Ah, the jellyfish. Colorful, enamoring, a bit mysterious. Spineless and squishy. Dangerous because of their stinging tentacles. Adrift all over the world’s oceans, from surface waters to the deep sea.

Much of Evangelical Christianity today shares more in common with the jellyfish than we care to admit. Enamoring but obscure. A bit squishy. Potentially dangerous. Present everywhere.

Scripture repeatedly tells Christians to “stand firm” (1 Cor. 16:13; Gal. 5:1; Eph. 6:13; 1 Peter 5:12). This is not the way of the Evangelical Jellyfish. Malleable Christianity is not a form of religion substantive enough to pass down to our children and grandchildren.

Evangelicalism desperately needs to firm up if it is to endure. One way is by recovering a high view of the ancient creeds. In Christianity, a creed is a short statement summarizing the basics of the faith. The two best known are the Apostles’ Creed and Nicene Creed.

Baptist theologian B. H. Carrol (1843–1914) said of the importance of creeds:

“The modern cry: ‘Less creed and more liberty,’ is a degeneration from the vertebrate to the jellyfish, and means less unity and less morality, and it means more heresy.”

Creeds have fallen by the wayside in the last thirty or so years of Evangelicalism. One reason for this is the rise of the Attractional Church movement, which orients the entire church—its worship, ministries, and structure—around the seeker. In this paradigm, the creeds are thought of as too archaic, too high-church and liturgical. They may turn the seeker off from church altogether. So best we don’t confess them at all. Not publicly, anyway. I fear this way of doing ministry produces few disciples and a lot of jellyfish.

I don’t want to be a jellyfish in the faith. I want to stand firm with my Master, the Lord Jesus. The creeds help Christians know what they believe and why they believe it.

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If you are a Christian, you should read the creeds. I’ll give four reasons why and then offer a word on how to get started.

Four Reasons to Read the Creeds

Unity

The creeds remind Christians of the truths that unite us to one another. They have shaped Christian worship for centuries in all kinds of contexts.

Persecuted Christians in East Asia quietly gather and say, “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.” The church plant in rural Nebraska worships by boldly confessing, “I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.” The martyr, with the flames of execution crawling up his body, murmurs, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

These are our brothers and sisters in the Lord, confessing the main and plain things essential to salvation. Creeds unite Christians.

Teaching

The creeds teach Christians the basics of the faith. These documents do not replace the Bible. They are good because they are biblical, faithfully summarizing core doctrines. Where the Attractional Church model glories in the new, creedal Christianity revels in what is old. We are not so much interested in forging new paths as we are in illuminating old ones. If a piece of theology is new, it almost certainly isn’t true.

So the creeds are time-tested standards for summarizing the “faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Doctrines like the Trinity, the person and work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the ministry of the church, and last things all receive their fair share of attention.

Protecting

In 1 Timothy 3:15, Paul calls the church “a pillar and buttress of the truth.” That is not jellyfish imagery. A pillar upholds. A buttress protects. Two of the church’s responsibilities in the world are upholding and protecting divine truth. Creeds are one weapon in the church’s arsenal for fighting the war on truth. They refute perennial false teachings that plague the church in every generation.

Squishy Christianity—the kind that conforms to whatever trend or norm the culture throws at it—is not what we’re after. The creeds put steel in the Christian’s spine. They help us stand firm.

Worship

The creeds articulate right doctrine for the purpose of true worship. We love most those we know best—and these documents help us know God so we can better love Him. Every line is meant to make our hearts sing in praise to the true God.

In the Nicene Creed, God is not just “God”—He is “the Father Almighty.” Jesus came down from heaven “for us and for our salvation.” We confess belief in “the resurrection of the dead” and in “the life of the world to come.” These are doxological statements, meant to produce a praising people.

Getting Started

So you should read the creeds. Evangelicalism would benefit from more creedal engagement, not less. There is no time like the present to get started. Here are some ways you can do that:

• Print a PDF and keep it in your daily driver Bible.

• Order a devotional that incorporates the creeds into a daily reading plan.

• Read the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed out loud with your family or in your small group Bible study.

• If you are a pastor, add the creeds as a preamble to your church’s statement of faith. The elders at my local church are in the process of doing just that.

• Shameless plug—I have a book releasing in 2027 based on the Nicene Creed. Consider supporting my work by ordering it and using it as your daily devotional next Christmas.

Don’t be a jellyfish. Stand firm. Read the creeds.

If this article helped you, tap the heart. Your engagement helps get my writing into more people’s hands.

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There is a lot of confusion surrounding the doctrine of the Trinity. I think there are two reasons why.

The first is because of poor teaching on the Trinity. Second, and more common, is because many Christians have received no teaching on the Trinity.

I realized this in 2019 when visiting a local mosque (that’s the place of worship for Muslims). I didn’t visit to worship with them but to observe their worship. While there, I met a gentleman who grew up Christian but converted to Islam while in prison. When I asked why, he said it was because he received little teaching on the Trinity—and when he was taught, the doctrine was poorly explained.

“How can God be one and three?” he asked. To him, Islam was the only true monotheistic (one-God) religion. So he converted and was at that time preparing to move with his wife and children to Jordan, closer to Mecca, the holiest site in Islam.

Poor teaching, no teaching.

True, we will never fully know God. He is incomprehensible. This means we can never exhaustively know God. “Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised,” says the psalmist, “and his greatness is unsearchable” (145:3).

Yet within God’s unsearchable greatness is His knowability. In His kindness, God has plainly revealed Himself in such a way that believers—with open Bibles and Spirit-filled hearts—can arrive at a true and personal knowledge of God.

The Trinity belongs in the incomprehensible yet knowable realm of theology. We will never exhaustively understand God existing in three persons. But we can know something of the triune God. And knowing Him, we can then treasure and worship Him.

It’s toward this end I offer a brief overview of the doctrine of the Trinity.

The points I outline below are in the classical Trinitarian tradition of Christianity. That means these convictions are rooted firmly in Scripture and then articulated more fully in the historic Christian creeds, especially the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds.

The Trinity in Three Statements

Fully aware of how any effort to summarize the Trinity is like trying to empty the Pacific Ocean with a dixie cup, orthodox Christianity has done so with three summary statements.

First, there is only one God.

Christians affirm this truth because it is in the Bible. Contrary to what my Muslim friend believed, Christianity is indeed a monotheistic religion. Speaking through the prophet Moses, God revealed Himself as the one true God:

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” (Deut. 6:4)

Jesus reaffirmed this teaching in the New Testament. When asked what the greatest commandment was, He quoted Deuteronomy 6:

“The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.’” (Mark 12:29)

Consistent with the Old Testament witness and Christ’s teachings, the apostles also affirmed God’s oneness. Paul wrote,

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Tim. 6:15–16)

The one God reveals Himself as the eternal, almighty, covenant-keeping God.

Second, there are three persons in God, each identical with the one God.

Again, Christians affirm this truth because it is in the Bible. Scripture reveals the one God existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

This is an important point that bears emphasizing. What led early Christians to affirm one God in three eternal, equal persons? The biblical witness. Scripture presents Father, Son, and Spirit not as three different gods but as three divine persons sharing in the one divine nature. How else are we to make sense of Jesus’ words, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30)?

The doctrine of the Trinity grows from the soil of Scripture itself.

The language of persons matters. Father, Son, and Spirit are not parts of God. You and I are made of parts. We have bodies and souls. But God is simple, meaning He does not have parts. Nor are Father, Son, and Spirit different manifestations of God, as if God changes from Father in the Old Testament to Son in the New Testament to Spirit in the church age.

The one God is Father, Son, and Spirit.

It’s hard to improve upon the Athanasian Creed’s summary of the equality of Father, Son, and Spirit. Read this carefully:

“What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has. The Father is uncreated, The Son is uncreated, The Holy Spirit is uncreated. The Father is immeasurable, The Son is immeasurable, The Holy Spirit is immeasurable. The Father is eternal, The Son is eternal, The Holy Spirit is eternal. And yet there are not three eternal beings; There is but one eternal being. So too there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings; There is but one uncreated and immeasurable being.”

Third, the only thing that distinguishes the three persons is how they relate to one another in eternity.

The three persons are distinct. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Father. What makes them distinct is their relationship to one another.

It is not their wills that make the persons distinct. What the Father wills, the Son wills; what the Spirit wills, the Father wills, and so on. One God, one divine will.

It is not their works that make the persons distinct. God is not like a high-functioning staff team, so closely aligned it’s as if Father, Son, and Spirit are working out the same mission. All the external works of the Trinity are undivided (i.e., creation, providence, redemption). One God, one unified work.

It is not their glories that make the persons distinct. What quality the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has. The Father’s glory is not greater or lesser than the Son’s; the Spirit’s glory is not greater or lesser than the Father’s. One God, one perfect glory.

If the three persons are equal, then how can we speak of distinguishing them? Not by their wills or works or glories. But only by observing how they relate to one another in eternity. Theologians call this God’s eternal relations of origin.

Here’s how we say it:

The Father is Father because He originates from no one. The Son is Son because He is eternally begotten of the Father. The Spirit is Spirit because He is eternally breathed out from the Father and the Son. To tamper with these relations of origin is to tamper with the essence of the Trinity.

The Elevator Pitch

Christians are trinitarian because it is what the Bible teaches. The true God is a trinity. There is only one God. There are three persons in God, each identical with the one God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

What makes Father, Son, and Spirit distinct from each other is how they relate to one another in eternity. The Father eternally originates from no one. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Spirit is eternally breathed out from the Father and the Son.

Knowledge, Love, and Worship

To be a Christian is to know, love, and worship the triune God. It is to live for His glory and not our own. It is to look to Him for salvation from sin and not to our own efforts.

We love most those we know best. Our worship will never rise above our theology. The more we know of God, the more we love Him. So contemplating the doctrine of the Trinity is a worthwhile, lifelong pursuit.

For those interested in further study on the Trinity, I recommend the following resources:

The Gospel of John (New Testament book)

The Athanasian Creed (concise article)

The Trinity: An Introduction by Scott R. Swain (concise book)

On Classical Trinitarianism by Matthew Barrett, editor (not a concise book)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Cor. 13:14)

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In September 2025, I signed a publishing agreement for my first book with 10 of Those Publishers.

The working title is He Came Down from Heaven. It is a devotional for Advent based on the Nicene Creed. Lord willing, it releases in August 2027.

I spent the winter holed up in my basement study, hammering away on the manuscript. I do my best thinking in the early hours, so Friday and Saturday mornings were when I did the bulk of my writing.

One challenge unique to this book was making complex Christian doctrines simple to grasp.

I set out to write a popular level book for the average churchgoer, not for the seminary-trained theologian. The Nicene Creed’s depth is daunting. It has stood the test of time for a reason: it is one of the densest, most accurate summaries of basic Christian truths ever written.

