Posts by John Hartley

  1. Posts by
  2. Posts by

Posts by

The order of Salvation: Adoption

John Hartley
Mar 6, 2024
Justification is not the gospel in its entirety. It was not enough for God to only justify us in Christ. He has also insisted on adopting us in Christ: “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,…” (Eph. 1:5). The final purpose of divine election has always been...

A New Year in God's Providence

John Hartley
Dec 30, 2023
In her rich fantasy novel, Piranesi, author Susanna Clarke has the main character, whose name is also the book’s title, keep a journal for each year he has been living in the Beautiful and Kind House. As described on the back cover, the rooms of the House “are infinite, its corridors endless, its...

Majoring in the Minors: Amos

John Hartley
Nov 6, 2023
About one hundred years before the northern kingdom was carried into exile by Assyrian armies, and just two years before the earthquake, the Lion roared from Zion. Yahweh raised up and sent his prophet, Amos of Tekoa, into the northern kingdom to announce a coming inescapable judgment. Exile. Amos...

The Spirit's Fruit: Kindness

John Hartley
Sep 28, 2023
A vivid lesson on kindness found throughout Old Testament scripture is how frequently kindness is expected as a matter of reciprocity. Abimelech expected kindness from Abraham in return for having shown kindness to Abraham: “God is with you in all that you do. Now therefore swear to me here by God...

Psalm 122: Joy Filled Children

John Hartley
Oct 24, 2022
Young children love family reunions more than the adults who host them. Children are focused on who will be there, who will they play with, who will tell the best story, who will remember their name, who will lift them high off the ground to say, “Look how big you are!” It is good we start life as...

Total Depravity & Shepherding

John Hartley
Sep 14, 2022
Let us consider then how the doctrines of grace are good and necessary for the shepherding of souls in the churches of Jesus Christ. And let us begin with the doctrine of total depravity. The expression total depravity summarizes scripture’s teaching on the spiritual condition of Adam and all his...

The Ten Words: The First

John Hartley
May 9, 2022
“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:7). Over half a century ago, the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister at Westminster Chapel, London, aimed the penetrating light of the first commandment at modern idolatry, saying, “There are many people today who never darken the...

Let's Study the Beatitudes! Part 4, The Meek

John Hartley
Apr 13, 2022
An ancient proverb says: “We must howl with the wolves, because the wolves will immediately devour everyone who makes himself a sheep.” Such worldly wisdom tickles the ears of all who despise the meekness of Christ’s kingdom. It is despised because unbelievers fear the meek must always be devoured...

What Year is It Anyway?

John Hartley
Jan 7, 2022
In her rich fantasy novel, Piranesi , author Susanna Clarke has the main character, whose name is also the book’s title, keep a journal for each year he has been living in the Beautiful and Kind House. As described on the back cover, the rooms of the House “are infinite, its corridors endless, its...

Tulip: Unconditional Election

John Hartley
Oct 22, 2021
Let us not take away half the love of God by saying he only started to love us at our baptism or only after we came to faith. Let us not take away half the love of God by saying he only loved us in a trickling, generally vague way until we ourselves harnessed and focused his love like a laser...

What the Bible Teaches About Anxiety & Contentment

John Hartley
Jun 18, 2021
“Our life on earth is a brief pilgrimage between two moments of nakedness.” So wrote the late Rev. John Stott. He was commenting on Paul’s candid way of summoning the believer’s soul to the green pastures of contentment. Writing to Timothy, Paul says: “But godliness with contentment is great gain...

Blogging Through the Golden Book: Bearing the Cross

John Hartley
Apr 21, 2021
“Life will get worse.” What if that were one half of a ubiquitous Christian bumper sticker? “Follow me to Jesus. Life will get worse.” Maybe a little tacky, but it would be truth in advertising. To follow the Man of sorrows is to enter a life of sorrows. It is this lesson Calvin works out his...

One Another Texts: Serve One Another

John Hartley
Mar 29, 2021
The Christian, having his whole being grasped by the gospel of God’s Son, no longer lives like a master with many servants, demanding they each please and satisfy him. No. The Christian is now a freeborn slave, a servant who lends himself out freely to many masters. Galatians 5:13 encapsulates this...

