Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

sanctification

A Former Slave-Trader’s Sanctified Self-Assessment

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John Newton (cf. Google books):

I am not what I ought to be. …

Not what I might be …

Not what I wish to be. …

I am not what I hope to be. …

[But] I am not what I once was, a child of sin, and slave of the devil. …

I think I can truly say with the apostle, ‘By the grace of God I am what I am.’

D. A. Carson: “That encapsulates Christian sanctification in pithy statements better than anything I know.”

Update (8/17/2015): Tony Reinke explains Newton’s statement in his book Newton on the Christian Life: To Live Is Christ, Theologians on the Christian Life (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015), 267–69:

newtonTo explain the riddle of the Christian life in all its shortcomings and its hopes, John Newton penned what has possibly become the most famous sermon outline in church history. He had been asked to preach a little homily in the home of a friend, which he happily obliged. He chose for his text 1 Corinthians 15:10: “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” All that remains of Newton’s living-room message is an outline, written down by a nameless note taker in attendance. Over time, the sermon outline morphed and merged into this remarkably concise summary of the Christian life on earth:

I am not what I ought to be. Ah! how imperfect and deficient. Not what I might be, considering my privileges and opportunities. Not what I wish to be. God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him. I am not what I hope to be; ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as he is. Not what I once was, a child of sin, and slave of the devil. Though not all these, not what I ought to be, not what I might be, not what I wish or hope to be, and not what I once was, I think I can truly say with the apostle, “By the grace of God I am what I am” (1 Cor. 15:10).

[Note 5: My paragraph blends the two published versions of what Newton reportedly said. …]

The parallels and contrasts within Newton’s statement become clearer when decorated with visual cues to highlight corresponding clauses:

I am not what I ought to be.
Ah! how imperfect and deficient.

Not what I might be,
considering my privileges and opportunities.

Not what I wish to be.
God, who knows my heart, knows I wish to be like him.

I am not what I hope to be;
ere long to drop this clay tabernacle, to be like him and see him as he is.

Not what I once was,
a child of sin, and slave of the devil.

Though not all these,

not what I ought to be,
not what I might be,
not what I wish or hope to be, and
not what I once was,

I think I can truly say with the apostle,

“By the grace of God I am what I am.”

Related:

  1. John Piper wrote the foreword to Reinke’s book.
  2. Tim Challies interviews Reinke about his book.

Breathing : Body :: Works : Faith

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  • Breathing is evidence of a living body, and good works is evidence of a living faith.
  • Not breathing is evidence of a dead body, and the absence of good works is evidence of a dead faith.
  • You can’t revitalize a corpse by mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and you can’t create genuine faith by good works.

That’s my paraphrase of Dan G. McCartney on James 2:14–26 (James [BECNT; Grand Rapids: Baker, 2009]). An 18-page PDF sampling of the commentary includes “Excursus 2: Faith, Works, and Justification in James and Paul” (pp. 272–79). Here’s how McCartney concludes his chapter on James 2:14–26 (p. 172):

James’s principal point is not in doubt, in any case: that which distinguishes living faith from dead faith is works of faith. By no means does any of this suggest that one could create genuine faith by works, any more than an effort at mouth-to-mouth resuscitation could revitalize a corpse.

Six Personalities That Deflect God’s Word

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Here’s how D. A. Carson introduces Peter Adam‘s Hearing God’s Words: Exploring Biblical Spirituality (ed. D. A. Carson; New Studies in Biblical Theology 16; Downers Grove: IVP, 2004) in the series preface (pp. 9–10):

In recent decades the notion of ‘spirituality’ has become astonishingly plastic. People judge themselves to be ‘spiritual’ if they have some aesthetic sense, or if they are not philosophical materialists, or if they have adopted a pantheistic view of reality, or if they feel helped or reinvigorated by the ‘vibrations’ of crystals. Even within a broadly Christian heritage, many writers appeal to ‘spiritual disciplines’ that are utterly divorced from the gospel and detached from the teaching of Scripture. Against the backdrop of these cultural developments, Dr Peter Adam encourages clear thinking: he traces the notion of spirituality through some of the turning points of Scripture, and finally grounds it in the gospel of Jesus Christ and its full-blown application to our lives. By appealing both to the Bible and to influential voices in the history of the church (notably John Calvin), Dr Adam manages to combine biblical theology and historical theology in an admirable synthesis. His academic training, years of pastoral ministry, and now principalship of a theological college, ensure that this book simultaneously informs the mind, warms the heart, and strengthens the will. And from the vantage of three decades of personal friendship, I gratefully attest that what Dr Adam writes, he also lives.

Adam asks, “What devices do we use to hear God’s Word today and yet avoid its intended impact?” He answers, “We can best answer this in terms of different types of personality” (p. 171). (In the following quotation, I’ve replaced bullet points with numbers [pp. 171–72]). [Read more…] about Six Personalities That Deflect God’s Word