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Circumcision and baptism are therefore not parallel signs within one continuous covenantal structure. They belong to different covenants entirely, covenants with different characters, different peoples, and different appointed testimonies. The Abrahamic and Mosaic covenants both carried forward and progressively revealed the promise of redemption by farther steps, yet they remained distinct covenantal orders governed by their own particular stipulations and conditions. By contrast, the whole of the New Covenant, essentially being Christ Himself, is entirely accomplished, from first to last, by His perfect faithfulness—‘since it is enacted on better promises’ (Hebrews 8:6).… Continue reading Waters of Death, Waters of Life →

The struggle to eat worthily has plagued humanity, but true grace lies not in self-righteousness but in divine mercy.… Continue reading Calvin on the Lord’s Supper, a Meal for Sinners →

The decree of God is not blind fate, but the eternal, wise, and holy purpose of the Triune God who “works all things according to the counsel of His will.” Nothing in creation falls outside His sovereign hand, not even the cross itself, where wicked men freely crucified Christ according to the definite plan of God. For the believer, this doctrine is not terror, but comfort. The God who chose His people before the foundation of the world is the same God who governs every joy, sorrow, trial, and triumph for His glory and our good.… Continue reading Chapter 3: Of God’s Decree →

Two men reach for something holy. One dies. One is healed. The difference is not the sincerity of their actions, nor the worthiness of the one reaching, but the object toward which the hand is extended. This article sets Uzzah’s presumptuous grasp at the Ark against the hemorrhaging woman’s desperate touch of Christ’s hem, and finds in the contrast the whole logic of the gospel: that the holiness of God, which once destroyed the sinner who drew near without a mediator, now heals all who come to Christ in faith.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​… Continue reading The Ark and the Hem: Holiness Approached, Holiness Given →

A church formed on minimal theology produces minimal Christians. When the doctrinal standard is so broad that virtually any Protestant position may shelter beneath it, the people are given no substantive framework within which to grow. They cannot be catechized in what they have never been taught to hold with precision. They cannot defend a faith they have never been equipped to articulate. And when cultural pressure or theological novelty arrives, as it invariably does in every generation, they have no deep root system to hold them fast.… Continue reading Pillar and Buttress of the Truth: How Scripture Demands Confessionalism →