Dr Paul Allen

Christianity is a religion irreducibly and uniquely fixated on the death of its Saviour. Every Sunday, in every corner of the globe, Christians partake of the Lord’s Supper and in so doing proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes again (1 Cor. 11:26). We often think of Christ’s death as an atonement for sin, but it is also worth reflecting here that Christ suffered on the cross not just for our sin but for our shame. We tend to focus on the physical pain of crucifixion, and it was horrendous. It was an unbelievably cruel way to kill someone. It was a gruesome ordeal where naked criminals died in excruciating pain. Even many of the Romans spoke out against crucifixion as a hideous and barbaric instrument. But the Gospels don’t focus on any of that. Yes, Jesus suffered physical torment. But so did two other men on that hill, and so did hundreds of criminals who were crucified by Rome. In fact, what’s physically remarkable about Jesus’s death on the cross is that he died so quickly (Mark ...

  "On the third day, he rose from the dead." Etched in my memory from childhood are those lines from a familiar Easter hymn in evangelical circles, "He Lives": "You ask me how I know he lives? He lives within my heart." Despite the warmth that such sentiment offers, it hardly fits the bill sketched out by the Apostle Peter: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" ( 1 Pet. 3:15 ).  Many ideas can be, and often are, embraced by the heart that are simply wrong. Santa Claus and the tooth fairy may be harmless childhood myths, but when we are making claims about eternal matters, emotionally useful fantasies will not suffice.  Eventually, we grow up, and if our understanding of the Christian truth-claims does not mature as well, we are likely to be blown about by the trendy gusts of whim. In an informal survey of evangelical Christians recently, nearly everyone agreed with the statem...

It had been over three hours by now. Three hours with the crown of thorns pressed into His head. Three hours with the nails piercing His hands and His feet. Three hours with His raw and bleeding back pressed against a rough, wooden cross. Three hours of anguish and suffering. Now, though, at about three in the afternoon, it was coming to an end.  Those who stood within shouting distance of the cross heard the first scream: “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” They thought He was calling for divine intervention, a miracle of salvation from God to deliver Him from imminent death. Jesus had one last word to say, but His throat was parched, so He called for a drink, fulfilling the words of the prophets. Then, onlookers heard a second and final scream: “Tetelestai!” It is finished. With that utterance, Jesus bowed His head and delivered over His Spirit. The Apostle John was close enough to hear what Jesus had cried aloud seconds before He died. What must have been going through J...

Christianity would not exist without the belief of the earliest Christians that God raised Jesus from the dead. As the Apostle Paul famously declared: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins” ( 1 Cor 15:17 NRSV ). But for many Christians, the importance of the resurrection seems simply to be that it validates the more fundamental saving work of Christ, namely, his atoning death on the cross. While the cross is indeed absolutely central to how Christ saves, the earliest apostolic teaching in the book of Acts gives  Jesus’s resurrection pride of place  in how God accomplishes salvation. What follows are four reasons—drawn from the apostolic sermons in Acts—why the resurrection is foundational to the Christian faith. Table of contents 1. The confirmation of Jesus 2. The enthronement of Christ 3. The outpouring of the Spirit 4. The reign of the king Conclusion 1. The confirmation of Jesus Acts teaches that  Jesus’s resurrection...