Why Francis Schaeffer Matters: The Turning Point in Truth – Part 2
Francis Schaeffer explained the crisis of truth in America
Schaeffer militates against this so-called “grace/nature” dichotomy and insists that Christ is equally Lord in both areas. He suggests that God made the whole man and is consequently interested in the whole man. When the historic space-time Fall took place, it affected the whole man, not merely the will as Aquinas taught. The Truth... Continue Reading
Why We Need To Be Creative In Doing Good
Perhaps you’re waiting for something to be made beautiful. What can you do in the meantime?
“I’m reminded that creative work done in imitation of God is always focused on redemption, for this is his pattern. It’s also fraught with difficulty. When we step out in front of the crowd, willing to lead and communicate and counsel and carry burdens, sometimes we stand alone and, many times, our work will be... Continue Reading
Christian Life You are the Master’s Piece
There are no ordinary people. You have never met a mere mortal. — C. S. Lewis
The human becomes immortal because he derives life from the immortal God. The soul gives him the capacity to relate with God and fellow humans in intimate ways. The Lord also endows the soul with special characteristics that are God-like, such as knowledge, wisdom, holiness, goodness, authority, power, love, humor, and language. This extraordinary vessel... Continue Reading
The Crown of Life
"We are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ."
The restoration and consummation of life, then, would take place in a second and last Adam, a new royal mediator who would triumph over sin and pass beyond the possibility of death, and in doing so bring his people to reign with him in life over the consummated kingdom of glory forever (Rom. 5:17). ... Continue Reading
Watchfulness: Recovering a Lost Spiritual Discipline
Watchfulness is as necessary to a healthy spiritual life as meditation and prayer.
The Christian life is a journey, a race, and a battle. As pilgrims, we travel the long winding road from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City. As athletes, we are called to forget what lies behind and, with eyes fixed on Jesus, to cast aside every hindrance to completing the race of faith.... Continue Reading
3 Ways to Know You Worship the True God
As you come to recognize that the story of Scripture is the story of reality, you can begin to see that God works to bring you into eternal life.
The God of the Bible is a strange God not the kind of God we can manage, manipulate, accommodate, or domesticate to our familiar experience. When God actually confronts us, our speculations are exposed as idols, our experiences judged as little more than a projection of ourselves, and our felt needs give way to more... Continue Reading
In My Place Condemned He Stood
The main burden of McCall’s piece is to show that some popular preaching on the cross is at odds with orthodox Trinitarian theology.
According to McCall, “God against God” theories of the atonement imply (or explicitly teach) that God’s Trinitarian life was ruptured on Good Friday. And yet, McCall argues, God could not turn his face away from the Son, because the Father is one with the Son. “To say that the Trinity is broken—even ‘temporarily’—is to imply... Continue Reading
Let’s Rethink Our Language of ‘Calling’
n my view, the calling language—at least how I usually hear it applied—creates an unhealthy expectation.
My concern is not that we move away from the vocabulary of the Bible because “calling” is used consistently in Scripture. I merely desire to be more careful in how we apply it. Christians are the beloved and “called” of God (Jude 1:1; Rom. 1:7; 1 Cor. 1:24–31). All Christians share certain callings in Scripture, like the calling... Continue Reading
Why are There No Chairs Inside the Tabernacle?
For the priests serving in the tabernacle, there was no sitting on the job.
The priests in the tabernacle had no need of a chair because their work never ended, but Jesus Christ, the Great High Priest, offered himself as a single sacrifice for sins, for all time (Hebrews 10:12). After his sacrifice was offered and accepted, he did what no other priest serving in the tabernacle had done... Continue Reading
The Active Obedience of Christ – No Hope Without It!
Christ's active obedience to the will of God is inseparable from his passive obedience.
The passive sufferings of Christ discharged the enormous debt we owe, due to our sins and the sin of Adam. In effect, Jesus’ passive obedience alone would bring our account from hopelessly overdrawn back to a zero balance – our debt would be retired. But having our debt retired and our sins forgiven does not... Continue Reading