The Lamb is All the Glory

This morning I had the privilege of preaching a sermon based upon the following texts:

Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

Here is the simplified outline I used to preach these texts.

1. THE OBJECT OF THE SAINTS' EVERLASTING GAZE (Rev. 7:9-10, 14b)

   ⁹After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, ¹⁰and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!"
   
   14b They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

2. THE RADIANCE OF THOSE WHO LOOK TO THE SAVIOR (Ps. 34:5)

   ⁵Those who look to him are radiant,
   and their faces shall never be ashamed.

3. THE HOPE OF THOSE WHO ARE LOOKING FOR THE APPEARING OF THE SAVIOR (1 Jn. 3:2-3)

   ²Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ³And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure.

4. THE GOOD FORTUNE/HAPPINESS OF THOSE WHO SEE GOD (Matt. 5:8)

   ⁸"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I began this message by reading from the Richard Baxter's opening paragraph in chapter one of The Saints' Everlasting Rest. Considering Hebrews 4:9, "There remaineth therefore a rest unto the people of God," Baxter argues that

the end of all ceremonies and shadows is to direct them [i.e. the people of God] to Jesus Christ, the substance; and that the rest of Sabbaths, and Canaan should teach them to look for a further rest, which indeed is their happiness.

From here we began our consideration of each of these texts showing that Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, is the object of the saints' everlasting gaze. The psalmist learned from experience that those who look to the Lord (our Deliverer) are radiant. This radiance is not only one of joy, but also one of transformation. Moses' face had become radiant during his extended time of communion with God upon the mount. Moses' face reflected the glory of the One on whom he had been gazing. Paul argues that the glory Moses experienced was but a fading glory, and that the glory we experience through the ministry of the Holy Spirit is exceedingly glorious because it is transformational (see 2 Cor. 3:7-18). 1 John 3:1-3 builds upon this truth by stating that "we shall be like him, because we shall see him as his is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure." The point is not that we are to purify ourselves so that we might see God, but that, in looking to Jesus and gazing upon his glory in prolonged and consistent communion, he purifies us.

So, the common thread is seeing God. The more we look to Christ in holy communion, the more we are sanctified, purified, cleansed, transformed into his image. And if we have this hope in us and are purified as he is pure, we shall indeed see God along with all the innumerable multitude standing before the Lamb. For as Jesus taught his disciples on the mount, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. 5:8).

Along with reading some of Baxter's The Saints' Everlasting Rest, I also picked up Letters of Samuel Rutherford (Banner of Truth, reprint ed., 2006). If anyone was radiant for having seen Jesus it was Samuel Rutherford. Here are a few excerpts that I shared:

Oh how are we misted and mired with the love of things that are on this side of time, and on this side of death's water! Where can we find a match to Christ, or an equal, or a better than He, among created things!

(Letter 284, To the church in Ireland)

Your timeous [timely] word, "not to delight in the cross, but in Him who sweeteneth it," came to me in due time. I find the consolations and off-fallings that follow the cross of Christ so sweet, that I almost forgot myself.

(Letter 285, To Robert Gordon)

If heaven and earth, and ten thousand heavens even (round about these heavens that now are), were all in one garden of paradise, decked with all the fairest roses, flowers, and trees that can come forth from the art of the Almighty Himself; yet set but our one Flower that groweth out of the root of Jesse beside that orchard of pleasure, one look of Him, one view, one taste, one smell of His sweet Godhead would infinitely exceed and go beyond the smell, colour, beauty, and loveliness of that paradise.

If our Beloved were not mistaken by us, and unknown to us, He would have no scarcity of wooers and suitors.

He, He Himself is more excellent than heaven; for heaven, as it cometh into the souls and spirits of the glorified, is but a creature; and He is something (and a great something) more than a creature.

(Letter 289, To the church in Ireland)

If heaven is our aim, that is not high enough. As the visions of John in the Revelation show us, and as Rutherford so often reminded his readers in so many words, the Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel's land.

