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“Doctrine is but the Drawing of the Bow”

Ver. 7. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

The connection is illative; he applieth the former promise, and by a just inference enforceth the duty therein specified: `Submit yourselves therefore to God., But you will say, Wherein doth the force of the reason lie?

I answer—1. It may be inferred out of the latter part of the sentence 357thus: `God giveth grace to the humble, therefore do you submit yourselves;, that is, do you come humbly, and seek the grace of God. The note thence is:—

Obs. That general hints of duty must be particularly and faithfully applied, or urged upon our own souls.

Doctrine is but the drawing of the bow, application is the hitting of the mark. How many are wise in generals, but vain ἐν διαλογίσμοις, in their practical inferences! Rom. i. 22. Generals remain in notion and speculation; particular things work. We are only to give you doctrine, and the necessary uses and inferences; you are to make application. Whenever you hear, let the light of every truth be reflected upon your own souls; never leave it till you have gained the heart to a sense of duty, and a resolution for duty. (1.) A sense of duty: `Know it for thy good, Job v. 27. If God hath required humble addresses, I must submit to God; if the happiness and quiet of the creature consisteth in a nearness to God, then `it is good for me to draw nigh to God, Ps. lxxiii. 28. Thus must you take your share out of every truth; I must live by this rule. When sinners are invited to believe in Christ, say, `I am chief, 1 Tim. i. 15. (2.) A resolution for duty, that your souls may conclude, not only I must, but I will: Ps. xxvii. 8, `When thou saidst, Seek ye my face, my heart said, Thy face, Lord, will I seek., The command is plural, Seek ye; the answer is singular, I will. The heart must echo thus to divine precepts.

-Thomas Manton, A Practical Commentary, or an Exposition, with Notes, on the Epistle of James, Chapter 4, emphasis mine (Read it online HERE).

I came across this quote totally by accident while I was reading an article written by one of my former teachers. This ties in very well to what I have been trying to say about meaning and application HERE, HERE, and HERE.

Notice that, in this analogy, both doctrine and application are necessary and connected. You cannot separate them any more than you can separate the process of drawing the bow to hitting your target with an arrow. It’s one fluid motion. If one part is missing, everything is deficient. Second, Manton makes the point that Christians need to work to become skilled at making application (which would seem obvious from the analogy). He calls upon us to ‘never leave [the truth, or a doctrine] till you have gained the heart to a sense of duty…’ ‘The heart must echo…divine precepts.’

So, we could say that those who know a good deal of doctrine but lack the ability to make application could be likened to someone with an expensive hunting bow who has never shot a deer in his life. The bow looks nice on the wall, but it’s not providing anything for him, or anyone else, to actually eat.

Meditation and Holy Sunburn

As those who are in the sun for work or play find themselves lightened and warmed, so let us set ourselves about holy meditations, and we shall find a secret, imperceptible change; our souls will be altered, we do not know how. There is a virtue that goes with holy mediation, a changing, transforming virtue. And indeed we can think of nothing in Christ without having it change us to the likeness of itself, because we have all from Christ.

– Richard Sibbes, Glorious Freedom, p. 120

Meditation produces, as it were, holy sunburn. But the burning comes from the Son, Jesus Christ. As constant exposure to the sun alters our bodies, constant exposure to Christ in the soul through mediation produces change. The burning of Christ-centered meditation in the soul produces a hot (not lukewarm) Christian.

On Devotions

A commenter asked me to say a word about Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ advice in Preaching and Preachers that Christians should make use of devotional books in order to ‘warm their hearts’ for prayer. So, here goes.

The Doctor’s remarks are from chapter 9, The Preparation of the Preacher. This may very well be the best chapter of the book, at least from my perspective, though chapters 4 (The Form of the Sermon) and 15 (The Pitfalls and the Romance) are right up there with it. What am I saying?, the whole book is very, very good. But I digress.

