Healthy Questions

Looking at the “What We Believe” section of college and church web sites I am reminded of something I heard John Piper say recently. He was commenting on Ephesians 2:9 - “not by works” – and said that by using this negative assertion Paul was able to more clearly explain what he meant in v8 “saved by grace through faith.” He said we find out much more about what people really believe when we ask them what they DON’T believe. Based on their doctrinal statements, it seems most Christian organizations share much in common, and yet this is obviously not true in many cases. I'm not trying to cause division where it doesn't exist, but there are simply huge and conflicting differences between organizations that share an almost identical "What We Believe" section. Most everyone believes that eternal life comes through Jesus Christ, but in practice there are vast differences in how we are led to obtain that eternal life. Most everyone believes the Bible is God's writi...

2. Sinners are Dead I started the conversation by asking “who are sinners?” This is important for a couple of reasons. Firstly, some folks think that God loves only people that are not sinners. Well, as we saw previously, if that’s the case then God loves no one. Secondly, we have to understand what sin means to us in order to grasp God's love. A lot of us want to play down the issue of sin. Recently I was told that people understand sin well enough and that Christians ought to be talking about God’s love instead. They are concerned that telling people about sin will simply push them further away from the splendid realities of God’s love; that we should love them, not judge or condemn them. Now there’s a part of that I agree with – we should love all men, and should demonstrate and communicate God’s love at every opportunity. However, if sin is indeed their problem – the thing coming between them and God, the thing that propels them on a trajectory towards ultimate and ete...

1. Who are Sinners? Someone I love dearly made a comment yesterday that got me thinking about this question. The conversation was so brief that I really don’t know exactly what they think about this, so this is really more about me clarifying my own thinking on the matter. I had made a comment that ugly behavior is to be expected because all people are sinners. The response was that “God loves them all.” So… does He? Does God love all sinners? First up, let’s take a look at who exactly sinners are. Paul writes in Romans 3 that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” A few verses before that he states that “both Jews and Greeks (i.e. all people) are all under sin.” He follows that by quoting a couple of Psalms, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.” In John 8 Jesus is recording as telling the Pharise...