"Oh, how little of him do we see! Oh, how shallow are our thoughts of him!"

~ Samuel Rutherford

Salvation Belongs to Our God: The Song of the Saints

Revelation 7:9-17 (see previous post) is set in the throne room of heaven. The song of the innumerable host standing before the throne of God and in front of the Lamb is unpacked phrase by phrase in Christopher J. H. Wright's Salvation Belongs to Our God: Celebrating the Bible's Central Story (IVP, 2007). I have reviewed this book here and highly recommend it to you. Here's how Wright introduces this text:

The grande finale of any great work of music is usually very moving, as in an opera or the great music and dance sequences of traditional cultures. The closing song or climactic chorus or final dance of a great musical drama usually ends in thunderous applause as the audience feels that the performance has delivered the message of the whole work. As you leave the concert hall or theater or village square, you will hear people humming those last tunes. Sometimes you can't get them out of your head for days. Even in cultures where music and drama take the form of local village art forms, without the need for concert halls and theaters, there is emotional power in the words and music that express the grand themes of life and death, struggle, victory, and hope. Human beings in cultures all over the world turn to music, movement, song and drama whenever they wrestle with the really big things that go beyond merely rational analysis.

The Bible ends with a climactic final chorus. The whole of creation will sing it, and it sums up the message of the whole Bible story.... It is not a long song, but it sums up a very long story. It is a song we will not want to get out of our heads, or our hearts, for all eternity. Here it is, form John's vision in Revelation 7:9-10:

After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice:

"Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb." [NIV]

This is worth singing this weekend, even in light of Reformation Day!

All Saints Day and Baxter's Sants' Rest

Image via Wikipedia

I am preparing for another preaching opportunity this coming Lord's Day, which according to the Church Year happens to be All Saints Day. In light of this occasion, I have decided to preach a sermon based upon four texts found in one of the common lectionaries. The texts are as follows:

Revelation 7:9-17
Psalm 34:1-10, 22
1 John 3:1-3
Matthew 5:1-12

Studying and meditating upon the messages of these texts and seeking a way to weave them together into one sermon is proving to be a rich blessing. Along with studying these texts of scripture, I am doing some reading in Richard Baxter's The Saints' Everlasting Rest. (This work was first published in 1650. My copy was printed in the early 1800's, however it is still in print. It can be read online here. Christian Focus has recently reprinted it, and it can be purchased from Westminster Bookstore.)

According to the Prefatory Note,

The Saints' Rest is deservedly esteemed one of the most valuable parts of his practical works. He wrote it when he was far from home, without any book to consult but his Bible, and in such an ill state of health as to be in continual expectation of death for many months; and therefore, merely for his own use, he fixed his thoughts on this heavenly subject, "which," says he, "hath more benefited me than all the studies of my life." At this time he could be little more than thirty years old. He afterwards preached over the subject in his weekly lecture at Kidderminster, and in 1650 published it; indeed it appears to have been the first that ever he published of all his practical writings.

Of particular interest to me, in light of my current studies, is Baxter's third chapter titled "The Excellencies of the Saints' Rest." I heartily recommend this chapter to you! The texts listed above fit very well with Baxter's thoughts in this chapter. For your consideration, here is his outline:

1. It is the purchased possession;
2. [It is] A free gift;
3. [It is] Peculiar to saints;
4. [It is] An association with saints and angels;
5. It derives its joys immediately from God himself;
6. It will be seasonable;
7. [It will be] Suitable;
8. [It will be] Perfect, without sin and suffering;
9. And [It will be] everlasting.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven ~ Matt. 5:12
And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure ~ 1 John 3:3
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints ~ Psalm 116:15

Our home church observes All Saints Day by remembering (not worshiping or praying to) those from our communion who have preceded us into Eternal Rest during the previous year. Remembering that I am a member of the body of Christ which is made up of many members from all ages, giving thought to Christ's faithfulness to those whom he has redeemed with his own blood, and considering the eternal reward awaiting all who have been cleansed by his blood is a wonderful exercise for corporate worship. If you will be observing All Saints Day this Sunday, remember the saints particularly for who they are in Christ. And even more so, consider the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who is their reward. As John saw them in his vision of the great throne room of heaven, "they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on his throne will shelter them with his presence" Revelation 7:15.

