David’s Son
We are talking, of course, about the final Son of David, Christ Jesus our Lord.
This King will be perfectly righteous and able to maintain David’s throne. But this King will also bear God’s punishment for sin, going into exile for sin and returning to God’s blessing of life. And as a consequence of this, those whom He represents are counted as having suffered exile and will return to life... Continue Reading
Canons Of Dort (13): Predestination Is A Mystery
The decrees of God are better adored than investigated.
WE cannot raise our fists to God without raising our fists to the sinless, righteous Son of God, who obeyed and suffered on behalf of sinners. The doctrines of election and reprobation are not the product of natural reason. They are revealed truths. For us to speak of election is to speak of God’s undeserved favor... Continue Reading
God’s Word, an Instrument of Death
When I think of a sword, I think of a kid’s toy, but it is actually the past’s version of our gun: the feared weapon for much of history.
The sword comes up plenty in our Bibles. I stumbled across it when reading Romans 8 recently. Paul exclaims “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” (Rom 8:35) Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ! But what do our... Continue Reading
Love or Hype?
A church is supposed to be a living body.
I was stunned. It was the first time that I saw death without it first having been made up by the undertaker. Yes, I had been to a number of funerals. And I have heard people say things like, “He looks so good, so natural.” Once someone whispered to me, “She looks so beautiful. She... Continue Reading
Where Is Jesus in the Old Testament?
How to Find Him on Every Last Page
We feel we ought to view the Old Testament as Christian Scripture, but we’re not quite sure why or how. It seems like such a crunch of gears. But is it? Perhaps we’d be helped by a simple framework for how Christ is at the heart of the Scriptures: he is patterned, promised, and present from Genesis onward.... Continue Reading
He Cannot Deny Himself
Immutability and Simplicity
In this short article, I would like to consider how a more traditional understanding of God’s immutability might be illumined and reinforced by the doctrine of divine simplicity. While setting forth the relationship between immutability and simplicity will not allay the concerns of all critics, it can shed light on why a stronger doctrine of God’s... Continue Reading
Is The Doctrine Of Penal Substitutionary Atonement A Late, Western Doctrine?
It is unfortunate that so many have chosen to use the noun religion as a foil.
According to James, there is nothing wrong with being religious. The noun translated “religion” also means “worship.” There is a “pure and undefined” religion. There is a God ordained worship (Col 2:23) and there is “will-worship.” What is wrong with a religion of salvation by works is not that it is a religion but that... Continue Reading
Paying Attention in Worship
If we can carve out undistracted time and space for a fine meal, why not also for public worship?
The Westminster divines wanted us to understand that it is largely through public worship that God meets with His people. These standards serve to deliver God’s promise that the Word and the sacraments are effectual to the elect for salvation. Reformed worship is about guarding the pulpit and fencing the table. The Westminster Assembly goes... Continue Reading
Why Modern Christians Should Obey the 10 Commandments
We certainly don’t want to set aside the Ten Commandments. Jesus didn’t set them aside; he fulfilled them.
I like the analogy many people have used of a piece of music that you transpose to a different key. It’s the same melody you’re playing—the same piece of music—but now on the other side of the incarnation, it’s transposed and there’s a different key to it. And so each of the Ten Commandments now... Continue Reading
God, Creation Ex Nihilo, and Immutability: Does God Change By Virtue of Creation?
Creation is “that act of God through which, by his sovereign will, he brought the entire world out of nonbeing into being that is distinct from his own being.”
The difference between creator and creature is infinite, not just ‘very great’; ‘creator’ does not merely refer to the supreme causal power by which the world is explained, for God would then be simply a ‘principle superior to the world,’ or ‘the biggest thing around.’ Such conceptions falter by making God one term in a... Continue Reading