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God our Father
The comfort of the gospel is not in that we are born children of God but in that God, seeing that all people are children of the Devil, nevertheless chooses to adopt a portion of humanity as His children in ...Read More
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Three Distinct Persons
John Calvin says, “[The] Father and Son and Spirit are one God, yet the Son is not the Father, nor the Spirit the Son, but … they are differentiated by a peculiar quality” (Institutes 1.13.5). The Father is God ...Read More
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What Faith Must Believe
We can imitate the example of Jesus all we want, but if we do not believe the gospel, we do not know Him. The gospel is simple — we are to put our hope of salvation only in the Son, who ...Read More
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The Messianic Secret
That Jesus did not act in the precise way that His contemporaries expected only indicates that God is not bound to conform to our false expectations of Him. The only expectations we may rightly have of Him are those defined ...Read More
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Blessed are the Peacemakers
It is important to note that the peacemaking that reveals our status as God’s children is peacemaking concerned to promote an authentic, holy peace. The false prophets of Israel promised a fake, ungodly peace, and many people today want ...Read More
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Blessed are the Meek
Dr. Sproul notes that all of us, no matter our position, have some kind of authority over other creatures — even if it is just over a pet. No matter the degree of authority we possess, the arrogant, selfish exercise of ...Read More
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Blessed are Those Who Mourn
Though Jesus was a man of sorrows, He was able to endure suffering and pain because He knew that “out of the anguish of his soul” He would “see and be satisfied” (Isa. 53:11). We will never have to ...Read More
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The Poor in Spirit
God’s presence is felt most strongly in the kingdom of heaven, which was inaugurated in Christ’s ministry and will be consummated at His return. Entry into this kingdom and, ultimately, seeing God’s beauty face to face comes ...Read More
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Joseph and the Angel
Without the incarnation of Christ, we could by no means have any hope in this world. Our merciful God has seen fit not to let His creation languish in the fall but has sent His own Son not only to ...Read More
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Kingdom-Focused Prayer
Praying for God’s kingdom to come does not mean we must literally say “God, may your kingdom come.” When we pray for the conversion of others, we are praying for them to bow willingly to His rule; thus we ...Read More
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God’s Son Is Called
All of us who were once in sin were in slavery even if we had no earthly masters. Wickedness held sway over our every thought, decision, and action, but in Christ we have been rescued from this power and are ...Read More
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Humility and Exaltation
Matthew Henry comments, “It is a gracious ambition to covet to be really more holy than others, but it is a proud ambition to covet to appear so. It is good to excel in real piety, but not to exceed ...Read More
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Pharisaic Hypocrisy
As we have seen, many Pharisees had an inflated view of their own goodness and were unaware of their own need for mercy (Luke 18:9–14). Yet the truly pious, “being conscious of their own weakness…kindly forgive the ...Read More
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The Wisdom of God
Truth and wisdom are certainly depicted in logical propositions and abstract concepts. Yet the revelation of the wisdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ must remind us that we have not found wisdom if all we know are ...Read More
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David’s Lord
Augustine wrote, “Christ is both David’s Son and David’s Lord: David’s Lord always, David’s Son in time. David’s Lord, born of the substance of his Father; David’s Son, born of the Virgin Mary, conceived ...Read More
