Friday Fun: How to Be a Real Friend to Sinners

Part One ...

Part Two ...

"The man who does not know the nature of the Law, cannot know the nature of sin."

John Bunyan

"The trouble with people who are not seeking for a Savior, and for salvation, is that they do not understand the nature of sin. It is the peculiar function of the Law to bring such an understanding to a man's mind and conscience. That is why great evangelical preachers 300 year ago in the time of the Puritans, and 200 years ago in the time of Whitefield and others, always engaged in what they called preliminary 'Law' work."

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Todd Friel, featured in the video, is the host of the "Way of the Master" radio podcast. Find great evangelism resources from Way of the Master, which was founded by New Zealand evangelist Ray Comfort (who is assisted by none other than Kirk Cameron) at Living Waters Ministries' site.

Books New and New-ish

Primary

Calvin's Preaching on the Prophet Micah: The 1550–1551 Sermons in Geneva, Michael Parsons. Edwin Mellen.

Ioannis Calvini: Scripta Didactica et Polemica, Mirjam Van Veen. Droz.

A Modern Exposition: 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith, Samuel Waldron. Evangelical Press.

Temptation: Resisted and Repulsed: Abridged and Made Easy to Read by Richard Rushing, John Owen. Banner of Truth.

The Works of Thomas Goodwin: Volume 9, A Discourse of Election, A Discourse of Thankfulness. Reformation Heritage.

The Writings of John Bradford. Banner of Truth.


Secondary

Cambridge History of Christianity: Volume 6, Reform and Expansion 1500–1660, R. Po-chia Hsia, ed. Cambridge (August 2007).

Cultures and Identities in Colonial British America, Robert Olwell and Alan Tully, eds. Johns Hopkins.

Early Evangelicalism: A Global Intellectual History, 1670–1789, W. R. Ward. Cambridge.

Evangelistic Calvinism: Why the Doctrines of Grace Are Good News, John Benton. Banner of Truth.

The Expository Genius of John Calvin, Steven J. Lawson. Ligonier.

The King’s Reformation: Henry VIII and the Remaking of the English Church, G. W. Bernard. Yale.

Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War, Nathaniel Philbrick. Penguin.

Philip Melanchthon and the English Reformation, John Schofield. Ashgate.

Pilgrims: New World Settlers and the Call of Home, Susan Hardman Moore. Yale (November 2007).

The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism, George Mackenna. Yale (August 2007).

Puritanism and Theatre: Thomas Middleton and Opposition Drama under the Early Stuarts, Margot Heinemann, Past and Present.

Reformation and Early Modern Europe: A Guide to Research, David M. Whitford. Truman St. Univ. (October 2007).

Small Books and Pleasant Histories: Popular Fiction and its Readership in Seventeenth-Century England, Margaret Spufford. Past and Present.

Society, Politics and Culture: Studies in Early Modern England, Mervyn James. Past and Present.

Sweet Communion: Trajectories of Spirituality from the Middle Ages through the Futher Reformation, James A. de Jong. Trans. Arie de Reuber. Baker Academic.

Théodore de Bèze (1519–1605), Irena Backus. Droz.

They Were Pilgrims: David Brainerd, Henry Martyn, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Ion Keith-Falconer, Marcus L. Loane. Banner of Truth.

Truth's Victory Over Error: A Commentary on the Westminster Confession of Faith, David Dickson. Banner of Truth.

Understanding Popular Violence in the English Revolution: The Colchester Plunderers, John Walter. Past and Present.

Puritan Scholar on Penal Substitution

James Packer wrote an article for the July-Sept (2007) volume of NB News, a magazine for supporters of UCCF. It is reproduced by the Banner of Truth on their website here. The following are some notable quotes from the article:

“An evangelical theologian, dying, cabled a colleague: 'I am so thankful for the active obedience (righteousness) of Christ. No hope without it.' As I grow old, I want to tell everyone who will listen: 'I am so thankful for the penal substitutionary death of Christ. No hope without it.'”

“It is impossible to focus the atonement properly until the biblical mode of Trinitarian and incarnational thought about Jesus Christ is embraced.”

“…smartypants notions like 'divine child abuse', as a comment on the cross, are supremely silly, and as irrelevant and wrong as they could possibly be.”

“Again, the atonement cannot be focused properly where the biblical view of God's justice as one facet of his holiness, and of human wilfulness as the root of our racial, communal and personal sinfulness and guilt, is not grasped.”

“God's mercy to guilty sinners is framed by his holy hostility (wrath) against their sins.”

“Just justification - justified justification - through the doing of justice in penal substitution, is integral to the message of the gospel.”

“Penal substitution…will not be focused properly till it is recognised that God's redemptive love must not be conceived - misconceived, rather - as somehow triumphing and displacing God's retributive justice, as if the Creator-Judge simply decided to let bygones be bygones.”

“Had we been among the watchers at Calvary, we should have seen, nailed to the cross, Pilate's notice of Jesus' alleged crime. But if, by faith, we look back to Calvary from where we now are, what we see is the list of our own unpaid debts of obedience to God, for which Christ paid the penalty in our place.”

“A lawyer, having completed his argument, may declare that here he rests his case. I, having surveyed the penal substitutionary sacrifice of Christ afresh, now reaffirm that here I rest my hope. So, I believe, will all truly faithful believers.”