Faith and Works on Miscellanea

Righteousness by Works vs. Doctrine

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We must remind ourselves that the Catholic righteousness by good works is vastly preferable to a protestant righteousness by good doctrine. At least righteousness by good works benefits one’s neighbor, whereas righteousness by good doctrine only produces lovelessness and pride.

Law-Gospel Exegesis

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 21:03:36 +0000

Law-gospel is a wonderful theological category. It’s lousy exegesis. If every command that you find you put in the category of law, and every promise you put in the category of gospel, and every time you see a command you say, ‘Well the point of this command must be, you can’t do this but Jesus has done it for you and therefore be thankful for the justification you have in him, you are absolutely eradicating scores of imperatives and exhortations that Paul treasures in the New Testament and things that are deeply important for us to embrace as Christians.

Contentious Spirit

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 18:20:11 +0000

Scripture often condemns a “contentious” spirit (Prov. 13:10, 18:6, 26:21, Hab. 1:3, 1 Cor. 1:11, 11:16, Tit. 3:9) and commends “gentleness” (2 Cor. 10:1, Gal. 5:22, 1 Thess. 2:7, 2 Tim. 2:24, Tit. 3:2, Jas. 3:17). The Reformed community should give much more attention to these biblical themes.

Dishonor to Protestant Christianity

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 01:35:09 +0000

We can conceive few things more dishonourable to Protestant Christianity, or more fitted to impair its progress, than to be able to say, with apparent truth, that it is careless of the interests of poor—more careless than the men who make less pretension.

And, on the other hand, we can conceive few things more fitted to propitiate the good-will of the world, which, at all events, admires benevolence, than to be able, in a way which does not admit of cavil, to show that the same religious system which alone can provide for the welfare of eternity, is the most active and unwearied guardian of the poor man’s interest in time.”

The Fountain of All Duties

Wed, 15 Aug 2018 00:58:05 +0000

Love is the fountain of all duties toward God and man (Matt. 22: 37), the substance of all rules that concern the saints, the bond of communion, ”the fulfilling of the law” (Rom. 13: 8–10), the advancement of the honor of the Lord Jesus, and the glory of the gospel.

On James 3:1

Fri, 25 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Peter, recognizing that Christens long for a fulfilled experience, a good life, a rich blessing from God, commands any who ‘would love life and see good days’ to ‘keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking guile’ (1 Pet. 3:10, quoting Ps. 34:12-13).

It would be impossible to pretend that ordinarily we see the tongue in this light.

We rarely stand alongside Genesis or Paul in finding in our speech the primary evidence of our fallen state.

Good Calvinists?

Tue, 01 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We rightly repudiate the common view that doctrine does not matter so long as one is upright in life; but if we let our reaction drive us into the opposite extreme of supposing that one’s life does not matter so long as one is theologically ‘sound’ (‘a good Calvinist’, we say), then the beam in our own eye will be worse than the mote in our brother’s.

Do Good to All

Thu, 23 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Lord enjoins us to do good to all without exception, though the greater part, if estimated by their own merit, are most unworthy of it.

But Scripture subjoins a most excellent reason, when it tells us that we are not to look to what men in themselves deserve, but to attend to the image of God, which exists in all, and to which we owe all honour and love

Murray on Regeneration

Tue, 25 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If it were not the case that in regeneration we are passive, the subjects of an action of which God alone is the agent, there would be no gospel at all.

For unless God by sovereign, operative grace had turned our enmity to love and our disbelief to faith we would never yield the response of faith and love.

Spend and be Spent

Mon, 22 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Go, labor on; spend, and be spent, your joy to do the Father’s will; it is the way the Master went; should not the servant tread it still?

Modern Preachers

Sun, 26 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Modern preachers are trying to bring men into the Church without requiring them to relinquish their pride; they are trying to help men avoid the conviction of sin.

The preacher gets up into the pulpit, opens the Bible, and addresses the congregation somewhat as follows: ‘You people are very good,’ he says; ‘you respond to every appeal that looks toward the welfare of the community. Now we have in the Bible–especially in the life of Jesus–something so good that we believe it is good enough even for you good people.’

The From... Too.. Movement of the Christian Life

Wed, 04 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The central dynamic of the Christian life has this FROM… TO… movement. ‘Repentance is not merely the start of the Christian life; it is the Christian life,’ wrote Joel Beeke.

Obedience of Gratitude

Thu, 24 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Obedience is the best way of showing our gratitude to God for His grace.

Imitation of Christ

Tue, 11 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Yet [1 John] does not simply exhort us to imitate Christ; but from the union we have with him, he proves that we ought to be like him.

Character and Doctrine

Sun, 03 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

If a man teaches uprightly and walks crookedly, more will fall down in the night of his life than he built in the day of his doctrine.

Practice What is Good

Sat, 25 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Every day I am more persuaded of this because I see men for the most part spending their strength and time more to oppose things they disagree with than to practice the things they and others agree are most necessary.

Knowledge and Knowledge

Sun, 12 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

There is, therefore, knowledge and knowledge. Knowledge that resteth in the bare speculation of things; and knowledge that is accompanied with the grace of faith and love; which puts a man upon doing even the will of God from the heart: the first of these will serve the talker; but without the other the true Christian is not content.

In Much the Best Life Faileth

Sun, 10 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

To wash away the crimson stain, / grace, grace alone availeth; / our works, alas! are all in vain; / in much the best life faileth: / no man can glory in thy sight, / all must alike confess thy might, / and live alone by mercy.

