(The following is an excerpt from lain Murray’s “Annual Lecture of the Evangelical Library for 1972” under the title “John Knox,” published by the Evangelical Library and available from the Christian Discount Book Center [Grand Rapids] for 50¢.)

We must move on to summarize the policy which lay behind Knox’s work of reform. What was his vision? What were the master–principles from which he worked? There were just two. The first was the principle of entire, universal obedience to the Word of God, no matter what the cost, no matter what the consequences. It was the first platform of his Reformation that everything, in doctrine, in worship and in practice should be laid beside the rule of God’s Word and by that standard be accepted or rejected. His second principle was that the supreme duty of the Church is to see that she offends not her God and her Saviour. It was upon these world-shaking principles that the great work of reformation proceeded. We do not have time to linger on them, but allow me

The call was for entire obedience to the Word of God, with no exemption for any party. Thus, whether Knox preached to Mary of Guise, or to Mary Queen of Scots, or whether he wrote to the Queen of England, it was always in the same terms. They were accountable to God: they were not given leave, as he told Mary Queen of Scots to offend God’s majesty. You may recall how on one occasion the Queen’s secretary stopped Knox, when he was standing before the Queen defending himself on certain charges. ‘Stop!’ he said, ‘you forget yourself, you are not now in your pulpit.’ ‘I am in the place,’ replied Knox, ‘where duty requires me to speak the truth, deny it who will.’ This was Knox. The truth is to be heard and it is to be preached, no matter who may take offence. Hear this statement in a letter that he wrote to Queen Elizabeth of England: ‘If I should flatter your Grace, I were no friend but a deceitful traitor, and therefore, of conscience I am compelled to say that neither the consent of the people, the process of time, nor multitude of men can establish a law which God shall approve; but whatsoever He approves by His eternal Word, that shall be approved, and whatsoever He condemns shall be condemned, though all men in the earth should hazard a justification of the same.’ And it was through John Knox and the English Puritans, that there was built into the constitution of our nation the truth that there can be no neutrality for civil rulers as they stand under God’s Word. We still have in our statute books the requirement of a Protestant succession to the throne, and why is it there? It is there because men like Knox preached that Jesus Christ is the prince of the kings of the earth, and that, therefore, the nations upon which the light of the Gospel breaks forth must bow before the sceptre of Christ, for ‘the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish’ (Isaiah 60:12). They preached this, men believed it, and the same truth needs preaching today. In the words of Abraham Kuyper of the Netherlands—words which are reminiscent of Knox—‘God is not to be treated by governments merely as One who is to be dragged to their help in the hour of national need. On the contrary, God in His majesty must flame before t he eyes of every nation. For God created the nations, they exist for Him, they are His own, therefore all these nations, and in them all humanity, must exist for His glory.’ That was the Puritan vision for this land. It inspired endeavour in the sphere of politics, in law, in education and many other realms: it was the vision that the Word of God in its entirety should dominate and subdue society under the rule of Jesus Christ.

Knox‘s second principle of reform was no less pervasive in all his thought and work. If the Church seeks the honour of God, if she seeks to avoid offending Him, then there is no human aid that she requires, and there is no human opposition which can overcome her. If she is but faithful to God, if she honours Him, then indeed the work will be done. Listen to Knox: ‘Dear brethren, consider with me that the things that with man seem most impossible are easy to our God to bring to pass, if we will refuse ourselves and only give obedience to His commandments’. . . .

When John Knox spoke of discipline as a mark of t he Church it was in connection with the above truth. When he said, it is better to have no ministers than ministers who compromise the truth or who are worldly men, he spoke in terms of the truth that the Church is the place where God‘s glory dwells. It is there that his honour has to be held precious. It is not a sanctuary for the worldly, and if it becomes such then it becomes an offence in the sight of Almighty God. So, for him, despite all its prestige, wealth and power, the name ‘Ichabod’ belonged to the Roman Church; God’s glory had departed. And that, Knox would tell us, can happen to any Church, can happen to us, if we fail in obedience and faithfulness to His Word. If we provoke God‘s frown, then there is nothing in this world, and nothing in all human support, which can preserve the Church. This was the second of his master–principles for reformation.