November 2007

John Owen on the Atonement and Justification

November 30, 2007

You can count on John Owen to bring some light and clarity into a debate. The following lightly edited quote was sent in by a reader and is really helpful: “That which we affirm is that our sins were so transferred on Christ as that thereby he became responsible to God and liable to punishment [...]

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My First Week Without Comments

November 29, 2007

It is now almost a week since I made the decision to stop comments here on the blog. In the next few days I will also be deleting all the old ones. I have to say that, so far, I have not missed them. It’s not so much that I don’t want interaction with my [...]

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Driscoll on the Defeat of Shame and the Scotland MP3s

November 28, 2007

The MP3s of three talks from Mark Driscoll’s recent visit to Scotland are now online. The first one is the only one I was there for, and for which I wrote notes. God’s Plan for the Church in This City (right click to download MP3). Sex—A Study of the Good Bits from the Song of [...]

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones: Experience AND Doctrine

November 27, 2007

The following passage from the Doctor is a bit reminiscent of an old post of mine entitled, “I Want It All!” “. . . the trouble has generally been . . . that people have emphasised either experience or doctrine at the expense of the other . . . This is something that has been [...]

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SERMON – Ephesians 6 – The Christian’s Warfare

November 26, 2007

The following notes are based on a sermon I preached yesterday at Jubilee Church, London. It draws to a close our series on Ephesians. You can download the mp3 or listen right here: “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you [...]

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John Stott on Ephesians

November 25, 2007

John Stott’s Bible Speaks Today commentary on Ephesians has the following quote on the work of the devil. It was reading the last paragraph of this quote that gave me the idea of how to approach Ephesians 6 in the sermon I will be preaching this morning: “We have had occasion several times in our [...]

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Martyn Lloyd-Jones: A Summary of Ephesians

November 24, 2007

We have been speaking about Ephesians a fair bit recently on this blog. I thought today I would share the following quote from the Doctor, which summarizes the book’s message. “. . . we can say of the first three chapters that the Apostle is reminding these Ephesians . . . who they are, what [...]

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A Doctor’s Prescription – Read Ephesians

November 23, 2007

Over at our church’s website we continue to post our sermons, working through the book of Ephesians. We are discovering just how full of goodness it really is! This book is surely the message of the Bible condensed. Who needs a doctrinal statement when you can have Ephesians instead? One man who plumbed the depths [...]

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Thanksgiving and Some Changes Around Here

November 22, 2007

I am thankful today. It may not be my holiday, we may not have anything even remotely like it here in the UK, but as I said last year, I am very glad of the reminder this American holiday represents. I know that at times I still have a sinful tendency to focus on things [...]

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BOOK – Piper on Wright, Conclusion: What is Justification?

November 21, 2007

I have now come to the end of my series responding to John Piper’s new book, The Future of Justification. Here is a list of the previous posts: John Piper, N. T. Wright, and Gracious Discernment John Piper Challenges N. T. Wright on Justification Piper Explains the Classic View of Justification Versus N. T. Wright’s [...]

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Does Piper Neglect the Resurrection?

November 20, 2007

Many of the opponents of the doctrine of justification and penal substitution criticize us for not being as interested in the resurrection as the cross. I increasingly think that it is not so fair to accuse most evangelical theologians of not having a place for the resurrection in our system of beliefs. I do feel, [...]

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Tom Wright’s Response to John Piper

November 19, 2007

UPDATE In January 2008, the following post was identified as the 13th all-time most popular post with readers of this blog. The 14th most-read post was the summary of my interview with the leader of Newfrontiers, Terry Virgo. This post was part of a series of posts on the debate between Wright and Piper over [...]

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Piper Gets Passionate With the ETS on Justification

November 19, 2007

John Piper has delivered an amazing lecture on the vital place of justification to the ETS. The manuscript, video, and audio are available online, and this sets his new book, The Future of Justification, into context. The whole talk is fantastic, but these couple of paragraphs stuck out for me, especially considering his audience! I’m [...]

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Mark Driscoll at MenMakers in Scotland

November 17, 2007

This second session, and sadly for Tope and myself our last session, was taken by Mark Driscoll. Mark was introduced by Andy Owen as someone who is a gift from God to the entire body of Christ. Mark started by telling his story. His upbringing, salvation, and the way his father also was saved made [...]

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Andrew Owen at MenMakers in Scotland

November 17, 2007

Having spent yesterday evening listening to Mark Driscoll with church leaders, this morning’s MenMakers conference was a men’s event. The aim of the conference was to help us become “real men.” Sadly I will not be able to cover the whole event as we need to return to London. I will cover two sessions, however. [...]

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Mark Driscoll Preaches on the Atonement in Edinburgh, Scotland

November 17, 2007

UPDATE The Audio of this talk is now available to download. —– Tonight’s event took place in an ex-cinema, so I felt at home! It is the home of Destiny Church, Edinburgh. Destiny is a family of churches across Scotland, and they have some churches elsewhere in the world as well. The audience that gathered [...]

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Arsenal vs Tottenham in My Family

November 16, 2007

People who know me well know that the football genes have skipped a generation. I am, of course, referring to the original game of football as invented by us British and called “soccer” by only one nation on earth (i.e. the USA). To the rest of the world it’s just ‘football’. My father and brother [...]

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The Christian and the Law

November 15, 2007

As we continue looking at John Piper’s book we have now reached page 200 and following. I want to highlight Piper’s attitude to the law. What, according to Piper, is the purpose of the law? “The reason the law is not against the promise is precisely that it was designed not to give life but [...]

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Rob Frost, Leading UK Evangelical Methodist Dies

November 14, 2007

My friend, Tony Miles, reports on the death of Rob Frost. More information is available at Share Jesus International, where reflections from his family are also available. I found this passage striking: On the last evening of Easter People this year Rob preached, and as he left the platform he was sad that this would [...]

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2 Corinthians 5 and Romans 5 – Two Critical Passages on Justification

November 14, 2007

Today I want to share how John Piper brings two passages to bear on the justification debate. The quotes are all from his new book, The Future of Justification, and come from pages 170-180. The two passages are Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 5. Piper is responding to Wright’s slightly odd way of speaking about [...]

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