption James Dunn comments “The metaphor is buying back or from and so of redemption by payment of a price (not necessary as a technical term for purchasing the freedom of a slave). The image is of a seriously disadvantaged condition or status (under the curse) having been rectified by the decisive act of another (the cross) on behalf of those disadvantaged.”

As we have seen we are those who are disadvantaged and we can not pay the price to get out of the horrible situation we are in so we need a one who will pay the price on our behalf. We can not climb out of the pit of the curse we need someone to lift us from it. We need the redeeming work of God.

The verse sets out the way in which God has done this. Christ has become the curse in our place “The thought is not just of an action by one which had benefit for others (a man laying down his life for his friends or country) much more the thought is of Jesus as acting in a representative capacity…the law printing Its curse on Jesus as it were so that in his death the force of the curse was exhausted and those held under its power were liberated.”

Christ has taken our place the curse of the law that should have been ours has became Christ he acted directly on our behalf. As a substitute taken our place. As John Flavel wrote on christ becoming the curse “not that Christ was made the very curse itself, changed into a curse no more then when the word is said to be made flesh the divine nature was converted into flesh but it assumed or took flesh and so Christ took the curse upon himself therefore it is said 2 cor v21 “he was made sin for us who knew no sin”. that is our sin was imputed to our surety and laid upon him for satisfaction.”

My curse was placed upon him so that God would be fully satisfied in his wrath for our breaking of the law. So that as again John Flavel wrote that “The death of Christ hath made full satisfaction to God for all the sins of his elect.” every sin that you and I have committed has been punished, we have not been punished but rather Christ has been punished so that the full effects and consequences of our disobedience to the law gain be dealt with. He has taken upon himself our curse and hence the awful punishment of our sin.

“As it is written cursed is anyone who is hung on a tree” the full eternal weight of the curse and punishment our contained in these words. To understand these word you have got to understand that within the law their was numerous punishments for sin wherein people would receive according to their measure of wrong.

But as Peter Lewis writes “However the law of Israel even in its greatest penalties could never express the real nature of sin or the full wrath of god towards sin. Not even capital punishment could do that! The only judge who could fully express Gods wrath and inflict Gods penalty against sin was God himself; and the only penalty which could express sins full desert and Gods holy wrath was the ultimate penalty which would be called in the book of revelation the second death: eternal loss and anguish so terrifying symbolised in the new testament as eternal darkness or eternal fire.

Clearly no earthly or Israelite could inflict this. Yet their was one thing they could do they could announce it! They could proclaim that a man had died under the curse of Yahweh they expressed this by hanging his executed corpse on a wooden stake until sundown according to Gods explicate direction…it expressed the momentous fact that this man had died an accursed thing and was thenceforth finally and forever subject to the wrath of God.”

When Jesus hung on the tree the eternal hell that you and I deserved the infinite punishment of God was poured out on Christ he bore every last jot an ounce of the fullness of the eternal wrath of God.

2006-04-14T13:31:00.000+01:00

The delight of the pre-existent Christ in the Godhead

Is the wisdom of proverbs 8 Jesus?

Objection 1 verse 22 shows that wisdom was the work of the lord suggesting it was created therefore Christ would have been created? But Wayne Grudem writes that the word does not actually mean created but means “to get or acquire” he goes on to suggest it could mean “the father began to direct and make use of the powerful creative work of the son in the creation of the universe”.

Objection 2 surely the wisdom is surely simply an attribute of God? But even in the new testament Jesus has been made unto us the wisdom of God. Or in other words Jesus is made wisdom, wisdom is a person as well as an attribute or quality.

So I would argue that the wisdom of proverbs 8 is Jesus. So we see in verse 30 that as John Flavel writes that “The condition and state of Jesus Christ before his incarnation, was a state of the highest and most unspeakable delight and pleasure, in the enjoyment of God.”

In this verse we have how Christ viewed his role, he was a craftsman one who has skill and design in making things. So it is with Christ he was the creator of the world he made all things with intricate care and creativity. The nature of delight was that it filled him, every part of him was full of pleasure. It also happened on a continuous process day after day. The place of his pleasure was the presence of God that always caused Christ continual delight.

“These delights of the father and the Son one in another, knew not a moment’s interruption, or diminution: thus did these great and glorious persons mutually let forth their fullest pleasure and delight, each into the heart of the other, they lay as it were embosomed one in another, entertaining themselves with delights and pleasures ineffable and unconceivable.” John Flavel

Christ knew before time as he was in his active relationship with God a fullness of joy in Gods presence as psalm 16v11 speaks. What condescension was this to leave such inexpressible delights of God to become man a die a death of such pain for those who had only rejected him.

2006-04-14T13:30:00.000+01:00

“And the word was with God”

Peter Lewis writes “these words contain supremely important principles for all truly Christian faith: that the word was a distinct person that the word was uniquely related to God that the word was himself God.”

Firstly that the word was a distinct person. Again Lewis writes “the word is all that God is, yet, although part of the Godhead, he is in someway distinct from God”. As the Nicene creed states “Jesus Christ the only begotten son of God begotten of the father before all the worlds God of God, light of light, very God of very God begotten not made, being of one substance with the father by whom all things were made.” Jesus is God (as we shall in the next study) he is fully part of the trinity yet at the same time is his own separate person so as it can say he exists with God.

Wayne Grudem writes “the fact that God is three persons means that the father is no the son they are distinct persons…and it means that the son is not the Holy Spirit.” Jesus as a separate person but equally on as the same as God is a difficult concept to grasp as how can one be the same as three yet remain one. This is a truth that cannot be comprehended but should rather be received. When God created us he gave us a degree of intelligence which we can use to reason part of that reason refutes the idea of the trinity. But the reason we do have is not large enough to understand God in all his fullness therefore the truth of the trinity should be received as truth that goes beyond our understanding but is none the less real and true.

Secondly the words denote a unique dynamic relationship with God due to the way the words are constructed in Greek and the specific words used the words imply a more active dynamic relationship. Leon Morris translates this part of the verse “the word continually was” implying an active not static existence. So Christ had an active role in eternity it is not as if he was around and then decided to do, he was a being before all time.

Commentators have spoken of this active relationship by translating the verse “the word was face to face with God” Basil Atkinson. This implies an intimate relationship of love and communion.

So the word for all eternity was intimate fellowship with God the father and God the Holy Spirit.

2006-04-14T13:27:00.000+01:00

“In the beginning was the word”

Robert Duncan Culver writes on the pre-existence of Christ “The deity of Christ is not necessary to his pre-existence but his pre-existence is necessary to his deity one of who’s attributes is eternity”. So before John can establish the fact that Jesus is God he first looks to establish that Jesus has always existed.

