On Being A Son

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. (Galatians 4:4-7 ESV)

My sister and I were the only children in our family. My father didn’t seem to mind that he had no sons, but my mother mentioned a few times that our family was the end of the line for his surname in our branch of the family tree. There were no sons to carry on his name.

That he had an all girl family didn’t make any difference when it came to inheritance. As a rule, when the last parent dies, if there’s no will that states otherwise, all surviving children, male and/or female, divide the inheritance equally. When my father died a few years ago my sister and I split the inheritance.

When Paul wrote his letter to the Galatians, which contains the text at the beginning of this post, this is not the way it worked. In ancient Rome, women were usually provided for by the men in their lives, and did not inherit the family’s wealth. Sons, however, could inherit. If there were no natural-born sons to inherit, or if, for some reason, the father did not wish to leave what he owned to his natural-born sons, he could adopt a man of good character to inherit his estate. It was a great privilege for a man to be adopted as a son.

It was, at least as it pertained to inheritance, better to be a son than a daughter, and better to be an adopted son than a natural one. Natural sons could be disowned and disinherited, but not so with adopted sons. Adoption was permanent. When a man was adopted, he became a chosen heir. He would inherit for certain.

It’s probably this kind of adoption Paul had in mind when he used adopted sonship to illustrate the relationship between the believer and God in the passage above. And as the context of these verses makes clear (see 3:28-29), both men and women are God’s adopted sons. Paul used a human institution that applied to men only to illustrate something that, in God’s household, applies to both men and women.

Some translations of the Bible translate son and sons in this passage as child and children. This is not necessarily wrong, but it does obscure one of the main points of the passage, and strips Paul’s chosen analogy of its power. Believing women are not simply children of God—and not simply his daughters, who, in Paul’s day, would have owned nothing for themselves. No, we are adopted sons. Our adoption papers are signed and notarized, and we are permanent designated heirs. In Christ, God’s riches belong to us forever for certain.

God adopts believers as his sons, and it changes everything for them. Every believer’s inheritance is secure because they are adopted sons of God. If we are adopted sons—and we are!—our inheritance is guaranteed.

Doctrine Matters: Imputation

For decades as a Christian, I was taught and believed that Jesus got me in the door, but the rest was up to me. This was terrifying. I remember crying as a child wondering if I would have the courage to be a martyr for Christ, and wondering if I would lose my salvation if I failed. I remember hearing about the movie, A Thief in the Night, and wondering what would happen if I wasn't ready. I lived with so much uncertainty that current events would strike fear in my heart because I doubted I would be good enough when Christ returned.

Finally one day, I was raking leaves and listening to R.C. Sproul's lectures on What is Reformed Theology?. When he discussed the doctrine of justification by faith alone, it was as though the sun broke through the darkness, and I experienced assurance for the first time in my Christian life.

"In the final analysis, the only way that any person is ever justified before God is by works.  We are saved by works, and we are saved by works alone.  Don't touch that dial..."

"[W]hen I say that we are justified by works and by works alone, what do I mean by it? I mean that the grounds of my justification and the grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We're saved by works, but they are not our own. That's why we say we're saved by faith, and we're saved by grace, because the works that save us aren't our works, they're Somebody else's works."¹

God takes my sin and places it on the righteous, holy, perfect Lamb of God and expends His wrath upon the Him. But if the story ended there, my sins would have been dealt with, but what about my life? What about God's just requirement that we be holy as He is holy? He takes the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ and puts that to my account. This is imputation. There is no question anymore of where I stand before God. The endless cycle of trying to earn acceptance before God is broken once and for all.

The understanding of imputation also holds out the only real hope that real Christians have of maintaining real acceptance with the real God. The reality of imputed righteousness is a real encouragement to ongoing sinners. Even as believers we must admit that sin is mixed with all we do. Even though we are justified believers, we still stumble and fall. We still make backward steps. What will keep a believer persevering in the face of remaining sin? Just this: the knowledge that the righteousness that renders us acceptable to God is not our personal achievement. It is Christ's righteousness achieved for us.

