On Being Salt

Of course, God has set other restraining influences in the community.  He has Himself established certain institutions in His common grace which curb man’s selfish tendencies and prevent society from slipping into anarchy.  Chief among these are the state (with its authority to frame and enforce laws) and the home (including marriage and family life).  These exert a wholesome influence in the community.  Nevertheless, God intends the most powerful of all restraints within sinful society to be His own redeemed, regenerate, and righteous people.  As R. V. G. Tasker puts it, the disciples are “to be a moral disinfectant in a world where moral standards are low, constantly changing, or nonexistent.”

From: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture by John R. W. Stott; the Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978), p. 59.  Comment on Matthew 5.13.

John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) was Rector of All Soul’s Anglican Church, Langham Place, in London, England, from 1950 to 1975.  After his retirement, he carried on an extensive writing and speaking ministry.

 

On Acts 10.23-33

It was a marvelously comprehensive message, a precis of the good news according to Peter which Mark would later record more fully in his Gospel, and which Luke incorporated into his.  Focusing on Jesus, Peter presented Him as a historical person, in and through whom God was savingly at work, who now offered, to believers, salvation and escape from judgment.  Thus, history, theology, and gospel were again combined, as in other apostolic sermons.  As Cornelius, his family, relatives, friends, and servants listened, their hearts were opened to grasp and believe Peter’s message, and so to repent and believe in Jesus. – John R. W. Stott (1921-2011)

 

On the Beatitudes

Their simplicity of word and profundity of thought have attracted each fresh generation of Christians, and many others besides.  The more we explore their implications, the more seems to remain unexplored.  Their wealth is inexhaustible.  We cannot plumb their depths.  Truly, “we are near heaven here” (F. F. Bruce). – John R. W. Stott (1921-2011)

 

The Sermon on the Mount

Only a belief in the necessity and the possibility of a new birth can keep us from reading the Sermon on the Mount with either foolish optimism or hopeless despair.  Jesus spoke the Sermon to those who were already His disciples and, thereby, also the citizens of God’s kingdom and the children of God’s family (e.g., Matthew 5.16, 48; 6.9, 32-33; 7.11).  The high standards He set are appropriate only to such.  We do not – indeed, could not – achieve this privileged status by attaining Christ’s standards.  Rather, by gaining His standards or, at least, approximating to them, we give evidence of what, by God’s free grace and gift, we already are.

From: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7): Christian Counter-Culture by John R. W. Stott; The Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978), p. 29.  Comment on Matthew 5.1-2.

John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) was an English conservative Anglican pastor, theologian, New Testament expositor and author.  He was Vicar of All Soul’s Anglican Church, Langham Place, London, England, from 1950 to 1975, after which he engaged in a worldwide speaking and writing ministry.

 

“A Substratum of Good and Evil”

In every human community, therefore, there is a basic recognition of the difference between right and wrong and an accepted set of values.  True, conscience is not infallible, and standards are influenced by cultures.  Nevertheless, a substratum of good and evil remains, and love is always acknowledged as superior to selfishness.  This has important social and political implications.  It means that legislators and educators can assume that God’s law is good for society and that, at least to some degree, people know it.  It is not a case of Christians trying to force their standards on an unwilling public, but of helping the public to see that God’s law is “for our good at all times” (Deuteronomy 6.24) because it is the law of human being and of human community.  If democracy is government by consent, consent depends on consensus, consensus on argument, and argument on ethical apologists who will develop a case for the goodness of God’s law. – John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), from his 1994 commentary on Romans, p. 89.  Comment on Romans 2.1-16.

 

Jews and Gentiles

This exhortation to Gentile believers not to boast, together with the arguments with which it was buttressed was, undoubtedly, much needed in Rome.  For, although the Jews were tolerated and protected, by law, from Gentile molestation, they suffered a great deal of popular Gentile ill will and, sometimes, from outbreaks of violence.  Resisting assimilation to Gentile culture and refusing to abandon or modify their own practices, “their exclusiveness bred the unpopularity out of which anti-Semitism was born.  The Jew was a figure of amusement, contempt, or hatred to the Gentiles among whom he lived” (E. M. Smallwood).  Paul was determined that Gentile believers in Rome would have no share in such anti-Semitic prejudice.

From: The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John R. W. Stott; The Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p. 301.  Comment on Romans 11.17-24.

 

On Miracles

If, then, we take Scripture as our guide, we will avoid opposite extremes.  We will neither describe miracles as “never happening” nor as “everyday occurrences,” neither as “impossible” nor as “normal.”  Instead, we will be entirely open to the God who works both through nature and through miracle.  And, when a healing miracle is claimed, we will expect it to resemble those in the Gospels and the Acts and so to be the instantaneous and complete cure of an organic condition, without the use of medical or surgical means, inviting investigation and persuading even unbelievers.  For so it was with the congenital cripple.  Peter took his miraculous healing as the text of both his sermon to the crowd and his speech to Council.  Word and sign, together, bore testimony to the uniquely powerful name of Jesus.  The healing of the cripple’s body was a vivid dramatization of the apostolic message of salvation. – John R. W. Stott (1921-2011) on Acts 4.23-31.