The verse writes Kostenberger acts as a means of “preparing for the later reference to a new “beginning”, the incarnation of the Word.” Just as what preceded the creation narrative was “in the beginning God so what proceed the new creation narrative is “in the beginning was the word.”

Jesus has always existed “there never was when he was not” Athansasius. He has been from all eternity outside time itself. These words echo the words of Genesis 1v1 which says “In the beginning God”, this verse sets out the fact that before creation God existed. This proposes three things. First that God was fine without creation. God did not need creation in order to exist he was able to exist outside of creation by his own accord. Secondly that God was not created if God existed before creation then he himself is not created but is rather uncreated. Thirdly that God existed before time or outside of time. Before creation their was no time as their was no sequence of events to create time therefore God existed outside of time. All these three are then attributable to Christ as “in the beginning was the word”.

“John contention is that at the point where we reach the boundary of all human conceptualising we have to begin our speaking about Jesus Christ; he shares Gods Eternity” Bruce Milne. When we see Jesus born that is not the start of his existence but he existed before he existed on earth. Jesus has always been around.

Jesus himself saw this as a fundamental truth in his ministry Robert Duncan Culver writes “about forty times in Johns gospel alone Jesus uses expressions though not claiming pre-existence do imply it”. Examples include John 3v13, 6v62 and 8v14. The apostle Paul also made the pre-existence of Christ an important point in Colossians 1v17.

2006-04-14T13:26:00.000+01:00

An introduction to studies in John 1v1

John Calvin commenting on this verse writes; “In this introduction he asserts the eternal divinity of Christ in order to inform us that he is the eternal God who was manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 4:16).” He goes on to say “and this doctrine is highly necessary to be known; for since apart from it we ought not at all seek life and salvation how could our faith rest on Christ, if we did not know with certainty what is here taught?”

Here in these verses the full deity of Christ is expanded in terms of existence with God and his existence as God and his pre-existence before all things. We get to see Christ in the trinity in these verses. Peter Lewis says of these verses that they are “the most exalted passages in the entire Scriptures, and one that quite uniquely uncovers the life in eternity and the in the Godhead, of the one who we know as Jesus of Nazareth”.

These next studies will look to cover the three facets of Christ that we see in this verse:
“In the beginning was the word” this part looks at the pre-existence of Christ by that I mean the fact that Christ existed before anything else. “And the word was God” this part addresses’ the deity of Christ that Jesus is God. “And the word was with God” this part looks into the relation of Jesus Christ as his own person in the Godhead.

By looking at these verse we get the clearest picture as to how Jesus existed before his incarnation. We also see in them Jesus one who is high and lifted up and too lofty for words. This verse acts like a light that shines on all the person and work of Christ in the bible enabling us to see fully and correctly what is said of Jesus Christ.

Mathew Henry tells a story in his commentary on John of Francis Junius who upon reading these verses “observed such a divinity in the argument, such an authority and majesty in the style, that his flesh trembled and he was struck with such amazement that for a whole day he scarcely knew where he was or what he did.”

2006-04-13T16:33:00.000+01:00

An introduction to studies on the beauty of Christ.

I am taking a break from studying enjoying God to start a new series on the beauty of Christ. I believe as examined in a previous study that the father who is omniscient knowing everything fully chooses to delight in the son then he must be a source of true delight. For the father would know if the son was not worth delighting in or if their was an object to which the delight was worth giving more too. Therefore how much more then should we delight in the Son if the father finds him to be so delightful. Our delight should be and can be found in Jesus Christ. So by studying the beauty of Christ I want to aid our enjoying of God as well as our passion for him and in turn our devotion to him.

Psalm27v4 “One thing I ask of the LORD, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to seek him in his temple.”

This has been a favourite verse of mine for a while the idea that God is beautiful and should be our main desire seemed exciting and fascinating. But I had a problem and that was I could not understand how could David gaze upon Gods beauty when no one has seen God and that God is invisible as well as spirit? Was this David having a mystical experience or was he seeing God like the prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel did or maybe John on the island of Patmos. But this I felt was not a satisfactory answer to the problem of how we can behold or see the beauty of God.

But then the answer hit me as I was mediating on why David had to be in the temple to see the beauty of God. David saw the beauty of God through the objects in the temple revealing God. As he saw the altar he saw both Gods holiness in regards to sin as well as his provision in making a means of atonement. So as he saw and gazed on Gods revelation of himself in the house of God so he was able to see the beauty of God.

So for us to gaze and behold the beauty of God all we need to do is study and mediate on how God has revealed himself through his word. The pinnacle of how he has revealed himself is though his Son, “who is the image of the invisible God”. So let us behold the glory of God through looking at the wonder of the beauty of the Son of God Jesus Christ

Spurgeon Commenting on this verse wrote “let all our affections be bound in one and set that affection on heaven.” David chief or main desire above all else was to see the beauty of God. This desire must have stemmed from previous encounters with the beauty of God were his soul was ravished with inexpressible delights. So much so that all his affections and desires were drawn out to one to see more of the beauty of God. We see here the nobility and grandeur as well as the power of studying Christ. That the effects of the beauty of God would have such allurements on one so great as David is a thought worth comprehending.

So let us tread with caution and awe but with focused desire to see the Lord in his beauty as he is revealed in the splendour of Jesus Christ in the word of God.

“The study of Christ is ever the most noble subject that ever a soul spent itself upon”. John Flavel

2006-04-06T21:36:00.000+01:00

Enjoying God in the life of Jonathan Edwards.

These are the personal autobiographical words of the puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards on how he began to enjoy God and found himself continually in the place of enjoying God. Allow them to inspire you and cause you to consider more the weight of excellency in enjoying God.

“King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen. As I read the words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before Never any words of scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that
God, and be rapt up to him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in him for ever! I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to pray to God that I might enjoy him, and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection.”

Talking of when he thought about the things of God he said “An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations of them. And my mind was greatly engaged to spend my time in reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of his person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in him.”

When he would meditate on Christ he would use the Song of Songs as an aid and “the whole book of Canticles used to be pleasant to me, and I used to be much in reading it, about that time; and found, from time to time, an inward sweetness, that would carry me away, in my contemplations. This I know not how to express otherwise, than by a calm, sweet abstraction of soul from all the concerns of this world; and sometimes a kind of vision, or fixed ideas and imaginations, of being alone in the mountains, or some solitary wilderness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with Christ, and wrapt and swallowed up in God. The sense I had of divine things, would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my heart; an ardour of soul, that I know not how to express.”

