Thomas Guthrie and Ragged Schools 20 Schemes Podcast

Almost 30 years when I worked for the Edinburgh City Mission I was involved in children's work down in Niddrie.  Some wonderful work had been done over the years but the little Mission Hall was struggling.  It was eventually reopened as Niddrie Community Church.  I spoke there 2 years ago to a thriving congregation of mainly local people.  I was amazed at the transformation in the church and the strong and rooted vision for healthy gospel churches in 20 schemes across Scotland.

I was delighted to hear that the church, in partnership with 20 Schemes has started the 'Ragged School of Theology' to train up local people, some of who might struggle in a formal Bible College.  The name came from Dr Thomas Guthrie and his 'Ragged Schools' started in Edinburgh.  I recently went down to Niddrie to chat to Mez McConnell about Guthrie and his vision to set up a school that would meet the needs of vulnerable children in Edinburgh.  It is great to hear (and visit) other church plants around Scotland and to hear what God is doing in schemes.  If you want more information about 20 Schemes or the Ragged School of Theology click on the link here.

Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke

Many thanks to Andy Constable, Assistant Pastor at Niddire Community Church for this book review on Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke.  Please buy from 10ofThose to avoid multi million tax avoiding book companies!

Reformed Preaching by Joel Beeke is a master piece. Its rich, biblical, Christ entered and soul refreshing. The subtitle to this book is ‘proclaiming Gods word from the heart of the preacher to the heart of his people.’ It his split into three parts. Part one gives a description of what Beeke calls reformed experiential preaching. This, Beeke explains, is preaching that has captured the soul of the preacher experientially and is then applied to the hearts of believers. Beeke summarises: “Reformed Experiential preaching receives God’s word into his heart and then preaches it to the minds, hearts, and lives of the people.” pg 41

Rev Joel Beeke

In part two Beeke takes us through some of the great reformed preachers throughout the centuries and shows how part one is illustrated through these preachers sermons. Beeke takes you from the Reformation to Lloyd Jones and gives a quick biography of their lives and shows you how they preached. There is quote after quote in these chapters that are gospel centered sound bites from these great men’s sermons. 

In part three Beeke looks at preaching today and some of the practicalities of reformed preaching like preaching with balance and preaching the gospel to the heart. Here Beeke takes part one and two and shows us how it is worked out in our preaching today. 

When I picked up the book to start reading I thought this was going to be a struggle to read. I thought it was going to be high brow theological stuff with no practical application. But what I loved about the book was how much it focused on the preacher’s heart. Beeke again and again talks about how we can’t preach effectively unless we have been moved by the text itself. On page 30 he quotes Robert Burns to make his point: “Christianity should not only be known, and understood, and believed, but also felt, and enjoyed, and practically applied.” This is not pie in the sky stuff. This book encourages the preacher to ground the bible in the lives of the preacher and the people. As Beeke writes: “The preacher of the word must ask: ‘Does my preaching help people to walk closely with God in real life? Or does it simply set up a beautiful world of ideas disconnected from their experiences?’ Page 50. Much preaching today in reformed circles can be up in the sky theologically without grounding it in people’s lives. This book sets the record straight. 

At the same time I also appreciated how Beeke encourages the preacher to be rich theologically. This was refreshing to hear because much preaching today is superficial garbage. At the heart of preaching we must unashamedly be men of the word. This includes knowing the word intimately and preaching the centre of the word the Lord Jesus Christ. In chapter 3 he reminds preachers that they need to preach Christ in all his glory: “What does the HS like best in a preacher? The Spirit most delights in the preaching of Christ.” page 63. Again and again this book seeks to exalt Christ and encouraged us to make much of him in our preaching. He also reminds us to preach the sovereignty of God and present a big God over all.

This book was also refreshing for the soul. I appreciated the fact that he encouraged the preacher constantly to watch their own hearts. He reminds us that as preachers that our holiness is God’s greatest weapon. This is so important because preachers can often be the ones at the front who think they have all the information and they need to tell everyone how to live according to the bible. But Beeke reminded me again that I need to stick near to Jesus and watch my heart. That the goal of preaching is not to make much of me but much of Christ. As John says: “I must decrease and he must increase.” Lastly he reminded me of the necessity of prayer in preparation and the fact that we need to preach with great passion! 

I think this is probably my favourite book on preaching I’ve read. The only criticism I would offer is that the section (part 2) on the different preachers was a bit long and repetitive. I think it would have served better to just look at a few. I also hope in the future they might print this book in three volumes to make it more accessible to people who read less. There wasn’t much practical advice on how to prepare a sermon but this is for other books like Saving Euytchus or Simple Preaching by Stuart Olyott. This book instead will equip you to be a better preacher because you will take God’s word seriously, apply it to your hearts, walk in step with the Spirit and preach Christ with all that you’ve got. I can’t recommend this book highly enough. Get a copy and give it a read. Let me end with 2 more quotes that are gold dust:

“The true reformed experiential preacher is a humble preacher, precisely because he is a true lover of Christ in pursuit of holiness, content to be nothing, if in that way Christ may be all in all.” J.Beeke, Reformed Preaching.

