With this installment we come to the end of the series reviewing and critiquing John MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus. Remarkably, like the Old Testament prophets searching and enquiring “carefully what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was . . . Continue reading →
Chapters 22 and 23, “The Cost of Discipleship” and “The Lordship of Christ” do not add anything that MacArthur has not already said. Essentially, chapter 22 is a rejection of the Christian life of discipleship as a second blessing.273 It is interesting . . . Continue reading →
Chapter 21 of MacArthur’s The Gospel According to Jesus is typical of this work. There is much that is true and helpful, there is not a little irony, and there are one or two significant mistakes. Again, as I have said many . . . Continue reading →
Throughout this series, despite my documented concerns about this volume, I have worked to be scrupulously fair. When MacArthur gets things right, I have given him credit for that; and he gets some things right in chapter 20, “The Way of Salvation.” . . . Continue reading →
. . . we must here observe the opposition between the law and the free promise of God in the justification of a sinner. “For if life come by the law, it comes not by the promise,” says Paul. And, “If they . . . Continue reading →
Whence comes the benediction of Abraham? Answer. From the cursed death of Christ. For thus are the words, “He was made a curse for us, that the benediction of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.” Mark here how God works one contrary . . . Continue reading →
MacArthur is right to observe that too many evangelicals have no place for good works in their account of the faith. The question is not whether there is a “relationship between faith and works,” but rather what that relationship is.216 According to . . . Continue reading →
The formal question of the Protestant Reformation was that of authority: What is the principal source of authority for the Christian faith and the Christian life? The Roman communion claimed that the church produced the Scriptures and thus the authority of the . . . Continue reading →
This is part 18 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
Hodge draws attention to the two-stage justification of the Roman Catholic Church and rejects it. The first justification, according to Roman Catholic theology, is gratuitous and is given for Christ’s sake and consists of the infusion of habitual grace. This divine process . . . Continue reading →
“Most of the current controversy regarding the gospel hinges on the definitions of a few key words, including repentance, faith, discipleship, and Lord.”186 So writes John MacArthur in his chapter on repentance.187 He notes that our Lord’s preaching of the Kingdom of . . . Continue reading →
Whereas Paul says that “they are under the curse, that will be of works,” we see the whole world almost walks in the way of perdition. It is a conclusion of nature that we must be saved and justified by our works. . . . Continue reading →
The appearance of Christ and his kingdom mean the same thing; for although he now reigns in heaven and earth, yet hitherto his reign is not clearly manifested, but, on the contrary, is obscurely hidden under the cross, and is violently assailed . . . Continue reading →
For Turretin, justification was not a matter of cold, academic speculation. Continue reading →
Beza was a staunch defender of justification through faith alone. Continue reading →
Francis Turretin on the harmony between Paul and James on justification. Continue reading →
Throughout this series, however it might seem to devoted fans of John MacArthur, I have endeavored to be honest and fair—both of which require me to acknowledge, as I have before, that chapters 14 and 15 are quite edifying. The beginning of . . . Continue reading →
Amandus Polanus on the justification of the sinner before God. Continue reading →
This is part 17 in our audio series on The Gospel According to John (MacArthur). Continue reading →
Touching the latter, how far he will extol the peppercorn of our own works, and righteousness to justification and salvation he does not here (though afterward, he does) in express words signify. But that he means to extol them, he does enough . . . Continue reading →