He began to see God more and more in creation so that “my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and more lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of every thing was altered; there seemed to be, as it were, a calm sweet cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost every thing. God's excellency, his wisdom, his purity and love, seemed to appear in every thing; in the sun, moon, and stars; in the clouds, and blue sky; in the grass, flowers, trees; in the water, and all nature; which used greatly to fix my mind. I often used to sit and view the moon for continuance; and in the day, spent much time in viewing the clouds and sky, to behold the sweet glory of God in these things; in the mean time, singing forth, with a low voice my contemplations of the Creator and Redeemer.”

“I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist, Psal. 119:28. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations.”

2006-04-02T19:21:00.000+01:00

Henry Scougal on enjoying God

For Scougal the love of God was first initiated from a realisation about the glory of god, “a delightful and affectionate sense of the divine perfections.” This sense of wonder and enjoyment of God is what “makes the soul resign and sacrifice itself wholly unto him, desiring above all things to please him, and delighting in nothing so much as in fellowship and communion with him, and being ready to do or suffer any thing for his sake, or at his pleasure.”

“As divine love doth advance and elevate the soul, so it is that alone which can make it happy.” This form of divine love is what makes the heart alive and real giving it its greatest happiness. It is this love that “the highest and most ravishing pleasures, the most solid and substantial delights that human nature is capable of.” The reason is that it is the place of where the affections are put that makes the heart soar as much. They “arise from the endearments of a well-placed and successful affection.”

On the contrary “that which embitters love, and makes it ordinarily a very troublesome and hurtful passion, is the placing it on those who have not worth enough to deserve it”. It is the object of love and seeking that does not allow the heart to find satisfaction.

His conclusion is this “to all these evils are they exposed, whose chief and supreme affection is placed on creatures like themselves”. the place of dissatisfaction is found in loving the creature “but the love of God delivers us from them all”. What gives the heart pleasure and rightful satisfaction is when it turns itself in love to that which is the highest and most perfect object God.
This idea has massive implications for how we approach religion. “The exercises of religion, which to others are insipid and tedious, do yield the highest pleasures and delight to souls possessed with divine love.” This is because religion allows the heart to focus on God and therefore is able to find perfection in its direction of love. Therefore “they rejoice when they are called “to go up to the house of the Lord,” that they may “see his power and his glory, as they have formerly seen it in the sanctuary.” They never think themselves so happy, as when, having retired from the world, and gotten free from the noise and hurry of affairs, and silenced all their clamorous passions (those troublesome guests within,) they have placed themselves in the presence of God, and entertain fellowship and communion with him: they delight to adore his perfections, and recount his favours,—and to protest their affection to him, and tell him a thousand times that they love him; to lay their troubles or wants before him, and disburden their hearts in his bosom.”

2006-04-02T19:18:00.000+01:00

The fathers delight in the son and our response to it amplified by the thoughts of Richard Sibbes.

God loves himself and pursues his own glory because he views himself as the thing of greatest worth therefore God loves Jesus as he is the image of the father.

First as he is God, the Son of God, the engraven image of his Father, so he is primum amabile, the first lovely thing that ever was. When the Father loves him, he loves himself in him, so he loves him as God, as the second person, as his own image and character.

God delighted in the humanity of Jesus as Jesus was the greatest of all men and when god made man in the garden of Eden he was well pleased. So even more so he should be pleased with the greatest of all men his own workmanship.

And as man he loves him, for as man he was the most excellent creature in the world, he was conceived, fashioned, and framed in his mother's womb by the Holy Ghost. It is said, Heb. 10:5, God gave him a body. God the Father by the Holy Ghost fashioned and framed and fitted him with a body, therefore God must needs love his own workmanship.

There is nothing to displease the father in the son as the son had no sin in him and was perfect and so could not displease the father. Meaning God could not, not find delight in his son.

Again, there was nothing in him displeasing to God, there was no sin found in his life any way, therefore as man he was well pleasing to God. He took the manhood and ingrafted it into the second person, and enriched it there; therefore he must needs love the manhood of Christ, being taken into so near a union with the Godhead

God does whatever he pleases and therefore Jesus’ work as mediator would have been very pleasing to the father because it was ordained and decreed by him therefore was be his pleasure. So Jesus the one who performs the will of the father must therefore be the fathers pleasure.
As God and man mediator especially, he loves and delights in him. In regard of his office, he must needs delight in his own ordinance and decree. Now lie decreed and sealed him to that office, therefore he loves and delights in him as a mediator of his own appointing and ordaining, to be our king, and priest, and prophet.

The fathers delight is in the sons obedience unto death as well as the sons humiliation and incarnation to do the fathers will. For he we see the sons measure of love for the father as well as free voluntary submission to his will.

Again, he loved and delighted in him, in regard of the execution of his office both in doing and suffering. In doing, the evangelist says, 'He did all things well,' Mark 7:37. When he healed the sick, and raised the dead, and cured all diseases, whatsoever he did was well done. And for his suffering, God delighted in him for that, as it is in John 10:17, 'My Father loves me, because I lay down my life;' and so in Isa. 53:12, 'He shall divide him a portion with the great, because he poured out his soul unto death;' and in Phil. 2:9, 'Because he abased himself to the death of the cross, God gave him a name above all names:' therefore God loves and delights in him for his suffering and abasement.

God delight in Jesus is therefore caused by many a reason and drawn out by numerous motives.
Therefore God delighted in him, as God, as man, as mediator God-man, in his doings, in his sufferings, every way.

So lets conclude if the father who is omniscient knowing everything fully chooses to delight in the son then he must be a source of true delight. For the father would know if the son was not worth delighting in or if their was an object to which the delight was worth giving more too. Therefore how much more then should we delight in the Son if the father finds him to be so delightful. Our delight should be and can be found in Jesus Christ.

2006-04-02T19:16:00.000+01:00

A theology for enjoying God: Part 3

God will always be the consistently source of highest good and therefore will be the highest or chief delight in all existence this will not change. He will continually offer his goodness to creation to be enjoyed and delighted in.

It is one of the excellencies of the Creator which distinguishes Him from all His creatures. God is perpetually the same: subject to no change in His being, attributes, or determinations. Therefore God is compared to a 'Rock' (Deut 32:4, etc.) which remains immovable, when the entire ocean surrounding it is continually in a fluctuating state; even so, though all creatures are subject to change, God is immutable. Because God has no beginning and no ending, He can know no change. He is everlastingly 'the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning' (James 1:17

God will remain forever perfect and therefore will always be enjoyed by those who behold the radiance of his glory. As his glory will never fade or spoil all that God is today he will be forever. And all that god was in eternity passed he will be today and forever he will not nor cannot change. For all that is said and thought about enjoying God will remain consistently the same.

