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
The Loving Father Who Judges?
Peter sees no conflict with God’s compassion and his justice.
God, who “disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness,” deserves far greater reverence than even the best earthly fathers (Heb. 12:10). Peter knows unless his people have a sense of holy reverence for their Father—the Holy One with grand purposes for them far beyond comfort or social acceptance—the pressure to... Continue Reading
The Origin and Presence of False Teaching
Since we are called to be alert to the threat of false teaching in our midst, for what should we be looking?
If we expect that a sudden and dramatic falsehood will enter the church, we will not be looking in the right place. It is true that great falsehoods have been found in the church, but not typically in a sudden fashion. The enemy of our souls prefers a subtler approach, sowing doubts and twisting the... Continue Reading
Roseanne, Gender Bending, And The War Against Nature (1)
There is a creational pattern and as part of that creational pattern males and females are different and complementary in obvious and in less obvious ways.
It is important to distinguish between social convention and nature but not everything is a convention to be deconstructed. Nature remains. The differences between boys and girls cannot be reduced to social constructs. Boys and girls are obviously different biologically, even if it is not currently fashionable to say so. As a boy of 56... Continue Reading
Formulating Doctrine
Formulating Christian doctrine, especially as it relates to the doctrine of the Trinity, is not as simple as counting texts which use the same words.
When systematic theology does its work properly, each topic’s statements are formulated by a canonical consultation, a consultation of Scripture as a finished product of divine revelation, and in conversation with historical theology. Systematic theology reduces all the truths of Holy Scripture concerning given topics to propositional form. Similarly, confessional formulations seek to reduce large... Continue Reading
For the Joy set before Him
As the One to whom Moses ultimately pointed, Jesus supremely chose deliberately to eschew the pleasures of this world for the perfect joys and pleasure of the coming world.
There is a translation issue bound up with this verse that has a bearing on how it should be interpreted. It concerns the Greek word anti which can be taken either as ‘for’ or ‘in place of’. In his commentary on Hebrews, Calvin prefers the latter option. And he explains why: ‘for he [the author] intimates, that... Continue Reading
Obscene, yet Beautiful
What is the meaning of the passion of Christ?
The people who witnessed Christ stumbling toward Golgotha, who saw Him delivered to the Romans, and who watched His crucifixion, understood the significance of this event in a variety of ways. There were those present who thought that they were viewing the just execution of a criminal. Caiaphas, the high priest, said that Christ’s death... Continue Reading
Preaching: The Abuse of Redemptive-Historical Preaching, Part 2
The sermon becomes not unlike the magician’s performance, except at the end of the act instead of a rabbit, the preacher pulls out Jesus to everyone’s surprise.
To miss the new covenant realities of the story of King David, would be to miss the main point of how Jesus is the son of David and the fulfillment of God’s covenant promises concerning God’s preservation of David’s throne. Yet, just as the Old Testament Scriptures are not only exemplaristic (which they are, see 1... Continue Reading