Christ

Paul Gerhardt and His Songs of Confident Hope In 1943, the German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from his lonely prison cell, “I’ve lately learnt for the first time to appreciate the hymn, ‘Beside thy cradle here I stand.’ Up to now I hadn't made much of it; I suppose one has to be alone for a...

I indicated in the introduction to this series that there was an ordo docendi to the ordo salutis . My comment had the placement of union with Christ in mind. Where does it belong? Do we place it at the end of the list of benefits as John Murray did in his understandably famous Redemption...

Today Theology for Everyone begins a new series. It is a familiar topic. However, it is one that needs to be set within a context. We are going to explore the ordo salutis or the order of salvation. For those not familiar with the expression it primarily deals with the application of the gospel to...

Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753-1784) and her Sovereign God Whatever moved the Wheatleys to buy the little slave that had just arrived from Africa, it was not her physical strength. Small, frightened and skinny, she looked too frail to do much work. The Wheatleys’ choice might have been due to the fact...

After rising from the dead, ascending into heaven, and being enthroned at God’s right hand, Christ poured out the Holy Spirit on the church. The significance of this event cannot be exaggerated. It is the culmination of Christ’s exaltation short of his second coming. It is here that every benefit...

The title of this post may seem a bit unfamiliar, so I’m glad you’ve decided to keep reading because this is an important theological truth with significant implications for our daily lives. You may be asking, “What does Christ have to do with a ‘session’?” The word is from the Latin for “sitting”...

One vital component to the humiliation and exaltation of Christ is His ascension into heaven. The ascension is as central to the work of Christ as His death and resurrection, yet today it is largely unnoticed by the average evangelical believer. Our tendency is to focus on the cross of Christ while...

Jesus’ exaltation hinges on his bodily resurrection from the dead. The conquering of death by Jesus demonstrated that he is the Son of God (cf. Rom. 1:4) and all subsequent acts of his exaltation are because he has conquered sin and death. Do we recognize, however, how these matters of Jesus’...

Following his death on the cross, Scripture affirms that Jesus was buried. All four Gospels included an account of his burial, [1] and it is mentioned in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds. But why is this fact included in every Gospel and in brief summaries like the early catholic creeds? What...

There is a logical progression when one moves from the doctrine of the incarnation to the doctrine of Christ’s obedience. As Jeff Stivason argued in a previous post, Christ Jesus not only came into the world to save sinners (1 Tim. 1:15) but, in order for God to save sinners, the Son had to become...