Wisdom on reading well (part 1): Michael Reeves

I thought I'd do a little series on advice that has impacted how I read, and in particular how I read the Bible. This is the first piece of advice (not in order of importance by the way!) although it is implicit rather than explicit:

"Luther opened the Bible to find Christ, Zwingli sought more simply to open the Bible." (p.75, Michael Reeves, The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation)

This one sentence is probably the most important thing to me I read in Mike Reeves's book. It reinforced the video below which I had seen on Dave Bish's blog.

I found that massively personally challenging. Am I reading the Bible with the clear intention to meet Christ and see his glory? If I'm not, I'm perverted in my use of the Bible.

One caveat. It is helps to come to the Bible with questions and a knowledge of Christ beforehand, but we must then allow the Bible to question our questions and our knowledge of Christ so that we don't find exactly the Christ we expected to find. You could argue that Luther did not do that as well as he should have, and that is why he had a bad attitude to James, Revelation etc.

Review note on 'The Unquenchable Flame'

Some thoughts on Mike Reeves' book The Unquenchable Flame: Introducing the Reformation:

1. In common with many introductory books it is short, easy to read and accessibly produced with pictures and boxes focussing on one thing or another. It covers an lot of ground very quickly. But unlike many introductory books it is infused with the character of the author. It is lively, occasionally funny and never dry.

2. It is passionate and clear about the central issue of the Reformation being our justification before God, but is it not hagiographic and is weighs up the strengths and weaknesses of every actor in the drama.

3. Some history books are so stuck in the past that they have nothing to say to today. Others just use the history to grind their own axes. Reeves seems to simply love spending time with these characters, but he never looses sight of his reader and is always inviting them into the story, and ends the book showing why we should still listen to the Gospel of the Reformers:

“[it is into our] context that Luther’s solution rings out as such happy and relevant news. For, having jettisoned the idea that we might ever be guilty before God, and therefore need his justification, our culture has succumbed to the old problem of guilt in subtler ways that it has no means to answer. Today we are all bombarded with the message that we will be more loved when we make ourselves more attractive. It may not be God-related, and yet it is still a religion of works, and one that is deeply embedded. For that, the Reformation has the most sparkling good news. As Luther put it: ‘sinners are attractive because they are loved; they are not loved because they are attractive.’ Only this message of the counter-intuitive love of Christ offers a serious solution.

A profoundly relevant beautiful and sweet message, a joy-giving message, a death-defying message: it is no wonder Richard Sibbes called the Reformation ‘that fire which all the world shall never be able to quench’.”

Thoughts on finding Christ in the OT

Over on Dave Bish's blog I've been involved in one the monthly discussions about how Christ is revealed in the OT. So often the two 'sides' seem to go round and round and I have often felt that there was more going on beneath the surface than what shows above the water. But I've never really got what.

You could say that one group just doesn't really believe that God is Trinity, or that the other is denying the newness of the incarnation. However I don't believe that is true of either group of regular commenters all of whom I have great respect for.... Which is not to say that we all don't have a great deal to learn.

However, listening to Mike Reeves on MP3 today suddenly things became a lot clearer. Commenting on reading the OT as all being about Christ he comments:

the key issue is I don't always have to talk about the incarnation, which is what we tend to mean when we say Christ. I don't always have to talk about that. When we say "do I have to go to Christ?" the kind of language we are using is using is "do I have to fast-forward through time to the event of the incarnation when Christ became flesh?" No you don't have to do that. But you have to be talking about the true and living God who is Christ. If you are not talking about him you must be talking about another God [...] That doesn't mean that as you are preaching on Hosea 11 you have to go "oh now lets jump into the New Testament". No you don't have to do that at all. But you must be talking about the same person. I suppose that's the key. So I'm not saying you always have to nip into the New Testament. You don't at all. But you must always be proclaiming Christ. You don't always have to be proclaiming the incarnation of Christ.

(34:43-> of this lecture, the whole series here)

I don't think you would find Graeme Goldsworthy saying that (correct me if I'm wrong). It may be Trinitarian hermeneutics but is it Gospel-centred hermeneutics?

Anyhow, although I am struggling to know where I should be, I think I understand enough to make some wild generalisations:

Group 1 is looking for the person

• This group is concerned about finding the second person of the Trinity. They are looking for God the Son. They tend to be thinking vertically about the relationship of God to humanity. They would stress that you cannot know God except as Trinity.

