Augustine’s Theology of Preaching
To help us restore such awareness, specifically from the patristic era of church history, is one purpose of Peter Sanlon's book, Augustine's Theology of Preaching
“Learning through and from preachers in church history develops a deeper self-awareness about the practice and possibilities of preaching. Getting beyond a superficial imitation of past preachers to the timeless convictions and debates bequeaths tools and confidence for the task today.” From its inception, preaching has held a prominent place within the life and... Continue Reading
Christ, Our Righteousness
The gospel ministry with its proper emphasis on justification and the imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the repenting and believing sinner does not need a new perspective but a renewal of spirit-filled preaching.
The subject of our essay is to consider how the perfect obedience of Christ to the Mosaic law does apply to those who believe in Him. The answer to this question, according to the Reformed understanding of Scripture, is “the active obedience of Christ is imputed to the justified believers as their positive cover in... Continue Reading
Bad Biblical Theology Leads to Bad Sermons
Over time, this bad biblical theology will undercut a congregation’s health—warping the message of Scripture and stunting a church’s growth in the knowledge of God.
Evangelical preaching has benefitted from the lectures, articles, and books reinvigorating the notion that every sermon ultimately must lead its hearers to respond to God’s free grace in the gospel. But no adjective fits better with preaching than “expository.” Why? Because faithful sermons exposit the text, and faithful exposition takes into account the text’s literary, historical, covenantal,... Continue Reading
Practical Wisdom from Richard Baxter on Depression, Anxiety, and the Christian Life
“…[We] came to think that a mini-treatise by Baxter that, at its heart, sought to serve the depressed would, if republished in a modern edition, be a valuable resource for pastoral care of depressed persons in today’s churches.”
Baxter helps us understand why counseling a depressed soul is important: “…the disease we call melancholy–depression–is opposed to the very sense of the gospel….under the influence of depression, all that Christ has accomplished, purchased, offered, and guaranteed appears to be of only dubious repute and, even where true, a cause more for sadness than for... Continue Reading
The Day Jesus Said “I’ve Got This”
I’m grateful for the grace expressed down the years by my mother.
In the midst of all of that pain, with my father gone out of her life seemingly for good, and now having more children with his second wife, there was always one thing mum did. She prayed for dad. Every day. I gotta confess I didn’t pray for him much, if at all. It felt awkward. ... Continue Reading
Penal Substitution and Gospel Proclamation
Those of us who affirm that it is a truly biblical doctrine need to grapple carefully with how it should shape and inform our ministry.
The purpose of this brief article is to argue that PSA should be at the heart of our proclamation of the gospel—at the heart of our regular preaching of the word of God. There are important reasons for this both at the level of theological integrity and at the level of pastoral practicality. It... Continue Reading
The Missing Strings of Sanctification
Leave off one or two elements of the biblical teaching about sanctification and it won't function properly.
There is never a time when we do not need to be reminded of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. We will never reach a point in our Christian life when we do not need to return to the truth that we have been united to Christ, in whom God has... Continue Reading
The Preacher and Teacher: The Man, Not Mechanics and Methods
One of the constant themes we discover in the pens and on the lips of faithful servants of our Lord Jesus throughout the ages is how their sense of utter inadequacy for their task drove them to dependence on the Lord.
By relying upon God’s “means of grace” God’s servant is changed—sanctified—purified of sin. From beginning to end we should be profoundly aware that the matter before us is not about pastoring and teaching per se, it’s about pastors and teachers. The man, not mechanics and methods, is the issue. The man called into service by... Continue Reading
The Lie of Perfectionism
Perfectionism can result in a mind that’s exhausted, emotions that are tanked, a brain that is fried.
Perfectionism isn’t a thing; it’s a heart response to our circumstances. So, the question we should address in this post from our series on heart responses to our unique situations is, How should we understand perfectionism as a disruption of how God wants us to respond? Perfectionism makes everyone miserable, even if it works for a... Continue Reading
Where Did Satan Come From?
We must acknowledge that the Bible tells us many things that, taken together, can help us make a reasonable attempt at an answer.
If Satan is responsible for possessing the serpent and using it for his own evil purposes, then the question follows, where does Satan come from? The Bible seems to teach that Satan is a created being who turned against God and embraced evil. The Bible’s account of the fall in the Garden of Eden raises... Continue Reading
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