Tried With Fire

If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides. We, however, says Peter (2 Peter 3:13) are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth where justice will reign. It suffices that through God's glory we have recognized the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world. No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill or commit adultery thousands of times each day. Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins?  Excerpt from a  letter  from Martin Luther to Philipp Melanchthon,  Letter no. 99, 1 August 152...

If you wandered around the blogsphere recently, you've seen the critical posts and counterposts about the purity movement. To be clear, I believe the Bible commands believers to flee sexual immorality. At the same time, I believe that the sin of sexual immorality is not beyond the reach of gospel. However, as I pull out my worm-can opener, I think many of the criticisms are valid. Granted the purity movement is varied, but from what I have seen and read, there's too much emphasis on "doing it right" and very little gospel grace. Shame as a tactic to promote desired behavior is nothing short of legalism. I've seen people crushed under self-condemnation because they failed to live up to every jot and tittle and perceived themselves as "damaged" good. I've known others who have followed the prescription and expected heaven-on-earth only to be shocked when picture perfect courtship does not guarantee happily-ever-after. As my daughter and I were dis...

Apocalyptic romance, that is. I had never heard of the phrase "apocalyptic romance" until Tim Keller mentioned it in this interview . The term comes from The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker who proposed that "When you take God out of the culture, you have got to put something in His place. Apocalyptic romance was one of the ways people aspire to transcendence. So instead of salvation, romance is going to solve everything." Although I would never have owned that romance was going to solve everything, I believed and practiced it. It's easy to do if you over-romanticize the analogy between Christ's relationship with the church and marriage. Omitting the whole counsel of God on subjects like human depravity and progressive sanctification also helps to foster this pie-in-the-sky view. I would have continued in this vein, until my marriage exploded as a result of this self-fueled time bomb. Initially, it's intoxicating to believe you've found the o...

From this sermon by Tim Keller : "Now I know this may sound very strange, but what we have here is a form of idolatry where you put your hope in something to give you a sense of being loved, of being valuable, of giving your life meaning . And these are not idols of the liberal world. These are idols of the conservative world, because Jacob says, if I get this gorgeous wife on my arm, if I am married, then I finally will have happiness . And it didn't work And poor Leah turns and says, if I have a child, if I have children, if I have sons, if I have this wonderful family then I'll be worth something. Then I'll be loved . And it never works. " "Every time she says, "Now my husband will love me." "Now my husband will love me." "Now my husband will love me." And then it says she conceived again, and then she gave birth to a son and she said, "This time I will praise the Lord." Finally, no talk about her husband. What had ...