by CBTS | Jun 15, 2026 | Practical Theology
“Tribalism” is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit these days. Often it refers to the attitude that one’s own social group or tribe is superior to all others, and thus loyalty to tribe prohibits the consideration that any other tribe may have something valuable to say. Tribalism in politics is obvious. But the first time I heard “tribalism” applied to Christian thought was by a reviewer who used it to describe the nature of the history books published by a certain publisher. “Their view of history is very tribalistic.” What he meant by that is the views were presented uncritically, in a biased way, that did not necessarily consider weaknesses or failures, let alone criticisms. The tribal perspective amounted to “hagiography,” not accurate history.
Tribalism exists within the theological world. Tribalism can narrow what we read and who we read. Tribalism can have an air of fundamentalism to it, promoting secondary separation, “I cannot read that guy because that guy quotes from that guy.” Tribalism precludes reading from an author in one area because of disagreement in another area. Tribalism creates suspicion so that if a brother quotes an author, the brother comes under suspicion of holding to everything the author holds to. Tribalism limits knowledge. Tribalism promotes bigotry and judgmentalism. I would like to encourage us to read, not just from our own tribe, but to read widely and wisely.
The benefits of reading widely are manifold. First, people outside our own tribe can and do often bring insight into Scripture or theology that our perspective may miss. The insights I have gained into biblical theology have come from wider sources than just Geerhardus Vos. Some, who I would not read in certain areas, have brought biblical-theological insight that was refreshing and helpful.[1] The tragedy in writing a piece like this is that people want to know who, other than Vos, has helped you? And it may not be because they want to read them too! This is dangerous territory, but anyone who reads widely can testify that the insights gained from those outside the tribe can be valuable.
The second benefit of reading widely is that it helps us avoid straw-man arguments with other perspectives. One of the liabilities of tribalism is that we often only read what our tribe says about this author, or that author. I will venture a case in point. I have been benefitted by John Piper’s writings and sermons since 1991. That means that I have listened to hundreds of hours of sermons, conference lectures, and read many of his books. And yet, to hear many criticisms of Piper, I have to ask, “Have you ever read him? Or have you just read about him? Have you simply read what someone else said about what Piper believes?” I know this to be true because on many occasions I have read criticisms which are simply not true, and I know they are not true because I’ve read Piper for a long time. Often our criticisms come second-hand. Reading widely gives us understanding of what others are saying. We may still disagree, but at least we have a better chance of disagreeing with what the person really believes instead of what the “discernment” blogger says he believes.
Another benefit of reading widely is that it provides a larger context of understanding which may aid us in reading synthetically. To read synthetically is to compare different perspectives in a way that we may see how they fit together. They don’t always fit together, to be sure! But sometimes the antithesis we believe is insurmountable is not. But we will never know unless we read widely.
Reading widely obviously covers a spectrum of perspectives. We may read people who are close to us, we may read others who are farther away. We may even read those who are in error. This is where reading wisely comes in. To read widely is not to read uncritically. It is to read for understanding, it is to look for additional insight, but it is not to set aside our own convictions and beliefs. Reading widely demands reading critically. Now of course by “critically” I don’t mean judgmentally. To read “critically” is to read analytically, paying close and judicious attention to the truth. It is to read, not with a fault-finding eye, or with severity, but rather, with skill, precision, and discernment. This is reading wisely.
Here are a few thoughts about reading wisely. Measure and watch the amount of literature you read that is outside your tribe. Years ago, I knew a pastor who started to get into biblical-theology and he began reading a certain brand of biblical theology that was Barthian (anti-systematics and neo-orthodox). He started reading these authors voraciously and it was a matter of time before his own theology started being influenced by them. When we read widely, we should do so in a measured way, watching how much we are taking in.
