Tim Chester's Blog

Over the past three or four years the Song of Songs has been particularly precious to me, especially seeing there the longing of Christ for his bride. Now I’ve put together a collection of 90 devotional readings gleaned from writers cross the centuries. Together cover the whole of the book. But more importantly they present Christ as the lover of our souls. There are extracts from Gregory the Great, Bernard, Anne Dutton, Richard Sibbes, Hudson Taylor, Charles Spurgeon and many more. Meeting Christ in the Garden: A Devotional of Classic Writing on the Song of Songs is published by Christian Focus and Mike Reeves has kindly written the foreword.

Here are some endorsements:

Tim Chester has compiled a treasure trove of writings on the ‘most biblical’ of all the books in Scripture, so called because of what it is ultimately about: God’s love for his people; Christ’s love for the church; the love of the saved for the savior.
Kevin J. Vanhoozer, Research Professor of Systematic Theology, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois

This book takes us back to the beautiful and tender tradition of the classical, christological interpretation, which makes the modern interpretation seem shallow and boring. Highly recommended!
Craig Carter, Professor of Theology, Tyndale University, Toronto, Ontario

Tim delves into the writings of Gregory of Nyssa and Charles Spurgeon, Martin Luther and J. C. Ryle, Ambrose and Matthew Henry, as well as many others, to help us think about Solomon’s most famous Song with the cloud of witnesses who have gone before us. An enriching and fascinating read!
Mitchell L. Chase, Preaching Pastor, Kosmosdale Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky and author, ‘Short of Glory’

This collection contains some genuine Gospel gold. Let these writings not only push you into the biblical text, but may they push you prayerfully closer to our wonderful bridegroom too!
Peter Mead, Director, Cor Deo; Author, ‘Lost in Wonder: A Biblical Introduction to God’s Great Marriage’

Here’s an extract from my new book: Scripture Is Supreme, published in Union Publishing’s Essential Series. It’s available here with 35 percent off for readers of this blog using the promocode: Chester2023.

I was a slow convert to satnavs. Some friends gave me their cast-off, but I rarely used it. If I followed a paper map (remember those?), then I found that I could remember the route the next time. But a satnav somehow put the navigational bit of my brain into sleep mode. So, if I used one, I couldn’t replicate the journey from memory next time I travelled that way.

But gradually, my resistance weakened. Laziness kicked in, I guess. It was easier to follow the satnav than to work out a route of my own, especially when I didn’t have a friend in the passenger seat holding the road atlas. Now I use a satnav all the time. I happily obey its ever-calm voice.

Most of the time. Last week, I ignored its instruction to take a right turn. I’d put it on because I was travelling back from an unfamiliar location. We were nearly home and back in familiar territory. The satnav was still in, and suddenly it told me to take a road I’d never taken before.

I ignored it. A few moments later, I found myself stuck in a traffic jam. My estimated time of arrival jumped by thirty minutes. I thought I knew better than the satnav, and now I was paying the price.

We like to think of ourselves as free agents who can choose what we want to do. But in fact, we live much of our lives under authority. We do what our mothers tell us (some of the time). We adhere to the laws of the road. We take orders from the boss. We follow the instruction manual. We obey the voice of the satnav.

Sometimes we might resent that authority. After all, who likes being bossed about? We moan about government regulations or unreasonable work demands. But we would moan even more if there were no government at all. Yes, there are laws we resent, but we still recognise the need for law and order. In one sense, I am free to drive on the wrong side of the road; there’s nothing to prevent me steering across the lanes. But making that choice would literally put me on a road to disaster.

Driving to a new town requires both the authority of a satnav to tell me where to go and obedience to the highway code to get me there safely.

But what about the journey of life? How do we navigate it? Or what if I want to get to God? What map do I follow? What satnav will give me the right directions?

The answer is quite simple: the only reliable guide to the journey of life is the Bible. When Christians say that Scripture is supreme, we are saying that the Bible is the authoritative guide to God. The Bible is the satnav that gives us directions for life. It’s the highway code that shows us what God requires.