The Mystery of Marriage

This evening I was thumbing through John Piper's Desiring God and spent a few moments rereading his chapter entitled "Marriage: A Matrix for Christian Hedonism." Weddings are fun (BTW: Congratulations to Tim & Doris Ashcraft on the marriage of their daughter, Diane), but, more so, they are also excellent occasions for those who are already married to soberly re-consider the mystery of marital union. I'd like to share a few excellent thoughts from Piper's Desiring God.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives and Husbands

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Piper:

The mystery is this: God did not create the union of Christ and the church after the pattern of human marriage; just the reverse! He created human marriage on the pattern of Christ's relation to the church.

...marriage is a mystery--it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female, and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union. As Geoffrey Bromiley has written, "As God made man in his own image, so he made marriage in the image of his own eternal marriage with his people."

...It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. It is also important to say husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. (178)

...As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy. (184)

Caesar and His Books

It is said of Caesar, that 'he had greater care of his books than of his royal robes,' for swimming through the waters to escape his enemies, he carried his books in his hand above the waters, but lost his robes. Ah, what are Caesar's books to God's books? Well, remember this, that one day, yea, one hour spent in the study of truth, or spreading abroad of truth, will yield the soul more comfort and profit than many thousand years spent in the study and spreading abroad of corrupt and vain opinions, that have their rise from hell, and not from heaven, from the god of this world and not form the God that shall at last judge this world, and all the corrupt opinions of men.

(Thomas Brooks, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. First published 1652. Reprinted, The Banner of Truth Trust, 1984, p. 95)

Here are a few (late) references to this anecdote:

(Henry George Liddell, The Life of Julius Caesar, Sheldon, 1860, p. 194)

In a desperate contest which the Egyptians had commenced, with the intention of mastering the Romans on the side of the harbour, Caesar himself had a narrow escape. He had to throw himself from a sinking vessel into the water, and to escape by swimming. We read that, with a sword between his teeth, and with some valuable papers in his left, he made use of his right hand in propelling himself to a place of safety. It is probable that his purple cloak, worn always on the day of battle, was thrown away, and secured by the Alexandrians, who hung it up as a trophy in one of their temples. Caesar could afford to allow his enemies to indulge in such harmless boasts.

(John Williams, The Life of Julius Caesar, G. Routledge, 1854, p. 334)

Caesar, anticipating this danger, leaped over into the sea and swam to the ship. He had some papers in his hand at the time--plans perhaps of the works which he was assailing. These he held above the water with his left hand, while he swam with the right. And to save his purple cloak or mantle, the emblem of his imperial dignity, which he supposed the enemy would eagerly seek to obtain as a trophy, he seized it by a corner between his teeth, and drew it after him through the water as he swam toward the galley. The boat which he thus escaped from soon after went down, with all on board.

(Jacob Abbot, The History of Julius Caesar, Harper, 1899, p. 207)

Thos. Brooks drew his quote from a Latin source. If you know which source this is, please let me know. Thanks.

The Simeon Course on Biblical Exposition

For those of you who also love preaching and Biblical exposition, I recommend you considering the Simeon Course.


This looks good.

Review: A Proverbs Driven Life by Anthony Selvaggio

The following review was submitted to me by Don Palmer, Sr. Pastor of Forest Brook Community Church, just east of Toronto, Canada. I am very grateful for Don's perspective and help with reviewing some of the books sent to us. I have already enjoyed discussing this review with Don. He represents a slightly different perspective on the issue of biblical manhood and womanhood than I do, but having the opportunity to discuss issues like this with brethren is in keeping with the aim of this website.

