This Hideous Complaint
Only one person has truly understood the words that Christ said on the cross: “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”, that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46). That person was Christ himself. The rest of us…
Tag Cross
Understanding the Cry of Dereliction
‘And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”’ (Mark 15:34). What exactly was happening on the cross when Jesus spoke these…
Good Friday, April 10, 2020
Hebrews 2:9 “But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste…
Thursday, April 9, 2020
John 12:27–36 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have…
Retribution and Redemption
Last month, Pope Francis expressed his opinion that the death penalty is unacceptable in all cases. At the same time as he took his public stand, a series of popular opinions circulated online about whether or not the death penalty…
Imagine There’s No Hell
At the Desiring God 1990 Pastor’s Conference, Sinclair Ferguson gave a talk titled, “The Biblical Basis for the Doctrine of Eternal Punishment.” It is, without doubt, one of the most significant treatments of the doctrine of hell that I have…
Conflict, Comfort and the Cross
Last week, a gunman entered First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas and killed 26 people, wounding 20 others. The massacre was brutal and left what will surely be scars on all of those who survived, many of whom were…
Cruciform Suffering
The fact that the incarnate Son of God “learned obedience” (Heb. 5:8) is an essential aspect of Jesus’ human nature and so is indispensable to sound Christology and soteriology. Apart from the cross itself, the clearest example we have of…
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,…
Abelard & Anselm; or How to Throw Yourself in Front of a Bus
Leon Morris once suggested that “the atonement is the crucial doctrine of the faith” and that “unless we are right here it matters little . . . what we are like elsewhere” (The Cross in the New Testament, p. 5).…