Apostasy and How It Happens
Perhaps a personal health check is in order. And today would be the wisest time to do it.
The solemn fact is that none of us can tell the difference between the beginning of backsliding and the beginning of apostasy. Both look the same. So what are the tell-tale signs of this sickness unto death? Are there early symptoms that might alert us to our spiritual danger? I can still recall the conversation... Continue Reading
What Is Hypostatic Union?
It means that Jesus is both fully God and fully man.
If we don’t understand this doctrine or how we got it, we’re left with flimsy answers to important questions–questions which become barriers to faith for some people. We may find ourselves having to shrug at crucial Christian beliefs, or worse, provide answers that drive people further away from Christ. Hypostatic union is how Christians... Continue Reading
Is This Life All There Is?
That eternity is in our hearts is one reason why people who are devoted to pursuing temporal pleasure ordinarily find life so empty.
This awareness of eternity belongs to what John Calvin calls the sensus divinitatis, and it inescapably orients even the unregenerate to our unending future. This is evident in humanity’s fascination with the afterlife and the way we speak of the “departed.” It is also apparent in how religious humans have been in all ages, including our own.... Continue Reading
Is Porn Addiction Just a Medical Problem?
the church needs to be aware that the fundamental anthropology of a disease model for a porn addiction falls far short of the way God describes humanity’s experience as his fallen image bearers.
The Bible always locates sin in one place: the human heart. This doesn’t mean that environmental and physiological factors don’t play a role in addictions, but the Bible sees every external factor as the context for the desires, responses, and engagements of the heart. In other words, Scripture says the entire person—the body, mind, and... Continue Reading
The Danger of Thinking You’re Morally Good
“Although evangelicals believe that Jesus died on the cross for their salvation…many do not fully understand the gravity of sin.”
While much of modern secular sensibility seems attracted to the idea that human beings, at their core, are basically good, this belief isn’t peculiar to non-Christians. It has found its way into the Church, as well. But this confidence in the inherent moral goodness of humankind has its root in original sin. Perhaps second... Continue Reading
Three Old Testament Pictures of Baptism You Should Know
Here are three Old Testament pictures that help us understand, according to the Bible,what baptism is a sign of.
The beauty of baptism is that it actually points us away from ourselves, what we do, and onto the Creator-Judge who delivers us out of the sea of death and iniquity. How does he do this? Well, Jesus Christ went down into the sea of our sins and conquered them when he rose from the dead. When... Continue Reading
Bruised Reeds and Smoldering Wicks are Not Useless to Jesus
Since when did God love us based on what we can offer him?
Jesus never turned away a person who came to him broken, hurting, and deemed “useless” by society and religious people. In fact, it seems that he often gathered these people around him. Think about how staggering this is. Lepers. Prostitutes. The blind. The physically disabled. The demon possessed. Jesus did not crush them, but rather... Continue Reading
The Christian’s Call to Purity
“For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin.”
In 1 Cor. 12:27, Paul declares to the faithful in Corinth, “Now you are Christ’s body, and individuallymembers of it.” Paul’s words are just as applicable to every believer today as they were when they were initially uttered more than 2,000 years ago. I say that in the context that the church, to which Paul refers metaphorically... Continue Reading
“Give Us This Day”: Exalting God by Humbling Ourselves
God is our starting point in every theological and spiritual endeavor.
Up to this point, the Lord’s Prayer has revealed a great deal about the character of God. We have seen that for those who are in Christ, God is a caring Father. Jesus emphasized God’s transcendence and omnipotence by observing that he is “in heaven.” He established the worth of God and the value of... Continue Reading
Why It’s OK that God Loves Himself Most
Where God’s love is fundamentally different than a fallen human being’s love is that it is holy.
The Father beholds the Son and he loves the Son because he wants the Son’s glory in all things. His love for the Son is premised on the Son’s perfection, beauty, and righteousness. He says, “This is my beloved Son.” God’s Love Is Different As fallen human beings, we tend to think that God’s... Continue Reading