wordandspirit

This is an album I have been anticipating for a long time, the first solo album from my good friend Chris Haines, a man gifted with the rare combination of being a great musician, singer, song-writer and theologian. Whilst Chris is also a worship leader and has written a number of excellent congregational songs, this is not your typical “me too” worship leader album in the style of Tim Hughes. Instead, I would describe this as a set of theological reflections on the gospel.

The opener and title track, “But God”, brings together ideas from Romans, Ephesians, and the parable of the prodigal son to describe the transformation that has taken place in our salvation. The chorus “You’re so rich in mercy” is a memorable one, and has stuck in my head the past week.

Track two, Glorious, has become a congregational favourite at King’s Community Church, and is one of my favourites on the album, a worship song focusing on the mystery of the cross. This is followed by Epignosis, probably the most beautiful melody on offer, an intimate worship song with some well crafted lyrics from Chris & co-writer Neil Cornish.

The mood shifts slightly for Troubled, a nice adaptation of Ira Sankey’s hymn “Able to deliver”. Track five is Amazed, and the first of two tracks that previously appeared on the King’s Community Church worship album “Magnify”. Amazed is probably the most successful congregational worship song Chris has written, but here he presents it in a fresh way, reimagining the harmony for the verse.

Track six is Search me, which was for me the best song on the Magnify album, featuring a great guitar solo. This time, Chris opts for a slightly gentler version of this lovely adaptation of Psalm 139, sadly lacking the solo, although the new arrangement fits well with the restrained mood of this album. Always good features rather melancholic sounding verses, before building to an uplifting chorus. God who sees is a gentle song, with a simple yet beautiful melody.

The final two tracks are also co-written with Neil Cornish, and feature some of the most interesting and creative lyrics of the album. The garden returns again to the theme of “but God”, exploring the gospel as a reverse of Adam & Eve’s expulsion from the garden of Eden. From my window is based on the warning of Proverbs 7 against the seductive charms of the adulterous woman. At first glance, this may seem a slightly strange way to end an album themed on the gospel, so it is fitting that the song finishes on a note of grace.

Though this is an independent release. the quality of musicianship, recording and production is very high throughout. The quality of Chris’ guitar playing shines through, and the subtle vocal harmonies add depth to the production. But this album offers a lot more than just a nice sound. With lyrics rich in grace and hope, listening is an edifying and uplifting experience.

Make sure you visit the But God album website allowing you to preview the tracks, peruse the lyrics and order your own physical or digital download copy. I am told that it will soon be available on iTunes and am already looking forward to see what Chris comes up with next.

This is, I think, one of the earliest volumes in the Bible Speaks Today series, originally published in 1973 by John Stott as a standalone exposition of 2 Timothy, entitled Guard the Gospel. Stott sums up the overall message as a call to “guard the gospel, suffer for the gospel, continue in the gospel, and proclaim the gospel”.

The introduction includes a brief survey of the debate over authorship, in which he makes many of the same points made in the intro to The Message of 1 Timothy and Titus. With over 100 pages of commentary devoted to the four chapters of 2 Timothy, he is able to take his time, discuss the meaning of each phrase, and, as always, draw out plenty of practical and devotional insights from the text.

He warns against the temptation to alter the substance of the gospel message, a call that is no less relevant almost 40 years after the first edition was published. He shows how faithfulness to the gospel involves more than just not modifying it, but we are also to live holy lives in accordance with it, demonstrating both purity of doctrine and purity of life. And we are not to hide away while doing so, but we are to proclaim the gospel, which will sooner or later involve us suffering for the gospel.

You can escape persecution by withdrawal from the world, or by assimilation to it. It is only for those who are both in the world and in Christ simultaneously that persecution becomes inevitable.

At the risk of regular readers of this blog finding the conclusions to these reviews predictable and repetitive, I have to say yet again that I highly recommend this for anyone wanting to study 2 Timothy or preparing to teach on it. Stott doesn’t just write with insight, but also with integrity, as his own lifelong passion has been to guard, to live and proclaim the gospel.

The unique selling point of the Brazos Series (also known as the SCM series) is that the volumes are written by theologians rather than biblical exegetes. In a fascinating series preface, the editor Rusty Reno calls into question the validity of approaches that attempt to approach the text of Scripture from a “neutral” mindset in which the expositor impassively and objectively gathers linguistic and contextual evidence, in order to eventually arrive at the “most probable” meaning of a given unit of thought. Rather, he argues that the church has always interpreted the Scriptures from within a theological framework (for example the Nicene Creed), and this serves to guide us as we make interpretive decisions.

