Treasures of the Christian Life, Pt 8: The Gospel
A true story has tremendous power.
The truth of the gospel is a message that affects your life personally. It will permeate everything you do. It affects your present and your future in ways that cannot leave your behavior unaltered. Steven Spielberg is a master of fantasy movies. He has brought to life some of the most unbelievable stories magically... Continue Reading
Peeking Into the Devil’s Playbook
To expose Satan's tactics with regard to temptation is to win half the battle.
Spiritual warfare (correctly understood) is warfare that takes place largely within a person’s soul. Satan tempts me to sin, while God’s Word and God’s Spirit call me to faith and obedience. We must recover this sense of daily spiritual warfare, or we will not recover daily biblical holiness. Temptation is an issue that Christians... Continue Reading
What’s To Be Done? Potentially, Nothing Else.
The church doesn’t exist to meet every felt need or address every possible gap in ministry.
Sometimes, we have to recognise that there isn’t anything specific for the church to do. Sometimes, the right answer is to say there is nothing for us to do. Or, at least, there is nothing more we can do. We have a tendency to expect the church to fix every possible problem. We can... Continue Reading
The Power of Guilt
Maybe we seek the guilt we feel we can do something about rather than acknowledge the guilt which we really have.
Nothing we do can actually deal with guilt—actual or otherwise. Our best actions can’t undo the wrong done. It is a perpetual stain on our lives. Redemption is not in our hands—either as individuals or as nations. So what should we do? Douglas Murray’s book The Strange Death of Europe is a fascinating read.... Continue Reading
How to Suffer Well
Three Ways to Prepare Now
The apostle Peter wrote his first letter to help Christians suffer well, with more than a dozen lessons for the valley. While their specific suffering is not necessarily common to all Christians, it is common to many Christians around the world, and the wisdom and hope here speak just as powerfully into every kind of... Continue Reading
Context Mattered to Jesus, Part 3
Jesus counters Satan's temptation with clear teaching from Scripture.
Jesus stands where Israel fell. He walks the path from his baptism to his cross and he trusts the Lord with every step. In this encounter with the devil, Matthew shows Jesus’s intentions and first steps, and he invites careful attention to the Savior’s life and words. In the third and final temptation of... Continue Reading
On Disputable Matters
Ten reflections on what does and does not constitute a theologically disputable matter.
In the easy cases, the difference between indisputable matters and disputable matters is straightforward. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is an indisputable matter: that is, this is something to be confessed as bedrock truth if the gospel makes any sense and if people are to be saved (1 Cor 15:1–19). If Christ did not rise... Continue Reading
Humiliation & Exaltation: Christ’s Resurrection
Through the apostolic preaching about Jesus, the resurrection power possessed by the exalted, reigning Lord Jesus is present and given to those chosen for eternal life.
It might surprise some Christians that the Bible places a great importance on the relationship between Jesus’ bodily resurrection, his exaltation and the effectiveness of the preached word of God, and not merely the content of what is preached. Jesus’ exaltation hinges on his bodily resurrection from the dead. The conquering of death by... Continue Reading
A Black-And-White Proposal
Farewell To Fuzzy Thinking
I hear what Don Miller is saying and I suspect that he’s concerned with Christ-followers who demonstrate less than loving behavior. He would be right to be concerned. Indeed, Christ is the most loving person that ever existed or will ever exist. But Christ was also a black-and-white thinker. The prophets were black-and-white thinkers. The... Continue Reading
Identity Politics and the Bondage of the Will
The only route to salvation is a work of God’s free grace coming not from within but from without.
It has been argued above that CT is, at its root, diametrically opposed to historic Christian beliefs about the nature of man as the imago Dei. The appropriate and effective response is to reassert with vigor and conviction the truths of the Bible, the historic Protestant confessions and ecumenical creeds, and catholic orthodoxy. Introduction [M]an’s... Continue Reading
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