Old English Riddle: Holy Book

 From Burton Raffel, Poems from the Old English (University of Nebraska Press, 1964), a riddle on a Biblical or sacred writing manuscript:

JTR

Duffy on "creeping to the cross"

Historian Eamon Duffy describes the late Medieval Good Friday tradition of “creeping to the cross” in English churches and how the Protestant Reformers sought to discourage it:

“Good Friday in the late Middle Ages was a day of deepest mourning. No mass was celebrated, and the main liturgical celebration of the day was a solemn and penitential commemoration of the Passion. The whole of the narrative of St. John’s Gospel was read, with a small dramatic embellishment: at the words ‘They parted my garments among them’ the clerks parted and removed two linen cloths which had been specially placed for the purpose on the otherwise bare altar….”

Later, “The cross was unveiled in three stages….”

“Clergy and people then crept barefoot and on their knees to kiss the foot of the cross, held by two ministers.”

“Creeping to the cross was one of the most frequent targets of Protestant reformers from the 1530s onwards, and there can be no doubt of the place it held in lay piety: well into the Elizabethan period Bishop Grindal would complain on Good Friday ‘some certeyn persons go barefooted and barelegged to the churche, to creepe to the crosse.’”

-The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580, p. 29.

The Vision (4.18.25): Stewards of the Mysteries of God

 

Image: Laying on of hands and prayer during Elder ordination at CRBC (4.13.25)

Note: Devotion taken from last Sunday's sermon on 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, which included an Elder ordination and installation.

Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God (1 Corinthians 4:1).

What did Paul mean when he declared that ministers of Christ (referring both to extraordinary ministers, like apostles, and ordinary ministers, like elders) are “stewards of the mysteries of God”? What are these mysteries?

There is no doubt as to what our Particular Baptist forefathers thought. They cite this passage as a key prooftext in Confession 28:2 “Of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper,” where it teaches who should administer these ordinances: “These holy appointments are to be administered by those only who are qualified and thereunto called, according to the commission of Christ.”

Stewardship of the mysteries of Christ means stewardship of the ordinances (sacraments) of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. But when the old men spoke of ordinance they also spoke first of the ordinance of preaching and teaching the Word.

Paul ordered Timothy, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine” (2 Timothy 4:2).

The old Puritan exegete Matthew Poole (1624-1679) explains in his commentary:

“The apostle here gives us the right notion of the preachers of the gospel; they are but ministers, that is servants, so as the honour that is proper to the Master… belongeth not to them.” Their “primary obligation [is] to preach Christ and his gospel unto the people.”

“They are also stewards of the mysteries of God, such to whom God has committed his word and sacraments to dispense to his church.” The term mystery signifies that which is secret, “represented by signs and figures.”

Poole’s commentary concludes, “Ministers are the stewards of the mysterious doctrines and institutions of Christ, which are usually comprehended under the terms word and sacrament.”

Paul told Timothy that he was to be “a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15).

And in 1 Corinthians 14:40 he told the church (especially her officers), “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

The first thing our church should expect from its Elders is that we rightly preach Christ and the gospel to you and that we rightly administer baptism and the Lord’s Supper so that the things that are secret or hidden in them are made known.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Audio and Video Resources: 2025 Presbyterion (Reformed Baptist Fellowship of Virginia Spring Pastors' Fraternal)

 

Session 1 (X post version): On The Civil Magistrate:

Session 2 (X post version): The Case for Christian Nationalism: A 1689 Reaction:

Session 3 (X post version): "Communion" Among Churches:

JTR

Benjamin Beddome (1717-1795) Hymn: Father of Mercies, Bow Thine Ear

Note: From X post:

Make old hymns great again! We enjoyed singing this hymn by Particular Baptist Pastor Benjamin Beddome (1717-1795) in our Elder ordination service last Sunday (to the HAMBURG tune, "When I Survey"):

Father of mercies, bow Thine ear, Attentive to our earnest prayer; We plead for those who plead for Thee; Successful pleaders may they be. Clothe Thou with energy divine Their words, and let those words be Thine; To them Thy sacred truth reveal, Suppress their fear, inflame their zeal. Teach them aright to sow the seed: Teach them thy chosen flock to feed; Teach them immortal souls to gain, Nor let them labor, Lord, in vain. Let thronging multitudes around Hear from their lips the joyful sound, In humble strains Thy grace adore, And feel Thy new-creating power.

The Vision (4.11.25): Created in Christ Jesus Unto Good Works

 

Image: Climbers ascending Mount Everest.

Note: Devotion based on last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 2:8-10.

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them (Ephesians 2:10).

Ephesians 2:8-9 might rightly be called the Mount Everest of the Biblical doctrine of salvation. It teaches that salvation is the gift of God.

Paul, however, does not stop there. He proceeds in v. 10 to describe the life that should flow from the person who has been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and the conduct that should characterize him.

In his commentary on this letter R. C. Sproul notes: “There is another formula of the Reformation: justification is by faith alone, but not by a faith that is alone. What does this mean: not by a faith that is alone? It means that true faith will inevitably manifest itself in the performance of works of obedience” (Ephesians, 58).

Paul explains this in v. 10, “For we [notice again that he includes himself as an apostle, alongside the Ephesian believers] are his workmanship [the noun here poiēma means something made, piece of handiwork, a creation] created in Christ Jesus unto good works….”

