Pioneer Lutheran Church

While the wisdom of the world tends to include the lofty heights of academic speculation, the wisdom of God presented in the Scriptures is much more closely related to our place on earth. Here is a guide from Dr. Peter M. Kurowski taking us through this wisdom as it applies to our homes and families, entitled “Wisdom Literature for the Family” (via LCMS Family Resources):

Integral to any healthy family are clear boundaries.  Where there are too many boundaries, people suffocate, become emotionally stunted, and go through life seething with a lot of repressed anger.  Where there are too few laws, people are prone to confusing license with liberty, sowing the wind, and inheriting the whirlwind.   

One of the places to go to develop healthy boundaries, friendly fences for living, is the wisdom literature of the Bible. In particular, this article regarding help for the family, concerns itself primarily with two books of wisdom literature, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.  These two books are loaded with insight on how to raise children, set goals, strike balances, and avoid so many of the heartaches and headaches that hit families hard.  
These two books are loaded with maxims.  Maxims are concisely expressed principles or rules of conduct or statements of general truth.  In the Eastern World, truth, set forth in an economy of words, was a great value as a teaching tool.  A congressman friend of mine compiles maxims as guideposts for living, teaching, and explaining.  In Luther’s day, his brilliant friend, Philip Melanchthon, collected proverbs.  So did the learned Erasmus.  Our first President, George Washington, also found this to be a useful practice for life.   

Pertaining to family matters, the maxims and proverbs which come from Ecclesiastes and Proverbs present timeless wisdom for the family.  Granted, these two books offer expositions as well as maxims as they cover dozens of subjects in a most down-to-earth, elegant, witty manner.  Speaking about the book of Proverbs, Philip Yancy put it this way, “The book offers the warm advice you get by growing up in a good family: practical guidance for successfully making your way in the world.  It covers small questions as well as large: talking too much, visiting neighbors too often, being unbearably cheerful too early in the morning.”

While Proverbs seems particularly well fitted for young people, Ecclesiastes takes one to a deeper level.  Both books underline the importance of getting the gift of wisdom at all costs.  While Proverbs will teach young people about the wisdom of  avoiding gangs, avoiding sex outside of marriage, and avoiding the life of the fool, Ecclesiastes is to a large part an autobiographical sketch of a extraordinarily brilliant man who played the life of a fool.  Combine Albert Einstein’s brain with a converted Hugh Hefner’s soul and you have the author of Ecclesiastes reminiscing before our eyes.   While Proverbs gives one great breadth, Ecclesiastes gives one great depth.

One of the profound theses in Ecclesiastes that is seen in Proverbs when you read it as a whole, is the need for balance in life.  By nature, we are given to extremes.  Remembering also C.S. Lewis’ insight that temptations come to us in pairs, we see by nature we lean toward extremism—even in our moderation—and are pulled by radical forces, powers, and principalities.  

Much of Solomon’s life, after his good start, was one of a perilous pendulum movement rather than a therapeutic paradoxical path.  It took him a good while to discover that that which is truly orthodox is paradox.  Here we come to the truth that the core message of the Bible is paradox.  What do we mean?  We mean that God declares the “ungodly” “godly” for the sake of His Son (Romans 4:5).  Jesus Himself is the absolute paradox being both God and man at the same time.  At the same time, Christians are sinners as well as saints, God’s joyful mourners, the last who are the first, the weak who are the strong, who are members of God’s Kingdom yet pray “Thy Kingdom come!”

To catch this Messianic movement is crucial for healthy families.  Come back to our opening thesis in this article:  A family with too many laws is as lethal as a family with too few laws.  Listen to Solomon as he reflects upon this matter in Ecclesiastes:

      “Do not be overrighteous,

            neither be overwise—

            why destroy yourself?

      Do not be ovewicked,

            and do not be a fool—

            why die before your time?

      It is good to grasp the one and not let go of the other.

            The man who fears God will avoid all extremes!” (7:16-18)

Don’t be too rigid.  Don’t be too lax.  Don’t be a workaholic.  Don’t be a lazy procrastinator.  Don’t have sex outside of marriage, but be sure to enjoy it within marriage.  Beautiful balance of boundaries!   
Solomon in Ecclesiastes 3 poetically expresses the need for parents to learn, teach, and model the balanced life.   Here he sets forth boundaries which breathe like healthy lungs pumped by a heart pulsating with appreciation that every good gift comes from God.   Solomon’s paradoxical lyrical lines would become the words for a million selling record by a baby boomer rock group called “the Birds”:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:  a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,

      a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,

      a time to weep and a time to laugh,

      a time to mourn and a time to dance,

      a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

      a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

      a time to search and a time to give up,

      a time to keep and a time to throw away,

      a time to tear and a time to mend,

      a time to be silent and a time to speak,

      a time to love and a time to hate,

      a time for war and a time for peace. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8    

One of the keys to a healthy family is flexibility and the ability to recognize the ebb and flow of life.  Relationships regain their balance when they become flexible and imaginative instead of rigid and Johnny-one-note. After all, less anxious people who can shift gears tolerate tension better and manage the ambiguities of life that frequently come our way.   Comedian Mary Lou Henner once quipped that the key to life is how well you handle “plan B.”  In Ecclesiastes 3, Solomon reminds us of how important it is to wisely adapt.  The ability to accept legitimate change, to give and take, gain and lose, willingness to acquiesce, know when to submit and when to permit, is the fruit of wisdom, prayer and the fear of the Lord.  Solomon makes this clear early in Proverbs (3:5) and throughout Ecclesiastes (5:19).  This vision, born of the gospel, God’s love in Christ, recognizes that every gift comes form God, temporal as well as spiritual.  This theology is embedded in his overarching statements enjoining us to trust God.

