Showing results by narrator "David K. Martin" in All Categories

Walter Marshall (1628-1680) explains that sanctification, like justification, is a gracious gift of God and is not the result of human effort. Rather than sanctification being produced by our works, our works are the fruit of God's work of sanctification in us.

At the center of our Christian experience, we discover that our union with the Crucified and Risen Jesus shapes our identity and our spiritual formation. Cruciform Identity calls Christians to embrace their union with Christ, grow deeper in their relationship with Him, and experience the beauty of the Christian life.

In The Teaching of Jesus Concerning the Kingdom of God and the Church, Geerhardus Vos (1862-1949), Professor of Biblical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary, describes the Messianic work of Jesus as the realization of Old Testament revelation. Vos says the kingdom of God was inaugurated by the resurrection and ascension of Jesus, but that it awaits consummation at the end of the world. Vos concludes that religion alone can act as the supreme unifying factor in the life of man, leading it to its final goal in the service of God.

In his spiritual autobiography, Thomas Scott (1747-1821) describes entering ministry in the Church of England under false pretenses. Through the unexpected friendship of John Newton (author of Amazing Grace) Scott becomes convicted of his sin and need for God's grace. As had John Wesley, Scott considers himself "snatched...as a brand from the burning".

B. B. Warfield critiques claims of miraculous divine healing and other supernatural gifts in the post-apostolic church. He argues that true miracles ceased with the close of the apostolic age, and he debunks purported signs and wonders from the patristic era through his own time. Warfield maintains that while God still is at work in the world, He now acts through providential means rather than through immediate, miraculous intervention.