Chapter Eight: Dependent Discipline
CHAPTER EIGHT
DEPENDENT DISCIPLINE
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.
PSALM 127:1
Think of yourself in a jet passenger plane flying thirty-five thousand feet above the earth. Suppose (know this can’t happen in real life) the pilot was to say through the speaker system, “Folks, we’re in real trouble. One of our wings is about to break off.” Which one of the wings would you rather lose, the left or the right one? It’s a silly question, isn’t it? No plane can fly with just one wing. Multiengine planes such as passenger airliners are designed to fly in an emergency mode with only one engine. But no plane can fly with just one wing; both are absolutely necessary.[51] Visualize that aircraft as though you were looking down on it from above, as shown in the following illustration.
You see the fuselage, where you are sitting, the two wings, and the tail assembly. As you look at the two wings, imagine the words dependence on the left wing and discipline on the right wing. This airplane illustrates one of the most important principles in the Christian life. Just as the airplane must have both wings to fly, so we must exercise both discipline and dependence in the pursuit of holiness. Just as it is impossible for an airplane to fly with only one wing, so it is impossible for us to successfully pursue holiness with only dependence or discipline. We absolutely must have both.
Discipline, as I am now using it, refers to certain activities designed to train a person in a particular skill. The apostle Paul exhorted Timothy to train himself, or discipline himself, to be godly (1 Timothy 4:7). In urging Timothy to train himself, he borrowed a term from the realm of athletics. The word originally referred to the training of young athletes for the competitive games of the day. It later came to include both mental and moral training. Paul used it to refer to spiritual training.
Note that Paul said to Timothy, “Train yourself.” In chapter 5, “Disciplined by Grace,” we considered God’s discipline of us as His spiritual child-training. Now we will be looking at the discipline of ourselves, the responsibilities we must shoulder to pursue holiness. But the point of the airplane illustration is that we must not try to carry out our responsibilities in our own strength and willpower. We must depend upon the Holy Spirit to enable us. At the same time, we must not assume that we have no responsibility simply because we are dependent. God enables us to work, but He does not do the work for us.
WORK OR PRAY?
There are many instances in the Scriptures where the concepts of both dependence and responsibility appear in the same sentence or paragraph. For example, Psalm 127:1 says,
Unless the LORD builds the house,
its builders labor in vain.
Unless the LORD watches over the city,
the watchmen stand guard in vain.
The psalmist sees God so intimately involved in the building and watching that he says, “Unless the LORD builds the house, . . . unless the LORD watches over the city” (emphasis added). He does not say, “Unless the Lord helps the builders and the watchmen,” but unless the Lord builds and watches.
Yet it is just as obvious that the psalmist envisions the builders laboring to build the house and the watchmen standing guard over the city. The builders cannot put away their tools and go fishing and expect God to build the house. Neither can the watchmen retire to their beds and expect God to watch over the city. The builders must work, and the watchmen must stand guard, but they all must carry out their responsibilities in such total dependence on God that the psalmist speaks of His building and His watching.
Nehemiah, the wall-builder, understood well the principle of dependent discipline, the idea that we are both dependent and responsible. In his project of rebuilding the wall around Jerusalem, Nehemiah faced great opposition from certain enemies of the Jews. When the Jews had rebuilt the wall to half its height, the Scripture account says, “[These enemies] all plotted together to come and fight against Jerusalem and stir up trouble against it. But we prayed to our God and posted a guard day and night to meet this threat” (Nehemiah 4:8-9).
Note Nehemiah’s response to the threatened attack. His people prayed and posted a guard. He recognized his dependence on God, but he also accepted his responsibility to work —that is, to stand guard. Today, we would tend to divide into two camps. The more “spiritual” people would call an all-night prayer meeting. To them, posting a guard would be depending on human effort instead of God. The “practical” ones among us would get busy organizing the guard. They would do a fine job assigning everyone to the various watches of the night, but they would be too busy to pray. “What do you mean, have an all-night prayer meeting?” they would say. “We’ve got to man those guard posts.”
Nehemiah and his people did both. They prayed and they also posted a guard. They recognized their dependence upon God, but they also understood that they were depending on Him to enable and help them, not to do their work for them.