Reading wisely means that when we are reading blatantly erroneous views, that we make sure that we are counterbalancing with truth and piety. Recently we did a series on social justice and critical race theory, etc. etc. And so I found myself reading books and authors that I would never have picked up voluntarily, but the desire to accurately understand and present them demanded it. I did a similar thing a few years ago when I did a series on the prosperity gospel. Such exposure to blatant error requires wisdom. James Alexander makes this point about staying anchored to the truth when being exposed to error:
If we might have our choice, it is better to converse with truth than with error; with the rudest, homeliest truth, than with the most ingenious, decorated error; with the humblest truth, than with the most soaring, original and striking error Again, while error leads to error, truth leads to truth. Each truth is germinal and pregnant, containing other truths. Only upon this principle can we vindicate the productiveness of solitary meditation. Link follows link in the chain, which we draw from unknown mysterious recesses. A few elementary truths are the bases of the universal system.
Reading widely and wisely helps us in many ways. Reading widely inoculates us from a tribalism that can make us judgmental, suspicious, bigoted, and narrow. Reading wisely helps us avoid the infection of error. Reading widely deepens our perspective. Reading wisely deepens our convictions.
About the Author
Brian Borgman is the founding pastor of Grace Community Church. He earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Biola University (La Mirada, CA), a Master of Divinity from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary (Portland, OR) and a Doctor of Ministry from Westminster Seminary (Escondido, CA) and a ThM from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Historical Theology. Brian and his wife Ariel have been married since 1987. They have three wonderful children, Ashley, Zach and Alex and three grandsons.
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[1] One example would be Mary L. Coloe, God Dwells with Us: Temple Symbolism in the Fourth Gospel (The Liturgical Press: Collegeville, MN, 2001). Coloe is Catholic and is certainly not a theological conservative, but her insights into John’s Gospel are often remarkable.
by CBTS | Jun 15, 2026 | Old Testament, Practical Theology
Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: (Job 13:15 KJV)
One of the wonderful benefits of preaching consecutive, expository sermons through a book of the Bible is that you get to beloved texts in their context and are forced to exegete them accordingly. There have been some beloved texts that I found not to mean what I always thought they meant, but the most surprising one to me was Job 13:15, a text which I had quoted many times over the years in sermons and counseling, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.” It seems to be a great statement of unswerving, courageous faith. “No matter what God does, I will still trust him!” But this is probably not what the text says.
The passage is part of a larger discourse which begins in chapter 12. One of the helpful ways to read Job is to keep in view the discourse cycles. One of Job’s friends will make a speech and then Job will respond. That is the pattern. So Job 12 starts with Job’s typical sarcasm (12:1-6). Then in 12:7-25 Job unfolds what could be called, “Theology 101.” God is sovereign, God is wise, God is strong. Job asserts that every echelon of society, everyone in society, small or great, is under the sovereign might of God and subject to his disposal. All true, but any notes of love or mercy are strangely missing. Maybe they aren’t strangely missing, they are missing because Job cannot see them at this point.
Job then sharply rebukes his friends in 13:1-6. This too is common in the book of Job. Job tells them in no uncertain terms that he knows what they know and that they aren’t smarter than he is. Additionally, they smear him with lies, they are worthless physicians and if they really wanted to help they would simply shut up. He then pleads for them to hear him. Job charges his friends in verses 7-12 with speaking falsely for God. They think they are defending him, but they are really offending him. Job then scathingly asks how it will go with them when it is their turn to sit in the hot seat and be examined by God. He then discards their advice as cheap and meaningless words.
The next section is where our beloved text is found (13-16). The main point of Job’s speech here is that he is going to argue his case before God no matter what. He is fiercely determined to state his case, i.e., his innocence, “I will take my flesh in my teeth; I will take my life in my hands” (13:14, TNK). The NASB has this as a question, although many other translations take it as a statement of fact. Job is saying he is going to bite the bullet and make his case, no matter how dangerous. This too is a recurring theme in Job. Job believes he is in the right but he also knows that God is bigger and stronger and he is no match to argue with God. Job feels that if he is allowed to argue his case, then it will turn out for his vindication (see e.g., 13:18). It is at this point that our beloved text emerges. The NASB, NIV and ESV follow the KJV, “Though He slay, I will hope in Him.” (It is hard to depart from beloved traditional translations!).