The Deadly Sins of Proverbs 6:16-19: Hate Discord. God Does

John Hartley
Jan 18, 2021
In the book of Judges the men of Ephraim provide the church a vivid lesson in the ugly sin of discord. Having loved themselves so much, they could not hate discord and so be like the Lord their God (Proverbs 6:19). After Jephthah the Gileadite defeated the Ammonites (Judges 11:32), he was...

Psalm 73: For the Soul Sick with Envy

John Hartley
Sep 14, 2020
Now here is a Psalm that will keep your soul from getting pummeled by conspiracy theories, media melees, cancel culture, soft totalitarianism, and fifty other social causes of depression. Psalm 73 is medicine. Like many prescriptions, it targets a specific problem, envy: “For I was envious of the...

Justification and the Remonstrants

John Hartley
Apr 27, 2020
“An error in justification is dangerous, like a crack in the foundation,” said Thomas Watson. The problem with a crack is two-fold. First, trouble easily passes through, such as swelling ground water, bringing deleterious effects upon the foundation and everything meant to be guarded by it. Second...

The Ordo Salutis: Regeneration

John Hartley
Mar 11, 2020
Perhaps the most thorough definition of regeneration came from the pen of Herman Witsius, the 17th century Dutch theologian, in his work, The Economy of the Covenants : “Regeneration is that supernatural act of God whereby a new and divine life is infused into the elect person, spiritually dead,...

The Ten Commandments: The First

John Hartley
Nov 13, 2019
“As long as he believes in something, that is what’s important.” With those words the man in front of me simultaneously dismissed the authority of God and justified a younger relative who had embraced an animistic system of belief. For the older gentlemen, it was the act of believing in something...

Sanctification: A Perilous Journey for Roman Catholics

John Hartley
Oct 2, 2019
In an approved essay on the doctrine of “sanctifying grace,” an author at Catholic Answers brings us to the frightening precipice which his church’s doctrine demands. Under the grim heading, “Spiritual Suicide,” the author says of sanctifying grace: “But you can lose it again by sinning mortally...

If I Could Preach Only One Sermon: Luke 18

John Hartley
Jul 3, 2019
If I could preach only one sermon, I would preach my one allotted message to the visible church. I would preach with the weighty concern that the baptized are on an irreversible course toward eternity. And the baptized, those well-ordered around the outward expressions of the covenant, are most...

Seven Letters Seven Dangers: Fear of Man

John Hartley
May 13, 2019
But the L ORD of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. – Isaiah 8:13 My dearest Theophilus: We live in a soft age. Our idols are soft and so our fears too. In the old days our idols were hard. Literally. Made of stone. Made of wood. Sculpted and carved...

Deconstructing Destruction in the Church: Informal Shepherding

John Hartley
Apr 5, 2019
In a 1986 speech President Ronald Reagan said, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I'm here to help.’” A lot of Americans appreciated Reagan’s humorous point because sometimes government does more to harm than to help. Many Americans, however,...

The Apostles' Creed: The Holy Universal Church

John Hartley
Mar 25, 2019
In the late 1990s, my wife and I persuaded a widowed neighbor to join us one Sunday at the faithful Presbyterian church downtown. A standout preacher of the Reformed faith was filling the pulpit. Our neighbor, a serious believer, liked the preaching well enough. It was the recitation of the Apostle...

Study and Preaching

John Hartley
Mar 4, 2019
I am not sure where I first heard this wisdom, but I have heard it several times: a pastor does not need an office, he needs a study. Spot on. The bulk of pastoral work is not management behind a door labeled “office,” it is bookish work behind a door labeled “study” – reading, research, writing,...

Union with Christ: A Brief Introduction

John Hartley
Feb 13, 2019
John Owen (1616-1683) said, “That there is such a union between Christ and believers is the faith of the catholic church and has been so in all ages.” Not only does Owen’s comment dissuade us from regarding this doctrine to be negligible and of optional interest, his comment challenges us not to be...

