“Produce fruit worthy of repentance” ( “ποιήσατε οὖν καρπὸν ἄξιον τῆς μετανοίας”) these were the words of John the Baptizer to the many Pharisees and Sadducees “coming unto (the) baptism” (Matt 3:7). John was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He . . . Continue reading →
In 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Paul wrote, “And we ought to give thanks to God for you brothers beloved by the Lord, because God chose you (to be) the first fruits1 unto salvation in sanctification of the Spirit and in faith of the . . . Continue reading →
This is what is meant when we insist that justification is forensic. It has to do with a judgment given, declared, pronounced; it is judicial or juridical or forensic. The main point of such terms is to distinguish between the kind of . . . Continue reading →
Join me all next week on Abounding Grace Radio as I fill in for Chris Gordon. Monday is a message from Romans 13 but beginning on Tuesday we will be discussing Romans 7. Heidelberg Catechism 114 asks, Can those who are converted . . . Continue reading →
It was my pleasure to fill-in for Chris Gordon on Abounding Grace Radio this week. On Monday we broadcast a sermon on Romans 13. In that message I tried to help the congregation read Romans 13 against the social-political background of the . . . Continue reading →
It was my pleasure to fill-in for Chris Gordon on Abounding Grace Radio last week. Tuesday–Friday we broadcast a 4-part series on Romans 7: “The Christian’s Continual Struggle Against Sin.” Here is part 2 of the series. You can also find the series . . . Continue reading →
It was my pleasure to fill-in for Chris Gordon on Abounding Grace Radio last week. Tuesday–Friday we broadcast a 4-part series on Romans 7: “The Christian’s Continual Struggle Against Sin.” Here is part 3 of the series. You can also find the series . . . Continue reading →
It was my pleasure to fill-in for Chris Gordon on Abounding Grace Radio last week. Tuesday–Friday we broadcast a 4-part series on Romans 7: “The Christian’s Continual Struggle Against Sin.” Here is part 4 of the series. You can also find the . . . Continue reading →
Q133 Therefore, explain fully this sanctification of ours in Christ. A133 Something is said to be sanctified which is segregated from common pollution, so that it is most pure, and wholly consecrated to God the greatest adversary of all filth. Therefore, in . . . Continue reading →
Q. 154 Therefore, you say that good works are necessary to salvation? A: If faith is necessary to salvation, and works necessarily flow out of true faith, (as that which cannot be idle), certainly also it follows, that good works are necessary . . . 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 →
Almost since the beginning of the Reformation there were two reactions to the recovery of the gospel: legalism, or nomism, and antinomianism. There are associated doctrines and practices but the core of antinomianism is the rejection of the abiding validity of the . . . Continue reading →
A complex question came over the electronic transom this morning. It has at least two parts: (1) Is persistent sin (e.g., sexual sin or desire) our identity, who we are; (2) Does the Lord want us to offer this sin to him? . . . Continue reading →
Outside the church, i.e., outside the visible, organized Christ-confessing covenant community, where the gospel is preached purely, the sacraments of Holy Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are administered purely, and where church discipline is used, the church often looks very different than . . . Continue reading →
There is a lot of vague talk about “spirituality” in the broader culture today and very little of it is genuinely Christian. Visit the “spirituality” section of Barnes and Noble and you will see I what I mean. There is another approach . . . Continue reading →
And this is the reason why the author of The Letter to the Hebrews refers to faith all the good works of which we read as being done among the holy fathers, and judges them by faith alone [Heb. 11:2 ff.; 11:17; . . . Continue reading →
The problem with even the evangelical, self-imposed fast is that it creates a little law for us to obey, a rule that is within our reach. It is, not surprisingly, a law of our own making, for the law of God — . . . Continue reading →
Under this head of doctrine we have considered the errors that Synod rejected—the Remonstrants turned the perseverance into a covenant of works—so now we turn to what Synod confessed positively about how Christ graciously preserves his people through their pilgrimage in this . . . Continue reading →
The single most frequent way to corrupt the doctrine of perseverance has been to turn it into a covenant of works. This happens regularly outside the Reformed churches. E.g., the Romanists teach that, in baptism, sins are graciously washed away, initial justification . . . Continue reading →
A reader writes with a question about biblical interpretation and baptism: I was going through Colossians 2 when I read the footnote from the Reformation Study Bible… which sent me to page 41 for a more in-depth explanation. Infant baptism seems to make . . . Continue reading →