We are not coming to the Lord’s Supper as though it were a gas station, and as though the grace imparted were the fuel. It is true that the Scriptures speaking of grace, and mercy, and peace as abstract nouns. This is certainly a scriptural way of speaking, provided we do not do what sinners …
Who? Me?
Richard Dawkins knows that he cannot just say that religion is silly, and that people are silly for believing it. Given his evolutionary premises, he has to give a Darwinian account of why people are so overwhelmingly religious. This is the goal of his next chapter in The God Delusion. “Religion is so wasteful, so …
The Screaming Moralistic Fantods
Taking one thing with another, Robert Godfrey’s contribution to Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry was really quite good. Entitled “Faith Formed by Love or Faith Alone?” Godfrey summarizes the original Reformed response to the medieval definition of faith (made complete and salvific when formed by love), and discusses the grounding of the Protestant response in …
Making It Particular
When the two sacraments that Jesus Christ instituted are neglected, men will always substitute in new sacraments of their own devising. God has given us this Table so that at the conclusion of our covenant renewal service, we might have closure. Just as the peace offering closed the cycle of Old Testament sacrifices, so the …
Story Telling as Subversion
Story telling is a subversive activity. Every culture, every society, has a story to tell of itself. Idolatrous societies tell stories that vindicate their idols, presenting them in the best possible light. You, as Christians, will always be allowed to worship as you please, just so long as you do not do anything to subvert …
Take the Grilled Cheese Sandwich Away
The next chapter in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry is by Scott Clark, and is entitled “Do This and Live.” In it he argues for the active obedience of Christ as (an essential part of) the ground of our justification. Okay, I agree with that. So how hard could this be? But alas. On p. …
Tender Hearts at the Supper
In the name of keeping the ungodly and rebellious away from the Table, many well-intentioned Christians have only succeeded in keeping the tender-hearted away. It is analogous to the bumpersticker that says when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. When the hard-hearted are whacked, only the tender-hearted listen. When warnings are given to …
Not Nearly Scrupulous Enough
God pronounces a blessing for those who do not lean on their own understanding. Of course, in one sense, our own understanding is the only thing we have. The proverb does not mean that God somehow requires us to think with someone else’s mind, to look out at the world with someone else’s eyes. This …
Christ and the Life of Faith
In my previous post on the Auburn Avenue business, I said something that I think requires a bit more amplification. I believe that the unfallen Adam was under a covenant that obligated him to obey God completely and entirely. He broke that covenant, and God promised him a redeemer through another kind of covenant, a …
The Death of Divided Loyalties
We know from the Word of God that the ways of the flesh and the ways of the Spirit cannot be reconciled. They are mortal enemies, and can be nothing but mortal enemies. As long as God is holy, and as long as sin is filthy, the two will be at odds, that is to …