The difference in philosophy is apparent right from the start. In the introduction Leithart doesn’t spend his time discussing who wrote it, and when they wrote it, but rather makes a case for seeing Kings as “gospel”, and thus to be read in an “evangelical light”. 1-2 Kings is a prophetic narrative, making it clear that there is no salvation for Israel from within Israel: neither Wisdom, Torah or temple can save them. He also argues that Israel’s history is not only evangelical, but “ecclesial”, the history of the people of God – both Israel and Judah, though divided politically are viewed by Yahweh through the one lens of the covenant.

There is roughly one chapter of commentary per chapter of the 1-2 Kings. In his comments on the early part of 1 Kings, he draws out parallels between Solomon and Joshua, but also very compellingly shows how Kings presents Solomon as a “new Adam”, hence pointing forward to Christ. He shows how the idolatrous failures of successive kings effectively reverse the exodus and conquest, re-Caananizing the land of Israel.

Each chapter will typically contain something of an excursus as he goes off for a couple of pages exploring a subject raised indirectly by the text, sometimes theological, sometimes political, sometimes ‘ecclesial’. It makes for very lively reading, as he approaches many subjects from refreshingly different points of view.
Leithart is always looking for parallels and contrasts of the story of Kings and the story of Jesus. He ends each chapter by bringing Jesus into the picture, and thus it serves as a fine example of preaching Christ in all the Scriptures. In fact, often I would get to the end of a chapter and find myself wanting to preach a sermon on the passage – surely the mark of an excellent commentary.

Overall I would say its a great read, and definitely worth checking out if you are either preaching on 1-2 Kings, or want to be inspired to see them in a fresh light.

Apologies for the lack of posts here recently. My energies recently have been focused on preparing some talks for Southampton and Solent CUs.

Although this commentary does not cover all three pastoral epistles, Stott uses the introduction to discuss the arguments for and against Pauline authorship for the pastorals as a whole. He does not go into exhaustive detail, but the discussion is fuller than normal for the Bible Speaks Today series.

He works verse by verse through the two letters in expository fashion, not just explaining the text, but applying it to contemporary church situations and is always willing to briefly comment on theological issues raised. Both letters contain plenty of material directed to church leaders, a passion that Stott shares, believing that “the health of the church depends very largely on the quality, faithfulness and teaching of its ordained ministers.”

His discussion of gender issues is sensitively handled, and he argues for a creation principle of male “headship” which has varying cultural expressions. This leads him to categorise women teaching alongside men raising their hands and women plaiting their hair – practises that may or may not be appropriate in different cultures as expressions of an underlying principle. It is an interesting suggestion, although it does require him to maintain that the first century cultural expression of this principle is the exact opposite of the modern one in this case.

He suggests that the ministry of deacons includes teachings, and that they functioned as assistants to the elders. The treatment of the subject of money in chapter six is particularly insightful, discussing simplicity and destitution. “Money is a drug, and covetousness a drug addiction”.

The letters of 1 Timothy and Titus have plenty to say on the importance of sound doctrine, a passion that Stott shares. He also highlights the emphasis on the importance of good works that permeates the letter to Titus. He describes Titus as being about “doctrine and duty” – in the church, the home, and the world. He argues that there is an “indissoluble connection” between doctrine and duty and that “any doctrine that does not promote godliness is manifestly bogus”.

As with all Stott’s contributions to the Bible Speaks Today Series, this is one that I would highly recommend for anyone wanting to go deeper in their personal Bible study.

As someone who has not read The Lord of the Rings in its entirety (I got about a third of the way through), and who doesn’t have a particular passion for fiction or philosophy, this book might not seem the most obvious of choices for me. But a blog review I read a while ago piqued my interest, I put it on my Amazon wishlist, and lo and behold, it arrived as a Christmas present.

Fortunately, despite its title, this book does not require you to have a deep knowledge of everything Lord of the Rings and Tolkien. Simply having seen the movies will be enough for you to follow along for the most part. However, Kreeft clearly loves the the book and makes the assumption that his readers share his passion. More than that, Kreeft is in full agreement with Tolkien’s Christian (and distinctively Catholic) worldview.