Group 2 is looking for the gospel-event

• This group is concerned about finding the Messiah. They are looking for the promised perfect human (king/priest etc). They will be thinking horizontally about the story of the bible/world. They would stress that you cannot know God apart from the death and resurrection of Christ.

I don't think I need go to the effort of pointing out the dangers on both sides. Doing one and not the other is clearly disastrous.

Mike Reeves MP3s

Mike Reeves is the Theological Advisor for UCCF. Previously he was an associate minister at All Souls Church, Langham Place, London. He holds a doctorate in systematic theology from King's College, London. He has written The Unquenchable Flame: Introducing the Reformation and The Breeze of the Centuries: Introducing great theologians - From the Apostolic Fathers to Aquinas, On Giants' Shoulders: Introducing great theologians - From Luther to Barth, and contributed to Should Christians Embrace Evolution?.

• NWA 2011: Hebrews 1:8-19 (1 sermon to purchase) - NEW!
• NWA 2011: Matters of the Heart (4 MP3s - to purchase) - NEW!
• NWA 2009: Right with God? (4 MP3s - to purchase, BUT Free on the Theology Network site called Justification) - NEW!
• NWA 2008: Knowing the Triune God (4 MP3s - to purchase) - NEW!
• Forum North West 2010: Leviticus (4 MP3s) - NEW!
• UCCF South West Transformission 2010: The Love of God (3 MP3s) - NEW!
• John 17:17-23: The other Lord's Prayer (video) - NEW!
• 1 Corinthians 15:22,23: Secure in Christ (video) - NEW!
• Secure in the Saving God with Angus Moyes, UCCF Forum 2010 (3 MP3s) - NEW!
• John 20:19-23, UCCF Forum 2010
• Psalm 42: The Christian's Ode to Joy (video, overlap with talk on the External Word below)
• 9Marks Interview: Mike Reeves interviewed by Mark Dever on the Reformation - NEW!
• UCCF South West Transformission 2009: Union with Christ (3 MP3s, they can also be found here and here)
• The Doctrine of Revelation (4 MP3s)
• CU Leaders' Training Weekends on 1 Corinthians; 2008 version, London; 2009 version, Scotland; 2010 version, Midlands; (4 MP3s each)
• UCCF South West Transformission 2008 on The Word of God (3 MP3s)
• UCCF South West Transformission 2007 on the glory of the cross (3 MP3s)
• Christology and Revelation (6 MP3s)
• Depending on the Living God with Jo McKenzie (3 MP3s)
• DIY theology
• Introducing the Apostolic Fathers (2 MP3s)
• Introducing Justin Martyr
• Introducing Ireneaus
• Introducing Athanasius (2 MP3s)
• Introducing Augustine (2 MP3s)
• Introducing Anselm (3 MP3s)
• Introducing Thomas Aquinas (3 MP3s)
• Introducing Martin Luther (4 MP3s)
• Introducing John Calvin (3 MP3s)
• Introducing Jonathan Edwards (5 MP3s) - NEW!
• Eastern Orthodoxy - NEW!
• Sin and Evil (3 MP3s) - NEW!
• Eastern Orthodoxy - NEW!
• The Trinity and Mission - NEW!
• Where are we heading? Armageddon or Apocoalypse?
• Trinity 1, Trinity 2, Trinity 3, Trinity 4
• Table talk: Mike Reeves interviews various people about various things! - always new stuff
• OICCU 2011 Reps Conference on 'The Love of God': 1. The Beautiful Son; 2. The Heart-Melting Spirit - NEW!
• 4 sermons at CICCU
• 34 sermons at All Souls, Langham Place
• 'Fundamentalism, terror and faith: Is Christianity good for the world?', 28/03/10, Holy Trinity Eastborne (Evangelistic talk)
• Evangelism Podcast with Clive Parnell
• Why GO?, 2006, York University CU
• How the Atheists are Right, 2009, Bath University CU - NEW!
• Zechariah 5: Behold Your King Enthroned - NEW!
• Theology of Music (3 MP3s)

There are also some duplicates and clips on the Gospel Coalition site as well as the Theology Network site.

Please let me know of any that I've missed and I'll try and keep it up-to-date. I'm sorry that there is little order to the list.