“The church today desperately needs preachers who continually remind themselves that awakening, heart engaging, life transforming preaching does not depend on eloquence or self generated passion BUT on the sovereign good pleasure of God operating thru the ministry of the HS.” J. Beeke, Reformed Preaching.

The History of the Free Church: The Disruption

The existence of the Free Church of Scotland is a testimony to the Kingship of Christ.  1843 was the year the Free Church was established.  It was not a new beginning: the Reformed Church in Scotland goes back to the Reformation.  But in 1843, the Free Church was forced to withdraw from the Establishment to testify that Christ is King in His Church.

I. The Background

The tragedy was that God had blessed the Church of Scotland.  The number of Evangelical ministers had steadily grown, so that in 1834 the Evangelicals became the majority in the General Assembly.  The Evangelical leader was Thomas Chalmers, who as Professor of Divinity at Edinburgh University was influencing a whole generation of young ministers.  These Evangelicals loved Scripture, preached the Gospel, and upheld the whole doctrine of the Westminster Confession of Faith.

The dominance of the Evangelicals allowed for an upsurge in the planting of new congregations, missionary work in cities, and foreign missionaries sent overseas.  One can read the Memoirs of McCheyne or Diary of Andrew Bonar to get a flavor of the excitement and Gospel urgency of these days.

But there was a problem: the Church of Scotland was established, its property was owned by the State, and Parliament had passed legislation that gave the patronage of vacant parishes to local landowners.  These patrons were not necessarily godly men, or even Presbyterians (many were more English than Scottish, and members of the Church of England).  The right of patronage for a parish was property, which could be advertised for sale in newspapers.

Sometimes it worked well.  For example, the proprietrix of the Isle of Lewis, Mrs Stewart Mackenzie, exercised the right of patronage on behalf of the Crown, and presented Evangelicals to four of the six churches on Lewis.  But in practice, the landlords more often chose nominees of social standing, men to whom they owed favours, and even where the candidates’ actual suitability was considered, they often preferred refined orators to godly evangelists.  All too often, they chose Moderates, men worldly in character, moralistic in emphasis, and to all appearances, spiritually dead.

II. The Doctrine

Christ is King in His Church; not the monarch, Parliament or any arm of the state.  We pray ‘Thy kingdom come’ (Mat 6:10).  It is He that builds His Church.  Consider His ownership: Christ purchased His Kingdom (Act 20:28).  He Reigns because He redeemed this Kingdom with the cost of His own life.  As a result, Christ instituted His Kingdom (Col 1:18).  He Reigns because He began this Kingdom.  As a result, Christ is the only source of authority in His Kingdom (Isa 9:7).  Christ is reigning, by means of His Word.  So, in that Word, Christ has defined the offices by which His Church is ruled, given the qualifications for them, and commanded the appointment of office-bearers on that basis.

The appointment of these office-bearers is thus a spiritual duty of the Church itself, and a function of the Kingship of Christ.  It is not just more fair, or democratic, or even prudent, to leave the appointment of office-bearers in the hands of the Church: it is nothing less than to let Christ reign.

Consider the scene in Acts 1 – the vacancy was identified; two candidates were nominated by the Lord’s people; they offered prayer that the Lord would show who should be elected; and then the choice was made: ‘They gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias’ (Act 1:26).  Some think that indicates a random choice, but the word ‘lot’, kleros, just means ‘portion or piece’ as in a piece of wood.  This was rather a vote, each individual making his choice, and the choice falling upon Matthias.  This was a spiritual duty, done spiritually, as unto Christ.

It is not a matter of indifference who chooses the minister of the congregation.  Ultimately, Christ does, and His choice is effected by His faithful people.  Patronage was an intrusion on the Crown Rights of King Jesus.

III. The Battle

The Evangelicals knew this, and patronage had previously caused splits in the Scottish Church in the eighteenth century.  By the 1830s, the issue had become a battleground between the Church and the law of the land as the Evangelical party tried to restrict the powers of patronage.

In 1834, two pieces of legislation were passed by the General Assembly:

Chapels Act – this provided for new churches to be planted in parishes that were too large geographically, or too heavily populated for effective ministry.  The new congregations were granted a full right of participation in church courts, free of patronage;

Veto Act – this gave the membership of congregations [specifically, male heads of households] the right to protest against the patron’s nominee for the vacancy.

These Acts were controversial; they were seen as evidence of the Church opposing the rule of Parliament.  It was w a matter of time before battle would be joined.

