When we come to this Table in the demeanor of faith, we are not just nourishing ourselves. Rather, the entire Body is being nourished and built up to the extent that various parts of the Body are receiving this gift in true evangelical faith. Coming to the Lord’s Table rightly is not a way for …
A Father Forever
In the Bible, personal identity is not primarily a question of some substance inside a man. But each man still has a nature, inherited from his father. So ontology is not a philosophical problem in the Bible, but rather a problem of generation. And when this generation is sinful, the only solution to the problem …
You Shall Not Commit Murder
It would be easy for Christians to assume that there is not much to say with regard to this commandment — God says not to murder people. But as is true with so many other things, we are most prone to error in the things we think we know. The Word of God says that …
The Privilege of Persecution
There are some things which the natural man is simply incapable of doing. If we are thinking carefully, we should recognize that obedience to the words of Christ in this passage heads the list. This inability of the non-believing is important for us as we consider the passage. Christ gives the last Beatitude, and then …
Trinitarian Snobs
GRACE & PEACE “At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11) Growing Dominion, Part 26 As we consider the task of living full, Trinitarian lives we have to avoid the temptation of becoming what might be called narrow Trinitarian snobs. By “Trinitarian” here I mean the art and discipline (guided by …
When Problems Glare
He may not be thrilled with this commendation, but in a recent journal article (Mid-America Journal of Theology), Alan Strange has an outstanding review of Gordon Clark’s What Is Saving Faith? He praises where praise is due, and points out glaring problems where said problems glare. And as Strange notes several times in the article, …
Faith, Dead or Alive?
In my recent conversation with Michael Horton, he raised a question that I did not get a chance to answer in the course of our discussion. He had a problem with the fact that I had said somewhere that “works is the animating principle of faith.” By saying this, I do not mean that faith …
Simultaneous Shame and Confidence/Psalm 25
The twenty-fifth psalm is a sustained plea for help, although it contains some things that we might have trouble reconciling. This again is one of the reasons why we need to be trained to pray as the psalmist prays. This is the second penitential psalm, and it is the first that is composed as an …
God of Times and Seasons
God of our times and seasons, we thank You for our times and seasons. We know that we do not control history, and that yet You are pleased to use us in what You are doing in the course of history. We submit ourselves to You gladly now, and ask that this worship this morning …
Christmas as War
This is now the second Lord’s Day of Advent, and we continue to prepare ourselves for the celebration of one of the most monumental events of all world history—the time when the Second Person of the Creator God assumed a human body in the womb of a virgin, in order to join us in our …