Traditions; Lewis’ World Changing Essay, Myth Became Fact

Posted on July 2, 2025 by RC

Some call them summer re-runs. We call them revisiting great classics. You be the judge. Check out this episode of Jesus Changes Everything, wherein we consider traditions, and dive into CS Lewis’ great essay, Myth Became Fact.

This week’s classic Jesus Changes Everything Episode

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Happy Birthday To Me- Sixty Trips Around the Sun

Posted on July 1, 2025 by RC

On the occasion of my fortieth birthday I wrote- “Wisdom means in part, recognizing the blessing of growing older.” Ten years later I opined about this nugget, “Easier said than done.” Ten years later still and I’m learning that each year makes it easier.

I’ve reached that age where birthday decorations come in black. I’m on the down side of the hill. And I’m picking up speed. Each year spins by faster than the last, and the Grim Reaper is gaining ground. Which, ironically, is why getting older actually gets easier. Age teaches that for every earthly blessing that lies behind there’s a far greater blessing that lies before you.

As we age the veil between heaven and earth grows more thin. The “bad” news is that it becomes all the easier to break right through. The good news is that it not only becomes all the easier to break right through, but all the easier to see right through. Aging is that process by which we move from believing this world is the real world and the other ephemeral and distant to believing we are now in the shadowlands, and headed to a reality more real than what we have known.

I don’t know what my Lord has in store for me in the coming decades. He has cared for me in the six decades He walked with me. He has promised me blessings for eternity. Every gift I cherish on this earth- my wife, our children, cake and ice cream, a story well told, a log fire on a snowy evening, will in one form or another make it into the new heavens and new earth. Death is not trading this blessing for a better blessing. It is adding greater blessings to blessings that continue.

As my precious wife is prone to remind me, wisdom of God’s gold that drops from her lips, “in Your book they all were written, The days fashioned for me, When as yet there were none of them” (Psalm 139:16). How many pages are left? Only the author knows. But when those pages close, they close with words not far from these from the pen of CS Lewis in The Last Battle:

“’The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning.’
And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.”

Happy birthday indeed.

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How ought the believer to serve the church?

Posted on June 30, 2025 by RC

There are many weaknesses inherent in the mindset that sees the church like a shopping mall. The seeker sensitive movement has encouraged the church to see itself as a business, marketing the gospel to increase market share. This sands down the offense of the gospel, turns God Himself into product. Perhaps worst of all it turns the church goer into a consumer.

In an earlier piece we considered how the church does in fact serve the believer. The church is, after all, a gift from God Himself. We receive immeasurable and innumerable blessings from His bride. Yeah and amen from my corner of the sanctuary. While we receive from the church, the relationship between the church and the believer isn’t a transactional one. We are called, nonetheless, each of us, to serve the church. But how?

You may have heard this nugget of wisdom, that the greatest ability is availability. In light of that, before we look at specifics of what we can do in service, we begin with the blessing we bring by simply showing up eager to serve. The body is served best when each member of the body recognizes his or her calling to be of service to the body. Before you catalogue your giftings, start here- I came to help.

What we find in the various listings of giftings in Scripture is a clear clue about what kind of help is needed. We serve the church when we fill the gaps. Whether you have the “gift of administration” or not, the church is likely to be served well if you can bring organization to the table. You need not have the “gift of hospitality” to make a meal for the young mother who just gave birth, or the widow who just buried her husband.

Every team needs a utility player, if not many of them. But such doesn’t erase the need for experts. It’s a good thing to study up on your giftings. This need not be either a mystical nor bureaucratic exercise. God may not whisper in your ear that you are supposed to sing solos on the Lord’s Day. You don’t have to apply a #2 pencil to a bubble test then plug it into some whiz-bang gift assessor program.

No. Your gifts are likely discovered by this complex algorithm- look for the intersection of what people tend to tell you you do well, and what you like to do. X marks the spot.

The church is, of course, a body of differing members. When you serve the members you are serving the body. When you serve the body you are serving the members. Whether you are front and center before the gathered throng, or toiling in obscurity, never lose sight of the glorious truth that the Head of the church has not lost sight of you. We don’t serve to be recognized, but to serve.

