God’s Moral Law – Written On The Believer’s Heart

The Scriptures talk of the work of the law written initially on the heart of all humans (Romans 2:15).  Then they speak of the law of God being written on the heart of believers upon regeneration. Historically, Reformed theology has paid a lot of attention to the significance of this and its implications for sanctification and the relationship of Christians to the law.

Some of the Scriptures that speak of the law written on the heart in regeneration are:

    • Jeremiah 31:31-33 (ESV) – “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will make a new covenant
      with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the LORD. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
    •  Ezekiel 36:26-27 (ESV) – “And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.”
    • Hebrews 8:10 (ESV) – “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Historical Comments

“[H]e confirms…that the newness…was not…the substance, but…the form only: for God does not say here, ‘I will give you another Law,’; but I will write my Law, that is, the same Law, which had formerly been delivered…[He doesn't] promise anything different as to the essence…he makes the difference to be in the form only…he states the same thing in two ways…that he would put his law in their inward parts, and…write it in their hearts. We…know how difficult it is that man should be so formed to obedience that his whole life may be in unison with the Law of God, for all the lusts of the flesh are…enemies…it is in a manner a renovation of the world when men suffer themselves to be ruled by God…This is the reason why the Prophet was not satisfied with one statement, but said, I will put my Law in their inward parts, I will write it in their hearts…To write the Law in the heart imports nothing less than…that the Law should rule there, and that there should be no feeling of the heart, not conformable and not consenting to its doctrine.” – John Calvin’s commentary on Jeremiah 31:3

 

“What was in the tables of stone was nothing but a transcript of what was written in the heart of man originally; and which is returned thither again by the grace of the new covenant, Jeremiah 31:33; 2 Corinthians 3:3.” – John Owen in his Commentary on Hebrews

 

 

“For he governs ‘by writing his law in the heart,’ which makes our heart agree with the law, and by implanting Divine love in us, which vanquishes enmity and disaffection and virtually contains in itself our obedience, or ‘keeping his commandments.’ ” – John Howe in The Redeemer’s Dominion Over The Invisible World

 

“the differencing mark here of a heart on which God’s likeness is, is, that the law of God is written on that heart…This is the peculiar privilege of a child of God…a child of God heartily approves of [the law of God] …There is a principle within the man lying the same way with the law, and bending towards what it directs to, and away from what it forbids…This is the new set of the heart, given in the new birth, consisting not in bare wishes to be conformed to that law, but in a resolute bent of the heart for it, which will never leave its struggling, till it overcome at last” – Thomas Boston in Of Adoption

 

 

“In Hebrews 8:8-9 [Jeremiah 31] is quoted as the sum of the covenant of grace made with believers in Jesus Christ. Not, I will give them a new law; for Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it; but the law shall be written in their hearts by the finger of the Spirit, as formerly written in the tables of stone. The Lord will, by his grace, make his people willing people” – Matthew Henry in his comments on Jeremiah 31:27-34

 

“[This is] not the ceremonial law, which was abolished when this covenant was made; but rather the moral law still in force, which is a transcript of the nature and will of God; was inscribed on Adam’s heart in innocence; is greatly obliterated by sin; a contrary disposition to it is in man; this is reinscribed in regeneration; and hence a regard is had to it by regenerate persons, in which lies part of their conformity to Christ” – John Gill

 

 

 

“God’s law can never be written upon the old natural heart: there must be a new and spiritual nature given, and then…God will set up the proclamation of his blessed will, and what he commands shall be done…If God is to write the law upon the heart, the heart must be prepared, and…entirely renewed by a miracle of mercy, such as can only be wrought by that omnipotent hand which made both heaven and earth..What is this writing? First, the matter of it is the law of God. God writes upon the hearts of his people that which is already revealed; he inscribes there nothing novel and unrevealed, but his own will which he has already given us in the book of the law.”  – Charles Spurgeon in The Law Written In The Heart

