Glancing around the Internet, I have recently noticed higher levels of interest than usual in the doctrine of penal substitution, and thought it might be worthwhile to set down a few basic principles concerning the doctrine. So here they are: 1. Penal substitution defined is the doctrine that the salvation of God’s people is secured …
Gilt Guilt
The Lord Jesus famously said that if we don’t forgive others, we ourselves are unforgiven. “But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Matt. 6:15). This seems like a bad bit of business, but only because we tend to think of forgiveness as a peculiar sort of double-entry …
Snarls and Snarling
We have seen that the devil baits his hook with sinful pleasures, and then, when the hapless sinner bites, he gives a deft tug on the hook of accusation. Now the fish might well protest, when being hauled into the boat of condemnation by the ruthless fisherman, that the worm was not his idea. “Why …
Peer Pressure Review
One of the claims I have been making is that the world runs on accusation. Searching out the truth, examining the arguments, and making your decisions on that basis is one way of doing business, but another, much more popular way, is to find out what all the other kids are doing, and just go …
One Kind of Cup on the Table
I am arguing that the world runs on the energy of accusation and condemnation. This is how people are kept in line. I am also arguing that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross has fundamentally undone that system of condemnation. Since Jesus died and rose, the whole thing has been unraveling, and cannot …
Because Snakes Don’t Have Feet
The Bible consistently speaks of leaving the old way of life in terms of leaving the way of envy. Sins are like grapes, which means that they come in clusters, and so other things are consistently mentioned as well. A number of our sins do come in bundles. But one of the things we must …
A Serpent Impaled
It would be an easy mistake to think that the devil wants us all to become ethical relativists. But this is like thinking that the kidnapper wants the child to have some candy. It is like thinking the homeowner wants to the mouse to have a bit of cheese, and so he put some out …
Three Kinds of Accusation
The human heart is not divided up into watertight compartments, and thus it is possible to make obvious distinctions in how we respond to accusation without making absolute distinctions. That said, people are generally put on the defensive by guilt, shame, or fear. Obviously, more than one can operate at a time, but generally one …
A World of Right Reason
When the apostle describes a generic condition of unbelief, it is interesting how he does it. When we lived in unbelief, what was the atmosphere we breathed continually? “For we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and hating one another” (Tit. 3:3). For …
God’s Gonna Cut You Down
Now if we come to the understanding that the devil is “the accuser,” and not God, what are we to make of the necessary holiness of God’s law? And how can we make sense of the Last Judgment? Doesn’t God run the Last Day, and not the devil? Go tell that long tongue liar,Go and …