What is a Christian to do when he stumbles and falls in sin?  He must keep looking to Christ by humbly repenting and starting over.  This is how we battle discouragement. This is what keeps us from losing hope. On the believer's worst day this thought can keep him from utter despair: Jesus Christ is my righteousness. To see, remember and believe that God has credited Christ’s righteousness to us and has on that basis accepted us once and for all, is to find the strength and the direction to fight against every form of discouragement and temptation and frustration in life.²

This is why I love the doctrine of imputation. Having lived without assurance so long, it's no wonder I can't forget the day when I realized that peace with God rested outside of me or my performance. I still stumble and my assurance may waiver, but there is someone else that I can look to - Jesus Christ, my righteousness.

Sources:
1. What is Reformed Theology? Teaching series by R.C. Sproul, Ligonier Ministries.
2. Imputation: The Sinners Only Hope - Thomas K. Ascol, Founders Journal, Issue 59, Winter 2005, pp. 1-13.

This is based on a post from my personal blog from 2010.

Pivotal Doctrines

This week the subject of our group post is doctrine; specifically, which doctrines have been pivotal in our lives in Christ. Feel free to use the comments section to share your own experiences.

Kim:

About seventeen years ago, I reached a place in my faith where I began to ask questions. To make a long story short, I was becoming a little disenchanted with evangelicalism. I was homeschooling at the time, and my own intellectual curiosity stirred questions in my mind. After reading Mark Noll's The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, I began asking more questions.

I had been baptized as a Catholic, although the only real instruction I had was when my parents made me attend mass as a teen because I was planning to become a Mormon. In my desire to know truth, I thought to myself, "Am I wrong to just dismiss Catholicism?" I had come to see that evangelicalism often misrepresents Catholicism, and I wondered if I had got it wrong. I started searching. At the same time, I knew that my own attitude lacked grace and I wanted to understand more about that. Looking at a Ligonier catalogue, I ended up buying R.C. Sproul's What is Reformed Theology (at that time, it was called Grace Unknown). It was there that I was introduced to the Reformed doctrine of justification, and specifically, its relationship to sanctification.

In my study of Catholicism, I had learned that justification is progressive. One can be more or less justified, and there is a heavy emphasis on works, especially the sacraments. I was a little uneasy about this, because it just didn't seem right to me, although I could not explain exactly why. Once I began reading about justification through Sproul's book, and through more extensive searching in Scripture, it became clearer to me: justification is a positional reality, although it has wide-reaching implications. We stand before God being right in his sight through the blood of Christ. It is sanctification which is progressive, as we become more and more conformed to Christ. Roman Catholicism merges the two rather than viewing them as separate occurrences.

If we have a wrong understanding of justification, we will struggle. We will attempt to do good so that we may "feel" more justified. There is no deeper level of justification; we either stand before God justified or we don't. Sanctification, however, is a different matter. We are sanctified over our entire lifetime. And it is something done by the Holy Spirit, although we must yield to the will of the Spirit ourselves. This reality that there is nothing I can "do" to be more justified has been very helpful, and understanding the gradual process of sanctification has helped me, I hope, be more gracious about the whole process.

Of course, I'm still learning about sanctification, and even this past semester in my Systematic Theology class, I realized that there is much to learn about the balance between these two doctrines. I will always be thankful that I was directed to Sproul's book, because it answered a crucial question in my life, even if I'm still learning.


Persis:

I grew up in a Christian home. I believe God saved me as child, but for decades I didn't understand what I believed or why I believed it. Because of this lack, I thought the gospel was baby stuff to get me in the door. Then the rest was up to me. This was terrifying when I began to realize how weak I was in myself. I had a dread of denying Christ if I faced persecution, but I also feared His coming because I thought I would only be received by God if I achieved a certain level of spirituality. Needless to say, I didn't have much assurance.

I had begun attending a Reformed Baptist Church 9 years ago and slowly began to understand that the gospel was much more than the truncated version I used to believe. I also began listening to lectures on theology, one of which was R.C. Sproul's series -  What is Reformed Theology?. I loaded the talks on my IPod and listened to them while raking leaves in the fall of 2010 when the heavens parted, as it were, and the doctrine of imputation clicked. Sproul asked, why was it necessary for Jesus to come to earth as an infant? Why didn't He just show up as a man, die on the cross, and then go back to glory? What was the point? If Jesus only died for our sins and exited this world, our sin debt would be paid but we would still lack a perfect righteousness that was required by God. We needed both - atonement for sin and a perfect record before God. And praise God, Christ has done both. He took the record of our sins and bore their just punishment on our behalf on the cross. But that's not all. He lived a perfect, righteous, and holy life, and His record is credited or imputed to us. God can now declare us righteous in His sight because both requirements have been fulfilled. As Sproul said,

"In the final analysis, the only way that any person is ever justified before God is by works.  We are saved by works, and we are saved by works alone.  Don't touch that dial..."