However, the text probably does not say this. There is a variant reading here, called in the Hebrew text a Ketib Qere. The Ketib reads, “If he were to slay me I would have no hope.” The Qere reads, “Though he slay me, yet I will trust in him.” The second reading (the Qere) appears to be an effort to soften the harshness of the text and insert some hope rather than hopelessness. The following translations have adopted the more likely original reading (the Ketib):
Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope: Nevertheless I will maintain my ways before him. (ASV)
Behold, he will slay me; I have no hope; yet I will defend my ways to his face. (RSV)
He may well slay me; I may have no hope; Yet I will argue my case before Him. (TNK)
The reading, “He may well slay me” fits better with Job’s next statement, which is “nevertheless, I will argue my case before Him.” If the reading is one of confident faith (“though he slay me I will hope in him”), then the concessive clause (the contrast, “nevertheless, yet, I will argue my way”) makes less sense. But if the original reading is more negative (the Ketib), it fits both the larger and more immediate context better. Even if God slays Job and leaves him hopeless, Job will not stop arguing his case before God. This, instead of being a statement of unswerving faith, is a statement of undeterred stubbornness and self-confidence in his own vindication. Job, at this point, mistakenly, thinks such an opportunity will be his salvation (13:16).
So what do we make of a beloved text that does not or may not say what we always thought it said? Our faith is in God’s Word as it is, not in what we think it is. We humble ourselves before the Word and accept it as it is. But we also realize that what we thought it said is often supported in other places. Job does have glimmers of hope in other texts. His faith does grow. He will assert his confidence in God. But we must let the text speak for itself and be as honest with it as possible. We then try to interpret it as it is. This will change the way certain passages apply to us because the meaning is not what we thought. But that’s OK. It is God’s Word and the Word of the Lord stands forever.
About the Author
Brian Borgman is the founding pastor of Grace Community Church. He earned a B.A. in Biblical Studies from Biola University (La Mirada, CA), a Master of Divinity from Western Conservative Baptist Seminary (Portland, OR) and a Doctor of Ministry from Westminster Seminary (Escondido, CA) and a ThM from Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary in Historical Theology. Brian and his wife Ariel have been married since 1987. They have three wonderful children, Ashley, Zach and Alex and three grandsons.
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by CBTS Student | Jun 15, 2026 | Historical Theology, Practical Theology
Spirituality comes out of a real and significant relationship with the Redeemer. Our very personhood now adopted, our soul now interceded for by the sovereign Shepherd. Our exercise of obedience comes from out of this glorious, assured, established work. Such work is not based on our merits but in the gracious deliverance unto expressions of joyful salvation in the prophet who has better words for us, the priest who supplies pardon for all thoughtlessness and inadequacy, and the king who protects and provides us with wondrous stewardship of His righteous works. Herein, Gill refocuses the discussion of works and spirituality in his preaching to his people.
Union with God
Good works, piety, and reception of love all spring from a union with the Lord. Any absence of spiritual hunger should be greatly concerning to the Christian, as it is directly connected to our spiritual union. We have a serious problem if we lack in our genuine pursuit of spiritual growth; Gill writes, “Though the union between [believers] and God cannot be dissolved, the bond of which is his everlasting unchangeable love, yet sin separates with respect to communion.”[1] And it is this sinful state wherein Satan will have sway to bring doubt and fear upon the believer, distrust in God’s loyalty and love, distrust in Christ’s promise of security, distrust in Holy Spirit’s effective strength to mortify such sin. Yet we may bring all this “dejection and disquietude,” to the Lord for comfort. How will we find resolve? By returning again to our assurance that our effective, saving faith is a gift of God; its operation is not our own—“it is a precious faith, it can never be lost…those that have the least degree of it, obtain the same precious faith as the greatest and strongest believer.”[2] As God’s attributes are not contradictory to his nature, therefore, his love toward his people is neither exhaustible nor extinguishable. On this basis, Gill challenged his people to seek out a spiritual life that was already theirs in Christ, and would remain theirs in the face of trials or struggles.