That said, allow me to conclude with something everyone can do to serve the church. Speak words of encouragement. Not for things that should be discouraged. But for everything else, big and small. When you are blessed by the gifts of others, let them know. It will mean as much to them as it means to you when someone lets you know.

This is the fifty-first installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday July 6 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

Posted in Apostles' Creed, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, church, kingdom, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Same Circumstance, Same Savior, Same Song

Posted on June 27, 2025 by RC

Trouble comes to the people of God. If it is not here now, it will be here soon. Those who promise that the Christian life is a breezy walk through the meadow not only have not taken up their cross and followed Him, but, I fear, He may not have taken up His cross for them. Our walk, according to His Word, will be fraught with peril, our days filled with troubles. His yoke is indeed easy, and His burden light. But we follow Him on the via dolorosa. Praise God that He has not left us wandering in the dark. When we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us. He has told us troubles will come, and He has told us how we ought to respond.

Take the life of David, the original renaissance man, a man of deep and varied talents. Were we to look at his life with rose-colored glasses, we might think he moved from victory to victory. We might remember the killing of the bear and the lion, the service to King Saul, the astonishing victory over Goliath of Gath. We might recall the cries of his countrymen who sang, “Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands” (1 Sam. 18:7). He was made king over all Israel, expanded her borders, and established his throne in Jerusalem. He was the father to the wisest man, short of Jesus, ever to walk on the planet. He was, and this surpasses all of the above, a man after God’s own heart.

Such an account of the life of David shows some glaring holes. First, there he was tending the flock, and a bear came after them, and at another time a lion. The king that he served was at best a mad man, given to fits of rage. Facing Goliath was no picnic, nor could it have been easy to go so often into battle throughout his life. Saul killed his thousands, but his special target was David, leading him to flee for his life and live in exile in Egypt. His own son toppled him from his throne, and in the end, his hands were too bloody to allow him to build the temple of the Lord. David’s highs and lows were as varied as his talents.

David’s greatest influence is found in none of the above. He was a great warrior, and for the most part, a model king. He was an outstanding shepherd. But it is his lyrics that still shape the world. Not only is the Christian’s life much like David’s, with both breathtaking highs and soul-numbing lows, but that the life of the church is the same.

The church of Jesus Christ has had, over the millennia, moments of grand triumph and episodes of grave sin. Whether it be the conquering sword of Islam or the steady decay of the Roman empire; whether it be feuding barbarian hordes or feuding clerical factions, the church does not move from triumph to triumph. It does move, however, under the care of the great shepherd of the sheep. And she goes on her way singing the wisdom of David (Ps. 20:1–4):

May the Lord answer you in
the day of trouble!
May the name of the God
of Jacob protect you!
May he send you help
from the sanctuary and
give you support from Zion!
May he remember all your
offerings, and regard with
favor your burnt sacrifices!
May He grant you your heart’s
desire, and fulfill all your plans.

This blessed hope, however, is no mere hope. He delivers in the day of trouble precisely because He is the author of the day of trouble. He sends the trouble and the deliverance for the same purpose, to strengthen us, to grant our hearts’ desire, to fulfill all our purpose, that we would be like the One whom He remembers, Jesus His Son.
In times of trouble, which the church faces now and will face again, David tells us that “we will rejoice in Your salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions.”
He calls us not to fear, not to worry, but to seek first the kingdom of God (Ps. 20:6):

Now I know that the Lord
saves His anointed; he will
answer him from His holy
heaven with the saving might
of His right hand.

In times of trouble, which the church faces now and will face again, David tells us that we must look to the resurrection. The Lord has saved His anointed, and in Him, He saves us. So we will walk as the fools (Ps. 20:7–8):

Some trust in chariots, and some
in horses, but we trust in the
name of the Lord our God.
They collapse and fall,
but we rise and stand upright.

David’s wise son told us that there is nothing new under the sun. Troubles — like those in poverty — we will have with us always. But the son of David reigns on high. And He shall reign for ever and ever. Thus we cry out in times of need, “Save, Lord!”

