free grace

Justification by faith alone. Sounds simple enough, and in some respects it is. In the PCA we admit people into membership who acknowledge they are sinners and trust in Christ alone for salvation. In a certain sense, we are requiring that they understand the doctrine of justification. But we are...

It had been a long, hot summer. The heat wave outside seemed to match the heat wave in my own heart of anger, chaos, disappointment, fear, grief, insecurity, loneliness, and physical pain. One night things seemed particularly bad. I was overwhelmed with the different needs of each of my four...

The Reformers confronted the Catholic church with five scriptural principles by which they sought to reform the church. If the 21 st century church is to once again transform the culture by the proclamation of the gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ, it must reclaim its heritage: the five solas of the...

Daniel De Superville – Bringing Comfort to a Pilgrim Church If the sixteenth century was a turbulent time for French Huguenots, the following century was disastrous. What little hope they had nurtured in 1598, when King Henry IV’s Edict of Nantes granted them some rights to worship and participate...

One of the communicable attributes of God is his attribute of righteousness. Righteousness is the character of God where he does what is right, true, and just. To be righteous to act and judge things as they are. God is righteous and therefore has a standard for what it right and what is wrong. God...

In a world full of uncertainty and confusion, each of us longs for the ability to navigate our circumstances well, to make a right judgment or take the right action. Sometimes we are presented with a plethora of options and we are left trying to pick the right one. In other instances, perhaps we...

Asaph, reflecting on some of his deepest struggles in the life of faith, concludes one ohis psalms by saying, ‘But as for me, it is good to be near God’ (Ps 73.28). David says something similar in the most memorable of his penitential psalms with the words, ‘Cast me not away from your presence and...

I remember hearing this question in a Bible study more than once, and this was the common answer: “Mercy is not getting what we deserve.” While it's short and pithy, is mercy as simplistic as that? Is it only the commutation of a sentence or stay of execution? Or is mercy much richer and deeper? To...

An advice column dedicated to gift-giving in December accidentally explored a very biblical topic – the relationship between love and the law. Question one: What shall I do about a boyfriend who buys expensive but inappropriate gifts? The mind wanders: Did he buy her a chain saw last year? Hang-...

Looking for the Lost There is a well-known nursery rhyme that generations of British children grew up with which begins with the words, Little Bo-Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them; Leave them alone and they will come home, wagging their tails behind them. Cute and all as...