Another critical key in a healthy family is good communication.  Good communication implies saying the right thing in the right way at the right time.  No wonder Solomon writes, “Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God.  God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few” (Ecclesiastes 5:2).   

From Proverbs, we gather the same message: be careful with your tongue.  A review of Solomon’s advice on communication is most salutary for home harmony: restraint 10:19; honest words 12:22; gentle, diplomatic words 15:1; wise timing 15:23; words which edify and heal 16:24; words which avoid interrupting people 18:13; words not in service of gossip 20:19; words not wasted on mockers (9:2); words backed up by action 14:23; and more.   
A matter that can contribute significantly to a person’s sense of well being and a family’s health is to find joy in one’s vocation.  Solomon put it this way, “A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work.  This too, I see, is from the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 2:24).  Note Solomon’s theology of grace—every gift is from God.  Note also how finding satisfaction in one’s work is not only a gift to seek and pray for, but a key piece of the good life.  To increase the probability of such a life, Solomon does not enjoin lethargy.  Even though a satisfying vocation is a gift, it is a gift we are to work toward.  So it does not surprise us when Solomon tells us that a wise person becomes highly skilled at some line of work (Ecclesiastes 10:10).  Throughout these two treatises Solomon carefully eschews legalism (3:11) as well as lawlessness (12:13).  Although his language is not as Christocentric as St. Paul’s in the New Testament, it is language that is sola gratia.  In this sense, these two works foreshadow the wisdom of the ages, Jesus Christ (Proverbs 8:22 ff.)     

A healthy family will evince a deep desire to grow.  Implied in this is the fact that none of us have arrived.  The continuous multitude of exhortations to embrace wisdom, esteem wisdom, and to get wisdom run throughout these books.  Proverbs says it so well, “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom.  Though it cost all you have, get understanding” (4:8).  Even after one gets a measure of wisdom, it takes a huge effort to retain it.  Wrote Solomon, “Hold on to instruction, do not let it go; guard it well, for it is your life.”  Solomon learned this the hard way as he took the prodigal path for a number of years.  He learned the need to daily drown the old Adam through the gift of repentance and to have a humble mind.  He had thought himself at one time to have arrived only to find major deficits in his thinking and life.   

Healthy thinking in a family anchors itself to an eternal perspective.  God has graciously planted an eternal homing device within our soul, but in our attempt to be God we easily seek to muzzle its signal.  Solomon wrote, “God has made everything beautiful in its time.  He also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).  Having an eternal perspective creates the humility we need to let God be God and to walk humbly in our relationships here on earth.  By standing in awe of God we escape from the bondage of self.  The message of these two Old Testament books is that human beings need to belong to some greater than life cause or life is a chasing after the wind.  The New Testament answer in fulfillment of Old Testament promises is that Jesus Christ through the Church answers the deepest needs of life and eternal life.  Solomon tells us in these two books that worldly advancement was meaningless, fame was ultimately not satisfying.  In the end, power, money, illicit sex, and every other hedonistic pleasure possible just left him.   It was only when he came back to a courageous life of trust in the God of all grace could he see that life was not as Macbeth said, “a tale told by an idiot, full of fury, and sound signifying nothing.”

Several years ago, I recall hearing Dr. Martin Marty speak on a radio program in St. Louis.  He was on a secular radio station.  This respected church historian was asked the question whether the Bible had much to say about the family.  His answer dumbfounded me.  He gave a bland “no.”   
Trying to put the best construction on things, that the Bible per se does not treat this topic systematically, one might assent to Marty’s negative response.  However, in examining the content of the Bible, you see God’s love and rescue story is above all an exposition of agape love, the most salutary glue for a strong family!  The message of unconditional love and the forgiveness it brings keeps families from becoming stuck in deadly pathologies.  When this news dwells richly, a firm foundation for family is laid.  Besides the insight for families in books like Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, other sections of Scripture such as the Sermon on the Mount, Ephesians 4-6, Galatians 3-5, and I Peter 2-3 revolutionized the ancient world as this body of literature taught that men and women were on equal footing before God through the Gospel miracle of baptism!
One of the best practices a family can develop is to simply read a few passages around the dinner table from Proverbs and  

Ecclesiastes.  Read them slowly.  Have the children read them when they are old enough.  Some days no commentary is necessary.  Other days you may get enthusiastic response.  The patient planting of these gems is the key thing.     
Over the years, I have heard quite a few testimonies from brilliant men and women how the books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes have given them deep insight into themselves, others, life, and God.  Here is wisdom for the family!  I believe we could make a profound contribution to the health of our families by reading aloud these books and planting the seeds of wisdom for families to grow strong.  Such an effort will equip families with wisdom from above to make wise choices, avoid hornet’s nests, and “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it” (Proverbs 22:6)

For Further Reading

The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes (Don’t be afraid to use several different translations over a period of time.)

