Exhortation, December 26

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:40 pm By Peter Leithart

As Pastor Wilson will explain more fully in the sermon this morning, division is an essential part of creation. God creates by dividing light and darkness, by separating waters above and waters below, by drawing a boundary between sea and land. This creative division continues throughout Scripture, as God recreates the world over and over again. He begins to form His people by cutting Abraham off from the Gentiles, a separation symbolized by the physical cutting of circumcision. He recreates... Read more

Baptism Meditation, December 26

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:47 pm By Peter Leithart

Matthew 18:1-6 At that time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ?Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven??EAnd He called a child to Himself and set him before them, and said, “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. ?Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ?And whoever receives one such child in My name... Read more

Lordly Obedience

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

The following is a Christmas Eve homily, largely paraphrased/quoted from Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics , 4.1, pp. 185ff. John 5:30: ?I can do nothing on My own initiative As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.?E In the incarnation, the eternal Son of God makes His way into a far country, and takes on the form of a servant. ?But the incarnation,... Read more

Ahab and David

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

I have argued elsewhere that the Omride dynasty is a counterfeit Davidic dynasty, and that in this structure Ahab is a counterfeit Solomon. John Van Seters suggests in a 2000 Presidential address to La societe canadienne des etudes bibliques that Ahab is also a Davidic character, at least in the episode with Naboth’s vineyard: In 1 Kings 21 we have, within Dtr?s story of Ahab, an episode that focuses upon a similar use of the king?s abuse of royal power... Read more

McCormack on Justification

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:10 am By Peter Leithart

Bruce McCormack?s article on justification, alluded to in an earlier post, is quite good. He rightly points out that ?the term ?justification?Ehas its home in the judicial sphere,?Ebut equally rightly points out that God?s judgments are different from human judgments: ?God?s verdict differs in that it creates the reality it declares. God?s declaration, in other words, is itself constitutive of that which is declared. God?s word is always effective. When it goes forth, it never returns to Him void. So... Read more

Perichoresis Overload?

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:05 am By Peter Leithart

Princeton’s Bruce McCormack protests against the “uncritical expansion of the concept of perichoresis today on the past of a good many theologians.” He suggests that the term “is rightly employed in trinitarian discourse for describing that which is dissimilar in the analogy between intra-trinitarian relations among the divine ‘person’ on the one hand and human to human relations on the other. Nowadays, we are suffering from ‘creeping perichoresis,’ that is, the overly expansive use of terms which have their home... Read more

Faith and Justification

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 11:41 pm By Peter Leithart

Berkhof has some intriguing comments about the distinction between “active or objective” justification and “passive or subjective” justification. The first refers to the declaration that God makes concerning the sinner, that the demands of the law have been met and the sinner is considered righteous for Christ’s sake. In this sense, Berkhof claims, “justification logically precedes faith and passive justification. We believe the forgiveness of sins” (p. 517). The promise of justification is declared, and is that which is believed.... Read more

“Deliverdict” and Sola Gratia/Sola Fide

Last updated on: December 20, 2004 at 4:12 pm By Peter Leithart

If ?justify?Eis both a verdict (?this person is righteous?E and the carrying out of a sentence (?this person is delivered from slavery to Sin?E, then clearly justification cannot be based on anything that the righteous person does. Justification is purely by grace. So, the ?deliverdict?Econstruction of justification does not turn back from the central Protestant affirmation that justification is not based on any works that the believer has done. Justification as a ?deliverdict?Einstead is clearly the basis on which the... Read more

“Deliverdict” and Sola Gratia/Sola Fide

Last updated on: September 6, 2017 at 10:45 pm By Peter Leithart

Reformers and Fathers on Justification

Last updated on: September 7, 2017 at 12:03 am By Peter Leithart

Chemnitz has some interesting comments on how the Reformers handled the patristic usage of ?justification,?Ewhich did not match their own usage. He admits that the ?fathers mostly take the word ?justify?Efor the renewal,?Ewhich is not the Reformation definition of ?justify,?Ebut he commends the fathers for those places ?where they according to the Scripture rightly and appropriately teach the doctrine how and why a person is reconciled to God, receives the remission of sins and the adoption, and is accepted to... Read more