May the King answer us when we call.

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The Rise of the Next Reich and the Part We Play

Posted on June 26, 2025 by RC

We must remember two great truths from the wisdom of Solomon- there is nothing new under the sun (Eccl. 1:9) and that there is a time for peace and time for war (Eccl. 3:8). This notion that we are entering into the 5th generation of war, fought through slogans, memes, propaganda fails to embrace the wisdom of the first. The failure to recognize we are at war is a failure to recognize the second.

Consider, for a moment, the rise of the Third Reich. If we are ignorant of history we imagine they came to power through a violent coup. If we are mildly informed we recognize they were democratically elected into office. If we were wise, we’d understand it was both/and rather than either or. And we’d learn to recognize the same in our day.

The first wave of the Nazi putsch over Germany began with young thugs, hoodlums, fighting in the streets. There was precious little advocacy for Nazi ideals. People were not persuaded by well-honed arguments. It just got to the place where if you didn’t take the side of this fringe party, they’d pummel you in the streets. Recruitment by fear writ small became eventually suppression by fear writ large. Street thugs in brown shirts became deadly bureaucrats in black skull-adorned uniforms.

Which brings us to the Twitter Wars, the online version of street fighting. We live in an age where affirming that Jesus was Jewish leads to a barrage of accusations of being gay, fat, and stupid. Countless anonymous “scholars” will debunk your view by taunting you a second time while blowing raspberries your way. Suggest that genetics are not destiny, that character counts, that red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in His sight, and you will be shamed, cancelled and condemned. By anon keyboard heroes.

My concern has never been that baptized fascism would win the day intellectually. But then I’ve never seen an intellectual argument in defense of fascism. I see anger at people of different ethnic backgrounds. I’ve seen Scripture twisted beyond all recognition. I’ve seen theological ancestors with the same weaknesses lionized as heroes. I’ve see baptized fascism as the lone bulwark against leftist bunk.

Mostly though I see chest thumping, insults, screeching. I’m afraid, however, that too many of us will be too afraid to hoot this nonsense off the stage. And that the next stage will be a beerhall putsch, followed by a night of long knives, electoral respectability, scapegoating, and a coup disguised as mere political machinations. The next thing you know we’ll be telling each other to sing louder while the boxcars roll by.

Don’t let the ridiculousness of these fools fool you into thinking they will never succeed. Neither need you think that what is needed is properly footnoted dissertations, or alliances with the equally foolish woke left. What is needed is courage and faith. The courage to be willing to be hated by haters, and faith in the One who loves all His brothers and sisters, the Elder Brother in the one family we’ve all been irrevocably adopted into. The Lord reigns.

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Summer Hiatus and Classic Jesus Changes Everything

Posted on June 25, 2025 by RC

Hello friends. It’s summertime and that means Hollywood and Fort Wayne take a break. Each Wednesday this summer I’ll be re-airing classic Jesus Changes Everything Podcasts for your listening pleasure. That said, I may well break out a new episode along the way. To keep you on your toes.

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything considers Elisha and the Bears, my hero, Shannon Sproul and my father’s outstanding book on worship, A Taste of Heaven. Check it out.

https://oembed.libsyn.com/embed?item_id=16206725

You can also meet Shannon here.

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American Idols: Worshipping the Work of Our Hands

Posted on June 24, 2025 by RC

Sophistication, more often than not, comes complete with toilet paper stuck to the heel of your shoe. We enter the world seeking to look au courant. We carry with us the latest news, opinions, tastes. All while wearing the latest clothes. We think we’ve reached the summit of human evolution, and then, with everyone looking, start picking nits off our neighbors and eating them.

It was the Frenchman Auguste Comte who suggested that the history of any given culture could be divided into three epochs. The first was the religious age, wherein all of the great questions are answered through a religious approach. Everything from death to drought, from birth to prosperity would be understood as the workings of God or of the gods.

As man matured he enters into the philosophical stage. Here all the great questions find their answers in the fertile field of philosophy. Man reached the highest maturity, however, when he entered into the scientific age, where science is the source of all our answers. Isn’t it just like us to create a worldview wherein in the end all that is good and right turns out to be ta-da, us.

Something has gone wrong on Comte’s road to paradise. Science hasn’t delivered the goods, and so we are back to the deity menagerie. Those ancient and backward cultures once had a god for everything. The Sun God out dueled the rain God, and that’s why there was a drought. The thunder God was routed in the same battle. Not so for we who are higher up the evolutionary chain. We don’t have a god for everything. Instead we have a god for everybody. The god we actually worship is the god of personal peace and affluence. The god we claim to submit to is God-to-me.

It can, depending on how you look at it, either be easy or hard to submit to God-to-me. Scarcely have you wished for something, and getting it is suddenly God-to-me’s command. That is, it’s kind of hard to bow down to that which you have made with your own hands. On the other hand, the best attribute of God-to-me is that His will corresponds exactly with my own. That’s why I made him in the first place. This is our so called progress. Those fools in loin clothes that came before us fashioned statues of wood and silver. They made for themselves aids to worship, understanding perfectly well that the statues they bowed before were not gods, but merely symbols of gods. After all, can a man make a god?

It took millennia for the mind of man to sink low enough that he could speak of God-to-me without blushing. “Well, God-to-me is sort of like this amorphous life force, effused through with love. It makes no demands. It only wants me to be happy, and trusts me to determine the path that will lead to my happiness.” If one of these ancient stone worshipping rubes could hear our modern sophisticate speak such, what do you think he’d say? “I understand how a man can make a statue of his Maker. What I can’t fathom is how a man can actually make his Maker. If you construct your god, how could He have ever constructed you?”

This, however, is where we have come to. This is accepted wisdom, the very creed of our culture- everyone gets to make god in their own image. To argue with this folly is to offend, uh, what exactly? If we all make our own gods, here’s what I propose. I am going to construct a god who not only made me, but made everyone else. He has delivered law not only to me, but to everyone else. And everyone is obligated to obey and worship the god of my making.

Relativism of any sort, theological or ethical, is a workable solipsism, until our worlds collide. That is, we can indeed all get along with our own “God-to-me’s” as long as we never have our worlds intersect. What do we do, however, if God-to-me thinks you should give me your car, while God-to-you thinks I should take a long walk on a short pier? Whose god wins, and how do we decide?

This is why the peace promised by postmodernism will always and swiftly descend into the war of fascism soon enough. The gods we construct can only wrestle through us, and whomever builds the biggest army wins. Thus whether or not unborn children may be put to death comes down to how many votes this party or that can garner. When there is nothing above the sun, sooner or later everything below the sun devolves into perpetual war.

This is why we must pray for the peace of Babylon, because we are getting caught in the crossfire of competing false gods. When those outside the kingdom begin whimpering “Why can’t we all just get along?” soon enough those of us who affirm the living and true God find ourselves under the gun. We are the extremists, the fundamentalists, the enemies of tolerance that must be either re-educated, put on reservations, or removed from the planet. May we have the courage to tear down their foolish and silent gods, knowing with confidence that our God, the one who made us, not the one we have made, reigns.

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How does the church effectively serve the believer?

Posted on June 23, 2025 by RC

For almost a year now I’ve been publishing a weekly blog piece under the Ask RC heading on the nature and calling of the church. I have been persuaded for decades that one of the great weaknesses inside the church is our radically low ecclesiology. Or, to put it more plainly, we don’t value the church like we ought to. Like all of God’s good gifts, we take the church for granted.

We are prone to seeing the church as an asset, a tool designed for solving certain problems. It provides a place to be reminded of important matters, to meet with like-minded people, to receive clean entertainment. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But those are not things rather high up in not Maslow’s but God’s hierarchy of our needs.

The church is that place where we receive every word from the lips of God. Man does not live by bread alone and the Lord’s sheep feed upon the very Word of the Great Shepherd. If we valued the transforming power of God’s Word preached we would flock to those churches where it, rather than the one delivering it, is the center of attention. In too many churches we walk in looking spit-shined and polished, but come out more emaciated than we went in.

