Who’s Your Pastor?

In this day and age, where technology is replacing personal attentions and where individualism (“I do it my way”) is still one of our foes, today’s pastors face challenges that seem unique to this generation (actually, not really). For instance, because the internet usage is normative, there are plenty of sermons available online, which means [...]

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Ponder Anew

“Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” (Matthew 27:46).
“When a man offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the LORD to fulfill a special vow or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it must be perfect to be accepted; there shall be no defect in it” (Leviticus 22:21).
“He made Him who knew no [...]

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The Cross and the Substitution

The idea that one would die for another is not unique. We all have heard of a soldier or policeman taking a bullet for one of their own. Or, that a parent would sacrifice his own life to save his child. So the notion that one would die for another is not unique. I’m afraid [...]

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Luther on Christ’s Death

According to Martin Luther:
The greatest wonder ever on earth is that the Son of God died! The shameful death of the cross. It is astonishing that the Father should say to His only Son, who by nature is God: Go, let them hang you on the gallows. The love of the everlasting Father was immeasurably [...]

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A Description of the Crucifixion

F.F. Bruce notes:
Crucifixion was not only a prolonged and unspeakably painful method of execution; it was also utterly humiliating. A crucified man was exposed naked to the jeers and abuse of the populace like one who was fastened in the stocks or the pillory; there was, however, eventual release from the stocks or the pillory, [...]

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Some Historical Confessions on the Passion Week

One of the visible characteristics of Reformed (or reforming) churches is that it is confessional, not in a Roman Catholic sense where you confess your sins to a priest, but confessional like in doctrinal. Although I rejoice witnessing resurgence of Reformed interests, especially, from the neo-Reformed (so called “young, restless, reformed”), my concern is that [...]

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Jesus, Our Great High Priest

Just like in the Old Testament, in the rabbinic writings there is a twofold emphasis on the Day of Atonement, namely accessing to God and cleansing from God. And the high priest was the only person, who was permitted to enter the Holy of Holies only once in the whole year (cf. Hebrews 9:7). On [...]

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Spurgeon on the Atonement

“For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).
According to Charles Spurgeon:

The doctrine of the atonement is very simple. It just consists in the substitution of Christ in the place of sinner; Christ being treated as if he were the sinner, and then the transgressor being treated [...]

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The Death of Christ According To God’s Sovereign Will

On this Passion Week, some of the helpful considerations will be posted to aid your meditation and preparation for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.
To kick off, consider following thoughts from John Piper’s History’s Most Spectacular Sin:
From all these prophesies, we know that God foresaw and did not prevent and therefore included in his plan that [...]

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