The way the book is structured is to answer about 50 key philosophical questions. For the most part these are nicely phrased in layman’s terms: “Does God exist?”, “Are we both fated and free?”, “Is knowledge always good?”, “Do principles or consequences make an act good.”

As well as covering the most obvious philosophical questions, there are some surprises. “Are angels real?”, “Do things have personalities?”, “How can words be alive?”.

Each question is discussed with a look in the Lord of the Rings for any clues to Tolkien’s worldview as well as some quotes from C S Lewis that state a similar perspective directly. So in many ways, this book is much about the worldview of Lewis as it is of Tolkien.

Whilst the one or two pages devoted to each answer can only scratch the surface of the topic, there is certainly plenty of food for thought. What made Lewis in particular so refreshing (and Tolkien seems to have shared this characteristic), was a kind of old-fashionedness to his point of view – he wasn’t afraid to question whether the “progress” of modern thinking was indeed progress in the right direction.

Despite focusing on the writings of Tolkien and Lewis, Kreeft also has a good way with words and brings some of his own ideas to the table. In a section on the power of music, he claims that “music is the original language. … Poetry is fallen music, and prose is fallen poetry”.

Overall I would say that despite losing me in a few places (especially when talking about ‘Faerie’), this was a very interesting angle to approach these philosophical questions from. Kreeft also succeeds in demonstrating how, whilst at first glance The Lord of the Rings is absent of any reference to God, Christ or even religion, Tolkien’s Christian worldview shines through very clearly.

This book contains nine “reflections on the Psalms” from the famous preacher Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones. What is curious about this book is that it contains no preface or introduction explaining why these particular sermons were chosen for this volume. Obviously nine sermons is no systematic coverage of the Psalms and, starting with sermons on atheism (Ps 14:1) and dead religion (Ps 50:21), it is not obvious that the original series (if indeed there was one) was necessarily on the topic of “seeking the face of God”. Whilst a couple of the sermons are clearly follow-ons from the previous one, there is no other indication that these form either part or the whole of a series. A footnote reveals that at least one of the sermons was preached in 1957.

Following the evangelistic thrust of the first two sermons, the remainder of the sermons focus in on the importance of knowing God. Lloyd-Jones has a way of homing in on single phrases that other expositors might rush past to get to the more readily “preachable” verses. An example would be his two-part treatment of Ps 84, in which he devotes an entire sermon to Ps 84:3.

For me, the high points in this brief volume are the sermons in the second half, particularly the one on Ps 63:1-3. It is in these sermons that the book earns its title of “Seeking the Face of God”, as Lloyd-Jones presses home the importance of knowing God’s presence. The most important thing is to know that God is with us, that we have access to him, and that we can enjoy his presence, in the most humbling, the most difficult, the most truing of circumstances. He makes several of the same points that he does in the sermons contained in “Joy Unspeakable”, arguing that we need to become “God intoxicated”, and that we give him no rest until he has satisfied the longing of our hearts and granted us the Spirit in fullness.

Are you enjoying God? We are meant to. Shame on us if we are not.

Just because a man is an outstanding preacher, does not mean you can select a bunch of his sermons and automatically get a coherent book. However, despite its slightly disjointed start, I really enjoyed these reflections on the Psalms, and especially appreciated the fact that Lloyd-Jones is not content to simply be a master expositor, helping us understand the meaning of the text, but also preaches to the heart, urging us to desire to know God personally.

Make it the central thing of your life to gaze upon God, to arrive at a knowledge of Him that will be intimate and personal, a communion with Him that will ravish your heart and cause your soul to rise up to Him. Seek His face, and go on seeking it.

This book contains 24 sermons from Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Lloyd-Jones is of course well known and highly regarded in evangelical circles for his outstanding preaching gift. However, the position he argues for in this book is a controversial one, particularly amongst those who otherwise would agree with his every word.

In this book, Lloyd-Jones builds a biblical case that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a distinct experience from conversion. He sees it as the most urgent need for the church of the present day to be baptised in the Spirit, which he believes is the same thing as saying that we need revival.

The first chapter establishes his conviction that the baptism or “sealing” with the Spirit is distinct from conversion. Amongst many examples he gives, he points to Jesus’ own experience of being baptised with the Spirit. He is keen to emphasise the experiential nature of the baptism – it is a kind of “drenching” with the Spirit.