What?!

"[W]hen I say that we are justified by works and by works alone, what do I mean by it? I mean that the grounds of my justification and the grounds of your justification are the perfect works of Jesus Christ. We're saved by works but they are not our own. That's why we say we're saved by faith, and we're saved by grace, because the works that save us aren't our works, they're Somebody else's works."

This is such a comfort to me because I still sin as a believer. I sometimes doubt whether God fully accepts me. But I don't need to despair because I don't look to myself or my record. I can point to the perfect work of Jesus Christ in His death and life and rest in what He has done. As Dr. Tom Ascol writes, "If justification is the heart of the gospel, then imputation is the heart of justification." And it is beautiful.


Rebecca:

When God created the first human beings, he made them in his image—or, to put it another way, he created them to represent him in his creation. He gave them a mandate to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Genesis 1:26-28).

These truths from the creation story stands behind the doctrine of vocation—the teaching that all human work, unless it is immoral, is a calling from God. Understanding the doctrine of vocation has transformed my thinking about the work I do, and the work others do, too. This doctrine not a first order one, I suppose, but it has influenced both my thought and my practice significantly over the past few years.

According to the doctrine of vocation, all human tasks have meaning and dignity, even the mundane ones, because when we work, we represent God. He stands hidden behind every job we do and accomplishes his providential care for his creation through us. Or, as Martin Luther put it, our tasks are “masks of God.”

For example, this past weekend I dog sat for my daughter and her husband. I took care of their dog and my own, feeding, watering, and walking them both. These are small, seemingly unimportant chores, but the doctrine of vocation teaches me that they are significant to God. I was representing him by protecting and providing for two of his creatures.

As I vacuumed the floors this morning, I also wore a “mask of God.” He maintained my home—a place where dogs, grandchildren, and others thrive—through my work. And the mail carrier who just delivered the parcel with a few boxes of noodles and a jar of pea butter imaged God by providing food for me. What's more, as my son tilled my garden this afternoon, he was representing God by preparing the soil to grow food to sustain my family and me.

The doctrine of vocation helps me do my work—the work God calls me to do, both big jobs and small ones—joyfully, and reminds me to thank God for the work he gives me—and everyone else—to do.

Deb:

The Lord saved me later in life through a fairly radical conversion out of the kingdom of darkness and death. Such stark and dramatic changes wrought by the Lord in my life provided the fertile soil on which the doctrines of grace, God's sovereignty, and regeneration of the Holy Spirit took hold quickly. I can remember how learning the basics of Reformed Theology made more sense in those early years than anything I'd heard before. Yet, it took a bit longer before I'd hear about what might be the most pivotal doctrine in forming my life as a Christian: The Doctrine of Adoption.

Adoption expounds upon grace and explains how an unworthy sinner such as myself, could not only be bestowed with grace upon grace (John 1:16), but also granted full admission to the family of God (John 1:12). Having been adopted by well-meaning natural parents, I never felt that I fit in or fully belonged to my parent's legacy, my sibling's inheritance, or the genealogy of extended family. Therefore, I take the wondrous and beautiful privilege of being called a full-fledged, beloved child of God (Ephesians 5:1) to heart. As believers, we are true members of God's eternal family (Titus 3:7) and co-heirs in Christ to the glorious inheritance that He has already bought and keeps for us in heaven, to the praise of His glory (Ephesians 1:7-12).

Nick Batzig does a great job conveying the personal significance adoption by our Heavenly Father. He describes justification as how "we're taken to God's law court as guilty criminals and dismissed as pardoned and righteous." Furthermore, in adoption, Batzig explains, "We are taken from the law court to the living room." In other words: from an enemy and child of wrath to a beloved child of promise. "In love He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of His glorious grace" (Ephesians 1:5-6).