MLJ was keenly aware of what it felt like to be ‘cold at heart.’ He therefore encouraged folks to do things that would liven their affections with the intent of praying. There is a place for disciplined prayer to be sure, but if prayer is mainly cold and dry in your life, something is amiss. Perhaps your emotions have become dull. And so he pointed to regular, systematic Bible reading, the reading of devotional books, and music as the three primary means of thawing out a cold heart.

The frequent, systematic reading of Scripture is absolutely essential here. If you are cyclically reading the Bible, you will constantly be finding new things that move you. Just tonight this happened to me as I was reading 2 Kings 7 with my family. It tells the story of four lepers who trek into the camp of the Syrians in the midst of a famine only to find that the Syrian forces had fled and left all their goods. The lepers alerted officials to their findings and Israel found a new supply of cheap food, and gold and silver.

The premise, though not made up, is not unlike Goldilocks and the Three Bears. She found the house empty, and she enjoys the porridge. That’s what Israel did, on a much larger scale. As I thought about this passage, my mind was drawn to Christ, and particularly to the words of the Apostle Paul, that ‘he who was rich, for your sake became poor, that you might become rich in him.’ Which led me to the words of Charles Wesley, ‘He left his Father’s throne above, so free so infinite his grace. Emptied himself of all but love and bled for Adam’s helpless race.’ Christ is ransacked for our sake. He gives up his goods, his wares, so that they can become ours, and he does so voluntarily.

My point is simply that reading the Bible systematically, as MLJ contended, is a, make that the, major source of the fire that warms the heart toward God.

Next, he encouraged the reading of devotional books. He does not name them in Preaching and Preachers, but I have read enough of him to know what he considered to be gold. He loved the Puritans, as do I. When I find myself down or cold, I inevitably turn to the Puritans for warmth. Thomas Watson, Richard Sibbes, Thomas Brooks, and John Owen are my go to devotional writers. But notice I call them devotional. Today the word devotional usually equals short and fluffy, like Our Daily Bread. But this is not what devotional should mean. The Doctor used the term to denote something ‘with a note of worship in it.’ Devotional then, for him and for me, means something that exalts God and his grace and his glory. Something that draws you up into something of his glory. The Puritans do this.

The Doctor also liked Whitefield and Wesley and Jonathan Edwards. He read Charles Hodge often. He read Charles Spurgeon. These are names that he mentions repeatedly. He read their sermons. If you want your soul warmed, read the good preachers. A couple of months ago when I was reading The Pilgrim’s Progress, I happened to turn one night to a sermon by Spurgeon called Enchanted Ground. I was looking through a table of contents in a collection of his sermons and said to myself, ‘That sounds like it came straight out of Bunyan.’ So it did. But I found in the sermon a call to wake up from slumber, to not let the devil woo you to sleep with his devices and distractions. I needed that, it warmed my heart. Lately I have been reading a collection of sermons by Francis Shaeffer and it has had much the same impact. It has provoked me to praise God in prayer.

Lastly, MLJ mentions music. The devotional power of good music is fairly evident and doesn’t need explanation. Get to know the great old hymns. Learn the psalms. Sing the psalms. On days when I find myself cold, stressed, and melancholy, you will likely find me at some point singing the words of Psalm 43, ‘Send out thy light, send out thy truth, let them lead me…O my soul, why art thou cast down, why so discouraged be? Hope thou in God! I’ll praise him still. My help, my God, is he!’

And in addition, let me encourage here the practice of Christian meditation. Think about what you read and sing. Think deeply about it. Don’t read simply in order to get information. Don’t sing just to work up raw emotions. Read and sing to get fuel. Raw reading and raw singing are cheap fuel that don’t go very far. Reading and singing with an eye toward thinking – deep thinking – however, will provide lasting fuel. I am still living off the fuel I gained from reading Preaching and Preachers years ago – because I have kept thinking about what I read, internalizing it, applying it. The same, of course, is the case with the Bible. Think about what you read. Don’t be content to simply let your eyes pass over words. Embed those words in your soul, apply them to your soul, let them lead you to Jesus every day of your life. The Bible is like a fire, and meditation blows on that fire and makes it come to life and bring heat in your soul.

