Now Jimmy, don’t make Daddy look bad, He’s counting on you

I’m not sure I like this from John Piper.  Not sure I like it at all.  It’s an illustration directed at kids in a 1999 sermon, recently quoted by Justin Taylor.
Your daddy is standing in a swimming pool out a little bit from the edge. You are, let’s say, three years old and standing on [...]

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Incarnation and salvation

ok the Christmas clock is against me.
So let me just say that for all the talk about incarnation manifesting the triune glory and incarnation giving coherence and consummation to creation, the biblical emphasis falls overwhelmingly on salvation as the reason for incarnation.  (Though of course the interconnectedness of God’s outgoing being, creation and salvation ought [...]

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Incarnation and Creation

Yesterday we looked at incarnation and trinity.  Today I’ll just make some observations about incarnation and creation.
Christ is “The Beginning”, “The Alpha”, “The First”.  His Person is itself the basis for creation.  He is the One who is eternally Other from the Father and the foundation for all else that is other than Him.  Because of [...]

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Incarnation and trinity

Here’s the first of three sketches of posts:
Incarnation and trinity
Incarnation and creation
Incarnation and salvation.
I’ll try to be brief.
Have you ever heard the history of trinitarian thought taught like this:
Once upon a time everyone was a strict monotheist.  And then the incarnation happened.  And it messed with our heads for the first 4 centuries of the church.  But [...]

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All Age Carols Talk

Preached this last night at Carols by Candlelight.  (audio here)
Lots of kids (there was a nativity).  Readings were Matthew 2:1-12 (the Magi) and Philippians 2:5-11.
I think I managed to say at one point “There was never a time when Jesus and His Father existed.”  Be assured I’m not a oneness Pentecostal.  I meant to say [...]

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Veiled in flesh?

What’s your least favourite Christmas Carol line?
“The little Lord Jesus, no crying He makes” gives me heartburn.
But ironically my least favourite line comes from my favourite carol – Hark the Herald:
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see.”
Doesn’t this communicate the terrible error that ‘becoming flesh’ obscures the divine glory rather than expresses it?  It seems to [...]

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What if God got His hands on you?

What would happen if God really laid hold of you?  How do you respond to that prospect?
Do you fear the idea - worried about how He will treat you up close and personal? 
Do you long for it – maybe then you’d break free from the ruts you’ve been stuck in?
Well Christmas means that God has already gotten [...]

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