Monthly Archives: August 2025

Indicatives before Imperatives

Posted on by

[Geerhardus] Vos says that the heart of legalism is when we separate the law of God from the person of God. And what we have got then are bare imperatives that don’t have an indicative that will sustain them.

God himself in his grace, love, kindness, and generosity was the indicative that would have sustained the imperative of “Don’t eat the fruit of this tree.” And I see that distortion of God’s character, and the notion of legalism that seeks to earn what now as fallen creatures we can never earn, and blinds us to his a priori love for us in Christ.

Satan is cast out in terms of his dominion over our lives from the beginning of our Christian lives, yet we are still living in a world and with a memory and as a being for whom, I think, that battle against legalism is a lifelong reality.

And this gets back to the quiet time. I have met a lot of very fervent Christians who, if they haven’t had their quiet time, feel things will go wrong in the day. They turn the gospel on its head.

—Sinclair Ferguson, “Legalism in Eden”

Throughout the Bible, the indicatives of grace always precede the imperatives of law and obligation.

—James Torrance, Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, 70

“He Continues Forever”

Posted on by


The basic apostolic message is that salvation is in Christ, through Christ, with Christ, and for Christ: He is the Savior and the Lord, who at His Father’s will came to earth as the one and only God-man in order to save us, and we sinners find salvation through letting our ongoing life story become part of His ongoing life story.

—J. I. Packer, “The Glory of Christ’s Present Reign,” The Glory of Christ, ed. John Armstrong, 127


He holds his priesthood permanently, because He continues forever. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. (Hebrews 7:24-25)

Christ’s Present Work

Posted on by

At His ascension Christ was formally installed as High Priest and began His present high priestly work.  In the heavenly tabernacle today He represents His people (i.e., He secures their acceptance with God); obtains free access for them into God’s presence; intercedes in prayer for them and grants them help; mediates their prayers to God and God’s strength to them; anticipates His return to earth to reign; and, at the end of the present session, will bless His people by bringing them deliverance into the kingdom.

—David J. MacLeod, “The Present Work of Christ in Hebrews,” Bibliotheca Sacra 148:590 (April-June 1991):200

Living out Our Baptism

Posted on by

Baptism enables us to carry out our servanthood in the world. It is like the wedding service, a brief ceremony soon over but changing the character of the rest of our life. The meaning of baptism, like that of marriage, is only fully discovered in daily living in this new condition.

—James F. White, The Worldliness of Worship, 152

Of Christ, in Christ, from Christ

Posted on by


We see our whole salvation and all its parts are comprehended in Christ [Acts 4:12].  We should therefore take care not to derive the least portion of it from anywhere else.  If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is “of him” [1 Cor. 1:30].  If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.  If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion; if purity, in his conception; if gentleness, it appears in his birth. . . If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion; if acquittal, in his condemnation; if remission of the curse, in his cross [Gal. 3:13]; if satisfaction, in his sacrifice; if purification, in his blood; if reconciliation, in his descent into hell; if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb; if newness of life, in his resurrection; if immortality, in the same; if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; if protection, if security, if abundant supply of all blessings, in his kingdom; if untroubled expectation of judgment, in the power given him to judge.  In short, since rich store of every kind of good abounds in him, let us drink our fill from this fountain, and from no other.

—John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2.16.19

Drawing Near through (and with) Jesus

Posted on by

Hebrews talks about Jesus as a “forerunner” (Hebrews 6:20) and as “founder” of our salvation and faith (2:10; 12:2). This means that he goes where we need to go, and then he brings us with him. Jesus reclaims the position God gave us that we lost through sin. And since he reclaimed it, we know that it will be ours in him.

—Daniel Stevens, Songs of the Son: Reading the Psalms with the Author of Hebrews, Page 32


Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. (Hebrews 10:19-22)

Hallowing God’s Name

Posted on by

Thus the command to ‘be holy, for I am holy” is no arbitrary command. It is the basic form of the command of God to humankind, a command which is at once a call to be what we were created to be and a call to worship, to be and to do that which is a hallowing of God’s name and a delighting of his Fatherly heart. With this in mind we must recognize at once that our concept of worship needs to be broadened out beyond what takes place liturgically in our churches on a day by day or week by week basis to embrace all that human beings do which hallows God’s name and embodies his will.

—Trevor Hart , “Atonement and Worship,” Anvil  Vol. 11, No. 3, 1994, 205

Visual Worship

Posted on by

Surely if the visual has been found so effective a means of communication in our time, worship should not ignore this communications revolution. The sacraments, with their visual imagery, are powerful means of communicating the gospel. In effect the Church knew all along what the communications researchers have now documented scientifically.

—James F. White, The Worldliness of Worship, 179