 

Paul and Peter

It is evident that [Luke] gives prominence in his story to Peter (chapters 1-12) and to Paul (chapters 13-28).  It seems very probable, as well, that he deliberately presents them as exercising parallel, rather than divergent, ministries.  The similarities are remarkable.  Thus, both Peter and Paul were filled with the Holy Spirit (4.8 and 9.17; 13.9).  Both preached the Word of God with boldness (4.13, 31 and 9.27, 29).  Both bore witness before Jewish audiences to Jesus crucified, risen, and reigning, in fulfillment of Scripture, as the way of salvation (e.g., 2.22ff and 13.46ff).  Both preached to Gentiles as well as Jews (10.34ff and 13.46ff).  Both received visions which gave vital direction to the church’s developing mission (10.9ff; 16.9).  Both were imprisoned for their testimony to Jesus and then miraculously set free (12.7ff and 16.25ff).  Both healed a congenital cripple – Peter in Jerusalem and Paul in Lystra (3.2ff and 14.8ff).  Both healed other sick people (9.41 and 28.8).  Both exorcised evil spirits (5.16 and 16.18).  Both possessed such extraordinary powers that people were healed by Peter’s shadow and by Paul’s handkerchiefs and aprons (5.15 and 19.12).  Both raised the dead – Tabitha, in Joppa by Peter, and Eutychus, in Troas by Paul (9.36ff and 20.7ff).  Both called down God’s judgment on a sorcerer/false teacher – Peter, on Simon Magus in Samaria, and Paul, on Elymas in Paphos (8.20ff and 13.6ff), and both refused the worship of their fellow human beings – Peter, that of Cornelius, and Paul, that of the Lystrans (10.25-26 and 14.11ff).

It is true that these parallels are scattered through Acts and are not put in direct juxtaposition to each other.  Yet, there they are.  They can hardly be accidental.  Luke surely includes them in his narrative in order to show, by his portraiture of Peter and Paul, that they were both apostles of Christ, with the same commission, gospel, and authentication.  It is in this way that he may be called a “peacemaker” who demonstrated the unity of the apostolic church.

From: The Message of Acts: The Spirit, the Church, and the World by John R. W. Stott; The Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove/Leicester: InterVarsity Press, 1990), pp. 28-29.

In the first paragraph above, I have simplified Stott’s syntax by transforming his dependent clauses (originally all separated by semi-colons) into full sentences of their own.  I have also slightly edited a very small portion of his other punctuation.  In no case has Stott’s original meaning been changed.

 

in memoriam – John R. W. Stott (1921-2011)

Many mysteries surround the doctrine of election and theologians are unwise to systematize it in such a way that no puzzles, enigmas, or loose ends are left.  At the same time, in addition to the arguments developed in the exposition of Romans 8.28-30, we need to remember two truths.  First, election is not just a Pauline or apostolic doctrine; it was also taught by Jesus Himself.  “I know those I have chosen,” He said (John 13.18; cf. 15.16; 17.6).  Secondly, election is an indispensable foundation of Christian worship, in time and eternity.  It is the essence of worship to say, “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory” (Psalm 115.1).  If we were responsible for our own salvation, either in whole or, even, in part, we would be justified in singing our own praises and blowing our own trumpet in heaven.  But, such a thing is inconceivable.  God’s redeemed people will spend eternity worshipping Him, humbling themselves before Him in grateful adoration, ascribing their salvation to Him and to the Lamb and acknowledging that He, alone, is worthy to receive all praise, honour, and glory (Revelation 5.12-13; 7.10ff).  Why?  Because our salvation is due entirely to His grace, will, initiative, wisdom, and power.

From: The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the World by John R. W. Stott; The Bible Speaks Today series (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p. 268.  Comment on Romans 9.1-33.

John Robert Walmsley Stott died in London, England yesterday (Wednesday, July 27, 2011) at the age of 90.  He had been a Christian for 73 years and was the author of more than 50 books.  The commentary on Romans quoted from above is one of his two best books, in my opinion – the other being The Cross of Christ (1986), his volume on the atonement.  RIP.

 

John R. W. Stott

John R. W. Stott, the English Anglican pastor, theologian, and writer, is 90 today.  If you’re interested, his two best books, in my opinion, are The Cross of Christ (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1986), his study of the atonement, and The Message of Romans: God’s Good News for the New World (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1994), his commentary on Romans (part of the series entitled “The Bible Speaks Today”).

Happy birthday, Mr. Stott!