The chief marks of the baptism he highlights are a great joy, a real assurance, and power for witness. He does not believe that it is directly related to sanctification, although it is of course a great encouragement to growth in holiness. He urges those who do not have “joy inexpressible” to seek the baptism. He does not believe that the baptism can only be received once.

Pentecostals and charismatics however should not assume he is uncritically “on their side” in this debate. Though he rigorously refutes cessationism, he also critiques certain charismatic ideas as well. Perhaps most notable is his stress on the sovereignty of God in giving the baptism and gifts. He rejects any assumption that you simply have to follow certain steps to receive them, or that they can be “claimed”. He is highly suspicious of anything that could be interpreted as psychological manipulation or the power of suggestion. Instead he urges people to earnestly seek to receive the baptism, but at the same time indicates that we cannot force God’s hand.

He manages to show tremendous balance throughout. He is aware of the danger of quenching the Spirit on the one hand, and of gullibly being led into error on the other, and is equally forceful in warning against both. Perhaps most impressive is his determination to follow the Scriptures wherever they lead, even if that put him at odds with many of those who moved in the same reformed evangelical circles. He was determined not to interpret Scripture in light of our experience, but to evaluate our experience (or lack of it) in the light of Scripture.

Throughout the book, he illustrates his points with stories of people throughout history who have met with God in remarkable ways. Some have criticised him for making the baptism seem “out of reach” to ordinary people by focussing on these particularly exceptional examples. But that would be slightly unfair, since he takes pains to point out that this experience is available to all kinds of people, even those with the most level-headed of dispositions. Others criticise his emphasis on the sovereignty of God by appealing to Luke 11:13 as a promise that we will receive when we ask. However, he does address this concern, and again it is his determination that we settle for nothing less than the real thing that prevents him from endorsing various charismatic attempts to guide people into receiving the experience.

Although this is quite a long book, I would say it remains essential reading for those wanting to fully examine the biblical evidence on the matter of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He shows how almost all the evidence in the gospels and Acts points in this direction, and is willing to interact with all the counter-arguments that are usually raised (including 1 Cor 12:13). Most importantly though, it stirs up a hunger to personally receive more of the Spirit, and calls us to earnest prayer for our churches to experience true revival.

This volume was first one of the Bible Speaks Today series that I read, and the one that set me down the path of reading the whole series. I decided to re-read it in December, to see if it was as good as I remembered.

Michael Green had in fact already written a previous commentary on Matthew in 1988, which forms the basis for this one (published in 2000). The introduction covers the arguments for and against Matthean authorship and he devotes considerable space to discussion of structure, favouring a proposal by Elizabeth and Ian Billingham. He concludes the introduction with a brief, but fascinating overview of recent commentaries and literature on Matthew.

Green clearly has a lot of knowledge of the history, beliefs and customs of the first century, and these inform the commentary throughout, but he avoids becoming overly academic, and he keeps his main focus on the message of Matthew for us today. For example, he often applies Jesus’ warnings to Israel to the church, believing that we stand in real danger of making many of the same mistakes that the scribes and Pharisees of Jesus’ day did.

His coverage of the Sermon on the Mount is good, but concise, probably because John Stott has a much fuller exposition which is also part of the Bible Speaks Today series and which complements the present volume nicely. Green’s passion for evangelism comes out in a challenging exposition of Matthew 10.

Green is also prepared to touch upon current trends in biblical interpretation, such as a section where he rejects Sanders’ presentation of the Pharisees with their “covenantal nomism”. Like Tom Wright, he favours interpreting the “coming of the Son of Man” as a reference to AD 70, leading him to interpret the “gathering of the elect” as describing world mission. He is also willing to occasionally discuss Matthew’s differences with the other Synoptics, offering resolutions to perceived contradictions, and highlighting where the other accounts shed additional light on the story.

He often arranges his comments thematically on a chapter rather than strictly commenting verse by verse. His understanding of the structure of Matthew leads him to look for common themes running through the major “teaching blocks” of Matthew. For example, he interprets chapter 18 as being about “internal relationships” in the kingdom.

He sees the woes of chapter 23 as a “studied parallel” with the beatitudes, and is even prepared to pronounce a few woes of his own on modern day church ministers. “There is nothing so repulsive as dead religion, and there is a lot of it about”.

