Westminster Theological Seminary has posted a video of Lane Tipton speaking about Calvin and the doctrine of union with Christ. He places an important emphasis on the person of Christ. As being united to this person the benefits are mediated to the believer. In Him we have our justification, sanctification and adoption.  “You first possess Christ and then in Christ you are justified.”

The panel of Christ the Center recently hung out with Lane Tipton and talked with him about Cornelius Van Til’s Trinitarian theology. You can listen here. Lane did an outstanding job of explaining the relationship between the Trinity and theology as it was found in the writings of Dr. Van Til. This was, of course, also the subject of Dr. Tipton’s doctoral dissertation and certain articles.

New Christ the Center Audio

Posted by Nicholas T. Batzig on July 4th, 2008

Christ the Center is a radio program committed to propagating the Reformed faith by discussing books, by interviewing Reformed pastors and theologians, and by making audio recordings of the Confession of Faith and Shorter and Larger Catechism available at no charge. Recent programs have included:

Lane Tipton on Richard Gaffin
Lane Keister on the Federal Vision
Gary Johnson on the Emergent Church

In the weeks ahead we will have some significant figures from the Reformed community talking about issues that are relevant to the church today. Stay tuned for more valuable programs.

Lane Tipton has written a fine article for the Ordained Servant, the magazine of the OPC. The premise of this article is that when we come to speak about an incarnational view of the Bible we must first have a proper understanding of the incarnation of Jesus. The article can be found here. I am especially thankful for the reference to B.B. Warfield on this matter. Warfield explained the problem with pushing an incarnational model, in an unqualified manner, when he wrote:


it has been customary among a certain school of writers to speak of the Scriptures, because thus “inspired,” as a Divine-human book, and to appeal to the analogy of our Lord’s Divine-human personality to explain their peculiar qualities as such … Between such diverse things there can exist only a remote analogy; and, in point of fact, the analogy in the present instance amounts to no more than that in both cases Divine and human factors are involved, though very differently.[6]


Among the important points that Lane makes the following sum up his argument for the primacy of the Spirit’s work in the inspiration of Scripture:

Just as the primary theological category for classifying the incarnate Word is the divinity of the Son in his person, work, and words, so also the primary theological category for classifying the inscripturated Word is the divinity of the Spirit in his person, work, and words. The eternal Son assumes a human nature; the eternal Spirit inspires human authors of Scripture. This is one area where the incarnational analogy appears both warranted and useful.

Therefore, the primary locus for our discussion of both incarnation and inspiration is the divinity of the person and word of the Son and Spirit, respectively. The primacy of the divine with respect to inspiration does not deny human authorship of Scripture any more than it denies the assumed humanity of Christ. But it does deny that divinity and humanity are equally basic, or share some sort of ontological parity, when it comes to either incarnation or inspiration. The divine is always primary in matters pertaining to incarnation and inspiration, since the divinity of the Son and the Spirit supply the presuppositions for the possibility of incarnation and inspiration.