Now, there are instances in the Old Testament history of Israel where God miraculously intervened and actually fought the battle for Israel. (See 2 Chronicles 20 for an outstanding example of this.) But these instances are the exception, not the rule. However, and this is an important statement, there is not a single instance in New Testament teaching on holiness where we are taught to depend on the Holy Spirit without a corresponding exercise of discipline on our part.
Discipline is not necessarily a reliance on human effort, or as it is often called, a work “of the flesh.” It can be, and unfortunately, often is. But when Paul urged Timothy to train, or discipline, himself to be godly, he certainly didn’t envision a reliance on sheer human discipline and willpower. In fact, in 2 Timothy 2:1, he urged Timothy to be strong in the grace —that is, the strength —that is in Christ Jesus. Yet Paul did exhort Timothy to discipline himself, not just “turn it all over to the Lord.” We must have both wings of the airplane. We cannot fly with only one.
PAUL’S TESTIMONY
Consider the testimony of Paul in Philippians 4:11-13:
I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
Paul said he had learned to be content. He recognized it was his responsibility to be content, and that he needed to grow in that area of life. He didn’t just turn it all over to the Lord and trust Him to do the work of being content. He worked at it. But he knew that he could be content only through the Lord, who gave him strength. Paul also realized that this strength from the Lord did not come to him as a “package sent from heaven,” as if Christ’s strength were a commodity to be received. Rather, he knew it came as a result of his union with Christ. Because he was “in Christ,” he was able by faith to rely upon Christ working in him through His Spirit.
We see another example of Paul’s understanding of the principle of dependent discipline or responsibility in his description of his ministry. In Colossians 1:28-29, Paul said, “We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” In pursuit of his ministry, Paul said, he labored even to struggling.
F. F. Bruce says the Greek word translated as “labor” in the New International Version is “a strong word, denoting toil to the point of weariness or exhaustion.”[52] The word struggling in Greek is the word agonizomai, from which we get our word agonize, and conveys the idea of an athlete straining to win the race.
So there is no question about the intensity of Paul’s labors. He toiled to the point of weariness and he agonized like an athlete straining to break the tape. But he quickly adds, “With all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.” Paul struggled, but he did so in the Lord’s strength. He was disciplined in his ministry, but he was also dependent on the Lord. To return to our airplane illustration, he didn’t try to fly with only one wing.
In Colossians 1:28-29, Paul was clearly writing about his ministry, not his own pursuit of holiness. But he applied the same principle of dependent discipline to his personal life in learning contentment. He recognized his responsibility to discipline himself, to learn to be content, but he also recognized his dependence on the Holy Spirit.
THE PASSIVE APPROACH
We need to learn this scriptural principle that the Holy Spirit works in us to enable us to live lives pleasing to God. He does not do the work for us; rather, He enables us to do the work. We often use the expression “Let the Lord live His life through me.” I am personally uncomfortable with this expression because it suggests a passivity on our part. He does not live His life through me. Rather, as I depend on Him, He enables me to live a life pleasing to Him.
Some years ago, when I was following this more passive approach, which did indeed seem more spiritual to me at the time, I was struggling to love a Christian brother. One evening God really dealt with me about my lack of love, and I sensed God was saying to me through a thought planted in my mind, “If I love him, can you?” I responded, “Lord, I can’t, but I’m willing for You to love him through me.”
What happened? Over time, my attitude toward this brother did change. In fact, we became good friends. Did Jesus then love him through me? No, He enabled me to love the man. We are not passive in the pursuit of holiness. We are the ones who love. We are the ones who clothe ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience (Colossians 3:12). But we do this in utter dependence on Him who gives us strength.
This is far more than an issue of mere semantics. It is a difference in our understanding of how God works in us. The essence of the passive view (in fairness to those who teach this view of sanctification, they would call it a “faith” approach, not a passive approach) is summed up in a statement that goes something like this: Man’s part is to trust; God’s part is to work. The believer can do nothing but trust, while the God in whom he or she trusts does the work.
It is the idea that we can do nothing but trust that is particularly troubling to me. I believe that the psalmist —and Nehemiah and Paul —would say, “Man’s part is to trust and work. God’s part is to enable the man or woman to do the work.” Or perhaps it is more helpful to say, “Our part is to work, but to do so in reliance upon God to enable us to work.” God’s work does not make our effort unnecessary, but rather makes it effective. Paul did not say, “Christ shows contentment through me.” Rather, he said, “I have learned to be content through Him who gives me strength.”
