Law

God’s law reveals God’s character. By it, we know Him and know what it means to be like Him. Therefore, the law itself is beautiful and desirable, reflecting God Himself. The law is also mankind’s tutor. It instructs us of our inability to be like God or to fellowship with Him apart from a...

Before I had come to truly embrace the doctrines of grace, I remember being incredibly hung up on the idea of the perseverance of the saints. I simply could not understand how it was remotely possible that a Christian could be saved and then would never need to fear losing their salvation. After...

The three uses of the law—restraining sin, convicting sinners, and guiding believers in holy living—reflect its multifaceted role in God’s moral order. While the third use promotes societal order and the second provides a blueprint for Christian living, it is the first use that acts as a catalyst...

The metaphor of God’s kingdom as a vineyard is one that has Old Testament vintage, which is appropriate when talking about a vineyard. Long before Christ’s first advent, the prophet Isaiah described the Kingdom of Judah as a vineyard well-supplied to do what it is supposed to do: produce grapes for...

Unlike every other religion Christianity is fundamentally a message of grace. True believers are “not under the law, as a covenant of works, to be thereby justified or condemned” (cf. Rom. 6:14) Believers are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. But a misunderstanding of grace...

Gary Schnittjer’s The Torah Story: An Apprenticeship on the Pentateuch became an instant classic upon its release in 2006. Sophisticated yet highly accessible, The Torah Story approaches the first five books of the Old Testament as both internally intrinsic and interconnected, unfolding a...

At face value, the 9 th commandment could be read as merely a prohibition against committing perjury or lying under oath. However, this commandment encompasses so much more. According to both the Westminster Shorter and the Baptist catechisms, “The ninth commandment requires the maintaining and...

The fifth through tenth of God’s Ten Commandments focus on preserving and protecting persons. Here, the eighth hones in on safeguarding and maintaining a person’s possessions. In the reiteration of the Decalogue for the second generation of the covenant about to enter the Promised Land, Deuteronomy...

Names. We all have one, or two or three, maybe even four or five! Names identify us, don’t they? At least to some degree. Yet, we recognize that we are more than merely our name(s). My parents could have decided to name me by any other name besides David, and yet I would still be me. Our human...

“You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:4, Deuteronomy 5:7). Over half a century ago, the late Martyn Lloyd-Jones, minister at Westminster Chapel, London, aimed the penetrating light of the first commandment at modern idolatry, saying, “There are many people today who never darken the...