Perhaps I struggle more than most Christians with slipping into feeling and thinking like an orphan,  an alien, or the outcast. And perhaps we all struggle with this mindset. The doctrine of adoption is the truth that moves us out of the bondage of fear and performance, and sets our minds on the Father's love and care for us. "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” By the Spirit, we have the assurance and promise that no matter what trial or suffering we endure in this life, God has promised his unfailing love to His children.  "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord."

What a glorious picture of the Lord's unfailing, loving Fatherly care!

God is much greater than her experience of him

"It is no good telling the bereaved mother that Christ still loves and cares for her if she has only been taught to think of Christ in terms of how he works on her own feelings and in her own experiences. She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him; she needs to know that, whatever her current feelings of anguish and despair, God is trustworthy and loving; and she needs to know that assurance is not necessarily about emotional highs but about knowing that God is faithful even though the whole world appears to be falling apart around her. Such will only be possible if the theological environment in which she lives and worships teaches her to understand Christ above all in terms of his historical work of redemption for the people of God; and that will only come about when the emphasis in preaching focuses not on ourselves but on the Christ of the Bible. Setting Christ above all in the context of biblical history rather than our own experience will promote a truly high understanding of Christ as Redeemer, and one that will ultimately be of more use than the Christ of Emotional Therapy...^1"

She needs to be able to see that God is much greater than her experience of him...

This passage by Carl Trueman hits close to home. I was not a bereaved mother but a heartbroken wife wondering where God was when my husband walked out the door. I would never have owned it at the time, but God was pretty much the God of my experience. My degree of assurance was tied to my emotional state, even though I wasn't outwardly a very emotional person. When I read the Word, every passage was taken allegorically such that the Bible was mainly about God talking to me about me rather than revealing Himself. I also combed it looking for passages that I would take out of context for any shred of hope that my marriage would be saved.

But the kindest thing that God did in the midst of my suffering was to turn my gaze away from my circumstances to Himself. This breakthrough in my understanding (via doctrine) and the desire to learn more (theology) were the means that brought me out of despair. I began to see that God was trustworthy, not because He gave me a happy ending, but because He is who He says He is in His Word. 

Through the following years and the week-by-week preaching of my pastor, I've learned and am still learning about a God who is far greater than when I was only using the narrow and fallible lens of my experience. He is Triune - one God in three persons. He is immutable, infinite, impassible, simple, faithful, righteous, and love, to name some of His attributes. He moved through history setting the stage for the exact moment when God the Son came down from heaven for us and for our salvation. He is still moving through time and ordering every event until the consummation of His kingdom. Yes there is fierce opposition, but Christ has won! His people are secure no matter what may befall them in this life, and we can look forward to the coming day when every tear will be wiped away and all things will be made right and new.

For those who believe that theology is dry and impractical. I respectfully disagree. Sound exegetical and expository preaching and solid books pulled back the curtain to reveal a God whose will is never thwarted, whose promises are rock solid, and who keeps His own to the very end. Even though my trust may falter at times, I wouldn't want to cast my all on anyone less.


1. Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow by Carl Trueman, Christian Focus Publications, 2011, pp. 122-123.

A rewrite of a post on my personal blog from June 12, 2012.

Which Jesus?

During this time of year, it is more acceptable to bring up Jesus. I've seen plenty of nativity scenes in people's yards and even in front of businesses. (The fortune teller with the plastic creche out front broke the cognitive dissonance meter, though.) Even traditional Christian Christmas carols are being played on the airwaves. Many see the story of the baby in the manger as just that, a feel-good myth about love, joy, and peace on earth in sentimental but indistinct terms that don't offend anyone's sensibilities. But is that good enough? Many people say they believe in "Jesus," but sadly we live in a day when we need to press the issue and ask "Which Jesus?"

Even among professing Christians, this question needs to be asked. We may not be as vague as the secular world, and one does not need a D.Min. to be saved, but the message of the gospel cannot be separated from the Savior of the gospel. So to get the gospel right, we need to get Jesus right.

In the latest round of posts, Rebecca and Kim reminded us of Jesus' full humanity and deity, which is the doctrine of the hypostatic union. This is not just a topic for an advanced seminary class. This is not a secondary or tertiary issue of minor importance. Our salvation hinges upon the fact that our Savior is God and man.