He devotes a good amount of space to covering Jesus’ death and resurrection. One interesting suggestion was his idea that Matthew may not have intended us to take the accounts of the graves opening and holy people walking around (Matt 27:52-53) in a strictly literal sense – it may have been the “heavenly Jerusalem” in which they walked. Its not an idea I had heard before, and I am not fully convinced by it, since it does not adequately explain the inclusion of the phrase “appeared to many”. His chapter on the resurrection gives both evidence for believing  the resurrection, as well as a summary of its theological implications.

Overall I would say that this is an ideal book for someone who wants to go deeper in their study of this gospel, but perhaps doesn’t feel ready to tackle a full-blown commentary (D A Carson’s Matthew in the Expositor’s Bible Commentary remains one of my other favourites on this book). It will give you some fresh angles to look at Jesus’ teaching from, plenty of helpful bits of background information, a more cohesive picture of how the various parts of Matthew fit together into a whole, and perhaps its greatest strength is showing how all the teaching of Jesus in this gospel remains directly relevant to the present day church.

A couple of years ago I decided I would like to try reading on of the “Early Church Fathers”, and spotted this Penguin edition of Saint Augustine’s “City of God” for a very reasonable price. I did not however, pay attention to the page count. This is a massive work, at well over 1000 pages of small print, and required the perseverance of a saint to get through.

The way the book is structured is very interesting. It actually consists of 22 “books”, each of which contain around 20-30 “chapters”. These chapters are quite often only a couple of pages long, and each chapter has a full sentence for its title, summarizing the main point made in the chapter. This is very helpful and it breaks working through a book of this size into manageable chunks. If Augustine was alive today, I am sure he would blog each chapter, and tweet his chapter headings.

The first major part of the book is devoted to defending Christianity against accusations that because Christians did not worship the Roman gods, they were to blame behind the recent sacking of Rome by the Goths. Augustine sets about showing how this is a ridiculous allegation. One of his major counter-arguments is to show how many similar and worse atrocities occurred in the Roman empire before the advent of Christianity:

“How can our opponents have the effrontery, the audacity, the impudence, the imbecility (or rather the insanity) to refuse to blame their gods for those catastrophes, while they hold Christ responsible for the disasters of modern times?”

This moves him onto his next major theme, which could be called “The Gods Delusion”, where Augustine starts to examine the vast pantheon of gods worshiped by the Romans, pointing out all kinds of ridiculous inconsistencies, particularly relating to how the areas of jurisdiction of different gods overlapped. For example, if the goddess “Victory” gives all victory in war, then what exactly does Jupiter, king of the gods do?

He makes short shrift of astrology, stating that “it is blatantly obvious that multitudes of people conceived or born at the same time as each other have greatly differing destinies”. Along the way he makes some incisive comments on the relationship between “divine foreknowledge and human free will”, which he argues are not incompatible.

For God would never have created a man, let alone an angel, in the foreknowledge of his future evil state, if he had not known at the same time how he would put such creatures to good use, and thus enrich the course of world history by the kind of antithesis which gives beauty to a poem.

Elsewhere he states that “God was not unaware of any event in the future, and yet he did not, by his foreknowledge, compel anyone to sin”.

He then moves into what is essentially a book review and critique of the massive works of Marcus Varro. Augustine has great respect for Varro’s intellect, but criticises him for not having the guts to disbelieve in the gods. He again pokes fun at the the ridiculous parcelling out of small domains to gods. A favourite example of his were the three different gods for the door, the hinges, and the latch. He can be quite humorous in places, nowhere more so than when he discusses the whole plethora of gods required to ensure that a newly married couple get to have sex, ending with him wryly commenting that he felt sorry for the bridegroom who didn’t seem to have anything left to do for himself!

One lesson perhaps we can draw from Augustine is his willingness to engage deeply with the beliefs of the pagan culture. He clearly knew a lot about Roman beliefs, philosophy, myths and history, and from that position was able to make a very thorough critique of the whole system.

Moving on from gods, he turns to consider the philosophical ideas of Plato (which he thinks is the philosophy closest to Christianity). He asks what the “Summum Bonum” (the ultimate good) is, and here defines it by saying that “man’s true good should be found not in the enjoyment of the body or mind, but in the enjoyment of God”, although later in the book he says that “eternal life is the Supreme Good and eternal death the Supreme Evil, and that to achieve the one and escape the other, we must live rightly”.