In Auchterarder, the patron’s nominee was opposed in protest by five sixths of the male heads of household.  The courts overruled the Church, and in 1839, the House of Lords upheld the rights of the patron, rejecting the Veto Act as unlawful.  In Lethendy, the patron’s nominee was rejected by protest, and the patron agreed to present someone else, but the nominee took legal action in his own name, and was found by the courts to have a legal right to the ‘living’, and to deserve financial compensation.  Worst of all, in Marnoch, the same thing occurred, and the court actually ordered the induction of the rejected nominee, John Edwards.  When the Presbytery, made up of Moderates, did so, the Assembly deposed them for contumacy, and inducted the congregation’s choice of minister, David Henry.  The result was an increasingly unsustainable situation in which two ministers were holding separate services in Marnoch, both claiming to represent the lawful Established Church of Scotland.

Consistently, the courts had upheld patronage as lawful, and the General Assembly’s position as unlawful.  The Veto Act could not function, as it was repeatedly overruled; the Chapels Act was struck down in 1842, removing the right of the chapel ministers to participate in church courts.  If put into effect, this would destroy the Evangelical majority, and leave the General Assembly ruled by Moderates who would accept the rule of the Courts.

What was the Church do? The Evangelicals gathered in the Convocation of 1842 in Edinburgh, and issued the Claim, Declaration and Protest, a demand for redress from the civil authorities.  But the Government refused to act. The Prime Minister, Robert Peel, was advised that only a handful of ministers would act on the Claim.

As the Assembly neared, all wondered what would happen.  Many thought only a few hotheads would actually follow through.  The 1843 General Assembly was constituted by David Welsh, who read a formal protest and deed of separation, and led the withdrawal of the true Church from the Establishment, walking out from St Andrew’s Church, Edinburgh, to Tanfield Hall.

Hundreds of commissioners followed him, and ultimately 474 ministers joined the Free Church.  They left behind manses, churches, and stipends effectively guaranteed for life.  Some were wealthy men: the great portrait of Disruption Assembly shows Patrick MacFarlan of Greenock West signing away the richest living in Scotland.

Some knew worse sufferings: Hugh and William Mackenzie, father and son, the ministers of Tongue, Sutherland, had to send their family away to Thurso, 42 miles away, the nearest place where adequate accommodation could be obtained in the face of the landowner’s hostility to their stand.  They lived together in a room-and-closet in a miserable cottage, to minister to the congregation of 750 people.  In these cramped, damp conditions, both fell ill.  Hugh died in June 1845, William in July.  Like a number of others, they gave their lives as effective martyrs.

The people suffered too.  The landowners often refused to grant sites, or even permission for worship on their property.  Many congregations had to worship for years in the open air: in some parishes there was no other private property at all.  In such cases, services were held on the public road, as thje only lawful place.  In a couple of remote rural parishes there was not even a road – in these cases, worship was held on the shore between the high and low tide marks, which land was lawfully considered as the sea.  In Strontian, a floating church was provided.  Eventually a Parliamentary enquiry was held, and most landlords buckled under the public pressure and gave sites.

The Disruption was a Testimony to Christ the King, but more, it was Actual Submission to His rule.  175 years later – we still confess the same truth.  Christ is King of His Church.

This address was first given in August 2018 at the US FCC Family Conference and reproduced by kind permission of Rev A.J Macleod.

Who was Dr Guthrie?

Yesterday I was delighted to visit the 'Ragged School of Theology'.  Based in Niddrie Community Church and in partnership with 20 Schemes, the school trains local men and women in theology through a practical and active learning style.  It was good to meet old friends and chat with the local Pastor Mez McConnell author of 'Church in Hard Places' which is well worth a read.  It stimulates thinking around poverty, the Biblical response and the desperate need for churches in hard places.  While I was there a young man spoke to me.  He had been hugely helped by a some books I had arranged to be sent to a prison about 5 years ago.  He is now a bright Christian and learning some great theology.  It did my heart good to meet him.  I was delighted to do a Podcast with Mez about Dr Guthrie which will be coming out over the next few weeks.  Mez was keen to hear about Dr Guthrie so people were more aware of the background to name 'Ragged School'.  Below is a quick summary of Guthrie's life for newcomers.  Please pray for the folks at Niddrie Community Church and the great vision to plant healthy gospel churches in Scotland's schemes.  

Dr Thomas Guthrie’s statue in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh epitomises what many of us in the Christian church are seeking to achieve; with a Bible in one hand and his other hand resting protectively on a ‘ragged child’ Guthrie’s life combined the two great priorities of the church; truth and love.  Despite his great achievements, Guthrie is almost unknown today either as a preacher or social reformer.  Not a single book of his sermons or his famous ‘Seed Time and Harvest’ remains in print.  This is surely a tragedy and the study of Guthrie’s life and ministry reaps a rich reward for anyone who takes the time and energy to find out more about this great man.   

Standing at 6”4 Guthrie was an imposing figure.  Born in 1803 in the town of Brechin to the son of a local merchant and banker, Guthrie went on to study at Edinburgh University at the tender age of 12.  As he himself comments in his autobiography ‘beyond the departments of fun and fighting I was in no way distinguished at college’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 40).  Spending nearly 10 years at university and then a further 5 without a church prepared Guthrie in a unique way for the challenges ahead.  His sons comment in their Memoir of their father ‘these five years of hope deferred, however, afforded Mr Guthrie a profitable though peculiar training for the eminent place he was afterwards to fill.  His scientific studies in Edinburgh, his residence abroad, his experience of banking in his father’s banking-house, the leisure he enjoyed for enlarging his stores of general information, had all their influence in making him the many sided man he became’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 225).

