Legalism: A Complex & Deadly Spiritual Disease

(This is a re-post from August, 2017)Legalism is not a rare thing in Christian circles.  It's not confined to a certain denomination, age, gender, race, or class.  Legalism is not rare because it's the default mode of the sinful human heart.  Thomas Boston said it is "engrained in man's corrupt nature." From one angle, then,…

He Submitted Himself to the Covenant of Works (Bavinck)

 Romans 5 is a great passage in Scripture that compares and contrasts Adam and Christ.  Paul uses legal and covenantal language to explain how Adam was a type of Christ.  For example, here's verse 19: For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of…

“Of Pure Grace and Most Unmerited Favor” (Witsius)

  The Apostle Paul is very clear that a sinner is justified by faith alone apart from works (Rom 3.28, Gal 2:16). He also says that we are justified by grace (Titus 3:7).  When it comes to being justified by God, being declared righteous by him, it is not at all based on anything we've…

Hodge on the Mosaic Covenant

 When he brought them out of Egypt, Yahweh made a covenant with his people from Mt. Sinai.  It is often called the Mosaic or Sinaitic covenant.  The details and terms of this covenant are found in various parts of Exodus and Numbers and also in Leviticus and Deuteronomy (and other parts of Scripture).  I appreciate…

Adam, Christ, the Covenant of Works, & Us (Bavinck)

 Paul very clearly taught that Adam was a type of Christ (Rom. 5, 1 Cor 15).  I appreciate in Reformed theology how this is explained using other biblical truths.  Here's how Herman Bavinck discussed Adam, Christ, the covenant of works, and Christians: While it is certainly true that as a human and with reference to…