For Instruction, Doctrine, and Morals: Exegesis Not Eisegesis

John Hartley
Dec 5, 2018
The work of biblical interpretation must begin with a commitment to the humble yet courageous task of exegesis, matched with an equally daring rejection of eisegesis. In the former, we submit to both the Divine author and human authors of Scripture. In the latter, we ask Scripture to submit to us,...

Writing: Writer's Block

John Hartley
Nov 8, 2018
“You probably won’t have much to say until you are forty.” The words passed easily enough over the breakfast table into my ears. Then they went deeper. Their sanctifying force was acute and penetrating. They have haunted me, in the best possible way, for twenty years now. Just before I heard those...

Natural Revelation: Is Natural Theology Reliable?

John Hartley
Oct 1, 2018
Natural theology, to be contrasted with Revealed Theology, is that human response to divine revelation where truths about God, or arguments for his existence, are discerned from the created order without aid of special revelation. In a sense, natural theology does not take special revelation into...

Christianity at the Crossroads: Superstitio

John Hartley
Jul 20, 2018
A valuable lesson for 21 st century Christians is found in the writings of three 2 nd century Romans: Pliny the Younger, an imperial governor; Tacitus, both senator and historian; and Suetonius, a prolific biographer of Caesars, poets, orators, historians, grammarians and rhetoricians. Observed in...

Music in Worship: Screens and Machines

John Hartley
May 11, 2018
Let me begin with a little thought experiment. Admittedly, some readers will regard it as nothing more than a dark look into a dystopian future. A world worse than the Hunger Games ! Others will regard it as utterly utopian. An immanentizing of the eschaton. What would happen if all the churches of...

Surveying Sanctification: Union with Christ

John Hartley
Apr 11, 2018
That holiness of life which the Christian has from God and before God and for God is not sourced nor drawn from even the best doctrinal formulations – as essential as they are to our faith. Nor is holiness of life sourced or drawn from moral transformation – as essential as it is to living out our...

Being a Pentecost Christian: Sanctification

John Hartley
Mar 21, 2018
The third person of the Holy Trinity is no less zealous in applying redemption to us than was the second person in accomplishing it for us. Like our Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit is perfectly ambitious toward the children of God. Once the Spirit applies the redemption of Christ – effectually calling...

From ABC to PhD: Delighting in the Trinity

John Hartley
Jan 31, 2018
Delighting in the Trinity, IVP Academic, 2012. Paperback, 135 pages Reviewed by John Hartley At the risk of sounding cheeky, Michael Reeves’ book, Delighting in the Trinity (IVPress, 2012) is delightful. It is the kind of book that should be reviewed annually, as if it had just been published. It...

Sexual Identity: Saboteurs at the Door

John Hartley
Jan 12, 2018
The 17 th century minister and Scotsman, Alexander Nisbet said, “the most dangerous heretics have many followers; every error they introduce turns out to be a friend to some lust in the heart of man.” Case in point: Several years ago, a friend of mine discovered his pastor had committed adultery...

Studying the Confession: Make Disciples Old

John Hartley
Nov 27, 2017
It is possible to make disciples that are just too new. Case in point. In his book, The Creedal Imperative (Crossway, 2012), Carl Trueman relays the story of a pastor who regularly declared his devotion to Scripture by dismissing creeds and confessions. With the Bible held high before his church,...

Westminster & Preaching: Prayer and the Pulpit

John Hartley
Oct 13, 2017
In his first sermon on our Lord’s prayer in John 17, Anthony Burgess (d. 1664), preacher and delegate to the Westminster Assembly, makes the case why prayer is necessary to all preaching. “If therefore we would have our preaching and your hearing do any good, be powerful to a heavenly alteration...

Calvin's Life: The French Missionaries

John Hartley
Sep 1, 2017
A great blind spot which afflicts anyone who limits their reading of Calvin to The Institutes is how thoroughly engrossed the Reformer was in missions work across Europe. Calvin was no austere academic always at his desk with his nose in a book. Rather, we could say, he spent much time at the...

