In the previous chapter, the Scottish Reformers left us with a profoundly bleak diagnosis of the human condition. Due to the cosmic treason of our first parents in the Garden of Eden, the image of God was “utterly defaced” in mankind. We were rendered natural enemies of our Creator, slaves to Satan, and bound for… Continue reading The First Gospel: On the Revelation of the Promise (Scots Confession, Chapter 4)
An Outrage in Israel: The Defiling of Dinah and the Fury of Her Brothers (Gen. 34:1–31)
Scripture never flinches from recording the devastating consequences of sin, even within the covenant family. In Genesis 33, Jacob arrived safely in Canaan, but instead of completing his journey to Bethel to fulfill the solemn vow he had made twenty years earlier (Gen. 28:20–22), he purchased land and pitched his tent outside the pagan city… Continue reading An Outrage in Israel: The Defiling of Dinah and the Fury of Her Brothers (Gen. 34:1–31)
The Unchanging Rock: Reclaiming Divine Impassibility
We live in an age that equates love with emotional vulnerability. In our modern, psychologized world, authenticity is measured by how deeply an individual can be wounded by others, how openly they display emotional volatility, and how intensely they enter into shared distress. To love someone, we are told, means allowing our emotional equilibrium to… Continue reading The Unchanging Rock: Reclaiming Divine Impassibility
Utterly Defaced: On Original Sin (Scots Confession, Chapter 3)
In the previous chapter of the Scots Confession, we looked at the breathtaking heights of early humanity and the catastrophic plunge of the Fall. Adam and Eve were created in pristine perfection, shining with the image of God. However, through a willful and cosmic conspiracy against the Sovereign Lord, they plummeted into ruin. If Chapter… Continue reading Utterly Defaced: On Original Sin (Scots Confession, Chapter 3)
I Have Seen Your Face, as One Sees the Face of God: Grace and Reconciliation (Gen. 33:1–20)
Twenty years of dread, guilt, and lingering fear can make a brother’s face look like an executioner. As Jacob looks up and sees Esau approaching with four hundred men, everything in his past says he should expect vengeance. Yet, what unfolds on the dusty road of Canaan is one of the most astonishing scenes of… Continue reading I Have Seen Your Face, as One Sees the Face of God: Grace and Reconciliation (Gen. 33:1–20)
The Self-Sufficient Source: Reclaiming Divine Aseity
We live in a culture dominated by transactional relationships. From our economic transactions to our social media networks, every connection in creaturely life involves mutual need, exchange, and dependence. We seek out friends who validate our identity, elect leaders who promise to fulfill our needs, and join communities to fill the empty places in our… Continue reading The Self-Sufficient Source: Reclaiming Divine Aseity
Image and Treason: On the Creation and Fall of Man (Scots Confession, Chapter 2)
In the opening chapter of the Scots Confession, the Reformers fixed our eyes on the incomprehensible majesty of the Triune God. Having established the Creator, they immediately pivot in Chapter 2 to the pinnacle of His earthly creation. In a single, breathtaking paragraph, the “Six Johns” cover the entire trajectory of early human history. They… Continue reading Image and Treason: On the Creation and Fall of Man (Scots Confession, Chapter 2)
I Will Not Let You Go Unless You Bless Me: The Man Who Wrestled with God (Gen. 32:1–32)
Loved ones, having finally closed the door on twenty years of servitude under Laban, Jacob turns his face back toward the Promised Land. But escaping the threat behind him brings him face-to-face with an even greater terror ahead: his brother Esau, whom he cheated out of his birthright and blessing twenty years earlier. Genesis 32… Continue reading I Will Not Let You Go Unless You Bless Me: The Man Who Wrestled with God (Gen. 32:1–32)
The Indivisible Essence: Reclaiming Divine Simplicity
We live in a world defined by composition. Everything in our creaturely experience is made up of parts. A physical body is composed of organs, tissues, and cells; a molecule is assembled from atoms; a clock is built from gears, springs, and levers. In our finite environment, complexity is often equated with greatness. We admire… Continue reading The Indivisible Essence: Reclaiming Divine Simplicity
To Whom Only We Must Cleave: On God and His Providence (Scots Confession, Chapter 1)
When we open the great confessions of the Reformation, we often find a distinct difference in where they choose to begin. The Westminster Confession of Faith, written nearly a century later in a highly scholastic era, begins with epistemology, how we know what we know, by dedicating its entire first chapter to the Holy Scriptures. But the earlier,… Continue reading To Whom Only We Must Cleave: On God and His Providence (Scots Confession, Chapter 1)