In the 1st century, one heresy that crept into the church was Docetism. According to this teaching, Jesus only appeared to have a physical body. Thus there was no problem with His deity but a rejection of His humanity. This fit in well with the Gnostic idea that the physical and material was evil, and the metaphysical and immaterial was good. But the implications for the gospel are dire.

There was no need for resurrection if Jesus did not have a physical body, but where would that leave us? According to the Apostle Paul, if Christ was not raised, our faith is futile and we are still in our sins. (1 Cor. 15:17) We were made sinners by the transgression of one man, but how could we be made righteous through the obedience of another man if He was not a man? (Rom. 5:18-19) Also how could Christ fulfill the law and live a life of perfect righteousness as a man for our sake? (Gal. 4:4-5) No active obedience means no imputation which means we have no right standing before God. If Jesus is not a man, this is really, really bad news.

But we have good news of great joy. Our Savior was born who is Christ, the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11) He lived, died, rose again, ascended on high, and is coming again. This gives us reason to rejoice and worship Him, not just at Christmas but every single day of the year. So with the words of the Nicene Creed, I gladly affirm:

I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.

And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.

Who, for us men for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary, and was made man; and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate; He suffered and was buried; and the third day He rose again, according to the Scriptures; and ascended into heaven, and sits on the right hand of the Father; and He shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end.

Test Yourself : Justification

Here's a short multiple choice quiz on the doctrine of justification that I put together a few years ago. 

For each question, choose the one option that is most correct. The correct answers correspond with the historic reformed protestant position. There's a link to the answer key at the end.

1. Justification is

• a. an act of God’s grace.
• b. a legal or judicial act of God.
• c. a progressive work of the Spirit.
• d. a and b.
• e. all of the above.

2. Justification includes

• a. the forgiveness of our sin. 
• b. the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to us.
• c. the declaration that we are righteous in God’s sight.
• d. a and c.
• e. all of the above.

3. Justification changes

• a. our moral condition
• b. our natures. 
• c. our legal status.
• d. b and c above.
• e. none of the above.

4. The grounds for our justification is/are

• a. The good works produced by the Spirit within us.
• b. Our faith.
• c. Christ’s righteous life and obedient death.
• d. b and c. 
• e. all of the above.

5. We are justified when we

• a. believe.
• b. are baptised.
• c. produce a certain level of good works. 
• d. a and b.
• e. none of the above.

6. Which of the statements below describe faith’s role in our justification?

• a. It produces the good works that are the basis for our justification.
• b. It receives Christ’s full satisfaction of the penalty for our sin and his perfect fulfillment of God’s law on our behalf.
• c. It is accepted by God as a form of righteousness upon which we can be justified.
• d. a and c.
• e. none of the above.

Answers with explanations.

The rubber that meets the road

"I can't imaging going through [fill in the blank] if I wasn't a Christian."

Your answer for the blank may have been different from mine, but I think we would agree that we would not want to face trials or even an ordinary day without Christ. But what does that really mean when push comes to shove? What difference does it make being a Christian?

Does being a Christian mean I won't have any problems? Do I truly get my "best life now?"¹

If being a Christian doesn't give me an automatic out from hardship, does God still love me? Is He with me? How do I know this? Is it a feeling of emotional well-being? But what if I feel nothing?²

You may be thinking, "Enough of the questions already." You may be answering my questions in your head. But what are your answers and, more importantly, what is the source of those answers?

For some of you, your answers came from the Scriptures. You took what the Bible said about God, His character, and His ways, and applied it to my questions. In short, the rubber of theology met the road of life. But sadly there is also a climate in Christendom which defines spirituality as "an experience devoid of doctrinal content and detached from any testable historical claims."³ "I don't need doctrine. I just love Jesus. Can't we just be practical?" And I was the poorer for this attitude.

I was a Christian for decades when I was blindsided by a trial. At that time, I was underfed, bordering on spiritual starvation. I read the Bible subjectively with myself as the main character, not God, but I was never taught how to study the Bible. I knew of Him secondhand, but I never bothered to test and examine those teachings for myself. So I passively absorbed whatever came down the pike. Consequently, there was no theological rubber to meet the road - more like bare rims scraping the asphalt. But in His mercy, God did not leave me malnourished. My family began to attend a local church where we were fed the Word and strengthened through the ordinary means of grace. I began to learn about the God I had confessed for years but didn't really know. My circumstances did not change, but I changed. Truth came to bear on my life, and this made all the difference in the world.

