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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Wright on Colossians 2:8: He points out that Paul uses the rare verb sylagogein (“to take captive”) because “it makes a contemptuous pun with the word synagogue.” Paul’s warning is not just about those who would take captive, but about the temptation to lapse back into old covenant modes and…
Reflecting on Colossians 1:19-20, NT Wright notes that the incarnation and cross were not “undertaken with reluctance or merely because there was no other course. God not only acted in this way: he ‘took pleasure’ in doing so.” Much popular atonement theology suggests otherwise: The conflict between God’s mercy and…
Alan Wolfe, announcing the end of the culture wars with the election of Obama, accuses the South of voting against Obama because Southerners are racists: “The single most disturbing aspect of last night’s election is the transformation of the Republican Party into the party of the Confederacy. Yes, Republicans remain…
Ruth 2:10: Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, Since I am a foreigner? As Toby pointed out last week, the book of Ruth appears in the “writings” section of the Hebrew Bible, right after Proverbs. If you were reading the Old…
We who believe the Bible is God’s word hear this slander all the time: How can you believe a Bible that permits slavery? How can you worship a God who gave Israel the harsh, dehumanizing, bloodthirsty law of Moses? Our response should be to show them the actual Torah. The…
Fenn again, reflecting on the serpent’s temptation: “The Word of God is ‘solid,’ whereas all other words are slippery at best and may be downright empty or misleading. But one only knows the word as solid if one is in a solid relationship to the author: a relationship of trust…
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