Evangelist and Preacher

Guthrie was no ivory tower theologian and his common touch made him radical (and successful) in both his social reform and his evangelism.  He says in his autobiography; ‘If ministers were less shut up in their own shells, and had more common sense and knowledge of the world, they would cling less tenaciously to old forms, suitable enough to bygone but not to the present times’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 89).  He went on to prove this in his first charge in Arbirlot, Angus (1830-37) by abolishing two Sunday services.  They were replaced by a longer service at noon and an evening Bible Class for young people aged 15-25.  At the ‘Minister’s Class’ Guthrie would work through the Westminster Shorter Catechism, give a shorter, simplified version of the earlier sermon (‘abundantly illustrated by examples and anecdotes’) and test the knowledge of his students.  As Guthrie says in his autobiography; ‘None of the services and ecclesiastical machinery at work did so much good, perhaps, as this class’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 127).

This ‘knowledge of the world’ infused Guthrie’s preaching style.  He combined solid reformed theology with a simple, accessible (if somewhat flowery) style.  He says ‘…I used the simplest, plainest terms, avoiding anything vulgar, but always, where possible, employing the Saxon tongue – the mother tongue of my hearers.  I studied the style of the addresses which the ancient and inspired prophets delivered to the people of Israel, and saw how, differing from the dry disquisitions or a naked statement of truths, they abounded in metaphors, figures and illustrations.  I turned to the gospels, and found that He who knew what was in man, what could best illuminate a subject, win the attention, and move the heart, used parables and illustrations, stories, comparisons, drawn from the scenes of nature and familiar life…’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 130)  His great desire was to communicate the redeeming power of the gospel to those who were often shut out of the Scottish Church in 19^th century Scotland through pew rents and an ‘elder brother’ spirit.  Like Thomas Chalmers Guthrie followed the parochial system of systematic visitation in defined districts and the Biblical use of the offices of elders and deacons.  His evangelism was relational, low key but always with a long term vision for the transformation of the whole nation of Scotland.

Social Reformer

While Dr Guthrie was one of the finest preachers of the Free Church in the 19^th Century, his greatest legacy was surely as a social reformer.  This is summed up on his statue in Edinburgh which declares ‘a friend of the poor and the oppressed’.  Even in his first rural parish in Angus Guthrie was a great friend of the poor.  He established a savings bank and library; ‘The success of the bank and the library I attribute very much to this, that I myself managed them.  They were of great service by bringing me into familiar and frequent and kindly contact with my people’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 113).  Guthrie believed that the minister should live and work amongst the people.  Writing while still in Arbirlot he said to a Mr Dunlop; ‘I have discovered from my own experience that the further the people are removed from the manse, the less influence has the minister over them: and if a man won’t live among the scum of the Cowgate [central Edinburgh] I would at once say to him ‘You can’t be my minister’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 309). 

Arriving in Edinburgh in 1837 he became an associate minister at Old Greyfriars along with John Sym.  The city Guthrie arrived in was growing rapidly with the industrial revolution and poverty, drunkenness, vice and all manner of degradation were never far from view.  There is a famous story told in Guthrie’s book ‘Out of Harness’ that describes how Guthrie stood on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh just after he arrived in Edinburgh.  Looking down on his new parish known as the Cowgate he describes ‘a living stream of humanity in motion beneath his feet’.  A hand was laid on his shoulder and he turned around to find the famous preacher and reformer Dr Thomas Chalmers.  Standing in silence for a few moments Chalmers eventually exclaimed ‘a beautiful field sir; a very fine field of operation!’ (Out of Harness, p 126).  This was the field that Guthrie was to labour in for the rest of his ministry.

Guthrie was appalled by what he saw around him on the streets of Edinburgh.   Writing in 1872 Guthrie says; ‘Five-and-thirty years ago, on first coming to this city, I had not spent a month in my daily walks in our Cowgate and Grassmarket without seeing that, with worthless, drunken and abandoned parents for their only guardians, there were thousands of poor innocent children, whose only chance of being saved from a life of ignorance and crime lay in a system of compulsory education’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 438).  Inspired by a cobbler from Portsmouth called John Pounds who saved 500 ‘ragged children’ from a life of neglect and delinquency, Guthrie became the Scottish ‘Apostle’ of the Ragged School movement.  There was already an Industrial Feeding School in Aberdeen pioneered by a Sherriff Watson in 1841 but the key difference was that Guthrie’s Ragged Schools were always attended by choice rather than coercion or as an alternative to custody.  Inspired by the Aberdeen school, and a similar school in Dundee established in 1842, Guthrie began to gather those of like mind to rescue thousands of children who, as he says of one poor boy were; ‘launched on a sea of human passions and exposed to a thousand temptations…left by society, more criminal than he, to become a criminal, and then punished for his fate, not his fault’ (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 440).

