Category: Salvation

It is often recognized that portions of Scripture are geared to encourage and exhort. Sometimes, we need to hear the sweetness of a word that is timely in our downtrodden condition to uplift us emotionally and spiritually. The Proverbs speak of “a word fitly spoken” (25:11). Words have power. Not like the prosperity preachers imagine,…
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What’s in a name? Perhaps you have heard this question asked or possibly you have asked it yourself. Names still matter in our day, but we tend to link names with the past rather than choose them, or have them chosen for us, with the future in mind. Biblical examples abound with names given and…
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After thirty years or so in the church, I have heard countless sermons on God’s Love. The preachers that have sought to wow their audience by suggesting that “agape love,” as they refer to it, is a unique God-like love. For many, it is sacrificial, it is selfless, it is saving, and it stops at…
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Jesus never failed to surprise His audience. He was accused of being a glutton and a winebibber. He was looked down upon as a “friend of sinners.” He chose ordinary folks, mere fishermen, to be His closest disciples. He was polite to the outcasts and ousted the prestigious. So, at the dinner hosted by the…
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In James 1:18 we are reminded that the word of God is the means that God uses to bring forth (regenerate) His people. This word of truth is powerful to raise the dead. It is illustrated in the resurrection of Lazarus. Jesus spoke the words, “Lazarus, Come Forth!” and the dead man emerged from the…
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Reformed theology posits a thesis that suggests that God designed the gospel to save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), and sent Christ to die for them alone (John 10:11; Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:25-27), and their salvation is guaranteed by the work of Christ (Rom. 8:32; 2 Peter 1:3,4). So far, so good. The…
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You have probably heard the pious sounding claim, that “all men are equal at the foot of the cross.” The teaching this slogan seeks to portray is suspect, though there is a way in which we could consider the statement in another light. If “all men are equal at the foot of the cross,” speaks…
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The cross provides an atonement. Indeed, the cross saves. But how? The fact that Jesus died on the cross in AD 30 or 33 is pretty much established by historical investigation. I will continue to have an interest in the historical aspects of Jesus’s life. The significance of that death and its true meaning is…
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It is so common it is almost the new orthodoxy, that God wants some things that we just won’t let Him have them. Take for instance salvation. God wants to save everybody, says the average popular evangelical sermon, book or tract. So why doesn’t it happen? Well the answer is simple. It was glorified in…
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