So I researched deeply on classical theology. The hypostatic union. The eternal generation of the Son from the Father. The inseparable operations of the Triune God. The distinction between and unity of God the Father and God the Son.

These are not peripheral issues. They form the foundation of Christianity.

My book addresses these things head-on but in an accessible way. If you pick up a copy—and I hope you will—I think you will learn new truths about the Lord Jesus and understand how to live in light of them.

What’s Next?

Completing the manuscript was the first big rock. Now the editing process begins. I will work closely with my publisher to refine the manuscript so we can deliver the best product possible.

Here’s the production schedule:

• Feedback on the first draft: June 2026

• Cover design: June–July 2026

• Revised manuscript due: September 7, 2026

• Editorial: September–December 2026

• Typesetting: January 2027

• Proofreading: February 2027

• Author proofs: March 2027

• Printing: April 2027

Thank you for the kind words, interest in my work, and prayer.

In the meantime, I’m writing regularly here on Substack on theology, world news, and culture. Two of my favorite, recently released articles are Thinking Christianly about Israel and A Biblical Case for National Borders.

If you haven’t yet subscribed, please do!

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Nations are a necessary good, essential for human flourishing. Attempts to erase national distinctions—whether by a globalist ideology, poorly enforced borders, or downplaying the importance of a shared set of values—ends in disaster.

I hope to lay out a straightforward case for why nations and national borders are good, not bad. They’re actually biblical.

The Air We Breathe

Nations are part of the fabric of life. Flying overseas? You’re going to need your passport. At a football game? Remove your hat for the national anthem. Is it an election year? Both the Republican and Democratic Party platforms will promise to secure the border—though using very different means to do so.

It is difficult to imagine a world without nations and borders. Nationhood is the air we breathe. But where did nations come from in the first place? Their origins are very old, emerging from the biblical story.

Scripture offers a surprising wealth of material on the subject of nations: when they started, why they developed, and how they fit into God’s purposes for humanity.

Defining a Nation

Classically defined, a nation is a sovereign political territory organized under a government and united by a shared identity: language, history, and culture. Nations have a right to territory and a right to establish and defend national borders.

Today, there are 195 countries in the world. All but two—the Holy See and the State of Palestine—are member states of the United Nations.

If you want a biblical definition, it’s hard to improve on the one Paul gives in Acts 17. Addressing a theater full of philosophers and scholars in ancient Athens, the apostle explains how nations were God’s idea:

“And [God] made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” (Acts 17:26)

Paul says the following: God made nations. He determines when they rise and fall. He appoints their geographical boundaries, or borders. He has purposed to organize humanity into distinct communities.

A Brief Theology of Nations

From Genesis to Revelation, nations play a part in the biblical story. There are four things you should know about nations in the Bible.

Nations Began at Babel

You won’t find mention of nations in the Bible until Genesis 10. God’s ideal was Genesis 1–2: man and woman enjoying communion with God and each other in the garden-temple of Eden, meant to be fruitful and multiply and cultivate the earth.

The sin of Genesis 3 spoiled what God called “good.” Chapters 4–9 record the aftermath. It’s ugly. One generation after the next descends further into sinful rebellion. These chapters remind us how humanity’s tendency is not toward moral progression but regression.

Notice how nations form after sin enters the world. They are a post-fall, post-flood innovation. Why nations? Two words: human sinfulness.

Genesis 11:1–9 records the Tower of Babel account, explaining where the nations listed in Genesis 10 came from. It’s relatively short, worth citing in full here.

“Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.” (Gen. 11:1–9)

Babel is the fountainhead from which all the nations of the earth spring.

In his commentary on Babel, Geehardus Vos (1862–1949) explains how sin makes the concentration of power dangerous. “If the whole humanity had remained concentrated, the power of sin would likewise have remained united, and doubtless soon again have reached stupendous portions.”1

So nations are the product of God’s judgment on sin. But they’re also evidence of God’s mercy on sinners. Nationalism dilutes and disperses human sinfulness. One reason humanity is not as bad as we could be is because of nations. In His wisdom, God has opted not to concentrate depraved humanity’s power but to scatter it.

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Vos concludes that nations are now a permanent feature of God’s plan. Obliterating national distinctions is sin. “Nationalism, within proper limits, has the divine sanction; an imperialism that would, in the interest of one people, obliterate all lines of distinction is everywhere condemned as contrary to the divine will.”2

God Judges Nations for Their Sins

After Babel, Israel comes into focus as God’s chosen nation. Through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, God will bless all the nations (Gen. 12:1–3). God raised up priests to mediate His blessings to Israel, kings to rule over Israel, and prophets to declare His Word to Israel.

Though the prophets’ focus was on national Israel, they also denounced the nations of the world. God used His prophets as a rod of judgment against the nations scattered from Babel. Consider a few examples.

Isaiah condemned the exploitive, abusive power of the following nations: Babylon, Philistia, Moab, Syria, Egypt, Edom, Arabia, and Tyre (Isa. 13:1–23:18). Jeremiah promised disaster for “all the nations” because of their bloodthirsty iniquity: Egypt, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, Ashdod, Edom, Moab, Tyre, Dison, Dedan, Tema, Buz, Arabia, Zimri, Elam, Media, and Babylon (Jer. 25:1–29).

Perhaps more familiar is Jonah, who God commissioned as a missionary-prophet to preach repentance against Ninevah, the capital city of the Assyrian Empire. Assyria’s sin was one of violent oppression. Indeed, Assyria was the world’s first empire. They did not heed the warning of Babel from Genesis 11. They aimed to take over the world, overthrowing God’s righteous rule and eradicating national distinctions.

The prophets teach us that God will not tolerate sins committed at the national level.

Christians Must Disciple the Nations

Turn the page to the New Testament and Jesus, Israel’s God incarnate, proclaims a prophetic message: “The kingdom of God”—a new kind of nation!—“is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).

Following His death and resurrection, Jesus sends the apostles to the nations:

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt. 28:19–20)

The word for “nations” is ethnos. It means “a multitude of people of the same nature or genus; a nation, people.”3 The point is that national distinctions are not done away with in the new covenant era. The Gospel is meant to take root within the nations of the world, like a tiny mustard seed that grows into a towering tree.

Acts records the Great Commission’s aftermath. The Gospel went to the nations. Beginning in Judea and reaching possibly as far west as Spain by 70 AD, Christianity spread like wildfire in the first century. Paul could say the Gospel had reached “the whole world” by the time he wrote Colossians (1:6).

One way obeying the command to disciple the nations unfolds today is in frontier missions: men and women proclaiming the good news about Jesus where it has not yet gone.

Nations Endure into Eternity

Finally, it is worth noting that nations endure into eternity. In the heavenly vision of Revelation 7, which is a glimpse into the eternal state, we find the nations worshipping as nations:

“After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands.” (Rev. 7:9)

In eternity, Christians will be united not by dropping national distinctions but by worshipping the crucified and risen Lord Jesus. Ever since Babel, nations must endure.

Heavenly Citizenship, National Borders

“Our citizenship is in heaven,” Paul reminds the church in Philippi, “and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil. 3:20). We must not take this verse to mean national distinctions, sovereign states, and different cultures are contrary to the Christian message. Paul himself was a full-fledged Roman citizen, even asserting his national rights in court on one occasion (Acts 22:22–29).

Keeping the entire biblical story in mind—from Babel to new creation—we understand national distinctions are important, though not ultimate. Christians are Christians first and national citizens second. Both, in that order.

God’s purpose for redeemed humanity is eternal heaven, where one day all the nations will worship side-by-side with one voice in many languages. This is not a return to Babel but the promise of a new city altogether: the City of God, the heavenly Jerusalem (Heb. 12:22).

What a glorious thought!

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In 1994, a small but prominent group of leaders from Protestant and Catholic backgrounds drafted the Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) statement.1

The aim was unity: bridging the doctrinal chasm that separates Evangelical Protestants from Roman Catholic Christians.2 And this unity was for the purpose of witness. By focusing on what they had in common, the two could accomplish more together than apart, so the thinking went.

ECT’s opening lines read:

“As the Second Millennium draws to a close, the Christian mission in world history faces a moment of daunting opportunity and responsibility. If in the merciful and mysterious ways of God the Second Coming is delayed, we enter upon a Third Millennium that could be, in the words of John Paul II, ‘a springtime of world missions.’ As Christ is one, so the Christian mission is one.”

The desire for unity is good. Jesus urged His disciples to love one another so the world would know they belong to Him (John 13:35). He prayed that His church would be “perfectly one,” even as He and the Father are one (John 17:20–23). Unity among believers was a frequent theme in Paul’s letters. Christians are baptized into one body (1 Cor. 12:13), have access to the Father by one Spirit (Eph. 2:18), and believe one Gospel (Phil. 1:27).

Protestants and Catholics share some basic convictions. Together, we affirm the Apostles’ Creed, the Nicene Creed, and the Definition of Chalcedon. We agree on a number of critical worldview issues: a common morality rooted in Judeo-Christian values, the sanctity of life from womb to tomb, the immutability of gender as male and female, marriage as a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, a shared appreciation for Western culture, the foundational roles of church and family in society, and so on.

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But there is a limiting factor to our unity: the truth. Christians must not unite if it means sacrificing truth. The church is “a pillar and buttress of truth” (1 Tim. 3:15). Jesus prayed not only for a united church, but for a holy church anchored in the truth (John 17:17).

Uniting at the expense of truth is like removing a load bearing wall in your house. Appearing stable, the structure’s integrity is actually compromised. And eventually it will collapse. Truth is the load bearing wall in faithful Christian witness.

So what beliefs divide Evangelicals and Catholics? The two most fundamental differences are over matters of authority in the church and the relationship between faith and works in salvation.

Authority

Who or what has final ruling authority over the Christian? Protestants answer, “Christ in His Word.” Catholics answer, “Christ in His Word, together with Church Tradition and the Pope and bishops.”

Protestants teach one foundation for authority: Scripture alone. Rome teaches a threefold foundation for authority. Picture a three-legged stool, each leg an essential part in holding up the truth: Holy Scripture (Old and New Testaments plus the Deuterocanon/Apocrypha), Sacred Tradition (post-apostolic church teachings), and Magisterium (Pope and bishops).

The Second Vatican Council (1965) enshrined this view of authority as doctrine. In a document called Dei Verbum (Latin for “Word of God”), Pope Paul VI described the three-legged stool:

“It is clear, therefore, that sacred tradition, Sacred Scripture and the teaching authority of the Church, in accord with God's most wise design, are so linked and joined together that one cannot stand without the others, and that all together and each in its own way under the action of the one Holy Spirit contribute effectively to the salvation of souls.”

Take one leg away, says Rome, and the stool collapses.

That’s an awfully fragile conception of divine authority, its implications inevitably producing too low a view of Scripture. The sixteenth-century Cardinal Stanislaus Hosius is on record saying, “The Scriptures have only as much force as the fables of Aesop, if destitute of the authority of the Church.”

Meanwhile, God says through the prophet Isaiah, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever” (40:8). And Peter quotes the same prophecy in his letter: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever” (1 Peter 1:24).

Basically, Rome confuses the relationship between the Word of God and the people of God.3 Catholics believe Tradition and the Magisterium give Holy Scripture its shape and authority. Protestants reject that view. Scripture is inherently authoritative since it comes from the Sovereign Lord. God’s Word forms God’s people; God’s people do not form God’s Word.

When Protestants affirm the authority of Scripture alone, we do not mean Scripture only. Scripture is the Christian’s highest and final authority, not his only authority. Do Protestants value tradition? Yes, insofar as the historic creeds, confessions, and councils are biblical. Do Protestants submit to the teachings of their church leaders? Yes, insofar as what they’re teaching is biblical. Tradition and pastoral teaching have ruling authority only when they come under the authority of God’s written Word. Scripture is the ruling rule.

The Belgic Confession (1561) helpfully summarizes the Protestant view:

“Therefore we must not consider human writings—no matter how holy their authors may have been—equal to the divine writings; nor may we put custom, nor the majority, nor age, nor the passage of time or persons, nor councils, decrees, or official decisions above the truth of God, for truth is above everything else. For all human beings are liars by nature and more vain than vanity itself. Therefore we reject with all our hearts everything that does not agree with this infallible rule.”

Christ in His Word rules the church.

Faith and Works

How are people made right with God? Protestants answer, “By faith in Christ alone.” Catholics answer, “By faith in Christ and by works of merit.” One word makes all the difference: is it by faith alone or faith and? This issue was central to the Protestant Reformation and produced the sharpest division in Christianity in the last five hundred years.

Rome maintains that good works are part of the sinner’s basis for salvation at the final judgment. Paragraph 2027 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church says,

“No one can merit the initial grace which is at the origin of conversion. Moved by the Holy Spirit, we can merit for ourselves and for others all the graces needed to attain eternal life, as well as necessary temporal goods.”

The Catholic Church’s official teaching goes further. Christians must not only merit grace for eternal life, but they must also reject the doctrine of justification (right-standing before God) by faith alone. The Council of Trent (1545–1563) famously condemned any Christian who affirmed salvation by faith alone:

“If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema.” (Session 6, Canon IX)

“If any one saith, that men are justified, either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of the grace and the charity which is poured forth in their hearts by the Holy Ghost, and is inherent in them; or even that the grace, whereby we are justified, is only the favour of God; let him be anathema.” (Session 6, Canon XI)

When asked, Why can’t Catholics and Protestants be more united? I point to these authoritative (for the Catholic) anathemas issued at Trent.

To be pronounced anathema is to be condemned to hell. When Rome anathematized justification by faith alone and by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness alone, they actually anathematized the Gospel—the good news that it is by “grace you have been saved through faith … not a result of works” (Eph. 2:8–9).

The Catholic teaching confuses the relationship between salvation’s root and its fruit. Faith is the root of salvation. Good works are the fruit of salvation. Faith is the instrument in our justification; works belong to the realm of sanctification.

This is James’ point in James 2:24: “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.” James writes to refute the notion that Christians can profess saving faith and remain unchanged in how they live. Martin Luther aptly said, “We are saved by faith alone, but that faith does not remain alone.”

From the well of saving faith springs good works. In this sense, works “justify” a person: not by making us righteous, but by showing we have been made righteous by faith in Christ. The doctrine of justification through faith alone is at the heart of the Gospel and is everywhere in the New Testament.

John 6:29: “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Romans 4:5: “And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”

Galatians 2:16b: “So we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.”

Faith in Christ alone makes a person right with God.

Clarity and Charity

Can Evangelicals and Catholics really be “together?” Not on matters of authority and justification by faith—two doctrines that touch the very marrow of Christian belief.

But I do think we can proceed with clarity on our doctrinal positions while showing genuine charity toward one another.

Clarity

Truth limits Protestant and Catholic unity. May we cooperate on social issues? Absolutely. Though I’m not sure how we can be together on matters of missions and evangelism, as the ECT document suggests.

Think about how our doctrinal differences play out. Both Protestants and Catholics send missionaries to unreached people groups. When they establish churches there, are those churches under the Pope’s authority or under the authority of Christ in His Word? Catholics answer with the former, Protestants the latter.

Or take evangelism as another example. When sharing the good news with an unbeliever, is the message, “Believe in Christ and practice penance to obtain eternal life,” or is it, “Repent and believe in Christ and you will be saved”? Catholics say the former, Protestants the latter.

Charity

Though Rome’s official church teaching undermines the core doctrines of Christianity, no doubt there are true Christians in the Roman Catholic Church. But they are saved despite what their church teaches, not because of it.

Knowing this, we have an obligation to treat our brothers and sisters in other traditions with charity, or genuine love. I’m talking about the kind of love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Cor. 13:7). This means giving your Roman Catholic friend the benefit of the doubt and not the deficit of the doubt. It means putting trust in the relationship gap, not cynical skepticism. It’s possible he is ignorant to what his church actually teaches on these issues.

The division between Evangelicals and Catholics reminds us that even the purest churches contain a mixture of truth and error on this side of eternity. For now, we see in a mirror dimly. One day we will see Christ face to face. And on that day we really will be one.

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The history of the world is a history of nations at war.

The great empires rose and fell on account of war: Assyria, Babylon, Persia, the Greeks, and Rome. The modern war era brings to mind the American Civil War (1861–65), the Great War (1914–18), and the Second World War (1939–45). Today’s news headlines center on the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Hamas and Israel, and the American-Israeli war on Iran.

It raises the question: How should Christians think about war?

In his 2026 Palm Sunday address, Pope Leo XIV said God rejects war: “Brothers and sisters, this is our God: Jesus, King of Peace, who rejects war, whom no one can use to justify war.” Christians are not those who delight in bloodshed. But it doesn’t follow that God rejects war.

Leo continued, “He does not listen to the prayers of those who wage war, but rejects them, saying: ‘Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen: your hands are full of blood.’” Respectfully, this is an ignorant statement. What about men like Moses, Joshua, Gideon, and David in the Old Testament?1 These were men of war in whom God delighted. God heard and answered their prayers.

In this article, I outline what I think is a better way for Christians to think about war.

Two Christian Positions

Christians rally into two camps on the matter: Pacifism (war is never justified) and Just War (some wars are justified). Both positions have ample biblical support and aim to apply Christ’s lordship to the geopolitical sphere. Faithful Christians may hold either and be well within the boundaries of orthodoxy. These are not issues over which churches need to divide.

Let’s define our terms.2

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Pacifists are against killing and therefore against war. Christian pacifists distinguish between the rights of believers and unbelievers: violence is never permissible for Christians, though unbelievers may resort to killing in certain instances, like in war.

Just War is the position that some wars cannot be avoided and can be conducted in a just way. Like the Pacifist position, Just War proponents say war is bad. Just War goes a step further, however, in arguing for the occasional necessity and rightness of war for both Christians and unbelievers alike.

For war to be just, certain criteria must be met for the right to go to war and for the right conduct of war.

Criteria for Going to War

1. There must be a legitimate authority who declares war, like the President together with Congress in the United States.

2. War must be the last resort and for a just cause—namely, peace.

3. There must be a reasonable hope of success.

4. There must be proportionality between the desired outcome and the destruction involved in achieving it.

Criteria for the Right Conduct of War

1. The immediate objective is not to kill but to incapacitate or restrain enemies.

2. Direct attack on civilians is illegitimate.

3. Soldiers must not inflict unnecessary suffering.

4. Indirect effects upon civilians must be justified by the principle of proportionality.

I am persuaded the Just War position best accounts for the biblical data. War is not a moral good, but can be demonstrably just and is sometimes necessary for restoring peace or avoiding greater evil.

Saint Augustine, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Wartime Theology

We aren’t the first Christians to think about war. Church history is a valuable guide for modern times.

Two theologians have especially helped me on the issue: the African theologian Saint Augustine (354–430 AD) and the World War II-era German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945). God raised these men up during pivotal points in world history. Augustine, who witnessed the collapse of the Roman Empire; Bonhoeffer, who endured the terror of the Nazi regime and was executed by Hitler’s direct order at Flossenbürg concentration camp weeks before the war ended in 1945.

Below are four principles that represent the best of their thinking on war: two from Augustine’s City of God and two from Bonhoeffer’s Ethics.

War is a lamentable necessity because we live in a fallen world.

Augustine describes war as miserable, even when just.3 There was much good that came from the Roman Empire’s conquests: a common language, modern infrastructure, prosperity, and peace. Still, Augustine grieves the means used to achieve those ends. “Consider the scale of those wars, with all the slaughter of human beings, all the human blood that was shed!” He continues,

“But the wise man, they say, will wage just wars. Surely, if he remembers that he is a human being, he will rather lament the fact that he is faced with the necessity of waging just wars; for if they were not just, he would not have to engage in them, and consequently there would be no wars for a wise man. For it is the injustice of the opposing side that lays on the wise man the duty of waging wars.”

Peace must be the desired end of war.

Peace is the instinctive aim of all creatures and the desired end of all wars.4 Augustine writes,

“Just as there is no man who does not wish for joy, so there is no man who does not wish for peace. Indeed, even when men choose war, their only wish is for victory; which shows that their desire in fighting is for peace with glory. For what is victory but the conquest of the opposing side? And when this is achieved, there will be peace … Hence it is an established fact that peace is the desired end of war.”

But what is true peace? Augustine defines peace as “a fellowship of equality under God.” He is not so much talking about waging wars in God’s name as he is arguing for the necessity of fighting principled, just wars.

The wicked, in their pride, wage unjust wars because they have no standard by which to measure right and wrong. They cannot objectively distinguish the orderly from the perverted.

Let’s say an Islamist militant group declared war on a Western country. The group’s aim would be peace. But Augustine would not regard their definition of peace as true peace, for their victory would not mean a fellowship of equality under the true God’s divine standard.

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Nations must never engage in ‘total wars.’

Bonhoeffer compares the wars of the pre-Christian world to those in the Christian West.5 He argues that the Christian ethic revolutionized modern warfare for the good. These “Western wars” are demonstrably better than those pre-Christian “total wars.”

“They are not wars of extermination and annihilation as in pre-Christian times and as are still possible in the Asian region; they are, therefore, as long as they intend to be Western, never total wars. Total war uses every conceivable means toward the end of national self-preservation. Everything is right and permitted that serves the cause of one’s own people. Western War has always distinguished between what is permitted and prohibited, between just and criminal means of warfare.”

What caused this move from barbarism in ancient warfare to respect for persons in modern warfare? Faith in Christ and fear of God. Bonhoeffer continues,

“The renunciation of perhaps effective but criminal means—killing of innocents, torture, extortion, and so on—was possible on the basis of faith in a just divine rule of the world.”

Arbitrary killing is not the same as war, and natural law forbids the deliberate killing of innocent life.

Where there is no acknowledgement of divine law, nations descend into chaos—especially in wartime. But why shouldn’t militaries use any means necessary to defeat the opposing side? Because this would involve arbitrary killing, the deliberate taking of innocent life.

Bonhoeffer grounds his sense of right and wrong in the biblical idea of a universal “right of natural life.” Certain forms of wartime killing are just—not morally good or praiseworthy, but just:

“The first right of natural life is the protection of bodily life from arbitrary killing … The killing of an enemy in war is not arbitrary; for even if the enemy is not personally guilty, the enemy still consciously takes part in the attack of another people on the life of my people and must therefore share the consequences of bearing the common guilt. The killing of a criminal who has encroached on another life is, of course, not arbitrary. Nor is the killing of civilians in war arbitrary when it is not directly intended, but is only the unfortunate result of a necessary military action.”6

In war, killing enemy combatants and criminals is lamentable but just. Unacceptable forms of killing include taking the lives of defenseless prisoners, the wounded, and the innocent.

An Everlasting War

Christians long for the day when war will cease. Peace will reign in the City of God, where our citizenship is at present (Phil. 3:20). For believers, war is merely a temporary feature of this fallen world.

But that is not true for unbelievers. This war-torn world is as close to heaven as they will ever get. The bloody wars today are but a foreshadowing of the everlasting war that awaits the wicked, says Augustine. Only that war will not be waged between nations. Far worse. It will be a war within the wicked person himself, a never-ending conflict between body and soul in Hell.

“But in that other life, pain continues to torment, while nature lasts to feel the pain. Neither ceases to exist, lest the punishment also should cease. These, then, are the final states of good and evil. The first we should seek to attain, the latter we should strive to escape.”7

The only way a person can escape the everlasting war to come is by repentance and faith in Christ, who defeated death and opened heaven through His cross and empty tomb.

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Earlier this year, I visited Scotland and England. The trip was for work and some play. When I wasn’t meeting with area pastors, my wife and I enjoyed the free time. We drank tea from the tea makers that supply the Royal Family, stopped by the coffeeshop where J. K. Rowling wrote Harry Potter, snapped pictures in front of Westminster Abbey, stood in John Newton’s vestry, saw the Magna Carta displayed at the British Library, ate fish and chips with mushy peas, and so on.

For work, my colleague Steve and I went to establish partnerships between Converge Heartland—the Baptist network of which the church I pastor is a part—and AT-3, an alliance based in the UK meant to train pastors and Christian workers. We started in the Highlands of Scotland and ended the trip in London. We visited four cities: Inverness and Edinburgh in Scotland and Birmingham and London in England.

Here are three observations from my time overseas and what I think American Christians can learn from churches in the UK.

The Church really is one people over all the earth.

On our first Sunday there, we worshipped with Living Hope Church in Inverness, Scotland. They are a ten-year-old church plant, leasing a gymnasium while renovating their permanent home down the road. Of course there were cultural differences between our church stateside and theirs. What we call “upcoming events” they refer to as “what’s on”, members preferred pre-service tea to coffee, and everybody had thick Scottish accents.

But we did not feel like outsiders. That’s because the members at Living Hope were our Christian family.

They welcomed us in immediately. We sang familiar hymns. Pastor Pete preached verse by verse from John’s Gospel. We prayed for the conversion of the lost in Inverness. We shared the Lord’s Supper together. The next morning, we ate breakfast with their elder team at a local garden centre, dreaming together about mentoring a new generation of ministers to start Gospel-centered churches in Scotland, in America, and around the world.

Cultural differences for the Christian are not unimportant; they just aren’t ultimate. The Nicene Creed confesses belief in “one holy catholic [universal] and apostolic church.” Jesus prayed in John 17 that His church would be one, our unity a reflection of the mutual indwelling of the Father in the Son and the Son in the Father (vv. 20–23).

Living Hope in Scotland was as much an outpost of heaven as our local churches are in America. And one day we will stand side by side with our brothers and sisters from Inverness in heaven. We are scattered all over today, but not forever.

Churches in Scotland are experiencing a crisis of leadership.

The average age of Evangelical ministers in the UK tips the scales at over 50 years old. Fewer and fewer young men are training for the ministry. One pastor we met in Inverness is nearing retirement age, expressing concern for who will take the helm.

The main recruiting pool is within the Church of Scotland, the country’s most influential denomination. But the pastor told us how that denomination is in a state of moral decline, its seminaries and top leadership infected with the cancer of theological liberalism. The last thing this pastor wants for his flock is to call a young preacher in who denies the essential doctrines of the Christian faith.

Aging ministers, few aspiring ministers, and an influential denomination descending into liberalism—what he described is a national crisis of church leadership.

The US faces a similar challenge, though not as dire. While the average age for American clergy is over 50 years old, we have no shortage of young men aspiring to pastoral ministry. Enrollment in conservative evangelical seminaries is up year over year. In our church alone we have eight men under the age of 24 who have expressed interest in vocational ministry.

What if we sent some of our young men to train for ministry in Scotland? The churches there could use the extra set of hands, and our guys could gain invaluable experience apprenticing in a post-Christian context. These are the conversations I’m having with the elders in my church, in Converge Heartland, and with AT-3.

British churches grow primarily by conversion growth, not transfer growth.

While just under a quarter of the US population identifies as Protestant evangelical (23%), the UK is one-third of that at only 7.5% evangelical. (To be evangelical is simply to affirm the Christian basics: the authority of Scripture, Christ’s death for the forgiveness of sins, and the necessity of repentance and faith in Jesus for salvation.)

American churches, especially in the south and midwest, grow relatively quickly. There are enough professing Christians in these areas to fill pews. New churches that start often experience the “transfer growth” phenomenon—rather than growing their membership primarily by conversions and baptisms, they grow by established Christians transferring from one church to the other. I’ll leave evaluating the merit of transfer versus conversion growth for another time. My point is that British churches grow almost entirely by conversions and not by membership transfers.

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Churches in Britain have to grow this way because the days of cultural Christianity are long gone. The result is that churches are typically smaller. Two hundred people is a large church in Scotland. Even in the Birmingham, England metro, a city of three million, many of the large Protestant churches number in the hundreds. But what these churches lack in size they make up for in evangelism. The pastors and members are highly evangelistic, eager to share the Gospel with anyone anywhere so people can be reconciled to God.

Visiting these small but evangelistically sharp churches reminded me of how church health matters more than church size. Rather than asking, How big can our church get?, we should ask, How healthy can our church be?

Preach the Gospel. Love one another. Make strong disciples. Evangelize the lost. Send missionaries to the ends of the earth. These are the meaningful metrics.

“Give Me Scotland or I Die!”

John Knox (1514–1572), the great Reformer who reintroduced the Gospel to Scotland, prayed a bold prayer: “Lord, give me Scotland or I die!” He asked big things of God and expected great things from God. He labored for nothing short of a revival of true religion among the Scots. The legacy of faithfulness he left behind still fuels many of the men I spoke to who minister in Scotland today.

To be sure, there remains a lot of work to do, both in the UK and in the States. Let’s pray bold prayers. Let’s make strong disciples. Let’s build healthy churches centered on proclaiming Christ as Lord over all things. We do not labor alone.

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On March 18, 2026, the House of Lords voted 185-148 to decriminalize abortion up to the point of birth. We will think together about the tragic decision and its worldview implications.

The House of Lords and Its Function

What is the House of Lords? To understand the significance of this decision, we should have a basic knowledge of how the UK is governed.

The UK is a constitutional monarchy. Constitutional in that the leaders are beneath the written law; monarchy in that they have a sitting monarch, or a royal family. It is a very old government, dating back to the 1300s. The late Prime Minister Winston Churchill praised his government’s structure for its great stability.1 Though stable, it is not immune to moral decline, as the recent vote proved.

The Crown has checks and balances in the Parliament, consisting of two chambers: a lower chamber and an upper chamber. The lower chamber is the House of Commons, its members called “MPs”. The upper chamber is the House of Lords, its members called “peers.”2 In this way, the UK Parliament mirrors our US Congress, which also has a lower chamber (House of Representatives) and an upper chamber (Senate) to balance the President’s powers.

The House of Commons and the House of Lords are similar in function, though they operate independent of one another. Their primary task is to examine and then vote on proposed legislation.

Unlike the US Senate, which has one hundred members—two from each of the fifty states—the House of Lords fluctuates in number as members leave and join. Today, there are over 800 peers in the House of Lords, making it the second largest governing chamber in the world, second only to China’s National People’s Congress.3 I emphasize this point simply because when the House of Lords makes a decision, it is no inconsequential decision. They are a massive, influential governing body on the global stage. When they pass a bill, we can be sure the world is watching.

The Details of the Decision

The House of Lords’ decision was a vote to affirm Labour MP Tonia Antoniazzi’s bid to end police investigations into abortions at any stage of gestation, or up to the point of birth.4 This vote did not affect the current abortion laws in the UK. Current law permits abortions for most any reason up to 24 weeks.5 Pro-choice advocates think the law is too restrictive; pro-life Christians think it is too radical.

Interestingly, even the progressive-leaning Archbishop of Canterbury, who is head of the Church of England, expressed her concerns on the decision: “Though its intention may not be to change the 24 week abortion limit, it undoubtedly risks eroding the safeguards and enforcement of those legal limits and inadvertently undermining the value of human life.”6

While decriminalizing abortion is the presenting issue in the vote, it is not the real issue. UK prosecutions for abortions are few and far between while abortion numbers continue to skyrocket. In recent years, the UK has prosecuted just over 100 abortion-related cases. That is a low number relative to the over 300,000 abortions that occur every year in the UK.7 So prosecution poses little to no threat to abortion access. Parliament’s move to decriminalize abortion is nothing but a trojan horse for introducing more radical legislation down the road.

A Few Worldview Implications

Supporters of the House of Lords’ decision view it as heroic, finally freeing a new generation of women from the restrictive legislation of the past. For example, Karen Wright, a director of Humanists UK, called the decision a “landmark victory for bodily autonomy and compassion.”8

But Christians realize this decision is devastating for people living in the UK, women especially. This is not progression but regression, morally speaking. Human life is sacred from womb to tomb. The right to take that life at any point in gestation—whether up to 24 weeks at a doctor’s office or to the point of birth at home—is not ours to begin with. To speak of abortion “rights” is fundamentally inconsistent with the Christian worldview.

Further, Christians in America should note how this decision is part of a larger global trend toward looser abortion laws, not stricter ones.9 Global data shows that at least 60 countries or territories have broadened their abortion laws since 1996. Countries like Ireland, France, Luxembourg, and New Zealand have recently increased abortion access by removing Constitutional rights to prenatal life or by adding an explicit right to abortion.

In God’s providence, the United States is one of the few outliers in this trend. The Dobbs decision (2022) overturned Roe, removing the federal right to abortion. While the world is moving toward wider abortion access, America, at least for now, is not. American Christians still have a lot of work to do in the fight for life. But we thank God for the mercy He has shown our nation in recent years.

Finally, Parliament’s decision to decriminalize abortion reminds us how we are living in a Romans 1 world. Paul explains how moral revolutions are evidence of God’s judgment on a people. When a nation patently rejects God’s creation order design, God gives “them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves” (Rom. 1:24). Dishonoring their bodies, made in God’s image, though marred by sin. That’s exactly what’s going on in our world, isn’t it?

The trends are disheartening to be sure. But we are not to be navel-gazing Christians. We must think clearly about these issues so we can act wisely on them, honoring Christ as Lord in every place and at all times.

Perhaps you would join me in praying for Christ’s lordship to be established and acknowledged in the UK, in America, and in the world.

“He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.” (1 Tim. 6:15–16)

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What are your views on Israel?

Two of our newest church members asked me that question before joining the church. It’s a good question, probably prompted by the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip. On October 7, 2023, the Islamic terrorist group Hamas attacked the state of Israel, killing over one thousand Israelis and taking hundreds hostage. This initial attack led to counterattacks, the two groups now fighting fire with fire.

Though the war is over the rights to a relatively small strip of land, it has earned a spot on the global stage. From weekly pro-Palestinian demonstrations in London to prayer vigils held for Israel in the rural United States, the world has on its radar the Gaza conflict—and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere anytime soon.

The conflict in this region is centuries old, perhaps dating back to biblical times. Conflicts involving Israel are of particular interest to Christians. National Israel played a special role in the Old Testament. Abraham’s family was the vessel for God’s promises. God called them His treasured possession in Exodus 19. The Lord Jesus even came from Israel. Describing the privileges Israel enjoyed in the Old Testament, the apostle Paul wrote,

“They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom. 9:4–5)

As with any issue, we need to get our definitions straight if we wish to think clearly about it. Confusion surrounding Israel today stems in large part from a fuzzy understanding of what we mean by Israel. It can refer to three different entities. Let’s define them, and then I will offer a way forward for how Christians can think Christianly about Israel today.

The State of Israel

Established three years after the Second World War on May 14, 1948, this is the modern nation of Israel. The horrors of the Holocaust led much of the world to sympathize with the Jewish people, desiring for them a sovereign nation with all the rights and privileges of nationhood: government, borders, land, and so on. On the same day the state formed, U.S. President Harry Truman publicly recognized its nationhood, being among the first world leaders to do so.1

The United States’ early support for Israel is a key reason why many Americans still support them today. Further, Israel is a key ally for America in the Middle East. As theologian Stephen Wellum has pointed out, Israel is one of the few nations in the Middle East that upholds Western values like democracy, freedom, and basic human rights.2 Christians may vary widely on exactly what support for the state of Israel should look like today, but all things considered, an American-Israeli alliance is a good thing. More on that later.

Ethnic Israel

Ethnic Israel are those who are born Jewish. They can trace their lineage back to Abraham in the Bible. Ethnic Israel is not the state of Israel, though over seven million Jews live within Israel’s borders. Millions also live elsewhere. As of 2022, the United States is home to more ethnic Jews than Israel: 7.3 million.3 France’s Jewish population is 440,000, followed by Canada at 390,000 and the United Kingdom at 290,000.

Jews by birth may or may not follow religious Judaism. Because Jewishness is both an ethnicity and a religion, we must carefully differentiate the two. Not all Jews by birth are religiously Jewish. Like how America has many cultural Christians—people who identify as Christian without practicing the religion—so ethnically Jewish communities have plenty of cultural Jews.

Spiritual Israel

Christians need to account for a third use of the word Israel. The Bible speaks not just of ethnic Israelites but of spiritual Israel: Jews and Gentiles who receive Jesus as Savior and Lord. For example, the Old Testament distinguishes between faithful and unfaithful Jews in the Israelite community. One could belong to the community by participating in the religious ceremonies while being far from God in heart.

The prophets Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel all talk about spiritual Israel as the remnant: a small portion of believing Jews within the larger community of ethnic Israelites (1 Kings 19:18; Isa. 10:20–22; Jer. 50:20; Ezek. 6:8). Though they lived before the time of Jesus, those belonging to spiritual Israel were made right with God like how anybody today is made right with God: by grace through faith in the promises of God, culminating in the person and work of God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

The New Testament also speaks of spiritual Israel. Writing in Romans 9, Paul differentiates ethnic Israel from true Israel based on whether or not they receive Jesus as the promised Messiah:

“For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but ‘Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.’ This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” (Rom. 9:6b–8)

Spiritual Israel is the church, comprised of Jews and Gentiles united to Christ by faith (Eph. 2:11–22). Paul calls the Galatian Christians “the Israel of God” (6:16). Peter tells his Christian readers they are God’s “chosen race” and “holy nation”—Old Testament Israel terminology applied now to the church (1 Peter 2:9).

The church has not replaced Israel in the sense that God kicked Israel to the curb and started over with the church in the New Testament. Instead, Scripture testifies to one people of God throughout history, culminating in the sending of Jesus to live, die, and rise to unite sinners—Jew and Gentile alike—to His body, the church. Jesus is the true Israelite, the head of the new covenant. Old Testament Israel reaches her fullest and truest expression in Christ and His church. Jews by birth are never more true to their lineage than when they receive Jesus as the promised Messiah and Savior of the world.

A Way Forward

So there are three kinds of Israel: the state of Israel, founded in 1948; ethnic Israel, men and women of Jewish descent; and then spiritual Israel, Jews and Gentiles who by faith in Jesus are welcomed into the one people of God, the church.

With these definitions in place, here are a few ways Christians can think Christianly about Israel.

First, if you are in Christ by faith, you belong to God’s new covenant community, the church. God’s Son tore down the “dividing wall of hostility” when He died for sinners (Eph. 2:14). The church is not defined along ethnic lines. Jew and Gentile are both made one in the Lord Jesus. Members of the new covenant are those from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. This was God’s purpose from the beginning, for Abram was blessed to bless the nations of the world (Gen. 12:1–3).

Faith in Jesus is the true fulfillment of God’s promise to Abram. In Christ are the promised blessings for the world. Those in Him by faith are the Israel of God, woven into the fabric of the one people of God. Because the Old Testament anticipates and finds its fulfillment in Jesus, the story of Israel is the Christian’s family history. It is Christian Scripture as much as the New Testament is Christian Scripture.4

Second, ethnic Jews need the Gospel if they are to enter into eternal life. In 2019, I interviewed a local Orthodox Jewish rabbi to learn about Judaism. “What are the core teachings of your religion?”, I asked. “Teshuvah (return) and mitzvah (commandment)”, he replied. To be right with God, he explained, everyone has to return to one’s true self through repentance and then turn to the biblical law for righteous instruction. Return to ourselves, turn to the law. That is not good news. Having the appearance of wisdom, there is no power in that religious economy to cut out the cancer of sin. Only the Gospel is God’s power for salvation (Rom. 1:16–17).

The Bible teaches that repentance is turning from sin for forgiveness, inward refreshing, and cleansing by the blood of Jesus (Luke 3:3; Acts 3:19–20; 1 John 1:7–9). And turning from sin, we don’t then turn to the law—which condemns!—but to Christ, who fulfilled the law and died to forgive law-breakers. True righteousness is found in turning to Christ, not the law. The law was never meant to save but to point to the one who does. The law functions as both a mirror and a magnifying glass: a mirror, revealing man’s sin; a magnifying glass, revealing God’s perfection. By union with God’s Son, sinners are declared righteous. They are forgiven, cleansed, made new, and gain entrance into eternal life. Jesus alone, not the law that anticipated Him, does that.

So we pray for ethnic Jews to see and savor Christ.

Finally, support for the state of Israel today is both warranted and wise. Even though the modern state of Israel is not spiritual Israel, it is right for American Christians to seek their welfare.

I pray frequently for the government in Israel. Not because Prime Minister Netanyahu is God’s anointed king like David or Hezekiah was but because Paul instructs Christians to pray for governing officials in 1 Timothy 2. I wish to see Israel established and enjoying peace within its borders. Not because I think the founding of the state in 1948 fulfilled Old Testament promises concerning land or the rebuilt temple—those things were fulfilled in the Lord Jesus and in the church—but because Israel is a sovereign nation with the rights to govern itself, defend itself, and protect its borders.

A Great, Mysterious Salvation

The Israel issue is a complex one, to be sure. Complexities aside, we know God will not fail in His saving purposes. From Abraham to Paul to countless ethnic Jews and Gentiles today, the arm of the Lord is not too short that it cannot save (Isa. 59:1). Wrestling with the mystery of Israel’s salvation in Romans 9–11, Paul writes,

“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

‘The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob’;
‘and this will be my covenant with them
when I take away their sins.’” (Rom. 11:25–27)

That Deliverer is Christ. He has appeared once to deal with sin. He will come again at the end of history to save His church, believing Jews and Gentiles who are eagerly waiting for Him (Heb. 9:28).

Come, Lord Jesus!

There has been a trend in the last twenty or so years of American Evangelicalism to keep politics out of the church. “Pastors must focus on the Gospel, not on politics”, so the thinking goes.

Yes, the church’s primary task is the Gospel. Ask any member in my congregation, and they will tell you how, every Sunday, the good news that Jesus lived, died, and rose for sinners is offered to all. Churches must be ruthlessly biblical and Gospel-centered, lest they drift (Heb. 2:1). However, when the Gospel intersects with a contemporary cultural-political issue, I believe it is the church’s duty to bring God’s truth to bear on that issue in either the pulpit, in the public square, or in both.

Since 2020, many churches have become more “political.” (Politics, by the way, refers to the right ordering of society under a government.) As a local church pastor, I can safely say I’ve become more politically minded in recent years. But this is not because I have a particular interest in politics. I am a theologian, not a politician. Reflecting on this change in myself and in the broader Evangelical landscape, here’s what I think happened:

Faithful churches and pastors have become more political because politics have become more theological.

Gone are the politics of the 90’s. Today’s political debates are not mainly over tax rates or the optimal size of federal government or even national debt-reduction tactics—though reducing our unfathomably ridiculous debt would not be a bad move. No, politics now makes theological claims. Our politicians have become theologians, asking (and answering!) questions that secular politics were never meant to answer: image of God issues, the sanctity of life from womb to tomb, human sexuality, national sovereignty, the relation of the secular state to the local church, and so on.

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Let’s be clear. These are not political issues. These are biblical worldview issues that politics have high-jacked.

So, should Evangelical churches keep politics out of the church? I don’t think faithful churches can, at least not in this cultural moment. Now, we must think clearly to act rightly. The church is not the state. The state is not the church. These are two separate spheres in society. And as a Christian Protestant in America, I am all for the separation of church and state. But Christ is Lord over both the church and the state, isn’t He?

Jesus Himself has entrusted the church with the keys of the kingdom—a symbol of spiritual authority in the world (Matt. 16:19). Churches exercise these keys, this spiritual authority, in the regular preaching of the Gospel inside the church and when they apply God’s truth outside the church in the public square. In short, churches have an obligation to use the keys with which they’ve been entrusted. They must proclaim Christ’s lordship over all things and in all places.

How might faithful churches, pastors, and Christians bring the Gospel to bear on the politics of our day? With caution and courage. Here is a word of wisdom from the old Scottish minister, John Murray, on the issue:

Great caution and reserve must be exercised by the church in making pronouncements regarding political affairs. We must beware of turning the pulpit into a forum for the discussion of political questions, especially a forum for political partisanship … Balance and moderation must be preserved here as elsewhere. But abuse does not rule out the obligation and the necessity of bringing the proclamation of God’s Word to bear upon every area of life and, specifically, upon that department of life concerned with civil government.1

Caution, because the church’s primary task is the Gospel. Courage, because the church must wield its spiritual authority wherever truth is at stake.

John Calvin famously quipped, “Even a dog barks when its master is attacked.” The character of our Master, the Lord Jesus, is under attack every day in the political realm. May God raise up faithful pastors who hold firm to the trustworthy word, giving instruction in sound doctrine and refuting those who contradict it (Titus 1:9). And may He raise up more men and women who speak the truth in love, not shrinking back in fear but proclaiming Christ as Lord of all (Acts 10:36; Eph. 4:15).

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Today, I signed a publishing agreement for my first book.

The working title is He Came Down from Heaven. It’s a 25-day Advent devotional about Jesus becoming a human to save us from sin.

The publisher I’m working with, 10 Publishers, is a UK-based Evangelical publishing firm that produces Gospel-centered books at a really good price. Their mission is to get as many biblical resources into as many people’s hands as possible. I couldn’t be more thrilled to work with them. And I’m thankful they believed in me enough to give the green light.

Timeline

The publishing date is set for September 2027, or two years from now. The first manuscript is due September 2026, or one year from now.

I’ll take the winter to draft the book, and then send the first draft off for revision by summer, Lord willing. And then it’s just a lot of back and forth with the copyeditor to refine the manuscript into what will hopefully be a masterpiece.

Overview

He Came Down from Heaven aims to remind believers of the fundamentals of Jesus’ incarnation in the days leading up to Christmas. The book will be theological but accessible. Pairing a line from the Nicene Creed with relevant biblical texts, each day focuses on a specific aspect of the Lord’s identity or mission.

For those who aren’t familiar, the Nicene Creed is one of the earliest Christian creeds (written in 325 AD)—kind of like your church’s statement of faith. It describes the basics of the Christian faith and unites Christians throughout history and across denominations.

The twenty-five daily devotions are separated into two parts. Part one deals with the Savior’s identity, from the first portion of the Nicene Creed:

We believe … in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
begotten from the Father before all ages,
God from God,
Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made;
of the same essence as the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven;
he became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary,
and was made human.

Part two emphasizes the Savior’s mission, from the second portion of the creed:

He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried.
The third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures.
He ascended to heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again with glory
to judge the living and the dead.
His kingdom will never end.

Prayers Appreciated

Please pray for Gospel clarity as I write. I would love for God to use this Advent devotional to save unbelievers and strengthen believers. I’ll do my part and leave the results in His hands where they belong.

Time to write a book.

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The Title Says it All

Over the past few months, I’ve been in conversation with a UK-based Christian publisher about a potential writing project. I’ve pitched a book on the doctrine of Christ. The working title is He Came Down from Heaven: Advent Devotions on the Wonder of the Incarnation.

I haven’t signed a publishing agreement, so nothing is official yet. They’ve requested some sample chapters for the publishing board to review. From there, they will decide if they want to move forward on the project. If yes, the tentative publishing date is set for late 2026.

That said, I’ll be hitting pause on my Accessible Theology publication for now. There are only twenty-four hours in a day, and I’ll need this time to focus on preaching, pastoring, and writing for the prospective book.

Stay Connected

I intend to share updates on the project as they develop through this newsletter. In the meantime, you can listen to my sermons from Ignite Church’s pulpit here. I am also a content writer with Truth For Life, where you can read various articles and study guides as they become available.

I request your prayers as this project develops. I wish for God’s will to be done and to bless the church with resources that point to Jesus. If I’m the person for the project, glory to Him! If not, still, glory to Him!

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What Jesus Is Like

John has told us a lot about what Jesus is like in the first nine chapters of his Gospel:

1. Jesus is the lamb who died to take away the sins of the world (1:29).

2. Jesus is the ladder connecting heaven with earth (1:51).

3. Jesus is the temple where God and man meet (2:19).

4. Jesus is living water, satisfying humanity’s deepest needs (4:10).

5. Jesus is bread, promising eternal life to those united to Him (6:35).

6. Jesus is light, dispelling the darkness our sin causes (8:12).

In John 10, Jesus uses two more pictures to tell us about Himself. He is “the door of the sheep” (v. 7) and “the good shepherd” (v. 11). In the first part of The Good Shepherd Discourse (10:1–10), Jesus teaches three truths.

Israel’s Shepherds Have Failed the Sheep

Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber. (John 10:1)

John 10 should be read in its context. Jesus had just healed a man born blind in the previous chapter. Rather than receive Jesus as one sent from God, the religious leaders reject Him, accusing Him of breaking the sabbath (9:16, 34). Israel’s spiritual leaders, blinded by their pride and hardened by the sin of unbelief, have failed in their task. They have not led those under their care to receive God’s Son.

In chapter 10, then, Jesus describes the failure of these leaders by using what would have been a familiar figure of speech for His listeners: a sheepfold. Picture a large area, fenced in by a stone wall, where shepherds kept their flocks.

The Pharisees are like thieves and robbers who would not enter the sheepfold by the door, but by climbing in another way. They had no business being among the sheep. They were unauthorized, intending to harm the flocks. In short, verse 1 is a parable of judgment against the Pharisees. Rather than care for God’s people, they’ve ravaged them.

Jesus was no doubt familiar with Ezekiel 34, an Old Testament prophecy against Israel’s then-failed leaders. Notice how God describes them through the prophet Ezekiel:

Thus says the Lord God: Ah, shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fat ones, but you do not feed the sheep. The weak you have not strengthened, the sick you have not healed, the injured you have not bound up, the strayed you have not brought back, the lost you have not sought, and with force and harshness you have ruled them. So they were scattered, because there was no shepherd, and they became food for all the wild beasts. My sheep were scattered; they wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. My sheep were scattered over all the face of the earth, with none to search or seek for them. (Ezekiel 34:2b–6)

The principle for us is clear. When leadership fails, everyone suffers loss. “Not many of you should become teachers,” James warns, “for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (3:1).

Jesus Enters by the Door to Care for the Sheep

But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them. (John 10:2–6)

Jesus isn’t like those abusive shepherds of verse 1.

He enters by the door because He’s authorized to care for His flock. He shows His sheep particular love, calling and knowing each one by name. Like any good shepherd does, He leads His sheep out of the fold to graze by day and leads them back into the fold to rest safely at night. Rather than drive His herd from behind, He leads with His voice from the front. No matter what might lie ahead, Christ the shepherd is one step in front.

And the sheep love their shepherd. They know their leader’s voice—its tone, inflection, and cadence. It’s a striking picture of Christ’s relationship to His church. As a shepherd leads his flock with his voice, so Christ rules His church by His Word. The question for us is whether we can recognize the voice of the Lord Jesus above all else—and recognizing it, then following it.

Jesus Is the Door of the Sheep

So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:7–10)

Jesus changes the metaphor slightly in verse 7. Now He doesn’t merely enter by the door; He is the door through which the sheep enter and find rest. The author of Hebrews develops this theme when he writes,

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, … let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. (Hebrews 10:19–20, 22)

All who use this door—the door of Christ—are saved and sustained forever. That’s verses 9–10. Jesus is the door, the passageway into eternal life. Outside of the sheepfold, we are exposed to all kinds of dangers. But in the sheepfold, we are secure with our shepherd.

Where the abusive shepherds take and take, Jesus gives and gives. Jesus gives life abundant, a word meaning to flourish. The sheep under Jesus’ care lack no good thing. They’re happy in Christ.

Christ the True and Better Shepherd

Jesus is the true and better shepherd.

He is true. All Israel’s faithful shepherds—leaders like Moses, David, Isaiah, and Daniel—find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus. And He is better. As the door of the sheep, Christ opened to us the very doors of heaven, though at a great cost to Himself. He opened up heaven by laying down His life (John 10:11).

So we say of Jesus:

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. (Psalm 23:1–3)

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The Man behind the Book

Born just before the start of the twentieth century to a Christian family in Northern Ireland, C.S. Lewis found early inspiration in his family’s grand library of books. His childhood home was filled with “authors such as Conan Doyle, E. Nesbit, Mark Twain, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.”1 These voices shaped Lewis’ successful writing career later in life. Following his mother’s death, Lewis left Christianity, becoming “an avowed atheist.”2

The two decades following his rejection of Christianity would include an immersion into the world of academic literature, an attainment of higher education at Oxford, and a conversion back to Christianity in 1930. Tolkien, who wrote The Lord of the Rings, was instrumental in Lewis’ conversion.3 From his beloved Chronicles of Narnia to works in apologetics like The Problem of Pain and Miracles, Lewis is remembered as one of the literary giants of the last two hundred years.

Summary of the Contents

The Great Divorce is a parable in which Lewis teaches on Heaven and Hell. His thesis comes in the book’s Preface:

Earth, if chosen instead of Heaven, will turn out to have been, all along, only a region of Hell: and earth, if put second to Heaven, to have been from the beginning a part of Heaven itself. (Lewis, IX)

The book begins with the Narrator in the Grey Town, boarding a bus with a few others. Aboard the flying bus, the Narrator learns more about the Grey Town from fellow passengers.

According to one, the town is constantly expanding away from the bus stop, and many historic figures in the old town are believed to be so far from the stop that they would never make it aboard the bus, even if they wanted to. As the bus came to a stop, those aboard noticed they were transparent, like ghosts.

The passengers got off the bus and saw on the horizon large, solid-bodied spirits called Solid People. These Spirits began talking with several of the Ghosts, each encouraging them to join in a journey to the distant mountains; however, most of these conversations resulted in the passengers’ retreat to the bus with hope to return to Grey Town.

In one conversation, a Spirit invited an intellectual ghost to follow him to the mountain. There, he would find the Eternal Fact, Jesus Christ. The well-studied theologian studied himself past orthodoxy, denied the offer, and returned to the bus.

Terrified of the dangers lurking around him, the Narrator ran to the bus. Before boarding, a Spirit-form George MacDonald stopped him and explained what was going on. The place they were in, said MacDonald, was the Valley of the Shadow of Life. The Grey Town was the Valley of the Shadow of Death. If anyone left the Grey Town, it would be Purgatory. But for all who stay in Grey Town, it would turn out to be Hell.

The Narrator asked MacDonald why, if the Solid People were full of love, they did not go to Grey Town to rescue the Ghosts. MacDonald responded by stating the chief pursuit of the Spirits was to move toward the mountains. They show immeasurable love, MacDonald explained, in meeting the Ghosts at the bus stop in attempt to save a few.

The remainder of the book follows a series of conversations between the Grey Town Ghosts and Spirit-Beings. MacDonald uses these conversations as lessons on eternal realities.

For example, one conversation highlights a famous artist’s retreat back to Grey Town after being told his talent will not be recognized in the Valley of the Shadow of Life. His ego was too precious to him, so he turned back.

The Narrator poses a final question to MacDonald, asking whether all beings will eventually be saved. MacDonald responds by reminding the Narrator that to be human is to be confined to Time, and it is not possible for those in Time to comprehend such eternal realities. The book concludes with the Narrator waking from a dream in his home.

My Reflections

The Great Divorce rejects the union of Heaven and Hell as one and the same, starkly distinguishing between the two eternal destinies. In this sense, Heaven and Hell are “divorced” from one another.

Perhaps the clearest statement concerning this reality appears in the Preface: “If we insist on keeping Hell (or even Earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell” (Lewis, VIII–IX).

I finished reading The Great Divorce and was left with a deeper longing for the day I will be united with Christ for all eternity. The book’s overarching message is sobering and consistent with the Scriptures: insist on Hell, and you’ll miss Heaven. God’s judgment is ultimately giving unbelieving men and women over to their fleshly desires—to those things they wanted all along (see Romans 1:18–30).

You can purchase the version of The Great Divorce I read here.

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Born Blind

Can you imagine being born blind? Becoming blind later in life is a tragedy itself. But being born into utter darkness? That’s a whole different matter. You would have no concept of sight, no images in your mind’s eye. Someone might describe to you a sunset as full of color—radiant, even. But you would have no frame of reference for those things. Hearing your parents’ voices, you wouldn’t know what they look like.

John 9 records a miracle unlike any other in the Gospels. Though Jesus encountered numerous blind men in the course of His ministry, it’s only in this chapter where He encounters a man born blind.

John has a thematic reason for including this story here. In the chapter before, Jesus claimed to be the light of the world (John 8:12). But rather than receive Him, the Jews rejected Him, even attempting to kill Him for such a claim (8:59). The light of Christ shone bright, but the Jewish leaders were blind to His glory.

Contrast that with chapter 9, where Jesus is received by a man born blind. Indeed, when the light of Christ shone before him, this man recovered his sight. John 9 is a case study in what happens when the light shines. Some, like the Jewish leaders, are blinded in their unbelief. Others, like the blind man, are made to see.

The account divides nicely into two parts: we see the restoration of the man born blind in verses 1–7, and then the investigation by the Pharisees in verses 8–17.

Restoration

Chapter 9 begins with Jesus leaving the temple and seeing a man blind from birth (v. 1). He was a beggar, unable to work (v. 8). Many assumed it was his sin or his parents’ sin that caused his ailment (v. 2). He was an outcast in society.

The disciples were among those who assumed the man was in sin. They ask, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” (v. 2). Jesus rejects both of their options and suggests a third: the man’s blindness is opportunity for a display of God’s grace and glory (v. 3).

Isn’t it true that God uses the worst of circumstances for His glory and our good? He did it with Joseph when his brothers sold him into Egyptian slavery. God used that terrible act for good—raising Joseph up to a place of prominence in Egypt so Israel could be kept alive during the famine (Gen. 50:20). And for the Christian, Paul reminds us “all things work together for good” (Rom. 8:28).

Having taught His disciples, the light of the world gets to work, giving sight to the man born blind. Jesus uses unusual means to heal him, making mud by spitting in the dirt, caking it onto his eyes, and instructing him to wash in the pool of Siloam (v. 6). The man responded in simple obedience. He went, washed, and returned seeing (v. 7). It’s a reminder to us that Christ asks for our simple obedience to His commands.

Investigation

The man’s neighbors were among the first to see him. They were in disbelief, thinking it wasn’t the same man at all—it couldn’t be! Being born blind was in irreversible condition. “Never since the beginning of the world has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind,” the man would go on to testify (v. 32).

Confused, the people bring the man before the Pharisees to get some insight. But as they will discover, the religious leaders are spiritually just like how the man was physically before Jesus healed him: blind.

John describes the Pharisees’ initial reaction:

They brought to the Pharisees the man who had formerly been blind. Now it was a Sabbath day when Jesus made the mud and opened his eyes. So the Pharisees again asked him how he had received his sight. And he said to them, “He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see.” Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others said, “How can a man who is a sinner do such signs?” And there was a division among them. (John 9:13–16)

Because Jesus did this sign on the Sabbath, the day of rest, the Jews accused Him of breaking the law. He was a sinner, they thought. They refused to consider the claims He had already made countless times—that He is one with God the Father, not breaking Sabbath because He created and sustains the universe (see John 5:16–17).

Ironically, the healed man sees with more clarity than the religious scholars. While the Pharisees conclude Jesus is not from God (v. 16), the once blind man says the opposite: “He is a prophet”—literally, one sent from God (v. 17). Yes, He is. In giving sight to the blind, Jesus fulfills the many Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah’s work:

Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped. (Isaiah 35:4–5)

Here is the light of the world shining brightly. The man with a need was made to see. The self-righteous Pharisees were blinded in their unbelief. There are a number of lessons we can learn from this account.

1. The light of the Gospel gives sight to some and blinds others. The Puritans used to say, “The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay.” The healed man went on to believe and worship Jesus as Lord (v. 38). The Pharisees went on to hand Jesus over to Rome and crucify the Lord of glory. But both stood before the light of the world.

2. The blind man is a physical picture of humanity’s spiritual condition. Just as he couldn’t see, so we can’t see the things of God because of sin. Satan has “blinded the minds of unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel” (2 Cor. 4:4).

3. The Pharisees are a cautionary tale of the dangers of unbelief. The pride with which the religious leaders carried themselves prevented them from seeing their own sin. Pride blinds us to our sin and our need for a Savior.

God is able to do for you what He did for the blind man in John 9. He opens the eyes of our hearts to see our sin and show us our Savior—and seeing Him, trusting in Him for salvation.

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From start to finish, salvation is of the Lord (Rom. 11:36). God—Father, Son, and Spirit—saves sinners. The Father planned salvation in eternity, the Son accomplished salvation at the cross, and the Spirit applies salvation to us in time (Eph. 1:3–14).

The doctrine of salvation is a big one. We can think about God’s saving work in terms of a past event, a present reality, and a future hope.

Salvation Past

Before you came to Jesus in faith, God was at work planning your salvation. The Bible uses the terms election and predestination to describe this work.

Election is God’s free decision from eternity to save sinners. It is based entirely on God’s grace, not upon any foreseen faith or goodness in us. Election is personal and not transactional. God does not look down the corridor of time, as it were, and foresee decisions. In eternity, He chose to love sinners. God’s purpose in election is His glory (Eph. 1:5–6).

Some argue that election produces lazy living. “If God chose me in eternity, then it really doesn’t matter how I live. I’m going to heaven regardless.” But this doesn’t square with the Bible. The elect confirm their calling by trusting in Jesus, obeying Jesus, and persevering in faith until Jesus calls them home. No one will be in heaven who doesn’t want to be there.

The negative counterpart to election is reprobation, in which God leaves the sinner to perish in his sin (Rom. 11:7). There is no injustice on God’s part in election and reprobation. Election is a display of grace toward sinners. Reprobation is a display of justice toward sinners, giving them finally what they had always wanted.

Salvation Present

God planned salvation in eternity. But He applies that salvation personally to us in time. We use the terms regeneration and conversion to describe this event.

When Jesus told Nicodemus, “You must be born again,” He meant that he must be regenerated by God’s Spirit if he was to gain eternal life (John 3:1–15). Regeneration is simply the new birth.

Regeneration comes before faith. It has to, for those who are dead in their sins are unable and unwilling to receive Christ by faith. God must cause us to be born again, giving us new hearts so we can freely embrace His salvation (Ezek. 36:26).

Following regeneration is conversion, the acts of repentance and faith. Repentance is turning from sin. Faith is turning toward Christ. These two acts are distinct but inseparable. They are two sides of the same coin. All who come to Christ do so in repentance, and there is no coming to Christ without faith.

Importantly, faith itself does not save us. Jesus saves us. Faith is the instrument which unites us to Christ and His saving benefits.

Salvation Future

Eternal life begins the moment we turn from sin and to Jesus. But our full experience of that future grace will only come when Christ comes back. Glorification is the future culmination of our salvation.

At Christ’s return, our earthly bodies will be made to be like Jesus’ resurrection body (1 Cor. 15:50–55). Sin will be vanquished. Our warring desires between flesh and Spirit will be put to rest. Christ, the object of our faith, will be in our sight.

As we reflect on the wonder of our salvation, we say with the hymn writer,

The Church's one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is his new creation,
By water and the word;
From Heav'n he came and sought her
To be his holy bride;
With his own blood he bought her,
And for her life he died.1

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I’m deep into preparing sermons for Good Friday and Easter Sunday worship. I thought I would share a few of the gems I came across in my study. May these reflections on Christ’s death and resurrection lead you into a deeper experience of God’s grace.

Reflections on Good Friday

Gregory of Nazianzus: A Few Drops of Blood Renew the Whole World

“Many indeed are the wondrous happenings of that time: God hanging from a Cross, the sun made dark, and again flaming out; for it was fitting that creation should mourn with its Creator. The temple veil rent, blood and water flowing from his side: the one as from a man, the other as from what was above man; the earth was shaken, the rocks shattered because of the Rock; the dead risen to bear witness of the final and universal resurrection of the dead. The happenings at the [tomb], and after the [tomb], who can fittingly recount them? Yet not one of them can be compared to the miracle of my salvation. A few drops of blood renew the whole world.” —Gregory of Nazianzus (329–390 AD)

Philip Bliss, Man of Sorrows (1875)

Man of sorrows what a name
for the Son of God, who came
ruined sinners to reclaim:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood,
sealed my pardon with his blood:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Guilty, helpless, lost were we;
blameless Lamb of God was he,
sacrificed to set us free:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Reflections on Easter Sunday

Horatius Bonar: He Is Not Here

“‘He is not here.’ This is the only place of which it could be considered good news to say, Christ is not here. ‘Christ is here’ was good news at Bethany, at Jericho, at Nain, at Capernaum, or on the Sea of Galilee; but ‘Christ is not here’ is the good news from Joseph’s tomb.” —Horatius Bonar (1808–1889)

John Chrysostom: Christ Is Risen

“O Death, where is your sting? O Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen, and you are overthrown. Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen. Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice. Christ is risen, and life reigns. Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.” —John Chrysostom (died 407 AD)

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Scripture recognizes two types of created beings: physical and spiritual. You and I are physical beings, inhabiting the seen realm. Angels, Satan, and demons are spiritual beings, inhabiting the unseen realm. There are good spiritual beings (angels) and bad spiritual beings (Satan and demons).

