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Jonathan Edwards – He That Has God, Has All

11 Sep

Though the wicked are in prosperity, and are not in trouble as other men; yet the godly, though in affliction, are in a state infinitely better, because they have God for their portion. They need desire nothing else; he that hath God, hath all. Thus the Psalmist professes the sense and apprehension which he had of things: Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee.

~Jonathan Edwards~






The Works of Jonathan Edwards Vol. 2 – Seven Sermons on Important Subjects (Peabody, MA; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc; 2007) p. 104. Sermon 1: God The Best Portion of the Christian

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Herman Bavinck – Christian Faith

10 Sep

For faith in the Christian sense presupposes self-denial, the crucifixion of one’s own ideas and will, distrust of self, and confidence in the grace of God in Christ instead. Therefore, just as saving faith has God himself as its object and grounds itself on his testimony, so it has him as its author as well. It is he himself who, by the Holy Spirit, moves human beings to faith and takes every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. As a result, Christian faith is religiously qualified through and through. Its object, ground, and origins are exclusively located in God. In consequence of this religious character, saving faith is essentially distinct from the immediate certainty that is sometimes labeled “faith,” as well as from the πιστις of which the Greeks sometimes spoke in a religious sense. The Christian faith is sheer religion, subjective religion. Those persons are truly religious who believe thus: they are the image, the children, and heirs of God.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 570-571.

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Jonathan Edwards – Authentic Faith

7 Sep

True virtue never appears so lovely, as when it is most oppressed; and the divine excellency of real Christianity, is never exhibited with such advantage, as when under the greatest trials: then it is that true faith appears much more precious than gold! And upon this account is found to praise, and honour, and glory.

~Jonathan Edwards~






The Works of Jonathan Edwards Vol. 1 – The Religious Affections (Peabody, MA; Hendrickson Publishers, Inc; 2007) p. 236

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Herman Bavinck – Faith is Bound to Scripture

5 Sep

In the case of saving faith (fides salvifica), things are different. It most certainly has as its object the grace of God in Christ. But of that grace of God we would not have the slightest knowledge if it had not come to us through the witness of others, if it had not been assured to us in Holy Scripture. Between the person of Christ and our faith, therefore, stands the witness of the apostles. The word of God is a means of grace. Faith, to be sure, considers Scripture only under the aspect of its being the word of God (1 Thess. 2:13). For religious faith can rest only in a divine witness (John 3:33; Rom. 10:14f.; 1 John 5:9-11). Still faith is bound to Scripture. It has as its object the grace of God as it is attested in Scripture; or as Calvin puts it, its object is Christ “clothed with his gospel.” Faith, consequently, reaches out in a single act to the person of Christ as well as to Scripture. It embraces Christ as Savior and Scripture as the word of God.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 569.

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Herman Bavinck – What is Faith?

3 Sep

The object of Christian faith is invisible and not susceptible to observation. If a thing can be immediately observed by us, faith is superfluous; faith is opposed to sight (Rom. 8:24; 2 Cor. 5:7). This does not conflict with the fact that revelation certainly took place in space and time and that the person of Christ could be seen and touched. For as the object of faith this revelation as a whole was not observable. Many people saw Jesus and still did not believe in him; only his disciples saw in him “a glory as of the only begotten of the Father” (John 1:14). Word and deeds are the object of faith only when considered from a divine perspective. But in Scripture, πιστις, as saving faith, acquires an even more pregnant meaning; its object is not all sorts of words and deeds of God as such but the grace of God in Christ (Mark 1:15; John 3:16; 17:3; Rom. 3:22; Gal. 2:20; 3:26; etc.). To [Christian] faith this special object is considered under still another heading than that of truth versus falsehood. The universal nature of faith is not exhausted by being characterized as a firm and sure knowledge, an objective holding for truth, since it also includes a heartfelt trust in a total surrender to God, who has revealed himself in Christ, and a personal appropriation of the promises extended in the gospel.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 568-569.

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Herman Bavinck – No Power Comparable

2 Sep

Faith is concentrated on the historic realities of redemption and results in trust that these historic acts are God’s saving acts for us. It is the same Spirit that inspired the apostolic witness that now seals the truth of that witness in believers’ hearts. Christians submit to Scripture because they believe it is a divine word, a word from God…. The authority of Scripture, accepted in Spirit-inspired faith, is a powerful self-asserted authority. We believe it because God said it, and God’s speaking is the final ground of our faith. There is no power in the world comparable to that of Scripture.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 563.

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Herman Bavinck – What Can Convince Us?

29 Aug

Only the Spirit of God can make a person inwardly certain of the truth of divine revelation.

~Herman Bavinck~








Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 562.

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Herman Bavinck – The Grace of God in Jesus Christ

9 Aug

Saving faith has as its object, not simply God’s words and deeds as such, but the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

~Herman Bavinck~








Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 561.

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Herman Bavinck – Now, We Walk by Faith

28 May

The fact that we will one day walk by sight does not cancel out the necessity of walking by faith in this dispensation. Although the church militant and the church triumphant are fundamentally one, there is nevertheless a difference between them in position and life in the present. The boundary line cannot and may not be erased. We will never achieve a heavenly life while we are here on earth. We walk by faith, not by sight. Now we see in a mirror dimly; in the hereafter, and not before, we will see face to face and will know as we are known. The vision of God has been reserved for heaven. On earth we will never be self-reliant and independent.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 474.

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Herman Bavinck – Is it Degrading to Believe God at His Word?

25 Apr

There is nothing humiliating, nor anything that in any way detracts from a person’s freedom, in listening to the word of God like a child and in obeying it. Believing God at his word, i.e., on his authority, is in no way inconsistent with human dignity, anymore than that it dishonors a child to rely with unlimited trust on the word of her or his father. So far from gradually outgrowing this authority, Christian believers rather progressively learn to believe God at his word and to renounce all their own wisdom. On earth believers never move beyond the viewpoint of faith and authority. To the degree that they increase in faith, they cling all the more firmly to the authority of God in his word.

~Herman Bavinck~




Reformed Dogmatics Vol. 1: Prolegomena (Grand Rapids, Michigan; Baker Academic; 2003) p. 464.

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