Cong Fang

— Mathis, David. How to Stay Christian in Seminary (pp. 49-50).

We were all huddled around a circle of tables. Thursday noon meant “Table Talk” for the guys at Bethlehem Seminary, and on this particular day we were talking church unity with our pastor and school chancellor, John Piper. He had raised that subject to kick things off, though the conversation had morphed into a discussion on various denominations and influences within American evangelicalism. We were simply carrying the conversation along by our questions. Then Benjamin spoke up.

“Pastor John,” he began, “as seminarians at Bethlehem, and since we have been deeply impacted by you, what do you want us to be like? What should characterize us?”

The room became instantly still. This was a really good question. We all leaned forward, waiting for Pastor John’s reply. He looked down at his Bible, deep in thought.

“I want you to be more like John Newton than John Knox,” he came back. “Knox was passionate and wild, even abrasive at times.” We knew these could be good qualities (minus the abrasive part). But then Pastor John continued.

“But John Newton,” he said, beaming with a smile, “Newton was glad he was saved!”

C. H. Spurgeon

“Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them, masticate and digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be ‘much not many.'”

精讀你手頭的書，全面、徹底地掌握裡面的內容。將自己沉浸其中，一遍又一遍不停地讀，咀嚼、消化、吸收，直到那些知識成為你自己的。好書值得反覆閱讀、做筆記、認真思考。如果你照做了，你會發現，精讀一本書對你的知識結構的影響，遠勝過瀏覽二十本書。馬馬虎虎的閱讀只能讓你更加無知，而且莫名驕傲。有些人為了多讀書而停止思考，這使他們失去了思考能力。讓這句話成為你讀書的座右銘：“少讀多想”。

from J. Oswald Sanders, “Spiritual Leadership”

from The Reformation Study Bible Notes.

The central theme of the Christian gospel is salvation. God will save all who trust Christ from sin and its consequences. This salvation from sin and death is wholly God’s work. Salvation is accomplished through what Christ did in history and by what He continues to do in believers by the Holy Spirit. The basis for our salvation is Jesus’ death on the cross and the righteousness He achieved for us in His active obedience.

• Salvation delivers the believer from the wrath of God, the dominion of sin, and the power of death.
  • Rom. 1:18; 3:9; 5:21; 1Thess. 5:9

• God liberates sinners from the natural condition of being mastered by the world, the flesh, and the devil.
  • John 8:23, 24; Rom. 8:7, 8; 1John 5:19

• God frees believers from the fears that a sinful life generates.
  • Rom. 8:15; 2Tim. 1:7; Heb. 2:14, 15

• God frees believers from the vicious habits that enslaved them.
  • Eph. 4:17-24; 1Thess. 4:3-8; Titus 2:11-3:6

• Salvation brings not only the promise of spiritual wholeness and peace, but also of physical healing.
  • Matt. 9:21, 22; Mark 10:52; James 5:15

• Although Christians have already received salvation, they will experience the benefits of salvation in their fullness only when Christ returns at the end of the age.
  • Heb. 9:28; 1Pet. 1:3-5

• Salvation is realized in our lives as Christ lives in us and we live in Christ, united with Him in His death and risen life.
  • John 15:4; 17:26; Col. 1:27
  • Rom. 6:3-10; Col. 2:12, 20; 3:1

• This vital union sustained by the Spirit through faith and formed in our new birth, presupposes our eternal election in Christ.
  • Eph. 1:4-6

• Jesus was foreordained to represent us and to bear our sins as our substitute.
  • 1Pet. 1:18-20; cf. Matt. 1:21

• We were chosen to be effectually called, conformed to His image and glorified by the Spirit’s power.
  • Rom. 8:11, 29, 30