There is still plenty of time to register for the Great Bavinck Giveaway! Subscribe by April 20 to be included in the drawing for a free copy of Bavinck’s ‘Saved by Grace’ (RHB, 2008). See the March 16 post for details. Our last post examined the outset of the Reformed ‘Covenant’ view of grace. Bavinck suggests it’s the middle way between the high Roman Church and the Anabaptist view on the opposite end.
There is a ‘cog’ between transmitting grace and receiving grace for salvation. It is …

By faith [the Christian] is a member of the covenant [of grace], and that faith has a wide outlook, a comprehensive character, which not only points to justification but also to all the benefits which are in Christ. Whereas the Lutheran tends to view faith one-sidedly–only it its connection with justification–for the Reformed Christian it is saving faith in all the magnitude of the word. According to the Lutheran, the Holy Spirit first generates faith in the sinner who temporarily still remains outside of union with Christ; then justification follows …

We had the distinct privilege to talk with Rev. Jim O’Brien, pastor of Reedy River PCA and contributor to Feeding on Christ, about the Puritans, their theology and their writings. You can listen to the episode here.
A nice addition to this interview is the Sinclair Ferguson lecture he gave at the dedication of the Puritan Resource Center. You can listen to this lecture here.

“It smells of the prison. It was written when the author was confined in Bedford jail. And ministers never write or preach so well as when under the cross: the Spirit of Christ and of Glory then rests upon them.”
May Jesus keep us near the cross!

“If Jesus is precious to you, you will not be able to keep your good news to yourself. You will be whispering it into your child’s ear. You will be telling it to your husband. You will be earnestly imparting it to your friend. Without the charms of eloquence you will be more than eloquent: your heart will speak, and your eyes will flash as you talk of His sweet love.
Every Christian here is either a missionary or an impostor. Recollect that. You either try to spread abroad the kingdom …

“The chief article and foundation of the gospel is that before you take Christ as an example, you accept and recognize him as a gift, as a present that God has given you and that is your own. This means that when you see or hear of Christ doing or suffering something, you do not doubt that Christ himself, with his deeds and suffering, belongs to you. On this you may depend as surely as if you had done it yourself; indeed as if you were Christ himself. …

When I was preaching through the book of Ephesians I came across a series of transcribed lectures that Eric Alexander had delivered at the 1984 Urbana Conference on the first three chapters of the Epistle. Recently I have found a series he did at the 1981 Urbana Conference on Acts 2, 4-6, 6-7, 13:1-6 and 16. I am certain that you will benefit immensely from reading them. The link to each exposition is listed below:
Eric Alexander on Acts
Pentecost and Missions (Acts 2)
Mission and Opposition (Acts 4-6)
Mission and the People God …

Over at Historia Salutis I have posted a short piece on a biblical theological approach to understanding trials and temptations. You can read it here .

The poorest of the poor need many things . . . food, clothing, protection. Most of all they need the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
May we live lives worthy of the Gospel to help people in dire situations . . . in our neighborhoods and all over the world.
Pray for these children
Pray for these women
Come Lord Jesus and end all this! Come even now!

MP3 lectures of several of the lectures delivered at the 2009 Calvin Conference, hosted by GPTS , are now online. Available for download are Joel Beeke’s lecture, Calvin the Theologian of the Holy Spirit , and Joseph Pipa’s lecture, Calvin the Preacher .
You can also watch the videos by visiting the links below:
Joel Beeke:Calvin the Theologian of the Holy Spirit
Joseph Pipa: Calvin the Preacher

Thanks to the kind permission of Dr. Joel Beeke and the men at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, this lecture by Sinclair Ferguson, given at the dedication of the Puritan Resource Center, is now available for download. I listened to this lecture the night it was given and was greatly encouraged. It is a wonderful reminder of the blessing you can reap from studying the lives and writings of the Puritans. This is also a reason you should consider taking courses at PRTS and/or GPTS.
I also want to remind you to …

Our last post touched on Bavinck’s theology of the covenant from his book Saved by Grace , (Reformation Heritage Books, 2008). From there we outlined the Reformed concept of salvation, rooted in God’s covenant, as the middle way when compared to the Romanist and Anabaptist concepts of receiving grace and salvation. We now pick the conversation back up in Bavinck’s RD (vol. 3, ch. 5), for some initial remarks on the covenant as both the nucleus and the dividing line of special revelation.

Over at Old Life, D. G. Hart has an important post dealing with the ongoing discussion about the relationship between union with Christ, justification and sanctification. You can read it here.  If you have not been following the discussion I would recommend that you listen to this recent episode of the Reformed Media Review. The central issue in Darryl’s post has to do with the identification of what John Murray called “definitive sanctification” (see volume 2 of The Collected Writings of John Murray for a defense of the doctrine …

While I rarely promote political issues on this site, I really believe this is an extremely important issue for you to consider. Coral Ridge Ministries is asking individuals to sign a petition in opposition to hate crime legislation.
Alan Keyes explains the details of the present push and dangerous nature of “hate crime” legislation here .
Similar legislation is presently being pushed for in Scotland, and has been in place for years in England and Wales.

