Thoughts of a Christian Husband, Father, and Pastor
Bryan Chapell offers this important and instructive insight into whether it is more arrogant to preach the exlusivity of Christ, or to not preach the exclusivity of Christ. The criteria for whether the real arrogance is in preaching or not preaching, he argues, is whether or not the proclamation is true.
Proclaiming the message of eternal [...]
Last night I was blessed to be able to open the word of God from Psalm 77 to the saints at Grace Fellowship Church. The message was titled ‘Remembering God.‘ As I reflected on Asaph’s experience in battling with discouragement and despair, this one thought overwhelmed me: Rememrance is a means of grace.
God knows our [...]
My daughter Susannah is almost two. I love her just about to death. One of her favourite things to do (just like her daddy) is to go outside in the rain. It thrills her to no end to run around and splash in the puddles and get soaked by the falling rain.
A few nights ago [...]
It seems that in theology, as in the rest of life, we’re constantly riding a pendulum. The more we run from doctrinal error that we see in others, the more likely we are to fall into the opposite error ourselves.
If we reject an over-emphasis on God’s love as the basis of his character, we run [...]
As I lamented yesterday, preaching through James 4.1-12 quickly made me a little sad because I wasn’t able to pursue some rabbit trails that I would’ve loved to go down. One of those was how this passage should instruct us guys in our husbandry.
In verse four, the people of God are referred to as ‘adulteresses.’ [...]
There are benefits and drawbacks to preaching large portions of text. The benefits are too numerous to get into, but one of the drawbacks is that you don’t get to stop and to meditate for as long as you’d like on a single thought expressed in your passage, because there are so many other things [...]
It’s wedding season… which is great! I love thinking about weddings. Their whole point, after all, is to point to my Saviour and his love for his bride–and I like to think about that!
Since staying married is not about staying in love, but about reflecting the covenant-keeping love of Christ, the centrepiece and focal point [...]
As promised yesterday, here is what amounts to a super-brief (again) presentation of the biblical support for penal substitution. Despite what the critics will posit, it’s not new, it’s not western, it’s not because of Augustine, and it’s not even modern; penal substitution is biblical.
We’ll borrow our definition of ‘penal substitution’ from Wayne Grudem (579):
Christ’s [...]
In keeping with our theme of atonement from yesterday, I thought I’d outline some of the more common objections to penal substitution offered in contemporary ‘evangelical’ literature. Again, these are very brief descriptions of the arguments, but they are simply intended to familiarize us with what is being said by self-proclaimed evangelicals today.
God willing, we’ll [...]
It is a charge often brought against those who hold to penal substitution that we miss the dynamic presentation of the atoning work of Christ through Scriptures. In other words, if you hold to penal substitution, you miss the many ways that the Bible speaks about the atonement.
I’ve had some opportunity lately to think through [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion.
5. CONCLUSION
Stephen Neill is indeed correct in his summation, that “the Christian finds that he can never think of God without thinking of Jesus Christ, and that he can never think of Jesus Christ without thinking of God.”[1] In the NT, the faith of the [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion.
4. IN JESUS’ NAME: PRAYER TO AND WORSHIP OF JESUS AS GOD
Aside from being portrayed as deity by his authority in his earthly ministry, and declared to be both “Lord” and “God” throughout the NT, Jesus is also strongly implied to be deity by virtue [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion.
3. JESUS AS KURIOS AND THEOS (cont’d)
B. JESUS AS THEOS. Many of the passages which may speak of Jesus as θεός are heavily debated, and some with good reason. The ones which most certainly do refer to Jesus as θεός are John 1.1; 20.28; Rom [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion.
3. JESUS AS KURIOS AND THEOS
A. JESUS AS KURIOS. It must be noted first that we are not primarily dealing with the gospels in this section, since “when people address Jesus as ‘Lord’ in the Gospels, this is often no more than a customary polite [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion.
2. A MAN WITH THE AUTHORITY OF GOD:
JESUS’ DIVINITY IN THE GOSPELS
Darrell Bock notes that whereas the number of times when Jesus is directly spoken of as “God” in the gospels is relatively small, it is “far more common” that Jesus, in his teaching [...]
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Conclusion.
1. INTRODUCTION
The importance of recognizing that the New Testament identifies Jesus as deity, and yet as completely one with the Father, cannot possibly be over-stated. For the authors of the NT, this Christ himself became not only the interpretive grid, but also the sun at [...]
This morning, as my wife and I were making the commute in to the downtown area of Toronto (I drop her off at work before heading in to the seminary) we hit traffic. Now, for anyone who knows anything about Toronto, you’ll know that hitting traffic in Toronto is like getting wet in the rain–this [...]
Here’s something I wrote a few years back when the preacher was in Colossians (I think). I just came across it on my computer and so I thought I’d throw it up here in hopes that it might encourage some.
———–
“… strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might,
for the attaining of all steadfastness…” – [...]
In my own devotions I’ve just finished reading through the book of Isaiah. I must say that I think one of the reasons why our churches today are so weak and shallow, and have such a small view of God is that we don’t read our whole Bible. I know so many Christians who just [...]
Yesterday I got to read through a portion of 1 Kings. My favourite part of what I read was Solomon’s building and dedication of the temple. After reading from Genesis all the way through to 1 Kings, it is a wonderful breath of fresh air!
I think sometimes we lose sight of just how momentous an [...]
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