All of this will lead to more fervent prayer. And it cannot simply be a thing you do in the morning when you wake up. It has to be a part of your lifestyle, it needs to be engrained into who you are every waking moment. Every star in the sky should be fuel for devotion. Every rose in the flowerbed. Every hurricane or tornado. Every book, even the bad ones, even the godless ones. It’s all fuel if you will use it to point your heart back to Jesus Christ and his glory. Ask the Holy Spirit for help.

For more on meditation, see HERE and HERE.

Snippets: The Mindset of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5-6)

  • Romans 8:4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

1. Translation Issues
Romans 8:5, for the student of Greek, can be either a nightmare or a dream. I have just enough knowledge and ability in Greek to be dangerous, but even I can see that the translators have caused quite a bit of confusion through their work on this text. The phrase in question, which is used twice, is, as the ESV puts it, along with the NASB, ‘set their mind…’ Those of the flesh ‘set their mind’ on the flesh, those of the Spirit ‘set their mind’ on the Spirit. The KJV translates this phrase, instead of ‘set the mind,’ ‘being carnally minded’ and ‘spiritually minded.’

The obvious issue with these translations is that the quoted phrase includes a genitive definite article, and a genitive definite article expresses ownership. Thus the NET Bible translates the phrase more literally: ‘For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace.’ And I would offer up the translation, which I’m sure is not original:

  • ‘The mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace.’

The issue in Romans 8:6, then, is not simply what the mind is set on, but what the actual paradigm of the mind is. What’s your basic point of view? What governs your way of thinking? The way you answer this will determine whether or not you are a Christian.

2. The Mindset of the Spirit vs. The Mindset of the Flesh
Those who are ‘of the flesh’ have a certain way of thinking which is opposed to the ‘mindset of the Spirit.’ Therefore we have to ask, What is the mindset of the Spirit?

The Mindset of the Spirit is a Gospel Mindset

For instance,

  • John 16:14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you
  • Or consider the great outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost. What does He do, what is His work? He causes men to praise God. He causes Peter to preach a sermon all about Christ and his gospel. He causes men to believe the gospel.
  • Or consider 2 Corinthians 3. The work of the Spirit is to enable us to behold the glory of Christ in the gospel and thereby be conformed to Christ’s image.

The work of the Spirit is to cause us to believe the gospel and be transformed accordingly into the image of Christ. Particularly relevant here are the great texts of the New Testament that point to Christ humbling himself, serving others, giving himself as a sacrifice, and offering, and granting, forgiveness to his enemies.

This was the mindset of Christ, and it is likewise the mindset of the Spirit. Is it yours? This is the real test:
Is your mindset built upon, centered upon, humility, selflessness, service, self-sacrifice, showing mercy to those who do not deserve it, making peace? Is your mindset that of the blessed man in the beatitudes – poor in spirit (humble), mourning (hating your own sin, lamenting the fallenness of the world), meek (forgiving others and repaying evil with good), etc?

The mindset of the flesh is ‘me first.’ It is a mindset of pride, of counting myself as the greatest, of looking out for my own needs, of begrudging those who don’t line up with my wants. It is the mindset of hostility, enmity, anger, bitterness, resentment, jealousy, and the like. That’s the way of the world in a nutshell.

If you would have the mindset of the Spirit you must possess the Spirit. The new birth is essential. Man will not naturally humble himself. He will not be inclined to put others before himself, to sacrifice, to serve, to forgive.

So which mindset is yours? If you would have the mind of the Spirit you must know the gospel, exult in it, meditate upon it, and return to it over and over. It must be the controlling paradigm of your thoughts.

One of my old professors likes to paraphrase John Owen’s comments about this verse (from The Grace and Duty of Being Spiritually Minded):

  • ‘What are you thinking about when you’re not thinking about anything at all?’

And to paraphrase Matthew Henry, we could say,

  • On what do you dwell with the most satisfaction?

What’s the default mode of your mind? What thrills you? What excites you? Is it, ‘Me, me, me,’ ad infinitum? Is it MY likes, MY desires, MY interests? MY team? What can I buy next? What TV show can I watch? What game can I play? Or is it, How can I glorify my Savior? Who can I serve today? Where can I bring peace? Where can I show mercy?  Who can I encourage with gospel encouragement?