“Paul says, ‘I delight in the law of God after the inward man;’…so is it with every true child of God…There is a further writing of the law in the heart when the man of God is made to appropriate that law,—not only to approve of it, but to approve of it for himself…the law is not fully written in the heart till a man, approving the law and appropriating it to himself…delights to obey it….This…is to have the law of the Lord written in your heart so as to delight in it after the inward man, and to delight to practice it with the outward man, daily striving to make the entire life to be in accordance with the dictates of God’s will.” – Charles Spurgeon in God’s Law in Man’s Heart

Contemporary Comments

    • “However, unlike the old covenant, the new covenant will bring perfection. The law of God will be written on hearts and minds , enabling believers to live as the people of God” – Ligonier Ministries in Written On The Heart
    • “The believer has been changed inwardly, given a new heart, the same shape as the Law of God …We make progress into a life of obedience to God’s Law…How striking that the work of regeneration is here defined in terms of the Law being written on the heart and mind of the believer.” – Alistair Begg in Pathway to Freedom: How God’s Law Guides Our Lives
    • “Reformed Baptists have a conviction that the Law of God..is regulative in the life of the New Covenant believer…God’s way of holiness has not changed. The law written on the heart in creation (Romans 2:14, 15) is the same law codified in the Ten Commandments on Sinai and the same law written on the hearts of those who enter into the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:33 and 2 Corinthians 3:3)….The Apostle John wrote ‘He who says, ‘I know Him,’: – Jim Savastiow

One Thousand Thoughts About Church…#767

“As a pastor, I’m scared of becoming nothing more than an earnest gate agent. I’m afraid of calling people to places I’ve never been. Of course, pastors are humans too. None of us have arrived. There must be room for aspiration and inspiring ourselves (so to speak) even as we try to inspire others. But my fear is that I would keep preaching about God, without really communing with Him. That I would stir people to obedience I don’t really take seriously. That I would speak earnestly of an affection for Christ that I am not earnestly pursuing. I give so many sermons and talk about God so often, I fear that I may end up exhorting people with exhortations I’ve learned to ignore.” – Kevin Deyoung

The Early Years of Henry VIII (The Anglican Reformation – mp3 #7)

I’ve just uploaded the 7th part of the Ten Epochs of Church History, the Anglican Reformation by William Clark. This chapter is “Early Years of Henry VIII”.

Volume X – The Anglican Reformation – Chapter Seven – Early Years of Henry VIII (mp3)

To play/download the previous recordings (Chapters 1-6), check out my Audio book recordings page.

 

10 Epochs of Church History – Volume X -The Anglican Reformation #6

I’ve been working on recording a volume from the series Ten Epochs of Church History edited by John Fulton.

I’m focusing on volume ten, The Anglican Reformation by William Clark. It is in the public domain, published in 1901 and copyright 1897. I have an actual hard copy of this book

I previously completed:

Here is the one I’ve just completed:

Notes from The Kuyperian Vision of Christ’s Lordship – Part 1

In 2007, at an ACCS (Association of Classical Christian Schools), George Grant gave a talk on “The Kuyperian Vision of Christ’s Lordship”.

Here is part one of my notes from his talk.

