Why The Lord Allows Sin to Remain in the Regenerate
It is God's ordinary way to bring about great works by degrees; amongst which the sanctification of a sinner deservedly takes place.
God hath so ordered the matter of the believer’s sanctification, that sin is left to be active in their souls while here, for their farther humiliation. They are hereby taught to bear low sails all the days of their lives, and, with “Hezekiah,* to go softly all their years in the bitterness of their souls.”... Continue Reading
The Double Cure
Sprinkled with the blood, Peter increasingly died to sin and lived to righteousness.
Between the Gospels and Peter’s epistles, there is a change. After he was restored in John 21:15–19, he burst on the scene of the early church giving bold witness to Christ. What is more, in his letters, he is no longer the fumbling Apostle—he’s a mature believer calling other believers to maturity. A pair... Continue Reading
He Sang in the Belly of the Earth
Holy Saturday in Hades
Everyone — wise and foolish, rich and poor alike — everyone goes the way of all flesh. No man can ransom another from the power of Sheol. No amount of wealth or riches can suffice to keep us from the place of the dead. Death comes as a shepherd, and all of us are his... Continue Reading
Impassibility in the Church Fathers
Why the Great Tradition affirmed impassibility.
In the New Testament, there are a few references to God being immortal and invisible (1 Tim. 1:17), but nothing is said directly about whether he is impassible. On the other hand, the ancients often linked suffering to mortality, as in the Nicene Creed, where Jesus “suffered and was buried,” the implication being that his... Continue Reading
When It’s Hard to Wait on God
This obsession with immediacy, is not only a modern issue; it was also a struggle for those Judean exiles fresh home from Babylon.
Before the exile, one of the weeds growing in Israel’s field of sins was their refusal to accept the prophets’ warnings of the coming judgment. They reasoned, “Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jeremiah have been preaching fire and brimstone for centuries. If it hasn’t happened yet, it’s never going to happen.” The delay in the judgment... Continue Reading
Deconstructing Destruction in the Church: The Lord’s Supper
We must remember the theological purpose of the meal.
The cup offered by the Father, the cup he would drink upon the cross is full of fiery indignation and is the exact payment for sin owed to an infinite God. Jesus drank from that cup for his people. But the cup offered by Christ in communion is the cup of his blood, shed for... Continue Reading
The Seven Letters in Revelation are Sermons on the Rest of the Book
Revelation 2-3 provides us with seven exemplary interpretations and applications of the book as a whole.
It means that Rev. 4-22 is for churches that are resisting persecution but have lost their first love, or who need encouragement in the midst of slander, or who have been infiltrated by false prophets, or tolerate syncretism, or who are really dead inside. It’s for churches that are faithful and long for their reward... Continue Reading
Why Is Social Justice the Biggest Threat to the Church in the Last One Hundred Years?
I’m arguing that social justice is a three-headed dragon—one that’s often difficult to define—yet one that has a powerful push both in terms of numerical and financial support.
When people suggest that social justice is “the greatest threat to the church in the last one hundred years”—many Christians who know their history begin to see images of large crowds at the annual SBC meetings over inerrancy and they think of the church growth movement of pragmatism, and the Emerging Church movement and the racism of... Continue Reading
Racism and the Church: Some Reflections…
When the Church diagnoses a sin problem (e.g. racism) in such a way that Christ (as he is offered in the Gospel) is Not the Answer or Remedy for sin, past and present, then she has not fully or Biblically diagnosed the problem.
All too often we focus on eradicating outward behaviors as proof of “solving the problem”, i.e. righting the wrongs. This is understandable given that the symptoms of sin (bigotry, adultery…) are horrible and painful. Yet a diagnosistic goal primarily focused on stopping outward symptoms often leads to an ends justifies the means prescription. Broad brushes in Law... Continue Reading
Why Does Paul Call the Church God’s Field?
Agricultural images in Scripture typically carry connotations of growth—or lack thereof.
The Apostle Paul uses an agricultural metaphor for the church in 1 Corinthians 3, calling it “God’s field” (v. 9). In that same chapter, he also refers to the church as “God’s building” (v. 9) and “God’s temple” (v. 16). All of these images teach us something about the church, and each metaphor brings out a... Continue Reading