Address by Rev. Dr. Dan Borvan at the conference “Justification by Faith Alone: Recovering Law and Gospel” in Cape Town, South Africa, on 20 June 2025. Martin Luther and John Calvin held divergent views concerning the Epistle of James relative to the doctrine of justification, particularly in relation to theContinue Reading
Pastor Chris Gordon and Pastor Dan Borvan discuss the importance of preaching from the perspective that the Bible progressively reveals more and more about the salvation of Christ. They talk about how accurately to apply that knowledge to the Christian life. The conversation extends to concern over the artificial presentationContinue Reading
Was there a more un-sanctified and immature congregation of which we have an apostolic record than the Corinthian congregation? From a reading of Paul’s two canonical letters to them, they were beset by power struggles and schisms within, tolerant of gross immorality, besotted with flowery rhetoric, and unimpressed by theContinue Reading
Mike Abendroth In part 2 of this series, we considered the case of the rich young ruler. In this final instalment, let us consider one of the most important passages in this debate: Romans 2:13. Advantage #4 – Giving assurance to believers Lordship Salvation (LS) regularly calls into question a person’sContinue Reading
Mike Abendroth In part 1 of this series, we considered the definition of Lordship Salvation (LS) and the Reformation distinction between Law and Gospel. If you read the “rich young ruler” passage in Matthew 19:16-30, as the LS folks frequently do, you will see Jesus calling people to surrender, submission and discipleship.Continue Reading
The Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s Special Committee on Marriage and Sexuality offers the material below as resources for reflection. The Special Committee recommends these works as worthy of consideration but does not intend to endorse the authors of these works generally. The views expressed in the material are not necessarily thoseContinue Reading
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
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
We rightly think of the Protestant Reformation as the recovery of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone. But the Reformation no less recovered the biblical doctrine of sanctification. It recognized that one may have clarity about justification only if one also has clarity about sanctification. In its confessions,Continue Reading