Now that Christ has come, and together with the ancient priesthood and sacrifice and the representation appertaining to the Law, the use of instruments in churches has vanished like a shadow…There is not so much as a reference to the organ in the New Testament, nor of its introduction into the purer church; but it was only introduced in theatrical masses, as if in obscene sport, by immoral priests to make clowns cut capers. Continue reading →
Author Archives: R. Scott Clark
Office Hours: Wisdom In Preaching
Our Lord Jesus worked miracles but he was also a preacher. He came “preaching the Gospel of God and saying ‘The time is fulfilled,’ and ‘Kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe the gospel’” (Mark 1:15). People marveled at his . . . Continue reading →
Considering Context Leads To Singing Psalms In New Testament Praise And Worship
Context inevitably colors how we understand texts. It shapes our assumptions about what about what is possible and plausible. I see this in Patristics (the study of the early Christian church). As a confessional Reformed Christian with connections to Reformed orthodoxy, as . . . Continue reading →
Divinely Ordained Praise
Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing a psalm. —James 5:13
What I Learned In English Lit About Civil Liberties
What I learned from my High School English teacher is that civil liberty has nothing to do with ideological conformity or consensus. As a young leftist my first impulse was to silence dissent. I was wrong. Continue reading →
WCF: The Condition Of The Covenant Of Works Versus The Condition Of The Covenant Of Grace
1. The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience unto him as their Creator, yet they could never have any fruition of him as their blessedness and reward, but by some voluntary condescension . . . Continue reading →
Heidegger And Turretin: Adam’s Covenant Of Works Fulfilled By Christ
Canon VII: As all his works were known unto God from eternity, (Acts 15:18), so in time, according to his infinite power, wisdom, and goodness, he made man, the glory and end of his works, in his own image, and, therefore, upright, . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg Catechism: The Fall Was Law Breaking
7. From where then comes this depraved nature of man? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve, in Paradise, whereby our nature became so corrupt that we are all conceived and born in sin. —Heidelberg Catechism
Heidelberg Catechism: Adam Created Righteous, Holy, And Able To Obey
6. Did God create man thus wicked and perverse? No, but God created man good and after His own image, that is, in righteousness and true holiness, that he might rightly know God his Creator, heartily love Him, and live with Him . . . Continue reading →
Second Helvetic Confession: Adam Created Righteous, Holy, And Upright
In the beginning, man was made according to the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness, good and upright. But when at the instigation of the serpent and by his own fault he abandoned goodness and righteousness, he became subject to . . . Continue reading →
Belgic Confession: The Commandment Of Life Versus The Foundation Of Grace
14. We believe that God created man out of the dust of the earth, and made and formed him after his own image and likeness, good, righteous, and holy, capable in all things to will agreeably to the will of God. But . . . Continue reading →
Lloyd-Jones Against Shepherd: Complete Statement
He even talks of eschatological justification and regards it as something that is not complete until the judgment…He does not recognize that justification is entirely God’s forensic act of declaring we are just because he has imputed to us Christ righteousness. The result is no one could ever bring against Shepherd the charge brought against Paul in Rom. 6:1—Dr. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Continue reading →
Wollebius: Christ Merited Our Salvation By His Active Obedience As The Second Adam
I. Just as the passion of Christ it Is necessary for the expiation of sin, so his active obedience and righteousness are necessary for the gaining of eternal life. The reasons are: (1) The law binds us both to punishment and to . . . Continue reading →
Berkhof: Christ Met The Condition Of The Covenant Of Works
3. BASICALLY, THE COVENANT OF GRACE IS SIMPLY THE EXECUTION OF THE ORIGINAL AGREEMENT BY CHRIST AS OUR SURETY. He undertook freely to carry out the will of God. He placed Himself under the law, that He might redeem them that were . . . Continue reading →
A. A. Hodge: Adam Would Have Merited
As to the relation of good works to rewards, it may be observed—(1.) The word merit, in the strict sense of the term, means that common quality of all actions or services to which a reward is due in strict justice on . . . Continue reading →
Hodge On Adam, Christ, Conditions, And Merit
The condition of the covenant of grace, so far as adults are concerned, is faith in Christ. That is, in order to partake of the benefits of this covenant we must receive the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God in . . . Continue reading →
J. H. Heidegger: Christ Condignly Merited As The Second Adam
9.3 The Covenant Of Works The covenant of works is the pact of God initiated with the uncorrupted Adam, as head of the whole human race, in which He stipulated from man perfect obedience to the law, promised eternal, heavenly life for . . . Continue reading →
Witsius: Christ Condignly Merited A Reward By Fulfilling The Covenant Of Works
XXXIII. And the thing speaks for itself, For, as there is a covenant between the Father and the Son; “when thou shalt make his soul (if the soul of the Son shall devote himself) an offering for sin,” Is. 53:10, upon performing . . . Continue reading →
Witsius: Don’t Confuse The Covenant Of Works With The Covenant Of Grace
XXV. Such a perfect observance of the laws of the covenant, up to the period which God had fixed for probation, had given man a right to the reward. Not from any intrinsic proportion of the work to the reward, as the . . . Continue reading →
Johannes Braun: Adam Would Have Merited His Reward
If Adam had remained upright and done everything which God required of him, he would indeed have merited his reward, but not condignly, as if either his own person or his works were equal in value to the reward. For no creature, . . . Continue reading →