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Grace and GloryHardover, 291 pg. Read: January 3-April 18, 2021 |
Oops
Back in 2019, I went shopping for a copy of these sermons by Vos and found a handful of editions. I picked one purely based on price. It looked like a decent quality version, but nothing fancy. Sure, the Hardcover published by the Banner of Truth would be nicer, but I didn’t need the fancy cloth binding.
What I learned later was that the Banner edition included ten additional sermons. So passing that over to save a couple of bucks was not the brightest move I’ve ever made.
I’ve mixed in what I posted about the shorter version with the rest of this post, in case someone’s in the mood to get all persnickety about plagiarism.
Christ’s work for us extends even farther than the restoration of what sin has destroyed. If Christ placed us back there where Adam stood in his rectitude, without sins and without death, this would be unspeakable grace indeed, more than enough to make the gospel a blessed word. But grace exceeds sin far more abundantly than all this: besides wiping out the last vestige of sin and its consequences, it opens up for us that higher world to whose threshold even the first Adam had not yet apprehended. And this is not a mere matter of degrees in blessedness, it is a difference between two modes of life; as heaven is high above the earth, by so much the condition of our future state will transcend those of the paradise of old.
What’s Grace and Glory?
For most people (who’ve heard of him), Geerhardus Vos is known as a theologian—one of the Twentieth Century’s brightest stars, the man who showed that the academic discipline known as Biblical Theology wasn’t the domain solely of Theological Liberalism, but that a robust, Bible-believing thinker could (and should) contribute to the field.
But before he was a theologian or professor, Vos was a preacher. And this small collection of sermons shows how capable he must have been.
Yes, there’s rich theology behind these sermons, but they’re primarily expositions and applications of the texts for the hearers. And, yes, the audiences of these sermons were students at Princeton Theological Seminary (before the downgrade that led to the creation of Westminster Theological Seminary), but these were not airy, academic addresses. Sure, as the initial hearers were largely future ministers, there are portions that are more applicable to preachers than to laity. But there’s not a lot of that, and even in the midst of one of those sections, there’s still a lot of gold to be mined.
The first person to whom he showed himself alive after the resurrection was a weeping woman who had no greater claim upon him than any simple penitent sinner has. No eye except that of the angels had as yet rested upon his form. The time was as solemn and majestic as that of the first creation when light burst out of chaos and darkness. Heaven and earth were concerned in this event; it was the turning-point of the ages. Nor was this merely objectively so: Jesus felt himself the central figure in this newborn universe; he tasted the exquisite joy of one who had just entered upon an endless life in the possession of new powers and faculties such as human nature had never known before. Would it have been unnatural had he sought some quiet place to spend the opening hour of this new unexplored state in communion with the Father? Can there be any room in his mind for the humble ministry of consolation required by Mary? He answers these questions himself. Among all the voices that hailed his triumph no voice appealed to him like this voice of weeping in the garden. The first appearance of the risen Lord was given to Mary for no other reason than that she needed him first and needed him most. And what more appropriate beginning could have been set for his ministry of glory than this very act? Nothing could better convince us that in his exalted state he retains for us the same tender sympathy, the same individual affection as he showed during the days of his flesh.
So, what did I think about Grace and Glory?
When I wrote about the original edition, I stated that: I don’t think it was by design, but the second, fourth, and sixth sermons were the ones that I appreciated most—my notes weren’t really that helpful, especially now. All I wrote about #2 “Hungering and Thirsting after Righteousness” was “Wow! Fantastic.” True, but that’s not really helpful—Vos opens up the idea about how Christ uses the believer’s faith (hungering and thirsting) to fill and bless them. The sermon “‘Rabboni'” (about Mary’s encounter with the risen Christ near the tomb) is less than twenty pages long, but was better than Richard Sibbes’ sermon series (184 pages in the Banner of Truth edition) on the same passage—I can’t do it justice here, so I won’t try. And the last sermon? It’s worth more than the purchase price of the whole book.
I also said that I fully expected when I re-read this book in 2021 or so, I’d say something just as strong about the odd-numbered sermons and wonder what I was talking about now. That’s wasn’t the case, in retrospect, but I would put “Rabboni” ahead of “Heavenly-Mindedness” (which was still worth the purchase price of the paperback). J. Gresham Machen called “Rabboni” “one of the finest expository sermons I have ever heard.” It’s definitely one of the finest I’ve ever read.
I was a little less taken with the additional material than I wanted to be—nothing was bad, mind you, but I think the original compilation was stronger. Naturally, there were a couple of exceptions, “The Eternal Christ” and “The Gracious Provision,” were just as strong as any of the first group.
As Scott Clark mentions in his forward to the Solid Ground Publication edition, Vos was a poet (particularly in retirement, but before then, too). And you can see that in some of these sermons—they practically sing. I can only imagine how captivating these were hearing them, they’re stirring just reading them.
Either edition qualifies as one of the best collections of sermons I’ve ever read. My only complaint is that there were only six, until I found the additional material—now my only complaint is that there’s only one volume of these. Get this one.
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