Christ and your sin

John Owen, Communion with the Triune God: Sin being removed, and righteousness bestowed, we have peace with God—are continually accepted before him. There is not any thing to charge us with: that which was, is taken out of the way by Christ, and nailed to his cross—made fast there; yea, publicly and legally cancelled, that […]

Real joy

How fickle our joy is. If our favorite sports team (or our child’s sports team) wins “the big game,” or even just “a” game, we’re happy. If a T-bone steak shows up on the dinner plate, we’re happy. Brussels sprouts and sauerkraut? Not so happy. If there’s more money than month? Happiness. More month than […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: David Murray has “20 Helps to Sermon Listening.” Number 1? “Read and mediate on God’s Word every day: Daily Bible reading whets our appetite for the main course on the Lord’s Day. We can’t expect to be ready to digest spiritual food if we’ve not been eating through […]

Some benefits of believing in Christ

In expounding the provision of assurance for believers, the apostle John also reminds his readers in his first epistle of some of the benefits that come from believing in Christ: fellowship with God (1:3, 6, 7) Jesus Christ as his advocate (2:1) the command (and an ability) to love others (2:7; 4:21) the anointing of […]

Assurance of salvation and evidences of maturity

Virtually every believer will experience doubts about the reality of his salvation at some point. There are a variety of reasons for that doubt and lack of assurance: repeated sinful activity, ongoing temptation, or lack of discipline in spiritual essentials like prayer, Bible intake, and evangelism. Don Whitney also points out that another reason for […]

Sunday Leftovers: the believer’s security

The security of the believer is the objective reality of what God has done to save believers and keep them saved. It is different from the believer’s assurance, which is his subjective experience of his salvation. A believer’s security is unchanging. Despite what he feels about his salvation, once his name has been penned in […]

True repentance

Martin Luther: When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said “Repent,” He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. [#1 of his 95 Theses] Sinclair Ferguson: Biblical repentance…is not merely a sense of regret that leaves us where it found us. It is a radical reversal that takes us back […]

“What is your position on Lordship Salvation?”

After my sermon from two weeks ago (“What Do You Know About Salvation — an Introduction to 1 John”), someone in another city listened to the audio and emailed me the question, “What is your position on Lordship Salvation?” Here is how I answered him. There is a short and a long answer to your […]

Sunday Leftovers: First John and sanctification

Reading 1 John has often created questions for believers about the security of their eternal life, because of what John seems to be saying about sin — e.g., “No one who abides in Him [Christ] sins…” (3:6). Yet every believer still knows the reality of sin in his life, so too often people think something […]

The Lamb and His book

Just about everything we know about the Book of Life is from Revelation (cf. Rev 3:5; 13:8; 17:8; 20:12, 15; 21:27; the only other reference is in Phil. 4:3). And here’s what we know. It is a book about life (how’s that for insightful?). It’s not that the book itself imparts life, but it is […]

He really forgives!

I was about eight years old. It was Saturday morning. My little brother was still in bed. Cartoons were on TV. All was right with the world. Except that while my eyes were looking at the television, they weren’t seeing the cartoons. My mind was preoccupied with a problem. What if I died? Would I […]

He redeemed us

“who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:14; NASB) A few years ago, my wife and I discovered a television show on The Learning Channel which quickly became a favorite — “Junkyard Wars.” […]

Sunday Leftovers — the believer and good works

There are five succinct statements that identify the essential doctrinal issues that were bolstered by the Reformation: sola Scriptura — the Scripture alone is sufficient to produce salvation sola gratia — salvation is by grace alone sola fide — salvation is through faith alone sola Christus — salvation is by Christ alone soli deo gloria […]

What is salvation?

This post is part of a series of posts on the basics of systematic theology. Why do we need theology, and what are the essential truths to know about each doctrine? All the posts are archived under the category “Theology 101.” The gospel has always been debated. Its meaning has always been argued about and […]

Father, How Sweet

This week I’ve been thinking about the gift of our salvation, summed up in such simple words as “He saved us” (Titus 3:5). It was God’s kindness, love, and mercy that produced our salvation. We repeat those kinds of words frequently, but do we meditate on them and allow the weightiness of them to rest […]