And so, you have in that one verse 18 of chapter 1 these three things: First, man is not justified by works; second, man is condemned by works, which is the reason of the former; third, all the works of all men . . . Continue reading →
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Robert Rollock’s Commentary On Romans (1)
For, to speak about this epistle to the Romans, nobody could now think, speak, or even write about it enough. For it contains that mystery and those unsearchable riches of Christ. Robert Rollock | Commentary on Ephesians, trans. Casey Carmichael, Classic Reformed . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: Jesus Is Our Lawkeeper
For the Lord promises nothing except to perfect keepers of his law, and no one of the kind is to be found. The fact, then, remains that through the law the whole human race is proved subject to God’s curse and wrath, . . . Continue reading →
GFEs And Excusing Wilson’s Rhetoric
I’ll never forget seeing my first GFE in print. For journalists, few things are more humiliating. A GFE is a mistake—a misspelled name, the wrong number of attendees at a city hall meeting, a misreported batting average. But in journalism, we don’t . . . Continue reading →
Our Sins Have Already Been Judged
Believers were already judged at the cross (Gal 2: 19-20), so there is no future review of our works—no slideshows of our failures before the heavenly court—to determine whether we truly measure up. Harrison Perkins | Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction, . . . Continue reading →
Three AI Challenges
Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is rapidly developing. It’s hard to keep up with some of the new ethical challenges Christians are facing. Especially our young people are being bombarded with all kinds of tempting new possibilities for distraction, entrapment, deceit, and apostasy. . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: We Are Clothed With Christ’s Righteousness
But we define justification as follows: the sinner, received into communion with Christ, is reconciled to God by his grace, while, cleansed by Christ’s blood, he obtains forgiveness of sins, and clothed with Christ’s righteousness as if it were his own, he . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 7): In The Accomplishment Of Eternal Life
In eternal life, which belongs to the New Testament: (a) as to actual aquisition obtained by the blood of Christ (which in the Old Testament was only moral); (b) as to the actual entrance of Christ as man into heaven, as the . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 6): In Sanctification
In sanctification, which is greater in the New Testament as to higher illumination of the intellect (as to mode), which is not external and ceremonial (which even a hypocrite may have), but internal (as to efficacy), which is greater on account of . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 5): In Liberty From Ceremonies
In liberty, not only spiritual (which also existed in the Old Testament), but also external, by which we are free from the legal ceremonies (Col. 2:20–22) and besides are become the servants of Christ alone and not of men (Gal. 5:1). Francis . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 4): In Adoption Without Servitude
In adoption, which in the New Testament not only as to the thing is such as it was in the Old, but also as to mode, condition and effects because: (a) in the New Testament it is proposed as having been acquired . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 3): The Calling Of The Nations
In the calling of all nations, which is peculiar to the New Testament as to the full knowledge of circumstance and of mode. This was not attended to by the ancients who thought that the Gentiles would be brought into the old . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 2): The Advent Of The Messiah
It consists (1) in the advent of the Messiah, his manifestation in the flesh and the fulfillment of the whole law by him (namely, of its ceremonies, prophecies and the entire righteousness prescribed by God in the law). (2) In the abrogation . . . Continue reading →
Turretin On What Is And Isn’t New About The New Covenant (Part 1): The New Covenant Is Not New In Substance
Thus far the old dispensation; the new succeeds, the administration of the covenant without the law and ceremonies after the appearance of Christ. It is called “new” not as to the substance of the covenant (which is the same in both) but: . . . Continue reading →
Warfield: Salvation Is Not By Grace And Cooperation With Grace
Thus it comes about that the doctrine of monergistic regeneration—or as it was phrased by the older theologians, of “irresistible grace” or “effectual calling”—is the hinge of the Calvinistic soteriology, and lies much more deeply embedded in the system than the doctrine . . . Continue reading →
Heidegger: We Are Under The Abrahamic Promises Therefore We Act Like Abrahamic Christians
The subject of baptism is the faithful people of God, without any distinction of nation, sex, or age. Indeed, infants of the covenanted must be baptized as equally as the infants of the covenanted were once circumcised because the promise made to Abraham . . . Continue reading →
Warfield: Double Predestination Preserves And Protects Against Synergism In The Doctrine Of Salvation
One needs to read but a little way into the treatise to perceive how strongly and indeed even passionately Calvinsisted upon this point. The reason for this is that he looked upon election not merely as the warrant for assurance of faith, . . . Continue reading →
Calvin: What We Need Is The Pastoral Office
For neither the light and heat of the sun, nor any meat and drink, are so necessary to the nourishment and sustenance of the present life, as the apostolical and pastoral office is to the preservation of the Church in the world. . . . Continue reading →
How Presbyterians Shifted On Church-State Relations
I am not suggesting that American Presbyterians of the eighteenth century would approve of the political arrangement of the twenty-first century. Surely, in many respects they would not. They assumed an overwhelmingly Protestant nation where Catholics and (more so) Jews could be . . . Continue reading →
The Path To The Extraordinary Is Through The Ordinary
If we truly believe that Scripture is sufficient, then we must not only believe rightly—we must also worship, live, and love according to the word of God. Semper reformanda must remain more than a slogan; it must become the heartbeat of the church today. . . . Continue reading →