I never tire of trying to persuade people that the University of Kentucky has the greatest basketball tradition in the history of collegiate basketball. Whenever the subject comes up, I repeat, without hesitation, the necessary arguments to make my case. Are you persuaded? Over the years, I’ve gotten pretty good at making all those arguments…
In a certain sense, Christianity is amazingly simple. The story of the Christian faith is rooted in the beginning of the world. God created men and women to know him and enjoy him forever. But because Adam and Eve rebelled against their Creator, sin has passed down to every human being (cf. Rom 5:12; Ps…
Last year at the Evangelical Theological Society meeting in Denver, Reformed theologian J. V. Fesko offered a historical-theological critique of John Piper’s book, What is Saving Faith? (You can watch the debate here or read it here. Denny Burk offers a short summary here). Fesko argues that Piper fails to understand how the Reformed tradition…
According to the Bible, humanity is clearly responsible to exercise Spirit-wrought faith in Jesus. When sinners willing place their faith in Jesus, God responds by justifying the sinner for their good and his glory. However, before we talk about the necessity of man acting in faith, we should first remember that justification is by grace.…
Perhaps another way to clearly note the differences between the Reformation view and the Roman Catholic view of justification is to pay attention to Aristotelian categories of causation. The rediscovery of Aristotle was important to the development of the Western Christian tradition.[1] In terms of justification, Catholic theology differentiates between at least four causes of…
Historically, in the Western Christian tradition, the good news of the saving message of Jesus Christ has been linked closely to the doctrine of justification by faith alone.[1] In short, according to the Reformed tradition, upon the exercise of faith, a person is united to Christ by the powerful working of the Spirit. Having been…
“After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is…
Good paintings tell stories. Think of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci. It tells the story of Jesus and his disciples sitting down for the final meal before the crucifixion. Jesus would drink the Passover cup before being sacrificed as the Passover lamb. The good news of Jesus is more than a story. But it’s not…
This past year, evangelicals (whoever they are: see this article) celebrated the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation. In the five centuries since Martin Luther nailed his thoughts to the castle door in Wittenberg (1517), have Roman Catholics (RC) and Protestants closed the gap between them? To state it differently, one wonders if RC’s and…
Theology Along the Way 