God is immutable in His essence. His nature and being are infinite, and so, subject to no mutations. There never was a time when He was not; there never will come a time when He shall cease to be. God has neither evolved, grown, nor improved. All that He is today, He has ever been, and ever will be. 'I am the LORD, I change not' (Mal 3:6) is His own unqualified affirmation. He cannot change for the better, for He is already perfect; and being perfect, He cannot change for the worse. Altogether unaffected by anything outside Himself, improvement or deterioration is impossible. He is perpetually the same. He only can say, 'I AM THAT I AM' (Exo 3:14). He is altogether uninfluenced by the flight of time. There is no wrinkle upon the brow of eternity. Therefore His power can never diminish nor His glory ever fade.

2006-04-02T19:14:00.000+01:00

A theology for enjoying God: Part 2

God is higher and greater then all creation he is above and beyond all that is in existence. Therefore he is the greatest being imaginable none can compare to him. So therefore he is the greatest delight in existence for he above anything else that could possibly cause delight. He is the chief delight nothing else can compare.

The supremacy of the true and living God might well be argued from the infinite distance which separates the mightiest creatures from the almighty Creator. He is the Potter, they are but the clay in His hands, to be molded into vessels of honour, or to be dashed into pieces (Psa 2:9) as He pleases. Were all the citizens of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth to combine in revolt against Him, it would occasion Him no uneasiness, and would have less effect upon His eternal and unassailable Throne than has the spray of Mediterranean's waves upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High. Scripture itself tells us that when the Gentile heads unite with apostate Israel to defy Jehovah and His Christ, 'He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh' (Psa 2:4).

This supremacy of God is evident in his sovereignty only a being that is supreme by that is meant greater by far then anything else could truly operate full sovereignty. As Gods complete sovereignty speaks of the fact that he brooks no rivals to his power or none have the capacity to thwart him in anyway for nothing is equal to him in any aspect. And so as such he is the highest delight.

The absolute and universal supremacy of God is affirmed with equal plainness and positiveness in the New Testament. There we are told that God 'worketh all things after the counsel of His own will' (Eph 1:11)--the Greek for 'worketh' means 'to work effectually.' For this reason we read, 'For of Him, and through Him, and to Him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen' (Rom 11:36). Men may boast that they are free agents, with a will of their own, and are at liberty to do as they please, but Scripture says to those who boast 'we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell ... Ye ought to say, If the Lord will' (James 4:13,15)!

2006-04-02T19:13:00.000+01:00

A theology for enjoying God: Part 1

Enjoying God is rooted and grounded in who he is his being and attributes. Therefore using AW Pinks thoughts on the attributes of God I will look at why God can be enjoyed in the way he can.

If God is such in his perfection of who he is then he must be the source of greatest delight as all other things are imperfect. The very goodness of god himself should cause our hearts to feel a warmth of pleasure as all things of degrees of perfection cause delight. For example the perfect sunset or the perfect house it is the quality of perfection that moves people to delight. Therefore the very fact that God is perfection himself in being good therefore means he should be the object of highest delight.

'The Goodness of God endureth continually' (Psa 52:1). The goodness of God refers to the perfection of His nature: 'God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all' (1 John 1:5). There is such an absolute perfection in God's nature and being that nothing is wanting to it or defective in it, and nothing can be added to it to make it better.

God is unlimited in this degree of delight to be found in him. He has always existed as good and because he is good he feels free to communicate that very good to his creation. As creation itself was founded by the very free and sovereign goodness of God. Therefore we can be confident that God will share that which is the greatest good with us namely himself.

The original Saxon meaning of our English word God is 'The Good.' God is not only the greatest of all beings, but the best. All the goodness there is in any creature has been imparted from the Creator, but God's goodness is underived, for it is the essence of His eternal nature. As God is infinite in power from all eternity, before there was any display thereof, or any act of omnipotency put forth, so He was eternally good before there was any communication of His bounty, or any creature to whom it might be imparted. Thus, the first manifestation of this divine perfection was in giving being to all things. 'Thou art good, and doest good' (Psa 119:68). God has in Himself an infinite and inexhaustible treasure of all blessedness, enough to fill all things.

2006-04-02T19:12:00.000+01:00

Concluding thoughts on the love of God in the song of songs

When David wrote those words because your love is better then life. Did he mean that it was the pleasures of the love of God that were better then life itself perhaps as indeed this appears to be the brides experience and what is inferred in the allegorical interpretation of the song of songs.

In the new testament it is the holy Spirit who is the medium by which we experience the love of God take Romans 5 for example and Ephesians 3 these two chapters seem to imply that there is an experience of the love of God that we can have that only the Holy spirit can give. Indeed could it be described as a kiss, banqueting hall and overwhelming experience more then likely.

I leave this theme now for your own exploration and hope that I have only made you think a bit more about a book that is often overlooked.

2006-04-02T19:10:00.000+01:00

The pleasures of the love of Christ in the song of songs: Part 3
Song of Songs 2v5 “Strengthen me with raisins, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love”

The bride is overwhelmed with the love of the beloved that “she is sick with love” as some translation put it. But this is not a sickness that she wants to be cured from on the contray she wants to be sustained in her enjoyment of it. So it is with the beliver as on writer comments on this verse. “The bride does not ask Him to withdraw the revelation of Himself and His love, but to strengthen her that she may endure, not only these, but even greater revelations. She cries to God in His tripersonality (“Stay ye me with flagons”) that He will make her stronger by giving her greater draughts of the Wine of the kingdom, by giving her more abundantly the apples from the one fruitful Tree, Christ. It is as she partakes of the fruits of the Christ-life that she is strengthened and drawn into a place of deeper revelation of her Lord and of His love for her.”

The question is why should the bride find herself asking these things Hamilton Smith has the answear. “The ecstasy of the house of wine is more than the Bride can sustain. There are spiritual experiences too deep for these weak vessels of clay. Was it not thus with the Apostle when caught up into the third heaven? He heard unspeakable words, not possible to utter. Little indeed may such experiences be the common lot of the Christian life, but at times the Lord grants to His people such an overwhelming sense of His love that we are constrained to cry out in such language as a dying saint once used, "Lord, hold Thy hand; it is enough, thy servant is a clay vessel and can hold no more." One of the later Puritans well expressed such an experience when he wrote:

"The love, the love that I bespeak,
Works wonders in the soul:
For when I'm whole it makes me sick,
When sick it makes me whole."