An authority to speak

Scripture is supreme. This means that the Bible has authority, and so it’s important to listen carefully to what it says. That’s because what the Bible says is true. It has authority because it is reliable.

Does Wikipedia have authority? Yes, in one sense. It certainly can be a source of true information. Suppose you and a friend are arguing about who won the football World Cup in 2014. You say it was Brazil, and your friend says it was Germany. The debate is easily resolved. One of you takes out your phone and looks it up on Wikipedia. It turns out that your friend was right: it was Germany. (Guess how I know this?)

Wikipedia has the authority to settle arguments between friends. But Wikipedia is famously not 100 percent reliable. It’s only as good as its contributors. Plus, sometimes people deliberately insert false information as a prank. So, as a conscientious faculty member of Crosslands Training, I warn my students against using it. If we had to score its reliability, we might give it a mark of 80 percent.

What about a university textbook? Is that an authority we can trust? One would hope that it had been written by an expert, carefully edited, and perhaps peer reviewed. It’s presumably much more reliable than Wikipedia. But in many books, the odd typo or wrong date will get missed. Moreover, scholarship is always changing. New discoveries are made, and new theories advanced. So, while our textbook is going to score higher on our reliability scale, we can’t give it 100 percent. It has more authority than Wikipedia, but its authority is still limited.

But the Bible is 100 percent true and therefore 100 percent authoritative. William Tyndale (c. 1494–1536), who was martyred for translating the Bible into English, described it as “the touchstone” that enables us to distinguish between false doctrine and true doctrine.

The word “Scripture” in the phrase “Scripture is supreme” refers to the written Word of God that we have in the Bible. The word that is supreme can also include the proclamation of the gospel and the preaching of the Bible, but only to the extent that these faithfully reflect what is taught in Scripture. Scripture is the yardstick by which we measure the truth of everything else.

An authority to rule

The authority of the Bible goes even further, for the Bible is more than a reliable source of information. It doesn’t just tell us what— what is, what is true, and so on. It also tells us how—how we can know God and how we can live life as it is meant to be lived. The Bible is a book with implications. You can’t read it and say,“How interesting!” in a disinterested kind of way. You can’t remain detached. You’ve got to do something with the Bible once you’ve read it: either love it or hate it, accept it or reject it, obey it or disobey it. What’s not an option is neutrality.

Yes, the Bible is a book containing statements of fact. But it’s also much more than that. It’s a book with commands and invitations. Its words do something. Even when what Scripture says is not technically an imperative, its words carry big implications.

One of the Bible’s central claims is that Jesus has risen from the dead as the Lord of all (Rom. 1:1–4; 1 Cor. 15:3–4). On the face of it, that is simply a statement of fact. But it’s a statement that demands a response. If you’ve merely responded by saying, “That’s interesting,” then you’ve not really understood what the resurrection of Jesus involves. That resurrection is the confirmation that he is God’s King. It calls you to submit to Christ’s lordship and entrust your life to his care.

On my recent journey home, my satnav told me to turn right. When I ignored that command, I added thirty minutes to my journey. But that’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Usually, it makes sense to recognise the authority of a satnav, but in the end, not much is at stake. However, to be told to submit to Christ and entrust your life to him is a wholly different matter. The implications are enormous—stretching throughout life and beyond, into eternity.

To say that Scripture is supreme is to say that the Bible has authority in everything that really matters—time and eternity, earth and heaven, humanity and God. Unlike your satnav, the Bible will not tell you how to get to London. Unlike Wikipedia, it will not tell you who won the World Cup in 2014. But the Bible speaks with authority when it comes to who God is, what his purposes are, who we are, how we can know him, how we can be saved from his judgement, and how we can live a life that pleases him.

An authority above every other authority

“Scripture is supreme” is a claim that the Bible has authority. But it is an even bigger claim than that. Acknowledging that something has authority is not, on its own, particularly controversial; our lives are full of sources of authority.

