Running the Race of Redemption
“If I had died in the line of duty, I don’t think that I would have come to Christ. If I had been shot, I would have worn that as a badge of heroism. But when God gave me cancer,…
Tag Christ
More Mercy in Christ than Sin in Us
In his book The Bruised Reed, Richard Sibbes famously wrote, “We have this for a foundation truth, that there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” Here is one of those oft repeated statements of Gospel assurance with…
A Cross-Shaped View of God’s Attributes
Talk of God’s attributes that is not tethered to concrete stories of God’s dealings with his people in history tends toward abstraction (and so away from doxology, where all talk of God should end). The same is true, of course,…
The Justification of Works by Faith
The Protestant Reformers, following Scripture’s lead, roundly rejected the notion that believers might be justified in part or in whole by their own good works. Sinners, they maintained, are justified wholly on the basis of Christ’s perfect righteousness imputed to…
Christ in Flesh and Spirit
Over the past 150 years or so, there has been a biblical theological development in our understanding of Paul’s use of the σαρκ/πνεύμα (i.e. flesh/Spirit) distinction–specifically in relation to the Person and work of Christ. The most significant passage in this regard…
The Eternal Subordination of the Son Controversy: Survey of Some Relevant Material
It has seldom received as public an airing as is now possible in the context of social media, yet controversy surrounding the eternal subordination of the Son position (ESS) is not new. Although it has not usually intruded upon the…
No Adam, No Christ!
Preaching through Genesis over the past year and a half has encouraged me to re-open quite a number of significant theological subjects–not least of which is the historical character of the foundational portions of God’s revelation. Over the past 150 years, biblical…
‘Rise, heart; thy Lord is risen’
IThe Christian confession of the resurrection encompasses two great matters: first, that Jesus Christ is the living one who died and is alive for evermore (Rev. 1.18), and, second, that together with him ‘God made us alive’ (Eph. 2.5). These…
More Goodness Showed To Us Than to Christ
Christians affirm that God is good, but just how good is God? We can speak of him being “infinitely good” but that still doesn’t help the person in the pew much. People need specifics. Is it possible that God…
Conformity to Jesus as the Paradigm for Christian Ethics 3
Conformity to Christ Through Vocation In his second essay on the imitation of Christ Herman Bavinck wrestles with a very old problem. He points out that the New Testament was written by and for Christians who came from the underside…