Saving faith is never cheap or static; it always moves into concrete, costly obedience. Through Abraham and Rahab, James shows that faith which does not lay something real on the altar is dead and cannot save.
Jesus established one church; it has never ceased; and because it was established at a definite time, place, and foundation, with definite terms and marks, it can still be identified today — and any body established otherwise cannot be it. Hundreds of different churches all claim…
Jesus’ attitude toward His enemies — holding no grudges, bearing injury without malice, returning kindness for hostility, and forgiving freely — is a window into His heart and the pattern His followers must not merely admire but imitate. Character is best measured not by how we…
The Old Testament is the inspired Word of God — a claim made by the writers themselves, confirmed by Jesus Christ in person, and endorsed by the apostles throughout the New Testament. The church has at various times been tempted to treat the Old Testament as…
Christianity — specifically, the obedient response to the gospel — is the only absolutely sure position for eternal life. Every other position carries a risk that Christianity does not. The call is to make it as sure as ye can. Pilate’s command was addressed to the…
Sanctification means to set apart — to consecrate something or someone for God’s specific use or service. The word carries no inherent reference to moral sinlessness; it refers to the status of belonging to God, of being separated from common use for sacred use. In the…
Every person who encounters the crucifixion takes one of three postures: sympathy (deliberate, costly love — those who stood near by choice), apathy (presence without personal investment — those who were there by command, chance, or curiosity), or antipathy (open contempt — those who came to…
When Jesus said “I will build My church,” He spoke of a body still future — built on Himself, not on Peter — which He established at Pentecost; Peter merely used the keys by announcing the terms of entrance, and the church is entered as a…
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 Bible is a divine-human book: human language carrying divine content, the will of God expressed through the words of human writers who were divinely guided in speaking only the truth. The inspiration of Scripture did not make truth truer; it ensured that what was recorded…