Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A Study in Biblical and Practical Theology Sunday School Notes / Epiphany 2004 Introductory Note: January 6 is Epiphany in the traditional church calendar. Though Epiphany is often treated as a single day, with the Sundays following counted as “Sundays after Epiphany,” we will treat Epiphany as an extended season.…
Imagine someone from another world trying to learn to live in our society according to our customs. What if someone gave him a check for a hundred dollars for his birthday–the first check he had ever seen in his life? Would he immediately understand how a check was used? Perhaps…
According to Presbyterian doctrine, as articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, baptism is a baptized person’s “admission… into the visible church.” By referring to the “visible church,” the document makes clear it is referring to the present institutional Church with all her imperfections, as opposed to the future Church…
N. T. Wright claims that in the Apostle Paul’s writings “righteousness,” as it predicated of humans, denotes “covenant membership.” When he wrote this in the New Bible Dictionary edited by Sinclair Ferguson, J. I. Packer, and David Wright, no one thought this was too big a deal. However, when he…
It seems almost human nature to think that we can find something to do for God that will make Him do us favors. If we live more virtuously, or cut down on a vice or two, then God will have to reward us. But the problem with this notion is…
The First Commandment teaches us to trust in Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life. The First Commandment reads (I’m using NASB throughout): “You shall have no other gods before Me.” Obviously, trusting in someone or something else (even one’s own good works) for justification, sanctification, and eternal life”…
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Romans 3:25-26: God displayed Jesus publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be…
We come here every week to give praise and honor to God. We also come because God promises to give us gifts – to cleanse us from sin, to speak a word of encouragement and conviction, to feed us at His table. The Triune God is a giving God, and…
Stephen Long ( Speaking of God: Theology, Language and Truth (Eerdmans Ekklesia) ) summarizes Alain Badiou’s complaint against the subordination of “truth to a liberal politics ruled by the language of rights and diversity”: “For Badiou the language of ‘rights’ requires that our political bonds are grounded in evil because…
Why a crown of thorns? A sign of the curse, obviously. But thorns grow from the ground, and specifically grow from the ground when there are no people to cut them back. Thorns replace vines, grain, olive trees when Israel is driven into exile. A king with a crown of…
Some partial, exploratory, perhaps incoherent thoughts on imputation. 1) A recurrent charge against imputation is that it seems to rest on a legal fiction - someone being treated as guilty who’s not, someone being treated as just who’s not. 2) There are hints within the Levitical system that imputation is…
In Genesis 9:11, Yahweh promises not to “cut off flesh” by water. That is the covenant with Noah. A few chapters later, Yahweh tells Abram that he must cut off the flesh of all male children of Israel, not by water but by a knife. That means that Abram’s children…
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