We are to be what we are: mere Christians redeemed and sanctified by grace alone, through faith alone, and seeking to live according to God’s moral law, in union with Christ, out of gratitude for God’s free favor in Christ—not in order to be justified and saved but because we have been justified and saved.   Some... Continue Reading

Jesus both provoked the world to the ultimate sin and then stepped in the path of that wrath. He came at the right time just when the priestly people who had been given the covenant law had become the worst offenders. He literally came on Judgment Day. And the only reason there is a world of... Continue Reading

Jesus completed his work by giving the Spirit to his people. His promises to make them into springs of running water, his promises that he would send a helper, his promises to return to each of them and be with them forever were fulfilled in that moment.   Jesus had left the disciples. They’d seen him ascend... Continue Reading

Stop putting pressure on yourself to read your Bible while taking particular notes or studying particular commentaries each and every time. Learn the basics of how to understand the Bible, and then just start reading!   Do you know entire series of novels—hundreds or even thousands of pages—like the back of your hand? Do you know... Continue Reading

The window for tolerating thought is closing even as we breathe. Compared to the Middle Ages our tech age can seem more intolerant and less enlightened.   How long did it take for a papal intolerance to come back to bite? The answer is, as long as the Enlightenment lasted. On June 22, 1633 Pope... Continue Reading

Church attendance amongst the under 40s is on the rise. A good chunk of those young men and women don’t even describe themselves as believers. Belief, I think, is almost irrelevant. Twitter and the twenty-four hour news-cycle is no place for a creature with a soul.   Evensong at Manchester Cathedral attracts a disparate crowd.... Continue Reading

The Lord has not given the law to believers just to place them back under a covenant of works. We are not trading one form of the curse for another. The giving of the law here is an act of the covenant of grace. Moses is an administrator of God’s mercy, not His judgment.  ... Continue Reading

Whatever your struggle, “I am with you” changes the terrain of battle. You start to see the fork in the road. There is a way of life. Your choices count, and you can choose life. A good road runs uphill toward the light, where previously you only knew to stumble over the edge into the... Continue Reading

We knock and listen so we are prepared for the day—the inevitable day—when the gates will open to receive us to new life or a second death, to the bliss of heaven or the horrors of hell. We knock to ensure we are waiting, to ensure we are ready, to ensure we will go to be... Continue Reading

Du Mez’s work reads less as history and more as ideology, and an ideology with little in the way of faith, hope, or charity. All we have before us as we reach the end of the book is a cliff edge, with no path forward to forgiveness and reconciliation. There is no apparent hope. But... Continue Reading