Our Risen Lord

Tim Keller wrote about the necessity of Jesus’ resurrection: “If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether…

The Suffering Servant

In his sermon, “The Man of Sorrows,” nineteenth-century preacher Charles Spurgeon expressed faith-filled amazement that Jesus was fully God and fully man: “He who was ‘despised and rejected of men’ was beloved and adored by angels. And He, from whom men hid their faces in contempt, was worshiped by…

The Lamb of God

For our wedding day, Julia and I chose the music carefully. We wanted the ceremony to be worshipful, focused ultimately on God and not us. For this reason, one of the songs we picked was “Lamb of God” by Twila Paris. It doesn’t mention marriage, but it does celebrate the amazing love of God: “Your …

The New Adam

J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings, coined the term “eucatastrophe,” which means “good catastrophe.” When it looks like a hero is doomed…but then the plot turns! The death of Jesus certainly qualifies as a eucatastrophe! As one writer explains, “Jesus’ crucifixion was the most evil eve…

Second Person of the Trinity

It may be difficult to understand why Jesus wanted or needed to be baptized by John. After all, Jesus had no sins of which to repent. But Jesus made it clear that being baptized was the Father’s will. When Jesus was raised out of the Jordan River, “[the] heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of …

The Eternal Word

“A Japanese pastor wrote that the most important message of Christmas is that Jesus was born as a babe, weak and vulnerable to the world,” said artist Makoto Fujimura in his book, Refractions. “A baby is utterly dependent on a mother and a father, and others helping the baby to survive. Imagine, on…

Creator of All

In 1992, a new large mammal was identified for the first time in 50 years—the saola, a long-horned species of wild ox that resembles a deer or antelope. The saola, however, is both rare and shy. So when one was sighted in 2013 in central Vietnam for the first time in fourteen years, conservationist…

God’s Final Revelation

In his worship song “Knowing You, Jesus,” Graham Kendrick proclaims: “Oh, to know the power of your risen life / And to know you in your sufferings / To become like you in your death, my Lord / So with you to live and never die.” When we know Jesus, we know God the Father as well, for the Son is t…

The Beginning and the End

Do you know who Jesus is? A recent survey revealed poor understanding of key doctrines, including those about Jesus and salvation, even among evangelical Christians. For example, 52 percent of evangelicals believe people are basically good. An astonishing 78 percent think Jesus is a created being (…

Great Is the Lord

Every year different organizations host a Pi competition. In this competition, contestants recite as many digits of the number Pi as they can from memory. The top record holder is Suresh Kumar Sharma who recited 70,030 digits over the course of seventeen hours. The interesting thing about this chal…