In days like our own, when many are leaving the church, there is furious attention given to the question what we can and should do to make the church more attractive. Books, websites, conferences, radio programs all give their versions of how to make the church building, the parking lot, the programs, and the worship of the church more attractive. This is not a new problem. The eighteenth century Scottish theologian William Cunningham said it well: “Men, under the pretence of curing the defects and shortcomings, the nakedness and bareness, attaching to ecclesiastical arrangements as set before us in the New Testament, have been constantly proposing innovations and improvements in government and worship.” [1]
Not infrequently, however, the Bible does speak about the attractiveness of the church of Jesus Christ. It is pictured as a bride adorned with ornaments and jewels (Isa. 61:10; Jer. 31:4; Rev. 21:2). The Lord Himself groomed and beautified her (Ezek. 16:12-13). He desires her beauty (Ps. 45:11). She is eminently beautiful (Ps. 48:2), in fact, “the perfection of beauty” (Ps. 50:2). She has beautiful garments (Isa. 52:1). Her Lord remarks on her beautiful figure and features (Song of Sol. 6:4; 7:1). Her worship is in the beauty of holiness (Pss. 29:1; 96:9). Her ministers are said to have beautiful feet (Isa. 52:7). Her Lord is Himself called beautiful (Pss. 27:4; 90:7). Clearly, the terms “church” and “beauty,” or “attractiveness,” belong together.
The real issue, not surprisingly, is not whether the church is to be attractive; instead it is to whom and in what way it is to be attractive. John Calvin says it well: “Christ adorns the Church His bride with holiness as a pledge of His good-will.… The true beauty of the Church consists in this conjugal chastity, that is in holiness and innocence.” [2] Seen from this perspective, making the church truly attractive to the Lord is the work of continuing reformation. It was a driving motivation behind every true reform movement in the history of the church. It ought to be also a real concern in our day as well. Those who claim to make the church more attractive by turning her away from true doctrine and pure worship are what we could call false beauticians. Under their hands, the church is robbed of her beauty and appears more like Jezebel with her face hideously painted (2 Kings 9:30).
In this light, it is proper to say that the real adorning of the church should be the concern of every servant of God, and in a way, every Christian. Think of Psalm 122:9: “Because of the house of the LORD our God I will seek thy good.” One of the great models for such a ministry that aims to make the church truly attractive is the biblical Ezra. In fact, Scripture explicitly uses the word “to beautify” in connection with his work. In Ezra 7:27 we read Ezra’s words: “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart, to beautify the house of the LORD which is in Jerusalem.” The import of this comment is not restricted only to the supplies the Persian king gave to the Judeans for their temple. Though that is the immediate context, Ezra’s words make clear that he is concerned with how the house of God is faring, and how beautiful it appears. And so in a way, this comment about the king reflects upon Ezra himself. In fact, as we shall see, Ezra’s whole mission aims at beautifying God’s people.
The ministry of Ezra unfolds in two segments, one which is narrated for us in Ezra 7-10, and one in Nehemiah 8-10. These two segments correspond with a dual emphasis in Ezra’s ministry. The first shows how Ezra engaged in a convicting ministry (Ezra 9-10); the second, how he fostered an equipping ministry (Nehemiah 8-10). Significantly, both of these emphases fit the idea of adornment, for in order to beautify you often first have to uncover and unmask. You first take away the old and artificial, before you can put on the real and the true. That is what Ezra is doing in Ezra 9-10. Then, he turns to the real work of beautifying the people of God, as we shall trace in Nehemiah 8-10. Before we trace these two emphases in turn, we first need to look briefly at the person of Ezra.
The Person Of Ezra
Ezra’s personal history is rather intriguing. We only have a handful of chapters that speak about him. Nevertheless, there is quite a bit we can learn about him. First of all, Ezra had a great history behind him. He came on the scene about 70 years after the first return from exile. God had begun to bring His remnant back. Psalm 126:1-2 captures the scene well: “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing.” This was a great day. Meanwhile, Ezra himself, also came from a great, historic line. We are told in Ezra 7:1-5 that he was from the priestly line, the line of Aaron. This was the house that was to offer a sacrifice unto the Lord in righteousness. They were to mediate between God and Israel. This, then, is Ezra’s personal history.