We are not saved by works, lest any man should boast, but once we are saved, one of the evidences of that is that good works (service to God and man that is pleasing to God) should flow out of our lives.

Good works are stressed over and over again in Scripture as a vital part of the Christian life. See Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (compare also 2 Timothy 3:17; Titus 2:14; 1 Peter 2:12).

“Good works” is not a dirty term for Bible-believing Christian. As we often say, “It is not the root of our faith, but it is the fruit of our faith.” We have an entire chapter in our 1689 Baptist confession dedicated to the topic, “Of Good Works” (chapter 16).

Notice also the last phrase in v. 10, “which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Not only are we chosen for salvation in Christ before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4), but also our good works have been foreordained. The all-sovereign, all-wise, all-knowing God has set each one of his saints apart for particular and peculiar good works to be done to his glory and honor.

It might be there in the godly raising of your children, in the prayers you offer up to the Lord, in the care you extend to the orphans and widows, in the generous giving you offer to support the church and its mission across the world,  in the visiting and comforting the sick and the aged, the infirmed and the weak, and a thousand other things that the Lord has set out for you do to bless his name and to bless your fellow men.

We have indeed been created in Christ Jesus for good works.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

The Vision (4.4.25): The Problem with the Life-Preserver Analogy

 

Note: Vision devotional article taken from last Sunday's sermon on Ephesians 2:1-7.

And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).

In Ephesians 2:1 Paul offers an inspired description of man’s spiritual state apart from God in Christ as one of spiritual deadness. It captures man’s spiritual inability apart from God’s grace.

We must be clear, Paul is not talking about a biological state, but a spiritual state. One can be physically alive but spiritually dead. In fact, apart from faith in Christ we might well say that men are all dead men walking.

In R. C. Sproul’s brief commentary on Ephesians, he debunks a misguided analogy of salvation that fails to consider fallen man’s state of spiritual deadness (inability):

Another analogy goes like this: a man is cast into the sea who doesn’t know how to swim. He is clearly about to drown; he has already gone under the water twice, and is sinking for the third time. His head is beneath the surface of the water. All that is left above the water is his outstretched hand, and the only way he can possibly be saved is if God would throw him a life-preserver. God is so accurate in throwing this life-preserver that he throws it right up against the palm of this man’s hand. But for that man to be saved, he must close his hand upon the life-preserver in order to be pulled to safety (Ephesians, 48-49).

Sproul then observes that this view reflects an ancient error known as Semi-Pelagiansim, in that it teaches, “man must cooperate with God in order to be saved.” He then adds:

The Reformed [Biblical] view is that man is not going under the water for the third time, but is already drowned, spiritually. He is at the bottom of the sea, he is dead. The only way he can be saved is if God dives into the water and pulls the corpse up out of the water and brings him back to life (Ephesians, 49).

The problem with the life-preserver analogy is that it is not miraculous enough. Conversion is a sovereign and miraculous life-giving act of God alone.

As it says in Psalm 3:8a, “Salvation belongeth unto the LORD.”

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

WM 326: Confessional Subscription & the Septuagint

 

Read the article reviewed here.

JTR

The Vision (3.28.25): The Gospel of Your Salvation

 

Image: Ruins of ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

Note: Devotion taken from Sunday AM sermon on March 23, 2025.

In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise (Ephesians 1:13).

Paul founded the church at Ephesus (see Acts 19), so in Ephesians he is a spiritual father speaking to his spiritual children.

I’ve noted that D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones called Ephesians the most “mystical” of Paul’s writings.

To this we can add R. C. Sproul’s observation that “the tone of Ephesians is so contemplative at points, that it sounds more like a prayer than a letter, more like a doxology [praise of God] than a sermon” (Ephesians, 15).

In Ephesians 1:13-14, Paul reminds the Ephesians of the gospel they had received. The word gospel means “good news.” Paul summarized the gospel he preached at Corinth in 1 Corinthians 15:3-5: the death, burial, resurrection, and risen appearances of Christ.

In Ephesians 1:13 Paul places the phrases “the word of truth” and “the gospel of your salvation” in apposition. They are the same thing.

Notice also Paul’s emphasis upon the fact that the Ephesians had heard this gospel as it was preached to them. In Romans 10:17 Paul notes that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17). In 1 Corinthians 1:21 he says it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

Paul also stresses here the necessary response of faith: “in whom also after that ye believed.” Explicit belief and confession of faith is essential (cf. Acts 8:37; Romans 10:9). There is no salvation outside of faith in Christ.

Finally, Paul reminds the Ephesians, “ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of promise.” A seal was set to ensure that something was left undisturbed or secure. The soldiers went to the tomb where Christ’s lifeless body was laid, in vain, “sealing the stone” (Matthew 27:66), but it would be rolled away. Letters were often sealed with wax and marked with a signet ring to ensure it had not been opened and its content changed.

This is Paul’s inspired analogy. Believers have the seal of the Holy Spirit. The indwelling Spirit of God ensures that they will not be disturbed or corrupted or dislodged, but they shall be preserved, kept, by God’s grace, in the faith.

This is the gospel that Paul preached, that the saints in Ephesus heard; and believing, they were sealed.

It is the same gospel of salvation that has saved and preserved every believer across the ages.

The gospel comes with the heat of spiritual power. An old adage says heat can both melt butter and harden clay. When we hear the preaching of the good news, is our heart melted (the experience of the elect) or is it hardened (the experience of the reprobate)? Are we butter or clay?

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle