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58 results for “Salvation”
Clear searchHow the Law reaches its goal and appointed end in Christ
…themselves. Abraham was justified before the Law Romans 4 prevents us from imagining that salvation by faith was an emergency introduced after the Law failed. Abraham was counted righteous before Moses, Sinai, and even circumcision: "For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed…
Read article →Christianity, Islam and the verdict of the evidence
…tian objection. It is this: Which account of God, Christ, Scripture, history, justice and salvation possesses the greatest cumulative explanatory power? Why I began this series I began writing these articles because I had grown tired of watching poorly catechised young men being…
Read article →Why Israel's failure cannot make the word of God fail
…for sin and uncleanness (Zechariah 13:1). The restored nation will stand as evidence that salvation is of the Lord, not that human descent can save. When God overcomes Israel's unfaithfulness, Israel will not boast. The nations will recognise His holiness. God attaches creation i…
Read article →How the Lord knows His own—and how their lives bear His name
…directions without confusion. It looks away from self to Christ as the only foundation of salvation. It also recognises the work of His Spirit as He leads Christ's people away from sin and forms in them a family likeness. The Lord knows His own better than they know themselves. T…
Read article →Two accounts of judgement, mercy, and the sinner's hope before God
…ans 2:8–9). We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works (Ephesians 2:10). Works follow salvation as its intended fruit; they do not become its price. That protects both humility and holiness. Nobody can boast in a moral balance, and nobody can use grace as permission to cheris…
Read article →J. C. Ryle · Doctrinal and pastoral essays · 1874
…Ryle by the same scriptural authority to which he appeals. Evangelical religion Scripture Salvation Baptism and regeneration Lord's Supper Church and ministry Worship
View recommendation →Isaiah, John, and the Divine Identity of Jesus Christ
…ger than whether two passages happen to use the same expression. Isaiah gathers creation, salvation, eternity, sovereign rule and incomparable glory around the identity of YHWH. The New Testament repeatedly speaks of Jesus in precisely these categories, sometimes by applying to H…
Read article →Christ the promised Seed, Gentile inheritance, and Paul's final blessing
…the nation from which Messiah came without creating a second gospel or a superior way of salvation. What is the rule in Galatians 6? At the end of the letter Paul returns to the controversy over circumcision. His opponents desire a good showing "in the flesh" and glory in the ci…
Read article →The olive tree, the natural branches, and the limits of the metaphor
…root and its richness with believing Jews. Participation is genuine: the Gentiles receive salvation, the Spirit, righteousness by faith, Abrahamic blessing, and membership in God's household. But a participant is not thereby the original owner or source of what is shared. Paul's…
Read article →Unity in Christ and distinction in God's purpose
…d to God in one body. Both possess the same Spirit, approach the same Father, and inherit salvation on the same basis. It also continues to speak of Israel, Gentiles, and the Church in distinguishable ways. These truths are often forced into competition. One side fears that any d…
Read article →Near-death experiences, neuroscience, and the authority of Christ
…being carried back from the brink: claims about God, judgement, reincarnation, universal salvation, spirit guides and the meaning of death. That remains the right question. A testimony may be moving without being self-interpreting. An experience may be sincere without every conc…
Read article →Why the final seven is unfinished, future, and centred upon Israel and Jerusalem
…es or make Him partial? Distinguishing Israel from the Church does not create two ways of salvation. Jew and Gentile are reconciled to God only through Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:14-18). There is no spiritual superiority based on ethnicity, for all who belong to Christ are one in…
Read article →Responding to five common criticisms without defending what Scripture does not require
…med in the text, and the unconditional promises God made to Israel. It affirms one way of salvation by grace through faith, centred in Christ. It distinguishes Israel and the Church without teaching two gospels or two redeemers. The following answers do not prove the whole system…
Read article →El, the Exodus, and the God Who Came from Sinai
…revive thy work” and “in wrath remember mercy” (3:2). He sees Yahweh going forth “for the salvation of thy people” (3:13) and walking through the sea (3:15). Sinai, Exodus, conquest and future deliverance are woven into one divine-warrior vision. The prophet’s hope is that the Go…
Read article →Why the Son assumed a complete human nature, not merely a body
…ame famous: “For that which He has not assumed He has not healed.” His point was not that salvation occurs through a mechanical checklist of human components. It was that redemption reaches our humanity because the Son truly assumed it. If the human mind is excluded from the inca…
Read article →What 'yea and Amen' in Christ means for Israel and the covenants
…es Christ's present heavenly rule, and Israel's promised national restoration becomes the salvation of the multinational Church. The promises are not said to have failed, but to have reached a greater fulfilment in a different corporate recipient. The argument contains substantia…
Read article →Origen, Arius and the line between Creator and creation
…ing that honour away from himself. If Jesus is a creature, the New Testament’s account of salvation is also fundamentally altered. The LORD declares: “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.” — Isaiah 43:11 Yet the New Testament repeatedly calls Jesus our Savio…
Read article →Circumcision of the heart and the identity of Paul's inward Jew
…d Gentiles (Romans 9:24), says that there is no difference in their need of and access to salvation (Romans 10:12), and directly addresses Gentiles while discussing Israel's blindness (Romans 11:13, 25). Equal standing does not require renamed ethnicity. If believing Gentiles had…
Read article →Fulfilment in Christ, the inclusion of the Gentiles, and Israel's future mercy
…at argument must be affirmed. The Old Testament is about Christ. There is only one way of salvation. Gentile believers are Abraham's seed through union with Christ. The Church genuinely shares in covenant blessings. Israel's privileges cannot save an unbelieving Israelite. The di…
Read article →What the Father's love for the Son reveals about God
…ented as a closed circle into which creatures can never enter. Jesus joins His disciples' salvation to that love: "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love" (John 15:9). The order matters. The Father loves the Son. The Son loves His people. Divine…
Read article →The event is explicit; the real dispute is its timing
…and catching up as parts of the same future hope. Nor is pretribulationism a condition of salvation. Christians who confess the bodily resurrection and return of Christ may disagree over the sequence while belonging to the same Lord. The issue matters because it affects the Churc…
Read article →The man of sin, the last trumpet, the first resurrection, and the last day
…hrist raises every person in the appointed order. John 6 guarantees the believer's bodily salvation and the identity of the One who performs it. It does not state that every company rises and every judgement occurs at one indivisible instant. The cumulative answer None of these r…
Read article →Conditional blessing, irrevocable promise, and fulfilment in Christ
…ovenant line through Isaac; within Israel, unbelief brings judgement; and the blessing of salvation is received by faith. Circumcision was commanded as the covenant sign, and disobedience had real consequences (Genesis 17:9-14). Yet human failure does not turn the covenant into a…
Read article →History, heresy, and the temptation of private Christianity
…rn Protestantism, particularly in North America. Ancient Gnostics, on his account, sought salvation in private illumination rather than the public life of a believing community. Modern Protestants likewise elevate the knowing self over the church, inward experience over sacrament…
Read article →Does John 6 teach the literal eating of Christ's body?
…ucharistic command. Something new is certainly revealed—but it is not a new instrument of salvation. Jesus now reveals how He will give life to the world. The bread He will give is His flesh, given in death. The future tense—“the bread that I will give”—points naturally to the cr…
Read article →A history of interpretation, polemic, and forgotten tension
…e of Israel" will be saved (Against Celsus VI.80). He could therefore anticipate a future salvation of Israel while denying restoration to its former national condition. Conversion and covenant restoration were not the same claim in his system. Chrysostom shows how polemic could…
Read article →Jesus and the fountain of living water
…form in Jesus' day, John's setting is unmistakably charged with the imagery of water and salvation. Scripture had promised: "Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation." —Isaiah 12:3 Then, on the last day, Jesus stood. Teachers ordinarily sat. Jesus mad…
Read article →The LORD, Zion, and the meaning of Beulah in Isaiah 62:4–5
…m’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.” —Isaiah 62:1 Zion is personified as a woman whose condition is about to be reversed. Her righteousness will be publicly revealed. The Gentiles will…
Read article →Seeing God, bodily resurrection, and life in the renewed creation
…can then be imagined as a disembodied soul engaged in motionless contemplation, as though salvation finally releases us from material creation, personal vocation, and shared life. Scripture gives us something fuller. Seeing God is not less than the goal of redemption, but the peo…
Read article →Divine judgement, the character of God, and the promise of escape
…ppointed us to wrath" Paul writes: "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ." —1 Thessalonians 5:9 The immediate context concerns the Day of the Lord arriving as a thief upon those who say "Peace and safety". Believers are children…
Read article →A response to Hank Hanegraaff on resurrection, Daniel’s final week, and the Tribulation
…rom the Church. It does not therefore require two gospels, two saviours or two methods of salvation. Jews and Gentiles are reconciled to God through the blood of Christ. The distinction concerns covenantal identity, historical vocation and prophetic promises—not whether one group…
Read article →The question reaches beyond prophecy to the faithfulness of God
…is is not a contest over which group matters more. Jewish people have no separate path of salvation, and Gentile believers are not second-class members of God's household. Every sinner is reconciled to God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The question is whethe…
Read article →Two failures, two responses, and the difference between remorse and repentance
…illustrate the vital distinction in Paul’s words: “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” —2 Corinthians 7:10 The difference was not simply that Peter felt worse than Judas, or that Judas’s sin was beyon…
Read article →A response to Michael Horton on the land promise, Amos 9, and the people of God
…bsolete. No nation, including modern Israel, is excused when it acts unjustly. Above all, salvation has always rested upon the saving work of Christ. Yet none of those propositions establishes that God has cancelled Israel's territorial future. The central question is not whether…
Read article →What God's faithfulness to Israel means for everyone who trusts His promises
…Church, and the thought experiment does not suggest further revelation or another way of salvation. Its purpose is to test an interpretive principle. If reassignment would make a promise unreliable when applied to us, it cannot become reliable merely because the people losing th…
Read article →Why the Trinity is not polytheism—and why Christians confess one God
…n inner life (1 Corinthians 2:10–11). He is involved with the Father and Son in creation, salvation, sanctification, and resurrection. Calling the Spirit divine does not add another god. It recognises the identity Scripture gives Him within the one divine Being. One Being, three…
Read article →Why the distinction matters when we speak about Jesus
…ssiness. It is learning to speak truthfully about the Lord we worship. Why It Matters for Salvation Our salvation depends upon Christ being precisely who Scripture says He is. He must be truly man to stand in our place. “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so…
Read article →An unrequited love for the historic Church
…ghty, Creator of all things. There is one Jesus Christ, the Son of God, incarnate for our salvation. The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets concerning the saving works of God: Christ’s coming, His virgin birth, His passion, resurrection from the dead and bodily ascension. Chr…
Read article →Creation, judgement, and the coming reign of Christ
…om wherever it appears without adopting the worldview surrounding it. Conservation is not salvation. But salvation is no licence for vandalism. The creation's expectation The ultimate hope appears in Romans 8. Paul does not describe creation as waiting for man to discover the pol…
Read article →Not escape from the body, but its redemption
…e Christ's will be raised at His coming because they belong to Him (1 Corinthians 15:23). Salvation remains the gift of grace. Yet the New Testament does not therefore say that our present conduct is meaningless. Paul teaches that a believer's work will be tested. Some work will…
Read article →Which Gospel does the Qur'an affirm?
…us supposedly taught obedience to God and the Law; Paul later converted His religion into salvation through a dying and rising divine Saviour. The canonical Gospels will not sustain that division. Jesus announces the kingdom because the King is present. He also explains how His m…
Read article →The near was real. The far is still coming.
…e the presence and government of the holy King. Nor does verse 15 establish a doctrine of salvation earned by moral achievement. Isaiah describes the character of those who dwell securely with God; the chapter’s final word will be forgiveness. Secure Zion and forgiven inhabitants…
Read article →Israel's Messiah, Israel's Scriptures, and a gospel for the world
…im to righteousness through the law. He opposed circumcision as a requirement for Gentile salvation and taught that justification is by faith apart from works of the law. Nothing in his Jewish ancestry could earn standing before God. Yet he did not cease to identify as Jewish: "C…
Read article →Regathering, national rebirth, and the spiritual renewal still to come
…(Acts 15:13-18). That apostolic application should be received at full strength. Gentile salvation belongs to the Davidic and prophetic hope. It does not require the permanent exclusion of Israel from the restoration in the same prophetic passage. What changed in 1948? On 14 May…
Read article →One Messiah, one gospel, and God's continuing purpose for Israel
…stians ought to stand together. There is one God, one Messiah, one gospel, and one way of salvation. Jewish ancestry does not justify anyone before God. Gentile ancestry excludes no one who comes to Christ by faith. Every sinner must be reconciled through the blood of Jesus, and…
Read article →The glory philosophy could not contain
…s arranged as a descent from higher, intelligible being toward lower, material existence. Salvation therefore looks like return—an ascent of the soul away from the bodily and changeable toward the divine source. That framework could appreciate the language of the Logos. Greek phi…
Read article →What Jesus promised the apostles about Israel's future
…re broadly in Messiah's reign. Distinction of responsibility does not imply inequality of salvation. The apostles themselves possess no superior access to God. All the redeemed are saved by grace and united to Christ. Kingdom assignments concern service under the King, not differ…
Read article →What mercy, holiness and the cross reveal about God
…e done, but according to his mercy he saved us" (Titus 3:4-5). The love of God appears in salvation. It does not merely announce that salvation may become available if human righteousness reaches the required level. "He saved us"; and the text immediately excludes works of righte…
Read article →Born, begotten and firstborn in the eternal identity and saving work of the Son
…s to who the Father, Son and Holy Spirit eternally are in God’s own being. The economy of salvation refers to how the three divine persons act toward creation and within history to accomplish redemption. The distinction does not divide God into two Trinities. Nor does it imply th…
Read article →Four popular claims tested in context
…omforts and redeems His people (Isaiah 44:23; 49:13). Such language displays the reach of salvation; it does not identify the Redeemer's ethnicity. The character of the Servant The Servant's manner also matters: "He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in t…
Read article →The Gospel, Human Perception, and the Illuminating Work of the Holy Spirit
…t has not risen, our faith is vain and we remain in our sins. The resurrection belongs to salvation itself; the Saviour who died for us lives. 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, 17–20. Why repentance and faith? Repentance means turning towards God with a changed mind about Him, our sin, and C…
Read article →Election within Abraham's family, the believing remnant, and the future of the nation
…tinct covenant identity or future. Paul certainly denies that physical descent guarantees salvation. He distinguishes outward privilege from participation in God's saving purpose and traces that principle through Isaac and Jacob. Any interpretation which gives every Israelite an…
Read article →Constantine, Arius, the Trinity, the biblical canon—and the myths that refuse to die
…ted God. The Nicene party believed that this scheme made Christian worship incoherent and salvation impossible. If all things were made through the Son (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16), He cannot belong to the class of “all things” which came to be through Him. If He perfectly reveals…
Read article →Governmental restraint, the final ten kings, and the preparation of the temple
…partial blindness “until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in”, then speaks of Israel’s salvation. Israel will turn to her Messiah, consistent with the mourning described in Zechariah. Romans 11 does not explicitly teach the rapture or identify the restrainer. Connecting Gentil…
Read article →Michael Brown, 2 Thessalonians 1, and the public vindication of the saints
…It is not appointed to the latter: “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.” —1 Thessalonians 5:9 Even deliverance from that appointed wrath does not exhaust the purpose of the rapture. Paul’s explicit description centres upon res…
Read article →A forensic reading of Christ's Olivet Discourse
…ubject has changed when he later speaks of the elect. This does not exclude Gentiles from salvation during that period. It establishes the programme within which the elect must first be identified. Clue six: the proclamation concerns the coming kingdom Jesus says: "And this gospe…
Read article →A sign of Israel's renewal, not Israel's disappearance
…f Jacob alone: "I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." —Isaiah 49:6 In Acts, the witness moves from Jerusalem to Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth (Acts 1:8). That outward movement does no…
Read article →The positive argument of the whole series, brought together
…Thessalonians 1:10). He later writes, "God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:9). This does not promise exemption from persecution. The Church is repeatedly warned to expect opposition, loss, and even martyrdom. T…
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