What the One-Anothers Do
The one-anothers form a crucial category of instruction for the life of the church.
Anything we hope to accomplish in our stirring one another up to love and good deeds, our bearing one another’s burdens, our hospitality to one another, our exhortation of one another, or our serving one another—can only flourish by the power of God. In the life of the believer, there can be tendency to make... Continue Reading
What Does Solus Christus Mean?
Luther recognized that in his day people had become enslaved to the sacramental system of the Roman Catholic Church, and instead of looking to Christ for their standing before God they looked to the Church.
Solus Christus was needed in the sixteenth century and is needed in the twenty-first century in order to press upon us the fact that our relationship with God can be mediated by none other than Christ alone. Whatever age we live in, whether the age of the Reformers or the present age, we are tempted... Continue Reading
The Second “Coming” Already Happened…but Not in the Way You’re Thinking (Part 2)
When God comes against a people for their sins, His coming is always spiritual, covenantal, always in the apocalyptic genre, and always in the context of divine judgment.
Jesus promised a sign would occur in the heavens, when He ascended there, sat on the throne to reign, and began the work of putting all His enemies under His feet. His Kingship is the sign! Nickel Therapy Sessions and Judgment Comings The melancholy boy walked timidly away from the five-cent therapy booth, questioning... Continue Reading
An Alternative to Winsomeness
No one who is faithful in emulating Christ and declaring his truth is likely to be perceived as winsome by the world.
The irony is that it is only when our virtue is recognized as commendable by unbelievers that we stand to win them to our faith or compel them to regard us favorably. Aspiring to be winsome will not likely gain their approval or conversion; but demonstrated virtue sometimes does. That being so, why not strive... Continue Reading
The Grace of Remembering
The Christian life is often fueled most of all by remembering those truths that God has already revealed to us.
We need to remind ourselves of those precious truths of the gospel—namely, that through our union with Christ in His death and resurrection, the power of sin has been broken, the guilt of our sin has been forgiven and dealt with, and the assurance of God’s presence secured to us. Today marks 21 years... Continue Reading
The “F” Word: The Revival of Fundamentalism
If those who cast stones of criticism by using the term fundamentalist are referring to a steady opposition to theological error and a defense of the faith once delivered to the saints—I want to be called a fundamentalist.
An improper use of the term fundamentalism will create a false narrative that anyone who is opposed to critical race theory, intersectionality, or views Marxism as a threat to the church is merely an unlearned and overzealous right-winged Christian Nationalist who gleans theology from Tucker Carlson rather than Jesus Christ. The way in which... Continue Reading
Christ the Fountain of Cleansing
What a motivation to holiness is a compassionate Savior!
Boundless compassion—rooted not in any sentimentalism, but in his own blood-stained cross—that ought to make us want to root out every vestige of remaining sin in our lives. We can’t live in the sin he died to free us from. We must be driven, by his own loveliness, to make war on our sin. ... Continue Reading
The Silent Sin That Kills Christian Love
Contempt is rooted in the inability to see the image of God in your opponent.
Perhaps the test of faithfulness in a day of moral degradation will be our love for people across chasms of difference. The way of the cross rejects the path of sneers and jeers, whether in the form of elite condescension or populist passion. One of my biggest tasks as a pastor right now is... Continue Reading
Winsomeness Redux: Focusing on the Virtues Expected of Christ’s Followers
Winsomeness, like attractiveness, is in the eye of the beholder. Its essence does not lie so much in what one is, but in how one is perceived by others.
Given that history, we would be better served to abandon the desire for winsomeness and all attempts to repurpose it and make it our own, and to instead return to Scripture’s ideas and terms regarding the multi-faceted virtue which is to be exhibited by the followers of Christ. President Kruger is right in his aim... Continue Reading
To the Uttermost
How Jesus Keeps Us Day by Day
No angel, and no mere saint, could work so great a wonder. But Jesus can. He is none other than the Father’s “beloved Son” (Mark 1:11), whom heaven always hears (John 11:42). He is “the righteous” one, “the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1–2), whose wounds and words satisfy every claim of justice. And... Continue Reading
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