Sermon notes

Last updated on: May 2, 2011 at 4:18 am By Peter Leithart

INTRODUCTION The first section of Isaiah’s prophecy (chapters 1-12) ended with the promise of an exodus and a “song of Moses” (11:11-12:6). The original song of Moses spoke of the nations trembling before Yahweh (Exodus 15:14-16), and Isaiah fittingly continues with prophetic oracles against the Gentiles (chapters 13-24). The new section of the book is marked by a reminder that the oracle comes from “Isaiah” (13:1; cf. 1:1; 2:1). THE TEXT “The burden against Babylon which Isaiah the son of... Read more

Eucharistic exhortation

Last updated on: May 1, 2011 at 6:47 am By Peter Leithart

1 Corinthians 1:23-24: We preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. From beginning to end, James’ letter is a call to perseverance. “Be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord,” he writes, and he points to the prophets as “an example of suffering and patience.” “We count those blessed who endured” with the... Read more

Exhortation

Last updated on: May 1, 2011 at 6:17 am By Peter Leithart

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God . . . and it will be given to him,” James says in today’s sermon text. James is alluding to the story of Solomon asking for wisdom to judge the vast nation of Israel. According to James, we can all be Solomons. We can all be kings and priests by the Spirit of wisdom, and all we have to do is ask. But notice where James begins: “If anyone... Read more

Octave of Easter

Last updated on: April 30, 2011 at 7:35 pm By Peter Leithart

John 20:28: Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God. Let us pray. Father, You raised Your Son Jesus from the dead to bring a new day. Strengthen our faith by Your Spirit, so that we may believe the things written and so participate more and more in the power of His indestructible life and ascend to be with Him where He is, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. An octave is a repetition, a... Read more

God Needs Us

Last updated on: April 29, 2011 at 5:17 am By Peter Leithart

So says Calvin, doctor of divine sovereignty. Commenting on John 14:18, he writes, “We . . . imagine to ourselves but a half-Christ, and a mutilated Christ, if he does not lead us to God.” In John 17, when Jesus speaks of Himself as One with the Father, we must remember that Jesus is the Mediator and Head of the church. In this way “will the chain of thought be preserved, that, in order to prevent the unity of the... Read more

Calvin’s Pneumatology

Last updated on: April 29, 2011 at 5:05 am By Peter Leithart

Canlis notes two revolutionary innovations in Calvin’s doctrine of the Spirit: “First, he has shifted the primary bond between the human Jesus and the Father from divine substance to the divine person of the Spirit.” That enables Calvin to rescue Chalcedon from confusion: “rather than two naked natures coexisting without mingling, Calvin treats the whole person of Christ who, by the Spirit, is kept truly human and truly divine. The Holy Spirit represents a new way of being in relationship... Read more

Calvin’s Pneumatology

Last updated on: April 29, 2011 at 5:05 am By Peter Leithart

Original apostasy

Last updated on: April 29, 2011 at 4:51 am By Peter Leithart

According to Calvin, prior to the fall “direct communication with God was the source of life to Adam.” By the tree of life, “Adam was admonished, that he could claim nothing for himself as if it were his own, in order that he might depend wholly upon the Son of God, and might not seek life anywhere but in Him.” At the beginning, “man was blessed, not because of his good actions, but by participation in God” ( sed Dei... Read more

Created Grace

Last updated on: April 29, 2011 at 4:36 am By Peter Leithart

In her recent Calvin’s Ladder: A Spiritual Theology of Ascent and Ascension , Julie Canlis argues, following the work of Peter Wyatt, that Thomas displaces Christ from the center of his explanation of the “golden circle” of movement away from and return to God. Wyatt says that the circle is essentially complete after ST II-II, and ST III “does not belong integrally to it.” Canlis herself argues that Thomas’s fateful mistake was in his doctrine of created grace: “Once Aquinas... Read more

Jenson in nuce

Last updated on: April 29, 2011 at 4:29 am By Peter Leithart

Jenson offers a corrective to Thomas’s cycle of exitus-reditus , according to which all things that come from God are ordered to return. This is “misleading,” Jenson says, “since saving history is God’s journey with us , not our journey away from and back to him.” That is about as good a summary of Jenson’s life’s work as you could ask for. Read more

Who was Abraham's firstborn son?