There is an experience of Christ’s love that is overpoweringly powerful that it fills us with a joy unspeakable and full of glory that we scarce cannot handle it. And our longing should be to experience more of that to go to the banqueting house and to feast on what Christ has for us. Then to long to be sustained by God.

2006-04-02T19:07:00.000+01:00

The pleasures of the love of Christ in the song of songs: Part 2
Song of Songs chapter 2v4 “He has taken me to the banquet hall, and his banner over me is love.”

The lover has taken the bride to his banqueting hall John Wesley wrote of this as, “the places in which believers receive the graces and blessings of Christ.” James Durham makes a number of comments about the banqueting house. By using the metaphor of a banqueting house he notes, “she sets out the sweetness of the enjoyment of Christ's sensible love, by comparing it to a feast, or house of wine.”

He then comments that this implies three things. “1. The great abundance of satisfying and refreshing blessings, that are to be found in Christ; such abundance of provision as useth to be laid up at a feast, or in a banqueting-house.” We can feast on Christ and his blessings as on a banquet. We can satisfy our hungers and desires with the richest of fair.
Next he notes something else on Christ “2. His liberal allowance thereof to his own, who for that end hath laid up this provision for them.” God is not stingy in allowing us to enjoy him but on the contrary he is liberal and bountiful with his blessing so that we can experience innumerable delights.

He then comments on the nature of the enjoyments. “3. The nature of the entertainment; it is a feast of the best and most cordial things, a house of wine.” God does skimp on giving us the most inferior delights but gives us the best that there is and lavishes us with the most delightsome things imaginable.
I
ll finish with one writers comments on this verse:
“It is when we are drinking deep of the Wine of the Kingdom and feeding in fullness upon Him, that the yearnings and cravings increase unto real soul-sickness for our Beloved.

There is a way in which our Lord would have us sick from love for Him; and when we have this intense love and desire, nothing can satisfy but to get closer to Him. It is then that He brings us into His Banqueting House, and He satisfies us with such revelation of Himself and of His love as ravish our souls, and we cry with increasing desire and hunger: “Stay ye me with flagons, refresh me with apples: for I am sick from love.” It is at this time that our love is drawn out to Him as never before. “As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God.”

2006-04-02T19:05:00.000+01:00

The pleasures of the love of Christ in the song of songs: Part 1
Song of songs 1v1 “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for your love is more delightful then wine”.

Here we see the brides request for the kiss of her love. Interpreted allegorically it speaks of the believer wanting a manifestation of Christ’s love. James Durham comments “By kisses we understand most lovely, friendly and familiar manifestations of his love”. He goes on to suggest “that Christ hath a way of communicating his love, and the sense of it to a believer, which is not common to others”. we see this in Ephesians 3 where Paul prayers for the believers that they would know the love of Christ.

Matthew Henry comments on this idea “Thus all true believers desire the manifestations of Christ’s love to their souls”. The first part of this verse is thus a longing for the manifestation of the love of Christ an inward knowledge or experience of the love of Christ.

The reason for this longing is given as “for your love is more delightful then wine”. It’s the superiority of pleasure that is found in the love of Christ being manifested or experienced by the believer that makes it desirable. Again James Durham comments “The sum of it (the verse) is thy love is exceedingly excellent and I have more need and greater esteem of it than anything in the world therefore I seek after it and hope to attain it”. This revealing of Christ’s love is a superior pleasure that it is to valued and sought as “when the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit it is like drinking some heavenly wine” comments Don Fortner.

His love in this verse is seen to be “every way preferable to all the most cheering and refreshing things in the world” comments James Durham. Its this greater pleasure that we should desire we should allow our hearts to drink of the pleasures of the love of Christ so that the pleasures of sin taste inferior.

I finish with the comments of Bishop Reynolds; “Let him give me ten thousand kisses whose very fruition makes me desire him more and whereas all other pleasures sour and whither by using those of the spirit become more delightful”.

2006-04-02T18:56:00.000+01:00

The pleasures of the love of Christ in the song of songs: Part 1

In Psalm 63v3 David wrote of the superior nature of the love of God that it was better then life itself. The purpose of the next 4 studies will be to use the song of Solomon to look at the pleasures found in God loves to try to understand this verse in Psalm 63.

In this first study I will try to offer insight into how to interpret the Song of Solomon. I believe the song of songs can be interpreted two ways . Firstly the literal interpretation this is one of the more favoured approaches to the song in recent scholarship. This approach says that the song is a love song between a man and women, and that speaks about how that love develops. The allegorical approach on the other hand says that it is all about the relationship of an individual believer or the church and Jesus. This has been a popular approach for a number of respected theologians like John Owen, Richard Sibbes, Jonathan Edwards, Mathew Henry and Charles Spurgeon. It was indeed very popular during the puritan era and also during the medieval times with commenter such as ST Bernard of Clavoux.

As I said earlier I believe the song can be interpreted both ways. Here are reasons why it can be interpreted allegorically as this is usually the most unfamiliar interpretation.

Number 1. Luke 24 Jesus is walking with some disciples who cannot understand what happened to Jesus and why he died. Unbeknown to them Jesus is walking with them but they do not recognise him. In verse 27 it says “and beginning with Moses and all the prophets he explained to them what was said in all the scriptures concerning himself”. Many people believe this verse speaks of the fact that Jesus can be found in all the scriptures of the old testament including the Song of Solomon. Therefore the bridegroom in the song can be interpreted as Jesus.

Number 2. God used a similar method of communicating truths about himself through the prophet Hosea to the people of Israel. God used the literal situation of Hosea relationship with his wife, to communicate a message to the people of Israel. In this book the people were Hosea’s wife and Hosea was God in an allegorical sense. So it is with the song of songs the believer is the bride and Jesus is the bridegroom. The principles used to interpret the prophet Hosea’s can be used here with the song of songs.

Number 3. John the Baptist affirms Jesus to be the bridegroom of his people. In john 3v29 we read of John speaking of his ministry in relation to Jesus “the bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegrooms voice. That joy is mine and is now complete.” In other words Jesus is the bridegroom and the people that are his are the bride. This is exactly what the allegorical interpretation implies.

Number 4. Isaiah 62 speaks of the coming saviour rejoicing over his people like a bridegroom over a bride. Rejoicing implies a song. So the song that Jesus sings over his people is a bridegroom or marriage song. This is the exact same genre of song that the song of songs is. Therefore to get insight into the way Jesus relates to his people in song the song of songs must be interpreted allegorically.