Not Perfect, Just Forgiven?

Mon, 21 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Christians are not yet perfect, but in Christ, God has forgiven them and has begun a good work in them.

Go to the Ordinances

Sat, 19 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Would it not be an encouragement to a subject, to hear his prince say to him, You will honor and please me very much, if you will go to yonder mine of gold, and dig as much gold for yourself as you can carry away?

So, for God to say, Go to the ordinances [preaching, prayer, sacraments], get as much grace as you can, dig out as much salvation as you can; and the more happiness you have, the more I shall count myself glorified.

Give Me Liberty or?

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I think a heathen said, ‘The day which deprives a man of his liberty, robs him of half his virtues.’ If I was a heathen I should say so too. But the gospel teaches me otherwise.

Radical Transformation

Tue, 24 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The new life [in Christ] means a radical transformation, passing over from a condition of death and slavery into one of life and liberty, which on this account is not to be explained from human effort and moral strength, but only from creative command of God, no less mighty than the work with which he once called forth light out of darkness.

Marriage and the Creator

Mon, 25 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

No marriage will be unaffected when the people in the marriage are seeking to get from the creation what they were only ever meant to get from the Creator.

Faith and Works

Wed, 28 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Yet [Paul] is not so careful about good works as to despise the root – that is, faith – while he is gathering the fruits. He takes account of both parts, and, as is highly proper, assigns the first rank to faith; for he enjoins those ‘who believed in God’ to be zealous of ‘good works;’ by which he means that faith must go before in such a manner that good works may follow.

The Value of a Good Living

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I would assume congratulate a man upon seeing a millstone tied about his neck, to sink him into the depths of the sea, as upon his obtaining what is called a good living, except I thought him determined to spend and be spent in the cause of the Gospel.

Believers Motive for Law-Keeping

Thu, 23 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Instead, true saints should be psychologically motivated to fulfill God’s precepts because they know that God has given them the power to do so.

Jesus for You

Sun, 05 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Jesus’s life, trials, death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit have launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-not yet new-creational reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to advance this new-creational reign and resulting in judgment for the unbelieving, unto the triune God’s glory.

Glory in Our Good Works

Sun, 27 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

God does not grant us his work of grace so that we should glory in it as our own. Therefore he so arranged it that it would manifestly be his work from beginning to end, a divine work, and he desires to be glorified in it.

The End of Education

Fri, 25 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Your study of physics and other sciences is not worth a rush, if it be not God that you seek after in them. To see and admire, to reverence and adore, to love and delight in God, as exhibited in his works—this is the true and only philosophy; the contrary is mere foolery, and is so called again and again by God himself. This is the sanctification of your studies, when they are devoted to God, and when He is the end, the object, and the life of them all.

Kline on Baptism

Wed, 28 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

For the passing of Jesus through the divine judgment in the water rite in the Jordan meant to John’s baptism what the passing of Yahweh to the curse of the knife rite of Genesis 15 meant to Abraham’s circumcision. In each case the divine action constituted an invitation to all recipients of these covenant signs of consecration to identify themselves by faith with the Lord himself in their passage through the ordeal. So they might be assured of emerging from the overwhelming curse with a blessing.

Mary and Martha

Wed, 11 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Do you see how Luke places the story of Mary and Martha after all this activity? This episode isn’t here by accident. I believe God wants us to see that if we heal the sick and cast out demons and preach the gospel and show mercy and do justice and don’t sit at the feet of Jesus, we’ve missed the one thing we truly need.

Christ and Adam

Tue, 29 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Christ does not bring us back to the point on the road where Adam stood but has covered the whole journey for us to the very end.

Triune Salvation

Sun, 28 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

It is the triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit—who together conceive, determine, carry out, and complete the entire work of Salvation. The benefit to the believer is in knowing that the covenant of grace executed and revealed in time and history nevertheless rests on an eternal, unchanging foundation, the counsel of the triune God.

Civility for Salvation?

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Civility is a good staff to walk among men, but it is a bad ladder to climb to heaven.

The World Will End

Sun, 16 Dec 2012 21:46:00 -0500

The world will end. So kill sin. Pray with a clear head. Forgive quickly. Love eagerly. Open your home. Engage your gifts. (1 Pet. 4:7–11)

Turretin on Good Works

Sun, 03 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Good works are required not for living according to the law, but because we live by the gospel; not as the causes on account of which life is given to us, but as effects which testify that life has been given to us.

Machen on Faith

Sun, 30 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The true reason why faith is given such an exclusive place by the New Testament, so far as the attainment of salvation is concerned, over against love and over against everything else in man… is that faith means receiving something, not doing something or even being something. To say, therefore, that our faith saves us means that we do not save ourselves even in slightest measure, but that God saves us.

George Ladd on the Kingdom of God

Sun, 09 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The Kingdom of God is a miracle. It is the act of God. It is supernatural. Men cannot build the Kingdom; they cannot erect it. The Kingdom of God is the Kingdom of God; it is God’s reign, God’s rule. God has entrusted the Gospel of the Kingdom to men. It is our responsibility to proclaim the good news about the Kingdom. But the actual working of the Kingdom is God’s working.

The Unlikable Gospel

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

The gospel is not naturally to the liking of human beings, not a ready match for the needs of people as they themselves pictures those needs. Outside of revelation, human beings do not even know themselves and their real needs.

Bunyan on Conversion

Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Conversion is not the smooth, easy-going process some men seem to think it; otherwise man’s heart would never have been compared to fallow ground and God’s Word to a plough.