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…
“Do they not blaspheme the honorable name by which you have been called?” (James 2:7). The name by which the church has been called is the name of Christ. The names the New Testament gives to those who bear that name — disciples, servants, soldiers, saints…
It is a strange thing that the simplest command in the New Testament has become the most disputed. Boles noticed it: no inspired man ever had to preach a whole sermon arguing for baptism, because it was told in a few plain words and obeyed on…
A Christian is not merely a good person, a religious person, an Old Testament saint, or a church member, but one who has become a new creature in Christ — dead to sin and risen to new life through faith and baptism, a citizen of the…
The word “Christian liberty” is used in two almost contradictory ways. One use invokes it as a shield against accountability — “I have liberty in Christ; don’t bind your traditions on me.” The other use names the profound freedom Christ actually purchased: freedom from the guilt…
The outline locates the sermon’s weight not on Peter’s failure but on the look of Jesus. The denial is real; its causes are traceable; its consequences are painful. But the sermon’s conclusion is not condemnation — it is recovery. “This was the real beginning of all…
The call to repent is not a single appeal at the beginning of the Christian life — it is the fundamental note of the entire gospel, sounded by every prophet, by John, by Christ, by the apostles, and by the Risen Lord writing to seven churches….
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…
God has a purpose in all that he does. The first advent was purposeful: the prophets expressed it, Christ stated it, and he accomplished it completely — “It is finished” (John 19:30). The second advent is equally purposeful: not to establish a kingdom (already established), not…