Three Philosophies of Life by Peter Kreeft,  Ignatius Press San Francisco 1989.  Kreeft has been called the C.S. Lewis of the Roman Catholic Church. Kreeft writes very well! A joy to read!  This is one of his better works not suffering from legalistic and syncretistic tendencies evinced in other works where anthropocentric notes overtake gospel realities. Kreeft, though a well read Christian thinker fails to grasp Luther’s use of reason in the realm of theology.           
The Student Bible with notes by Philip Yancy and Tim Stafford NIV  Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, Michigan.  1989  The notes on the Wisdom literature books of the Bible are excellent.  You will have to forbear missed opportunities for apt Gospel commentary.  Nevertheless, very thoughtful commentary.   Proverbs often are dealing with probabilities as well as absolutes.  Be sure to be aware of this distinction as you read this literature.   

Proverbs: The People’s Bible, Roland Cap Ehlke, Northwestern Publishing House, 1992.  ISBN 0-8100-0468-2.  Excellent Law-Gospel treatment of this book.   
Ecclesiastes & Song of Songs, The People’s Bible, Roland Cap Ehlke, Northwestern Publishing House, 1988.  ISBN 0-9100-0279-5.   A clear Law-Gospel, Christ-centered exposition of two wisdom literature books loaded with value truths to enrich marriage and family.

On this day (September 21) in the year 1452, Italian reformer and martyr Girolamo Savonarola was born in Ferrara, Italy (d. May 23 1498).  Here is a sermon on Savonarola written by Charles Spurgeon, originally published in the April 1869 edition of the Sword & Trowel.

The Florentine Monk

In the month of May this year it is proposed to hold a conference of Italian Christians in the fine old city of Florence. Gavazzi, whose evangelistic work among his countrymen has inspired new hopes in English breasts, as to the future of Protestantism in that land of olives and cypresses, has, with the assistance of those who are equally enthusiastic for the cause of God and truth, formed an Evangelical Alliance in Italy, for the purpose of unitedly combatting “the two great enemies of the divine religion of Christ—Popery and Rationalism.” They thus hope to “present a compact phalanx against the expected assaults of the coming Œcumenical Council.”1 Florence has not inaptly been chosen as the scene of this Protestant demonstration. Exactly four centuries ago, it witnessed the martyrdom of a Florentine monk, who, ere the Reformation dawned, and while, indeed, Martin Luther was a youth of six years of age, had aroused the enmity of one of the vilest miscreants of all the debased wretches that wore the triple crown, and had struck a blow at the pretensions of the Papacy, which was only the precursor of that mightier onslaught which staggered the see of Rome, and ushered in the Reformation. It is worth while to run over the incidents of that short but eventful life, since its lessons are as useful to-day as ever.

Savonarola was born in 1452, of respectable parents, at Ferrara. From his grandfather, a physician to a noble duke, he gained his first acquaintance with learned pursuits; from his mother he obtained those lessons of goodness and piety which influenced his heart and moulded his character. Designed for the medical profesion, he soon evinced a passionate longing for other pursuits. Thoughtful, earnest, high-souled, his heart guided his head, and both became devoted to the inner world of spiritual life, into which he withdrew, bidding adieu to the scenes of greedy lust and worldly pleasures by which he was surrounded. He was not the first, we suppose, who sought to relieve his young burning heart by rhyming. We have very little left of his youthful effusions, but they indicate the great struggles of his soul, and foretell the thoughts of a riper and more matured and experienced observation. Thus early, he seemed to have gained a profound sense of the deep-seated corruptions of the apostate church. The profligate sensuous age moved him to write in terms of just severity; and it is noticeable how emphatically he lays the axe at the root of the upas-tree—2

“The earth so staggers under every vice,
That never will it lift its head again;
Rome is that head, so bowed with wickedness,
That ended now for ever is her reign.”

Deeply did he lament the corruptions of the church. Bitterly did he bewail its abandonment of the high mission to which he believed it had been called. And yet, when he saw the outside world, he viewed it with intense disgust. For him it had no attractions. He despised its allurements; he detested its vanities; and so, with a moral determination, and a stern self-denial, worthy of a nobler consummation, he retired into a Dominican cloister. At first a lay-brother, mending the garments and keeping the garden of the convent, he became, after a year of probation, a monk. He was an enthusiastic student. As he himself confesses, he strove after truth with all his powers. Truth was the empress of his soul. He loved her for her own sake. “She illumines,” he says, “the soul with divine light, and leads it to communion with God, who is himself truth.” Fortunately, he obtained, like his successor of the convent of Erfurt, a copy of the Holy Scriptures. How earnestly did he apply himself to a thorough investigation of its teachings! Here, in his solitary cell, shut out from the gaieties and fascinations of Italian life, isolated from others by his very earnestness and heart-yearnings, like a panting hart braying for the water-brooks, he thirsted for the translucent purity of God’s all-satisfying truth. It is true, he read the Scriptures in the light—always a “dim, religious” one—of the church, but he could not shut his eyes to the awful revelations it gave of the abomination of desolations. His soul luxuriated in the peace-infusing teachings of the Word; but his heart was stirred up within him as he compared the church as it was with its ideal state. “Where,” he asks, “are the precious stones—where the pure diamonds, the bright lamps, the sapphires, the white robes, and white roses of the church?” It was thus that fourteen years of retirement were spent; the fires of suffering purifying his nature, and leading him to that higher renunciation and nobler consecration so needed for the work of the future.

