The first virtue, yea the whole of virtue, is to be a stranger to this world, and a sojourner, and to have nothing in common with things here, but to hang loose from them, as from things strange to us; As those . . . Continue reading →
The New Perspective, Mediation, and Justification
After all these centuries the Reformation’s doctrine of justification is still disputed in some circles, particularly among a relatively small but vocal group associated with the so-called new perspective on Paul. Continue reading →
How Was Christ Alive To Sin?
In our Bible study for the Eugene Reformed work, we have been faithfully crawling through Romans—the slow pace is my fault I am afraid. Romans is just such a rich book of the Scriptures that I cannot resist looking at every little . . . Continue reading →
Words and Things December 2023—Acts 20:28
Our story begins in the dining room where Dr. and Mrs. Clark recently hosted my wife and I during our recent visit to Westminster Seminary California for a short teaching stint. Since we never want to pass up an opportunity to be . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things: “Semantic Range” (Part 9)
Linguists have provided significant help to biblical scholars, not the least in the area of lexical semantics. Lexical here means words and phrases and semantics deals with meanings, so that lexical semantics is the study of how words mean. One area of . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things: All About Names (Part 8)
Last time, I mentioned that the great Aaronic benediction in Number 6:22–27 concludes with the wonderful line: “So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” The notion of God putting his name upon someone . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things: All About “By” (Part 7)
I once preached through the book of Hebrews. When I arrived at the end of the book, I was very excited about preaching on the benediction in Hebrews 13:20–21. I love benedictions. If you study the “mother of all benedictions,” that of . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things: Practicing The Truth (Part 6)
Already in this series we have looked at two things that will be further illustrated here. First, we have to be very careful with the whole notion of a “literal” translation. Literal does not necessarily mean more accurate. The second thing is . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things: All About “This” (Part 5)
“This” is not very interesting. In fact, when studying a foreign language “this,” “that,” and “the other” are the kind of words that are easy to overlook and hard to memorize. Like “who,” “what,” or “why?” Why? In isolation, they seem abstract . . . Continue reading →
Suffered Under Pontius Pilate
“[Jesus Christ . . .] suffered under Pontius Pilate.” With these words, the Apostles’ Creed has enshrined the name of Pilate infamy for all ages. He certainly did not intend or anticipate this on that fateful day when he condemned the Lord . . . Continue reading →
S. M. Baugh on “Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude”: Part 3 — Gratitude
If you do a search in the ESV for the word “grateful” you only get three hits in the whole Bible, two of which produce the word “ungrateful” (Luke 6:35; 2 Tim. 3:2), leaving only one place where the word “grateful” is . . . Continue reading →
The First Thing A Christian Must Know
You do not have to hang around Reformed teachers and pastors very long before hearing about “guilt, grace, and gratitude.” We like it because it is a handy summary for the structure of the Christian religion. And it is a way to . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things (Part 4)
Last time, we looked at the difference between glosses and word meanings. A gloss is an English word substitute and is of concern primarily to translators, while meaning is a brief description of a word’s referent. I illustrated this difference with some . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things (Part 3)
When working with foreign words, we should be aware of a very important distinction: the distinction between meaning and gloss. For our purposes, a gloss is an English word substitute for a Greek word. In simple cases, a gloss is perfectly satisfactory . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things (Part 2)
I corresponded with John Hughes recently and complimented him on a detailed scholarly article he wrote some years ago where he gave a most helpful treatment of Heb. 9:15-22. He mentioned in return that it was disappointing that his work seems to . . . Continue reading →
Sobre la justificación en Romanos y Hebreos
Uno no suele pensar en Hebreos cuando se trata de la doctrina de la justificación, sino que normalmente vamos directamente a los escritos de Pablo. Pero Hebreos en realidad contiene mucha enseñanza que contribuye significativamente a la doctrina más amplia de la justificación . . . Continue reading →
Words And Things: There Is A Right Way And A Wrong Way To Do Biblical Word Studies (Part 1)
Word studies dominate the resources available for Christians. Some are good and some, well, not so good. With all the word pictures, Strong’s numbers, footnotes in translations, study Bibles and more, you would think that there’s nothing more that can be said . . . Continue reading →
Sobre el papel de la mujer en la Iglesia
Entre el patriarcalismo y el igualitarismo
La ordenación de las mujeres, y, de forma más general, la participación de éstas en la iglesia, es un tema moderno que continúa produciendo numerosos libros, artículos e incluso apoyando sociedades. Lo peor que podemos hacer en las comunidades reformadas es ignorarlo . . . Continue reading →
On Justification In Romans And Hebrews
One does not often think of Hebrews when it comes to the doctrine of justification—we normally go right to Paul’s writings. Continue reading
On The Role Of Women In The Church
Between Patriarchalism And Egalitarianism
The issue of women’s ordination, and more generally women’s involvement in the church, is a modern issue which continues to generate numerous books, articles, and even supporting societies. The worst thing we in Reformed communions can do is ignore the issue simply . . . Continue reading →