The Golden Chain

Romans 8

That God decided to save His people gives us confidence that “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be ...Read More

The Testimony of Christ

1 Timothy 2:5-7

The atonement is essential to Christianity and is the most wonderful display of God’s grace ever offered. Meditate on the fact that if you are a believer, Christ died to pay fully for each and every one of your ...Read More

God’s Desire to Save

1 Timothy 2:3-4

Part of our imitation of Christ includes a desire that all people come to salvation. Too often we lack this desire because we have not considered how terrible hell will be and have not remembered often enough that eternal punishment ...Read More

The Gift of Perseverance

Ephesians 1:13-14

We know that the Holy Spirit will work within us to keep us in Christ; thus, we respond to this good news in two ways. First, we are never complacent in our pursuit of holiness, for our following of Jesus ...Read More

The Carnal Christian

1 Corinthians 3:1-4

We must always be clear that our good works can never make us righteous before God. Yet we must be equally clear that justifying faith immediately and inevitably evidences itself through good works such as our confession of faith and ...Read More

Apostasy

1 John 2:19

Since we cannot see the hearts of others, we cannot assume that those who now repudiate the faith they once professed have actually left the fold permanently. This means that we should pray for those who appear to be apostate ...Read More

Eternal Security

Joshua 4:1-9

In times of plenty it can be easy to forget all of the blessings the Lord has showered upon us. Take a moment today to consider the ways in which God has shown Himself faithful to you in the past ...Read More

Disciplining Blasphemers

1 Timothy 1:19b-20

Church discipline is much-neglected today largely because professing Christians have adopted the pervasive attitude in modern Western culture that says authority to determine right and wrong resides in the individual. Scripture, however, gives the church real authority, and the pronouncements ...Read More

Theology and Doxology

1 Timothy 1:17

It is very easy to sing hymns in the church without paying attention to what the words are saying about God. As we offer praise to the Lord each Sunday we should also consider what it is we are saying ...Read More

Exercising Your Power of Choice

God gave you a free will to choose. You choose according to your desires. Will your present desires lead to wise choices for the future? Read More

The Purpose of the Parables

Matthew 13:12–17

We should marvel at God’s grace every time we recall that we have trusted Christ alone for our salvation. Before the Lord quickened us, we were dead in sin and had no desire at all to know or serve ...Read More

Grace for the Weary

Matthew 11:25–30

John Calvin writes that Christ does not elect us and redeem us that we may sin freely. Instead, Christians are “raised up by his grace, [that] they may also take his yoke upon them, and that, being free in spirit ...Read More

The Divine Initiative

Ephesians 2:1–10

If we use the doctrine of election as an excuse to do no evangelizing in the world, we have perverted the Word of God. No one but Paul more clearly explained the Lord’s gracious election, and no one was ...Read More

God and Unbelief

Romans 9:9–18

When God chooses someone for salvation, He does so in love, working directly in us, making Him the cause of our redemption (1 Peter 1:1–3). But in passing over the non-elect (reprobation), the Lord’s work is passive ...Read More

Man’s Radical Fallenness

John 6:44

“Regeneration precedes faith” summarizes biblical soteriology (the doctrine of salvation). Having one’s will transformed by the regenerative touch of the Holy Spirit, Jesus says, must come before anyone can enter the kingdom (John 3:3, 5). If you trust ...Read More