We need the gospel

Strange as it may seem, Christians need the gospel as much as unbelievers do. We do not need the gospel to “be saved”. We need the gospel to keep us from lapsing into a performance mind-set in our day to day relationship with God. We need the gospel to remind us that we are still practicing sinners whose only hope for both eternal life and today’s blessings from God are “Jesus’ blood and righteousness.”

Jerry Bridges, Foreword to DeYoung’s The Good News We almost forgot.

The centrality of the cross

There is nothing more important in Christian theology than our theology of the cross. We must speak clearly that  the heart of the gospel is the good news of divine self-satisfaction through divine self-substitution. Never compromise on the cross. Never dilute the message of the cross. And never stop glorying in the cross where Christ accepted the penalties that should belong to us so that we can claim the blessings that would otherwise belong only to Him.

Kevin DeYoung, The good news we almost forgot.

Does the future have a church? | The Briefing

The briefing has an article on the British Protestant scene. It is interesting. the first thing that strikes me is the number of churches in the UK: 48.000, and the number of ministers: 36.000. For a reminder, there are about 2068 evangelical churches (not sure about the number of liberal protestant churches though) for about the same population. Also, the number of people who are members of a church is 5.5 millions in the UK as compared to 600.000 protestants in France (of which 46000 are evangelicals, less than 0.5% of the population). In the UK, 6% of the population attends a church service on Sundays (Thats 3.5 million people). Paul Levy says (here) it’s a pretty dire situation (which I agree with when you consider the rich christian history of the UK). But from a French perspective, the UK is a kind of evangelical heaven. No wonder many young French Christians who go to study in the UK don’t want to come back. Read the Briefing article: Does the future have a church? | The Briefing.

We love Justice, and So Does God

We need a God who makes moral judgments. if He loves everyone in exactly the same way, what does His love really mean, and what does it mean to be loved by God? Our universe would  make no sense and the pain of injustice would be even greater if we did not have a God who recognizes right from wrong and judges the wicked. Be glad, though: Just as we love justice, so does God.

DeYoung, The Good News We Almost Forgot.