Today’s Quote – Christ’s Death (Morris)

Leon Morris, The Cross in the New Testament: In His death He is not apart from sinful men. He is executed as sinful men are executed. Through all His ministry He had sought out sinful men. At the climax of it all He is clearly one with them.

Today’s Quote – Cross (Piper)

John Piper, in Preaching the Cross: God did not ordain the cross of Christ or create the lake of fire in order to communicate the insignificance of belittling his glory. The death of the Son of God and the damnation of unrepentant human beings are the loudest shouts under heaven that God is infinitely holy, […]

Today’s Quote – Cross (Horton)

Michael Horton, We Believe: Recovering the Essentials of the Apostle’s Creed: Every time we worship, we should be self-consciously committed to the ministry of John the Baptist: “Behold, the Lamb of God!” Remarkably, even in heaven the majestically enthroned Son is the slain Lamb. We never outgrow the cross. We never get beyond the need […]

Today’s Quote – Cross (Spurgeon)

Charles Spurgeon, The Power of the Cross: But herein is a wonderful thing. The Lord Jesus has lost no influence by having been hanged upon the tree. Rather, it is because of His shameful death that He is able to draw all men unto Himself. His glory rises from His humiliation; His adorable conquest from […]

Today’s Quote – Cross (Piper)

John Piper, The Passion of Jesus Christ: We are not as Christ-centered and cross-cherishing as we should be, because we do not ponder the truth that everything good, and everything bad that God turns for the good, was purchased by the sufferings of Christ.

The crucifixion

The New Testament writers almost deal with the crucifixion of Christ itself as an afterthought. The details surrounding the crucifixion are explicit and lengthy; the details about the crucifixion itself are sparse: Matt. 27:35 And when they had crucified Him, they divided up His garments among themselves by casting lots. Mark 15:25 It was the […]

Today’s Quote – Good Friday (Mahaney)

C. J. Mahaney, Living the Cross Centered Life: I identify most with the angry mob screaming, “Crucify Him!” That’s who we should all identify with. Because apart from God’s grace, this is where we would all be standing, and we’re only flattering ourselves to think otherwise. Unless you see yourself standing there with the shrieking […]

Self-examination and boasting

Self-examination will lead to boasting. At least that’s what Paul says. And he says such self-examination and boasting is good and beneficial: But each one must examine his own work, and then he will have reason for boasting in regard to himself alone, and not in regard to another. Two truths dominate this verse: the […]

Book Review: Worldliness

For some time, someone has been asking me a question about preaching and the church, “in previous years, you often used to hear sermons on this topic, but now you rarely even hear the word used — whatever happened to worldliness?” What has happened to verses like Romans 16:19? …I want you to be wise […]

Today’s quote (8/31/08)

Paul Wells, Cross Words: the Biblical Doctrine of the Atonement: Among the momentous events of history that come and go, buried in the sands of the past, [the cross] holds the fascination of eternal newness. When the dramatic events woven into the tapestry of time are consigned to the pages of the history books, or […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/27/08)

One of the reasons there is so much confusion about the gospel is that we have misunderstood and misapplied the intent of the gospel. We (in the American church at large) have come to believe that the gospel is all about a decision instead of a lifestyle. Our efforts are predominantly decision-oriented. We encourage people […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/20/08)

When Jesus said to Mary, “Go to My brothers…” He was saying something not only about His relationship with them, but about their relationship with each other. [Side note: that Jesus was talking not about his biological half-brothers but about His disciples is clear from the fact that Mary went to the disciples.] As they […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/13/08)

The seven statements of Christ from the cross serve as a reminder not only of what is important to Christ as He contemplates and evaluates the cross, but they also serve as an anchor for our faith, directing us to the truths to which we must hold fast in defending that faith. For instance, the […]

Sunday Leftovers (7/6/08)

Yesterday I was attempting to make the point that our understanding of the weight and significance of our own sin is immeasurably weak. In a sermon recently preached at Resolved, John Piper expands that idea by illustrating how the weakness and frailty of the physical creation is designed to demonstrate to us the horror of […]

A few more thoughts on Christology

Last night we spent more time discussing issues related to the cross than I had intended. Our comments surfaced a number of questions and issues that relate to why I have been preaching the sermon series that I have been preaching for the past 3 months. In a simple sentence, the cross and the work […]