Number 5. The apostle Paul speaks of the church as the bride and Jesus as the bridegroom in Ephesians chapter 4. So the imagery of the Christians as being the bride and Jesus as the bridegroom is not unfamiliar in the new testament. And in fact Paul in this passage uses allegorical interpretation of the story of Adam and eve to understand the mystery of Christ and the church.

To finish I will quote John Owen and Charles Spurgeon speaking on the song of Solomon. In order to inspire to look at the next few studies.

“The matter of it is totally sublime spiritual and mystical” and “this is certain that ever since this heavenly treasure was committed to the sons of men such a beauty, glory and excellency have beamed from the matter contained in it with the manner of its declaration and the impress of the wisdom of the wisdom of God in both that all who have had a due reverence unto divine revelation have been filled with an holy admiration of it and a desire to look into the mystery contained in it.” John Owen

and

“This book stands like the tree of life in the midst of the garden and no man shall ever be able to pluck its fruit and eat thereof until he has been brought by Christ past the sword of the cherubim and led to rejoice in the love which hath delivered him from death. The song of Solomon is only to be comprehended by men who’s standing is within the veil. The outer court worshippers and even those who only enter the court of the priest think the book a very strange one, but they who come very near to Christ can often see in this song of Solomon to which there love to the lord desires.” C.H. Spurgeon.

2006-03-27T17:52:00.000+01:00

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of GodThoughts on Isaiah 55 v 1-2: When nothing in this world can satisfy.

“Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labour on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.” God is telling people not to waste themselves and their resources on things that will not truly satisfy them. But rather then just being negative and saying not to be satisfied, God offers them something that will satisfy them and cause them to delight.

King Solomon offers the best comments on this verse in Ecclesiastes Chapter 2 when he says “I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure.” Solomon means what he says here he had the funds and drive to achieve what he wanted and have whatever experience or possession he could possibly desire.” You would think he would be satisfied but; “Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.” all the pleasure and success left him feeling empty and dissatisfied. He knew what it meant to spend himself on what does not satisfy.

David A Hubbard commenting on these verses writes concerning the pleasures of this world “Its advertising agency is better then its manufacturing department. It holds out the possibility of exquisite delight, but the best it can perform is titillation. It seeks to tickle the human spirit cannot probe its depths. It daubs iodine on human wounds when it needs surgery. It may distract us from our problems by diverting our attention, but it cannot free us from those problems”.

Are we then to spend our lives in misery knowing that we can not find satisfaction in this world. No. God offers us freely that which is good that will cause our hearts to delight in the richest of fair. Those who go to Gods invitation wrote the puritan theologian Jonathan Edwards “not only come to a resting place after they have been wandering in a wilderness, but they come to a banqueting house where they may rest, and where they may feast. They may cease from
their former troubles and toils, and they may enter upon a course of delights and spiritual joys.”

Therefore let us leave our vain chasing after satisfaction from sin and pursue a satisfaction that will be found in God. Let us not hold back our longing for delights but rather let us redirected it to God.

2006-03-27T17:15:00.000+01:00

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God
Thoughts on Isaiah 55 v 1-2: When all God wants is your thirst

"Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.” We see in these verses two things; one that all God wants is our thirst and secondly that God can not be brought.

The two ideas are found in one doctrine about God, his self sufficiency. AW Tozer explained it as “an elementary but correct way to think of God is as one who contains all, who gives all that is given, but who himself can receive nothing that he has not first given”. He goes on to say “need is a creature word and cannot be spoken of the creator.” God is not in need of anything therefore he can give of himself freely, he does not need to trade with us in order to be able to exist for all existence is from him anyway.

The apostle Paul explained this to some Greeks in Athens once, he said of God “he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else.” God is the one who give we are the ones who receive. We can not add or give anything to God that would cause him to be indebted to us and therefore require to give to us. All that we receive is a free gift of God because of his goodness.

John Piper explains what this must mean for us “God has no needs that I could ever be required to supply…God is a mountain spring…A mountain spring is self replenishing. It constantly overflows and suppliers others…If you want to glorify the worth of a spring you do it by getting down on your knees and drinking to your hearts satisfaction”.

This is why the one thing God wants is our thirsts he has no other need but rather he longs to satisfy us. The point of it is that it undermines pride so that no one can boast of what they have given of God but can only praise him for what they have received thus God is glorified and man is humbled.

“Fountain of good, all blessing flows
From Thee; no want thy fullness knows
What but thyself canst thou desire?
Yet self sufficient as thou art
Thy dost desire my worthless heart
This only does thou require.”
Johann Scheffler

2006-03-26T20:14:00.000+01:00

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God
When not sinning is not enough.

"My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
God is a fountain of joy for his people he can satisfy our needs and desires. This was the problem with the people of Israel they were looking to idols to give them what only God could give them. God had two problems with this firstly they were looking to other sources. We too can do that we can try to create our own little perfect world through money and sin. But these things are broken and empty and do not really satisfy. God wants us to let go of these things.

But that is not enough, God does not want us to walk around not enjoying life and being miserable because we have given up sin. As the second problem that he had with Israel was that they had forsaken him. God wants to satisfy us and be our fountain of joy. The holiness teaching that stresses self denial without also teaching to drink of God is not complete holiness, it only deals with the one sin problem that God had with Israel that of the broken cisterns, is does not address the problem of abandoning the living water God offers.

John Piper writes on this verse “there is only one fountain of joy…from this unceasing fountain of joy flow all grace and all joy in the universe”. Oh let us not pursue a self denial that is not based on a longing to drink more of God.

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night.” We see the same idea in Psalm 1 there is a blessing for those who live a life trying not to sin. But who also seek God out to be their great joy and delight.

Spurgeon hit the nail on the head when he wrote, “Few can claim this texts blessing. Perhaps some can claim a sort of negative purity they do not walk in the way of the ungodly. Let me ask is your delight in the law of the Lord ..No. Then this blessing is not yours.”

What these verses are saying is that there is two sides to holiness the denial of sin and the enjoying or satisfying of oneself in God. To have one without the other is not true holiness.

2006-03-26T18:20:00.000+01:00

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God
Thoughts from Psalm 84

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” Here we see the first point that the superior pleasures of God keep us from sin. The psalmist in these verses says that he has found a pleasure and a joy unmatched anywhere else. “Better is one day in your courts then a thousand elsewhere” there is no where else that the psalmist could possibly want to be he has found a pleasure far excelling any other its better then anything else its God! Spurgeon put it like this “even the most favourable circumstances in which the pleasures of earth can be enjoyed are not comparable to by one in a thousand to the delights in Gods service”. Again he goes on to say “Even a glimpse of Gods love is better than ages spent in the pleasures of sin”.

