God’s Kingdom Through God’s Covenants

God’s Kingdom through God’s Covenants (Crossway, 2015) is a helpful summary of the much larger book entitled Kingdom through Covenant (Crossway, 2013) by the same authors. Old Testament scholar Peter Gentry and systematic theologian Stephen Wellum help readers understand the full story of the God by demonstrating “how central and foundational ‘covenants’ are to the entire narrative plot structure of the Bible” (p.17). In this, they accomplish their goal and afford the interested Christian lay reader a resource that is invaluable alongside their reading of the Bible. Thus, this work provides both introduction and framework for the everyday Christian to understand the main components and arguments of the much larger work. The authors understand that the covenants are central to interpreting the storyline of Scripture.

Gentry and Wellum work through each of the biblical covenants in order to understand both their continuity as well as their unique facets. Wow this is a summary of their larger work and geared more towards every day Christian readers, they don’t let the deeper theological points left unexplained. Pictures and diagrams help carry the argument forward, while an ongoing and thorough exegesis of the biblical texts help readers make the proper connections. While differences in interpretation should not be a cause for Christian disunity, Gentry and Wellum make a convincing case for why Christians need to take the covenants seriously as the driving framework for the biblical plot. No interested reader should be disappointed!

Thanks to Crossway Books for a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Jesus Christ and Meditation

In my last post, I discussed the prevalence of meditation in the Psalter. The Psalter begins with the call to meditate. The one who is to have fullness life is one who meditates on God’s law day and night. The Hebrew word describing this total blessed life is asûre. The asûre-one is one who lives the life of flourishing, much like the tree which bears its fruit in season and who’s leaf does not wither. This idea manifests throughout the Psalms, but especially in Psalm 119 as the quintessential example. One who wishes to live in accordance with the law of the Lord, to demonstrate nearness to God, is one who meditates upon his precepts.

Moving forward in our look at this vital Christian practice, we come to the archetypal Psalm 1 asûre individual—Jesus Christ. The totality of Christ’s life demonstrates this Hebrew concept of asûre and its effects. But where in Scripture do we see Christ as meditating on the law both day and night? While the New Testament only provides a small window in the meditative life of Christ, Jesus’ life and ministry exemplifies the natural consequence of one who meditates upon the law of the Lord. In one of the only early occurrences of Jesus’ boyhood, we find him in the temple sitting at the feet of the teachers and asking questions. Scripture says, “And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers.” (Luke 2:47 ESV). When his parents confronted him regarding his three-day temple staycation he replied, “And he said to them, ‘Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’” (Luke 2:49 ESV). He was dwelling in the temple where the law of the Lord was proclaimed and taught, demonstrating his zeal for the word and his knowledge of God’s law.

When facing temptation from Satan, Jesus reveals a heart thoroughly established in God’s word. Let’s look at the exchange.

“And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”Then Jesus said to him, “Be gone, Satan! For it is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.’” Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.” (Matthew 4:2–11 ESV)

It was precisely because Jesus had meditated upon the law, in a manner described by the psalmist in Psalm 119, that he was able to defend against temptation. The blessed life of following God in the pursuit of holiness and righteousness flows from the words of Psalm 1 and finds it reservoir in Christ, who in turn is capable to give forth “living water” which “will become…a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (John 4:10, 14). Christ’s greatest desire for his disciples is the joy that he has in following the Father, and the call to disciples is to abide in Christ (a term not unrelated to meditation; see John 15:1-15).

Elsewhere we see in the life of Jesus a man who is committed to prayer. After feeding 5,000 (not including women and always hungry children), Scripture says that Jesus went away alone to pray (Matt 14:23). Jesus encouraged his audience on the mount to go away in secret to pray in order to receive true reward from God, rather than momentary reward from man (Matt. 6:6). Jesus enters into his passion through an earnest time of pray before the Father (Matt 26:36-39). Such a life of prayer, sitting alone before the Father, demonstrates a desire to meditate upon God’s character and the promises. Such a life of prayer is the warp and woof of Christian meditation.

What does this have to do with meditation? Does Jesus REALLY meditate in these passages? Am I going too far here? I want to suggest that Jesus’ life exemplifies one who meditates upon the law of the Lord even if we are only given a small glimpse at what that may have looked like. Jesus Christ represents the archetypal Psalm 1 asûre-one. This one is full of joy in following his Father and meditating upon his precepts, while reflecting on his character and promises in prayer. Such is the life of Christian meditation.