Called from the seclusion of his cell, at the age of thirty-seven, to active labour in the city of Florence, Savonarola journeyed thither on foot—a dark, mysterious providence overhanging him; a disturbed world of conflicting thoughts within him; and an atmosphere of disquietude and gloom around. To what had his God called him? What meant those ceaseless agitations which electrified his soul, and burdened him as with a message from the Lord, crushing him to the earth? Subsequent events developed the foreshadowings.
Just at this time, Florence was at the dizzying height of its renown. It possessed nearly a thousand fortified positions. Its beauty of situation, its rich lands, its luxuriance, its wealth, its treasures of art, its libraries, its seats of learning, magnificent palaces, unrivalled advantages and commercial prosperity, with its gaities and worldly attractions, made it one of the wonders of Europe. If England be, as the keen satire of Napoleon has represented, a nation of shopkeepers, Florence was well-nigh a city of bankers and merchants. Being the great banking-place of the Continent, its wealth was enormous. As Corinth, under the fostering care of Augustus, and in the zenith of its commercial glory, grew licentious, and proud, and reckless, so Florence, under the luxurious sway of Lorenzo di Medici the Magnificent, became heathenish and viciously immoral. Savonarola’s voice was soon heard in the church of St. Mark, censuring the tendencies of the age, and laying, bare, with merciless severity, the corruptions of the church. It must have been a strange sight to see the spare, haggard form of his pale-faced, keen-eyed, Roman-nosed monk, exciting, the crowds of listeners, and overpowering them with his vigorous eloquence. There was nothing in his voice to allure attention. It was thin and weak. Nor was there anything in his manner, for he was unpractised in speaking; but his words carried weight, and each had a flaming fire-dart which pierced its way, and carried conviction. His denunciations of the paganism of Florence, and the gross abominations of the church, stirred the city to its depths. The friar’s popularity grew and spread like living fire. Men listened and shuddered. Priests heard, trembled, and hated. The people grew enthusiastic. Salvation by faith, not by works—forgiveness of sin, not by absolution, but by Christ; these were unheard of truths from such a pulpit, and were as welcome as they were strange. With sternness of manner he denounced the prevailing sins of the time, and with affectionate entreaty besought men, like another John the Baptist, to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand.” Indeed, his prophetic utterances of a visitation from God were listened to with much dismay. His extraordinary faithfulness in rebuking those current sins of the wealthy to which they thought they had a prescriptive right; his personal form of address, without which no minister or reformer can hope to be successful in soul-winning; his clear evangelic utterances as to the natural state of the soul, its need of redemption, and the suitability of the free gospel of God’s grace to meet that need, told upon the people. They wept. They were silenced. Men who took down his discourses, were known to drop the pens from their hands. Country people walked miles to hear the great preacher; came, indeed, the night before the Sunday, and besieged the church doors at early morn, that they might be sure of a seat. Rich burghers gave them victuals, and even acted as doorkeepers. The convent church was too small; nor could the cathedral accommodate more than the three thousand persons who flocked to hear the friar.

As prior of St. Mark, Savonarola was expected to pay homage to Lorenzo di Medici. He refused. In vain did Lorenzo seek to win the stern friar’s confidence; he would loiter in the garden to attract his attention; money was given most royally to the poor; the sermons were heard; but all Lorenzo got in return was unsparing denunciation. Five men were sent to induce the friar to moderate his stinging criticisms, and to cease his prophetic utterances. “Go,” was the stern answer, “and tell Lorenzo that he must repent of his sins, for God is about to punish him and his. He threatens me with banishment. Well, I am a foreigner, and he a citizen, and the first in the city; but know that I shall stay, and that he will soon be forced to quit.” Strange to say, this declaration came true. Lorenzo the Magnificent lay on his death-bed. Anxious to be absolved from his sins, he sent for the monk, whom he had feared. Savonarola imposed three conditions. He was first to believe in God’s ability and willingness to forgive; this the sick man confessed. Then he was to restore that which he had unrighteously gained. This duty he promised to perform by his heir. Thirdly, said Savonarola, “Give back to Florence her ancient liberty;” but Lorenzo turned his head away, and Savonarola departed.