Pursuing our union
Those who believe on, and lay hold of, Jesus Christ, “claim all the blessings of [His covenant]. And such will claim all the blessings of it as theirs, even all spiritual blessings, which are in Christ, as being theirs…so [they] have a right unto them…even the meanest believer.”[3] We should seek to stir, earnestly and regularly, our affections for this Christ to whom we believed on, laid hold of, professed, and trusted,. Such a stirring should be as diligent in effort as expressive in virtue. We “should be diligent to add one virtue to another, as to exercise of spiritual graces, making our ‘calling and election sure and manifest to others.’”[4] The pursuit unfolds from the very gift itself.
The Lord calls us to pursue our union with Him as evidence and assurance of His character. He therein provides strength for the duty, Gill notes: “The graces of the spirit,” even if they may seem like they are “expiring when not in exercise yet in reality they cannot die—being the immortal incorruptible seed of the Spirit of God. It is the Lord’s work to strengthen these.”[5] And the Lord will strengthen the saint in these graces through the truths of the Word and through the saint’s own perseverance in it. Just as he did during the reformation, so he will do now “with great vigor and liveliness,” even with what to our estimation is lost or impossible. For His love is that by “which [He] constrains souls to live to the glory of God.” He enlarges our hearts with zeal, fervency, and cheerfulness in obedience to His will.[6] The Lord has truly made “ample provision” by His covenant of grace “for the sanctification of [His] people.”[7] In keeping with the Reformed understanding of God’s gracious bond of love and adoption, Gill may be summed up alongside Augustine for the beautiful quip, God blesses His own gifts.
Conclusion
Spiritual hunger is described as an appetite for virtues; fortitude, zeal, mercy, joy, wisdom, humility, etc. are both goals to perfect, as well as, evidences of spiritual growth and formation. Gill believes we should seek to discern these if we desire to see to our own sanctification and to experience the love and provision of Christ here now. Again, the caricature of Gill as the cold, hyper-Calvinist is not only wrong, but hinders the wealth of his spiritual wisdom. In his rich assessment of the Christian experience, we never look to fellow pilgrims as mere automatons, but thriving, purposed creatures rooted in communion with the Triune God. Gill understood the practicality of divinity. His offer of the spiritual life is well worth observing in light of the hunger Christians should have for identifying these biblical traits and growing them throughout congregational life.
About the Author
Christopher Ellis Osterbrock (DEdMin. in Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD Student in Historical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Wellsboro, PA. He is the author of What is Saving Faith? (March, 2022), as well as editor of several reprints
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[1] Gill, “The Dejected Believer’s Soliloquy,” in Sermons and Tracts, 4:140–41.
[2] Gill, “A Knowledge of Christ, and of Interest in Him, the Support of a Believer in Life and Death,” in 4:125. Likewise, see Gill’s “Faith in God and His Word, the Establishment and Prosperity of His People,” (vol. 6, pages 115–140) where he further examines faith and its evidences as invigorated and empowered through the working of the Spirit in eternal salvation.
[3] Gill, “Neglect of Fervent Prayer Complained of,” in Sermons and Tracts, 2:103.
[4] Gill, “Neglect of Fervent Prayer Complained of,” in Sermons and Tracts, 2:106.
[5] Gill, “The Watchman’s Answer to the Question, What of the Night?,” in Sermons and Tracts, 1:80.
[6] Gill, “The Love of God Considered,” in Sermons and Tracts, 4:32.
[7] Gill, “The Stability of the Covenant of Grace, the Support of a Believer under outward and inward Troubles,” in Sermons and Tracts, 3:101.
