When the Westminster Divines completed the Confession of Faith in 1647 there was no chapter dedicated to the person and work of the Holy Spirit. According to some modern critics of the Confession, that absence betrays a troubling disinterest in the third . . . Continue reading →
The most ancient Christian practice of worship was to sing the Psalms. Our Lord sang the Psalms of ascent with his disciples (Matt 26:30). The Apostles sang Psalms (1 Cor 14:26, “ἕκαστος ψαλμὸν ἔχει“). The early Christian church sang Psalms in public . . . Continue reading →
From time to time I get the question, “Why do you blog?” This is my attempt at an answer. § The first time I remember seeing the word “weblog” was in 1995 or 1996. At the time it was widely regarded as . . . Continue reading →
Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along with me. I went up because of a revelation and set before them (though privately before those who seemed influential) the gospel that I proclaim among the . . . Continue reading →
“[T]his double justification doctrine (initial justification by faith alone, followed by a second justification according to works in the eschatological judgment) is re-emerging as a “consensus position” among today’s leading evangelical and Reformed biblical theologians. Rich Lusk, “The Reformed Doctrine of Justification . . . Continue reading →
John Piper, Foreword to Daniel Fuller, Law and Gospel: Contrast or Continuum? (1980) (HT: Pat Abendroth)
As I mentioned in an earlier post in Romans 2:13 Paul writes, “For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified” (ESV).1 The chapter begins with matter . . . Continue reading →
John Piper, “Does God Really Save Us By Faith Alone?” (September 25, 2017)
Reformation season is drawing to a close for 2017. Quite naturally, there has been a great deal of emphasis on justification by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide). What might have been a time of remembrance and celebration has . . . Continue reading →
In the American criminal justice system, for many charges, after one has been arrested and booked (photographed for a “mug shot,” fingerprinted, and paperwork completed) one goes to jail to await a preliminary hearing and after that a trial of the charge. . . . Continue reading →
If final justification is dependent on something we have to complete it is not possible to enjoy assurance of salvation. For then, theologically, final justification is contingent and uncertain, and it is impossible for anyone (apart from special revelation, Rome conceded) to . . . Continue reading →
As early as the late 4th century, challenged by a variety of claims of religious authority, many of whom claimed to have an unwritten secret tradition or revelation, Basil the Great (c.330–79), one of the Cappadocian Fathers, rather than standing on the . . . Continue reading →
…Then “the books” (that is, the consciences) will be opened, and the dead will be judged according to the things they did in the world, whether good or evil. Indeed, all people will give account of all the idle words they have . . . Continue reading →
52. What comfort is it to you, that Christ “shall come to judge the living and the dead”? That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with uplifted head, I look for the very same one, who before offered Himself for me to . . . Continue reading →
The Bible is a story book. When I say “story” you might think of stories that are not true, tall tales like Paul Bunyan or the classical myths. The stories of Scripture are exciting and thrilling and, unlike myths, they are true. . . . Continue reading →
Q. 83. Does it give any delight to our conscience that Christ will one day be the judge of the world? A. Indeed singular delight. For we know assuredly that he will come only for our salvation. Q. 84. We should not . . . Continue reading →
Hence arises a wonderful consolation: that we perceive judgment to be in the hands of him who has already destined us to share with him the honor of judging [cf. Matt. 19:28]! Far indeed is he from mounting his judgment seat to . . . Continue reading →
170 Q. You are not saying, then, that good works are useless? A. They do not serve to make us right with God, either wholly or in part, but they do serve this purpose: after we have been freely and graciously justified . . . Continue reading →
It has often been a great temptation to set God’s sovereign, life-giving, grace against the divinely ordained means that he uses to bring about new life. It has been an equally great temptation so to identify that grace with those means as . . . Continue reading →