Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

sanctification

What If You Fail?

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Timothy S. Lane and Paul David Tripp, How People Change (Greensboro, NC: New Growth, 2006), 175:

What If You Fail?

Never a day goes by when we do not fail to do what Christ has enabled us to do. Despite all of the gifts flowing from our union with Christ, sin still remains in us. That’s the reason you need to know that Jesus has broken the power of sin–because its presence still remains! We should not be shocked that the war still rages inside us. We have been changed, we have been empowered, but we have not yet been perfected.

What do you do when you sin and fail? [Read more…] about What If You Fail?

Don’t Be a Loner

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Paul writes Timothy in 2 Tim 2:22,

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. (NIV)

But keep away from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, in company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (NET)

Ray Van Neste observes in the ESV Study Bible,

The pursuit of right is not to be done alone but along with other believers. Connection with the community of faith is essential for both progress in sanctification and perseverance in the faith.

Similarly, the NET Bible note observes,

In company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart alludes to the value of the community of believers for the development of Christian virtues.

Related:

  1. Accountability
  2. Pitfalls and Benefits of Small Group Bible Study

Motive

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Then the word of the LORD Almighty came to me: “Ask all the people of the land and the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months for the past seventy years, was it really for me that you fasted? And when you were eating and drinking, were you not just feasting for yourselves?’” (Zech 7:4–6)

John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets (translated by John Owen), 5:172–73 (formatting added):

God reproved the Jews, who had returned to their own country, for ingratitude, as they had already begun to pollute themselves.

He therefore brings this charge against them, [Read more…] about Motive

Six Videos and Related Resources

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When Alex Crain asked me some questions about Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism back in April, he also asked six other questions:

1. What is the gospel? How can God save me?

Related:

  1. “The Definition of the Gospel” (a talk I gave at a conference on April 8, 2011). Outline (3-page PDF).
  2. D. A. Carson. “The Biblical Gospel.” Pages 75–85 in For Such a Time as This: Perspectives on Evangelicalism, Past, Present and Future. Edited by Steve Brady and Harold Rowdon. London: Evangelical Alliance, 1996.
  3. ———. “The Gospel of Jesus Christ (1 Cor 15:1–19).” May 23, 2007. Text, audio, and video available. (A lightly edited manuscript of a sermon preached at The Gospel Coalition’s conference in Deerfield, IL.)
  4. ———.  “What Is the Gospel?—Revisited.” Pages 147–70 in For the Fame of God’s Name: Essays in Honor of John Piper. Edited by Sam Storms and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.
  5. Greg Gilbert. What Is the Gospel? IX Marks. Wheaton: Crossway, 2010.  (Foreword by D. A. Carson. Small, short (127 pp.), clear.)
  6. Milton Vincent. A Gospel Primer for Christians: Learning to See the Glories of God’s Love. Bemidji, MN: Focus, 2008.  (Cf. my review.)

2. Are Mormons Christian?

Related:

  1. Ron Rhodes, “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormonism),” in The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 2631–32.
  2. The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 9:2 (Summer 2005) [Read more…] about Six Videos and Related Resources

Sin Is Suicidal

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Tim Keller preached on the exodus-story at The Gospel Coalition’s 2011 National Conference: “Getting Out.”

Here’s the sermon’s basic outline:

  1. Salvation is about what we’re getting out of: bondage with layers.
  1. Christians were objectively in bondage to the law but are now freed from it.
  2. Christians are subjectively in bondage to the law, and they default to works-righteousness.
  3. Christians are in bondage to their sin nature.
  4. Christians are in bondage to idols.
  • Salvation is about how we’re getting out: crossing over by grace.
  • Salvation is about why we can get out: the mediator.

    • The following adapts what Keller says re §1.3 (from 17:38 to 19:25): [Read more…] about Sin Is Suicidal

    Free Class This Summer: Models of Sanctification

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    That’s the name of a 4-credit class that I’m scheduled to co-teach this summer with Bruce Ware.

    • When? June 6–10, 2011
    • Where? Northland International University
    • For whom? Students in Northland’s graduate program (esp. DMin students)
    • How much? It’s free for first-time students in Northland’s graduate program (whether or not they wish to remain in the program).
    • Can the credit transfer to other schools? Yes.
    • What’s the workload? Check out the syllabus.
    • What’s the course’s general schedule? I’ll start off surveying and evaluating the Wesleyan, Keswick, Chaferian, and Pentecostal views of sanctification. Then Bruce Ware will survey and evaluate the contemplative view and explain and defend the Reformed view.

    More info here.

    I visited Northland’s campus for the first time last month to speak at their Heart Conference and then to teach a week-long grad course on the use of the OT in the NT. I was impressed. The faculty and administration are good folks, and the caliber of students is high. And they assure me that the weather in northern Wisconsin is nicer in June than February!

    Update on 8/23/2017: My latest book attempts to survey and analyze “let go and let God” theology more accessibly:

    No Quick Fix

    That’s Why It’s Called Progressive Sanctification

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    C. S. Lewis, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” in The Chronicles of Narnia (repr., San Fransisco: HarperCollins, 2004), 476:

    [Context: The narrator makes this observation shortly after Aslan transforms Eustace Scrubb, the selfish-brat-turned-dragon, back to his human form.]

    It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy.” To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.