The New Perspective on Paul: Justification is Moral Remedy

John Hartley
Aug 26, 2017
Eight years-ago this month a friend gave me a copy of N.T. Wright’s new book, Justification: God’s Plan...

Sexuality and Our Public Lives: Calvin Among the Samaritans

John Hartley
Sep 12, 2016
In commenting on the Samaritans our beloved brother, John Calvin, made a penetrating observation about the nature of religious pride. His comments are a particular help in answering the question, How now shall the church live when boundaries of public life, at a time more pluralistically welcoming...

Sexual Identity: Saboteurs at the Door

John Hartley
Aug 26, 2016
The 17 th century minister and Scotsman, Alexander Nisbet said, “the most dangerous heretics have many followers; every error they introduce turns out to be a friend to some lust in the heart of man.” Case in point: Several years ago, a friend of mine discovered his pastor had committed adultery...

The Trinity: The Triune God for Exiles

John Hartley
Aug 18, 2016
How do you explain to yourself why you are a Christian? Why do you think your life is a Christian life and not some other kind of life? Do you tell yourself you have a Christian life mostly for social reasons? It’s good for the children. Your parents raised you in a Christian church. Your...

The Trinity: Impassible Love and Hate

John Hartley
Jul 29, 2016
A month before our son was born my wife came home from the baby shower with a gift even a father could love: two over-sized plush boxing gloves in the shape and color of Hulk’s famous fists. Smash those green fists just right and your opponent hears a threatening audio track in Hulk’s voice: “You...

The Trinity: An Overview, Revealed by the Son

John Hartley
Jul 20, 2016
Why don’t we immediately see God the Holy Trinity jumping from the pages of Old Testament scripture? It is a sincere question a Muslim, a Jew and even a newer Christian all may ask. Reading the Old Testament by its own light, not by the light of the New, may push us to regard God as an...

The Trinity: Divine Simplicity, A Guard Against Ethereal Idols

John Hartley
Jul 1, 2016
It is an ironic point not lost on many theologians that the doctrine of divine simplicity is not so simple. To study the doctrine you must be prepared to welcome an expansion of your theological vocabulary. Every time I read or listen to something on simplicity I frequently pause and consult a...

Old Princeton: B. B. Warfield, Minister to Children

John Hartley
Mar 16, 2016
A minister of the gospel in service to Jesus Christ will necessarily have an interest in children. All servants who hear their Master say, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God,” will share his great interest in the spiritual needs of little ones...

Old Princeton: Charles Hodge, A Minister of Polemics

John Hartley
Feb 26, 2016
It is probably fair to say most of us enjoy reading polemics far more than writing them. Studying a careful and robust dismantling of an errant theological system delights defenders of biblical orthodoxy. Cheers rise from the stands. But who has the courage to step on the field? Who has the skill...

The Ascension of Christ: In Creed and Catechism

John Hartley
Oct 18, 2015
The ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ is an historical event of no less enormity than his resurrection. Like his resurrection, his ascension was an event set before the eyes of the apostles. Jesus made no clandestine departure from this world. He did not reach his fortieth day of new life (Acts 1:...

Postmodernism: A Cautionary Tale

John Hartley
Sep 14, 2015
It is safe to assume whether you sit in a pew or stand in a pulpit, philosophical trends are trickling into minds all around you. They drip, drip, drip into the intellectual habits of those you worship with, those who teach your children, and those who will eat turkey with you in November. No one...

Belief in a Historical Adam: A Call to Courage

John Hartley
Jul 23, 2015
In his classic book, The City of God , fourth century bishop, Aurelius Augustine, discusses a notable abuse of scripture in his day. He speaks of contemporaries who “allegorize all that concerns Paradise itself,” who teach “as if there could not be a real terrestrial Paradise!” ( COG , 13.21)...

Summary of Union with Christ

John Hartley
Jun 7, 2015
Overlooking the biblical doctrine of union with Christ is one surefire way to lose sight of Christ while allegedly maintaining a rigorous orthodoxy in matters of doctrine and worship. If we labor in orthodoxy – either as worshipers or ministers – while blind to our union with Christ, it will not be...