Audio: A Palace, A Prince, and A Point

by Heidelblog on February 24, 2024 | Comment

A sermon by R. Scott Clark entitled, “A Palace, a Prince, and a Point” Editor’s note: This audio was originally published in 2011. RESOURCES Subscribe To The Heidelblog! The Heidelblog Resource Page Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions The Heidelberg . . . Continue reading →

Luther On The Value Of Learning The Greatness Of Our Sin And Misery

by Tony Phelps on January 18, 2024 | 1 Comment

To the question, “If the Law does not justify, what is its purpose?” Paul, therefore, replies: “Although the Law does not justify, it is nevertheless extremely useful and necessary. In the first place, it acts as a civic restraint upon those who . . . Continue reading →

Luther On The Role Of The Law In Salvation

by Tony Phelps on January 10, 2024 | Comment

It follows, therefore, that the Law with its function does contribute to justification—not because it justifies, but because it impels one to the promise of grace and makes it sweet and desirable. Therefore we do not abolish the Law; but we show . . . Continue reading →

Audio: The Reality Of God’s Love For Sinners: John 3:16

by Heidelblog on December 23, 2023 | 1 Comment

R. Scott Clark speaks on John 3:16 at Westminster Seminary California. Editor’s note: This audio was originally published by the Westminster Seminary California in 2014. RESOURCES Subscribe To The Heidelblog! The Heidelblog Resource Page Heidelmedia Resources The Ecumenical Creeds The Reformed Confessions . . . Continue reading →

Luther: Our Righteousness Before God Is Imputed

by Tony Phelps on December 19, 2023 | 4 Comments

The righteousness Paul is speaking about here is external and comes from Christ living in us. It’s not internal, and it doesn’t come from ourselves. So if we are concerned about Christian righteousness, we must completely set aside the self. If I . . . Continue reading →

Review: The Doctrine of Repentance By Thomas Watson (Part 2)

by Stephen Spinnenweber on December 7, 2023 | Comment

Having established what genuine repentance is and is not (chapters 1–4), The Doctrine of Repentance spends chapters 5–8 on the all-important why—“Why are we to repent?” Or “What are the proper motives for repentance?” The first motive that Watson offers in chapter . . . Continue reading →

Review: The Doctrine of Repentance By Thomas Watson (Part 1)

by Stephen Spinnenweber on November 30, 2023 | 4 Comments

My favorite question and answer in the Westminster Shorter Catechism (WSC) is hands down number 87: “What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of . . . Continue reading →

Luther: The Divine Curse Requires Divine Righteousness

by Tony Phelps on October 21, 2023

Thus the curse, which is divine wrath against the whole world, has the same conflict with the blessing, that is, with the eternal grace and mercy of God in Christ. Therefore the curse clashes with the blessing and wants to damn it . . . Continue reading →

Luther On The Imputation Of Sin

by Heidelblog on October 9, 2023 | 1 Comment

And all the prophets saw this, that Christ was to become the greatest thief, murderer, adulterer, robber, desecrator, blasphemer, etc., there has ever been anywhere in the world. He is not acting in His own Person now. Now He is not the . . . Continue reading →

Make No Compromise With Sin—Judas, Revoice, and Raising the Black Flag

by Ryan Biese on September 5, 2023 | 8 Comments

When the black flag was hoisted in warfare, it indicated no quarter would be given to the enemy. This is the sort of war we must make against our own sin, because sin seeks only to dominate us until it destroys us. . . . Continue reading →

Take And Eat Became Verbs Of Salvation

by Heidelblog on April 7, 2023

God allows the forbidden its full appeal. The pattern of sin runs right through the act, for Eve listened to a creature instead of the Creator, followed her impressions against her instructions, and made self-fulfillment her goal. The prospect of material, aesthetic . . . Continue reading →

More Than The Sinner’s Prayer

by Heidelblog on January 21, 2023 | 7 Comments

If potential converts (children or adults) are so unfamiliar with basic Bible doctrine that they can understand nothing more than “asking Jesus into their heart,” they probably should wait to make a commitment, until they understand the gravity of sin, and Christ’s . . . Continue reading →

Why Do Believers Still Sin?

by Heidelblog on December 8, 2022 | 11 Comments

Sin is greatly confusing for believers. The apostle captures this in Romans 7 when he says “the things that I will not, these I do.” How could the apostle seem to speak in such a defeated manner with regard to sin in . . . Continue reading →

Second Council Of Orange On Man’s Free Will

by Heidelblog on November 9, 2022 | 1 Comment

CANON 13. Concerning the restoration of free will. The freedom of will that was destroyed in the first man can be restored only by the grace of baptism, for what is lost can be returned only by the one who was able . . . Continue reading →

Second Council Of Orange On Death Through Sin

by Heidelblog on September 7, 2022 | 8 Comments

CANON 2. If anyone asserts that Adam’s sin affected him alone and not his descendants also, or at least if he declares that it is only the death of the body which is the punishment for sin, and not also that sin, . . . Continue reading →

We Are Like Nube

by R. Scott Clark on July 23, 2021 2 Comments

Someone from my part of town just reported that her gray cockatiel, “Nube,” just out the door toward the local high school. Continue reading →

Two Dark Sides Of The Sexual Revolution (UPDATED)

by R. Scott Clark on October 15, 2020 | 6 Comments

Regular readers of this space may remember that I have been arguing for a while that we are in the midst of arguably the third great sexual revolution since the late 19th century. Let me borrow from that earlier essay: There have . . . Continue reading →

By Nature We Are Not Ill But Dead

by R. Scott Clark on September 4, 2019

One of the first and greatest differences between the Augustinian understanding of Paul and what became the dominant understanding of Paul. By the 7th century and for most of a millennium following, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Mark 10:29–37) became the . . . Continue reading →

God Does Not Re-Define Sin Or Righteousness

by R. Scott Clark on August 26, 2019 | 5 Comments

The words “felon,” “offender,” “convict,” “addict” and “juvenile delinquent” would be part of the past in official San Francisco parlance under new “person first” language guidelines adopted by the Board of Supervisors. Going forward, what was once called a convicted felon or . . . Continue reading →

The Wages Of Sin Is Death

by R. Scott Clark on February 20, 2018 | 3 Comments

God’s holy Law says, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all he law and . . . Continue reading →