This is the work of the Spirit in justification – to make us believe this gospel, and in sanctification – to conform us to this gospel from the inside out. To have the mindset of the Spirit is to have a gospel mindset, and a gospel mindset leads to life and peace.

Psalm 39 and Meditation: Brood, Burn, Beseech

Psalm 39 shows us how meditation functions practically for the Christian:

Psalm 39:3 My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue: 4 “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!

David meditated (mused), became hot, and began to pray. You could alliterate it like this: His mind brooded, burned, and besought God in prayer. The heat of his meditation led him to ejaculatory prayer. Meditation brings heat. Heat brings prayer.

Thus often in the beginning of a Psalm we find his heart low and discouraged, but as this musing was acted and heightened, his spirit grew hotter, and at last flies all on a flame, flies up to a very high pitch of heavenly heat (Nathanael Ranew).

Meditate with diligent application of the Word of God, and especially the promises of the gospel, until your heart grows warm from its teaching:

Luke 24:32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?”

The Word of God is a flame that needs to be stirred through meditation. Substitute the idea of meditation for preaching in the following quote and it rings true:

Thomas Cartwright…said, ‘As the fire stirred giveth more heat, so the Word, as it were, blown by preaching, flameth more in the hearers than when it is read.’ That is, to me, a very striking and most valuable statement. It tells us, incidentally, something of the purpose of preaching. The real function of preaching is not to give information, it is to do what Cartwright says; it is to give it more heat, to give life to it, to give power to it, to bring it home to the hearers…He is to inspire them, he is to enthuse them, he is to enliven them and send them out glorying in the Spirit (D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, The Puritans: Their Origins and Successors).

The Word of God is a fire that must be set ablaze through meditation and then put into vocalization and action:

Jeremiah 20:9 If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.’

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

The Word of God is like a lion that needs to be let out of its cage through meditation:

The Word of God is like a lion. You don’t have to defend a lion. All you have to do is let the lion loose, and the lion will defend itself (Charles Spurgeon).

Christian, are you cold? Let your heart burn with meditation. Hot thoughts thaw out frozen Christians:

Meditate so long till thou findest thy heart grow warm in this duty. If, when a man is cold you ask how long he should stand by the fire [the answer is] till he be thoroughly warm, and made fit for his work. So, Christian, thy heart is cold; never a day, no, not the hottest day in summer, but it freezes there; now stand at the fire of meditation till thou findest thy affections warmed, and thou art made fit for spiritual service. David mused till his heart waxed hot within him (Thomas Watson).

Meditation takes a cold heart and makes it warm with affection for Christ on account of his great promises. It finds temptation as a harbinger of brooding on the Scriptures. It finds death as something pointing the mind toward resurrection and causing it to burn. It finds depression as a prodding toward bursting out in prayer.

Is your heart cold? God graciously gives us the means to kindle a fire that will warm our souls – the contemplation of the Word and Gospel of God.

A Meditation on Meditation from Psalm 1

The Gospel of John, in chapter 15, records Jesus words,

Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me (v. 4).

From these words, we see the idea set forth that ‘abiding’ in Christ, and Christ’s abiding in us, is essential for, and vital to, a Christian’s sanctification.

I find Michael Polanyi’s work on Personal Knowledge to be quite helpful in understanding the idea of abiding. Polanyi often referred to the idea of ‘indwelling’ as the means of true personal knowledge. Indwelling describes the act of ‘tuning in’ to an object of knowledge. From his experience as a scientist, he came to the conclusion that true knowledge did not essentially come from following particular methods of inquiry or perfectly performing experiments according to the scientific method, etc. Rather, this is only an aspect of knowledge (and a superficial one at that).

