Humility exalts

I like Augustine’s observation here because it confronts the false notion that when we are humble, we feel low and somber all the time. “There is, therefore, something in humility which, strangely enough, exalts the...

Making Jesus look good

Contempt and the gospel

Something spontaneous I am thinking about this morning: Luke 18:9: “He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt.” It seems to me that...

The Book of Pastoral Rule

I spent some time at Barnes and Noble recently reading Gregory the Great’s The Book of Pastoral Rule.  Its a great little book.  Obviously I don’t agree with many aspects of Gregory’s theology, seeing as...

Threeness and Oneness: East and West

The past few weeks I’ve been chipping away at Robert Letham’s The Holy Trinity: In Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (P+R, 2004).  Its a fantastic book.  Letham’s historical overview of the development of the doctrine...

Justification (2): Boasting

Studying the doctrine of justification is changing my life.  It truly touches upon a nerve center of the Christian faith.  Here is what I am seeing so far: 1. Everyone seeks justification, i.e. a rightness...

The Doctrine of God and Gospel-centeredness

John Stott commenting on one of Paul’s speeches in the book of Acts: “Many people are rejecting our gospel today not because they perceive it to be false, but because they perceive it to be...

Justification (1): God

The way we approach something determines, to some extent, what we find.  We approach food differently when we are hungry.  We approach people differently when we are lonely.  We approach sleep differently when we are...

Humanity and Deity

Read the first of John of Damascus’ Three Treatises on the Divine Images the other week as part of my pre-reformation reading.  Found this an interesting statement about the incarnation: “for the nature of the...