The uniqueness of Christ is seen, not only in the things which he did do, but also in the things which he did not do:-
Some time ago, I participated in a debate about divorce and remarriage in Church. I argued that a divorced person may be remarried in church during the lifetime of a former spouse, certainly if the divorce had been occasioned by adultery on the part of the former spouse, and possibly for other reasons also. I’m afraid I don’t have a record of the counter-argument, but here’s what I presented:-
There are many things that we should be able to agree on:-
Text: Psalm 13
Ever experienced an unresponsive landlord, lover, parent? Here, the psalmist is confronting an (apparently) unresponsive God!
1. Protest, vv1-2
A threefold problem: circumstantial (enemy), personal (troubled thoughts), spiritual (God has gone AWOL).
How do you feel about that?
David was ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22).
Marghanita Laski: ‘What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.’ …
This list includes works quoted in the text and others which have been used in preparation.
Dates in brackets indicate original publication dates of reissued works.
Aitken, W.H. Revival work. In The Banner of Truth. 177 (June 1879).
Alexander, A. Thoughts on religious experience. Banner of Truth. 1967 (1844)
Alexander, A. The Log College. Banner of Truth, 1968 (1851).
Baker, E. The revivals of the Bible. Ambassador, 1988 (1906).
Beak, P. Jonathan Edwards and the phenomena of revival.…
A summary of ch. 26 of John Flavel’s The Fountain of Life.
“Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” Acts 2:23
In this text, we have an account of
1. The nature of the death Christ died, which is here described more generally, as a violent death, You have slain him: and more particularly, as a most ignominious, cursed, dishonorable death; you have crucified him.…
“And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself; and became obedient to death, even the death of the cross.” Phil. 2:8
DOCTRINE. That the state of Christ, from his conception to his resurrection, was a state of deep debasement and humiliation.
The Lord Jesus was humbled in his incarnation, his life, and his death. Here we deal with the second of these.
I. The Lord Jesus was humbled in his very infancy, by his circumcision according to the law, Lk 2:21. …
The Bible says many different things about God, at many different times and by many different people. It is all too easy (wrote Ian Paul some while ago) to simply read the words on the page and then decide whether we think we believe them or not.
Think of the passage in Numbers 15:32-36, where God says concerning the man who was caught gathering sticks on the Sabbath, “The man must die”.
It is conceivable (just!)…
A summary of ch. 5 of John Flavel’s The Fountain of Life.
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” John, 1:14
Here we have:
It is often supposed that Jesus was more permissive with regard to sexual ethics than the Old Testament. The reverse is, in fact the case.
Robert Gagnon invites us, in response, to consider the following:
1. The three stories of sexual sinners
Jesus reached out to sexual sinners. The key stories are: the sinful woman in Luke 7:36-50; 50; the woman caught in adultery in John 7:53-8:11; and the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4.…
Gen 1:26 – ‘Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, after our likeness”.’
Much has been made of the plural name for God here (‘Elohom‘) and of the expression ‘Let us make…’. A number of interpretations have been proposed:-
Polytheism. But modern commentators agree that Genesis 1 ‘is distinctly antimythological in its thrust, explicitly rejecting ancient Near Eastern views of creation. Thus modern commentators are quite agreed that Gen 1:26 could never have been taken by the author of this chapter in a polytheistic sense.’…