Secondly, he had the Word of God with him. We are told that he was a scribe. As a scribe he was schooled in the oracles of God. He knew them like few others did. What is more, he put himself under the Word of God. We are told that he “prepared his heart to seek the law of the LORD, and to do it. And to teach in Israel statutes and judgments” (Ezra 7:10). Like the man in Psalm 1, his delight was in the law of the Lord. He gave himself to a threefold objective, verse 10 tells us: the art of knowing Scripture, the practice of Scripture, and the work of teaching Scripture, in that order. This was Ezra’s relationship to Scripture.
Thirdly, he had the providence of God undergirding him. We are told this in 7:9: “On the first day of the fifth month came he to Jerusalem, according to the good hand of his God upon him.” This means, of course, that the providence of God was leading him in a particular way to a particular task. It is worth noting that Ezra himself acknowledged how providence was sustaining and guiding him. For example, he ascribed to God the good favor of the Persian king allowing him to return. He wrote: “Blessed be the LORD God of our fathers, which hath put such a thing as this in the king’s heart” (Ezra 7:26). This refers to the king’s decision to sponsor his mission to Judah. Likewise, when certain capable men were found to accompany him, he ascribed that also to the providence of God: “And by the good hand of our God upon us they brought us a man of understanding” (8:18).
Fourthly, he had vital faith impelling him. This became evident especially when, on his way back to Judah, he refused to ask the king to give him a military escort. Instead he called for fasting and prayer to God, “to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones” (Ezra 8:22). This one incident, however, marks his whole life, at least all that is recorded about him. Within Ezra beat a heart that was full of living, vibrant faith.
Finally, he had a weighty task ahead of him. There is no better description for that task than the word “reformation.” It is true, Ezra did not use that word itself. In fact, Scripture only uses that exact word in Hebrews 9:10, when it speaks of the ceremonies and Mosaic ordinances being abrogated. Instead Ezra used a more picturesque term, which gets at the essence of what reformation is all about. As I already noted, Ezra uses the term “to beautify” (Ezra 7:27). Or as he describes it in the next chapter, “and they furthered (or supported) the people, and the house of God” (Ezra 8:36). What did this task entail and how did Ezra work that out? For that we must turn first to the events in Ezra 9-10.
Ezra’s Convicting Ministry
The historical facts are as follows: After only a few days of being in Jerusalem, it was brought to Ezra’s attention that there were serious problems in the church at Jerusalem. “The people of the return have intermarried with the surrounding people,” he is told (Ezra 9:1-2). The problem was so wide-spread that it had reached the highest eschalons of leadership, including the priests and rulers. In fact, the problem was most pronounced within the leadership.
Upon hearing this Ezra sat down in astonishment and began to lament the state of Zion. Then at the time of the evening sacrifice, he began to confess the people’s sin against a well-doing God. As he did so, he was joined by a growing number of people until the text says (10:1): “the people wept very sore.” Then a certain Shechaniah, the son of Jehiel, suggested to Ezra that the people draw up a covenant, and the work of dissolving these wrong marriages began. A covenant was drawn up and in the remaining part of this book its stipulations were enacted. By the end of the book, we have Ezra the priest and others with him verifying that the covenant has been fulfilled and that the work has been done.
What is the import of all this? Essentially, Ezra is engaged in the full-orbed ministry of conviction. As a scribe of the book of the law, he must have known the events of Israel’s apostasy with the golden calf (Ex. 32-34), and the events of Baal-Peor (Num. 25). In both cases, Moses led the people in a similar kind of ministry of conviction, and now Ezra follows Moses’ model.
