The Big Lie
“The Christian has no need to fear God!” Is this true?
There are those in the visible Church in our day who teach that for those in Christ there are no restrictions on behavior. They say, “All things are permissible.” Really? This sounds more like a pandering to those who cannot repent because they are not regenerate but who still demand to be called Christians. ... Continue Reading
A New Year’s Resolution: Don’t Try to Be With It
Trivialities and the Weight of Glory
If you are in the business of making New Year’s resolutions, why not attempt one that saves time instead of depletes it? Give up trying to keep up. Let the pop culture whirlwind pass you by. Be wonderfully ignorant of the world of what’s happening now. The headline on my Twitter feed was from... Continue Reading
May I Judge?
It depends on what you mean by the word “judge.”
We do well to repent before God and man of our easy judgmentalism and seek to learn that God-pleasing habit of doing to others as we’d have them do to us (Luke 6:31). As we hate being on the receiving end of perceived gossip or slander, so we need studiously to avoid being on the... Continue Reading
How the Gospel Resizes Our New Year’s Hopes and Fears
Looking to what God has done in the past in order to find courage for the future is a common theme throughout Scriptures.
One thing I learned in the course of my long life is that hopes and fears are in constant need of bridling and resizing, to bring them in accord with reality and with the ultimate goal of our lives—a goal that the Shorter Westminster Catechism, a 17th-century summary of the Christian faith, defines as “to... Continue Reading
The Lost Sheep of the House of Israel
Jesus is indicating that the focus of his earthly mission was primarily to the Jews.
These words are striking in their context because of the obvious persistence of the Gentile lady pleading with him and the apparent perplexity of the disciples who were privy to the conversation. But it is striking also because it echoes directly what Jesus had already said to the disciples when he sent them out to... Continue Reading
Can Scripture Teach Gen Zs To Be Godly Parents? Part 2
Parenting is the godly maturing of the child’s brain, God’s way.
The good news is that Paul faced the same evangelical problem in his ministry to the Pagans, where their presuppositional belief system was strongly anchored in the worship of idols (likewise, our Gen Z’s worship the self). His success and failures are recorded in Acts, thus providing us with a very practical and proven... Continue Reading
The Value of Remembering and Forgetting
We hear men talking of the good old times. I grant you they were old, but were they good?
Someone has said that today has two great enemies. The one is tomorrow and the other is yesterday. And memory plays such madcap pranks sometimes that we are almost half-inclined to think that true. Do you remember Israel in the desert, and how they spoke to Moses about Egypt? ‘Is it a small thing’, cried... Continue Reading
Death Was Crushed by Weakness
The Wondrous Power of the Cross
What looked like weakness could not have been any stronger. By attempting to prey on a seemingly defenseless man, his murderers unleashed the full intensity and brilliance of divine power. In the weakest moment imaginable, Jesus defeated the two most intimidating enemies you have ever known: your sin and the armies of Satan against you.... Continue Reading
Sins of Omission
When we consider and examine our own sins of omission, we should be humbled and flee any attempt to boast in self-righteousness.
The Westminster Shorter Catechism defines sin as “any lack of conformity to, or transgression of, the law of God” (WSC 14). Put simply, a sin of omission is any lack of conformity to God’s law, or failing to do what God commands, which is as grievous as actively transgressing what He commands. James writes, “So... Continue Reading
How to Read Matthew Theologically
Matthew has packed his Gospel with all the cues and prompts necessary to read his Gospel properly.
The title of the Gospel contains several of the most important cues. This title shows that the Gospel should be read Christo-centrically. The book is primarily about Jesus. Although modern English translations typically identify the title of the Gospel as something like “The Gospel according to Matthew,” the original title of the Gospel is Matthew... Continue Reading