“Worthy?”
Jesus doesn’t require fitness from you. You only have to feel your need of him.
Do you point to your resume of service for the kingdom to persuade God to answer your petition? Do you sometimes think that God is more favorably disposed toward you if you’ve achieved a certain level of obedience? Or if you’ve been “good” (in whatever way you’re defining “good”)? Or perhaps it’s even more subtle:... Continue Reading
Chalcedon
A Defining Moment for the Doctrine of Christ
Here is the mystery of deity incarnate. The wonder of it expands our minds and stretches our spirits: the Word who was face-to-face with God in the glory of eternity (John 17:5, 24) came to be face-to-face with us in this world, marked by temporality, changeability, and the shame of sin. Infinite and finite, eternal and... Continue Reading
Children At The Lord’s Table: A Review
“Have the Reformed Churches been fundamentally wrong about the nature of holy communion and the relations between the sacraments of baptism and the Supper since the early 16th century?”
Over the last forty years the conservative and confessional Reformed churches (the two groups are not always identical) have been afflicted with a series of movements which reflect what I call the Quest for Illegitimate Certainty (QIRC—on this see Recovering the Reformed Confession). Among these movements have been the theonomic and Christian Reconstruction movements, the Federal Vision movement, and the... Continue Reading
Don’t Prune the Truth: Lessons from Spurgeon’s Preaching of the Gospel of Grace
Jesus will lose none of those that the Father has given him (John 6:39).
Throughout church history, this message has consistently fallen under attack. Those who have boldly proclaimed the biblical gospel of grace (cf. Acts 20:24)—the depravity of man, the sovereignty of God in salvation, and the victory of Christ at the cross; in short, the doctrines of grace—have been forced to confront false gospels. One man who modeled... Continue Reading
Anger and the Christian Life
Sadness is hard. Guilt is hard. Embarrassment is hard. Anger oftentimes is easier.
We can see what nonsinful anger looks like when we consider God. God is slow to anger (Ex. 34:6), but there are plenty of examples in Scripture where He vents His anger. Romans 1:18 tells us that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the... Continue Reading
Just a Sliver!
We can have particular interests or convictions that we are very passionate about, and we can narrowly focus on them, making it seem as though that tiny sliver sums up the entire Christian life.
Just get us into a conversation, or a debate, about that topic, and we could go on for hours. We sometimes think that others ought to have the same amount of passion and desire to spend the same amount of time and resources to do things the same way that we do. And we might... Continue Reading
When I’m Tempted to Forget
Don’t be forgetful in discouragement, anxiety, or abundant blessing.
It is good to remind our souls of our salvation. No matter our story, whether we were saved as young children or while steeped in sin, God redeemed our lives from the pit. We were helpless and dead in our sins whether we realized it or not. We were hell-bound without the Lord’s intervention. The... Continue Reading
The Gospel and Your Mind
Did you ever notice the “Greatest Commandment” includes your mind?
If the Pharisees raced to the mind while passing over the heart, twenty-first-century Christians tend toward the opposite. We tend to race to the heart, bypassing the mind. Yet, Jesus—and all of Scripture— calls us to glorify God with our minds as well as our hearts. However, due to our sin nature, obedience in this... Continue Reading
Who Is Really “the Boss”?
No other “boss” is worthy of a lifetime of devotion from us, but Christ is altogether worthy.
When I refer to the “Lord” Jesus Christ, what am I saying? Consider this. The word “lord” in the New Testament can be kurios (meaning “master, owner”) or despotes (a master with supreme authority) or megistan (the superlative of megas, great men, chief men). Aha! When I say “Lord” what I’m really saying is He... Continue Reading
Domesticating Death
All one has to do is sit by the bedside of a beloved, dear one and watch them take their final breath, to know–to know in your bones–that this is not good.
We can understand the world not wanting to grieve, because they mourn as ones who have no hope (1 Thes. 4:13). Such a casting off of the pain of death makes sense in the world’s position—but the church? Why are we being tempted to buy into the lie that death isn’t all that bad? Why... Continue Reading