Tag Archives: Gospel

The End For Which God Created the World, 1

07 Monday Jun 2010

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I began seminary today with summer Greek.  I’m not completely freaked out, but I’m sufficiently motivated.  I’ve been studying flash cards I’ve made with vocabulary and the Greek alphabet, so I figured I’d take a few moments to look at a Jonathan Edwards dissertation concerning The End for which God Created the World. It was recommended to me by a fellow Greek student, so I thought I’d give it a look.  I’m reading out of the 1860 printing of the 1834 edition.  It’s a rewarding experience to read a classic in an older edition, but for the sake of my notes, I’ll be paraphrasing most of what I read. Continue reading →

An Interview on Law & Gospel

31 Monday May 2010

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A great many comments have come about, some through posts and some in person, whenever I speak of the law and gospel being related but separate entities.  I hope, in the coming weeks and months, to address some of this material.

To begin with, however, I would like to direct you to Tullian Tchividjian‘s blog for the transcript of a recent interview with Justin Taylor, of the Between Two Worlds blog.

Click here to read the interview.

Biblical Leadership according to Paul

27 Thursday May 2010

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In Paul’s letter to Titus, Paul lays out some protocol for those in Titus’ pastoral care. In verses 1 & 2 of chapter 3, Paul exhorts Titus to “remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.”  As an evangelical who edges closer to confessional Christianity each passing day, I affirm the authority of Scripture to determine faith and practice.  So let’s look at the context in which this exhortation is given.

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The Gospel Is Not Your Story

23 Sunday May 2010

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Many folks in evangelicalism who routinely ‘share their faith,’ go about telling their story.  They talk about how Jesus has saved them from this or that sinful behavior or thought pattern.  Some folks’ sin of choice involves alcohol, some are sidelined by homosexual behavior, others by drugs, anger, or nicotine.  Whatever they wrestled with before, they have the victory over now…all thanks to Jesus.

Here’s the problem: even if we are to grant that God has wrought such life-change through sanctification, this is still not the Gospel. Such life-change is potentially a fruit of the Gospel, but the Gospel and its fruit must never be confounded.  Someone recently asked me to summarize the Gospel.  Here’s what I answered:

That Christ, acting outside of me, apart from my will, died for me in history and that he rose again, giving me his righteousness which covers me like a robe would. His righteousness is always and always will be alien to (outside of) me.

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The King and the Pirates

11 Tuesday May 2010

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Les Lanphere, of the Killer Robot Ninja Blog, offers this insightful parable to illustrate the sovereignty of God in election:

Ten Pirates invade a King’s ship. They beat and rape the King’s entire family, and begin pillaging all the goods.

The King arrives in his rowboat, and from the water can see what’s going on. He shouts to the pirates, “Stop now, and I will be merciful to you, and forgive you!” (desire for all to repent, and not to die in sins).

The Pirates bring out his family and rape and murder them on the deck, while laughing at the King. As they get drunk on the wine from the ship they do even more perverse things with the bodies all while the King watches in horror, and rage. They yell insults and taunts at the King and light the sails on fire. The ship begins to go up in flames.

Read the rest of the story here.

A letter to a friend

12 Monday Apr 2010

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I’m friends with Aaron, who has a wonderful blog of his own.  I’d like to share the first piece of correspondence I exchanged with him.  The night that he and I began talking, he was tweeting quotes from Bill Maher’s Religulous. I had a total meltdown when he tweeted something to the effect that “doubt is humble.” So this email resulted.

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The Trouble With Attention

08 Thursday Apr 2010

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I’m just about as insecure as the next guy. I mean, I hold my own in a discussion, I conduct choirs and orchestras with a minimum of challenges, I speak in front of groups about the Bible with no trouble at all, I can even handle a classroom full of junior high kids for 80 minutes at a time.

But I’ve never gotten past the idea I have about my being physically undesirable.  It’s terribly difficult to put myself in situations to ask out girls (which I’ve done three times in my life, being shot down very recently without even as much as a second hearing).  I just never think any girl alive (or even guy for that matter) would ever want me. I would categorize myself as clumsy and awkward, even though most people would probably label me as confident.

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