Let’s suppose you want to buy a new car. What do you do? You might rely on experience. Perhaps your last car was a Ford, and it worked well, so you decide to buy another Ford. Or you might rely on friends. Your mate John is a car buff, so you tell him your budget and ask for a recommendation. Or perhaps you go online and see what the experts say. Or you could look up sales figures and pick a popular model. Each of these options comes with a certain degree of authority; it makes sense to listen to the different perspectives. But what if the experts disagree? What if they each suggest a different model? At that point, you’ve got to decide who has the most authority. Whose opinion are you going to trust? Whose advice are you going to follow? How do you know which one to prefer?

To say “Scripture is supreme” is not simply to claim that the Bible has authority, but that it has supreme authority. It is the voice which matters most of all. Christians do recognise other authorities; there are other voices that rightly carry weight. But Scripture is always the voice that trumps all other voices. When forced to choose, we will always choose to follow the Bible. That’s what the doctrine of the supremacy of Scripture entails. And we will only require adherence to what can be shown to be taught by the Bible. The Reformer Martin Luther (1483– 1546) said, “What is asserted without the Scriptures or proven revelation may be held as an opinion, but need not be believed.” But what can be shown from Scripture must be believed. The Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck (1854– 1921) concludes:

[The authority of Scripture] stands on a level high above all human authority in state and society, science and art. Before it, all else must yield. For people must obey God rather than other people … Its authority, being divine, is absolute. It is entitled to be believed and obeyed by everyone at all times.

William Tyndale, “Prologue to the Book of Genesis,” in Works of William Tyndale, ed. Henry Walter (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 2010), 1:398.

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, Volume 1: Prolegomena, ed. John Bolt, trans. John Vriend (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 465.

Scripture Is Supreme is available here with 35 percent off for readers of this blog using the promocode: Chester2023.

I have a new book out today in Union Publishing’s Essential Series. The title is Scripture Is Supreme and, as the title suggests, it’s a brief introduction to the supremacy of Scripture – what it is, what it isn’t and why it matters. Here’s the blurb …

“Here is rock: all else is sand,” was J.C. Ryle’s description of the Bible in the 18th century. Whether the challenge has been tradition or reason, or experience in more recent times, the Scriptures are still supreme today, God-breathed, reliable and trumping all other authorities. Yet the supremacy of Scripture is not some dictate imposed by a faceless despot. Far from it! Scripture’s words are those of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his people.

Scripture Is Supreme is available here with 35 percent off for readers of this blog using the promocode: Chester2023.

Here some kind endorsements:

“This is such a helpful book covering a truly vital matter. It is concise, readable, and faithful, and contains useful examples from life today and the history of the church. A lot in a little: highly recommended!” 

Alasdair Paine
Vicar, St. Andrew The Great, Cambridge, UK, speaker and author 

“With characteristic clarity and precision, Tim has provided a wonderfully insightful and applied explanation of Scripture’s supremacy. Every new (or old) Christian should read this book.” 

Martin Salter
Lead Pastor of Bedford Community Church, UK, conference speaker and author 

“Tim Chester has provided a clear and concise treatment of an important subject— the supremacy of God’s Word. He faithfully demonstrates that the Bible is indeed God’s voice—that which ‘goes out from his mouth’ (Isa. 55:11). As such, it bridges the expanse between Creator and creature, heaven and earth, invisible and visible. Here is an encouraging reminder for us to listen to the Bible as if we are hearing God speaking to us from heaven, rejoicing like those who find ‘great spoil’ (Ps. 119:162).”

J. Stephen Yuille
Professor of Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Theology, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, TX

Here’s a new song which I’ve co-written with Colin Webster of Cornerstone Worship.

Here’s a link to the lead sheet.

Unrivalled in power, abounding in love,
perfection of wisdom, the only true God:
your greatness is greater than we can conceive,
the hope of salvation for all who believe.
And so we fall down at your feet.

