Like the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Romans is in three parts: guilt, grace and gratitude. We may consider Romans 1:1–17 the prologue to the epistle. The guilt section runs from 1:18–3:20. Here Paul is preaching the law in its first use: to convict the world of sin and its need for a Saviour. Failure toContinue Reading
For many evangelicals and for some ostensibly Reformed folk, it has been fashionable for the past several years to teach that we are justified now by grace alone (sola gratia), through faith alone (sola fide), on the basis of Christ’s righteousness imputed but that because salvation includes sanctification and sanctificationContinue Reading
As Reformed Christians, we confess that infants of believing parents (or of at least one believing parent) should be baptised. Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 74 asks, “Should infants, too, be baptised?” Answer: Yes. Infants as well as adults belong to God’s covenant and congregation.[1] Through Christ’s blood, the redemption fromContinue Reading
The phrase “acid test” referred originally to the process of determining whether or not a metal is gold. It has become a metaphor for determining the quality or nature of a thing. If an interpreter of Romans does not see its threefold structure and/or does not understand Romans 2:13 toContinue Reading
Our good works do not justify us. They do not sanctify us. They do not save us, but they are the “fruit and evidence” of a true and lively faith. Christ saved us by his obedience, death and resurrection. The Spirit sanctifies by his grace. Our good works are theContinue Reading
In Reformed theology, the noun salvation is typically used in two ways. Sometimes it is used as a synonym for justification. When used this way, it does not include sanctification, since, according to the Reformed confession, justification is a declarative act of God whereby he credits (imputes) to sinners theContinue Reading
As I noted in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry (2007) and have noted in this space since that time, almost as soon as the Reformation achieved clarity on salvation it came under attack from two sides: the antinomians, who would not tolerate the abiding validity of the moral law asContinue Reading
Making salvation by grace and works or by grace and faithfulness necessarily turns our eyes back upon our own performance and the quality of our faith and the quality of our sanctification. That is a spiritual dead-end. Suspending our future salvation upon our present performance has never and can never beContinue Reading
Our obedience is either the ground (the basis), the instrument (the means), or the evidence (the fruit) of our salvation. The Reformed doctrine is the latter. It is the case that believers will be progressively sanctified by the work of the Holy Spirit, through the due use of ordinary means,Continue Reading
As the author comes to the final warning passage in Hebrews 12:25–29, it helps if we see its apparent severity in the light of the principle that the indicatives of grace give rise to the imperatives of obedience. “You have not come … But you have come” (Heb. 12:18, 22).Continue Reading