After Lorenzo’s death he addressed himself to the work of reformation. Beginning where reformation, as well as charity, should begin, at home, he renovated his convent, induced the monks to reform, to live higher lives, to study, and to preach. Next, he sought the reformation of the Florentine State. Henceforth he must become a politician. It is useless to criticise and condemn: he may have been fanatical, unwise, foolish. He, at least, did not think so. He had his dreams of an ideal government, and he lived to see them come true, though they hastened his fate. He preached on the downfall of the State; declared that soon the Lord’s vengeance would come upon the Florentines; announced the termination of the great house of Medici; and predicted that “Over the Alps one is coming sword in hand against Italy to chastise her tyrants. His coming will be in the storm and in the whirlwind, like that of Cyrus.” At the time, no one believed the warning voice of the strange prophet. The city was at peace; people were married and given in marriage, and the end came not. But lo! the King of France came over the Alps, with an immense army, took Naples, and marched into Florence. Then believed they the message of the friar. The Medici were expelled. Savonarola appeared before the King of France, secured peace, obtained milder terms; and the Florentines were allowed to choose their own mode of government. On the friar, however, was devolved this task. He chose the democratic form; but Jesus Christ was to be King of the city. A general amnesty was proclaimed, and the streets of Florence were thus saved from the deluge of blood which seemed inevitable. A contemporary writer states that “Apart from the Father’s preaching, streams of blood would have been seen to flow in the city; but his words and his authority, which stood at that time very high, appeased the storm, and hindered the carrying out of revengeful thoughts.”

It was marvellous how his power was felt. He was looked upon as a deliverer and a prophet. His words were treasured up, and were held as coming from God himself. His holy ascendancy was such that men everywhere saw it, felt it, were cowed under it, and not a few wished to be delivered from it. He waged relentless war against the sins of the rich, and denounced the vices of the poor. He changed for a time the character of society in the city. Dr. Seibert, in his biography, “Savonarola der Reformator von Florenz,” describes the wondrous effect of the friar’s teaching:—”Mortal enemies fell into each other’s arms and became reconciled; the rich spontaneously restored ill-gotten gains: one citizen in particular made restitution of 3,000 ducats, the possession of which disquieted his conscience. Women renounced of their own accord their pride of dress, and went about in modest garments of drab. Ballads and love songs were heard no longer in the country, and religious singing took their place. In the city the theatres and taverns soon became empty and desolate, and in a short time cards and dice were no longer to be seen, vain pomp disappeared, all moral earnestness, and a wonderful degree of love and devotion to eternal things laid hold of the people.” As one of his opponents said, “The people seemed to become fools from love to Christ.” At the season of carnival men delivered up their dice, cards, and card-boards, scandalous images, and immoral novels, and women their rouge, scented waters, veils, false hair, mirrors—indeed, never before, and we fear never since, were women more self-sacrificing—all these luxuries were collected in the marketplace and burnt, youths singing in procession, round what has been called this “auto-da-fé of sin and worldly pleasures.”

Besides improving the social condition of the poor, he endeavoured to reform the church. He never spared the priests—they were “the devil’s midwives.” Referring to the primitive church, he once said, “In those days they had a golden priest and wooden vessels, but now we have golden vessels and a wooden priest.” But especially was he emphatic in his testimony to the preciousness of the Scriptures. “The ruin of the church,” he said, “is to be traced to this, that Christians no longer read the Scriptures; it is owing to this that thick darkness broods over the Christian people, and that impiety gets so much the upper hand.” He very imperfectly understood the Scriptures, but he was alone in demanding that they should be read, and their lessons taught to the people.

A man like Savonarola, it is needless to remark, must soon have aroused the enmity of the Papacy. It was no difficulty for him to find foes; they compassed him about like bees. They were principally of the order of the Franciscans, who always hated the order of which Savonarola was a member—the Dominican. News reached Rome of the terrible power and popularity of the friar. The Pope’s first thought was to conciliate so dangerous a foe. He, therefore, offered him a cardinal’s hat. But it was declined. “I wish,” he said, “for no other red hat than that of a martyr, dyed with my own blood.” It was equally in the power of the Pope to grant him that favour—for which, indeed, he felt most inclined. He was then respectfully and in a most fatherly way invited to show himself at Rome. “Beloved son! Health to thee, and apostolic benediction.” But, as everyone knows, the Pope’s blessing was always a curse, and in this case the blessing concealed—or only partly concealed—a power that would by penance, prison, or poison, reduce the friar to everlasting silence. Savonarola was not to be caught. He knew the man with whom he was dealing. The Pope was the incarnation of all the devilry that ever escaped from hell. An abandoned wretch, guilty of scandalous crimes—who could trust him? And so, wisely, the friar refused to go. He did not refuse, however, to fulminate against the Pope. He, too—like most of us—could issue his little bull from his diminutive Vatican. At last the Pope prohibited his preaching, and ordered that the congregation of St. Mark should be dissolved. Such elements were, however, not readily dissolved. Savonarola for a time maintained silence, but was stung into action by the Pope’s Breve. “I cannot forbear preaching,” he declared; “the word of God is as a fire in my heart; unless I speak it, it burns my marrow and bones.” “It is now time,” he said, “to open the den; we will turn the key; such a stench and so much filth will be vomited forth by Rome as will overspread all Christendom, and everybody will be tainted with it.” At last the Pope applied to the Signori to deliver up this heretic; but it was in vain. Franciscan monks were sent to preach him down; but his preaching went up. Then it was, with his customary politeness, that the Pope sent a gracious message, hurling his curse at his head, cutting him off as a rotten member of the church’s body, and giving him over to the powers of hell. Savonarola had his defenders in Florence, and those were among the wealthy as well as among the poor; but a host of circumstances were combining to ruin him. His friends were injudicious. His new state constitution was, as might be expected, a failure. His alliance with the King of France, who had done nothing for the church, damaged his popularity. Plague and famine irritated the people; and, as no miracle was wrought on their behalf, Savonarola was disliked. One of his friends foolishly put a controversy with the Franciscans upon the issue of a trial by the ordeal of fire. The fire was prepared in the marketplace of Florence; the citizens expected to behold a notable spectacle; but the Signori and a shower of rain interfered and dispersed the crowd. The mob then turned upon Savonarola; the monastery was assailed; the once popular monk was made a prisoner; and the Pope was communicated with. Overcome with joy, “His Holiness” granted permission for the monk to be tortured. A recantation was demanded of him, but he refused. He was then stretched seven times during the week upon the rack. In the height of his sufferings he cried, “Lord, take my spirit,” and, worn out by the tortures, he agreed to confess. When, however, he had rested a while, he withdrew his recantation, and boldly avowed all that he had previously taught. Between the day of his trial and the day of his execution he wrote an exposition of the fifty-first Psalm, which Luther highly prized, and published in Germany.

He was burnt, with two friends, on the 22nd of May, 1498. The bishop deprived him of his priestly garments, saying, “Thus I exclude thee from the militant and triumphant church.” “From the church militant thou mayst,” exclaimed Savonarola, “but from the church triumphant thou canst not.” He died blessing the people who had deserted him, and clinging to the Christ whose love had never departed from him.
The question has often been asked, How far was Savonarola the herald of Protestantism? The best answer to that question is, we think, furnished in his admirable work—far ahead of the times in which it was written—”The Triumph of the Cross.” We are glad that those enterprising publishers, Messrs. Hodder and Stoughton have brought it out in a cheap and handsome form.3 For the sake of the memory of the martyr, it should be read; for the sake of the truths it so luminously sets forth, it deserves a wide circulation. Mr. Travers Hill, beside writing an interesting sketch of the Italian Reformer’s life, has ably translated the work. At a time when the church held every one in bondage, when the Scriptures were hid from view, and the masses were ignorant of the way of salvation—when darkness covered the earth and gross darkness the people—when the church to which every one bowed in lowly submission was so corrupt as to allow a pope stained with every crime to preside over it—and when Luther’s shrill testimony had not as yet been given—it is pleasant to find words of such evangelic power written in the cloister of a monastery. And though Savonarola was wedded to many of the errors of the church, yet his testimony in favour of justification by faith and not by works, the forgiveness of sins by Christ and not by man, was clear and decisive. His object was undoubtedly to purify the church of Rome, not to destroy it; but it is evident that throughout his life he was, if loyal to his church, far more loyal to Christ.

Notes

1. The First Vatican Council (1869-70) was about to get underway when Spurgeon wrote this article. Among the decrees of Vatican I was the notorious declaration of Papal Infallibility.
2. “Upas-tree.” A fabled poisonous tree whose vapours were supposed to be fatal to all life that came under its influence.
3. The Triumph of the Cross by JEROME SAVONAROLA. Translated from the Latin, with Notes and a Biographical Sketch. By O’Dell Travers Hill, F.R.G.S. London: Hodder and Stoughton.

(via the Spurgeon Archive)

The following sermon by Henric Schartau (1757-1825) is featured prominently in the classic Lutheran novel The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz (Minneapolis: Augsburg Publishing House, 1960), in the chapter entitled “Transfiguration Day” (pp. 182-227).

This English translation of the sermon is from Henric Schartau and the Order of Grace by S.G. Hagglund (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1928).

Below, those sections quoted or discussed by Giertz are highlighted in red, with the corresponding page numbers from The Hammer of God indicated in brackets.

[Note also that a study guide for The Hammer of God, prepared by Professor John Pless, is available at: http://www.ctsfw.edu/academics/pastoral/pless/giertz.htm.]

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Seventh Sunday After Trinity.

Introduction

Lifting up their eyes, they saw no one, save Jesus only. In this way Matthew concludes his story of the peculiar occurrence described in the seventeenth chapter.

When Jesus had at one time gone apart with a few of His disciples to a mountain, it happened that the “form of a servant,” which He had taken upon Himself, was changed into the royal glory which belonged to Him ever since He had been born to be a king. The disciples who were accustomed to see Jesus associating with sinners, now found Him in conversation with two of the “Spirits of the New Jerusalem.” They found themselves infolded in a cloud and possessed with great joy, but when they again came to themselves and “lifted up their eyes, they saw no one, Save Jesus only.”

When a sinner first opens the eyes of his understanding, they are turned down upon his unsaved soul and lost condition [202]. Shame and timidity are associated with downcast eyes. Esra describes the dejection of an awakened soul in such wise, “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to Thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our guiltiness is grown up into the heavens.” The law enjoins men to look especially upon themselves. It urges them to compare their depravity with God’s holiness, and their guilt with His righteousness. The Holy Spirit, however, thereupon lifts the eye of their understanding to Jesus only [202]. The glory of Christ, emanating from the words of the gospel, enlightens their heart and attracts their thoughts to Jesus, while the love of God revealed in His promises comforts their frightened heart and gives them courage to turn to Jesus.

It is blessed when a believing soul looks in the Scriptures for Jesus only [202]. He is the center and essential part of the word, and the Scriptures bear testimony of Him. When therefore the soul has learned to consider everything in the Word of God as leading to Jesus or derived from Him, then its searching has discovered the true treasure and the costly pearl.

It is a blessed thing when the believing soul in prayer fixes his uplifted eyes of faith upon Jesus only, not looking about for his dispersed thoughts, nor backward upon Satan, who threatens with the assertion that the prayers are to no avail, nor inwardly upon hi sown slothfulness and slight devotion, but above himself to Jesus, “who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.” [203]

As Jesus only was the main object of Paul’s preaching, so that he “determined not to know anything” except that which was related to the Saviour who once had been crucified, so shall also my main topic be Jesus Only. May He alone grant us enlightenment in the Word, strength and salvation through the Word, and may God hear us, when we ask for this for Jesus’ sake. “Our Father,” etc.

Proposition.

JESUS ONLY

I. In the awakening, as its object

II. In justification and the new birth, as its foundation

III. In sanctification, as its power

First Part.

[203]

It is Jesus only who has provided that the Holy Spirit works upon a secure heart unto its awakening. Paul says that the awakening takes place with reference to Jesus, in connection with, and as a result of, His redemption, which was perfected when God awakened Jesus from the dead. The blood of Jesus was shed even for those who have “counted it an unholy thing,” and it bespeaks mercy even for them. God is jealous for the honor of His Son; He desires to show that the atonement is valid and powerful, and He therefore permits His Holy Spirit to quicken the slumbering consciences. Jesus gave His life for the wandering sheep, and He “goes after that which is lost.” It is the suffering of Jesus that pleads for pardon. It is His prayer which quickens the movements of grace in dead hearts, and it is by virtue of His merits that gifts are provided even for those who have fallen away.

Jesus only is the basis of a sinner’s awakening, but He is also the object thereof, for it is the object of the law to urge sinners to accept the grace offered by the gospel. Paul teaches that Christ and justification through faith in Christ are the objects of the law, “Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness to every one that believeth.” Then again he describes the end of awakening as follows, “The law has been our tutor unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.” Hear then, O man, that the law causes grief in order that you may eagerly accept the comfort proclaimed in the gospel: that Jesus has paid for all your sins. The law frightens you, threatening you with eternal torment, in order that you may take the refuge which is being offered you with Jesus. When God, in His law, demands perfection in everything, His true object is that you may become a partaker of the righteousness of your Saviour, who has fulfilled the law for you.

Second Part.

[204]

A person becomes justified through faith alone, but Jesus only is the foundation of faith. He has provided that an awakened sinner can come to faith. Therefore an apostle says that “Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith.” Jesus has not only atoned for sins and purchased righteousness, but He has also provided that a sinner shall become a partaker of this grace. And since this is done by faith, Jesus has also provided that the Holy Spirit shall work to that end and grant a true faith, in order that the works of grace may be perfected and that man may appropriate and enjoy the fruits of redemption.

Jesus is the foundation of faith, for it is He of whom the gospel says that He has purchased all the good which the gospel offers to those who are rightly awakened. It is only through the gospel that a man can come to faith, for the gospel speaks of Jesus and, indeed, concerning Jesus only. Any doctrine that does not speak of Jesus, whatever experience and glory it may proclaim, is not the gospel. So then Jesus is in the Word. His suffering, His blood, His obedience and death are proclaimed in the Word, and this is the only means of coming to the right faith.

It is Jesus only whom faith embraces and on whom it relies. When a person, after seeing the awful depth of his own misery, has once caught a right vision of Jesus, he cannot turn his thoughts from Him. Jesus becomes everything to such an one, and everything else is “counted as loss and dung.” He seeks for Jesus, comes to Him, longs for His righteousness, prays in His name, and hopes in Him alone. He presses on that he may grasp Christ more securely, and that he may trust Him with more certainty and with greater boldness.

Jesus only is the basis and main cause of justification. Jesus only is considered by God when He makes a person righteous. God merely sees that the sinner has accepted Christ and that he is in Christ, in fellowship with Him. God does not wrathfully count such a person’s sins, for they are covered with the blood of Jesus. The Saviour is sinless, and a justified man is considered quite as free from guilt as Jesus was when He had paid the whole debt of sin, and as pure, free from the corruption of sin, as Jesus has always been. Nor does God graciously look upon a person’s good deeds; no, He looks only on His beloved Son. If He were to look upon our good deeds, He would also see the sins wherewith these good deeds are contaminated, and He would by virtue of His righteousness be compelled to exact punishment. God looks upon His beloved Son only, in order that He may find something perfect to rest His holy eyes upon. The atonement and righteousness of Jesus only are then by God attributed to the justified sinner. Nothing else will avail and satisfy an awakened soul. Nothing else suffices for our salvation from eternal fire; no other righteousness is valid and pleasing before God than that of His beloved Son in whom He is well pleased. It is by reason of this alone that God forgives sins and receives us into sonship with Him. Sins are forgiven, because Jesus “blotted out the bond against us” with His pierced, bleeding hand, and for the sake of His childlike obedience every one that believes on Him becomes a child of God. For Jesus’ sake every child of God is considered like Jesus Himself, and a like verdict is rendered in heaven at the time of every act of justification as was proclaimed with reference to Jesus at the transfiguration, “This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus only is the basis of the new birth, for it is faith in Him alone that brings regeneration of the heart. Paul expresses this is Eph. 2. 6, saying, “God made us to sit with Christ in the heavenly places.” When a man fixes his attention upon Jesus alone and upon the holiness which He purchased and perfected when He had “His delight in the law of the Lord,” he receives the Spirit which grants full enlightenment in the Word of God. The believer then becomes like the Lord Jesus, being “transformed into the same image.” The light of the glory of Jesus enlightens the soul to see aright and to perceive clearly the heavenly light in the Word of God, when the Sun of Righteousness arises and God takes His dwelling in the soul. God then also grants the believer a new mind, “the mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” His will becomes our will, and we thereupon always desire to be humble like Jesus, meek like Jesus, obedient like Jesus, pure in heart like Jesus, and occasionally we are also able to be thus, for in the new birth we received “a clean heart and a right spirit” and a mind like that “which was also in Christ Jesus.”

Third Part.

[205]

It is in sanctification that the power of our Lord Jesus Christ is best shown, for it is Jesus who provides the power to put off the old man and put on the new. If you are to get rid of your wicked thoughts, if you are to quench your evil desires, if you are to succeed in overcoming your old sinful habits, verily, there is no other help for this in heaven or on earth than that provided by Jesus only. He has conquered sin, and “in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us,” for He is “the Lord which sanctifies.” “The sanctification of the spirit” is a sure result of His redemption. If you were unable to resist sin, if you were compelled to fall therein again, then the forgiveness would be useless and the atonement in vain. But His merit is complete and perfect, and He has arranged that the merit imputed to you at once and immediately in justification shall also gradually be wrought in you in sanctification [206]. Jesus has not only stood in your stead as a just man who has had His delight in God’s commandments and whose righteousness is imputed to you as though you had always been just, but He has also brought about that you actually become just and obtain more and more delight in God’s law according to the inner man.

The more a person grows in faith in the Lord Jesus, the more he will also increase in good works. You do not, as you may suppose, receive more faith and grace from God by virtue of your watchfulness, meekness, patience, and devotion, but quite the reverse. In the proportion that Jesus becomes great and glorious to you, in the proportion that He becomes indispensable, you will increase in all the virtues that derive their strength from Him. The more faith, which is the origin of love, increases, the more will also love, which is the result of faith, increase.

Love for Jesus is the chief motive unto sanctification in a converted soul. It is love for Jesus that makes the believers submissive to Him in trials and sorrow, enabling them to bear His cross when the Lord finds it needful for their sanctification. Paul designates the knowledge of the love of Christ as the most immediate cause leading to one’s being “filled unto all the fullness of God.” In like manner it is love for Jesus that makes the most pleasing sins abominable and the most grievous duties light. It is love for Jesus that enables us to love all men, because He has deigned to make them all objects of His love. It is love for Jesus which opens our heart so that we may have confidence in those who are known to be partakers of that same love of Christ. It is love for Jesus which quenches our anger when we are offended, which kills hatred and enables the believer to love his enemies, since Jesus has loved them too, precisely as He loved us even while we were yet His enemies.

Jesus is the most splendid and only perfect pattern to follow in sanctification. Do not ask to become like this one or that one, but pray that you may become like Jesus. Do not attempt to imitate the talents of others, nor their measure of grace, but walk in the footsteps of your Saviour [206]. Along that way you shall more and more attain to that whereunto by your election you were ordained, namely, to be “conformed to the image of His Son.”

Application

Do you, O confident sinner, know whom you are warring against, whom you are scoffing at? It is not the servant who proclaims the message which you contradict, not human beings whom you mock for their spiritual interests, but Jesus only, Jesus, whose words are being spoken to you and whose members they are whom you vituperate. Rest assured that Jesus alone is able to overrule your wickedness and to judge and punish you. How dreadful it will be for you when you lie upon your death bed at the end of the way to realize that the Son’s wrath is upon you! How awful the mere appearance of Jesus when, in the resurrection, you raise your head form the grave!

Take heed to what you have heard, O mournful souls, remember that Jesus only is the object of your awakening. Do not therefore seek for more regret nor for an immediate improvement in your course of life, but seek for Jesus only. Where, indeed, can you look for salvation except to your Saviour? Where can you find salvation except in Him? It is nowhere else to be found. When you have found Him and in Him righteousness and strength, when His righteousness is your support in temptations, when His might is your succor, lo, then you have enough in Him, for you have all in Him. If then it should ever happen that you, like the first disciples, should in spirit see somewhat of His glory and “taste the powers of the age to come,” and if this glory should thereupon disappear, then do not look for Moses or Elias, but be content wiht the grace granted to those early disciples of whom we read, “When they lifted their eyes, they saw no one, save Jesus only.”

When the peace of Christ has brought you reinvigoration and His promises have given you assurance of grace, then it shall also be your lot, at the approach of death, when your eyes can no longer see the things of this world, then the vision of your soul shall be opened and endowed with heavenly light to see the great glory, world without end, face to face, — Jesus only. Amen.