When I was a teenager, we sometimes had a cynical way of responding to certain things. So, for example, one of my friends might say, “I think the teacher is going to give us a free period so we can go outside . . . Continue reading →
Sanctification
We Attain Heaven Through Faith Alone (Part 2)
What Is Salvation? In order to understand the biblical teaching we must first ask what is salvation? From what must we be saved? To what is salvation? Scripture is abundantly clear. The thing from which we must be saved is God’s holy . . . Continue reading →
We Attain Heaven Through Faith Alone (Part 1)
For decades John Piper has taught the substance of what he wrote in the preface to Tom Shreiner’s 2015 book, Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification. The claim is that Christians should believe that we “attain heaven” by more than faith, i.e., by . . . Continue reading →
Boston: Sanctification Is The Work Of The Trinity
FIRST, I shall consider the kinds of sanctification distinguishable. Sanctification of a soul is twofold. 1. Initial sanctification, which is the implanting of the seeds of grace in the soul at first, and is the same with regeneration, 1 John 3:9 wherein . . . Continue reading →
What Is Reformed Theology? (Part 12)
Our older theologians used to say that we are justified in order that we might be sanctified.1 The order in that expression was intentional. Before the Reformation many in the church had come to reverse justification and sanctification. Continue reading →
How Should We View the Warning Passages? (Part 2)
Having looked in part one at how the Reformed church has recognized Scripture’s distinction between the law and the gospel, we will look in this article at how this distinction plays out in warning passages. A Look at Some Warning Passages There . . . Continue reading →
How Should We View the Warning Passages? (Part 1)
There is concern by some in the Reformed community that there is too much emphasis on grace in the doctrine of sanctification, and not enough emphasis on obedience and even godly fear. The question has arisen about how this matter should be addressed. Continue reading →
Monergistic Sanctification: The Reformed Consensus
Few doctrines touch both the heart and the mind like sanctification, for it shapes not only what we believe but how we live. As Calvinists grow in their understanding of the doctrines of grace, one question often arises: Is sanctification monergistic or . . . Continue reading →
You Are Not The Judge Of Your Sanctification: God’s Word Is
Someone told me in high school that if I passed human physiology we would get to see cadavers. But in order to take human physiology I had to take biology, so I spent a fair bit of time my senior year studying . . . Continue reading →
Confessions Give Us Roots
Not only are Christian confessions consistent with Scripture and church history, they are practically conducive to positive societal engagement. Historic confessions help ground our evangelistic method in the larger scope of church history, essentially protecting us against inventing some new doctrine, or . . . Continue reading →
Don’t Leave It In The Vault
As is especially evident in today’s context, it’s one thing to adopt a confession and quite another to be confessional’ to think, witness, live, and worship consistently with our profession. A confession can be a historical document that we leave in the . . . Continue reading →
His Face Bound With A Linen Cloth
I do not like thinking about death, but I have been doing a good lot of thinking about it lately. It is no fun to think about death. As an American, always moving, restless, ever conquering, I resist it. Death is the . . . Continue reading →
Ferguson: Our Identity In Christ The Key To Putting Sin To Death
My friend—a younger minister—sat down with me at the end of a conference in his church and said: “Before we retire tonight, just take me through the steps that are involved in helping someone mortify sin.” We sat talking about this for . . . Continue reading →
Breaking the Law of Niceness
If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. (Matt 18:15) We have been discussing Christian rhetoric and theological discourse on the Heidelblog. This . . . Continue reading →
“Wretched Man That I Am”—Or Was? Part 2
The Scripture citations in this confession are provided only when a Scripture passage is directly quoted or is clearly alluded to—so there is only one direct reference to our passage. It is highly significant, however. Continue reading →
“Wretched Man That I Am”—Or Was? Part 1
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father except through Me.” I remember reading these words in John 14 as an unbelieving but religion-curious college student. My conscience was convicted—though I was . . . Continue reading →
Spending, The Crisis, And Idols
In recent years there was a move to focus Reformed and evangelical piety on “the idols of the heart.” Of course, as one of those who agrees entirely with Calvin’s dictum that after the fall the “perpetual disposition” of human beings is . . . Continue reading →
The Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 25
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 →
The Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 24
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 →
The Gospel According To John (MacArthur)—Part 23
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 →