The church is that place where we receive the bread of life, where we remember at His table Christ’s body broken both by and for us. This, Jesus said, do in remembrance of Me. We think ourselves smarter than He by thinking props, quips and smoke machines will do the trick more efficiently. Once again, we are starved because we think we know better what to serve than the Master of the Feast.

The communion table also is that place where we not only enter into deeper union with Him, but with each other. We come to the table confessing that we crucified the Lord of Glory. Now there is no more reason for our pathetic facades, nor for competing for our pathetic trophies of standing and reputation. It is in the church that we behold the body of Christ, which we are blessed to love and be loved by.

The church is that place where we are encouraged on the road of discipleship. We are led in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake. This may mean that we need, from time to time, the grace of church discipline. There we find comfort in His rod and staff.

The church is that place that serves us in giving us opportunity to serve. As we love one another, we become more like the One who first loved us. The church, in short, is that place where our Lord has put the means of grace by which we are being remade into His image. The gospel affords us immeasurable blessings- forgiveness, cleansing, adoption. But there is none greater than being made more like Him. If that’s not reason to love and cherish His bride, what is?


This is the fiftieth installment of an ongoing series of pieces here on the nature and calling of the church. Stay tuned for more. Remember also that we at Sovereign Grace Fellowship meet this Sunday June 22 at 10:30 AM at our new location, our beautiful farm at 11281 Garman Road, Spencerville, IN. Please come join us.

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Kiss the Son Lest You Perish Along the Way

Posted on June 20, 2025 by RC

There is no such thing as the “More” party. They do not run campaigns seeking to unseat sitting officials of the “Less” party. Both “More” and “Less” need more context and less ambiguity. We need to know what we are getting more or less of. In like manner, the question of pluralism begs a previous question- Plural what? What is it the pluralists want more of? On the surface it might seem that what they want more of is religions. One religion isn’t enough. We need, according to these folks, to construct a world with plenty of room for Hindus and Hottentots, for Muslims and Mormons, for Buddhists and Baptists.

Authority

When we look deeper, however, we run headlong into an inescapable spiritual reality, that every religion in the end is all about authority. What they want is multiple authorities. If there is, in the end, only one authority, and I am not that authority, then I am under authority. But, if there are lots of authorities, which is another way of saying there is no authority, then I am free to rule my own world. Then there is not only room for Shinto-ism, but for Sheila-ism. There is not only room for Roman Catholicism, but for R.C. Sproulicisim.

Denying What We Know

When the Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1 that the natural man suppresses the knowledge of God in unrighteousness, that he denies what he knows, we understand that he does this that he might continue to sin, without fear of reprisal. The natural man constructs a view of the world wherein he never need fear facing the judgment of God. This construct not only will actually require the facing of the judgment of God, but is in fact already a judgment by God. It is the very foolishness that God gives their minds over to.


Dealing with the Devil

Pluralism extends beyond the unbeliever. We who profess the Lordship of Christ, more often than not, find pluralism appealing. We who’ve been given new hearts, presumably are about the business of putting to death our desire for self-rule. We ought, it would seem, to be of the “Less” party. I fear our motives are scarcely more honorable than our unbelieving friends’ motives. They won’t affirm the Lordship of Christ over them because they fear Christ will reign over them. We fear affirming the Lordship of Christ over all things, including our neighbors, because we are afraid our neighbors will rule over us.

Pluralism is a half-hearted attempt at a compromise of convenience- we won’t condemn you if you won’t condemn us. We won’t say you are wrong, if you won’t say that we are wrong. We won’t find your views backwards and repugnant, if you won’t find our views backwards and repugnant. What a deal. And all it costs us is the central and first affirmation of our own faith, Jesus is Lord. All we have to give up to win peace with our neighbors is the proclamation of the gospel.

Seek First

Jesus is all too aware of our fears. He knows how painful it is to be scorned by the broader culture. He knows what it’s like to have a single dominant religion find your religion to be foolish and superstitious. He has experience in suffering under a single monolithic power. He’s entered into this reality, and conquered it. And He commands of us that we seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness. He commands that we put our worries away, and trust in Him.