  • Hitler vs. Kuyper
    • German Historian Otto Klassen spoke of Hitler’s malignant obsessions and his obsessions with nationalism, a peculiar form of socialism, and the occult.
    • In addition to these, though, Klassen speaks of his obssession with his enemies, making a serious study of them
      • He dismissed FDR as a weakling, Stalin as a madman
      • He feared Churchill, but believed Britian was ensnared in foolishness and Churchill would always be marginal
      • One man that he feared and obsessed above the rest was Abraham Kuyper from the Netherlands, even though Kuyper was dead 20 years before Hitler invaded his homeland
        • Kuyper was a pastor, educator, journalist, theologian
        • He also founded the Free University of Amsterdam, established the Daily Standard, was the founder of the first modern Dutch political party, and rose to the place of Prime Minister
        • Clearly a remarkable man in various ways
      • Klassen finds this Hitlerian obsession with his enemy Kuyper to be peculiar.  He sees it as another madness of Hitler
      • Grant suggests that there was wisdom to Hitler’s fear of Kuyper
  • Resistance in Holland
    • One of the things the Third Reich encountered when it invaded Holland was stiff resistance
      • German military commands were a simple walk from the border into Amsterdam, but instead they got 5 days of fierce fighting and 4 long years of stiff resistance
      • The Dutch gathered intelligence, had decentralized cells of resistance, acts of sabotage, etc. (most historians agree Dutch resistance was the most fierce of any occupied countries) – The Dutch created nightmares for Hitler
      • Dutch underground almost completely the fruit of Kuyper. Not that he set it up or anticipated the situations, instead his vision was far loftier and insidious towards the Nazis
      • What Kuyper did is change a culture, the very fabric of the nation
      • 6 months into the occupation, Hitler issued a command that every student who graduated out of Kuyper’s school was to be hunted down, arrested, and treated as a Jew
  • Kuyper’s Simple Notion
    • - When Kuyper emerged as a leader in the 1870′s evangelicals in the Netherlands became a marginalized minority, 10 years later they had 2 mighty journalistic outlets, a political party, an uncompromised church, and their own university
    • 10 years after that they formed a confessional coalition that led the nation for the 50 years proceeding WW2
    • He was not just influential, he reshaped and reformed every structure of Dutch culture, creating for it a kind of decentralized network of what he called pillars that ultimately caused the nation to fiercly resist an “irresistable” force
    • This vision, Kuyper said, was rooted in one simple notion: That Jesus Christ is Lord, that he is not simply a Lord over the religious sphere of life, he is Lord over all – There is not on square inch over teh whole domain of human of human existence, of which Christ, as sovereign over all, does not say: mine!
      • He says, my crown rights, my covenant dominion – art, music, literature, ideas, education, economics, home life, street life, commerce, iternational affairs, the way we care for the poor, the way we deal with the oppressors – Jesus Christ is Lord over all of it)
      • This unrelenting, uncompromising vision is not unique to Abraham Kuyper – but Kuyper lived that credo with no exceptions, hammered it out with extraordinary ways in a way that changed the shape of his nation
      • Grant is asked why post-war Holland seemed to tank so fast?
        • Simple: Adolph Hitler.
          • he understood the threat and hunted down every leader that Kuyper had trained, every institution he attempted to crush
          • the movement didn’t go away entirely, which is why Holland has remained diverse and pluralistic
          • But Hitler understood he had a fierce enemy in this man named Abraham Kuyper who had been dead for two decades
  • Kuyper’s Personal History: Transformation
    • It would behoove us to understand what it was that Kuyper understood & what his philosophy did in the nightmares of Adolph Hitler
    • Kuyper wasn’t always God’s renaissance man
    • Graduated from school as a typical modernistic intellectual
      • influenced by modernism, entered into a pastorate with a spoiled faith
    • He took up the pastorate in a church, there he met remarkable people – people who believed the Bible, and who lived like it
      • they lived their lives together, in a community
      • they were responsible for, and to each other
      • It was like stepping through the wardrobe to Narnia
      • In this small church, Kuyper was loved out of his obstinate and foolish arrogance, right into the arms of his savior
      • As a pastor of this small church, he came to know Christ,  the glories of the gospel, and its power.
      • He began a renewed study of the Word of God and began with great fervor to articulate the truths of the Gospel and a comprehensive worldview of Christ’s Lordship
    • Kuyper moved a couple times, eventually ending up in Amsterdam, gaining renown as a great orator and intellectual and unflinching advocate of the authority of Jesus Christ
    • As you might expect, everywhere the gospel went forth, great collisions occured between controlling modernists and the fledgling evangelical movement.
    • This resulted in expulsion from the church, so Kuyper was forced to start from scratch–planting new churches and creating new structures
    • Kuyper realized that if Dutch life was going to change, everything was going to have to change.

To be continued…

10 Epochs of Church History – Volume X -The Anglican Reformation #5

I’ve been working on recording a volume from the series Ten Epochs of Church History edited by John Fulton.

I will be focusing on volume ten, The Anglican Reformation by William Clark. It is in the public domain, published in 1901 and copyright 1897. I have an actual hard copy of this book

I previously completed:

Here is the one I’ve just completed: