Dr Paul Allen

The saving ministry of Jesus Christ is summed up in the statement that He is the "mediator between God and men" (1 Tim. 2:5). A mediator is one who brings together parties who are out of communication and who may be alienated, estranged, or at war with each other. The mediator must have links with both sides so as to identify with and maintain the interests of both, and represent each to the other on a basis of goodwill.  Thus Moses was mediator between God and Israel (Gal. 3:19), speaking to Israel on God's behalf when God gave the law (Ex. 20:18-21 ) and speaking to God on Israel's behalf when Israel had sinned (Ex. 32:9-33:17). Every member of our fallen and rebellious race is by nature "hostile to God" (Rom. 8:7), standing under God's wrath, the punitive rejection whereby as Judge He expresses active anger at our sins (Rom. 1 :18; 2:5-9; 3:5, 6).  Reconciliation of the alienated parties is needed, but can only occur if God's wrath

We saw her sitting there on her wheelchair sobbing. Why? Because she was unable to walk up the Holy Steps to have her sins forgiven. She so desperately wanted to be able to spend less time in purgatory and she couldn’t bear the thought of being so close to the steps where Jesus had walked and unable to go up them like everybody else. She had been duped into believing that this ritual of walking up the steps, and saying a few hundred hail Mary’s would save her from her sin. Her tears were yet another example of the evil that is the Roman Catholic Church . Of course, a sign not too far from her stated that those who could not crawl up the steps could stay right where they were and still receive pardon for their sin, but she wasn’t buying it.  She knew that she was missing out on something, and it was all because of her inability to perform works. There were dozens of people partaking in this practice of walking up these “holy steps”. According to Roman Catholic tradition,

Martin Luther, commemorated on February 18 Evangelical Lutheran Worship. Minneapolis: Fortress Press (2006), 15. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Lessons of the Reformation The things that matter most to us all center on the gospel. The church simply can’t afford to forget the lesson of the Reformation about the utter supremacy of the gospel in everything the church does. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, has dedicated his life to bear­ ing witness to the unimaginable horrors and atrocities of the Holocaust . He speaks of the unspeakable. And he does so because humanity cannot afford to forget the lesson of the Holocaust. It is far too easy to forget, especially when forgetting eases our conscience. History, however, com­pels us to remember. In studying the Reformation, we remember what the church is all about, and we remember how easy it is for the church to lose its grip on the gospel. If he said it once, Martin Luther said it a hundred times: “The church’s

Martin Luther, author of the text of Christ lag in Todes Banden, and who, with Johann Walter, also wrote the melody (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) 499 years ago this upcoming  Monday , on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther famously nailed his 95 Theses to the Castle Church door in Wittenberg, Germany , kick-starting the Protestant Reformation . Nearly 500 years later, God ’s people reserve this day to celebrate the rescue of His Word from the shackles of Roman Catholic tyranny, corruption, and heresy. The glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ as revealed in the sufficient Scriptures had been recovered, and it’s been doing its saving work ever since. Romans  1:16 –17 stands at the heart of the Reformation, especially because of  how central it was in Luther’s conversion . Luther speaks of how he had  hated  the phrase, “the righteousness of God,” because he understood it to be speaking only of God’s standard of righteousness by which He would judge unrighteous sinners. But eventually,

English: Jesus falling, while carrying the cross, on his way to calvary. The painting was by Anton Raphael Mengs, a German artist in the 18th century. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) We have a crisis if the cross loses its offense in our eyes. If we’re not offended by the cross, we’re in grave danger of losing the comfort and hope of the cross. Paul writes, “If I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed” (Galatians 5:11). Meaning, if I preach a righteousness through good works, then the cross is no longer necessary. The message of the cross — that we are sinful beyond saving unless God intervenes on our behalf — is softened or silenced by false gospels. The true gospel is the most offensive news ever announced: you are wicked and without hope in and of yourself. Your best efforts to be good are worthless — the worst kind of failure and rebellion. So the offensiveness can be removed, but when it’s strip

The Reformed Church of France, Paris, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed" (James  5:16 ). Is corporate confession of sin enough? It is, but it  may not be . It all depends on who's asking. Let me explain.  Corporate confession of sin on the Lord's Day is a glorious, sin-debilitating means of grace. With solemnity, we confess as one body that we have not done the things that we should have done (sins of omission), and have done the things that we should not have done (sins of commission).  Then, with joy, we look away from our past sin and set our gaze on God's faithfulness to His covenant promises in the gracious work of Jesus Christ —His humble entrance into the world, morally-perfect life, wrath-absorbing death for our sins, victorious resurrection, and ascension to the right hand of the Majesty on high, where He continually and unfailingly intercedes on ou

This letter P is an example of an historiated initial (depicting Peter) in an illuminated Latin bible, 1407 AD. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “The Invincible Power of the Inerrant Word.” We understand what the word inerrant means. It means that it is without any errors as it was recorded in its original autographs. This is a flawless book in all that it states. Psalm 12:6 states, “The words of the LORD are pure words; as silver tried in a furnace on the earth, refined seven times.” Refined to absolute perfection. It is a flawless book in all that it states. Psalm 119:140 : “Your word is very pure, therefore Your servant loves it.” Proverbs 30:5 says, “Every word of God is tested,” meaning: it has been put into the fire. There are no impurities that remain. It is the pure gold and silver of the truth of God. Jesus prayed in John 17:17 , “ Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth.” The word truthmeans reality, the way things really are. It does not mean that which the cultu