Tom J. Nettles examines the life of one of the world's most famous preachers. He isolates key convictions that appear in Spurgeon's life either before or immediately after his conversion, and traces them through his life as he develops into the charming, interesting, confident, humble, spiritual-minded man and pastor whose work and witness dominated evangelicalism in the last half of the nineteenth century.
Gain an understanding of baptism from four main traditional perspectives. Of all the sacraments, the practice of baptism is often the most disputed. Christians hold different views of its exact significance, who should receive baptism and how old they need to be, the practice of rebaptism, and baptism as a requirement for church membership. In Understanding Four Views on Baptism , four historic views on baptism are considered in depth: Each view is presented by its proponent, then critiqued and defended in dialogue with the book's other contributors. Here is an ideal setting in which you can consider the strengths and weaknesses of each stance and arrive at your own informed conclusion. The Counterpoints series presents a comparison and critique of scholarly views on topics important to Christians that are both fair-minded and respectful of the biblical text. Each volume is a one-stop reference that allows readers to evaluate the different positions on a specific issue and form their own, educated opinion.
The driving theme of the book of Galatians is the glory of Christ-the glory of his perfect obedience to all the requirements of God's law. Driven by unbreakable certainty in his calling as a herald of divine truth to the churches in Galatia, the apostle Paul fearlessly declares that Jesus Christ alone saves. The joyous life that might be found through obedience to the law has been taken away by human sinfulness-only Jesus has kept every positive requirement of the law and has even suffered its curse. The result is that union with Christ by faith is the triune God's provision for sinners to be declared right by him-the Father calls; the Son saves; the Spirit draws. Paul's message in Galatians remains most relevant for people today-if we seek to be justified by works, we are damned, but if we come as sinners to the righteous crucified one, we will stand before God in the spotless righteousness of his Son. God's holy demands are not sacrificed in this transaction. Rather, it is the sacrifice of the Son that meets all God's holy requirements. As a result, justification is the crediting to the believer of the moral law fulfilled; sanctification follows and is the moral law pursued.