Looking at Christ

There's a crucial theme in the New Testament that I don’t think I’ve properly recognised before: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37) Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me (John 8:42) If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23 cf. 14:15) Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” (John 21:15 cf. v16, v17) …what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9) If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed. (1 Cor. 16:22) Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible. (Eph. 6:23) Though you have not seen him, you love him (1 Peter 1:8) I hold this against you: you have forsaken the love you had at first (Rev. 2:4) Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow co...

There are a number of reasons why we live in a tricky time to discern heresy in the church of Christ. The issues at stake are often not directly the truths of the ancient creeds – the doctrines of God and Christ – or directly the gospel truth of salvation through Christ alone dying on behalf of sinners – the issues that were so highly contested in the fourth and sixteenth centuries. The modern heresies are much more often issues of discipleship – Christian life – which is of course connected in extremely important ways to the doctrines of God, Christ and atonement but the crunch points and hot discussion points are often not directly treating those historic doctrinal issues so they can often appear to be 'secondary' or areas of legitimate disagreement. The issues are sometimes at the level church culture, mood, tone, emphasis and trajectory rather than outright and consistent false teaching. It is not necessarily the case that you can point to particular sentenc...

Most Bible lovers agree that the Old Testament Scriptures promise Christ, pattern Christ (in types and shadows) and present the problems that Christ solves (e.g. how can God justly justify the ungodly). Where there is less agreement is over the question of whether, to what extent and how is Christ present in the Old Testament. When the LORD ‘appears’ to people (e.g. Gen. 12:7) is that the second person of the Trinity – a Christophany – or is it a more indeterminate ‘theophany’? When the Angel of the LORD talks to people and it seems like the LORD God is speaking (e.g. Judges 2:1-3), is that the pre-incarnate Christ addressing them or is it an angelic being who is being used as God’s mouthpiece – like the LORD speaking through a long piece of piping coming out the mouth of the angel? There are differences on this and people I hugely respect (e.g. Gerald Bray) who would decide against seeing much of the Son of God physically/visibly/audibly present in the Old Testament. I don’t ...

Can God be prodigal? Definition: - spending money or resources freely and recklessly; wastefully extravagant - having or giving something on a lavish scale Richard Sibbes again: "In Christ there is not only abundance, but redundance, a diffusive and spreading goodness... as in the sun to send forth beams. As Christ is full of grace and truth... so there is an overflowing of all that is good for our good. He that could multiply bread for the body, he can multiply grace for our soul. If he gives life, he gives it in abundance (John 10:10). If he gives the water of life he gives rivers, not small streams. If he gives peace and joy... his scope is to fill up our joy to the full. As he is able to do for us far more abundantly than we are able to think or speak (Eph. 3:20)." (Third Sermon on the Song of Songs) What exactly is this abundance? Sibbes describes it, as the Bible describes it, as a feast (Isa. 25:6; 55:1-2; Prov. 9:1-5; Matt. 8:11; 22:4; 25:10: Rev. 19:9)....

Richard Sibbes: "Many men will be glad to own Christ to be great by him, but as Augustine complains in his time, Christ Jesus is not loved for his own sake but for other things that he brings with him, peace, plenty etc. as far as [owning Christ] stands with these contentments. If Christ and the world part once, it will be known which we followed. In times of peace this is hardly discerned." ( Second Sermon on the Song of Songs ) This is basically what the Book of Job is all about. Does Job love God just because of what He has given him or because of who the LORD God is in Himself? "The Satan, for all his malice, is doing something necessary for the glory of God. In some deep way it is necessary for it to be publically seen by the whole universe that God is worthy of the worship of a man and that God’s worth is in no way dependent on God’s gifts." ( Christopher Ash, Job: The Wisdom of the Cross , Crossway ) Jonathan Edwards, after commenting on Job 1:9-10 conclu...