The ‘Ragged School Movement’ was galvanised by the publication of Guthrie’s now famous book ‘Seedtime and Harvest of Ragged Schools’ which was revised and republished three times.  His great skills as a communicator were put to excellent use in this book and Guthrie powerfully put forward the compelling social, economic and spiritual arguments for Ragged Schools.  He argues that the schools harmonised the views of two of Scotland’s preeminent philanthropists; ‘Our scheme furnishes a common walk for both.  They meet in our school room.  Dr Alison [ William Alison, Professor of Medicine at Edinburgh, who advocated social and economic measures to alleviate poverty] comes in with his bread – Dr Chalmers with his Bible: here is food for the body – there for the soul’ (Quoted in Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 457).   Children were fed, taught how to read and write, taught practical skills to help them to get a job but most of all they memorised the scriptures, the catechism and instruction was given on all the main Christian doctrines.  What were the results?  The statistics speak for themselves.  The Edinburgh prison population in 1847 (the first year of the Ragged Schools in Edinburgh) consisted of 315 under 14’s (5% of the prison population).  By 1851 the figure was 56 out of 5,869 (1%) (Autobiography and Memoir, 1896, p 459). 

Guthrie was an outstanding preacher, a faithful pastor, a winsome evangelist and one of Scotland’s finest social reformers.  Guthrie’s legacy lives on in the provision that there is both in terms of welfare and education for rich and poor alike.  While Guthrie would be saddened at the secularisation there has been in the public school system, he would surely be pleased to see education being offered to every child free of charge. 

He died in the early hours of Monday 24^th February 1873 with his faithful Highland nurse and his family at his bedside.  It is said that with the exception of Dr Thomas Chalmers and Sir James Simpson, Edinburgh had not seen a funeral like it in a generation.  It was reported that 230 children from the original ragged school attended his funeral and sang a hymn at the grave. One little girl was overheard saying ‘He was all the father I ever knew.’  Amongst Guthrie’s last words he was overheard to say ‘a brand plucked from the burning!’  His legacy was that he through his vision and love for his Saviour, the Ragged School movement was established which in turn plucked thousands of little brands from a life of poverty and crime, and brought them to know the ultimate friend of sinners.

The Whole Christ

There are some books that you read that are helpful.  Other books are memorable.  For me, The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson (Crossway, 2017) is in a whole different category.  This book is a game changer and has had a profound and lasting effect on me.  Reading it and listening to it on Audible often moved me to tears.  The book helped me to finally understand much of what I had experienced in my own Christian life and in the church.  I am profoundly grateful to Sinclair Ferguson who has helped me see the glories of God's grace much more vividly.  So much of our theology is linked to how we see God and The Whole Christ helped me to see God so much more clearly as he is revealed in the Scriptures.  This book is a beautiful gift to the church.  You can buy it here.

Nothing New

There is nothing new under the sun and the theological clashes of the 18th century have so much to teach us today.  Ferguson uses the controversy surrounding the publication of 'The Marrow of Modern Divinity' and the ensuing 'Marrow Controversy' to diagnose and offer remedies to the cancer of legalism that is in all of our hearts and is endemic in certain churches.  Like a master surgeon, Ferguson expertly diagnoses and takes a Biblical scalpel to what lurks in all of our hearts and is often present in so many theological disputes.  I've often thought that legalism is somebody else's sin but The Whole Christ helped to see how it seeps into my own heart and it is present, to a greater or lesser degree, in every church.  

A short blog post can't do justification to The Whole Christ.  Many of the issues that Sinclair Ferguson deals with in this book are deep, complex and multi dimensional.  It is important to acknowledge when we are out of our depth and I have no problem in acknowledging that I can barely skirt around the edges of many theological issues.  I am looking forward to my good friend Donald John Maclean writing a much fuller review of The Whole Christ with his deep grasp of the theological issues involved.  His work on James Durham (1622-58) has been a huge service to the wider church and he shows that the 'free offer of the gospel' is not some innovation but is in the rich and historical flow of reformed theology.  I hope to write more about this when I review Joel R. Beeke's wonderful book 'Reformed Preaching'.

Defining Legalism
What I find so helpful about The Whole Christ is that Ferguson weaves his in-depth knowledge of church history, brings Biblical theology to life and writes as an experienced, wise pastor.  Legalism affects so many areas of the Christian life: the way the gospel is preached, the assurance of salvation, the way we view and enjoy God, the way we view other believers and the extent to which we are humbled under the grace and mercy of God in salvation.

The thing is, nobody claims to be a legalist. No reformed Christian ever claims that the observance of the law will save them.  Legalism is often not a matter of doctrine as practice. It is not so much of a 'head problem' as a 'heart problem'.  This is what makes the issue so complex.  Men can preach correct doctrine for decades but yet lack warmth in their preaching, gentleness in their pastoral care and affection for their wife and children.  As Tim Keller says in the introduction: the legal spirit is marked by jealousy, oversensitivity to slights, 'metallic' harshness towards mistakes and an ungenerous default mode in decision making. (The Whole Christ, p 13).

