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10 Things You Should Know about the Holy Spirit
When you find your mind wandering or getting lost in the details of pneumatology (the doctrine of the Holy Spirit), just call back to mind the basic Christian confession that there is one God in three persons.
What Did Jesus Teach about Disabilities?
In the record of Jesus’s ministry in the four Gospels, we see in the Savior a striking focus upon a ministry among the deaf, mute, lame, blind, and the broader community they represent.
10 Notable Quotes from Gentle and Lowly
The gospel flows from God’s deepest heart for his people, a heart of tender love for the sinful and suffering.
Why Was Jesus’s Teaching So Astonishing?
What was so unusual and so attention-grabbing about Jesus’s teaching? Part of it was that once people began to challenge him and ask him questions, Jesus proved to be a masterful chess player.
5 Things You Must Remember about the Resurrection
What does it look like to look at life through the window of the resurrection? As I assess my life right here, right now, what about the resurrection must I remember? Let me suggest five things.
What Is Christ to Us If He Is Not Our All-Satisfying Treasure?
The aim of God’s work in redemption is not that through Christ we might have salvation, but that through salvation we might have Christ—the all-satisfying treasure.
How Prayer Actually Works: To the Father, Through the Son, By the Spirit
You don’t have to get your Trinitarian theology all sorted out before you can pray to the Trinity. Our God hears prayers. He does not wait for us to pass the theology test before he listens to us praying.
A Thought Experiment to Help Recalibrate Our Beliefs about the Trinity
Matthew Y. Emerson, Brandon D. Smith
The way we talk about God’s acts often divides the persons of God in a way that is contrary to our confession that God is one God in three persons.
How Hannah’s Prayer Found Its Fulfillment in Mary’s Magnificat
Why does Luke talk so much about God being "high"? The answer lies in Mary’s praise in the well-known Magnificat.
I wonder what that song was like for Jesus. I wonder because of the other details the Gospel writers also included about that evening—and there are many.
Jesus Is Not Ashamed of Those Who Are Hurting and Hopeless
Be amazed at the power of Christ to transform a helpless man; but also, marvel at the love of Christ that claims rebels like this as his own.
Why It Matters That Jesus Was and Still Is Human
The impression often seems to be that the Son of God came down from heaven in incarnate form, spent three decades or so as a human, and then returned to heaven to revert back to his preincarnate state.
How Isaiah Prophesied That Jesus Would Submit and Suffer
Over and over again, Isaiah lifts our eyes to the prophetic horizon against which we see a shadow of the Christ. We can be certain that Jesus is in view because the New Testament explicitly states this.
How Was the Resurrection of Lazarus Different than the Resurrection of Jesus?
Lazarus would die again, but Jesus would not. And for all who trust in Christ who are united to him by faith, what is his is now ours.
What Jesus’s First Miracle Shows Us About Who He Is
The miracles of Jesus have always been a central confession of our faith, creating an obvious tension between the ancient church and the technological society. How is the church to respond?
The word of God is more than enough for the people of God to live their lives to the glory of God.
According to Jesus, the people who are ashamed of him are those who refuse to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him. They’ve considered Jesus unworthy of their devotion and obedience.
How Do I Follow Jesus When He Is Not Here?
Jesus knew that he would not always be on earth, so the command that we follow him was relevant not only for his physical days on earth but for all time.
Why Should Christians Want to Help the Poor?
Why should Christians want to help the poor? The Bible gives us two kinds of reasons, including numerous specific commands in Scripture that tell us to do so.
The Trinity Transforms the Church into a Community of Love
Just as the church is the glorious gift of love from God the Father to Christ the Son, so the church, as the body of Christ, reflects that Trinitarian love and beauty outwardly to the world.
A Historical Person Maybe you have never really thought about who Jesus is, or whether his claims have any implications for your life. After all, we’re talking about a man who was born in the …
When the Supreme Somebody Became Nobody
It’s what the Lord Jesus took to himself that humbled him, not what he laid aside. It was in taking to himself humanity that he became nothing.
What Did Jesus Teach about Discipleship?
Jesus’s instruction about discipleship applies to all (i.e., not simply the twelve) who want to follow him and includes three elements: denying oneself, taking up one’s cross, and following him.
Jesus of Nazareth vs. Caesar Augustus
The nature of infancy teaches us something about weakness, and it teaches us something about our God. Every Christmas we celebrate not Caesar’s triumphant census, but our Emmanuel: God with us.
Maximus the Gladiator and Jesus the Christ
Just as Maximus was not just a gladiator but the ultimate Gladiator, the Gospel authors claim that Jesus is not just a king, but the King.
When You Think of Jesus, Do You Think “Genius”?
Was Jesus a rather ordinary teacher with brilliant students who selflessly credited him with their great ideas? Or was Jesus a very smart teacher with smart disciples, and therefore the credit should be shared?
10 Things You Should Know about Early Christology
Many Christians often can assent to key statements on Christ’s divinity like the Nicene Creed, but struggle defending such statements from Scripture.
“Why Have You Forsaken Me?” Understanding Jesus’s Cry on the Cross
Matthew Y. Emerson, Brandon D. Smith
The crucifixion is a good case study in showing how a careful Trinitarian framework can help work through thorny issues related to the Trinity and salvation.
Why I Wrote a Book about the Marrow Controversy
What is Jesus really like, truly like—deep down, through and through?
How to Be Confident in the Resurrection: Look to Its First Witnesses
How can anyone be confident that the resurrection really happened? The first followers of Jesus didn’t claim their leader rose from the dead because of gullible ignorance or blind faith.
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