Kyle Strobel, professor of theology at Grand Canyon University, has provided readers with a helpful “updated, unabridged, and enlightening version of Jonathan Edwards’s Charity and Its Fruits” (back cover). According to Strobel, Charity and its Fruits provides the “best way to get into Edwards’s thought” (331). Strobel helps to illuminate the heart-warming theology of Edwards and provides a marvelous introduction into the theology and practice of arguably one of American Christianity’s greatest minds. For this great mind, the notion of “religion” was not merely a throwaway expression or abstract concept. Regarding Edwards’s use of the word “religion” Strobel states:

“Religion has come to be seen as synonymous with religiosity. This was far from Edwards’s understanding as you can imagine. Edwards frequently uses the word religion as a synonym for virtue, the Christian life, and even, at times, Christ. There was a false religion and there was true religion, to be sure, but religion was not simply defined by things people do; it was understood as the appropriate response to God….The term, for Edwards, denoted our whole posture, life, and devotion to God in christ. In light of this, religion might be closest to what we might today refer to as the Christian life, Christian spirituality, or spiritual formation, assuming those terms are used with distinctively Christian (and Protestant) content. Even moving beyond heaven, we could say that for Edwards, religion is ultimately God’s life. As the Father and the Son love one another infinitely, so believers are brought into that Father-child loving relationship through the Son by the uniting power of the Spirit.” (30)

Is it possible for Christians to reclaim this understanding of the word religion? Why does it matter? I believe we should reclaim this way of understanding religion. Where religious liberties are consistently threatened and New Age spirituality infiltrates much of (Christian) culture, the proper understanding of religion is necessary for forming basic Christian identity. Christians should reclaim and employ the Edwardsian concept of religion. Let’s take a look at just a few ways in which Edwards uses the word “religion.”

• “The very notion of religion or worship is the creature’s exercise and expression of respect to the Creator. But if there be no true respect or love, then all his religion is but seeming religion, and there is no real religion in it, and therefore it is vain.” (45)
• “How much such a spirit unfits persons for the duties of religion. All undue anger indisposes us for the pious exercises and the active duties of religion. It puts the soul far from that sweet and excellent frame of spirit in which we most enjoy communion with God, and which makes truth and ordinances most profitable to us” (191)
• “The sufferings which are in the way of our duty come of the difficulties which attend religion. This is the cost of being religious. He, therefore, that does not comply with this cost never complies with religion to any effect. As a man who wishes his house to be built, but is not willing to comply with the cost of building, does in effect refuse to build. He who does not receive the gospel with its difficulties does not receive it as it is offered. They who do not receive Christ with his cross as well as crown do not truly receive him.” (230)

Edwards’s use of religion distinguishes between true and false religion, much in the same way Jesus did in the gospels. This is religion which has as its ground in the love of God in Christ. True love, or charity, produces fruits which are pleasing to God, edifying to man, and formative for the individual. This religion is infused with the understanding of “the most perfect and excellent instance of humility that ever was”—namely Christ. Edwards states, “The gospel leads us to Christ, as an humble person. Christ is one who is God-man, and so has not only condescension which is a divine perfection, but also humility which is creaturely excellence” (156). He goes on to say, “The gospel yet further tends to lead us to humble exercises of love as it leads us to love Christ as one that was crucified for our sins. Christ’s being crucified is a great argument for the humility of us who are his followers; but his being crucified for our sins is a much further argument for it” (157). The essence of true religion is identification with the crucified and risen Christ and the fruits which it produces in the life of a believer by faith. This is religion. This is the virtuous life of following Christ, displaying the humility of Christ in the pursuit of being like him.

Should we recover this meaning of religion? I think we must. We should want to let people know that we are religious, and in fact, hold to true religion. Religion implies obligation and submission, which are two postures inherent in Christian faith and living. Religion, as Edwards envisions it, is nothing but the highest life of virtue—the pursuit of Christ-likeness. It is the life of love fully lived. While the Spirit endears our hearts to true fruit which is pleasing to God, He brings about a change which allows us to pursue that which is most worthy to pursue. This is how Edwards conceives of religion, and perhaps its time we recovered this understanding in our own faith and practice.