David Clarkson on the Necessity of Good Works

David Clarkson, John Owen’s successor, addresses a number of objections to the doctrine of the imputation of Christ’s active obedience.  The third objection is this: If Christ’s obedience is imputed to us then we do not need to obey ourselves.

Moses, Good Works and The Way of Salvation

Since the Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of grace, Francis Roberts concludes that justification was by faith and not by works in the Mosaic Covenant.  But if this is so, then why does the Mosaic Covenant make so much of doing and works?  Roberts notes that it does not only make of doing but also of believing.  But one reason it made much of doing was to show the important of obedience and good works as the way to salvation.  He writes:

Good Works and Salvation

R. Scott Clark believes that Trent properly understood the Protestant position on the role of good works: good works are merely evidence of sanctity and nothing more (CJPM, 252-3).  John Davenant, however, one of the English delegates to the Synod of Dort, vigorously disagrees.

Plumer on the Serrated Edge

Guidelines for the use of “pleasantry, humour, wit, satire, irony, sarcasm, and ridicule” by William S. Plumer  (Law of God, pp. 569-570):

1.  It is certain that all use of these things is not unlawful.  The examples of Elijah, David, and Isaiah prove this (1 Kgs 18:27; Ps. 115:4-8; Is. 44:9:17).

Quote of the Day

Shortly before his death, Martin Luther said to his wife:

I’m like a ripe stool and the world’s like a gigantic anus, and we’re about to let go of each other (The Wit of Martin Luther, 5).

 

Unsavory Speech

The New-England Synod of Elders in 1637 condemned a number of phrases used by antinomians as “unsavoury” and “unsafe.”  One of the phrases they disliked seems to be very similar to one that we often hear today (see this post).  It is:

Pensee du Jour

At around the 3:45 mark of this Ref21 interview Sean Lucas says something that I have heard many times.  He says, and I paraphrase: God does not love us any more for what we do or any less for how often we sin.  We are fully loved because we are united to Jesus Christ.

While I fully agree with the sentiment of this statement and believe it to be true in a sense, I wonder if there is more to be said on the matter.  Consider, as the pensee du jour, this quote from Francis Turretin:

Paedocommunion

A pdf version of the pastoral letter on paedocommunion is posted in the articles section.

Quote of the Day

R.B. Kuiper:

John 3:16 makes the amazing, incomprehensible, unfathomably profound, well-nigh unbelievable, declaration that the holy God sovereignly loves hell-deserving sinners, and that He loves them so much that he was willing that His only begotten Son, whom He loves with all the love of His infinite heart, should go to hell in their stead.

Sola Fide

Everyone, from the Roman Catholic to the Baptist to the Presbyterian to the Church of Christ member agrees that a person needs to believe in order to be justified.  One cannot read the Bible and not come to this conclusion.  Indeed one cannot read Romans 3:21-31 and not come to this conclusion.  Vs. 22: “the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ.”  Vs. 25: “…received by faith.”  Vs. 26: “…the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”  Vs. 28: “For we hold that one is justified by faith.”  Vs. 29: “God is one-who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised by faith.”