Angels: God’s Messengers

The Hebrew word malak is translated “angel” in our Old Testaments, meaning “messenger.” Angels are God’s messengers. They praise God, aid God’s people, and do God’s work (Ps. 148:2; Heb. 1:14; Rev. 1:20). Though they exist in the unseen realm, Scripture often describes angels passing into the seen realm to communicate with men and women—like when Gabriel visited Mary to tell her she would give birth to Jesus.

Angels are intelligent and moral creatures who possess a will, much like humans do (Matt. 25:31; Rev. 22:9). Jesus teaches that angels are limited in their knowledge and will accompany Him at His Second Coming (Matt. 24:36; 25:31).

Satan and Demons: Rebellious Spiritual Beings

Satan is a created spiritual being whose rebellion and fall corrupted his initially upright nature (Isa. 14:12–15; Ezek. 28:1–10). The angelic rebellion is recorded in Genesis 6:1–4, after which they became cursed, corrupted, and evil. These rebellious angels are called demons.

Demons today do Satan’s bidding, having once worshipped the true God. Satan, who is the “god of this world” and “the prince of the power of the air,” can tempt Christians and oppose our spiritual progress (2 Cor. 4:4; Eph. 2:2). At the cross, Christ disarmed the evil spiritual powers and triumphed over Satan (Col. 2:15).

Though real, Satan’s power is not the decisive force in the believer’s life. Christians are at war with Satan but his power is limited. He is like a lion, 1 Peter 5:8 tells us, but we should think of him as a lion on God’s leash. Christ, not Satan, is the Almighty Sovereign of the universe.

The consummation of Satan and his demons’ defeat will be realized at Christ’s Second Coming, where they will be thrown into the lake of fire and tormented for eternity (Rev. 20:10). Until that Day, we stand firm against the schemes of the Evil One, saying with John,

Come, Lord Jesus! (Rev. 22:20)

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If you grew up in Sunday school, you might remember singing this song:

Father Abraham had many sons,
Many sons had father Abraham,
I am one of them and so are you,
So let’s all praise the Lord!

In Jesus’ day, this would have been the Jewish leaders’ song. Literally, they could trace their lineage back to Abraham in Genesis. But Jesus challenged their assumptions, saying, “You don’t belong to Abraham at all. Your father is the devil” (John 8:44).

In making this claim, Jesus keeps with a foundational biblical reality: God distinguishes between physical Israel and spiritual Israel—between those who descend from Abraham physically and those who are blessed with him spiritually. Consider a few examples from the New Testament.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly … But a Jew is one inwardly. (Rom. 2:28–29a)

For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring. (Rom. 9:6b–7a)

Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. (Gal. 3:7)

Claiming to be Abraham’s sons, the Jews in John 8 did the opposite of what Abraham did. Where Abraham trusted God’s promises and anticipated the coming of Christ, the Jews rejected God by wanting to kill God’s Son.

Abraham Trusted God

In premarital counseling, I am careful to ask about the couple’s families of origin. Spouses will default to the norms of their upbringing in conflict—for better or worse. The Jewish leaders say, “Abraham is our father” (v. 39). But Jesus responds, “If you grew up in his house, you would be doing the things he did.”

Abraham was a man of faith. He trusted God’s promises and provision. “Go from your country,” God told Abram in Genesis 12, “And I will bless you.” With nothing more than a word from God, Abram went, sure that God’s promises and provision would go before him (v. 1–4).

Jesus made it clear the Jews were not behaving like children of Abraham. But that doesn’t mean they were neutral. Spiritually speaking, they belonged to Satan’s house:

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. (John 8:44)

Jesus saw a link between how the Jews behaved and how the serpent acted in the garden in Genesis 3. Just as the serpent deceived our first parents, leading to death, so the Jews deceived the crowds, plotting the murder of the Messiah.

Because these religious leaders rejected God’s Son (v. 45) and disobeyed Christ’s Word (v. 47), Jesus can safely conclude that they do not belong to God. Indeed, believing that Jesus is the Christ and obeying His Word are the basic marks of belonging to God’s family. When those things are absent, we should have very little confidence that we are of God.

Abraham Anticipated Christ

“We belong to Abraham,” the Jews claimed. But they rejected the very Savior that Abraham anticipated. They rejected Christ’s Word and Christ Himself.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps my word, he will never see death.” The Jews said to him, “Now we know that you have a demon! Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death.’” (John 8:51–52)

Here, Jesus offers the way to reverse the curse of Genesis 3. Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s Word and died; now we can keep Christ’s Word and live. But Jesus’ opponents respond like an atheist would—as if a person dies and that’s it.

No one denies that all will die, but Jesus is talking about the second death (Rev. 20:11–15). It’s the eternal death, the penalty for sin, from which Jesus promises to deliver believers. Those who die in Christ actually live forever.

The final verses of John 8 contain some of the deepest truths in the book. Jesus offers His response to the question asked of Him in verse 53: “Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?” Jesus replies,

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.” So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple. (John 8:56–59)

How did Abraham, who lived two thousand years before Jesus, see Jesus?

First, Abraham saw Jesus’ day because the Old Testament story is all about Jesus. While we shouldn’t expect Abraham to have known the specifics of Jesus’ life and ministry, we know he was searching for the promised deliverer of Genesis 3:15. He waited for the seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent. Abraham saw Christ, albeit in a somewhat shadowy way.

Second, Abraham saw Jesus’ day because Old Testament saints were saved in the same way we are: by faith in Christ alone. There’s only one way a person can be saved, and it’s through Jesus (Acts 4:12). The Old Testament sacrifices and priestly systems all anticipated the great sacrifice of the Great High Priest. Just as we are saved by looking back on the cross, so Abraham was saved by looking ahead to the cross.

All of this is possible because of verse 58: Jesus doesn’t claim to be as old as Abraham, but to have existed before Abraham. “Before Abraham was,” Jesus says, “I am”—a clear claim to eternal divinity.

Abraham would have rejoiced to be standing where the Jews of Jesus’ day were. But instead of rejoicing, the so-called children of Abraham attempt to kill Jesus on charges of blasphemy (v. 59).

Belonging to God’s family requires believing in God’s Son. The true children of Abraham are those who receive the one in whom Abraham trusted.

Father Abraham had many sons,
Many sons had father Abraham,
I am one of them and so are you,
So let’s all praise the Lord!

Are you one of them?

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What is true freedom? It depends on who you ask.

The American citizen will probably think of July 4—Independence Day. “True freedom,” he’ll say, “Is independence from overbearing governments.” Or ask a young child, and she may define freedom as having no rules: no bedtime, no restrictions on what snacks she can eat, and so on.

But the Bible defines freedom differently. We think true freedom is doing what we want. Freedom in the Bible is doing what Christ wants. In the biblical framework, freedom is not independence but dependence on Christ. Freedom has less to do with the absence of rules and instead is submitting to Christ and His rule.

This is what Jesus taught in Matthew 11:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. (v. 28–30)

Jesus doesn’t say, “Come to me and get rid of your burden.” He says, “Come to me and I’ll give you a better burden.” We find true freedom by submitting to Christ’s yoke of discipleship.

In John 8:31–38, Jesus describes the two ways a person comes to experience true freedom.

Freed by the Word of God

So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?” (John 8:31–33)

Rather than immediately receive those who professed faith in Him, Jesus challenges them. He defines true discipleship as abiding in His Word, or His teachings. The test of true discipleship takes time. Sadly, many who profess to believe in Jesus eventually walk away—like those in John 6, who abandoned Christ because of His hard teachings (v. 66).

Those who remain close to Christ and His Word will “know the truth” (v. 32). We don’t need to overcomplicate this, like Pontius Pilate did in John 18. While on trial before him, Jesus told Pilate, “I have come to bear witness to the truth.” Pilate responded, “What is truth?” (v. 37–38).

The standard for all truth is the Word of Christ—the Bible, the Scriptures. God’s people have always treasured the written Scriptures as the supreme source of truth.

The law of the Lord is perfect … the rules of the Lord are true. (Psalm. 19:7, 9a)
Sanctify them in the truth, your word is truth. (John 17:17)

“Know the truth,” says Jesus, “And the truth will set you free.” True freedom is linked to how well we know God’s Word. When we know what God says, we’re freed from the ignorance sin produces in us. We don’t have to wonder, for example, who God is and who we are in relation to Him—the answer is in the Bible.

Freed by the Work of the Son

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.” (John 8:34–38)

The religious leaders, confused by Jesus’ teachings about freedom, asked Him how they could be freed since they were already free (v. 33). They were thinking in physical terms. But Jesus uses this opportunity to teach a spiritual truth. The Jewish leaders, though they enjoyed religious freedoms under the Roman government, were actually slaves to a ruthless taskmaster—sin.

Sin is a miserable thing. The penalty for sin is death (8:21). The power of sin enslaves (8:34). It’s the lie of the enemy that says, “Sin is your friend.” Christ says, “Sin is your slave-master. It will own you, work you, and eventually kill you.”

To illustrate His point, Jesus compares the slave to the son in a household (v. 35–36). Where a slave is temporary, the son is permanent. Where a slave has no rights, the son of the house has all the rights of the father.

“So if the Son”—that is, Jesus Himself, who Hebrews 3 describes as being “over God’s house as a Son”—“sets you free, you will be free indeed.” Only the Son frees people from sin’s penalty and sin’s power. And freeing us, He then adopts us as sons into His family (see Rom. 8:15).

Jesus concludes by pointing out a contradiction in the lives of His hearers. The Jewish leaders claimed to be offspring of Abraham, the godly family of faith. But they weren’t acting like it. In fact, they were acting more like the talking snake in Genesis 3: sowing division and seeking to kill God’s Son (v. 37).

Claiming to be free, the Jewish leaders were enslaved to their sinful passions. Wearing their membership to Abraham’s family as a badge of honor, they actually belonged to the family of the Evil One.

The Illusion of Freedom

The picture the Bible paints of freedom is quite different than what fallen humanity experiences. Those who do not belong to Jesus by faith are enslaved to sin’s power, as though they exist in a spiritual prison cell. They’re free only to pace the perimeter of their cell. But no one would call that freedom. That’s bondage.

We need the word of Christ to diagnose our condition. We need the work of Christ to free us from sin’s penalty and power—to tear down the walls of the prison of our own making, saying to us what He would say to Lazarus in John 11: “Lazarus, come out! … Unbind him and let him go.” Only then can we say, “I’m free. Free indeed.”

True freedom is found by submitting to Christ and His Word.

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