There are few things more difficult than forgiving when one has been wronged. First, when a wrong has been done, quite apart from its effect for us (and its affect in us), justice itself has been violated. Second, to be wronged is . . . Continue reading →
3. Faith is the instrumental cause of our sanctification; so that where it is not, no holiness can be wrought in us. “God purifieth our hearts by faith,” Acts 15:9, and not otherwise; and where the heart is not purified, there is . . . Continue reading →
Sanctification, as here described, is the immediate work of God by his Spirit upon our whole nature, proceeding from the peace made for us by Jesus Christ, whereby, being changed into his likeness, we are kept entirely in peace with God, and . . . Continue reading →
For this cause he, when he was to repeat that covenant of works to the people of Israel, he gave the first law written in tables of stone; Then he made a covenant with his people, saying,”do these things and ye shall live.” Therefore the ground of the covenant of works was not Christ, nor the grace of God in Christ, but the nature of man in the first creation holy and perfect, endued also with the knowledge of the law. Continue reading →
If there was a time when the church needed to stop its business, to rest, to worship, and to set aside time for the care of the poor in their midst, that time is now. At no time in its history has . . . Continue reading →
I consider myself a “grace boy.” That is, all the debates that have been on-going in Presbyterian and Reformed circles over sanctification over the past few years, I side with those who emphasize the indicative (who we are by virtue of our . . . Continue reading →
Faith doth all in us, till it hath brought us to salvation. It carries along this great venture of a man’s soul safe to heaven, and leaves it not till it hath put it into Christ’s hands in heaven, till itself ends . . . Continue reading →
[The Galatians] joined the works of the law with Christ and his grace in the cause of their justification and salvation. Here it must be observed that they which make a union of grace and works in the cause of justification are . . . Continue reading →
Yahweh saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And Yahweh regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to . . . Continue reading →
Before Adam’s fall it was not necessary for him to have Christ, because he was righteous and without sin, just as the angels have no need of Christ. If Adam had not fallen, it would not have been necessary for Christ to . . . Continue reading →
The controversy over transgendered bathrooms is really a symbol of the success of subjectivism. Hans Christian Anderson (1805–75) anticipated this crisis in the early 19th century and told us a story about the “Emperor’s New Clothes.” If ever there was a parable for this age, this is it. In it people are told repeatedly to deny their sense experience in favor of political correctness. A small boy, however, unaware of the potential socio-economic consequences (or the rage of the LGBT lobby) of telling the truth, speaks truth to power to the everlasting shame of the adults. So it is in our time. The Transgender Emperor has the wrong clothes. Continue reading →
Works will come into consideration as a manifestation of genuine saving faith. Work in the scriptural sense also means not just an external display but the expression of one’s life that flows out of the depth of the heart…. Scripture also speaks . . . Continue reading →
This righteousness then, which God communicates to man, and accepts alone, and owns as righteousness, has been revealed, he says, without the law, that is, without the aid of the law; and the law is to be understood as meaning works; for . . . Continue reading →
Most adults probably know by now that the story of the first Colonial Thanksgiving was a little more complex than that learned as a child. To catch up see Robert Tracy McKenzie, The First Thanksgiving: What the Real Story Tells Us About . . . Continue reading →
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 →
Introduction I have been speaking with an especially thoughtful young person recently who asked me whether it was appropriate to speak of “Gay Christians.” My first response was to ask whether it is appropriate to speak of “Murderer Christians” or “Thief Christians” . . . Continue reading →
With this episode/broadcast Chris Gordon and I begin a series in the book of Romans for Abounding Grace Radio. Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the . . . Continue reading →
In the preface to the Canons of Dort, Synod characterized the challenges she faced and the promise on which she relied to face those challenges. The preface characterized the Christian life as a “this wretched pilgrimage.” It is one, however, that is conducted under the shepherding care of Jesus, our high priest, who has “entered the heavenly sanctuary to go to his Father,” who is fulfilling the Great Promise behind the Great Commission: “A Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt 28:20). Continue reading →
Romans is one of the greatest resources available to the Christian faith and life. Written in the mid-to late AD 50s to the congregation in Rome, Paul sent this pastoral letter to make clear the gospel, that salvation is from the Lord, . . . Continue reading →
Perhaps the most fundamental complaint of the Remonstrants against Reformed theology, the concern that most animated Arminius’ desire to revise Reformed theology, was the charge that the Reformed view makes God the author of evil. In his desire to fix this problem . . . Continue reading →