You’re unrivalled, you have no equal.
Throughout the earth you’re undefeated.
You’re unrivalled, you alone are God.
Unrivalled.

2. You spoke and the darkness gave way to the light;
the chaos abated, subdued by your might.
You scattered the stars in the heavens above,
and painted the skies with your glory and love.
And so we fall down at your feet.

You’re unrivalled, you have no equal.
Throughout the earth you’re undefeated.
You’re unrivalled, you alone are God.
Unrivalled.

3. You so loved the world that you gave your own Son,
our guilt to atone and our hate overcome.
As far as the east is as far from the west
your love has removed our transgressions from us.
And so we fall down at your feet.

You’re unrivalled, your grace is boundless.
In every moment your love surrounds us.
You’re unrivalled, you alone are God.
Unrivalled.

Emu Music have done a studio recording of the setting of the Apostles’ Creed I co-wrote with them. Click here for more details including the opportunity to get the sheet music. Here’s a YouTube version …

I’m excited to announce the publication of a new discipleship manual on the 1st of January called Life with Jesus. I feels like 25+ years of experience as a pastor has gone into this book – both in terms of setting out a gospel-centred approach to following Christ, but also how best to present that in an accessible way. It’s been road-tested with my Crosslands students and the Good Book Company have worked hard with me to ensure it works well. It was written with both as a introduction for new Christians and a refresher for older Christians, and was designed so it can be used one-to-one, in small groups or as a training course.

It’s available here from United Kingdom | United States | Australia.

Here’s a new song that I’ve written with Phil Moore for the centenary of the FIEC. It speaks of Christ’s faithfulness to his church while asking for his help that we might be faithful to the truth, to unity, and to mission. It would make a good response to a sermon on any of these themes or for a church anniversary.

Here’s a lead sheet and full score.

1. Lord Jesus you have built your church:
you are our faithful, living Head.
Across the years the flame has passed,
across the earth the light has spread.

2. Lord Jesus build your church today:
may we be faithful to your word,
delighting in its glorious truth
rejoicing in its gracious Lord

CHORUS

Keep us in the faith,
make us one in Christ,
pressing on in hope to win the prize.
Let the light still shine,
may the flame burn bright,
till the day your glory fills the skies.

3. Lord Jesus build your church today:
may we be faithful to your love,
one body bound by bonds of peace,
one holy bride for Christ our God.

4. Lord Jesus build your church today:
may we be faithful to proclaim,
to go and make your gospel known,
to go and magnify your name.

CCLU Song Number 7208501 (C) 2022 Phil Moore Songs (admin by Song Solutions http://www.songsolutions.org) Tim Chester Publishing (admin by Song Solutions http://www.songsolutions.org) Commissioned and written for the centenary of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches 1922-2022 (www.fiec.org.uk).

I’ve recently co-written a few songs with EMU Music which has been a delight. Here’s a setting of the Apostles’ Creed which they featured at the Keswick Convention this year.

There are more details here, and here are the lyrics:

Verse 1
I believe in God the Father, mighty and eternal Lord
He alone is the Creator, forming all things by his word
I believe in our Lord Jesus, God’s own Son who came to earth
Born a man, by the Spirit, by a virgin given birth

Chorus
Sing praise to the Father, to the Spirit and the Son
Sing praise to our holy God, forever three in one

Verse 2
I believe that Jesus suffered, on the cross he bore my shame
I believe that he was buried, then triumphant rose again
Glorified, he has ascended, seated at the Father’s side
He will come again in judgement, justice will be satisfied

Verse 3
I believe the Holy Spirit comes to us from Christ above
I believe the church is holy, one communion in God’s love
I believe I am forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ
I believe in resurrection and in everlasting life

CCLI number 7201504
© 2022 Tim Chester, Liv Chapman, Philip Percival, James McDonald, Alanna Glover

@emumusic @KeswickC #apostlescreed #KesConv22