First, Ezra uncovered a church-compromising spirit. Compromise, by definition, involves concession. When the spirit of compromise is taken into the realm of biblical truth, and involves the weakening of those principles, compromise is devastating. When we compromise between a biblical principle and an unbiblical principle, we lose the biblical truth. This is what happened in Ezra’s day. The biblical precept was not to intermarry with those outside the covenant community (Deut. 7:1– 4). At some point, some conceded on this point. We don’t know the specifics, but at some point, the people en masse had departed from this statute. No, they had not abandoned the laws of Moses altogether. They still performed many ceremonies; they still fulfilled their priestly duties, they still associated with their people, but they had begun marrying outside the covenant community.
A church-compromising spirit is the tendency to weaken the character or the mission of the church. God has ordained the church to be holy; when we compromise, we allow in unholiness. God has ordained worship to be God-centered and biblical; when we compromise, we mix in man-centeredness and unbiblical elements. God has given the church the task of witness in the world; when we compromise we allow the world to supplant the witness of the church. This compromising spirit soon took over the church in Ezra’s day. The holy seed was affected (9:2). Later on in Nehemiah’s time we read how some of the outsiders were given space within the temple precincts (Neh. 13). The momentum was underway.
It is notable that Ezra the scribe simply had to come into Judah and sin appeared as sin. Ezra did not even have time to look for it. It was as if a light came into a dark place and all of a sudden the reality of compromise within the walls of the church came to light. Ezra was a man of the Word. And where the Word comes in all its seriousness and solemnity, one need not even say much, but sin appears to be sin. Ezra’s presence brought to light a church-compromising spirit.
In Zechariah 5, we read the night vision of the flying scroll. The Lord says: “I will bring it [the flying scroll] forth, and it shall enter into the house of the thief and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name; and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof” (Zech 5:4). This flying scroll, obviously a reference to the Word of God (in scroll-form), is depicted here exerting its power. It uncovers sin as sin and kills it.
Contrary to what many today think will make the church more attractive, Ezra’s ministry of conviction shows where it all must begin. The Word of God must be brought to bear on the reality of sin. If the Word does its work under God’s hand, sin will appear as sin. Paul said it well when he was reflecting on his own experience of conviction: “For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died” (Rom. 7:11).
If we set ourselves to the task of bringing the claim of the Word of God upon our own lives, and our own churches and situation, sinful compromise will come from its hiding-places. John the Baptist started preaching the message of repentance, and we read that sinners of all kinds appeared. Or think of Christ’s coming into the world, and the demons coming out of their hiding places.
At the Council of Wezel (1568), Germany, the Reformed churches formulated the ministry of conviction as follows: “The minister shall attempt, as much as he is able, to uncover all hiding places, and secret shrouds of the human heart…and he shall not only pursue public sins and gross transgressions, but he must likewise endeavor to uncover and to root out the hidden spiritual hypocrisies and the hot-beds of ungodliness, presumption and ingratitude that do even secretly appear in the best of us.” [3]
Besides revealing a church-compromising spirit, Ezra had a man-abasing spirit. Compromise has a man-aggrandizing character. It makes much of man, his abilities, his finesse, his frowns, his smiles, his standards. But conviction does the opposite to man. It puts man in his proper place.
Self-abasement is the humbling oneself to one’s proper place as a sinner with no rights, no excuses, no mitigating circumstances, only with sin, and shame, and confusion of face before a well-doing and gracious God, who has been nothing but patience and goodness and kindness put together. Ezra expressed it well in Ezra 9:15: “We are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.” Self-abasement is confession of sins in their specificity and depth.
The focus of this self-abasement is, however, not ourselves. Rather, it is God. For it is when we truly reckon with God as God and as a well-doing God, that we cannot but abase ourselves before Him. And so, Ezra justified God and cleared Him of any wrong-doing. He says: “O Lord God of Israel, thou art righteous.”
The remarkable thing, however, is that Ezra led the way in self-abasement. Ezra was a man of great spiritual stature; but that was especially evident when he was on his knees. He did not even call the people to repentance. He simply embarked on it himself. He included himself among the ranks of the sinners. He began to see their sin as his and confess their sin as his. Ezra 9:6 –7 shows this: “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 trespass is grown up unto the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.” He identified with his people.