Bavinck’s theology is looking for life; to articulate it, to revel in it, and to encapsulate it especially as it is found in the certainty and context of divine revelation. One of the best characteristics of Bavinck’s work is that his polemics and theological controversy are never battles over words and the consistency of artificial constructions. He is looking for the theory that best explains and enhances our shared experience and has found it in the Reformed expression of faith and life.

Here is the link to the most recent Christ the Center Interview. This time we had the distinct privilege of interviewing Dr. Michael A. G. Haykin, professor of church history and Biblical spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, about the importance of studying the early church fathers and reading them as did the Protestant Reformers.

Updates from the 2009 Ligonier National Conference are online at the Ligonier Ministry blog. You can read them here . There will be a live webcasting for the remainder of the conference tomorrow. You can watch the live feed here . At 8:30 AM, on Friday morning, Sinclair Ferguson will be preaching. His message is titled "Hallowed By Your Name: The Holiness of the Father." You have to register first in order to watch the live webcast. You can do so here .

Last week we had the privilege of interviewing Michael Haykin on the importance of studying the church fathers. The full interview will be released tomorrow at the Reformed Forum . For now, here is a special excerpt from the end of our conversation. It is not included in the forthcoming interview.

For those of you who have not read my previous post about Dr. Robert K. Rudolph you can find that post here. You can read more about him here. Below is a picture of Dr. Rudolph with his good friend Dr. Van Til. My father had both men as professors in Seminary. I have learned more from them, through my father, than probably from any other theologians.

You will find all of Dr. Rudolph’s class lectures I have converted to MP3 below. I apologize for the poor editing work I did …

Our last post summarized Bavinck’s definition of sin as a non-physical ethical force that is not exactly ‘non-being’ but certainly strives in that direction. Death, the result of sin, was pronounced as judgment in Genesis 2 but there is more mystery and complication to this ‘death sentence’ than there is certainty.

The Christ the Center audio program panel recently had the privilege of interviewing Dr. T. David Gordon about his new book Why Johnny Can’t Preach which you can listen to here. The book is an absolute delight to read. However, the subject hits a little too close to home for a preacher like me! I never am satisfied that my preaching is up to par and now I have even more reason to doubt it. My goal is to lift up Jesus Christ and to exposit …

The wife of Dr. David Martyn Lloyd-Jones has opened up a window that allows us to peer into what life was like for them in their first church in this short little book, Memories of Sandfields. Bethan Lloyd-Jones makes the world of Aberavon, Wales in the late 1920s to late 1930s come to life with these reminiscences and vignettes of a host of trophies of grace at the Bethlehem Forward Movement Church (commonly referred to as “Sandfields”). Mrs. Lloyd-Jones, a medical …

Reformation Heritage Books, Joel Heflin, and Feeding on Christ are hosting a Bavinck giveaway, to be drawn on April 20. There are three unique giveaways.
The first will be sponsored by Reformation Heritage Book Talk. They will be giving away 2 Bavinck books, Saved by Grace: The Holy Spirit’s Work in Calling and Regeneration (Reformation Heritage Books, 2008) and Essays on Religion, Science and Society (Baker Academic, 2008). In order to be entered into this contest, simply subscribe to RH blog, and email Michael at mmdewalt@gmail.com and let him know …

Jeff Downs sent me some audio links from a Conference he put together featuring Stephen Nichols. The lectures were on Jonathan Edwards’ apologetic method. You can find the first lecture here and the second one here. They were apparently delivered sometime close to the release of An Absolute Sort of Certainty.

Here are the audio lectures from the 2007 Simeon Trust Biblical Expositors Workshop at College Church, Wheaton, IL. The speakers were Phil Ryken, Kent Hughes, and David Helm. The theme of the workshop was Christ in the Law of Moses. The lectures that Phil gave on portions of Exodus are particularly helpful. I would also recommend Phil’s commentary on Exodus in Crossway Books’ “Preach the Word” series.

I asked my good friend Stephen Burch to contribute a few posts to the “Notes on the Apocalypse” series here at Feeding on Christ. Picking up at the end of Revelation 1, Burch notes:
Everyone needs the gospel at every point in life. There is never a point in life when we graduate from the gospel. The Apostle John towards the end on his life in no exception. John was perhaps the holiest and most mature man on the planet. Think of John’s stellar life. He walked with Jesus in his …

Thanks to Justin Taylor for pointing out this article in a recent Time Magazine on the impact of Calvinism on the world. You can read the article here . It is fascinating that Time would dedicate an article to anything Calvinistic. It also is interesting that the author, David Van Biema (a good Dutch name–with a Reformed background?), mentioned Roman Catholicism’s recent move to reinstate indulgences. This, of course, lay at the heart of the Reformation. If you have to buy your way out of purgatory Christ could not be …

IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST JESUS BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH . . .
You are justified (made right with God) and have peace with God – Romans – 5:1
You died with Christ and died to the power of sin’s rule over your life – Romans 6:1-6
Your God is unlike any other, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage. He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on you, and will subdue your iniquities. …

Carl Trueman has a very helpful post over at Reformation 21 showing the ungenerous nature of "generous orthodoxy." In typical Trueman like fashion, he shows the logical weakness of the position championed by Brian McLaren and adopted by emergents of all kinds. You really should read this post.

Desiring God has a new web site design. It is similar to the old one, but is much more user friendly in my opinion. I thought the old one was too busy. This one makes finding things much easier!