In a rather obscure chapter he deals with a prevailing pagan idea that “demons” serve as mediators between humans and the gods, which presents a nice opportunity for him to show how Jesus is the only mediator between man and God. He also argues that God exists outside of time and therefore sees the future as having already happened.

Although most of the first part of the book is a critique of Roman beliefs, he does along the way begin to build a case for belief in the God of the Bible. This leads into the second major part of the book which is essentially a tale of two cities – the city of God and the city of man. Augustine interprets the whole of human history in terms of these two cities.

He begins with creation, and defends the biblical account, based on his conviction that “the Bible never lies”. Although he generally takes a literalist interpretation, he is not always as dogmatic as you might expect. For example, on the duration of the “days” of creation, he says “What kind of days these are is difficult or even impossible for us to imagine, to say nothing of describing them.”

One of the great things about reading this book is the number of surprising directions he goes off in. For example there is a chapter on “the perfection of the number 6”, which as someone who enjoys mathematics I appreciated. Maybe we need more theologians who share his conviction that “the theory of number is not to be lightly regarded, since it is made quite clear, in many passages of the holy Scriptures, how highly it is to be valued.” He includes a fascinating (although possibly circular) argument to prove your own existence: I exist; and if I’m mistaken, then I must exist in order to be mistaken. Or how about this for the most bizarre quote I came across: in discussing people who have remarkable physical capabilities, he reports that “a number of people produce at will such musical sounds from their behind (without any stink) that they seem to be singing from that region”.

This would be an appropriate point to say a word or two about Augustine’s hermeneutics. He accepts the validity of allegorical interpretation (such as the Song of Solomon refers to the church), and in principle allows it in other places such as Genesis (e.g. the door in the ark representing where the spear went into Christ’s side), so long as the historicity of the accounts is not denied. He actually shows more restraint than I was expecting, recognising that allegory is of necessity speculative, and any findings must be in harmony with the clear teaching of other parts of Scripture (i.e. they must be tested by “the rule of faith”). He is also extremely Christocentric in his hermeneutics, looking for Jesus at every point, an approach I appreciate even if I am not convinced with everything he claims to find.

But there are a few oddities. One is his insistence on defending the Patriarchs at every possible juncture. He stretches credulity with his attempts to put a positive spin on Abraham and Jacob’s every action. So for example he argues that Abraham is from a family of Hebrew speaking God-fearers, and defends him against any wrongdoing in sleeping with Hagar. Even more incredible is his claim that Jacob didn’t use deceit to obtain the blessing!

Another quirk is his stance towards the Septuagint, which he sees as a divinely controlled translation (believing that each of the 70 translators independently created the same translation), and hence while he acknowledges discrepancies between the Hebrew and LXX, he argues that both are right.

Augustine often gets bad press for his stance concerning sex. To be honest, he doesn’t say a lot about it in this book, but he does claim that before the fall, conception did not involve sexual lust, and indicates that he thinks passionless sex would be the ideal state of affairs. An indicator of perhaps ascetic tendencies comes when he needs an example of a particularly dishonourable desire: he chooses wishing for yourself “the provision of extravagant banquets”.

Having very slowly gone through the Genesis story, Augustine picks up pace and rushes through the Exodus through to David in just a couple of pages. He then takes some time to discuss the “era of the prophets”, where he attempts to demonstrate as many different prophecies relating to Christ as possible.
When he gets onto the end times, he seemed to me to be clearly articulating an amillennial position. However he is not too dogmatic about it, since after summarising the Bible’s teaching on the end times as: “Elijah the Tishbite will come; Jews will accept the faith; Antichrist will persecute; Christ will judge; the dead will rise again; the good and the evil will be separated; the earth will be destroyed in the flames and then will be renewed.”, he then goes on to admit that it might not be exactly in that order. Perhaps the most novel part of his eschatology was the claim that even believers who are alive at the second coming will briefly die, before being brought to life into their resurrected bodies.

