Archive
More than thirty-five years of First Things articles at your fingertips
Articles
The Good Accusation
โThere is no better test as to whether a man is really preaching the New Testament gospel of salvation than this, that some people might misunderstand it and misinterpret...
Sweat Equity Salvation is of the Devil
A few months ago on my own blog I wrote about something I write often about: how the good news is that Christโs finished work actually means the work...
Dude, Whereโs My Gospel?
Gospel deficiency is the major crisis of the evangelical church. The good news has been replaced by many things, most often a therapeutic, self-help approach to biblical application. The...
Yanceyโs Christianity Today Swan Song: โO, Evangelicos!โ
The editorial I referenced in a recent post is now available online. It is Philip Yanceyโs last CT column (for the foreseeable future anyway), after 26 years of writing...
The Cheapening of Baptism
. . . is somewhat inevitable in the customer-driven church. Isnโt it? This was in a recent email newsletter sent by a church from my past: โWhile you only...
Product Placement in the Pulpit
Thereโs a curious and discouraging article in the November 20th Entertainment Weekly magazine about producersโ efforts to โsellโ the upcoming film adaptation of Cormac McCarthyโs The Road to Christians...
โMaybe Weโre Not Christiansโ
A real Christian life is one infused with the qualities of Christ himself. But we have replaced submission, service, and sacrifice with salesmanship, self-help, and success.Here is an excerpt...
Getting Back On it
I really wish someone would post online Philip Yanceyโs most recent Christianity Today column, his last for a long while apparently. It is titled โO Evangelicosโ and would serve...
Do Not Go Quietly
โDo Not Go Quietlyโ is the name of the message Iโm preaching this Sunday, from Titus 2:11-15: For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,...
Ray Ortlund, Jr.โs Gospel Manifesto
Shortly after I first met my friend and mentor Ray Ortlund, he gave me a copy of his book A Passion for God: Prayers and Meditations on the Book...
Jesus is the Older Brother Who Does His Job
Colossians 1:15:He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Paul articulately asserts the truth of the Incarnation in Colossians 1, but his use of...
Six Flags Over Jesus
I am from Texas. I love Texas. I get Texas. I lived half my life in Texas, grew up in Texas churches, ministered in 3 of them, accepted the...
Everything? Really?
Jesus began to preach, โRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.โ (Matthew 4:17) Looking at his disciples, he said: โBlessed are you who are poor, for yours is...
The Gospel is the Antidote for Everything
Once there were two brothers. You know their story, more than likely. One was wasteful, exploitative, wanton, licentious. One was rigid, moralistic, uptight, legalistic. Two brothers with two personalities...
In Praise of Low-Minded Christians
Proving there is nothing new under the sun that entrepreneurial Christians wonโt want to slap a โJesus fishโ on, today marks the emergence of www.ChristianChirp.com, a social media site...