11. HOW WE MAY KNOW THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT DWELLS IN US We may know if the Spirit of God dwells in us by his effects, or gifts, which include a correct knowledge of God, regeneration, faith, peace of conscience, and the beginning of new obedience to God. . . . We may also know if the Holy Spirit dwells in us, by the testimony which he bears with our spirit that we are the children of God. So also comfort in the midst of death, joy in afflictions, a firm purpose to persevere in faith...
Sometimes believers struggle with the assurance of salvation. They may ask themselves, “Do I truly have the Holy Spirit?” They ask this because they sincerely want to possess the Holy Spirit but are often reminded of their spiritual weakness which can be unsettling. We need the comfort of the gospel of God’s free grace, the gospel that God grants His beloved people His Holy Spirit. Take comfort in the following wisdom from Zacharias Ursinus. It will be well worth...
To talk out of both sides of your mouth is to say something that contradicts what you said before. A person might give one opinion to one person and turn around and give the opposite opinion to another person. That’s talking out of both sides of the mouth, and sometimes preachers do it in their sermons. For example, if a preacher said at the beginning of his sermon, “Jesus is the Son of God,” and then a little later in his sermon added, “Jesus’ miracles are simply myths,” you’d...
Dispensational theology makes Israel and the church into two distinct peoples of God. This is one of the stark differences between Dispensational theology and Reformed/Covenant theology. As Heidelberg 54 explains, Reformed thinkers believe that “the Son of God, out of the whole human race, from the beginning of the world to its end, gathers, defends, and preserves for Himself . . . a Church chosen to everlasting life.” The church began in the Garden of Eden, not at Pentecost. This...
“Moreover, He is ever making intercession for those that are His, pleading for their acceptance on the basis of His completed sacrifice, and for their safe-keeping in the world, and making their prayers and services acceptable to God. The Lutherans stress the fact that the intercession of Christ is vocalis et realis, while the Reformed emphasize the fact that it consists primarily in the presence of Christ in man’s nature with the Father, and that the prayers are to be considered as the...
“The subject of this exaltation was the Theanthropos; not the Logos specially or distinctively; not the human nature exclusively; but the theanthropic person. When a man is exalted it is not the soul in distinction from the body; nor the body in distinction from the soul, but the whole person.” [1] “Christ was, indeed, always glorious, but was not always exalted in the office of mediator, which is to say, in his kingdom and priesthood. The consummation of his glory, which...
About 22 years ago, I took a trip to France. While there, I visited the famed Louvre Museum in Paris, the home of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. I stood before this small but renowned painting housed in bulletproof glass gazing at its mystery, intrigue, innovation, and beauty. It’s not my favorite painting, but it’s remarkable, nonetheless. It’s remarkable because da Vinci was remarkable. Though we haven’t met him, we do know something about da Vinci by seeing his artwork. The Mona...
This past Sunday evening we had two families over. They stayed for hours late into the evening. It was wonderful. Our connection began years ago at Grove City College before any of us were married. We don’t get to see them often, so when we’re together it’s memorable and sweet. Sunday night was just that. My heart was filled with happiness and thankfulness as I enjoyed our friends. Even our children—all twelve of them—who don’t know each other well, really connected and had a...
Are you Reformed? Am I? How would we go about answering that question? And if you were looking for a church home, and you visited a church that claimed to be Reformed, what might you expect them to teach and practice? Before we could say, “I’m Reformed” or “I’m not Reformed” or “I go to a Reformed church,” we’d need to know what it means to be historically Reformed. We’d need an honest and historically accurate definition of Reformed, right? And this isn’t very easy to...
“Indeed, Christ drank all the poison of death in order that we might not taste the wrath of God in our death . . . . This should encourage us to be obedient to God in our deaths, since Christ yielded His will to that of the Father for us, and drank and removed the wrath of God for us like a bitter potion.” [1] “Thus our physical death is neither a payment for our sins nor an entrance into eternal death but a putting an end to our sinning and an entrance into eternal life.” [2] [1]...