In my own experience, legalists are almost always (very) angry, often highly sectarian or tribal and often tend to be focused on particular doctrines at the exclusion of the gospel.  Legalists tend to be always right so if you are wondering if you are a legalist maybe ask yourself when you last said sorry.  If we genuinely believe ourselves to be sinners, sorry should be a word we use on a weekly if not daily basis.  For some reason it sticks in the throat of the legalist.

Suspicious Symptoms
Ferguson spends the first six chapters of The Whole Christ outlining the marrow controversy, defining legalism, explaining the 'order salutis' (does repentance precede or follow faith?) and then very helpfully examines 'Suspicious Symptoms' in chapter six.  These can include a 'self righteous temperament' which is often the most common trait amongst legalists.  Ferguson very helpfully uses the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18 v 9-14 to make his point.  As Luke says, this parable was to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt (Luke 18 v 9).  This contempt of other Christians is common in both traditional and modern churches and is a sure sign of the spirit of the Pharisee.  Some churches seem pathologically incapable of self analysis, humility and reflection.

The Grace Expose
Ferguson also talks about 'the grace expose'.  Parables such as the labourers in the vineyard (Matt 20 v 1-16) expose what is truly in their (and our) hearts: without the demonstration of grace, the true nature of their hearts would not have been revealed (The Whole Christ, p 127).  Often when legalists see grace it draws out their legalism.  Ferguson really helpfully quotes John Colquhoun;  When a man is driven to acts of obedience by the dread of God's wrath revealed in the law, and not drawn to them, by the belief in His love revealed in the gospel; when he fears God because of His power and justice, and not because of His goodness; when He regards God more as an avenging Judge, than as a compassionate Friend and Father; and when he contemplates God rather as terrible in majesty than as infinite in grace and mercy, he shows he is under the influence of a hateful temper.  (The Whole Christ, p 128).  This is seen so clearly in the parable of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15.  The love for the younger brother exposes the legalism of the elder brother. He is angry, resentful and views his father us unjust in rewarding his brother who had 'squandered his living with prostitutes.'

Bondage under the Law

Perhaps the most helpful section in the chapter on Suspicious Signs in the section on a 'A Spirit of Bondage'.  Many of us will have met Christians who are paralysed by the bondage that legalism brings.  When everything is reliant on our performance and obedience to the law, our constant failures brings a spirit of bondage and fear.  The legalist, like Eve in the Garden of Eden, separates God's law from God's character.  Rather than seeing the law as loving laws from a loving God, the legalist is crushed by the law as he sees them as ways to earn merit with God.  They see God as a hard task master who only loves us when we follow his laws perfectly which we are incapable of doing.

Ferguson very helpfully uses the Pilgrims Progress in this section and shows Faithful's struggles with 'Adam the First'.  Using the imagery of Romans 7 Bunyan shows us how we keep going back to our first husband rather than loving our new husband Jesus Christ,  As Ferguson says: We cry to the law to show some mercy; but bare law contains no mercy.  It is powerless to pardon.  Moses, in this sense, can only beat us into a bondage frame of spirit (The Whole Christ, p 131).  What is the remedy?  Our only hope to escape the bondage of the law is to have a clear sight of the nail scars in the hands of Jesus Christ.  The answer to legalism is grace, but not grace as a commodity, grace in Christ. 'He is the propitiation for our sins' (1 John 2 v 2).

A Covenant of Grace or a Rule of Life?

No book on grace would be complete without a proper treatment of 'antinomianism'.  Very simply put antinomianism denies the role of the law in the Christian life.  There is so much confused thinking around this today as people take verses like Romans 6 v 14 out of context.  If you are not familiar with the Westminster Confession of Faith I would urge to to get a copy and study its teaching on the law.  You can order a copy here.

As Paul spent so much of his ministry arguing, the fruit of free grace is not sin or lawlessness, but loving obedience.  Grace does not dismantle the law but it is no longer a covenant of works for the Christian, rather the law is a rule of life.  As we see Christ in the gospel, as we are humbled by grace we delight to do the will of God, not to earn our salvation (which is by free grace) but to please our heavenly father.  This is why the confession says;

 Neither are the forementioned uses of the law contrary to the grace of the gospel, but do sweetly comply with it; the Spirit of Christ subduing and enabling the will of man to do that freely, and cheerfully, which the will of God revealed in the law requireth to be done. 

Westminster Confession of Faith (WCF), Chapter XIX, VII

So many churches today see 'the law' as the problem.  They think people are put off by any reference to the commandments and any emphasis on holiness of life.  Many of these people continue to live lives of integrity and holiness and we mustn't caricature everyone who takes this view as living in unrighteousness.  They just have a wrong understanding of the law.  In Romans 7 Paul calls the law 'spiritual', 'good', 'righteous' and 'holy'.  In Romans 3 Paul says 'Do we then overthrow the law by this faith?  By no means!  On the contrary, we uphold the law.'  

