Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A Brief Comparison of Calvin’s Institutes with the Westminster Confession and Catechisms regarding the shape of imputation This essay is a brief argument that the soteriology of John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion regarding union with Christ and the imputation of his righteousness is the same as…
The thoughts in this paper were largely prompted by a study of Walter E. Krebs, “The Word and the Sacraments,” Mercersburg Review (July, 1867), 366-383. The discussion in this paper presupposes my earlier studies of baptism, “Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future” and “Calvin on Baptism,…
Sometimes our systematic theology creates an illusion of precision. For example, we distinguish the ground and instrument of justification. Justification is grounded in Christ’s work alone, and is instrumentally received by faith alone. That makes good sense and guards us from thinking that faith itself is somehow meritorious. All the…
Whenever we participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we remember Christ and His Work for us. We remember. And in remembering, we imitate God, as His creatures made after His image. God remembers. This is mysterious to us because we usually think of remembering in the context of our…
It is standard in paedobaptist circles to argue for the baptism of infants out of the Old Covenant system. Because there is no explicit command in the New Testament, we are left to the broader principles and patterns of Scripture. In the Old Covenant, we continually find that the children…
Luther popularized the law/gospel hermeneutic. Luther argued that any demands God made upon us fell into the category of “law” and could only condemn. By contrast, anything God gave us was “gospel” and came with no strings attached. Calvin paid lip service to this law/gospel antithesis, even though it was…
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D.C. Schindler ( Communio , 2013, 600-1) argues that the Catholic appeal to subsidiarity isn't adequate on its own to meet the challenge of totalitarian liberalism. Subsidiarity assumes “a strong conception of what are referred to as ‘intermediate communities,' such as the family.” The problem that Schindler discerns is that…
Liberal polities claim to lack competency in religious matters, and so they leave them to private choice. It sounds modest. It isn't. If it were truly modest about its incompetency, it would seek guidance from the competent - that is, from religious organizations that can guide the state in deciding,…
A ll the rites of Israel’s sacrificial system move from outside in. When a priest offers a purification offering for himself or for all the people, he slaughters the animal in the courtyard before bringing its blood into the holy place (Leviticus 4). When the high priest performs the rites…
B eowulf revolves around three battles between the hero and threatening monsters—Grendel, Grendel's mother, and a dragon. The central focus of the first two fights is Heorot, the mead-hall of Hrothgar, king of Denmark. The mead-hall is the focus of a complex of imagery. As in the Odyssey and Macbeth…
I n Matthew 4, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and demands that he throw himself down, trusting His Father to send angels to keep Him from dashing His foot against a stone. Jesus replies by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16: “You shall not put the Lord your…
I n his commentary on Hebrews , William Lane disputes the common view that Hebrews 1:6 refers to the incarnation when it says that God brought the “firstborn into the world.” The Greek word behind “world” is oikoumene , which, Lane argues, typically refers to “habitable land, in contrast to…
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