Always In Christ Alone: Baxter On Sanctification / December 26, 2018 by Shane D. Anderson

I am continuing slowly through Richard Baxter’s monumental Directory and am sharing various ideas and quotations I have found particularly encouraging. Immediately preceding this quotation, he has been challenging the person who wants to please God to rid himself of any thought of self-merit or deserved acceptance before God in anything but Jesus Christ. Conversion and the beginnings of new life are only in and by Christ, but so it the way of sanctification and ultimate victory:

Alas! without Christ,

we know not how to live an hour;

nor can have hope or peace in any thing we have or do;

nor look with comfort either upward or downward, to God, or the creature;

nor think without terrors of our sins, of God, or of the life to come.

Resolve, therefore, that as true converts,

you are wholly to live upon Jesus Christ,

and to do all that you do by his Spirit and strength;

and to expect all your acceptance with God upon his account.

Zealous For Good Works: What Are Good Works (part 3)? / November 16, 2017 by Shane D. Anderson

You have been recreated by the grace of the Spirit in Jesus Christ to live for God in the doing of good deeds—living in a way that pleases him. All objections and excuses must fade away in light of this truth, and we must be convinced that as Christ came to do the Father’s will, so he leads us forward in life as his new creation to do the same. Good works manifest the love of God to him and our neighbors. Good works are the imitation of Christ by the Spirit.

Zealous For Good Works / October 14, 2017 by Shane D. Anderson

This post is the first in a series designed to encourage good works by providing excerpts from Reformed preaching and writing. But, before we get started, I think it is important to ask why this even matters... This post seeks to provide some biblical reasons we as Christians should we make a study of good works.

Union With Christ In the Westminster Shorter Catechism / October 8, 2017 by Andy Schreiber

There is much debate over whether we are to view union with Christ or justification as having a logical (even if not strictly chronological) priority in salvation.

While this post certainly will not settle that debate, I thought that it might at least prove helpful to briefly examine what the Westminster Shorter Catechism has to say about the subject. It is my contention that the Shorter Catechism is abundantly clear when it comes to spelling out for us which comes first (i.e. logical priority), union with Christ or justification.

The Unio Mystica is our Great Salvation / February 20, 2017 by Timothy Lee

This is a reminder that everything needed for salvation is literally in Christ alone. To all those living and walking by faith, the Triune God has proven his faithfulness to you. So let us sing with our hearts, all glory be to Christ!