The law is not the problem, it is indwelling sin.  The answer to sin is not legalism or antinomianism.  The answer is grace.  We must be united with Christ as Paul sets out in Romans 6 v 1-14 - no longer under law (for our salvation) but under grace (v 14).  This does not mean that the law does not remain a 'rule of life' and must play a critical part in the Christian life.  Ferguson helpfully says:  Commandments are the railroad tracks on which the life empowered by the love of God poured into the heart by the Holy Spirit runs.  Love empowers the engine; law guides the direction.  They are mutually interdependent.  The notion that love can operate apart from the law is a figment of the imagination.  It is not only bad theology; it is poor psychology.  It has to borrow from law to give eyes to love.' (The Whole Christ, p 169)

Blessed Assurance
The last three chapters of The Whole Christ deals with the subject of Christian assurance which is a big issue for many Christians.  The Bible teaches that it is possible to have both false assurance and lack of assurance.  As so many have experienced, it is possible to be a 'child of light walking in darkness' as it says in Isaiah 50 v 10.  We see this time and again in the experience of the Psalmist.  During many periods of church history, assurance of salvation has been viewed with  suspicion and a potential source of antinomianism.  The reformation was a rediscovery of the certainty of salvation in justification by faith.  This was reflected by the Westminster Assembly when they said; But the principle acts of saving faith are accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life, by virtue of the covenant of grace (WCF, ch 14.2).  Ferguson deals brilliantly with the perceived conflict between Calvin and the Puritans on whether assurance of faith is of the essence of faith and shows that they are coming at the same subject from different perspectives but meet in the middle.  The fruit of assurance is not 'looseness' as the confession says but that 'his [the believers] heart be may enlarged in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, in love and thankfulness to God, and in strength and cheerfulness in the duty of obedience' (WCF, ch 18.3)

Conclusion
The Whole Christ is such an important book.  Legalism has done so much damage throughout the church.  It has divided churches, split families and caused deep wounds that last for decades.  It has turned many away from the gospel and given the church a bad name.  It clouds our view of the gospel and encourages us to view the law in a way that God never intended.  So many live in bondage to legalism, never experiencing freedom in Christ.  The Whole Christ calls us back to see the gospel in all its beauty and clarity.  Ferguson says in his own conclusion to the book that through the Marrow of Modern Divinity Boston experienced a fuller realisation of God and his amazing grace.  This led to Boston's heart being bathed in a new sense of God's graciousness in Christ.  The whole tincture of his ministry changed as his preaching became an expression of Christs preaching.  

I hope that in reading this book it has proved a catalyst to me to wrestle with key theological issues of what the gospel is and how we should live it out in this world.  Grace must have an effect on everything we do: our preaching, pastoring, evangelism, parenting, our marriage and our relationships.  The book is a 'litmus test' for those of us who don't think we are legalists.  Could there be any legalism lurking in our heart?  To quote Calvin The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself (Institutes of the Christian Religion).  The Marrow Men and the Marrow of Modern Divinity exposed a latent gospel hardening that was in the church in the 18th century.  God in his providence used the controversy to expose a practical legalism that had come on the church.  I fear a similar hardness has come on many in the church today and we desperately need to be called back to see the glory and wonder of grace.  The Whole Christ can help us to do that and I can't recommend it highly enough.

He knows what is in the Darkness

This year I have been challenged to make a few changes in my life.  If last year taught me anything it taught me that life is fragile and unpredictable. I've already posted about my desire to engage much more seriously with prayer (you can read the post here).  I would love in 2019 for prayer to be my steering wheel rather than my spare tyre (I have enough of those already).  At the start of a New Year it is good to be honest.  I waste far too much time, I lack discipline and too often don't achieve what I claim are the goals of my life: to know God, to follow Jesus Christ wherever he leads and to love the people who most people want nothing to do with.  I am too often derailed by circumstances.  Last year I attempted to do less, better.  I'm going to continue that this year.  I want to read more (possibly even finish a book), pray more, say 'no' more often, take care of myself and treasure the relationships that mean most to me.  Being a good brother and son have become really important over the last year, but being a good Dad to 5 boys and a husband remain my full time job.  I am resolved to 'wrestle with Romans' this year and I am really enjoying John Pipers sermon series which is majestic and deeply humbling at the same time.  You can listen to it on Audible or here.  I am reminded of John MacArthur's quote that 'the heart can only go as high in worship as it can go deep into theology.'  I plan to dive deep this year.  

One of the best books I received last year was 'New Morning Mercies' by Paul D Tripp.  I got the book as a gift from Donnie G Macdonald at the end of the Skye Shinty Camp.  I don't use a lot of daily devotional books but there is something different about New Morning Mercies.  Almost every day there is something fresh and different and I come away with a fresh appreciation of God's grace in the gospel.  

