Articles

God’s goodness is an immense subject. Stephen Charnock, a seventeenth-century English Puritan, wrote extensively on the subject. In his two-volume work on the existence and attributes of God, he devoted 145 pages to God’s goodness alone! Many of us would be hard-pressed to fill one page, but not Charnock. All of God’s acts, he says, are the outpourings of divine goodness. Charnock lists some examples:

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In part one of this series, we examined the biblical pattern of reminder, and especially Peter’s effort to remind his readers of the basic truths of the Gospel, which he declares in 2 Peter 1:12–15 . By repeatedly coming back to the essentials, Peter sought to prevent his readers from being led astray by false teachers who denied Christ and the Gospel.

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In part one of this series, we examined the biblical pattern of reminder, and especially Peter’s effort to remind his readers of the basic truths of the Gospel, which he declares in 2 Peter 1:12–15. By repeatedly coming back to the essentials, Peter sought to prevent his readers from being led astray by false teachers who denied Christ and the Gospel. Pastors today should take a lesson from Peter and be deliberate in urging the essentials of the Gospel on their own congregations.

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For those in vocational ministry, there can be something unappealing about the basics. After all, many of us are educated, well-read, and (if only on our best days) reasonably thoughtful. We want to be able to demonstrate an advanced understanding of the material we’re preaching and teaching. People may begin to wonder why we are in the pulpit if we don’t offer some unique insight, some intriguing idea. Why should we need to tell them again and again what the text plainly says?

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One the great tyrannies of our age is the lie that we will be most useful when we are as strong as we can be. We tell ourselves that God wants us to conquer all our challenges, to overcome the Evil One in frontal assault, to have our family and church and neighbors look to us and say, “Now there’s a strong servant of the Lord!”

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The Bible is a book about Jesus. While we certainly should read our Bibles with personal application in mind, we must ultimately ask, “Where is Jesus in this passage?”

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Writing in Psalm 139, David asks several thought-provoking questions. Having already marveled at the fact that God knows everything (vv. 1–6), he probes further: “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (v. 7). In other words, David asks whether a believer can hide from God. “Can I find an escape route,” the psalmist wonders, “from the God who searches me and knows everything about me?” It’s a question that deserves our attention.

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John 4 is a remarkable account. In the previous chapter, Jesus engages the religious professional Nicodemus (John 3:1–15). But in chapter 4, Jesus talks with a woman at the opposite end of that spectrum—a religious, social, and moral outsider. Strikingly, the friend of sinners crosses the established social boundaries in order to show Himself to be the Savior of the world.

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Philippians 2:5–11 is one of the Bible’s great passages on Christ’s person and work. Writing to the first-century church in Philippi, the apostle Paul urged believers toward unity in the Gospel message (1:27). Though the apostle’s letter isn’t primarily a theological treatise, he nevertheless grounded his call in the deep doctrines of Jesus’ identity.

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