What is more, here we have Ezra’s immediate reaction when he heard of the sin. He did not need to think about what the best approach might be. He was so steeped in the Scriptures that the sin of others undoubtedly prompted him to reflect on his common lot with them. He did not exalt himself above any, but reckoned himself as one of them. The ministry of conviction begins with the self-abasement of one person who is so impressed with God’s holiness and his own sin that he cannot but abase himself.
The source of true self-abasement lies with God Himself. God has promised that He would pour out a spirit of grace and supplication and thereupon people will mourn (Zech 12:10). And God has promised a new heart so that we would begin to loathe ourselves (Ezek. 36:31). This is what we should see happening in the background. God was pouring out a spirit of grace and supplications and Ezra mourned; he mourned apart, but others began to mourn as well. So much so that we are told that there “was a very great congregation of men and women and children: for the people wept very sore” (Ezra 10:1).
The third aspect of Ezra’s ministry of conviction was this, that it yielded God-glorifying results.
First of all, the confession itself is God-glorifying. Ezra had just declared God righteous. This aimed at the glorification of the divine attribute of righteousness. The Lord is precisely glorified in the true confession of sin and in true repentance, as Luke 15:7 proves: “Likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth.”
But secondly, the people vow to separate themselves from the people of the land and from foreign wives (10:11). Here the people are essentially expressing a Nazarite-type vow, a vow of separation from what is opposed to God and dedication to God. It is as Paul says: “Be ye not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Rom 12:2). This certainly brings glory to God, for He has made us for Himself and we have been made for His honor.
But thirdly, the people not only repent and vow, but they fulfill their vow. They separate themselves from the nations around them. Ezra calls this “doing the pleasure of the Lord” (10:11). They worked to do the pleasure of God. As Samuel said: “Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams” (1 Sam. 15:22). Obedience delights the Lord. For these are the works which God has foreordained that His people walk in them (Eph. 2:10).
Many people mistakenly think Ezra was far too strict and legalistic. They imagine that the New Testament offers a radically different message. However, Paul’s knife is as sharp as Ezra’s when he wrote to the Corinthians: “And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”(2 Cor. 6:15-18).
These three elements are the elements of the ministry of conviction: exposing a church-compromising spirit, engaging upon a man-abasing work, and expecting God-glorifying results. This ministry gives true hope for change. In Ezra 10:2 we read that the elders came to Ezra and said: “yet, now there is hope in Israel concerning this thing.” They are referring to hope of renewal, the hope for restoration. There is hope that God will be pleased in His people, which served the original intent of Ezra — to beautify the house of the Lord.
Ezra’s Equipping Ministry
There is always a wonderful balance within Scripture, between law and gospel, sin and grace, sorrow and joy. Likewise, in Ezra’s ministry we see a progression from conviction to edification, from breaking down to building up, from pruning to planting. This is the focus of Ezra’s ministry according to Nehemiah 8 –10. There were few men in the Old Testament who had a ministry so focused on equipping the people of God.
The placement of Nehemiah 8-10 suggests that thirteen years have passed since Ezra first arrived. We know nothing of the intervening period. We only know that when Nehemiah arrived some thirteen years later, he directed the building of the wall with remarkable speed. The city of Jerusalem was now a vast, fortified expanse with few inhabitants (7:4). The question is, how can this city of God be populated? Which people will be allowed to live in the city? And so, chapter 7 gives us a list of all the families of the return, and still we are left with the question: who of these people will live in Zion? It is not unlike the question that Psalm 15 asks: “LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?” After all, this is Zion, the city of the great king. It is at this point that the people ask for the book of the law. It is noteworthy that they ask for the law to be brought. They are seeking for guidance, for direction, for God’s Word.