I hope that you have heard of this fairly new book and/or already own a copy. If not, I recommend it to you.

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Selvaggio, Anthony. A Proverbs Driven Life: Timeless Wisdom for Your Words, Work, Wealth, and Relationships. Wapwallopen, PA: Shepherd Press, 2008. Paperback, 201 pp.

Preview Chapter 1 - Proverbs: For a Life of Wisdom

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Teaching from Proverbs that Points to Christ.

Many Christians today view guidance as something mysterious or even hidden. By way of contrast, however, God does not leave us to grope in the dark when it comes to knowing how to live as He intended us to live. He has given us his Word for our protection and instruction. But too many times we choose to follow our own wisdom. In A Proverbs Driven Life, Anthony Selvaggio explores what the Bible teaches regarding six common issues.

Part One: Foundations
A Proverbs driven Life values wise living and wise speech as essential and inseparable.

Part Two: Work
A Proverbs driven Life practices a faithful work ethic and faithful ethics at work.

Part Three: Wealth
A Proverbs driven Life understands the place and purpose of material wealth.

Part Four: Friends
A Proverbs driven Life knows that friendship is intended to be redemptive.

Part Five: Marriage
A Proverbs driven Life embraces marriage as the most significant of relationships and guards it jealously.

Part Six: Children
A Proverbs driven Life accepts the calling to raise children as a task delegated and directed by God.

Based on the title, one may expect that A Proverbs Driven Life teaches a person how to live his life and make decisions based on several specific proverbs that speak to his current dilemma. That is not what Selvaggio encourages. I will not go into the details of each chapter, but an understanding of the foundations of Selvaggio’s book will provide a general idea for the organization of each chapter. In "Foundations," Selvaggio explains that there is a right way and a wrong way to read Proverbs.

Proverbs is not a collection of simplistic formulas for guaranteed success. Nor is it intended as a means to back-test and explain difficulties or moral failures. Rather, Proverbs offers us future-oriented wisdom and guidance so we can make wise decisions and live in ways that please and exalt God…Perhaps the most common error when studying a proverb is to read into it more than it is actually saying. (p. 17)

To avoid reading too much into a proverb, Selvaggio suggests that the reader use basic logic, not read any proverb in isolation, do not put God on your timetable, and do make God the goal of your obedience. Finally, Selvaggio encourages believers to read God’s Word with a desire “to uncover the many connections to Christ” (p. 20). He marks four connections in Proverbs: Jesus lived wisdom, Jesus is wisdom, Jesus is the way of wisdom, and Jesus supplies wisdom.

In each chapter, Selvaggio employs the aforementioned principles as he teaches how our words, wealth, work, friendships, marriage, and parenting can become Proverbs driven for the glory of God. For each topic he references several relevant scriptures from both testaments. I appreciated this aspect of the book because Selvaggio pulled together scriptures that I had not considered side-by-side. Because he always relates the proverb back to Jesus, each chapter is intended to encourage and remind the reader of God’s abundant mercy and grace. I found it enlightening and fun to read.

Selvaggio points out early on that memorizing a few Proverbs for specific situations will not achieve the goal of living a life that pleases God. He writes,

Proverbs is not a reference book to pull off the shelf when you are stumped by life’s difficulties. It is not a set of pat answers to cookie-cutter challenges. Instead, it guides and empowers us to discover answers for ourselves by virtue of having gained wisdom through diligent application. (p. 24)

The practical points for applying wisdom to everyday life are invaluable for more reasons than just because they are right. Learning to walk according to the wisdom of God will result in deeper intimacy with God and eternal blessings. Indeed, “the end of wisdom is God himself.”

Because it is fun and easy to read, I think this is an ideal book to share with any young couples who have started to be parents or Christian believers who are relatively young in the faith. However, I can also recommend this book for anyone wishing to understand better how to read and apply biblical wisdom.

