The Good News of Repentance

True or False: The world likes to hear about forgiveness but it hates talk of repentance. It’s Guff.  Bunkum.  Garbage.  Balderdash. The world loves repentance (and it hates forgiveness, but I don’t have time for that post)… If you don’t believe me, go to your newsagents and open your eyes.  What will you see? “Wage war on [...]

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Repentance: A Parable

Waking at 5 this morning, I head for Eastbourne’s seafront. Andy and I are filming some evangelistic videos and we wanted to shoot a timelapse sequence of sunrise. We get there in plenty of time and point the camera East. It’s dark but in the frame you can see the pier and across the gloomy [...]

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Come as you are [repost]

From Spurgeon’s book: All of Grace Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are, but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. …The Gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come at [...]

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What would cheap grace look like? (Repost)

…The younger brother came to himself and said, ‘My dad’s an old softy.  I reckon if I returned looking all dirty and sorrowful he’d bail me out.  Worth a try anyway.’ he reasoned. And so he rose and made the journey back to his father rehearsing his sorry-speech along the way. ‘Father, my father.  I know I [...]

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Sin is not the problem [Thawed out Thursday]

I was once in a preaching seminar with 15 other young guns.  We were being taught by someone you might call a living legend.  One session I remember was on how to preach Romans 3:21-30.  The point came when the living legend asked us what we thought the application should be.  Now aside from my various [...]

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Calling sinners to Christ [Thawed out Thursday]

Here’s a hurriedly written essay on repentance and evangelism.  The basic point is this: Unbelievers can’t repent.  Believers must – all the time. One of the implications is that evangelism is calling sinners to come to Christ just as they are. Two men preaching in the 19th century grasped this very well indeed. Here is [...]

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Come as you are

From Spurgeon’s book: All of Grace Do not attempt to touch yourself up and make yourself something other than you really are, but come as you are to Him who justifies the ungodly. …The Gospel will receive you into its halls if you come as a sinner, not otherwise. Wait not for reformation, but come [...]

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Luther vs Cranmer on Lord’s Supper

John Richardson (whose excellent blog is here) adds his voice to this discussion on Stand Firm in Faith.  He writes about the place of repentance in the communion service.  It chimes with a lot of what I wrote here:  I have long felt Anglicanism (specifically Thomas Cranmer) to be good at driving us to our knees [...]

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Where’s the turning point?

Where’s the turning point in the parable of the two sons?  (Yes, that again). Is it ‘coming to himself’ in the pig-sty? If that’s the turning point in the son’s life, repentance will look like weighing things up and choosing obedience. What’s wrong with that?  Well for one it effectively makes the prodigal his own saviour.  [...]

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Sin is not the problem

I was once in a preaching seminar with 15 other young guns.  We were being taught by someone you might call a living legend.  One session I remember was on how to preach Romans 3:21-30.  The point came when the living legend asked us what we thought the application should be.  Now aside from my various [...]

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Calling sinners to Christ

I’ve just written an essay on repentance and evangelism.  It was very hurriedly written, but basically my point is: Unbelievers can’t repent, believers must – all the time.  One of the implications is that evangelism is calling sinners to come to Christ just as they are.  Two men preaching in the 19th century grasped this [...]

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Prayer of humble access

I flew a kite here for the notion of confession following our taking of communion.  It wasn’t enthusiastically embraced! I was reminded on Sunday of how brilliant Thomas Cranmer’s ‘Prayer of humble access’ is.  In the Anglican church, this is what we pray before receiving communion.  Isn’t it great? We do not presume to come to this your [...]

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