Latest Articles on Guard the Deposit
Hodge on Sacraments
A. A. Hodge on the sacraments as "seals" of the covenant. I found it helpful: The sacraments were designed to 'apply'—i.e., actually to convey—to believers the benefits of the new covenant. If they are 'seals' of the covenant, they must of course, as a legal form of...
Nibbles and Sips
From a paper I wrote for my Worship Leadership class, where I reviewed The Eucharistic Sayings of Jesus by Joachim Jeremias: The last aspect of Holy Communion is its future, eschatological orientation. Joachim Jeremias noted that “The Jewish Passover at the time of...
Resurrection Day
We had midterms this past week, which caused no little stress in my life. This was the perfect storm of schoolwork, and I cannot remember doing more work in one week since I had to write my senior thesis in a week, and then preach that Sunday, a couple of years ago....
The Glory of God in His Gospel
D.A. Carson, in his For the Love of God, Vol. 2, writes: We must always remember that: The Gospel is not admired in Scripture primarily because of the social transformation it effects, but because it reconciles men and women to a holy God. Its purpose is not that we...
“I will open my mouth in a parable…”
Psalm 78 opens by declaring: 1Give ear, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth! 2I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings from of old, 3things that we have heard and known, that our fathers have told us. 4We will...
Outward Sign, Inward Reality–Part Three
Several months ago, I wrote two posts about the connection of the outward signs of circumcision and baptism to their respective inward realities: circumcision of the heart and baptism of the Spirit. You can read those posts here: ...
Should we pray for Jesus?
I was reading Psalm 72 just now, where Solomon prays that God would extend the rule of "the king." (Actually, the "Of Solomon" could be translated "For Solomon," and, since verse 20 says "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended," this could possibly be...
To those who have believed on Christ
I know what the devil will say to you. He will say to you, "You are a sinner!" Tell him you know you are, but that for all that you are justified. He will tell you of the greatness of your sin. Tell him of the greatness of Christ's righteousness. He will tell you of...
A Thought for Good Friday
From John Stott's The Cross of Christ: For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices...
The Privation of Good and The Neverending Story
Yesterday in my theology class, my professor expressed his disagreement with Augustine's conception of the nature of evil. Augustine essentially argued three things: God created all things, so that nothing exists that God did not create. God created all things to be...
What We Have Been Given
For my theology class, I just finished reading C. S. Lewis's Mere Christianity. I know that I had already read the book twice, but I may also have read it a third time before this reading. Reading it again, though, showed me just how much Lewis has influenced my...
Jesus Is Wisdom
Should we could consider Jesus' parables and sayings as the New Testament equivalent of wisdom literature, and, if so, in what ways we should understand what Jesus says to be different from the books of the Old Testament that we commonly label "Wisdom Literature"?...