I am loath to take issue with many godly Christians who believe and teach this more passive approach. I do so with great reluctance and, I trust, with equal humility and love. But I embraced this teaching for several years, and with great difficulty came to what I now believe to be the biblical teaching on dependence and responsibility.
One of the Puritan writers who helped me most to understand the biblical relationship of dependence and discipline was John Owen. Because Owen’s seventeenth-century writing style was somewhat ponderous, let me paraphrase a few sentences from him on the relationship of grace (God’s divine enablement) and our responsibility, which he calls our duty:
Let us consider what regard we ought to have to our own duty and to the grace of God. Some would separate these things as inconsistent. If holiness be our duty, they would say, there is no room for grace; and if it be the result of grace, there is no place for duty. But our duty and God’s grace are nowhere opposed in the matter of sanctification; for the one absolutely supposes the other. We cannot perform our duty without the grace of God; nor does God give his grace for any other purpose than that we may perform our duty.[53]
There is no question that we are responsible to pursue holiness with all the intensity that the word pursue implies. Every moral imperative in the Bible addresses itself to our responsibility to discipline ourselves unto godliness. We are not just to turn it all over to the Lord and let Him live His life through us. Rather, we are to love one another; we are to put to death the misdeeds of the body; we are to put off the old man and put on the new man.
If we are to make any progress in the pursuit of holiness, we must assume our responsibility to discipline or train ourselves. But we are to do all this in total dependence on the Holy Spirit to work in us and strengthen us with the strength that is in Christ. Sometimes we don’t sense that we are experiencing His strength. Instead we experience deep, agonizing failure. We may even weep over our sins and wonder why the Holy Spirit doesn’t come to our aid and strengthen us against the onslaught of temptation. We identify with Paul when he said, “I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do” (Romans 7:15).
Why doesn’t the Holy Spirit always strengthen us? The answer may be one or more of several reasons. He may be letting us see the sinfulness of our own hearts. Or He may be causing us to realize how weak we are in ourselves and how dependent on Him we really are. Perhaps He is curbing a tendency toward spiritual pride and causing us to grow in humility. Whatever the reason, which we may never know, our responsibility is to utterly depend on Him. He sovereignly and with infinite wisdom determines how best to respond to our dependence.
THE SELF-DISCIPLINE APPROACH
Despite my concern about the so-called passive approach to holiness, I am just as concerned about the self-discipline approach. There is no doubt that disciplined people, both believers and unbelievers, can effect change in themselves. Even as I work on this chapter, I am reading an excellent secular book on personal growth. I have no doubt that people who apply the principles expounded by the author see change in their lives. I hope to see some myself.
A major temptation in the self-discipline approach to holiness, however, is to rely on a regimen of spiritual disciplines instead of on the Holy Spirit. I believe in spiritual disciplines. I seek to practice them, and in the remaining chapters of this book, we are going to be considering some that especially relate to the pursuit of holiness. But those disciplines are not the source of our spiritual strength. The Lord Jesus Christ is, and it is the ministry of the Holy Spirit to apply His strength in our lives. To paraphrase Paul’s statement in 1 Corinthians 3:7, we can plant and we can water, but we cannot make things grow. Only the Holy Spirit can do that.
The truth is, we must plant and we must water if we are to make progress in holiness, but only the Holy Spirit can change us more and more into the likeness of Jesus. Our problem is that we tend to depend upon our planting and our watering rather than on the Lord.
Because Paul used a metaphor from farming —planting and watering —let’s pursue that illustration. In the business of farming there are certain things farmers must do, but there are two things they cannot do. We can chart what they can and must do versus what they cannot do in the following manner:
CAN AND MUST DO
CANNOT DO
Plow
Make grow
Plant
Control weather
Fertilize
Irrigate
Cultivate
Harvest
There are six things farmers must do and only two things they cannot do. They can even to a degree circumvent the weather by irrigating in case of drought. But the one thing they absolutely cannot do is the most critical of all. Without the life that makes things grow, all their disciplines of farming are useless. Now typical farmers, unless they are godly believers, will concentrate on the things they must do and will tend to take for granted the life in the seed that makes it grow. They will put all their confidence in the performance of their duties, not in God, who makes things grow. As far as they are concerned, their success depends on themselves.
