Justification and Assurance
These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life… 1 John 5:13aNKJ The Protestant Reformation is most often remembered and celebrated as the…
Tag Faith
Justification and the Old Perspective
Charles Spurgeon’s famous quip goes something like this, “I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God as it is in Christ Jesus.” We…
The Ordo Salutis: Justification
John Calvin called justification as “the main hinge on which religion turns” and said we must devote great attention to it (Institutes, III.xi.1). When we consider justification’s role in the order of salvation it plays a crucial role in distinction…
Fearless and Faithful: Past Plagues and Contemporary Pastors
“As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry” (2 Timothy 4:5). A recent article about the corona virus, written by a London physician ends with an alarming cry: “We’re heading…
The Ordo Salutis: Faith
From the moment Adam assented to and acted on the lie that the forbidden fruit would make him like God, unbelief became the reigning characteristic in all of God’s image bearers. Like a deep-rooted cancer, the distorting nature of disbelief…
Grace in Salvation
Perhaps the greatest risk surrounding the doctrine of grace in the Bible is that we allow it to become a cliché. We talk about it, sing about it, take great care to define it, but through it all fail to…
Greater Works than the Son?
Some Bible passages are perplexing. That may be an understatement. We wonder about some of them. Like unruly children who cannot be harnessed and corralled these passages too are hard to handle. When we have finished our daily chores and…
Experiencing the love of God
The concept of love has been cheapened beyond words over the past half century and longer. This is not only true in the secular realm, but sadly also for Christians. In all kinds of ways, the church’s view of love…
The Ten Commandments: The Tenth
In Anthony and Cleopatra (3:2) Shakespeare described it as the “green sickeness”. In Othello, he called it the “green eyed monster”. Immanuel Kant described it thus: “inherent in the nature of man, and only its manifestation makes of it an…
Hilary of Poitiers and the Wonder of the Triune God
Hilary of Poitiers and the Wonder of the Triune God “He Who upholds the universe, within Whom and through Whom are all things, was brought forth by common childbirth; He at Whose voice Archangels and Angels tremble, and heaven…