What Really Happened on the Cross? Part 1
Sacrifice and Propitiation
We’re likely familiar with the events of the crucifixion, but the significance of those events is so boundless that it will be the theme of the saints’ praise for eternity (Rev 4–5). Despite this, there has been, historically, and there is, today, great confusion concerning this central and essential doctrine of the Christian faith. We... Continue Reading
Our Good Opinion of Ourselves
The fault at the root of all our other faults, so it appears to us, is that our attitude to ourselves is wrong.
Read the Diary of a M’Cheyne or the Confessions of an Augustine and you meet a man whose attitude to himself is disconcertingly different from that which you meet with typically in others. These great Christians viewed themselves with a sharply critical eye. They distrusted their every thought, motive and imagination. They each kept guard over themselves as a gaoler watches... Continue Reading
The Book of Job
The book of Job deals with questions of wisdom in the context of a narrative dealing with Job’s profound anguish and excruciating pain.
At the heart of the message of the book of Job is the wisdom with respect to answering the question as to how God is involved in the problem of human suffering. In every generation protests arise saying that if God is good, then there should be no pain, no suffering or death in this... Continue Reading
The Wall
The wall in question is, of course, the wall [or walls] of Jerusalem.
One entire book of the Old Testament, Nehemiah, is constructed around this wall in more ways than one. The book of Psalms also makes reference to it in a number of places. Positively in Psalm 48, where the city of God is seen to be ‘in good shape’ spiritually, as well as structurally in terms... Continue Reading
What Does Paul Mean When He Says ‘Let a Woman Learn Quietly?’
God intends a certain order in the husband-wife relationship. The order of creation establishes the husband as leader in the first marriage and in all marriages to follow.
This verse is one of the most controversial texts in all of the NT, mainly because there is such a difference of opinion over what it is that Paul is disallowing. The literature on this verse is voluminous, and adjudicating all the competing interpretations would be beyond the scope of this commentary.(4) Nevertheless, we can... Continue Reading
Cancer and God’s Sovereignty
Everything changed when I received a cancer diagnosis on the day before my thirty-fourth birthday.
Over the months of treatment and years of survivorship since that day, I’ve wrestled with God’s sovereignty. I don’t question the truth of His rule and reign over all things. I’m grateful that He provided a solid biblical understanding of His character before the phone call came. But I’ve often struggled to find lasting comfort... Continue Reading
The Picture of Hope in Suffering
God uses trials and hidden things to draw us closer to himself, and even when we can’t understand the outcome or the purpose, joy is revealed in the process.
In his first letter to his exiled and suffering readers undergoing trials, the Apostle Peter reminds that these trials are only “for a little while” (1 Peter 1:6-9). This is not Peter’s attempt to minimize them or belittle the pain and challenges they produce, but to offer another bolster of hope that even the longest... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know About Shame and Guilt
Shame and guilt are not the same thing.
Guilt is the objective reality of being liable to punishment because of something we’ve done. Shame is the subjective feeling of being worthless because of who we are. As someone said, it’s the difference between making a mistake and being a mistake. Feeling guilt when we sin is a good and godly and healthy response. So we run to... Continue Reading
I Can’t Do This, God
God is only impressed by one human strength: strong faith.
“Oh, my Lord, please send someone else” (Exodus 4:13). Please send someone else. This is the fearful response of a person who not only feels but knows he is too weak to do what God is assigning him to do. Yes, the response lacks faith, but it is an accurate assessment: in his own strength, Moses will not be able to... Continue Reading
Abortion, Human Dignity, and Jesus
In a world that has embraced a culture of death, here’s where God would have us look: on his Son, Jesus.
When you lose dignity and purpose, death is lurking nearby. The Scriptures are clear that God condemns the slaughter of children and will judge it. He abominated the ancient pagan practice of child sacrifice in the Old Testament (2 Kgs. 17:17), and the early Christian church repudiated the common Roman practice of child exposure, whereby... Continue Reading