A lot of of us spend our lives trying to out together complex furniture without ever looking at the manual. We have a pile of parts—jobs, family stress, hobbies, and health goals—and we keep trying to force them to fit together. We have a vague hope that the finished product will look like “happiness,” but the thing never stays upright. We are constantly searching for the next life hack or spiritual discovery that will finally make everything click. We feel like we are walking at random, not knowing where we are going or why we are here.
Hugh Binning was a Scottish pastor in the 1600s who understood this problem better than any modern self-help guru. He was a young man of massive talent who died when he was only twenty-six. In his book, The Common Principles of the Christian Religion, he takes the heavy truths of the Westminster Shorter Catechism and turns them into a conversation about how to actually be a human. As a pastor who holds to these standards, I find Binning’s work a refreshing splash of cold water. He doesn’t offer a new invention to make your life easier; he shows you the actual foundation of the universe.
You Are Not the Main Character
Binning starts where our catechisms start: with the reason you exist. The most surprising takeaway for a modern reader is that your life is not actually about you. We are told from childhood to “find ourselves” and “follow our hearts,” but Binning argues that this is the fastest way to get lost. He shows that God made everything for his own glory. This sounds selfish to our ears until you realize that God is the only being who is completely perfect and self-sufficient.
When we live for God’s glory, we actually find our own profit. God doesn’t need us to make him better, but we need him to be anything at all. We are like streams that only stay fresh if we stay connected to the fountain. If we try to live for ourselves, we are like a branch that cuts itself off from the tree to be “free” but only ends up withering and dying. Binning shows that God’s self-seeking is actually the most beneficial thing for us because it keeps us connected to the source of all life.
“He is the fountain-head; you ought to follow the streams up to it, and then to rest, for you can go no farther. . . Dependence is the proper notion of a created being,—dependence upon that infinite independent Being, as the first immediate cause, and the last immediate end.”
Real Knowledge Walks on Two Feet
We often think of theology as a dusty list of facts. Binning flips this. He calls the knowledge of God a “practical science.” This means it isn’t something you just think about; it is something you do. You only truly know as much of God as you actually love and obey.
In our world, we have head knowledge about everything—we know how the stars move and how the earth is made—but we don’t know the Person who sits above them. Binning argues that if your religion stays in your head and doesn’t reach your hands or your heart, you haven’t actually learned anything. Real knowledge of God is “living knowledge.” It should change how you treat your family and how you spend your time. If we use the Bible only for curiosity or debate, we are using it the wrong way.
“Practice is real knowledge, because it is living knowledge. It is the very life and soul of Christianity, when there needs no more but the intimation of his will to carry the whole man.”
Your Brain Is Too Small for the Trinity
Binning handles the Trinity with a humility we rarely see today. Most people try to explain the Trinity with math or science and usually end up saying something silly. Binning tells us to stop. He says the Trinity is the greatest mystery in the world. It is a “divine darkness” caused by too much light.
Instead of trying to figure out how one can be three and three can be one using our tiny brains, we should simply believe what God says. He shows us that the Father, the Word (Christ), and the Holy Ghost all agree in one thing: the salvation of sinners. We should be like the angels who cover their faces in front of God’s majesty rather than like professors who try to dissect it.
“I think there is more profoundness in the sobriety of faith than in the depths of human wisdom and learning. . . Silence only can get some account of God; quiet and humble ignorance in the admiration of such a majesty is the profoundest knowledge.”
Our “Inventions” are Usually Bad DIY Projects
One of the most impactful sections of the book is where Binning talks about the Fall. He says God made man “upright”—straight, honest, and happy. But man got bored with perfection. We wanted to be our own gods, to be “wise” on our own terms. Binning calls our current state a search for “many inventions.”
Think about all the things we invent to make ourselves happy: new technologies, new social systems, new ways to distract ourselves. Binning shows that these are all just ways to cover up the fact that we are broken. We are like someone trying to fix a collapsed house with wallpaper. We try to be more happy, but we only end up more miserable because we left the only source of joy.
“Man did fall from blessedness by his curious and wretched aim at some higher happiness and more wisdom. . . He is like one that comes out with a great majesty upon a stage, and personates some monarch, or emperor, in the world; and then ere you can well gather your thoughts, to know what he is, he is turned off the stage, and appears in some base and despicable appearance.”
You Can’t Negotiate Your Way Out of a Broken Deal
Binning explains the “Covenant of Works”—the original deal God made with man. The deal was: “Do this and live.” If we stayed perfect, we stayed happy. But if we failed once, we died. Many people today are still trying to live by this broken deal. They think if they are “good enough,” God will have to let them into heaven.
Binning shows that this path is now a dead end. We are born guilty of that first rebellion. We are born with a nature that is opposite to God. The law doesn’t offer a second chance; it only offers a curse for those who fail even a little bit. This sounds dark, but it is the only way to see the beauty of the “second deal”—the Covenant of Grace in Jesus Christ. You have to know you are drowning before you will grab a life raft. Our only hope is a Mediator who can stand between a holy God and a sinful people.