No Bounds

We evangelicals make the foolish mistake of thinking that when enough souls decide to make Jesus the Lord of their lives, that He will become the Lord of all things. The reality is that Jesus is already Lord over all things. His kingdom, strictly speaking, does not expand, for even now it knows no borders. He does not, therefore, engage in some sort of power sharing arrangement with other pretenders to His throne, whether they be false deities, or those who falsely worship them. We do not accomplish His Lordship but recognize and submit to it. It is not something we negotiate; it is something we proclaim.

Good Cheer

That Jesus is Lord, however, is not some grim reality that we proclaim with all the grace of a desert prophet. It is something we proclaim with all the grace of joy. It was our Lord Himself, after all, who commanded us to “Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). It’s over. The kingdom is here, and Jesus has won. What fools we are to rush off to negotiate with the enemy to save our skins.

Repent and Believe

His victory does not mean that we rush off to kill all our enemies. Instead that we are to love them. Which love must be strong enough to tell them with both passion and compassion, that their hopes are in vain. That their gods are mute, and that there is only one name under heaven by which a man must be saved. Our love for them does not present the Christian gospel as an option, nor to argue it’s a good option that’s worked well for us. Our love commands all men everywhere to repent and believe the gospel, lest they perish, to kiss the Son, lest He be angry and they perish along the way.

Posted in 10 Commandments, apologetics, Biblical Doctrines, church, eschatology, evangelism, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, politics, post-modernism, preaching, RC Sproul JR, theology, wisdom | Comments Off on Kiss the Son Lest You Perish Along the Way

We Have Met the Scandalizers and They Are Us

Posted on June 19, 2025 by RC

Much has already been spoken and written since last month’s blunder by Bryan Chappell, former stated clerk of the PCA church. If you are unaware, Dr. Chappell was being interviewed by the Gospel Coalition and along the way, in order to make a point, pulled a post-it note off his desk that listed a dozen or two men he believed to be scandalizers in the church. He went on to speak this untruth- that every one of the men on the list has either left his family, left the faith or taken his own life. Yikes.

I know, some better than others, roughly half the men on the list. Most of them I would consider friends. While I hate to see any of them falsely accused of infidelity, apostasy or murder, I confess I understand why each one of them might be considered a scandalizer. The accusation sticks.

I should be on that list. Alas, and wildly ironically, my scandals have rendered me insufficiently significant in the Reformed world to make Dr. Chapell’s list. I also have a long list of others who should be on the list. Collin Hansen, who performed the interview, should have been on the list. Steve Lawson should have been on the list. John Piper too. Joel Webbon should have been on the list. As well as Brian Sauve. Doug Wilson should have been on the list. You know who else should have been on the list? RC Sproul.

Why? Everyone on the list, all those I suggested should be on the list, and all those whose names I haven’t mentioned have brought scandal into the church. We have been regenerated, indwelt, redeemed, forgiven. We are the very bride of the one perfect Man. And we not only have a past, but a present, and a future too. We are Gomer, only we go back to our old ways more than once.

If there is a scandal in this scandalizer scandal it is that we have and we are believers who think ourselves superior to other believers, whether we are Dr. Chappell making his list or we are using him to make our grist for our mill. We who are appalled at Dr. Chappell’s faux pas are prone to pronounce our judgment on him, for the list, for who is on the list and for his first “apology” which no one would ever confuse with Psalm 51.

Those who are appalled at the men on the list, including the men on the list half of whom would likely have the other half on their own list, pronounce judgment on the names for their scandalizing behavior, which is rather more nuanced than what fits on a post-it. Our response, in short, is to cast blame on those whose tribe is farthest from us. What it ought to be is repentance.

There is nothing any of these men have done that is beyond my own sin. I crucified the Lord of Glory. So did they. So did you. Which is how we’ve all come to be forgiven, through the scandal of the cross. Which scandal ought to banish all others.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, communion, ethics, grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, scandal, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment