Theology Archives - David Westerfield

When we hear the word law, many of us instinctively tense up. We think of rules, judgment, or even failure. The very word can stir up shame for the things we’ve done or left undone—or pride for the things we think we’ve done well. But when John Calvin wrote about the law of God, he invited believers to see something far deeper and more beautiful: that the law, rightly understood, is a gift of grace.

In The Institutes of the Christian Religion (Book II, Chapter 7), Calvin describes three distinct “uses” of the law. Each has a purpose, and each reveals something about God and about us.

Let’s walk through them together.

The Risk of Grace

By David Westerfield

On January 18, 2022

In Theology

To Love is to Expose Yourself to Pain.

(Banner photo credit: Dark Winter Days by Inge Bovens)

“Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?”
Romans 2:4

Why is it that if God’s kindness, patience and forbearance leads us to repentance from our sin to embrace Christ, we don’t assume the same posture and manner when dealing with others with whom we see falling? Whether it’s our own children, a friend who is wandering, or a relative who pains you with their bad choices leading to a ruined life, or for me as an elder, a congregant/parishioner who is straying from the gospel or at least a life centered upon Christ? Why would we think that anything other than grace and kindness and love and a posture of humility will do when dealing with others in these states of wandering from the truth?

Old Testament, New Testament, Same Word: Love and Mercy, The Spirit Outpoured

By David Westerfield

On July 31, 2021

In Theology

Ezekiel 36:24–27

I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. (ESV)

Old Testament, New Testament, Same Word: Judgment

By David Westerfield

On July 22, 2021

In Scripture, Theology

Psalm 50:19–23

“You give your mouth free rein for evil,
    and your tongue frames deceit.
You sit and speak against your brother;
    you slander your own mother’s son.
These things you have done, and I have been silent;
    you thought that I was one like yourself.
But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.


“Mark this, then, you who forget God,
    lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!
The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me;
    to one who orders his way rightly
    I will show the salvation of God!” (ESV)

Seeing Jesus as He is

By David Westerfield

On June 26, 2021

In Theology

I was considering recently, what do I really need more than anything right now in terms of my internal, personal devotional life with Jesus? I simply need to see Him. Some of this stemmed from feeling a sort of dryness in reading the Scriptures recently. Now needing to see Jesus in Scripture is true in general all the time for all of us, but there are times that I think this can slip our thinking in our devotional life as being central.

Who Shall Ascend the Hill of the Lord?

By David Westerfield

On January 31, 2021

In Theology

Only those with a pure, clean heart, will ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in righteousness with Him, which on our own is none of us. Psalm 24 makes clear that the only one’s to ascend the hill of the Lord are those possessing a purity beyond reach because of our depravity and having cut ourselves off from the life of the Trinity. What a sad thought.

But this is precisely why the rest of the Psalm the ancient gates and doors open for the revealing of the Holy One of God, the Son of God, Jesus, as the one who will and now has ascended the hill of the Lord.

A New Creation

By David Westerfield

On January 19, 2021

In Culture, Theology

Thoughts from this morning’s Daily Office readings:

“For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.” | Psalm 26:3

“For with you is the fountain of life; in your light do we see light.” | Psalm 36:9

“Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.” | Psalm 28:9

The gospel in its essence, in what it calls for, is not doing something for God like busying ourselves with religious works to add to our resume (an impossible supposition). But of first importance, the gospel, the good news of the kingdom, is first calling us simply to come with the empty hands of faith to rest in His covenantal faithfulness toward us (“I walk in your faithfulness”), not our own, because if we’ re honest, we’re not faithful. Thankfully He was in our place. It’s not about “discovering the light within yourself” as your source of energy and life, but rather the reverse: all that is within is darkness because of our sin blinding us from the truth: “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.” (John 3:19). Therefore only, “In your light do we see light.” In the Person and work of Christ, revealing the Father to us by His perfect words and deeds, life, death and resurrection for us, He raised us from death and darkness in order to be resurrected to new life and light forever.

But it is a new life that starts now by that same internal work of God’s grace that first regenerated us and is continuing to do so, to produce fruit unto eternal life. The new creation life breaking into the old.

His Kingdom Above All Others – A Prayer

By David Westerfield

On November 11, 2020

In Theology

Your kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, one that has already been inaugurated by Your entrance into the world and Your ascension into heaven after suffering death, throwing the old order into disarray as Your Kingdom is shown to be that which will reign forever and ever, unlike all kingdoms before it and those that exist today. As believers whose eyes are set on His eternal reign, we see You not as a theoretical king or merely a future King but a present King, whose eternal political agenda confronts and upends all of our agendas at different levels. You humble all rulers, you humble all peoples and in the end You will appear in blazing glory to consummate Your reign with Your people, bring judgment, and establish the final order in the new heavens and new earth, where you are the great, forever and final political authority in the heavens and the earth. At present He rules in heaven, in the end He will rule visibly. Lord may we not lose sight of that.

J.I. Packer’s Introduction to Witsius and De Oeconomia

By David Westerfield

On October 1, 2020

In Church History, Theology

INTRODUCTION: ON COVENANT THEOLOGY

J. I. Packer

I

The name of Herman Wits (Witsius, 1636-1708) has been unjustly forgotten. He was a masterful Dutch Reformed theologian, learned, wise, mighty in the Scriptures, practical and “experimental” (to use the Puritan label for that which furthers heart-religion). On paper he was calm, judicious, systematic, clear and free from personal oddities and animosities. He was a man whose work stands comparison for substance and thrust with that of his younger British contemporary John Owen, and this writer, for one, knows no praise higher than that! To Witsius it was given, in the treatise here reprinted, to integrate and adjudicate explorations of covenant theology carried out by a long line of theological giants stretching back over more than century and a half to the earliest days of the Reformation. On this major matter Witsius’s work has landmark status as summing up a whole era, which is why it is appropriate to reprint it today. However, in modern Christendom covenant theology has been unjustly forgotten, just as Witsius himself has, and it will not therefore be amiss to spend a little time reintroducing it, in order to prepare readers’ minds for what is to come.

A Prayer For a Time of Uncertainty

By David Westerfield

On May 17, 2020

In Theology

We give thanks to you, O God; we give thanks, for your name is near. (Psalm 75:1)

Father as one of your churches that makes up the larger body of Your people, we come and simply lay at Your feet in thankfulness, for how You have given us life, support us in times of trial, provide for us in times of turbulence like we find ourselves in now, and how you’ve provided an incomparable salvation that we never could have sought after or achieved on our apart from the work of Your Spirit by Grace Alone. We thank You that Your name is near, that You have been made known to us through Jesus and all he’s accomplished to make us Your children. We thank You that You, the great I AM of the universe, would condescend to our level in order to be near us.

Gospel. Culture. Technology. Music.

Category: Theology Page 1 of 67

The Threefold Use of God’s Law: Calvin’s Beautiful Clarity for Troubled Hearts

The Risk of Grace

To Love is to Expose Yourself to Pain.

Old Testament, New Testament, Same Word: Love and Mercy, The Spirit Outpoured

Old Testament, New Testament, Same Word: Judgment

Seeing Jesus as He is

Who Shall Ascend the Hill of the Lord?

A New Creation

His Kingdom Above All Others – A Prayer

J.I. Packer’s Introduction to Witsius and De Oeconomia

INTRODUCTION: ON COVENANT THEOLOGY

J. I. Packer

A Prayer For a Time of Uncertainty

Category: Theology Page 1 of 67

To Love is to Expose Yourself to Pain.

INTRODUCTION: ON COVENANT THEOLOGYJ. I. Packer

INTRODUCTION: ON COVENANT THEOLOGY

J. I. Packer