According to Nehemiah 8:1, on the first day of this seventh month, which we know from the laws of Moses as the feast of trumpets (Lev. 23:24), Ezra stood up in the midst of the people and read the scroll from morning till mid-day. You could form a certain perspective:
Never did a feast of trumpets sound such a trumpet! Ezra’s associates proceeded to explain and apply the Word of God in such a way that the people understood it. The response of the people was one of sadness and lamentation (see Neh. 8:9: “all the people wept, when they heard the words of the law”). They were obviously impressed with the weight and solemnity of the content of the Word. Ezra and the others exhorted them not to be sad, since this is a day for rejoicing. Instead, they called for rejoicing and feasting, with the encouragement that “the joy of the LORD is your strength” (Neh. 8:10). And so their sadness was turned into rejoicing. Not only did they keep this day festively, but also the feast of tabernacles later that same month, each day listening attentively to an exposition of the Word of God. And this ministry of the Word had an ever widening impact. In the next chapters we are told how this climaxes in this national covenant the people undertook in order to live a life devoted unto God.
These were the events that made up Ezra’s equipping ministry. We could define an equipping ministry as follows: It focuses on furnishing God’s people with the necessary tools for practical, everyday, sanctified living before God. Or to say it another way: An equipping ministry seeks to outfit God’s people with all the necessary knowledge, encouragement, and prompting to live as kings and priests in this world in worship, holiness, and witness to the glory of the Triune God.
How did Ezra go about this work of equipping the saints of God? First, Ezra’s equipping ministry aimed to reach the minds of his hearers. Notice how he first of all, read from the scroll. Ezra realized that if his people were at all to be taught, they needed to have the Word brought to them. And so he read at length — a number of hours, by all indications.
Second, he elevated the scroll. He engaged in a symbolic act that highlighted the significance of the Word of God. Nehemiah 8:5-6 says: “Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, (for he was above the people), and when he had opened it, all the people stood up. And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, with lifting up their hands: and they bowed their heads, and worshipped the LORD with their faces to the ground.” Whatever else was intended in this symbolic act, this much is clear: Ezra wanted the people to see that the Word was to have preeminence. This Word proceeded from God and demanded worship back to God. The people indicated they have understood this by bowing down. They hereby showed that they must submit to the Word.
Finally, Ezra and his associates exposited the content of the Word of God and applied its truths to the people. Nehemiah 8:7-8 reads: The various men “caused the people to understand the law.” This meant that Ezra wanted everyone to know and understand the content of this scroll. He was clearly convinced that the Word had to reach the people. It had to reach their minds. There should be no doubt about its content and relevance to each person. Ezra was convinced that if this people were at all to be reformed, it would have to be by the Word addressing their minds. Nehemiah 8:8 explains: “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.” The Princeton theologian Archibald Alexander echoed this same truth: “By a clear exhibition of Gospel truth, on all the important points of religion, the people should be so instructed, and so imbued with the truth, that error shall make no impression on them.” [4]
Ezra’s ministry, however, was no mere objectivism with addresses and discourses aimed to engage the mind, and nothing more. His equipping ministry was, secondly, a ministry that sought to direct the heart. Ezra counseled the people in their response to the Word. The text tells us that they lamented (Neh. 8:9). By the operation of the Holy Spirit, these truths that Ezra had aimed at their minds had such an effect that the people could not help but react with great mourning. They were lamenting their sins and were impressed under the judgments of the Lord, as they are announced in the books of Moses. This is clearly a very natural response to the work of the law as it is brought home to the conscience. But note how Ezra sought to guide the response of the people. Together with the others, he counseled them and sought to direct their response. We read in Nehemiah 8:9 –10: “This day is holy unto the LORD your God; mourn not, nor weep.… Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared: for this day is holy unto our Lord: neither be ye sorry; for the joy of the LORD is your strength.”
We see here that Ezra pointed out what was to be their strength in the midst of their weakness. He pointed them to the holy day that the Lord had appointed. He counseled them to joy in the Lord, to direct their joy in a sanctified manner. In all these things, he aimed to direct their hearts. While they had one reaction, Ezra pastorally took them by the hand and led them further. Instead of a cold objectivism, we see here a rich and full emphasis on the subjective experience of faith. He showed a sympathizing or priestly ministry that gave spiritual guidance to needy people. He showed them how the people should direct their hearts and in what direction they should move.
