Up until now, I have mostly resisted getting drawn into commenting on US politics. I still think I probably won’t do too many of these kinds of posts — I’ve always thought it was none of my business! But tell me, my fair readers, do you want me to talk more about all this? I thought yesterday’s decision by the Supreme Court upholding the ban on partial birth abortion would throw the upcoming presidential election into sharp relief, and I... Read more
In the last post in this series on the atonement, we examined some wrong ideas about the cross. Today we will simply list some verses for us to meditate on which address the terrible problem of sin. This series is based on teaching I first gave at Jubilee Church. If you want a sneak preview of what is coming you can download the audio (you may need to right click and save to your PC) or listen online here: Today... Read more
Sam Storms launched his blog only yesterday. On day two, he launches a broadside against Jimmy Draper’s latest article about tongues. Sam Storms quite rightly believes that tongues were NEVER meant to be evangelistic . . . . This could get interesting in the comment section. I am keeping out of it this time! Sam is very persuasive in his article. Read more
Tim Sweetman has written a fascinating article which states that the rumors of the death of the blogosphere have been greatly exaggerated! There’s a quote in the article that I gave him. Read more
In the last post in this series on the atonement, we raised the question — Is it right to say God punished Jesus? We will return to that issue, but today we will look at some of the wrong theories of what essentially happened at the cross. This series is based on teaching I first gave at Jubilee Church. If you want a sneak preview of what is coming, you can download the audio (you may need to right click... Read more
In a helpful article which seeks to put the current atonement debate into context, Mark Meynell introduces a quote from John Stott in the following way: “. . . the Bible surely causes us to say that at the cross, God is saving us from himself by himself. The Cross is a Trinitarian endeavour driven by God the Trinity’s righteousness and justice, and his merciful desire to justify (cf Romans 3:25-26). To paraphrase John Stott, the cross is God’s self-satisfaction... Read more
I have been thinking a lot about the resurrection this past week — which might surprise you given my blog’s current focus on the atonement. The sermon I preached on Easter Sunday wasn’t, for me, a “normal” sermon. I felt more conscious than usual of a sense of being specifically commissioned by God to preach on a particular subject — the resurrection. This happened to me in a similar manner to that which Martyn Lloyd-Jones described as happening to him:... Read more
This morning on his blog, Al Mohler reminded us of Jim Packer’s eloquent defense (in 1973) of penal substitution in a post entitled “The Logic of Penal Substitution.” In light of my ongoing series on the atonement, this is well worth the read. Mohler says this about Packer’s historic lecture: “Packer starts by describing that the penal substitutionary understanding of the atonement ‘by and large, is a distinguishing mark of the world-wide evangelical fraternity.’ It is noteworthy that Packer expected... Read more
In the last post in this series on the atonement, we examined the Old Testament background to the cross. Today we will look at how the cross of Jesus was the mission that Jesus had been sent to accomplish. You will find a list of some of the most recent posts about the atonement from my blog at the end of this post — and if you follow the xml link you will see a longer list. This series is... Read more
In a previous post in this series on the atonement, we asked, “Does the Cross of Jesus Matter?” Today we will look at the historical background surrounding the cross in the Bible. You will find a list of some of the most recent posts about the atonement from my blog at the end of this post — and if you follow the xml link you will see a longer list. This series is based on teaching I first gave at... Read more
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