I can’t recommend Scott Swain’s book Trinity, Revelation, and Reading enough. It’s excellent and introduces readers to the Theological Interpretation of Scripture movement.
Theological Interpretation of Scripture
Writing Update Sept 2021
It’s been a while since I posted because I was having some issues with my website (not my expertise!). Thankfully, here are some articles that I’ve been able to write for various publications:
- “Christ Our Salvation: A First Engagement with John Webster,” Modern Reformation, August 30, 2021.
- Book Review of Theology is for Preaching in Modern Reformation (Oct/Nov 2021).
- Book Review of Vital Churches, on Modern Reformation, July 20, 2021.
- “Lessons from Sickness in Isaiah 38,” The Banner of Truth Magazine 694 (July 2021).
Publication Updates!
Good News! While this blog has been quiet, lots of activity has been going on behind the scenes.
Here are some recent publications:
https://modernreformation.org/resource-library/web-exclusive-articles/yesterday-i-was-dead/
“Joy Unspeakable: Finding Joy in Christ-like Suffering.” Puritan Reformed Journal 13, no. 1 (January 2021): 202–4.
“Singing for Our Supper” – in the 2020 Mid-America Journal of the Theology
Brief Review: A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible: Second Edition
For years, I have longed to have the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament in one volume. Biblia Sacra is the common gold standard, but it is expensive. After looking at various options, I finally on A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible: Second Edition by A. Philip Brown II and Bryan W. Smith (Zondervan Academic; Hardcover, 2020).
A reader’s Bible with the Greek and Hebrew includes footnotes that give definitions (glosses) of uncommon vocabulary, to allow readers to make their way through the text without constantly looking up words in their dictionaries/lexicons.
So far, I love this! I was skeptical that this volume would deliver after purchasing A Reader’s Hebrew Bible back in seminary and being disappointed. Not only did that volume feel cheap and flimsy compared to my hardback compact BHS, I found the font lacking and the pages confusing. However, A Reader’s Hebrew and Greek Bible: Second Edition has improved upon previous iterations. The volume is sturdy and the pages feel of higher quality.
My only two critiques after a week’s usage is that the Greek font seems smaller and more condensed than the Hebrew and, in the Hebrew, the names are faded. The proper nouns are faded intentionally–to be a signal to help readers–yet it seems to me that anyone who knows enough Hebrew to use a reader’s Bible is going to be able to sense when dealing with a name. Of course, I can also see the point and I suppose I’m more disappointed by the execution than the concept. The words are just too faint.
These weaknesses aside, this book feels great and I am picking it up daily, as a supplement to my other studies, to keep fresh in my reading of God’s Word in the original languages. I highly recommend it to those who know the biblical languages and want practice reading without helps, or something to take into the pews with them.
Guilt, Grace, Gratitude
This is the pattern of the Christian life: Guilt, Grace, Gratitude. There is so much to this dynamic. For example, it shows us that:
Truth transforms. Christian salvation is not just a “get out of hell free” card that leaves a person living however they want, but gratitude truly comes where God’s grace is known, and that gratitude means life change. The Spirit of God produces the fruits of the Spirit in our lives.
Grace comes first. We do not work our way into salvation, but we receive faith in Christ, a gift of God, which leads to good works. Ephesians 2 shows us this pattern so well (above).
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved…For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2:1-10 (abridged)
We are guilty. If we censor the language of sin the Bible uses, and downplay the wrath of God against sin, as some people try to do, there is no foundation for gratitude-motivated good works. What is there to be thankful for?
A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.
H. Richard Niebuhr
Man is depraved and guilty, but God’s grace is greater than all our sin. Christ has purchased our newness of life with his precious blood, taking our penalty on himself in his life and especially at the cross. That leads us to serve him in thankfulness.
The Heidelberg Catechism, itself patterned in this way of guilt, grace, and gratitude, explains that we serve the Lord with thanksgiving:
Question: Since then we are delivered from our misery, merely of grace, through Christ, without any merit of ours, why must we still do good works? Answer: Because Christ, having redeemed and delivered us by his blood, also renews us by his Holy Spirit, after his own image; that so we may testify, by the whole of our conduct, our gratitude to God for his blessings, and that he may be praised by us; also, that every one may be assured in himself of his faith, by the fruits thereof; and that, by our godly conversation others may be gained to Christ.
Heidelberg Catechism Q&A 86
Praise the Lord for this wonderful theme: God transforms us from guilt to gratitude by grace.