Jesus Christ: Truly God, Truly Man
Jesus himself said and did things that indicated that He understood Himself to be truly God.
After the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ, the Church found itself having to answer questions about Jesus – questions that came not only from inquirers and skeptics outside the church but also from catechumens and laity within the church. How can we say both kinds of things about Jesus? Is He a human being?... Continue Reading
The Monotony of the Wilderness: Are You Just Marking Time?
We tend to remember the high and low points, but for most of the forty years it took for the Israelites to reach Canaan, the days were probably pretty monotonous.
What we are left with, most often, is a succession of days that blur one into another. There’s not much that’s remarkable. Or is there? Are we just marking time until this pandemic ends? Were the Israelites just marking time until the first generation died off and the next could enter the Promised Land (where... Continue Reading
The Root Of All Injustice In The World Is Sin Intrinsic In The Human Heart
Jesus makes it clear that the seed of every sinful attitude and act that you and I exhibit toward one another is the sin that resides in our hearts.
The problem of injustice is sin—and only sin—and that sin takes up residence in the human heart. There is no other remedy for the problem of sin than the heart-transforming gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is the height of pride for any professing believer in Christ to be so ungraciously arrogant... Continue Reading
The Road to Utopia
Rioting in the streets is completely logical, but not for the reasons pundits think.
My experiences with racism and homelessness prepared me to write Same Kind of Different as Me, a book about a homeless Southern black man who grew up in slave conditions in the 20th century. When I first undertook that project, I knew little about institutional racism. But studying Jim Crow and the sharecropper era gave me a new... Continue Reading
The Curse of the Wearwolf
We will know them by their fruits.
We can be conformed to this world in many ways. Even those who self-consciously reject worldly philosophies can sometimes slip into a more subtle, and therefore less noticeable, kind of conformity. When we do this, we can easily become an oblivious sheep in wolves’ clothing. Do not be conformed to this world, but be... Continue Reading
Not Our Home
"Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”
As believers, we are called by God to train our minds and hearts to firmly latch onto the biblical teaching that we are passing through this world as pilgrims and strangers. We can never allow ourselves to become comfortable here. We are merely sojourners passing through this world on our way to glory. From the... Continue Reading
A Contrast in Growth
True Christian growth comes when we begin by remembering God’s sacrificial love toward us.
It is interesting that when we read the Joseph story we often look for ways in which Joseph casts a long shadow into the New Testament in order to help us in some way or another to see Jesus. But I wonder if that methodology is misplaced when looking at chapter forty-two. In fact, I... Continue Reading
Suffering and Redemption
For all Christ’s followers in every manifestation of suffering we are called to endure – is that the way we suffer will speak for itself to the watching world.
Paul is able to tell the Colossians, ‘Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh, I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church’ (Col 1.24). The apostle wasn’t for a moment suggesting there was something deficient in the... Continue Reading
Your Sin Runs Deeper Than You Think
In Adam, we all were made slaves and enemies of God; in Christ, we are made sons and daughters of God.
Our guilt does not just lie in our lusts, our pride, our lying tongues, our exchanging of God’s glory, but in Adam’s. Our champion bent the knee without drawing enemy blood, and because of that first delicious bite, we his children still taste the curse. We have ourselves, in our own unregenerate lives, affirmed our... Continue Reading
Reformed Faith Christians, Are We Willing to Lose ‘Sola Scriptura’?
One of the bulwarks and beloved tenets of the Christian faith is sola scriptura—Scripture alone is authoritative for faith and practice for the Christian.
What is transpiring is that the sola (“sole” or “only”) definition of Scripture as the authority for faith and practice is diminished and quite abrogated by adding that which is being strongly embraced by many Christians in denial of biblical principles and truths. Scripture cannot be sole authority if cultural ethics are either added to... Continue Reading