Introduction to the "Honey-Combe"

The title of my blog, “Honey-Combe”, some may recognize as directly drawn from John Eaton’s Honey-Combe of Free Justification by Christ Alone. Eaton was a seventeenth century puritan who repeatedly claimed to be preaching a theology in agreement with early Protestant Reformers—Luther and Calvin. Despite this, his colleagues and later theological historians have labelled him the heresiarch of antinomianism or the father of an “entirely new point of view.” So the question for me is whether Eaton is deceptively claiming to be in agreement with these Reformers in order to promote a new Christian spirituality? Or he is reacting to a new moralism in attempt to preserve the essential elements of the Protestant Reformation?

Now this blog is not devoted to the question of whether this particular figure is right or wrong, but a place to discuss similar historical and theological questions in the hope of communicating the goodness of God more affectively and thereby effectively. Even though this conversation I mention was almost 400 years ago, it is entirely essential for the life of any believer. The question of how human and divine activity interacts in salvation and sanctification entirely affects the way the Gospel is preached and taught in our churches. Is Christianity a duty-driven spirituality or is it a desire-driven spirituality?

Other basic questions must be asked first before I can begin to answer such a question. Is God a singular essence where "Trinity" is just one point on a list of many other attributes? Or is his oneness best described as an eternal unity of mutual love? What is the image of God in man? What is the purpose of the law? What is sin? What is grace? How does Scripture communicate and define these terms? How has the church in the past communicated these ideas? And what influences have distorted our views of God and of ourselves as his creation? These questions and others will be the core of my blog.

The hope is that people will encounter and respond to the God who is love and is one in love. Whose love spilled over into creation where the very purpose of humanity was to be in relationship with God through the Spirit. Sadly, the Spirit was pushed away and fellowship was broken when Adam and Eve were captured by a love for themselves--that is, the nature of sin and source of our spiritual death. From that point, God has continually pursued his creation in order to rectify this relationship. The culmination of God's pursuit to rectify lost relationship comes by the Father sending the Son to defeat death by his death on the cross and by his resurrection, which made way for the out pouring of the Spirit, who re-establishes our relationship with God. But this time the relationship is more intimate by our greater union with and affection for the Son, our bridegroom. In other words, God humbled himself so that we may participate in the fellowship that is God through Christ by the Spirit. This is the sweet nectar of God’s goodness!