True knowledge, he argued, comes from actually indwelling the object of study. Mars Hill Audio’s program, Tacit Knowing, Truthful Knowing, devoted to Polanyi’s life and thought, uses the example of violin and cello makers to demonstrate the point. The great craftsmen, like Stradivarius, did not simply follow blueprints and methods. Rather, they worked by feel. But this working by feel was not random. Rather their work stemmed from the imitation of skilled workers (from studying as an apprentice, learning at the feet of a master) and through much careful thought and reflection, as well as hands on experience. All of this combined to create excellence.

All of this is a part of ‘abiding’ in an object. It stems from focused concentration, apprenticeship, imitation, and regular contemplation in order to ‘tune in’ to an object of knowledge. Since I have used the phrase ‘tune in’ a couple of times, let me illustrate its meaning like this (this is taken from Polanyi):

In order to have true working knowledge of a hammer (that is, to know it in such a way as to use it correctly), one must ‘indwell’ the hammer. That is, as one strikes a nail, he must almost forget that the hammer is even present. He assumes the hammer’s presence, but in reality, the hammer becomes, as it were, an extension of his own arm. That is tuning in, that is abiding.

The Scripture calls us to indwell Christ in much the same way. And this happens through discipleship, imitation, and meditation (all by the power and aid of the Holy Spirit), with the result of bearing fruit (sanctification).

Psalm 1 pronounces the man blessed who delights in, and meditates upon the ‘Law of the LORD’ day and night. The result of this is that

He shall be like a growing tree planted by the waterside
Which in its season yields its fruit and has a leaf that does not die (v. 3).

Christians must not accept the Buddhist idea of meditation. Meditation is not the emptying of the mind, or following a specific routine, or trying to reach a nirvana-like status. Rather, biblically –

Meditation is effortful contemplation on the Holy Scriptures (both in short bursts and sustained reasonings), with an aim toward the application of its teaching (read doctrine) to ourselves, our situation, and the world in which we live.

But this is not specific enough, so we must flesh it out:

The Psalmist writes that we are to meditate upon ‘the Law of the LORD.’ This entails not only the five books of Moses (though they are certainly intended as well), but all of the Scriptures – specifically as they relate to Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ IS the blessed man of Psalm 1. He never so much as walked into sin (v. 1). Rather, he delighted in God’s Law and meditated upon it day and night (v. 2). And thus he spiritually prospered in he did (v. 3). Therefore Christ is the definitive example of the blessed man described here.

Yet he is not only our example, but also the object of meditation – for the Law of the LORD points to him. He is the Law-Giver. The Law is derived from His character. He is the purpose of the Law as well, being that the Law is meant to drive us to his perfect obedience in our behalf and his substitutionary sacrifice for our law breaking.

Therefore, the supreme object of of our meditation ought to be Jesus Christ – his person, his work, his gospel.

This, along with the imitation of Christ through discipleship, is the primary means God uses to sanctify his people, causing them to bear fruit. It is through the contemplation of Christ that his image is built up within us. It is through the focused attention and application of Christ to our own situations that the ‘leaf mould’ of our minds is formed around him, stamping his likeness upon us beginning from the inside.

Think much of Christ therefore. Think of his life and death. Think of his resurrection. Think of his glory. Think of his power and weakness, of his majesty and meekness, of his glory and grace, of his exaltation and humiliation. Think of his beauty, and holiness, and love. Think much of him.

This is not a burden. This is not a call that demands you become a scholar. Rather this is a joy and privilege. This is not a weight or a law under which you are yoked. Rather this is liberty. As the Apostle says, ‘the mind set on the flesh is death. But to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.’ Tuning into Christ with our minds is being spiritually minded. And this is life and peace.

Use the mind YOU have, and use it for all its worth. In this there will be much glory and gain and gladness.

What a joy that God calls us not only to think, but to think of the most desirable object to which we might direct our thoughts. And that in beholding this object, Jesus Christ, we might be transformed ‘into that same glory, from one degree to another.’

Our blessedness comes through his blessedness, as we believe in him. And believing in him for justification, we now fill the mind with him unto sanctification. Would you have life and peace? Would you bear fruit? Would you prosper in all that you do? Then fix the mind on Christ. Abide in him as you tune in to him in the invisible world of the mind.