So please don't be afraid of theology. Please don't be afraid to open the Bible and stretch your understanding. We can learn about a God who is so great and yet condescends to save sinners. We can trace His faithfulness from Genesis 1 to the certain conclusion in Revelation 22. The truth of God found in His Word is an anchor for our souls and a feast spread before us. So let's dig in. What are we waiting for?


1. Romans 8:18; 2 Tim. 3:12; Matt. 5:10-12.
2. John 14:26-27; Psalm 46:1; Rom. 8:32-39; 2 Cor. 1:3-4; 1 Pet. 5:10.
3. Total Truth, Nancy Pearcey, Crossway, 2008, pg. 118.

Anne Askew: The Extraordinary Life of a Reformation Martyr

"But as concerning your mass, as it is now used in our days,   I do say and believe it to be the most abominable idol that is in the world:  for my God will not be eaten with teeth, neither yet dieth he again.  And upon these words that I base now spoken, will I suffer death." 1   Anne Askew  (1521 - July 16, 1546)

 On October 31^st   many of us will celebrate Reformation Day.  When I think about the modern church's growing tolerance of divergent  teachings,  I wonder how many Christians today would be willing to die for the truths the Reformation martyrs died for.   These heroes of the faith understood the necessity of drawing lines in the creedal sand and would rather die than acquiesce to the idolatrous teaching of transubstantiation.  

J.C. Ryle wrote:

“The principal reason why they were burned, was because they refused one of the peculiar doctrines of the Romish Church.   On that doctrine,  in almost every case,  hinged their life or death.   If they admitted it — they might live;  if they refused it — they must die!   The doctrine in question was the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the consecrated elements of bread and wine in the Lord's Supper. 2

One such martyr  was  Anne Askew,  a  highly educated  young English woman who was an anomaly amongst  her peers.    Critics viewed her as  a truculent fanatic while supporters saw her as a courageous heroine.

HER FAMILY
Anne was born in 1521 to  Sir William Askew of  Lincolnshire and his wife Elizabeth Wrottesley four years after Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to The Castle Church door at Wittenberg, Germany.     We don’t know when Anne was converted to the “New Religion”, but we  know the early years of the Reformation knit together a tight band of advocates to which her family had ties.  

Anne was forced into an unwanted  marriage  with Thomas Kyme, a wealthy landowner and Catholic who had been engaged to her deceased sister Martha.    The constant friction  over Anne’s Protestant beliefs lead Thomas  to throw her out.    “ One of the accusations against her was  ‘that she was the devoutest woman he had ever known,  for she began to pray always at midnight, and continued for some hours in that exercise.' "3     Anne petitioned unsuccessfully for  a divorce and had  to leave her two  young children behind.      

Resuming her maiden name,  Anne handed out tracts and literature  and  became known as a “Gospeller” for the  public speeches she gave  in London.    She debated doctrine with the local priests  and was “seen daily in the cathedral reading the Bible, and engaging the clergy in discussions on the meaning of particular texts,”4

ROYAL TROUBLE
Sir William had been knighted by King  Henry VIII and Anne’s  youngest brother Edward  served as the King’s cup-bearer.     The family connections at court presented the opportunity for Anne to become  one of the ladies-in-waiting to the Evangelical  Queen Katherine Parr,  Henry’s sixth and last wife.   While the King  looked the other way,  this close knit group of women , which included the young Lady Jane Grey,  met regularly to pray,  study the Scriptures,  and to hear from the Evangelical preachers Huge Latimer and Nicholas Ridley who  were later martyred.

The Reformation was as much about politics  as it was about  faith.   The self indulgent nominally  Catholic King was an equal opportunity tyrant and Catholics were just as likely to be executed for treason as were Protestants  for heresy.

When the Queen’s enemies noticed  her religious influence over others they plotted against her.   Worried that the Protestants would gain power when Henry died  Stephen Gardiner,  Thomas Wriothesley,  and Edmund Bonner  struck circuitously at Katherine's brightest lady, hoping she would implicate the Queen. 
 