As in the case of farming, God has ordained certain disciplines or practices that are necessary in order to grow in holiness. We must observe these or we will not grow, just as farmers will not produce a crop if they do not perform their duties. There is one thing, however, we cannot do. We cannot make ourselves grow. But just as typical farmers put their confidence in the performance of their duties, so we believers who take seriously our responsibility for holiness tend to put our confidence in the performance of our disciplines. Like farmers, we take for granted the spiritual life that makes us grow.
John Owen is helpful to us at this point also, and again for the convenience of the reader, I will paraphrase. Owen wrote,
The actual aid and internal operation of the Spirit of God is necessary to produce every holy act of our minds, wills, and emotions in every duty whatsoever. Notwithstanding the power or ability that believers have received by the principle of new life implanted at salvation, they still stand in need of the divine enablement of the Holy Spirit in every single act or duty toward God.[54]
So even though we have been given a new heart and the principle of spiritual life, that new life needs to be continually nourished and sustained by the Holy Spirit. It does not operate on its own.
Jonathan Edwards, the great philosopher-theologian (and a pastor as well) of colonial America, compiled a series of seventy resolutions to govern his own spiritual disciplines and conduct. Talk about spiritual discipline! Edwards’ resolutions would make most of our present-day disciplines look like spiritual kindergarten. But at the beginning of his list of written resolutions he wrote these words: “Being sensible that I am unable to do any thing without God’s help, I do humbly entreat him, by his grace, to enable me to keep these Resolutions, so far as they are agreeable to his will, for Christ’s sake.”[55] Edwards was disciplined, but he was also dependent.
I’m sure those of us who tend toward the self-discipline school of holiness agree with John Owen and Jonathan Edwards that we are dependent on the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. We believe it and we give lip service to it, but do we practice it? Do we each day and throughout the day acknowledge our dependence on Him? Or do we in fact seek to pursue holiness in the strength of our own willpower?
We all know those familiar words of Jesus, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). In theory we believe them, but in practice we tend to live as if we can do some things. All of us have certain areas of morality and ethics in which we feel fairly confident. We tend to rely on our own goodness in those areas; we don’t sense the need of the Holy Spirit’s aid. But Jesus said, “Apart from me . . . nothing.” We cannot do anything spiritually good apart from the working of His Spirit within us. If we are going to make any progress in becoming more like Christ, we must learn to rely on the Holy Spirit rather than on our own virtues and abilities.
THE DISCIPLINE OF PRAYER
How then can we grow in a conscious sense of dependence on Christ? Through the discipline of prayer. Prayer is the tangible expression of our dependence. We may assent to the fact that we are dependent on Christ, but if our prayer life is meager or perfunctory, we thereby deny it. We are in effect saying we can handle most of our spiritual life with our own self-discipline and our perceived innate goodness. Or perhaps we are saying we are not even committed to the pursuit of holiness.
The writer of Psalm 119 teaches us about the discipline of prayer in the pursuit of holiness. We usually think of this psalm as the psalm of the Word of God, because God’s Word is mentioned by various names in all but four of its 176 verses. But it is more accurately an expression of the psalmist’s ardent desire for and commitment to the pursuit of holiness. Twenty-two times the psalmist prays to God for help in obeying His law. Verses 33-37 are a good example:
Teach me, O LORD, to follow your decrees;
then I will keep them to the end.
Give me understanding, and I will keep your law
and obey it with all my heart.
Direct me in the path of your commands,
for there I find delight.
Turn my heart toward your statutes
and not toward selfish gain.
Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
preserve my life according to your word.
The psalmist wants God to teach him, to give him understanding, and to direct him in the paths of God’s commands. He also wants God to work directly in his heart, turning his heart toward His statutes and his eyes away from worthless things. But the psalmist also exercised spiritual discipline. Notice his discipline with regard to the Word of God:
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, O LORD;
teach me your decrees.
With my lips I recount
all the laws that come from your mouth.
I rejoice in following your statutes
as one rejoices in great riches.
I meditate on your precepts
and consider your ways.
I delight in your decrees;
I will not neglect your word.
