Essay / Theology

Blessing of the Trinity (Sermon)

On Sunday Jan 28, I preached on Ephesians 1:3-14 at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. Tenth is a historic site for doctrinal and expository preaching, and I’m grateful to Pastor Liam Goligher for the invitation. It’s a 40-minute exposition of my love affair with Ephesians

Essay / Theology

Christ Alone (Sermon)

Here is the video of a sermon I preached on Reformation Day 500 in Talbot Chapel at Biola. It’s got bacon, Reddit, semantic drift, a killer visual aid, some Bible thumping, karma, and the Trinity in it. It’s also about Ephesians.

Essay / Theology

Incarnation: How Appropriate

For at least three reasons, it seems like there’s nothing less appropriate than for God to become incarnate: Divinity is infinite; but humanity is finite, and those two things don’t go together by nature. God is simple, not put together from constituent parts; but for

Essay / Theology

Tozer’s Meditations on the Trinity

A friend recently gave me a copy of this new devotional book, Meditations on the Trinity: Beauty, Mystery, and Glory in the Life of God, by A.W. Tozer. A. W. Tozer (1897-1963) wrote a lot of books, but if you’re a fan, you’re probably thinking,

Essay / Theology

Christmas Thought

  December is always a strange time of year for Christians at a college. With the end of the semester approaching, it’ a very busy time in the academic calendar when the work can begin to seem unendurable and our energy is almost spent. It’s

Essay / Theology

Union with Christ in the Gospels (Brian Hedges)

Here’s an endorsement I wrote for Brian Hedges‘ new book, With Jesus: Finding Your Place in the Story of Christ (Shepherd Press, 2017): When we think about the Christian life as union with Christ, we often turn to Paul’s letters where the doctrine is explained

Essay / Theology

Didaktikos Currents: Classical Theism

Faithlife (maker of Logos Bible Software) has started a new print journal of theological education: Didaktikos. It’s edited by Douglas Estes; click on through and see how to subscribe. In the first issue, I wrote a little report (in the “Currents” section) to bring readers

Essay / Theology

The Biography and the Presence

“He whose biography is now before us, is himself with us.” This principle is explained and applied by Scottish theologian Hugh Martin (1822-1885) in his 1860 book Christ’s Presence in the Gospel Narrative (republished as The Abiding Presence). The key idea is that we have

Essay / Theology

Trinity Article in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology

Daniel Treier’s new (third) edition of The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology has just been published, and it’s a marvel. A big hardcover weighing in at just under 1,000 pages, it is a wisely-planned compendium of theology and spiritual life from an evangelical perspective. Every time I

Essay / Theology

Cover Story: Constellation of Truths

The book I co-edited, Retrieving Eternal Generation, is releasing this month, and a few people have asked me about the cover. The beautiful, beautiful cover. There are a few reasons this cover features golden stars on a blue background. One is that I saw an opportunity

Essay / Theology

The Life in Christ, with Careful Distinctions

In Book 1 of Nicholas Cabasilas’ classic The Life in Christ, he sings the praises of salvation at such a high pitch that you think he’s likely at any moment to say some things that only make sense as ecstatic speech rather than as good

Essay / Theology

Thiselton, Briefly, on the Holy Spirit

My review of Anthony Thiselton’s Shorter Guide to the Holy Spirit is out in the new issue of Theology Today. Here’s the most substantive paragraph from the review, which picks out an important contribution Thiselton makes: There are a few theses running through all this material.