This blog post is authored by a student of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
by CBTS Student | Jun 15, 2026 | Historical Theology, Practical Theology
Spirituality expressed in obedience
John Gill sought to show his people a piety connected to and yet born out of the Spirit’s work in salvation. Such a piety would enable a fixed assurance, yet not contradictory to the work of sovereign grace. Of this Christian growth, Gill remarks: “I believe that an outward conformity to Christ in conversation, or active holiness, external holiness of life, is absolutely necessary to evidence the truth of holiness of heart in all that are saved, who are either capable, or have an opportunity of performing it, and showing it forth.”[1] Gill even says quite concisely, “Sanctification is absolutely necessary to salvation.”[2] Note, he both denounces antinomianism with this remark while preaching on the need of a declarative spirituality—an experiential and evangelistic spirituality.
Gill explains his perspective on the spiritual life as issuing forth in evidences and exercises of religion. The Christian life bears out these characteristics as found treasure possessed in those born again into graces of the Spirit—as we relish and abound in hope, faith, and increased knowledge of divine things, we will necessarily see the outworking in our experiential religion. It was not that he challenged Christians to simply show outward signs of being good church members. Rather, Gill was concerned that Christians understand the present warming, sanctifying grace given in regeneration. Joyful prudence ought to evidence the life of the church; prudence to take hold and relish the fatherly gifts newly embraced in the ever-present work of the Covenant-keeper. Gill stressed an affected ecclesiology; even in disciplining his own church, he notes the Holy Spirit conforms a covenant people to Christ—a good, brilliant, wonderful thing. Therefore, Christians uniquely hunger for the outworking and demonstration of God’s Spirit within them individually and corporately.[3]
Obedience compelled by affection
The pilgrim pursues the perpetual affections of Christ. Christians are invigorated by these affections through ordained means of grace—not means for salvation, but exercises wherein they can enjoy the work of the Spirit within them. Gill would argue that we must pursue these graces, not out of a necessity to work and achieve them on their own, but because they are the evidence from within us which proves our eternal glorious state.[4] The hunger for spiritual growth is truly a hunger for the love of God, and the assurances already attained for us by Christ. Each of the expressions of virtue, or spiritual characteristics, is eclipsed by the light of God’s love for his chosen ones. Gill wrote to this point, “To have our hearts directed into the love of God, is so to be led into it, as to have our hearts affected with it; and influenced by it.”[5] The more we exercise our faith by examining these virtues, the more attuned we will be to healthy chastisements and blessings. Do we desire to exercise more the mercy and grace of God whenever we taste chastisement and sin? If we are struggling and doubting, the exercise of virtue will lead us to be strengthened and comforted amidst sorrow and woe. The virtues demonstrated are not works to be completed for the continued earning or meriting of grace, but demonstrations of grace at work in restoring our Christian countenance.
Virtues and good works
Gill goes on to consider this spiritual hunger under the banner of “good works.” The demonstrations of piety, as the outworking of love, reveal and satisfy the believer’s spiritual hunger. He writes of the command to be courageous, to be joyful, to be zealous, as biblical affectionate responses of obedience we pursue—these are part of our “good works” as Christians. We serve not merely as good stewards who give alms, who fast, or who show patience and courteousness to the otherwise unbecoming, but rather actively seek to stir ourselves and others in affections for Christ which give way to a reformed character.
Gill says, these works, “are useful to evidence the truth of our faith to the world, and discover to them the certainty of our election and vocation, who have no other way of judging of either, but by our outward conversation; hereby we adorn the profession we make of Christ and his gospel.”[6] The actions we perform cannot be divorced from the internal transformation in our affections—finding distinctions in the first work of regeneration and then the tempering orchestrated through our sanctification. Herein we find Gill asserting his view of the pure church, against the antinomian sentiment that our internal salvation has no relevance to our immediate personhood under Christ’s lordship—that grace would not be demonstrably proven in conforming the believer. It is this language of good works that is used against the antinomian, not in advocation of meritorious grace, but evangelical Calvinism. The virtues which should be pursued and exercised are similar to Abraham’s faith. Yes, God has taken notice of our demonstration, is well-pleased, and simultaneously “renews to us the promise, which of his own grace and good will he had made,” and so by our own hunger for spiritual growth, the Lord strengthens our faith and encourages us to continue in obedience—as it is steadfast in us from His gifting to our glorification.[7]
We are called to embrace this good news for the Christian experience: the Lord desires to strengthen and satisfy the weary pilgrim and supplies her or him with the compulsion to fight doubt, the tenderness to savor mercy, and the stamina to keep fighting into hope is proven triumphant on the day of judgment.
