"Love, Pride and Speaking Truth"

A balanced, wisely-written essay from Dane Ortlund, quoting Luther to make a crucial point:

 In the letter to Pope Leo X that prefaces Luther's The Freedom of a Christian, Luther says:

Now I will admit to attacking false or unchristian teachings. I have not criticized the bad morals of my opponents but rather their ungodly doctrines. I am not going to repent of this! After all, I am only following the example of Christ, who did not hesitate to call his opponents such things as 'a brood of vipers'. . . . And think of the stinging criticism of the prophets! However, our ears have become more finely attuned to the empty praises of the endless lines of flatterers. As a result, we protest when any of our opinions meets with disapproval. . . .

Therefore, blessed Leo, when you read this letter and understand my intentions, I hope you see that I have never meant ill toward you personally. I have only the best wishes for you. I have no argument with any person with regard to morals. But I am unyielding when it comes to contending about the word of truth. In all other things, I will gladly yield, but I have neither the power nor the will to deny the word. If others view my motives differently, they either are not thinking straight or have failed to understand what I have said. (The Freedom of a Christian, Fortress 2008, p. 35)

The Basis for our Faith

"God is not a prisoner of our faith, but of his own perfection. Faith obligates God to act not because it is a magical incantation that can be used to control God but because faith in God’s promises calls attention to God’s own faithfulness. The assurance upon which faith is based is the glory of God’s character, not the power of our believing."


 — Scott J. Hafemann
The God of Promise and the Life of Faith(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2001), 93

The highest missionary motive...

The highest of missionary motive is neither obedience to the Great Commission (important as that is), nor love for sinners who are alienated and perishing (strong as that incentive is, especially when we contemplate the wrath of God), but rather zeal — burning and passionate zeal — for the glory of Jesus Christ. . . . Only one imperialism is Christian . . . and that is concern for His Imperial Majesty Jesus Christ, and for the glory of his empire.

John Stott, Romans: God's Good News for the World (Downers Grover, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1994), 53.

He includes us in His Story...

"If we miss Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament messianic expectations and the foundation of New Testament kingdom proclamation, we unwittingly distance ourselves from the contemporary relevance of the Bible. He, through the Spirit, is the link between the story of Scripture and the stories of our lives.

"By the mercy of God, this story, this Word, became ours when we were united by faith to our crucified and risen Savior. It’s his story and it’s our story by virtue of being his! So, then. the Bible is a book primed for application. While Scripture passages may not be ‘timeless texts,’ they are certainly ‘timely texts’ for the people of God."

— Michael R. Emlet
CrossTalk: Where Life and Scripture Meet
(Greensboro, NC.: New Growth Press, 2009), 52

A Clarion Call to Watered-down Evangelicalism

Timothy C. Tennent, president of Asbury Seminary, presents a clear, crucially important call to today's Laodicean church.

"God's Will for Your Wait"

Exceptional pastoral, practical wisdom from Paul David Tripp about the times of waiting in life and ministry.

Saved by grace (from first to last)

"We could not take one step in the pursuit of holiness if God in His grace had not first delivered us from the dominion of sin and brought us into union with His risen Son. Salvation is by grace and sanctification is by grace."


— Jerry Bridgesthe Disciple of Grace: God's Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness(Colorado Springs, Co.: NavPress, 1994), 73

Our faith is a Person

“Our faith is a person; the gospel that we have to preach is a person; and go wherever we may, we have something solid and tangible to preach, for our gospel is a person. If you had asked the twelve Apostles in their day, ‘What do you believe in?’ they would not have stopped to go round about with a long sermon, but they would have pointed to their Master and they would have said, ‘We believe him.’ ‘But what are your doctrines?’ ‘There they stand incarnate.’ ‘But what is your practice?’ ‘There stands our practice. He is our example.’ ‘What then do you believe?’ Hear the glorious answer of the Apostle Paul, ‘We preach Christ crucified.’ Our creed, our body of divinity, our whole theology is summed up in the person of Christ Jesus.”

-- C. H. Spurgeon, in Lectures Delivered before the Young Men’s Christian Association in Exeter Hall 1858-1859 (London, 1859), pages 159-160.

HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.

Aristotle on Friendship

"For, as is so clear in the Nicomachean Ethics, friendship was for Aristotle a basically moral undertaking, with the relationship of true friendship defined primarily in terms of common goals and a shared pursuit of certain specified goods.


"For Aristotle, the primary benefit of friendship is not affection but growth in virtue. But this Aristotelian view of friendship has diminished along with the disappearance of a common good. It no longer seems appropriate to expect that friends will agree with one another about the more substantive matters of life. Now friendship is viewed primarily as an expression of affection (what Aristotle would have called a friendship of pleasure) or an exercise of career positioning and "networking" (what Aristotle would have called a friendship of utility) (1157b37-1158a3). For Aristotle, neither of these forms of friendship are true friendship because they lack any necessary connection to a person's growth in virtue and attainment of a life worthy of human beings."

-- Kent Dunnington. Addiction and Virtue: Beyond the Models of Disease and Choice (Strategic Initiatives in Evangelical Theology) (Kindle Locations 1211-1215). Kindle Edition.

Piper: "I was racist...."

How the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church went from a self-described racist to an adoptive father of an African American. An excerpt from his new book,  'Bloodlines.'

"...and He took it lovingly."

"...the legendary ‘Rabbi’ Duncan concentrated it all into a single unforgettable sentence, in a famous outburst to one of his classes: ‘D’ye know what Calvary was? what? what? what?’  Then, with tears on his face — ‘It was damnation; and he took it lovingly.’”

J. I. Packer, In My Place Condemned He Stood (Wheaton, 2007), page 95.  Italics original.

HT: Ray Ortlund, Jr.

Defending the Faith in the Right Way

Tim Keller begins a series of posts on "Gospel Polemics"

We go...because He reigns

'God does not send out his church to conquer. He sends us out in the name of the One who has already conquered. We go only because he reigns.'


— Kevin Deyoung and Greg GilbertWhat is the Mission of the Church?(Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2011), 46

Philippians 4:6

‎'The way to be anxious about nothing is to be prayerful about everything.'

"Our lack of moral vocabulary..."

Peter Wehner on understanding our culture's ongoing ethical decline:


"...You can’t promote ethical agnosticism and embrace nonjudgmentalism without there being moral ramifications. Because at some point, we all have to take a moral stand and embrace a moral cause. We have to believe in, and abide by, rules and precepts. We don’t have the luxury of living a life of perpetual moral confusion. C.S. Lewis put it as well as anyone when he wrote in The Abolition of Man, “We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”


You can read the entire essay here.