PSALM 119:11-16
The psalmist stored up God’s Word in his heart. He recounted it to others, he rejoiced in obeying it, he meditated on it, he delighted in it, and he did not neglect it. The psalmist was not only a man of discipline but also a man of prayer. His discipline did not cause him to neglect prayer for God to work, nor did his prayer cause him to neglect his own work. He practiced discipline and dependence.
THE EXAMPLE OF NEHEMIAH
Our prayers of dependence should be of two types: planned periods of prayer and unplanned, spontaneous prayer. We see both of these beautifully illustrated for us in the life of Nehemiah and recorded for us in chapters 1 and 2 of that book. Nehemiah was one of the Jews in exile and was cupbearer to the Persian king Artaxerxes. The book begins with Nehemiah learning of the sad state of affairs of the Jews back in Judah and the fact that the wall of Jerusalem was broken down and its gates burned with fire. Upon hearing this, Nehemiah sat down and wept. Then he fasted and prayed for a period of several months (Nehemiah 1).
The Scripture account doesn’t indicate this, but we can assume that Nehemiah set aside a certain time or times of the day during which he earnestly besought God for the welfare of Jerusalem. After all, he was the king’s cupbearer and, as such, would have had official duties to perform. So, most likely he would have had to schedule his times of prayer around his daily duties, just as we have to do. Because he prayed over a period of several months, we can describe this part of Nehemiah’s prayer life as planned, protracted, persevering prayer. It was planned because it was made a part of his daily schedule, protracted because it extended over a period of several months, and persevering because he continued to pray until God answered.
One day, after several months of praying, when Nehemiah brought the king’s wine to him, the king noticed that Nehemiah’s face was sad. Up to this time Nehemiah had concealed his sadness of heart for his countrymen and the condition of their beloved city, Jerusalem. But now the king inquired about the cause of his sadness, and Nehemiah explained it to him (Nehemiah 2:1-3).
Then King Artaxerxes said, “What is it you want?” (verse 4). The moment of crisis had arrived. Now Nehemiah had to lay before the king his request to go to Jerusalem and rebuild its wall. But before he replied, Nehemiah “prayed to the God of heaven, and [he] answered the king” (verses 4-5). Obviously, the king was not aware of Nehemiah’s quick, silent prayer. It was probably something like, “Lord, help me to speak. Give me favor in the king’s heart.” Nehemiah sent up this quick, silent prayer to heaven even as he was opening his mouth to speak to the king. In contrast to his planned, protracted, persevering prayer over the previous few months, this prayer was unplanned, short, and spontaneous.
Both types of prayer were needed in Nehemiah’s situation. Each gave validity to the other. Nehemiah didn’t presume on God by waiting until that eventful day in the king’s court to pray. He saw a need, and he persisted in prayer until God answered.
At the same time, Nehemiah didn’t plunge ahead to answer the king without first praying quickly and silently. He didn’t presume that because he had been praying for several months he didn’t need to pray at that time. He was very conscious of his total dependence on God, so his quick, silent prayer was a reflex action rather than a planned one.
We can learn from Nehemiah’s example how to pray for ourselves in the pursuit of holiness. Like Nehemiah, we need to set aside time each day for planned, protracted, persevering prayer. We need to lay before the Lord any areas of persistent sin in our lives: sins such as gossip; irritability; impatience; lack of love; impure thoughts; and undisciplined, wandering eyes. These sins need to be the object of earnest prayer that God would work in us and enable us to deal with them. Note that I said “enable us.” We are the ones who must deal with these sins, but the Holy Spirit must enable us to do it.
In Romans 8:13, the apostle Paul wrote, “But if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” Note again the dependent discipline. There is the discipline of putting to death the sins of the body that we will consider in detail in chapter 11, but we do this “by the Spirit.” This means continual, fervent prayer for the work of the Holy Spirit to enable us to do what is our duty to do. As John Murray said, “The believer is not endowed with a reservoir of strength from which he draws. It is always ‘by the Spirit’ that each sanctified and sanctifying activity is exercised.”[56]
It is precisely because we are not endowed with a reservoir of strength that we need to pray daily for the Spirit’s enabling work in us. Holiness requires continual effort on our part and continual nourishing and strengthening by the Holy Spirit. Unless you plan to pray, however, and set aside a specific time to do it, you will find that you will not carry out your good intentions. So if you do not already have this practice, why not stop and make your plan now? I also find it helpful to write down on paper (for my eyes only) the specific sins I need help to deal with and the specific virtues of Christian character in which, as far as I can tell, I most need to grow.
