The guilt is gone

Guilt might be the most notorious five-letter word in our culture. Declarations of guilt are minimized — he’s not “guilty,” he’s just “struggling” or he “made a mistake.” And feelings of guilt are suppressed and denied. A New York Times article I found this week captures the cultural attitude towards guilt perfectly: A friend of […]

Prove it to me

In our world, skepticism abounds. Conspiracy theories flourish. Doubters disbelieve explanations they are told. Truth is questioned and lies are embraced. Things that are too far-fetched to be true are accepted as true. If it sounds “truthy” then it must be true. Truth is subjective rather than objective — “true for me” is more important […]

How do we use the OT Law?

My wife and I have entered another new phase of life. We have been told by our children when they have returned home (more than once!), “Dad, I don’t do that they way you and mom do…” It seems the “house rules” that we established when they were young don’t all apply when they’ve gotten […]

The gospel in six words

This year our church is actively working to create a culture of evangelism — regularly looking for opportunities to teach the gospel with the intent to persuade. One of the basic components of teaching the gospel is that you have to know what the gospel is. There are many different biblical ways to articulate the […]

Salvation and Sola Fide

In his great text on the doctrine of justification, Paul notes that it is acquired only by faith — “the righteousness of God [is] through faith in Jesus Christ.” He will reiterate the necessity of faith several times in this passage: God displayed Jesus Christ “publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith” (v. […]

God is always good

Not everything that we know is true feels like it is true. We know that there is always hope for someone’s salvation (Heb. 3:12-13), but when that person has rejected Christ repeatedly and vehemently, we might not feel hopeful. We understand the power of Christ to reconcile believers to one another (Eph. 2:13-18), but when […]

How Christ resisted temptation

The New Testament is clear that our Savior did not sin (cf. Mt. 5:17-18; Heb. 4:15; 7:26; 2 Cor. 5:21). However, the question is how did He not sin? Did He rely on His deity and use His divine power to keep from sinning? If so, it is hard to conceive that such obedience can […]

The Lamb is…

There are many pictures in the New Testament to describe the person and work of Jesus Christ. One of the lesser used, but more commonly known is Jesus Christ as the Lamb of God. We frequently think of Christ as the Lamb of God because of His sacrificial work in atoning for our sin — […]

Give thanks to God

I grew up in a home where we were taught to say “please” and “thank you.” Our children grew up in a home where they were expected to send timely “thank you” notes for gifts they received. And many of you experienced the same kind of training. While saying and writing “thank you” often seems […]

What’s the message?

A message. Every commercial has one. So does every television show, movie, book, and website. All sermons have them, and so does every conversation. Some messages are obviously better and more clear than others, but every form of communication is given to convey a message. This is true of gospel conversations as well. When we […]

Expect persecution

In America, we feel entitled. We have a constitutional right to life, liberty, and happiness, we believe. The constitution actually says, “the pursuit of happiness,” but in this day, we believe that to mean that we should have happiness (and ease) without having to labor for it. We should not have trials, difficulty, suffering, or […]

He is King

God is sovereign. For God to be sovereign means that He is King. He is not merely a king, but He is the King. There is no one who rules alongside His Trinitarian deity. And there is no one who rules over Him, ordering, compelling, and dictating anything to Him. For God to be sovereign […]

Remember your final end

I was born in Canada, straight north of Granbury about 1300 miles. Though I spent most of my childhood years in the Unites States, and primarily Texas, I remained a Canadian citizen until 2003, when I became a naturalized American. My citizenship changed. I had always considered the United States and Texas my home, but […]

When civil disobedience is permissible

When the Scriptures speak about the Christian’s relationship to the government, the emphasis is consistently on the civil obedience, not civil disobedience. For instance: The believer is to pray for his civil authorities (1 Tim. 2:1–3) The believer is to submit to his civil authorities (Rom. 13:1; 1 Pet. 2:13–15) The believer is to obey […]

The crucified Christ — forsaken and loved

Several years ago, after participating in and observing a great many miscommunications, I began saying, “Communication is a beautiful thing — when it happens.” Too often, for all our desperate attempts to be clear and concise, we misspeak, or speak incoherently enough that our intended meaning is misunderstood. And people are puzzled by our speech, […]