Thursday, April 14, 2011

Raised for our Justification

"[Christ] was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification."  Romans 4:25
What does it mean that Jesus was "raised for our justification"?  Anybody have any insight into this?

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Concerning Church Covenants...

I'm always fascinated by the heavy emphasis many evangelicals put on written church covenants. I do see some practical value of having one (sort of a "written contract" with other believers - something that you can hold people to), but honestly I'm rather cautious about insisting upon something this serious that is not clearly defined for us in the NT. Don't get me wrong - I'm certainly not opposed to all use of non-scriptural practical elements (nursery, sound systems, offering bags/plates, air conditioning) in churches, but an actually written covenant (signed or not signed) seems to be in a different league than padded pews or visual aids, at least in my mind. And I'm not sure I can defend written church covenants on any grounds other than they sure are very practical... and I'm not real comfortable with that conclusion. What do you guys think about church covenants? The good, the bad, and the ugly...