Pharisees lived according to the strictest party of . . . religion.3 The name itself is probably derived from the root to separate. Pharisaism was essentially a conservative holiness movement. So
Only God-the One through whom all things were made (1:3, cf. v. 10), in whom was life and light (v. 4)-can reverse creation's death and dissipate the darkness caused by sin.2. But since that death and...
One day Christ will return in the full glory of His resurrection power. The light will be switched on permanently. The Lamb of God who took away the sin of the world will be present in the new heavens...
In Christ we are no longer dominated by the flesh, but by the Spirit; but we are not yet delivered from the flesh. So long as this eschatological tension exists for the believer, so long will there be...
Here are wonders upon wonders: the Strong One is weak; the Infinite One lies in a manger; the Prince of Life dies; the Crucified One lives; the Humiliated One is glorified.Meekness and majesty, indeed...
Go back to the school in which you will make progress in being a Christian. Study your lessons, settle the issue of ambition, make Christ your preoccupation-and you will learn to enjoy the privileges...
Growing in faith and love for Christ, revealed as He is in Scripture, will be the greatest of all preservatives against being led astray. The person who is saturated in the teaching and spirit of the...
There is a kind of orthodoxy in which the several loci of systematic theology, or stages of redemptive history, are all in place, but that lacks the life of the whole, just as arms, legs, torso, head,...
There had been occasions when David could have seized position and power by means that would have compromised his commitment to the Lord.
The knowledge of our union with Christ...gives us confidence in prayer. It was when Jesus had begun to expound the closeness of this union that he also began to introduce the disciples to the true hea...
The Father of Glory does not lurk behind His Son with sinister intent to do us ill, restrained only by the cruel and bloody sacrifice His Son has made! No, a thousand times no! The Father loves us in...
In undiluted monergism, He called the galaxies into being, and He gives life to the dead in the same way
God’s covenant is his sovereign, freely bestowed, unconditional promise: I will be your God, which carries with it a multidimensional implication: therefore you will be my people.36 By contrast, a con...
God protects us from Satan even at times when we are not aware of His protection. But how can we develop Jesus-like discernment? By Spirit-aided digestion of the solid food of God's wisdom.
We are always entertaining the delusion that we will go on forever in this world. The result is that the very things which ought to be of assistance to us in our pilgrimage through life, become chains...
When the benefits are seen as abstractable from the Benefactor the issue becomes: 1) For the preacher: How can I offer these benefits? and 2) For the hearer: How can I get these benefits into my life?...
Jesus did not come to add to our comforts. He did not come to help those who were already helping themselves or to fill life with more pleasant experiences. He came on a deliverance mission, to save s...
In the New Testament the basic command of old covenant life, 'Be holy as I am holy', now means, 'Become like Jesus.' God involves himself in this work as the triune Lord: the Father commands it; the S...
I am not asking you to do that because the tree is ugly—actually it is just as attractive as the other trees. I don’t create ugly, ever!11 You won’t be able to look at the fruit and think, That must t...