Underground Exiles

So, as part of my research for the manuscript I’m still working on, tentatively titled Adoptive Grace, I’ve done some thinking on the Fatherhood of God - mainly on the theology side of things.  Since I’m emotionally stunted, I’ve yet to work out how this fleshes out in our actual lives (even in my own), so I post this hoping that someone will read it and give me their thoughts.

When we think of God’s fatherhood, it’s first necessary to make certain distinctions. There is, first of all, God’s fatherhood that is exclusively trinitarian; the fatherhood of the Father, the first person of the trinity, in relation to the Son, the second person. This applies only to God the Father in his eternal and necessary relation to the Son and to the Son alone. It is unique and exclusive. No one else, not even the Holy Spirit, relates to the Father in this sense. In modern theology, it is sometimes said that men by adoption come to share in Christ’s Sonship and so enter into the divine life of the Trinity - needless to say, that’s patently false. It is serious confusion and error. The eternal Son of God is the only-begotten Son and nobody shares his Sonship, just as God the Father is not the Father of any other in the sense that he is the Father to the Son.

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As I’ve read The Mortification of Sin, I’ve certainly been humbled.  While John Owen is ponderous and weighty as a theologian, his pastoral heart shines through this particular work.

And God has been especially gracious - I’ve been given grace to mortify a particular habitual sin three times in just one week!  This just proves to me that today’s grace is sufficient.

So now I go a little further on into Owen’s work, and find this:

“When God stirs your heart about the guilt of your sin, concerning either its root and indwelling, or its breaking out, be careful you do not speak peace to yourself before God speaks it.  Listen closely to what He says to your soul.”

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So as I continue reading The Mortification of Sin by John Owen, I find my self struck by this statement:

You cannoy mortify a specific sin that is troubling you, unless you are seeking to obey the Lord from the heart in all areas!

Let me be frank; that statement hurts.  When I first read it, it was like a hard punch to the stomach.

In reality all John Owen is doing is being plain about what is apparent all throughout the Gospels.  Jesus is absolutely ruthless about going after the heart, and anything less just isn’t on His radar.

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“Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Do not take a day off from this work; you must always be killing sin or it will be killing you.” — John Owen,The Mortification of Sin

The honest answer to Owens’ question is “No”.  Killing my sin is not something that even crosses my mind.

I’m so full of sin that I’m not even aware of my sin the majority of time.  Sure, I’m pretty good at confessing the small stuff - but what about anger?  Or pride?  Or lust?

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The Tombstone of the great Jonathan Edwards

Right now I’m reading the Complete Works of Jonathan Edwards, published by the Banner of Truth Trust in 2 volumes.

Volume 2 contains an interesting work of Rev. Edwards called An Humble Attempt To Promote Explicit Agreement And Visible Union Of God’s People In Extraordinary Prayer For the Revival of Religion And The Advancement of Christ’s Kingdom On Earth.  I just love titles from the eighteenth century; they certainly don’t leave you guessing on what the author intends to say.  I think the words of Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones are significant and bear reading on the subject of Jonathan Edwards:

“In my early days in the ministry there were no books which helped me more, both personally and in respect of my preaching, than this two-volume edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards…I devoured these volumes and literally just read and read them. It is certainly true that they helped me more than anything else. If I had the power I would make these two volumes compulsory reading for all ministers! Edwards seems to satisfy all round; he really was an amazing man.”

So for the next posts on undergroundexiles.com, I’m going to blog my way through Edward’s call to extraordinary prayer and post my thoughts as I read this amazing work.