The reading for the 4th of January hit me right between the eyes.  Paul Tripp very movingly talks about the day his daughter was hit by a drunk driver.  She had eleven breaks in her pelvis and massive internal bleeding.  When he heard the news he was 6 hours away but when he eventually walked into her hospital room he says 'its as if the whole world went dark.'  I can empathise with his experience over the last 10 months.  Sometimes we experience this darkness for months or even years.  Quite rightly we ask 'where is God?'

Thankfully Paul Tripp's daughter has recovered.  In his devotional he used these interesting words which really stuck me: 'I held on to the thought that our lives were not out of control.  We were comforted again and again with the thought that when it came to Nicole's accident, God was neither surprised nor afraid.  You see, there is no mystery with God.  He is never caught off guard.  He never wonders how he is going to deal with the unexpected thing.'  

Paul Tripp then quotes the verse from Daniel 2 v 22 which I must have read on numerous occasions but this time it just hit me like a train.

20  Daniel answered and said:

Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,

to whom belong wisdom and might.

21  He changes times and seasons; 

he removes kings and sets up kings;

he gives wisdom to the wise

and knowledge to those who have understanding;

22  he reveals deep and hidden things; 

he knows what is in the darkness,

and the light dwells with him.

Wow!  What comfort.  As we grope around in our circumstances, disappointments and tragedies, God knows exactly what is in front of us.  To us it is darkness, but not to him.  He sees the end from the beginning and is working all this for his glory and our good.  As Paul Tripp says:

'God is with you in your moments of darkness because he will never leave you.  But your darkness isn't dark to him.  Your mysteries aren't mysteries to him.  Your surprises don't surprise him.  He understands all the things that confuse you the most. Not only are your mysteries not mysterious to him, but he is in complete charge of all that is mysterious to you and me.'

None of us know what this year will hold for us.  But we can take incredible comfort by putting our trust in the one who dwells in perfect light and who know exactly what is in the darkness.

The Iolaire - A Sore Visitation wrapped in Mystery

Much has been written on the tragedy of the Iolaire.  This article was written by Rev Nigel Anderson, Minister of Livingston Free Church particularly focusing on the churches response to the events of 1st Jan 2019.

On 1^st January 1919 a tragedy occurred in Lewis that for generations has cast a dark cloud over the island. HMY Iolaire had left Kyle of Lochalsh late on December 31^st to ferry troops back to their homes, their families, their loved ones. The ship never made it to Stornoway harbour. At  1.55am it struck the Beasts of Holm, the dangerous rocks near the shore and entrance of Stornoway harbour. 205 men out of the 283 on board (including 174 Lewis men and 7 Harris men) perished in sight of land, having survived the horrors of war only to lose their lives so close to home.

Much has been written in recent months on the tragedy: the centenary commemoration held in Lewis on 1^st January 2019 has, in particular, brought to a wider national attention the tragic personal accounts of the lost and bereaved. Also, there has been a renewed understanding of the devastating social and economic impact on the island which the catastrophic loss of life contributed to. However, there has been little mentioned regarding the attitude of the churches at the time, as local clergy tried to bring comfort to the bereaved and bewildered as they sought to reconcile what had happened with the providence of God.

Indeed, the whole aspect of the mystery of divine providence in relation to the tragedy was, in many ways, highlighted in the response of the Free Church to the Iolaire disaster especially as many of those who lost their lives were from Free Church congregations. In his Sunday sermon, following the tragedy Rev. Kenneth Cameron, minister of Stornoway Free Church, preached from Psalm 46:10: Be still and know that I am God. He spoke of the dark and mysterious happenings in the providence of God, mentioning the “sore visitation...wrapped in mystery” which brought a “heavy cup of unlooked for sorrow” but that “out of the darkness is heard the voice of Him whose way is in the sea.” Without denying the catastrophe of the events of 1^st January 1919 he pleaded with his hearers to contemplate the majesty of God, to bow before his sovereignty, to believe in his righteousness and have recourse to his mercy.

One might have imagined that the deeply religious island would have turned away from faith in a sovereign God after the tragedy. Instead we find the opposite. Murdo Macleod from the village of Leurbost tells of the traditional New Year’s service held on the morning of 1^st January when the villagers attended worship to give thanks for peace after four years of war. It was only later that day that the news was heard of the Iolaire sinking and the great loss of life. Later, that evening, the same villagers visited each of the homes of the bereaved and held services of worship.

The recorded response of the grief stricken people across the island who had lost family in the tragedy is that they “reconciled themselves to God.” Even the non-Christian poet Iain Crichton Smith wrote that “In some places such a tragedy would have destroyed the credibility of a loving God: in Lewis it only strengthened their faith in him.” 

In today’s secular society such a reaction is inexplicable, but to those who trust in a sovereign God whose purposes are beyond human understanding, it is an understandable response. Those who have experienced grievous loss have echoed the words of Job in response to his personal tragedy across the centuries: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”