About the Author
Christopher Ellis Osterbrock (DEdMin. in Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD Student in Historical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Wellsboro, PA. He is the author of What is Saving Faith? (March, 2022), as well as editor of several reprints
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[1] John Gill, “The Necessity of Good Works unto Salvation Considered,” in Sermon and Tracts, 6:160.
[2] John Gill, A Body of Doctrinal Divinity; or, a System of Evangelical Truths, Deduced from the Sacred Scriptures, vol. 2 (London: George Keith, 1769), 883.
[3] John Rippon, A Brief Memoir of the Life and Writings of the Late Rev. John Gill, D.D. (1838; repr., Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle, 2006), 125.
[4] Gill, “The Glorious State of the Saints in Heaven,” in Sermons and Tracts, 1:175.
[5] Gill, “The Love of God Considered,” in Sermons and Tracts, 4:30.
[6] Gill, “The Doctrines of God’s Everlasting Love to His Elect,” in Sermons and Tracts, 5:56.
[7] John Gill, An Exposition of the First Book of Moses Called Genesis (1810; repr., Springfield, MO: Particular Baptist Press, 2010), 390.
This blog post is authored by a student of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
by CBTS Student | Jun 15, 2026 | Historical Theology, Practical Theology
How do we communicate the connection between spirituality and good works? John Gill lays out a rich experiential approach to spirituality that ought to be recognized. Not only does he examine more than twenty spiritual characteristics in A Body of Practical Divinity, ‘Book I. On the worship of God,’ but Gill preached on these characteristics to his congregation in his biblical, applicable manner. Gill’s pastoral work demonstrates a reformed, experiential spirituality that communicates both mystical union with Christ and adherence to the obedience of faith.
With particular attention to Gill’s sermons, as a means of instructing believers, we discover that Gill’s evangelical Calvinism is not without a warm embrace of spiritual fervor. Rather, through his instruction to his people, Gill should be regarded for his underpinning particular Baptist spirituality with his encouragement of lively spiritual hunger. The following three-part article attempts to capture just a snapshot of Gill’s view of love as the motivating factor in his own ministry, his understanding of obedience, the significance of his terminology for good works, and a rich theology concerning union with God and its experiential pursuit.
Keeping with the Reformed Tradition
Gill describes spiritual characteristics, or virtues, as those exercises or worshipful demonstrations of the Spirit at work— terminology much in keeping with the Reformed tradition. Gill knew well the voices of the past who spoke to issues of orthodox spirituality. He understood the framework of Puritan spirituality, that our regeneration leads to a deeper experience of “searching, probing, and powerful reconstitution of the souls of persons,” which simultaneously satisfies and produce faithfulness in inward and outward piety, especially through the circumstances of challenge.[1] Reformed theologians were adamant concerning the expectations of God’s people. Rather than a view of perfectionism or veneration, the people of God face trials and tribulations, failures and spiritual draughts in their sense of God’s nearness. Even so, as Joel Beeke discerns from Herman Witsius’s works, “God does not grant perfection to us in this life.”[2] God teaches patience, humility, and dependence upon his grace by way of progressive sanctification. Sanctification, according to Witsius, is enjoyed through the “practice of experiential piety” based in “heartfelt communion [with] the faithful covenant-keeping God.”[3] Such served as the starting point for Gill’s preaching on spiritual formation.
