On the doctrine of justification, the doctrine of how a sinner is made right with God, two anathemas now stand in the historical record, pointing in opposite directions.   In the year 2000, Rome’s doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, published a declaration called Dominus Iesus. It was signed by Cardinal... Continue Reading

The Democratic candidates are long on quoting Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount, but they will have nothing to do with the rest of the New Testament. Their theological liberalism comes to the fore the moment you talk about the Apostle Paul’s teachings on homosexuality. At that point, their liberalism goes into overdrive and... Continue Reading

Theology is paramount. It is the mind and heart’s action of bending toward God as a plant leans toward the light.   It is two o’clock in the morning. A Christian man stands in a hospital hallway as his wife lies asleep in the room behind him. He’s holding a cup of coffee in his... Continue Reading

God wants you to understand that He knows better than you what is good for you, that He is much wiser and more powerful than you, that He promises to look out for you and give you what is best for you. And God wants you to choose to follow Him because you love Him... Continue Reading

In the final Narnia installment, The Last Battle, Lewis ironically and unintentionally gave us an unsettling foreshadowing of what Netflix would do a mere 70 years later. In that tale, in the “last days of Narnia,” a donkey named Puzzle appears in the land and wears a lion suit at the behest of a conniving... Continue Reading

You and I don’t know the future. This ignorance can cause us to despair or think the worst, but that is not ours to possess. It is pride to say that our situation will not improve. It is to attribute to oneself the possession of God alone, the fact of omniscience.   John Bunyan’s The... Continue Reading

Our minds might be full to overflowing with knowledge about our position in Christ. We might have memorised dozens of key texts on this. But as can so often be the case, while these truths fill our minds, we struggle to have them impact our hearts.   The good news of the gospel is that... Continue Reading

What do I need in order to follow God faithfully? I need to be aware of the ways the world is shaping me and refuse to be conformed to what will keep me from serving God faithfully.   A couple of thoughts have come together that helped me recently. They have given me insight into... Continue Reading

What has passed away is the Law Covenant; what remains is the God whose character it still reveals, and whose people now keep his commandments not as subjects of Moses, but as sons of the Father, indwelt by the Spirit, under the law of Christ.   Every Christian who knows the prohibitions in Leviticus 11:7–8... Continue Reading

Jesus understood something we often forget: we are servants, not saviors. Christ alone carries the weight of being the Savior of the world, which means we are allowed to stop. We do not rest because nothing matters; we rest because God is God even when we are not working.   The apostles returned to Jesus... Continue Reading

Much of the modern conversation about worship begins with the question, “What can we add?” Perhaps covenant theology teaches us to ask, “Why do we think we need more?” The simplicity of Christian worship is not evidence of its poverty, but evidence that Christ has come.   Last week I was teaching through Ryan McGraw’s... Continue Reading

Ultimately, the confrontation with Islam is a spiritual battle. “Proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Islam is antithetical to the Jesus of the Bible. There is one Lord, one Savior, one faith, one baptism, and we need to proclaim Him to Muslims.”   America’s growing embrace of politicized Islam is “perplexing” to those with first-hand... Continue Reading

We have all that we need to endure any storm. God will cause the waters to recede whenever He pleases. We need not worry, for our King is in total control. He loves us and cares for us.   The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve And strips the forests bare; And... Continue Reading

When Jesus says “love God with all of your mind,” he is not only history’s greatest Giver of that great commandment, he is also history’s greatest Keeper of the great commandment.     Last year in the United States, advertisers spent 422 billion dollars trying to convince you to buy stuff you probably don’t need.... Continue Reading

Our new bodies received from God in the resurrection will be imperishable, glorious, powerful, and spiritual. Our present mortal bodies, subject to decay and death, will be raised to an immortal state and bear the image of our Savior.   Not long ago my wife and I helped care for her sister who suffered from... Continue Reading

There’s nothing inherently wrong with living in a nice neighborhood, or having a healthy body, or building a successful career. These are good gifts from God. They are little invitations to witness his beauty, harmony, and redemption. But they are not ladders. And the more we try to climb them—investing our life’s joy and meaning... Continue Reading

I don’t think we should ever think or say, “I would never do that.” Why? Because of original sin. We have the capacity for unspeakable evils in our hearts. The only reason we do not pursue these unspeakable evils is the restraining grace of our God. Let us be grateful for the grace of God.... Continue Reading

Gay Christianity despises the law of God. Christians must confess and cling to God’s law in the face of popular oppostion to what God commands. When we do that, we find a level path for our feet and a nurturing stream by which we can build fruitful lives. Don’t be blown about by different doctrines,... Continue Reading

Christians need to think more seriously about how to prepare the next generation of believers to handle the intellectual challenges of the university environment (and beyond). We need to do more than prepare them morally and practically; we need to train their minds to engage effectively with an unbelieving world…Ultimately, it will require a macroshift... Continue Reading

John Adams said in 1776: “Public Virtue cannot exist in a Nation without private, and public Virtue is the only Foundation of Republics.” It is easy to look out there and see how immoral things are and call for changes, especially when we are not in the driver’s seat politically, but we must also cultivate... Continue Reading