He has convinced himself of God’s favor, so therefore believes God is pleased and will guarantee him a spot in heaven. It is a false gospel with a false notion that God is waiting in hopeful anticipation of yet another coming to ‘accept him’. In all this, God is taken off the throne and relegated [...]

In many of Paul’s letters, he introduced himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ (see also, 1 Corinthians 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 1 Timothy 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1; Titus 1:1). This, then is the very heart, the very core of what constitutes an “apostle.” Total voluntary submission to the will of [...]

American statesman Bernard Baruch once said “Whatever failures I have known, whatever errors I have committed, whatever follies I have witnessed in private and public life, have been the consequences of action without thought.” The exhortation here is to NOT be foolish. The antedote to that is to “understand” what the Lord’s will is. Not [...]

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in [...]

We are all “by nature children of wrath” because we are all by nature sinners–for God’s wrath is not on a person unless they are a sinner and deserve that wrath. And since we are sinners by nature, we see that sin is not just something you do, it is something you are.

All things, according to Paul, are named or called by God. The word name in Scripture means to “define.” When the unfallen Adam was asked by God to name “every living creature” (Gen 2:19), this was a scientific task guided by God, the classification of the animal creation. God, in naming Abraham, defined Abraham in [...]

Through Jesus Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we can be redeemed and have forgiveness for our sins. He was sinless and only a sinless sacrifice could cover our sins. Since we are sinners, we could not redeem ourselves.

We are a member of His supernatural community, the new creation, the kingdom of God, and we have a responsibility to reconstruct every area in terms of His word, His naming.

We are emphatically told by Scripture that grace and faith are God’s gift. The sovereignty, initiative, and power in salvation originate entirely in God. This does not, however, deny the reality of our own secondary initiative and power in the exercise of grace and faith. It is a gift, but it is a gift to [...]

Being a son of something involves being born with its traits. Paul writes of “the course of this world.” The Greek word kosmos, translated into the English word “world,” essentially means an “orderly system.” To human eyes beholding all the activity throughout the earth, the world looks anything but orderly. It looks confusing, to say [...]

The Epistle to the Ephesians…is one of the divinest compositions of man. It embraces every doctrine of Christianity;–first, those doctrines peculiar to Christianity, and then those precepts common to it with natural religion. — Samuel T. Coleridge The Epistle to the Ephesians embraces, in its brevity, the whole field of the Christian religion. It expounds [...]

Spirit filled prayer, along with the Word of God, are the two weapons of offense in the list of God’s armor.

The word “but” is used to show that there is a difference between that which is common to all members of the royal family (one Lord, one faith) and that which differentiates among believers. Each individual Christian is given a unique capacity, by grace, to function and grow as a Christian and to produce as [...]