The final two books deal with eternal death, and eternal life. It is important to him to make the case for a physical, bodily existence in both places, which leads him to answering all kinds of bizarre objections raised to the idea of either eternal pain in hell or eternal physical life in heaven. He hints at believing in the possibility of some kind of purgatory. There is a remarkable chapter in the final book where he recounts all the miracles of healing he has witnessed or knows of first-hand. As he ponders the physical nature of the eternal state, he wonders in what sense we will be able to see God (naturally he accepts that we will be able to see Jesus, but since God is Spirit, he does not take it for granted that he will be physically visible to us):

perhaps God will be known to us and visible to us in the sense that he will be spiritually perceived by each one of us in each one of us, perceived in one another, perceived by each in himself; he will be seen in the new heaven and the new earth, in the whole creation as it then will be; he will be seen in every body by means of bodies, wherever the eyes of the spiritual body are directed with their penetrating gaze.

The final chapter is a wonderful end to the work, and a very profound meditation on eternal life (or life in the “heavenly city” as Augustine would say). He says that God “will be the goal of all our longings; and we shall see him for ever; we shall love him without satiety; we shall praise him without wearying. This will be the duty, the delight, the activity of all, shared by all who share the life of eternity.” When he ponders whether there will be free will in heaven, he concludes that “the will will be the freer in that it is freed from a delight in sin and immovably fixed in a delight in not sinning.”

Hopefully that gives you a taste for some of the contents and highlights of this substantial volume. There is no denying that this book is hard work, particularly if like me you are not accustomed to reading ancient literature and are ignorant of the beliefs and history of Augustine’s day. However, in amongst the perplexing bits, and the downright strange bits, and the seemingly obscure points he sometimes addresses, there are lots of fascinating insights to be gleaned.

Reading it made me think of how much the church needs writers and thinkers of his calibre, to give a well researched and reasoned Christian response to the diverse worldviews of our own day. His depth of knowledge and learning, not just of the Scriptures, but history, pagan beliefs, philosophies made him the ideal man to write this work of apologetics.

This is my second reading of this volume in the Bible Speaks Today series, and it was just as enjoyable as I remembered it being first time round. All of John Stott’s contributions are excellent, and this is one of his best.

Published originally in 1979, this volume is slightly different from others in that there is no introduction. I actually think this is a good move, as Stott deals with issues of authorship, dating, recipients in his comments on the opening verses and draws out key themes of the letter as he goes along.

Perhaps the biggest eye-opener for me (the first time through anyway) was recognising the theme of “God’s new society”. We have become so accustomed to reading the Bible individualistically that we can miss the implications for the church community. Instead of interpreting the blessings and commands in an entirely personal way (“what do I get, how should I behave”), Stott does a brilliant job of highlighting the corporate emphasis running through the letter.

The one place I found myself disagreeing with Stott (or at least wanting to say “yes, but…”) was in his discussion of the “Ephesians 4 ministries”, in which he made clear his reservations about the charismatic movement’s understanding of the need for ongoing “apostolic” and “prophetic” ministries. He makes clear that in his estimation, by far the most important gift is that of teaching. I agree with its great importance, but it seems to me that he undermines the very point he has just made so forcefully about the need for a diversity of gifts.

He devotes considerable space to the contentious issue of submission, arguing that there is indeed a creation principle of male ‘headship’, but is very careful to explain what is not meant by this.

“Certainly, ‘headship’ implies a degree of leadership and initiative, as when Christ came to woo and to win his bride. But more specifically it implies sacrifice, self-giving for the sake of the beloved, as when Christ Gave himself for his bride. If ‘headship’ means ‘power’ in any sense, then it is power to care not to crush, power to serve to not dominate, power to facilitate self-fulfilment, not to frustrate or destroy it.”

In fact if anything, Stott’s commentary on Eph 5:21-6:9 focuses more on what the text is not saying than what it is. For example, he includes a section explaining why the NT does not explicitly call for the abolition of slavery.

Though this is not an academic commentary, Stott is not afraid to get involved in exegetical debates where necessary. For example, he spends several pages surveying the history of the idea that the “powers and authorities” are not demons but socio-political structures. His thoughtful critique of the position (which is still popular) concludes that it is “ingenious” yet “contrived”.

“in reaffirming that the principalities and powers are personal supernatural agencies, I am not at all denying that they can use structures, traditions, institutions, etc. For good or ill; I am only wishing to avoid the confusion which comes from identifying them. … Advocates of the new theory warn us against deifying structures; I want to warn them against demonizing them.”

Stott also makes good use of the best quotes from other commentators, which makes this a rich treasure trove of source material for those preaching on Ephesians. It contains a marvellous combination of careful exegesis and pastoral wisdom, which makes it an excellent choice for anyone wanting to study the book of Ephesians in greater depth.