The word of God is not one power among others; it is the power through which God has always worked — creating the cosmos, sustaining it, ending it, and in the interval producing the new creation of souls through the gospel. “The gospel is the power…
The consequences of sin extend further than any human being can trace them. They begin in the ruin of the individual who sinned — the loss of dominion, the weakening of every capacity, the severance of companionship with God. They spread outward to the earth itself…
The Holy Spirit is a divine person — not a divine influence, not a force that can be poured like a liquid, not a vague spiritual energy. The evidence is convergent: the masculine personal pronoun used for him in contexts where the neuter grammatical gender would…
The word “worship” in some form occurs in the Bible 191 times — 113 times in the Old Testament and 78 times in the New Testament. That frequency alone establishes its importance. But frequency of occurrence does not tell us what worship is or whether any…
The kingdom of Christ is not a future, earthly, material realm awaiting His return; it is here now — begun at Pentecost, spiritual in nature, with Christ already reigning — and it is identical with the church, as both Christ and Paul plainly teach. The whole…
Love for God is not a feeling — it is a pattern of obedience. What looks like love but does not produce obedience is not love. What produces obedience, even in the absence of feeling, is love. The normal condition of the human heart is to…
Preaching is not one method of Christian communication among others — it is the method that God ordained for the propagation of the gospel, that every generation of the church has required, and without which no generation can hear. Its weakness in any era is not…
Division in the church is the most frequently condemned sin in the New Testament — more often and more severely denounced than covetousness, idolatry, adultery, drunkenness, or hypocrisy. The reason is theological: the church is the body of Christ, and to divide the body of Christ…
Revelation and inspiration are distinct acts in a related chain: God reveals truth about himself; inspiration ensures that revelation is accurately recorded and transmitted in human language. Divine revelation comes in two forms — general (through nature) and special (through direct communication, visions, prophets, and ultimately…
Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before Him—the glory of victory, resurrection, and salvation. This lesson shows how John points us beyond the suffering to the triumph of Christ, and why His resurrection is the foundation of our hope. Because He lives, death is defeated and salvation is secure.