Think of how Christ gave this spiritual guidance perfectly as the great High Priest of His people. He led the weeping Mary Magadalene to rejoice in the grace of adoption (John 20:15-18). He led Peter from the bitterness of denying Christ to the joy of renewed ministry (John 21:15-17). He led the men on the way to Emmaus from crushed hopes to rekindled hearts (Luke 24:25-35). He led a Thomas from morbid doubts to revived communion with the Savior (John 20:26-29). In each of these cases, the Lord ministered in such a way that the joy of the Lord became the strength of these needy souls.
This is an essential part of an equipping ministry. The Puritans are well known for exactly this, guiding the heart and the response of their hearers. They were often called soul-physicians. [5] This is in line with what we find in Proverbs 13:17: “A faithful ambassador is health.” They counseled people on their response to the Word and sought to direct them further, from sadness to joy, from questions to answers, from doubt to assurance, from affliction to hope.
Third, Ezra’s equipping ministry was eminently practical. It aimed to influence their day-to-day life. It gave their devotion to God real hands and feet, you could say. We see this especially in Nehemiah 9-10. There Ezra led the people in a covenanting ceremony, in which the people pledged before God to live their lives in a way that reflected their devotion unto the Lord. Chapter 10 gives us the names of all those who entered into this solemn covenant, and we find this as their chief characteristic: “They had separated (or devoted, or sanctified) themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God” (10:28). Each specification of this covenant meant that the people would live their lives — not for themselves, but for the Lord, for His service and cause. They became very practical. The covenant addressed such things as marriage, worship, giving, etc. The climactic line of this whole covenant was: “And we will not forsake the house of our God” (Neh. 10:39). Ezra’s equipping ministry re-oriented them very decidedly and practically around the house of God. The people would now live in a way that revolved around the service of the Lord.
Under the Lord’s blessing, Ezra’s equipping ministry pushed through the mind and heart to activate the hands and feet of the people of God. The Lord owned and blessed this reformation and it extended into the far reaches of everyday life. All of life was stamped by the Word of God, and all of life was consecrated into service unto God.
A ministry that only addresses the mind will end up in objectivism and rationalism; a ministry that only addresses the heart will promote subjectivism and mysticism; a ministry that only activates the hands will result in activism and pragmatism. A ministry that addresses the whole man will, under the blessing of the Spirit, equip the body of Christ in her duty and calling.
It is not difficult to see in Ezra’s equipping ministry, the shadow of the Mediator’s unparalleled ministry. Ezra read the word as prophet; he ministered in the grief of the people as a priest, and he directed the people’s actions as a king. But therein he foreshadowed that great Scribe — or Secretary, who not only proclaimed the Word, but was the Word; not only counseled the Word, but lived the Word; not only activated in accord with the Word, but inscribes the Word on the heart by the power of His Spirit. Christ and His Spirit are the great hope to make the church truly attractive. Her beauty appears at the behest of and through the gracious work of her beautiful Bridegroom. Ultimately, Ezra’s ministry fulfilled God’s promise: “For the LORD taketh pleasure in his people: he will beautify the meek with salvation” (Ps. 149:4).
Should we aim to make the church of Christ attractive? Yes, but then attractive from out of God, in accordance with God’s Word, and unto God’s praise. May God grant us days of reformation again, furthered by convicting and equipping ministries like that of Ezra, “till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ…from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:13-16).
Notes
- William Cunningham, The Reformers and the Theology of the Reformation (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1862), 36-37.
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians, trans. W. Pringle (Reprint; Grand Rapids: Baker, 1999), 321.
- Articles of the Council of Wezel, II, 23. See Johannes Ens and Simon van Velzen, Kort historisch berigt van de publieke schriften, rakende de leer en dienst der Neder-duitsche kerken van de Vereenigde Nederlanden, zijnde de formulieren van eenheid en de liturgie: doorgaans gevoegd achter de Psalmboeken, die in deze Kerken gebruikt worden (Kampen: S. van Velzen Jr, 1861), 209.
- Archibald Alexander, “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth,” in The Princeton Pulpit, ed. John T. Duffield (New York: Scribner, 1852), 34.
- J. I. Packer, A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 1990), 43.
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