This is the key point to the pleasure found in God we say “I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.” What the psalmist is saying is that he has tasted a superior pleasure and he would rather have a small proportion of that then dwell and live in sin. The power to beat sin is to taste of a superior pleasure that causes us to turn our backs on the things the world offers.

“The LORD bestows favour and honour; no good thing does he withhold” here is the next point that we can know that we can enjoy God because he does not withhold good things from us. The pleasures of God are available because of this fact that God does not withhold them from us. As AW Tozer said “By his nature he is inclined to bestow blessedness and he takes holy pleasure in the happiness of his people”. The watchword for our confidence in that we can enjoy God is this “no good thing does he withhold.”

“My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” This is the third point do we thirst as we should for these pleasures or have we got a cold indifference to them. Have our hearts become so fed on the cheap things of this world that we can not experience the pleasure found in God. When our souls yearn where do we go to satisfy them.

CS Lewis wrote this and with this I conclude “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the gospel it would seem our lord finds our desires not to strong, but too weak. We are half hearted creatures fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far to easily pleased.”

2006-03-25T20:49:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Anselm of Canterbury responding to his philosophy of Christian hedonism

Having reflected on the idea that we can enjoy God and how much joy we experience when we enjoy God. Anselm outlines how we respond to this idea.

“Oh he who will enjoy this this good what will be his and what will not be his!”. What can the man hope for who enjoys God. He answers “whatever he wishes will certainly be his”. whatever he could possibly want or desire could be given to the man who enjoys God, not only that “and whatever he does not wish will not be his”. The man who enjoys God will not anything to not want in the enjoyment of God.

So as such Anselm makes this bold declaration, “in fact all the goods (or pleasures) of body and soul will be there (found delighting in God). Such that “neither eye has seen nor ear heard nor the heart of man conceived”

This is the conclusion of the matter. “Why then do you wander about so much o insignificant man seeking the goods (joys or pleasures) of your soul and body?” Why do people look everywhere for satisfaction and pleasure when the should “love the one good in which all good things are”. God who is the source of all good and hence all joy is to be sought after, “and that is sufficient”. God can sufficiently satisfy all our longings and desires for pleasure and joy or in other words; “desire the single good (God) which contain every good (or every source of pleasure) and that is enough” (or that will give you everything you could want).

The conclusion says it all “what do you love o my flesh what do you desire o my soul? Their it is (in God) there it is (in God) whatever you love, whatever you desire”. (that can be found in him).

2006-03-25T20:23:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Anselm of Canterbury a philosophy of Christian hedonism

Written more as reflective meditations Anselm’s writings can be hard to understand. But because of the deep level of thought placed into them they are highly rewarding. So as we look at his thoughts I have added comments on them to make them easier to understand.

“Now my soul rouse and lift up your whole understanding and think as as you can on what kind and how great this good is.” he is asking for his soul to consider the extent and nature of the goodness of God. He now begins this reflection on the goodness of God.

“For if particular goods are enjoyable”. he reasons that things that are on earth or in creation that are good can be enjoyed and give pleasure. “Consider carefully how enjoyable is that good” (that good being God). He wants to consider then how enjoyable God must be in that he is that “which contains the joyfulness of all goods”.

My interpretation of his logic is this: if God created all things out of himself (as God alone existed before creation.) Then God must contain the joy that can be found in all good things of this earth. Imagine a meal of soup is being cooked in a large pot that soup is dished out into bowls, the soup that is dished out tastes good therefore the soup in the pot must taste good as well. So just as the things in creation are pleasurable so God must be pleasurable.

But he goes on to add another comment. “Not (a joy) such as we have experienced in created things”. The joy we experience in God is not the same as the joy experienced in created things it is completely different. In that “but as different from this as the creator differs from the creature”. The argument here is that yes we can compare joys but yet they are totally different because God and creation are totally different. Therefore the joy we find in God is different from the joy we find in the creation.

The final thought sums it up nicely. “For if the life that is created (things in creation) is good (and hence enjoyable) how good is the life that creates?” (God)

The idea here is if we can enjoy the things of this world surely we can enjoy God who created the things of the earth.

2006-03-24T17:40:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Psalm 73 Part 3

“Asapah was tempted to jump ship he felt a desperate urge to jump teams “My feet have come close to stumbling” hew wrote “My steps had almost slipped. The reson was he saw those who walked the way of the world. They were prosperous comfortable well fed and insulated from danger and they happily indulged whatever sinful fantasies they could. So why did he not join them?

Because he had found something infinitely better immeasurably more pleasing incomparably more exciting…Asapah had discovered what David knew that only in Gods “presence is their fullness of joy” and at “Gods right hand are pleasures evermore””

2006-03-24T17:39:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Psalm 73 Part 2

“Whom have I in heaven but you” people get so excited about the thought of heaven (and rightly so) but what is it that makes heaven, heaven. there is a belief that heaven is a place of joy and pleasure but why? Here the psalmist reveals something about the nature of heavens glory that the only thing worthwhile and beyond compare about heaven is God.

We see here two points first dealing with the nature of heaven that what makes heaven, heaven is God. God makes heaven the place of matchless joy and delight that it is. As we see that there is no one else or nothing else attracting the psalmist to heaven but God. The second point therefore in conclusion is that God is the source of highest joy and delight; as heaven not earth is viewed to be the place of highest joy and delight and that is because of God.

This naturally leads onto what the psalmist says next. “Earth has nothing I desire besides you.” Having understood the matchless pleasure and joy that is to be found in God the psalmist no longer envys the wicked. God is now the only thing that he wants his only desire. He has no aim for wealth or fame or ease of life he just wants God. He has seen the river of pleasure the chief among ten thousand and only that can satisfy him.

Part 3 will look at a helpful summary (by Sam Storms the author of pleasure evermore the life changing power of enjoying God) on this psalm.

2006-03-24T17:36:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Psalm 73 Part 1

The psalmist starts of envying the wicked who “have no struggles” and are “always carefree”. When he looks at their prosperity and how good life is for them he becomes jealous of their lifestyle. This is heightened by the fact that he saw “the prosperity of the wicked.” He saw that the wicked had lots of possessions and things were going well for them.

Meanwhile with sinners enjoying the luxury of life and sin the psalmist is trying to stay Holy. Then he realises that trying to be Holy has only achieved him being “punished every morning” and “plagued all day long”. No wonder he says “surely in vain I have kept my heart pure in vain have I washed my hands in innocence”

The psalmist has got to the point of thinking what’s the point of living for God and trying to be holy whilst the wicked are having a great time. He became “senseless and ignorant”.
But then he has a moment of realisation. Te key shift was he saw things in the light of eternity and “understood their (the wickeds) final destiny”. It was at this poin the realised something that can change a life.

