Jesus in the Gospel of John – the Lamb of God
As the true Lamb of God Jesus took on full and real humanity and died in our place to take away our sin and take on the punishment we deserve.
A sacrificed lamb referred to the provision of God for escaping His wrath. But those lambs were placeholders. They could not take away the sin of human beings. They were animals. They pointed to the day that God would provide the true Lamb who was able to take away sin by His death. That’s the... Continue Reading
When Everything Falls Apart
If we are going to honestly face up to our suffering, we need to take care not to minimize it.
A lost job, a temporary illness, or a financial crisis can be softened by a kind reminder that it truly could be much worse. But such brotherly bromides are wholly insufficient comfort for the truly tragic events of life. And their impotence to soothe is exposed when you try to apply them to the victim... Continue Reading
Scripture, Culture, and Convictions
No matter what cultural issues may arise, Christians must commit themselves wholly to God as He reveals Himself in His word.
Scripture is its own interpreter and the divinely inspired interpreter of life in this fallen world. In our day, predetermined cultural conclusions about any given ethical matter in society are formed in academia and popularized through the medium of television and the internet. In fact, they are not merely popularized. They are packaged in manipulating... Continue Reading
America Is in the Grips of a Fundamentalist Revival
But it’s not Christian.
Yes, secular religion is breaking out across the land. That’s old news. Here’s what’s new—it’s growing so very dark. We don’t need to repeat all the recent excesses of cancel culture to know that many anti-racist progressives are in the midst of a hunt for ideological heretics, and even the oldest sins can’t be forgiven.... Continue Reading
Follow the Way You Want To Be Followed
There is a call on those who lead to first master the art of following.
The fact is, we train our followers by the way we follow. We teach them how they ought to follow us by the way we follow others. I am reminded of the words of Jesus who warned, “With the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” It’s a proverb that can be... Continue Reading
Beauty and Motivation
The will chooses what it loves.
Jonathan Edwards tackled the questions of motive, desire, and freedom in his work The Freedom of the Will. There Edwards argued that the strongest inclination is the choice one makes, and that choice is the same as the will. There is no neutral “deciding faculty” within us, independent of beauty. Whatever the mind perceives as the... Continue Reading
What Is God Up To?
The Temptation to Overinterpret Suffering
This pandemic is the first time that many of us have reckoned with a particular trouble that affects nearly everyone, and it has caused us to think more about God’s ways. Though the answers across the body of Christ will have different emphases, there are at least three matters on which we can have broad... Continue Reading
Why Read Early Christian Authors?
Examining the Modern Life with Help from the Past
Consider…the challenge, one of the greatest of today, posed by Islam’s attack on the Trinity and the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Broadly speaking, Evangelicals are woefully inadequate in their ability to respond to such an attack for they rarely ever hear sermons on the Trinity and the Incarnation. Here, the Fathers can help... Continue Reading
Why Did Satan Target Eve?
How Man and Woman Fell Out of Order
Does God’s original order stand after the entrance of sin into the world? And more to the point, might how sin entered the world give us reason for upholding God’s original order still today? For centuries, 1 Timothy 2:12 was not controversial. Now, in some circles, it has become one of the most debated... Continue Reading
What are the Differences Between Covenantal and Dispensational Theologies?
Reformed Theology was a refreshingly different perspective than what I had grown up with (and not quite so scary!).
We all struggle to understand the relationship between the Old and New Testaments, and the host of questions that come along with it: How do we know which OT laws carry over and which do not? What is the relationship between the church and Israel? Should we interpret prophecy literally or symbolically, or a mix?... Continue Reading