In part 2 we looked at how Christ overcame death by his resurrection. Now we must add a layer to the story. Imagine this: you get a letter announcing that a relative has died and you’ve to receive a million dollars. That’s it. There’s no return address . . . Continue reading →
All of this is made possible through the covenantal righteousness of Jesus Christ. His was a living, active, and obedient faith that took him all the way to the cross. This faith was credited to him as righteousness. —Norman Shepherd, The Call . . . Continue reading →
The Book of Psalms was once not only the Songs of Israel but it was also the songbook of the Christian church. One of the parts of the Hebrew Scriptures most frequently quoted in the New Testament is Psalm 110. The early . . . Continue reading →
“Political Correctness” is a euphemism for the silencing tactics of power elites who are pushing power-consolidating agendas. It works by isolating and marginalizing anybody who might get in the way of those agendas, through smears and threats and psychological manipulation. I think . . . Continue reading →
X. While Christ remained on the earth, however, his body was not advanced to that full perfection of glory, which it has possessed ever since its exaltation above the heavens. From condescension to the weakness of the disciples, he suffered it to . . . Continue reading →
In part 1 we considered some of the difficulties with asserting that God raised Jesus from the dead. The Enlightenment movements have catechized most of us in a closed, mechanical universe. Some, since the 19th century, have reacted to this view of . . . Continue reading →
He rose the same person, the same Jesus Christ, very God and very man, which had died; he rose according to the nature in which he had suffered, which was his human nature, his true human nature, the very same which it . . . Continue reading →
We live in the late modern world, at least in developed nations. There are benefits to living in late modernity. We might debate that we have these benefits because of modernity, however. It is frequently assumed that the world is better because . . . Continue reading →
Creeds and confessions are unavoidable. As many have noted even the slogan “no creed but Christ” is a short, inadequate confession. Let someone enter a congregation where that confession reigns and say, “We should say more about the faith” and what will . . . Continue reading →
THere be severall opinions about the Covenant of Works, and the Covenant of grace, to the great disturbance of many Christians; some hold that there be foure Covenants, two of Works, and two of Grace; the two first, one with Adam before . . . Continue reading →
Jon Payne, pastor of Christ Presbyterian Church (PCA), sends word of good news about this church planting work in Charleston. Not all the church news that comes over the transom is good news but this report is encouraging. Jon writes: Christ Church . . . Continue reading →
THE historical source from which the main streams of Perfectionist doctrine that have invaded modern Protestantism take their origin, is the teaching of John Wesley. But John Wesley did not first introduce Perfectionism into Protestantism, nor can all the Perfectionist tendencies which . . . Continue reading →
When the Scriptures seek to illustrate the nature of the Christian life, the nature of sanctification, it uses two images: death and life. Note the order, death then life. In the covenant of works, made with Adam as the federal representative of . . . Continue reading →
Families move. That means new schools, a new neighborhood, and a new church. How to choose a new congregation? People use a variety of criteria but are they good, biblical, true criteria? Here’s part two of the discussion with Chris Gordon, co-pastor at Escondido . . . Continue reading →
4. Another distinction between the Old and New Testaments is in the types, the former exhibiting only the image of truth, while the reality was absent, the shadow instead of the substance, the latter exhibiting both the full truth and the entire . . . Continue reading →
We have our evangelical superstars but none of these luminaries have reached the brightness of Sister Aimee Semple McPherson (1890–1944). Most of them can walk the streets in any city undisturbed by crowds but not Sister Aimee. At the height of her . . . Continue reading →
And surely no Context of Holy Scripture can be solidly explicated, No Common Place of Divinity can be rightly handled, No Polemical or Controversal point can be dextrously descided, No Case of Conscience or Practical Question can be accurately resolved, No Christian . . . Continue reading →
Now there was a man named Joseph, from the Jewish town of Arimathea. He was a member of the council, a good and righteous man, who had not consented to their decision and action; and he was looking for the kingdom of . . . Continue reading →