My only critique would be that is tends towards a very conservative view on husband-wife relationships, with a very strong sense of the man as the "head" and the wife as the "follower". The author is a Reformed Presbyterian pastor and hence quotes often from older Puritan writers. This can be okay to a point, if he balances it out with more modern authors. However, one thing the reader cannot complain about is he is very biblical and seeks to root all of his advice on texts of Scripture.

Don Palmer lives in Toronto, is the Sr. Pastor of Forest Brook Community Church, and is completing MDiv studies through Tyndale College & Seminary.

Reinstalling Logos Bible Software on a New Computer

One of the fears I have had concerning investing in a digital library is what to do if my computer crashes. Would this mean that I would loose all of my investment? Would I have a hard time transferring my licenses from the dead computer to the new one? Would I have to wait for returned calls or emails from customer service?

Well a few months ago the mother board on my computer crashed. Thankfully it wasn't the hard drive, but, still, the new computer would not read the old hard drive. I found a way to transfer most of my files, but I've had to reinstall the extra programs I use. This evening I decided to go ahead and reinstall my Logos Bible Software (Scholar's Library) onto my new computer.

IT WAS A BREEZE!

Wow! I was told not to worry about this, and sure enough everything went smoothly. If I understand this correctly, the key was synchronizing my licenses with the Libronix server (Go to Tools > Account Management). Since I am an "existing user" I requested my Customer ID and Confirmation Number via email. An email arrived in my Inbox within seconds. Attached to the email were simple instructions and an update file. I downloaded the file per the instructions, clicked on the file to activate the Update software, and was ready to go in less than a minute. Fantastic!

The best part about reinstalling the software was that I chose to deselect many of the volumes I consider to be extraneous. Now I'll test it to see if paring down the library helps to increase some of the searching speed.

One set I'm keeping an eye on and would like to eventually add to my digital library is the following:

• The Essential IVP Reference Collection Version 3

Which other sets would you recommend for a digital library? I'm interested in volumes and/or collections that might be used often, are affordable, and that would be more useful in a digital library than taking up real estate on a bookshelf.

Keith Mathison's Bible Study Software Reviews

Keith Mathison of Ligonier Ministries has reviewed the three major Bible study software programs: BibleWorks, Logos, and Accordance. This morning Keith posted a summary and comparison of all three. What matters most when considering which of these three packages will be best for you is to consider the type of Bible study you do on a regular basis, the depth of that Bible study (devotional, for SS, for preaching, or for scholarly research), and how comfortable you are with doing your study on a computer (even PC or Mac).

I was given a copy of the Logos Scholar's Library, the smallest of the three Scholar's packages (compare them all here), in order to use and review, but I have hesitated to do so because of mixed feelings. I love the idea of a digital library and the possibilities of doing detailed searches, but after working at a computer all day long I find it difficult to sit and read via a computer screen in the evenings. Even with all of the search capabilities available, I love to sit in my library surrounded by real books, pulling them from the shelves, piling them up on my desks, thumbing through them, underlining and marking them up. The physical actions of handling them, turning their pages, and bookmarking them helps me to retain more of what I study. I realize that you can do similar tasks on the computer, but I find that the process of digging allows for more time to think and process information. Of course, a lot of this has to do with me and my circumstances, so I want to resist denigrating the value of the Logos Bible Study software. It truly is remarkable, and those willing to spend the time using this software will greatly benefit from it!

I have not used Bibleworks or Accordance, so I appreciated Keith's comments without being able to relate them to my own experience. On the other hand, I really appreciated his evaluation of Logos because it highlights some of my own concerns. Here are his comments:

LOGOS

Logos is strong in terms of the sheer number of resources it makes available. There are over 700 resources on the Scholar's Library Gold version that I reviewed. Logos is also the only program that currently has any kind of syntax search capability for the original languages. The Logos interface is one of the most intuitive of the three. It resembles a basic website interface. The amount and kind of resources is very helpful. To be able to do a search and see results in original language resources, commentaries, sermon illustration books, etc. is a strong point.

