Romans 2:13: Justified Through Our Faithfulness?
The Synod of Dort asserted: We get in [to salvation] by grace and we stay in [salvation] by grace.
For Calvin, this passage is law, an expression of God’s righteous demand. Anyone who would present himself to God on the basis of the law must actually keep the law. The only thing that satisfies justice is actual, complete, perfect fulfillment of the law. The slightest disobedience to God’s holy law merits only one thing:... Continue Reading
3 Tips for Coping with Today’s Biggest Threat to Mental Health
Loneliness is an even greater public health hazard than obesity.
In a world of exponentially increasing virtual connections, this reality is probably easier to forget than ever before. I, for one, am relearning it, thanks to a women’s group that meets weekly to study the spiritual disciplines. Those in-the-flesh conversations with other women from all walks of life are sacred opportunities to experience God in deeply... Continue Reading
Preaching the Psalms to Ourselves
The book of Psalms shows us right theology, and how good theology leads us to have sound worship and right living before the face of the Lord.
Whether you are in a season of blessing or a season where you feel beaten up and crushed, the Psalms have something for you. The book of Psalms is a collection of men pouring out God-besotted truth before the face of the Lord. The result of their prayers and pleas to the Lord was not... Continue Reading
The Reformation Was about Ending Prosperity Gospel
The Reformation started because Luther objected to this sales pitch
“Lest readers think that Protestants were the ones who gave the Christian world a prosperity gospel, Jake Meador provides a useful reminder that Luther’s objections to Roman Catholicism concerned precisely the profits that church officials made from selling forgiveness for sins that held deceased Christians in purgatory.” Sarah Pulliam Bailey has a piece today... Continue Reading
The Relationship Between Sin and Work
Instead of declaring the Word of God to the creatures, Adam was tempted to deny God’s Word by a creature.
In the Bible’s creation account God keeps Adam’s job description simple. Man’s life in the world involves two basic poles: work and rest. The creation mandate to work is clear: Adam was given dominion so as to be fruitful and fill the earth (Gen. 1:28). God put the man in the garden “to work it... Continue Reading
Solving the Puzzle of the Proverbs
So if we read Proverbs’ various statements on a subject all together, we can see many larger points.
Proverbs 29:19 says that servants simply can’t understand the reason they should do things, so you just have to be strict with them. This seems to be a sweeping statement about their capabilities, but Proverbs 17:2 tells us that a wise servant can end up being better than a family member. Only when the two are placed together... Continue Reading
10 Things You Should Know About the 144,000 in the Book of Revelation
The 144,000 are the redeemed standing on the brink of battle while still on earth, while the innumerable multitude are the redeemed enjoying their heavenly reward.
So the 144,000 and the innumerable multitude are the same. The 144,000 are portrayed as a Messianic army waging spiritual war while yet on earth while the multitude are the redeemed of all ages in heaven enjoying their reward in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. Will the debate ever end about the... Continue Reading
Why We Can Rejoice that Marriage Will End
How can heaven be better than earth if we are married on earth but unmarried in heaven?
The key to the matter is understanding what marriage is all about. We know from the book of Ephesians that there is a mystery at the heart of marriage. There is a meaning to it. Marriage exists to point beyond itself, to give us words and concepts that allow us to begin to grasp something... Continue Reading
Psalm 92: A Song for the Sabbath
God declared that He had grounded the sanctity of the Sabbath in His creation (Gen. 2:3; Ex. 20:8–11) and in His redemptive work (Deut. 5:12–15).
The Sabbath psalm does not celebrate the Sabbath itself. It knows that from the beginning the Sabbath was not an end in itself but a means to an end. As Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). The Sabbath was made for a day of rest so... Continue Reading
The Heresy of Orthodoxy: Who is Walter Bauer and Why Write a Book About Him?
Critiquing Walter Bauer’s landmark work entitled Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity.
Bauer’s core thesis was that early Christianity was profoundly diverse in terms of its theological commitments. Various Christian groups believed all sorts of contradictory things about Jesus, salvation, creation and a myriad of other Christian doctrines. Simply put, in the earliest stages there was no Christianity. Instead there were Christianities (plural)–all in competition with one another... Continue Reading