“Whom have I in heaven but you and earth has nothing I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail but God is the strength of my heart my portion forever.”

This revelation changed his perspective on everything part 2 will look at these two verse in more detail.

2006-03-23T19:43:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Christian hedonism in the thoughts of John Flavel

John Flavel was a puritan writer who had a heavy influence on the writings of Jonathan Edwards who is considered by many to be one of the champions of Christian hedonism. But having brought the complete works of John Flavel (6 volumes in total 3000pages!) I have begun to see that maybe he was the original champion of Christian hedonism. Anyway it does not matter here are some of his thoughts on delighting in God.

Discussing what it means to imitate Christ John Flavel writes, “delight in God and in his service was eminently conspicuous in the life of Christ, and is a rare pattern for believers imitation”. He goes on “the delights of Christ were all in heaven. The son of man was in heaven in regards of delight in God, while he conversed here among men. And if you be Christ’s heavenly things will be the delight of your souls also.”

He then defines what he means by delight in God. “Now spiritual delight else but the complacency and well blessedness of a renewed heart in conversing with God and the things of God resulting from the agreeableness of them to the spiritual temper of the mind.”

He makes then four points about delight in God. Here are some highlights from what he says:

On the object of delight: It “is God himself and the things that relate to him. He is the blessed ocean into which all the streams of spiritual delight do pour themselves”.

On the importance of a renewed heart or regeneration in order to delight in God: “The subject of spiritual delight which is a renewed heart and that only so far as it is renewed” and “The principle and spring of this delight which is the agreeableness of spiritual things to the temper and frame of a renewed mind.”

So we can see that for John Flavel delight in God was an important aspect in trying to live like Jesus. We see also the need for the working of the Holy Spirit to renew and transform the sinner in order to delight in God. So therefore delight in God is a made possible by the Holy Sprits work in regeneration.

2006-03-23T18:11:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
Enjoying God satisfies the longings of our heart.

Psalm 37v4 says “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” I have heard it said that when we delight ourselves in God he gives us what we desire; for example I desire a new car, well if I delight myself in God then he will give me that car as it is the desire of my heart. Some people miss out the delighting yourself in God part and just quote that the Lord should give them the desires of their heart. Both these interpretations are incorrect! I want to propose that when we delight ourselves in God it is that delight that satisfies our longings and desires in our heart giving us truly what we crave.

Lets look at the verse a little more closely “Delight yourself” what an awesome thing to say. Have pleasure have a good time seek joy and happiness yes this is what the bible is saying. But lets see where we are to find that delight “in the lord”. God is the source of the delight that we are to seek. Now what I want to propose is that God himself satisfies the longings of our heart not things that God gives. In the same way God himself was to be our delight so God himself is to be our satisfaction as we delight in him.

Matthew Henry sums it up nicely “Being satisfied of his loving kindness, we must be satisfied with it and make that our exceeding joy”.

The psalm starts by exhorting us not to “be envious of those who do wrong”. Indeed why should we envy the wicked and look longingly at the sin committed by them; when we have the source of infinite pleasure commanding us to; delight ourselves in him so that we can be satisfied. As Spurgeon put it “Bad people delight in carnal objects. Do not envy them. Look to your better delight and be full of sublime portion”.

2006-03-23T18:09:00.000Z

Christian hedonism: “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God”
A brief introduction to Christian hedonism

Christian hedonism the phrase is coined from John Piper who sys that “maximising our joy in God is what we were created for” and “if Christ’s honour is our passion, then pursuit of pleasure in him is our duty” (quotes taken from the excellent little book the dangerous duty of delight.).
I have been inspired once again to look at this glorious biblical theme of enjoying God by two factors; firstly I have set up my first blog and also I have just read a wonderful quote by the puritan theologian John Flavel. He said “the chief happiness of men consisteth in the enjoyment of God: that the creature hath as necessary dependence upon God for happiness as the stream hath upon the fountain or the image in the glass on the face of him that looks into it. For as the sum of the creatures misery lies in this depart from me; separation being the principle part of damnation; on the contrary the chief happiness of the creature consisteth in the enjoyment and blessed vision of God.”

Enjoying God what a strange yet beautiful idea, but yet we seek the enjoyment of so many other things can it not be right that we can enjoy God for he is the highest good. It was Blaise Pascal who said that “all men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ they all tend to this end”. So let us not deny what seems to be only natural and pursue what it means to enjoy God.

2006-03-23T12:40:00.000Z

The website address and title.

The blog is called magnificent obsession and the website address is chief among ten thousand. The address is based from the song of songs. In this song the maidens ask the bride what is her beloved more then any other beloved she responds with a glorious description of her beloved the bridegroom. In it she describes him as the chief among ten thousand. Believing as I do that the song of songs can be interpreted allegorically as well as literally these words can also be applied to Jesus who is the churches bridegroom and the words of the bride are the words of the individual believer. So having addressed these initial issues lets look at this description of Christ as the chief among ten thousand.

The verse is found in song of songs chapter 5 v10 the whole verse reads as follows “My lover is radiant and ruddy outstanding among ten thousand”. James Durham the most highly regarded puritan commentator on the song of Solomon made numerous points with regard to this description of Christ here are two that stick out. “1. That Christ is the most lovely and excellent object that men can set their eyes on, that they can cast their love and affection upon: there is not such an one as Christ, either for the spiritual soul-ravishing beauty that is in him, or the excellent desirable effects that flow from him. O what a singular description is it which follows, if it were understood! 2. Christ's worth in itself is not expressible, and whatever he can be compared with, he doth exceedingly surpass it.”

The bride finds Christ to be above compare to anything else she has truly been captivated by his matchless worth and beauty. John Gill describes this verse in relation to who Jesus is and then says how this should affect us as the people of God. “He should be the chiefest, and have the chiefest place in the desires of our hearts, in the contemplations of our minds, the affections of our souls, and in our ascriptions of glory; for “he is the chiefest among ten thousand.” Here we see why the website is called magnificent obsession as if Jesus is called the chief among ten thousand and is matchless in all attributes of his being and personality then surely he should have the place in our lives as an magnificent obsession.

The wonder of the depths of who you are
You created every star
Became a man and died upon the cross
No cost was to high for you
The wrath of God you bore for me
Now I ask that you would become my magnificent obsession

2006-03-23T11:51:00.000Z

Test dummy post!