Who Was Jesus? a Modern Summary of an Ancient Story
The truth about Jesus is that He is the eternal, holy, and magnificent God.
After Jesus’ death on the cross, He was moved to a tomb. On the 3rd day, He rose from the dead. The resurrection is the single greatest moment in the history of the universe. More than that, it is the lynchpin of Christianity. Without it, the hope of the Christian is all but empty. The... Continue Reading
What to Do When You’ve Blown It
Jesus never turns away anyone who’s willing to admit they’ve messed up and need his help.
My friend Sam Allberry likes to say, “There is more forgiveness in Jesus than there is failure in us.” But that can be so hard to believe, can’t it? There can be a whole lot of failure in us, if we’re honest. But since God knows everything, he knew what he was getting into with... Continue Reading
The Puritans on the Lord’s Supper (2)
Human priests, if they indeed offered sacrifices, would be taking Christ’s place as the only Priest.
In the Supper, Christ’s sacrifice is sacramentally present in the symbols and mentally present in the believing remembrance of communicants.[8] But Perkins rejected the notion that the minister serves as a priest who offers a real, bodily sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sins, for the Puritans recognized “only Christ’s oblation [offering] on the... Continue Reading
Three Approaches to Ecclesiastes
Allow this analysis to jolt you from your inertia, to expose the fault lines in your presumption, and to blast your familiarity.
It is in the Bible to help God’s people relate to those whose only perception is “under the sun,” and to win such folks to a more truthful and satisfying outlook on life. The best way to apply the book is to help people grapple with the despair of materialism and naturalism, and to win... Continue Reading
The Sufficiency of Scripture: Enough to Know and Love the Lord
God constrained our knowledge of Him to the Bible as a means for us to think right thoughts about Him.
Through Scripture, we know our sin, we see His salvation, and we know He rules and reigns, and Christ will one day return to judge the living and the dead. In that light, we both know who Christ is, why God saved us, who we were before a Holy God without Christ and who we... Continue Reading
Why Jesus’ Victory Means More False Prophets
He has defeated sin, death, and the devil. He calls us now to finish the battle and take every thought captive.
If you want to break it down, the negative part of the command is to not be simple minded and believe everything. Proverbs 14:15a: “The simple believes everything.” The positive part of the command is to test the spirits. That means you are critically thinking about any teaching, any idea, any movement, any action. Proverbs 14:15 again: “The... Continue Reading
When Church Is Optional, You Set up Your Kids to Fail
When I pull my children away from the things of God for the sake of hobbies, I am not loving God and I am not loving them.
Children are a heritage and a blessing from the Lord (Ps 127:3-5), and as gifts from the Lord they are to be handled and cared for as precious beings made in His image (Gen 1:27). It is the parents that are commanded in scripture to discipline their children (Prov 25:19) and teach them what they... Continue Reading
Confused by Hosea? Here’s What You Need to Know
Hosea chose Gomer despite her sin.
If you enjoy satire, God employs much of it in the latter part of Hosea to illustrate the unfaithfulness of His people. Chapter 7 is particularly illustrative. God’s wayward people are called a “heated oven” (7:4), “a cake not turned” (7:8), “a dove, silly and without sense” (7:11), and “a treacherous bow” (7:16) What does this... Continue Reading
Why Our Bodies Matter
Christ’s taking on of human nature was not a temporary expedient, to be left behind when he finished the work of salvation.
What really set Christianity apart in the ancient world was the incarnation—the claim that the Most High God had himself entered into the realm of matter, taking on a physical body. In Gnosticism, the highest deity would have nothing to do with the material world. By contrast, the Christian message is that the transcendent God... Continue Reading
Like a Glass Hammer
The hammer sits on my shelf to remind me that God’s desire and design is better than my own.
This hammer stays in my office to remind me of Genesis 3. Through the person and work of Jesus Christ, the image of God is restored from one degree of glory to the next (2 Cor 3:18). I am a work in progress that God is faithful to complete (Phil. 1:6). Though this is a... Continue Reading