“It is infamous to ascend your puplit and pour over your people rivers of language, cataracts of words, in which mere platitudes are held in solution like infinitesimal grains of homeopathic medicine in an Atlantic of utterance” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 74).
The Problem of the Timeless Jew
John Piper begins and ends his Introduction with the observation that he has been too long in the service of the gospel to amuse himself by playing games of disputation. He graciously assumes the same for N.T. Wright, and then makes the central appeal that we should always make — to the law and to …
Guardians of the Baby
I just got my published version of John Piper’s new book The Future of Justification this last week. I had seen an earlier incarnation of the book in manuscript form, but according to the acknowledgments, this book is now twice the size it was when I saw it last. I really appreciate how careful John …
Temporary Justification
In the discussion of my previous Auburn Avenue post, one commenter asked what Reformed group has ever allowed for notions of temporary regeneration or justification. An outstanding answer to that question can be found here. Note carefully the three reasons that the English divines gave to the good gentlemen at Dort for their appeal, and …
Delayed Judgment Is Not Mercy
God has promised blessings to Israel, but we have seen that His blessings are always covenantal. This means that we may never walk away from our obligation to live in the way that God commands, knowing always that He gives His beloved what He commands. Grace enables us to walk rightly; it does not waive …
And When You Run Out of Things to Say, Go On to the Next Verse
“The surest way to maintain variety in to keep to the mind of the Holy Spirit in the particular passage under consideration. No two texts are exactly similar; something in the connection or drift of the passage gives to each apparently identical text a shade of difference. Keep to the Spirit’s track and you will …
The Demands of the System
Andy Webb tries to take us to task, but it doesn’t come out very well. He says: “There are so many non-Reformed doctrines floating around in the FV that one hardly knows where to begin addressing them. But the idea that everyone in the covenant is ‘saved in some sense’ regardless of whether they are …
The Flying Scroll
Up to this point, the visions have been greatly encouraging. But God is a holy God, and covenant blessings are never poured out blindly, apart from God’s recognition of our obedience or lack of it. The blessings are utterly inconsistent with continued sin. “Then I turned and raised my eyes, and saw there a flying …
Spiritual Nutrition
“Whatever else may be present, the absence of edifying, instructive truth, like the absence of flour from bread, will be fatal” (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, p. 71).
Greater Works
INTRODUCTION: The celebration of Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation. The Incarnation of the eternal Word is the miracle of miracles, the first wonder of a series of wonders. The Incarnation was the foundation, the Crucifixion and Resurrection the capstone and roof, and the Ascension the great steeple. But there is another wonder beyond …