The main weakness of Logos is the cost. Even with the available discounts, the high price could be out of the reach of many pastors and seminary students who are trying to make ends meet. The other weakness of Logos is a byproduct of one of its strengths - namely the large number of resources. In the first place, most users will probably find a large number of these resources to be extraneous. Second, the large number of resources slows down searches - sometimes dramatically.

I heartily concur with the issue of cost as a weakness. With the rapid growth of digital readers and free research software online, the idea of re-purchasing digital copies of books I already own is difficult to swallow. The idea of purchasing new digital books at prices higher than printed copies is likewise difficult to justify (even though there are extra features included in the digital copies). It's the penny-pincher in me (along with the limited budget).

Most digital books are sold in packages which truly does allow for greater discounts, however, packages tend to be expensive. As opposed to purchasing books by the 10s of dollars, you have to consider purchasing packages by the 100s of dollars. The cumbersome nature of software packages along with the extraneous resources and slow search speeds is a disappointment. This is why I found the old Online Bible programs to be frustrating; they included a lot of resources that I never used, however their presence drastically slowed down the speed of the program.

Well, I probably should defer to the testimony of those who are far more experienced with these software packages than myself. I recommend to you the following reviews:

• Keith Mathison - BibleWorks
• Keith Mathison - Logos
• Keith Mathison - Accordance
• Andrew D. Naselli - Logos Scholar's Library Gold
• Andrew D. Naselli - PNTC, BECNT, and NIGTC (three NT commentary series)
• Andrew D. Naselli - Anchor Yale Bible commentary series (84 vols.)
• 
  

Michael Bird on Gospelization: Cruciformity & Anastasity

Michael Bird's Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message (IVP, 2008) really is a helpful and enjoyable introduction to Paul. Bird is young, very well-read, articulate, and witty. This book is not intended to replace some of the larger and more scholarly works on Paul, but rather to introduce the beginner to the broad strokes of Paul's ministry, letters and theology.

This past weekend, as I was studying for a SS lesson introducing 2 Timothy, I picked up Introducing Paul once again and thumbed though it looking to see how he introduced this Pauline letter or to see if he dealt with Pauline ethic. I found that he does, indeed, write about Pauline ethics. This was found in chapter 9 which is titled "Living a Life Worthy of the Gospel: The Ethics of Paul" (pp. 134-60). Although he did not interact with the material in 2 Timothy as I had hoped (primarily because much of this can be dealt with in the larger letters), I found this chapter to be spiritually edifying. After reading this chapter and seeing the title to the final chapter, "Gospelizing 101: Paul's Spirituality," I couldn't resist reading on. I had to find out how he defined "gospelizing."

To my delight this chapter was worth every minute spent in it and every successive minute spent meditating upon its contents. This short chapter is packed and not a word is wasted. According to Bird, gospelization is "beginning to reflect in one's life the realities the gospel endeavours to create" (p. 162). What I appreciated most about this chapter is his introduction to the terms cruciformity and anastasity. Bird borrows cruciformity from M. J. Gorman (see also here and more recently here) and adds to it Paul's emphasis on new life, or as Bird terms it, anastasity. This emphasis accords perfectly with what I had been studying in 2 Timothy. Paul's final "trustworthy saying" begins,

If we have died with him, we will also live with him (italics mine).

Paul beautifully summarizes the gospel in terms of death and resurrection.

I wholeheartedly agree with Bird when he argues that not the cross alone, but the cross and the resurrection of Jesus are central to the gospel. Cruciformity is "to be shaped in accord with the cross of Christ" (p. 162) and anastasity is "to be made alive by the power of Christ's resurrection" (p. 166).

I've not had the opportunity to read Gorman's take on cruciformity, but since I was made aware of his books on this topic I have been very interested in learning more. The term is new and the truth is old, but the beauty of new categories is that they help us to reconsider old truths that may have become obscure to us. I have enjoyed meditating on these new terms! I recommend Bird's book on Paul and especially the use of these two excellent new terms.