Photo credit belongs to Patrick Fore. Almost 15 years ago I heard Dr. Chad Brand from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary say that he had read the Bible through something like thirty times. I was amazed, challenged, encouraged, and motivated. At that time, I had been in ministry about three years and I’m ashamed to…
While justification is an act of God and is something he graciously does on behalf of sinners, this does not mean human beings are passive in every respect. Human beings must believe in Jesus. Upon believing, God’s response is to justify the ungodly (Rom 4:5). This exercise of faith is not a work that seeks…
Martin Lloyd Jones in his book Spiritual Depression made this statement I found helpful as I think about training my mind to meditate on truth and speak truth to my heart : Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of…
Justification is by grace. That is, sinners do not deserve God’s favor. Furthermore, justification is not on the basis of works (cf. Gal 2:15–16) but comes through faith (Rom 3:28). Yet, in order to steer clear of ambiguity, theologians have taken time to identify the object of justifying faith. That is, what or who do…
While justification is an act of God and is something he graciously does on behalf of sinners, this does not mean human beings are passive in every respect. Human beings must believe in Jesus. Upon believing, God’s response is to justify the ungodly (Rom 4:5). This exercise of faith is not a work that…
There are times when small parts of the Bible really stick out to me. I often feel the urge to just marinate on part of a chapter or part of a verse. That’s what happened to me the other day when I read half of Galatians 2:12. I simply wanted to sit with the words. …
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.…
For those who follow Jesus, we should celebrate what Biden/Harris do well and we should stand in humble and loving opposition when they make missteps. No doubt, there will be reasons to celebrate. For all the rhetoric surrounding the Trump presidency, he did some things that benefited our nation. And on the other side, there…
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…
What’s the background of the doctrine of justification by faith? That is, what presuppositions do we hold that make the doctrine of justification necessary and important? Well, the discussion concerning justification is built on fundamental presuppositions. Namely, that men and women are in need of God’s justification because of their sin. That is, men and…
Theology Along the Way 