  “Not daring to strike at the throne directly they found an easier target:   Anne Askew, bright, articulate and fearless, was a lady-in-waiting to the Queen.   Had she not been diligently promoting the spread of evangelical literature amongst the London apprentice boys?   She had even been heard to say ‘I would sooner read five lines in the Bible than hear five masses in the church’.   Such words were heresy in Catholic eyes.   Anne was seized, imprisoned and interrogated cruelly by Bonner” 5

TRIED BY FIRE
Anne’s first arrest and  interrogation  took place  in March of 1545  and she was jailed for 12 days.    She wrote detailed accounts of this and her second “examination” in June of 1546 which were edited and published separately by Bishop John Bale and  martyrologist John Foxe.  Anne's replies are spirited and articulate:

"As for that ye call your God, it is a piece of bread.   For a more proof thereof... let it but lie in the box three months and it will be mouldy and so turn to nothing that is good.  Whereupon I am persuaded that it cannot be God" 6

“Then the bishop’s chancellor rebuked me, and said I was much to blame for uttering Scripture. For St. Paul, he said, forbade women to speak or talk of the word of God.  I answered him that I knew Paul’s meaning as well as he, which is, in I Cor. xiv, that a woman ought not to speak in the congregation by way of teaching: and then I asked him how many women he had seen go into the pulpit and preach?  He said he never saw any.   Then I said he ought to find no fault in poor women, except they had offended the law.”7

 Anne was taken to the Tower of London and  tortured on the Rack  until  her bones were pulled out of joint and she fainted.    Her tenacious  loyalty to her friends could not be broken even by such cruel attempts to get her to divulge names.

A  final refusal to recant her beliefs  landed Anne a conviction  of heresy for denying the doctrine of transubstantiation and she was sentenced to death.   Unable to stand, she was carried on a chair to Smithfield just outside the London  Wall.     She was fastened to the stake by a chain wrapped around her waist to hold her up and then burned alive alongside three fellow martyrs.    These men were so greatly comforted by Anne’s  “invincible constancy”  and persuasions  that “they did set apart all kind of fear.”8

HER LEGACY

Whatever one’s opinion about this extraordinary woman might be,  her courage and determination to be true to Christ and the Scriptures in the midst of adversity cannot be argued.   Anne has left behind a legacy of encouragement  to live, and if necessary, to die for Christ with the utmost zeal.

"And thus the good Anne Askew, with these blessed martyrs, … having now ended the long course of her agonies, being compassed in with flames of fire,  as a blessed sacrifice unto God, she slept in the Lord A.D. 1546,   leaving behind her a singular example of Christian constancy for all men to follow.” 9

A Prayer of Anne Askew

 “Lord,  I heartily desire of thee,  that thou wilt of thy most merciful goodness forgive them,  that violence which they do, and hath done, to me.   Open also thou their blind hearts, that they may hereafter do that thing in thy sight, which is only acceptable before thee, and to set forth thy verity aright,  without all vain fantasies of sinful men.  So, be it, O Lord, so be it!

By me,  Anne Askew “10

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1. Select works of John Bale D.D. Bishop of Ossory: edited by Rev. Henry Christmas

2. Five English Martyrs by J.C. Ryle  
3. Memorials of Baptist Martyrs; J. Newton Brown; 1854
4. The Dictionary of National Biography, Volume 2  By Sir Sidney Lee; Macmillan, 1885;  pg. 190
5. Lady Jane Grey: 9 Day Queen of England  by Faith Cook;  Evangelical Press 2004  page 47
6. The Acts and Monuments of John Foxe:  Rev. George Townsend;  1837-41
7. ibid.
8. ibid. 
9..ibid.
10.ibid.

Additional Sources
Five Women of the English Reformation by Paul F. Zaul; Eerdmans Publishing; 2001
Women of the Reformation in France and England by Roland H. Bainton; Fortress Press; 2007
The Book of the Church by Southey, Esq. LL.D;  1823
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey;  Harper Collins Publishers; 2003; 
Women of the Reformation:  Anne Askew; Gospelling in the Fire by Diane Bucknell
Anne Askew: Wikipedia