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Jan 6, 2025 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Jared Kennedy
A mysterious traveler overtook Faithful on the road, hit him, knocked him down, and left him for dead. In this famous passage from John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, Faithful tells Christian how relentlessly the traveler assaulted him: “When I came to my self again, I cried him mercy; but he said, I know not how to show mercy, and with that knockt me down again.”Who was this abusive man?
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Jan 2, 2025 | 
theaquilareport.com | Jared Kennedy
Just as fish are made for water, a Christian is made for confidence in Christ and for unselfish love of neighbor. If teens search for freedom in people-pleasing or selfish independence, they’ll be enslaved. But if we teach them to live as God has made them, aligned with their Christian identity as “perfectly free lords” and “perfectly dutiful servants,” they’ll be wise and truly free.
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Dec 17, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Jared Kennedy
When kids are young, we work hard to train their consciences, to teach them God’s commands and how to choose between right and wrong. But as kids get older, they must learn to navigate issues that aren’t black and white. They need wisdom to discern between good choices and those that are best.
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Nov 1, 2024 | 
theaquilareport.com | Jared Kennedy
Jesus’s baptism at the Jordan points forward to the baptism of his death (Mark 10:38; Luke 12:50). But it also points to the glorious blessings merited by his righteous life. After Jesus was baptized, the heavens opened. God’s Spirit came down like a dove, and a voice from heaven declared, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:16–17). These verses tell of Jesus’s identity as the anointed Servant (Isa. 11; 42; 61) and Davidic Son (2 Sam.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Jared Kennedy
John the Baptist thought the idea of Jesus being baptized was ridiculous. After all, John had come to preach about God’s holy wrath against sin. He’d come declaring, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt. 3:2). He baptized with water, which would’ve reminded the people of the judgment flood that overwhelmed God’s enemies in the days of Noah and at the Red Sea. Crowds flocked to the Jordan to drown their old lives of sin and to commit themselves to a new start.
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Jul 23, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Davy Ellison |Jeff Hay |Jared Kennedy |Brett McCracken
Editors’ note: Take part in TGC’s Read the Bible initiative, where we’re encouraging Christians and churches to read together through God’s Word in a year. Ministry is hard and ministers are flawed. This truth presents both insurmountable obstacles and everyday irritations on a regular basis. Ministers give in to doubts and distractions, cynicism and cowardice, gossip and glory-hunting.
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Jul 22, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Kevin DeYoung |Justin Taylor |Jim Newheiser |Jared Kennedy
Abstract: In 1788, American Presbyterians meeting in Philadelphia approved a revised version of the Westminster Confession of Faith. The most significant change to the original 1646 version concerned the doctrine of the civil magistrate in chapter 23. In the century and a half following the Westminster Assembly, many Presbyterians grew wary of granting coercive powers to the civil magistrate and were drawn to more robust notions of religious liberty.
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Jul 22, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Louis Markos |Justin Taylor |Jim Newheiser |Jared Kennedy
Christians would do well to read the pagan classics of ancient Greece and Rome. These classics include the epics of Homer, Virgil, and Ovid; the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; the histories of Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy, and Plutarch; and the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and Cicero. Though they certainly cannot replace Scripture, the epics, tragedies, histories, and philosophy from the ancient world provide glimpses into real human wisdom.
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Jul 17, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Jared Kennedy |Beth Claes |Jen Wilkin |David Cassidy
The characters in Marilynne Robinson’s novels often wrestle with the Bible. Each one’s knowledge of Scripture and theology has a different rhythm shaped by a unique background. For example, in Lila, John Ames sees the world through the logical language of Calvin’s Institutes, but the emotionally difficult parts of Ezekiel and Job shape the interpretive horizon of the titular character, an orphaned young woman who becomes Ames’s bride.
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Jun 11, 2024 | 
thegospelcoalition.org | Jared Kennedy |Zach Carter |Trevin Wax |Mike Wittmer
Each week we sat in plastic chairs around a folding table. We’d open our Bibles, read the passage out loud, look at posters with Bible illustrations, and fill out colorful preprinted worksheets while Mr. Mixon taught the lesson. Some weeks we’d get candy if we could answer his questions. I can remember our grade school class reciting the books of the Bible in order. Then, back at home, my dad taught me to sing that list of books to the tune of two old hymns.