In addition to prayer about sins in our lives and areas of character in which we need to grow, it is also good to pray that we will be kept from temptation (Matthew 6:13) and that we will be alert to and not blindsided by temptation when it does come. Finally, in our planned time of prayer, it is good to pray along the lines of Hebrews 13:21, that God will work in us what is pleasing to Him, for He knows far better than we what really needs to happen in our lives at any given time.
Then like Nehemiah, we need those unplanned, short, spontaneous prayers. We need them throughout the day as we face temptations to sin and as we encounter circumstances in which we need help to display godly character. Whatever the situation, a simple, quick “Lord, help me” focuses our dependence upon God instead of our own willpower and brings the Spirit’s aid to us. He does withhold His aid when we forget our need of it and do not ask Him for it. So we need those short, spontaneous prayers throughout the day, both to help us cultivate a sense of our dependence on Christ and to receive His aid that He sends through His Spirit.
THE SIN OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY
I believe that one of the chief characteristics of our sinful nature, or “flesh,” as it is called in most Bible translations, is an attitude of independence toward God. Even when we know and agree that we are dependent on Him, we tend out of habit to act independently. It is part of “the evil I do not want to do —this I keep on doing” (Romans 7:19) syndrome that clings so tightly to us. Undoubtedly, one of the reasons God allows us to fall before temptation so often is to teach us experientially that we really are dependent on Him to enable us to grow in holiness.
One of the best ways, apart from those painful experiences of failure, to learn dependence is to develop the discipline of prayer. This forces us in a tangible way to acknowledge our dependence on the Holy Spirit. This is true because, for whatever else we may say about prayer, it is a recognition of our own helplessness and absolute dependence on God.
It is this admission of helplessness and dependence that is so repugnant to our sinful spirit of self-sufficiency. And if we are naturally prone by temperament to be disciplined, it is even more difficult to acknowledge that we are dependent on Christ and His Spirit instead of on our self-discipline.
Remember, however, that to become holy is to become like the Lord Jesus. And He Himself said, “By myself I can do nothing” (John 5:30). He was completely dependent on the Father, and He freely and willingly acknowledged it. His dependence was not reluctant; it was wholehearted —enthusiastic, even —because He knew that we are created to be dependent on God. So if we want to become holy, we must pursue not a spirit of independence, but a spirit of dependence. And one of the best means God has given us for doing this is the discipline of prayer.
Think of the two wings of the airplane: discipline and dependence. Do they exist in equal proportion in your life? Actually, we haven’t even begun to get into the disciplines yet, except for the disciplines of beholding Christ in the gospel and, now, prayer. Before we are finished, we’ll be looking at several more, and you will end up with a list of about six disciplines on the “discipline” wing of your airplane. But remember the farming illustration. There were six disciplines that farmers must perform, and only one thing they absolutely could not do. But that one thing was the most essential of all. So you may end up with six disciplines on that wing and only the one word, dependence, on the other wing. But dependence is the most vital of all and provides the essential balance to the sum of the disciplines.
Dependence is not simply one of a list of several disciplines. Rather, it gives life and vitality to them. Just as the principle of life that makes the seed grow gives fruition to all of the farmers’ efforts, so the enabling of the Holy Spirit within us gives fruition to our disciplines. Therefore, as we proceed to study the disciplines that are necessary to pursue holiness, keep in mind that dependence on the Holy Spirit should permeate them all.
[51] I understand the US Air Force does have one plane that is designed to fly with one engine and part of a wing missing.
[52] F. F. Bruce, The Epistles to the Colossians to Philemon and to the Ephesians, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1984), 88.
[53] Paraphrased from John Owen, The Works of John Owen, vol. 3, ed. William H. Goold (Edinburgh, Scotland: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1965; originally published 1850–1853), 384.
[54] Paraphrased from John Owen, Works of John Owen, 529.
[55] Jonathan Edwards, The Works of Jonathan Edwards, vol. 1, ed. Edward Hickman (Edinburgh, Scotland: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1974; originally published 1834), xx.
[56] John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans, vol. 1, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1968), 294.