Spiritual life born out of love
Unlike the caricature of a stoic, cerebral intellectual, John Gill had great concern for the spiritual vitality of his church, and believers in general. William H. Brackney stylizes Gill as having greater concern for church purity and spiritual formation than necessarily prompting his hearers to evangelize the unconverted; even if Gill did not stress evangelism, hyper-Calvinism is an unfair assessment.[4] Gill’s charge to relinquish carnal attitudes and antinomianism is not inconsistent with evangelical Calvinism. If a person professed faith in Jesus Christ, then Gill understood this person to evidence experimental religion—a faith borne out of “passionate love for Christ” that moved them in internal growth and external demonstration. Just as Gill was “enraptured by a realization of Christ’s love for the church,”[5] so he saw the church as called to experience delight in Christ’s love, obedience to it, and a hunger for it to thrive and continue in the ministry of his churches until the Shepherd’s return.
Countenance and faith
Gill often addressed such virtues as “resignation to the will of God,” “self-denial,” and “fortitude” which show up through his preaching as collective terms for the outward manifestations of the Spirit’s graces internally revealed through believers’ obedient faith. Through a spiritual hunger to delight in the Lord, repentance brings forth not only sin and temptation, but necessarily “springs from and is heightened and increased by the discoveries of God’s love, pardoning grace, and mercy.”[6] The observed “countenance” of a repentant believer—or the manner by which a person carries and conducts themselves—evidences their spiritual health. Gill addresses the countenance both for personal, self-examination, as well as an evangelistic caution that others may see and take note of the pilgrim’s heart.
The exercise of faith, observed in obedience, likewise serves to demonstrate the graces of the spirit. When these exercises are shown and demonstrated, the countenance of the believer is proven healthy; “when he abounds in hope, and love to God and His people, then he is in good health.”[7] Gill notes elsewhere on the spiritual life, “as is the countenance of a believer, so is his health. As it his faith, so is every other grace.” Gill even calls upon the church as a whole to carry the countenance as a gathered community received through the love of Christ. This love, as an impassioning work, reveals desire for continual obedience.
Moving forward
Gill makes the improvement unto us still today. The experience or demonstration of the faithful work of spiritual hunger comes through a hunger to explore and expose the life of the Spirit at work in the believer through obedience. Thus, we turn next to the expression of spiritual vitality in an obedience that does not save but demonstrates the glorious work of salvation. Keeping within orthodox tradition, Gill held to a spirituality born of Christ’s love to His people, demonstrated in the experience of redeemed living even on this side of heaven. How that life can be experienced comes in the next installment.
About the Author
Christopher Ellis Osterbrock (DEdMin. in Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; PhD Student in Historical Theology, Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary) is senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Wellsboro, PA. He is the author of What is Saving Faith? (March, 2022), as well as editor of several reprints
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For more information about CBTS, go to CBTSeminary.org
Consider giving to CBTSeminary to help us train the next generation of gospel ministers.
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[1] Richard A. Lovelace, “Afterword: The Puritans and Spiritual Renewal,” in The Devoted Life: An Introduction to the Puritan Classics, eds. Kelly M. Kapic and Randall C. Gleason (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004), 301.
[2] Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality: A Practical Theological Study from our Reformed and Puritan Heritage (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2006), 345.
[3] Joel R. Beeke, Puritan Reformed Spirituality: A Practical Theological Study from our Reformed and Puritan Heritage (Webster, NY: Evangelical Press, 2006), 345.
[4] William H. Brackney, A Genetic History of Baptist Thought (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2004), 118–119.
[5] Robert W. Oliver, History of the English Calvinistic Baptists 1771–1892 (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth, 2006), 12–13.
[6] Gill, “The Doctrines of God’s Everlasting Love to His Elect,” in Sermons and Tracts, vol. 5 (1814; repr., Choteau, MT: Old Paths, 1997), 59.
[7] Gill, “The Dejected Believer’s Soliloquy,” in Sermons and Tracts, 4:152. Such it is that these graces are made effectual for the believer by God’s own design and means (see also Gill, “The Doctrine of the Saints Final Perseverance,” 80).
This blog post is authored by a student of Covenant Baptist Theological Seminary.
