Contributors

Brad Gray

Brad Gray is the senior pastor of Stonington Baptist Church in Paxinos, Pennsylvania (www.stoningtonbaptist.org), where he lives and serves with his wife Natalie, daughter Lydia, and son Braxton. He is currently pursuing an M.Div. from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He blogs regularly at graceupongrace.net and hosts a podcast, “Ministry Minded.”

Christ Hold Fast

World's Strongest Man

  • By Brad Gray 11/19/19
God comes to fix what is broken by being broken himself. He abolishes death by dying. He subsumes sin by being made sin itself.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Salvation

An Angel in the Whirlwind

  • By Brad Gray 11/13/19
The stilling of the seas is not so much a parable of words but a parable of actions. Jesus shows his apostles that they were seeing but not perceiving, hearing but not understanding who he was.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Miracles

A Theology of Grief & Death

  • By Brad Gray 10/03/19
It is true that no one ever grieves in the same way. We are all different in personality and chemical makeup. But what is the same, is that everyone, at some point, grieves.
  • Practical Theology
  • Death and Dying
  • Grief
  • Suffering

Faith, Depression, & Clinging to the Rumor of Grace

  • By Brad Gray 09/24/19
Whatever theoretical or conceptual ideas to which we surrender in despair, the Christian faith offers something wholly different. It offers a person.
  • Holy Spirit
  • Hope
  • Justification
  • Grace
  • Practical Theology
  • Depression

The Futility of Balancing Grace

  • By Brad Gray 09/10/19
Perhaps the most poisonous venom to afflict the gospel is the notion of "balancing" grace.
  • Justification
  • Grace
  • Reformation Doctrine
  • Law and Gospel

Salvation and the Silly Summit of Some Great Thing

  • By Brad Gray 08/08/19
Overcrowding on Mount Everest betrays what our culture worships. We bow down at the altar of the impossible to be seen as the conquerors, the champions.
  • Justification
  • Grace
  • Salvation

Growing Downward: Thoughts on Sanctification & Spiritual Maturity

  • By Brad Gray 07/24/19
Growth and maturity in the Spirit doesn’t look like we think it does. That’s because it’s backward.
  • Holy Spirit
  • Holiness
  • Sanctification

Sour Grapes & Stale Crackers

  • By Brad Gray 07/05/19
The communion service is a sermon in and of itself. The communion sermon is that which most expressly tells us of the sinless One who stands in the sinner’s stead.
  • Ministry of the Church
  • Sacraments
  • The Lord's Supper

The Gospel Doesn’t Blow Smoke

  • By Brad Gray 06/24/19
It was during one of these garbage burns, however, that I was bathed in a fresh remembrance of grace.
  • Justification
  • Grace

The Dangerous Nature of God's Grace

  • By Brad Gray 06/07/19
I’d say that one of the best depictions of God’s grace comes from a well-beloved and world-renowned children’s fantasy novel, that being C. S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Parables
  • Justification
  • Grace

Obedience That Is Already Finished

  • By Brad Gray 01/23/19
The rich young ruler’s inquiry to the Lord Jesus in Mark 10:17–22 (along with Matt. 19:16–22; Luke 10:25–28) remains increasingly prescient for us today.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Justification
  • Grace
  • Salvation

The Impossibility of Salvation

  • By Brad Gray 11/02/18
The salvation of wretched sinners by an omni-holy and forever-righteous God is, by all accounts, a categorical impossibility.
  • Reformation Doctrine
  • Law and Gospel
  • Salvation

Grace Falls on the Grenade

  • By Brad Gray 10/08/18
On a summer day in 2008, Thomas and Romayne McGinnis were presented with the highest honor that can be received in any branch of the United States military, that is, the Medal of Honor.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Justification
  • Grace

Grace Has No Expiration Date

  • By Brad Gray 07/23/18
I, like you probably, have an uncontrollable aversion to any food product that is past its expiration date.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Justification
  • Grace

The Shameless Nature of God’s Grace

  • By Brad Gray 07/10/18
To be sure, the devil has an incredible arsenal of assaults with which he can waylay believers into ineptitude and ineffectiveness.
  • Justification
  • Forgiveness
  • Grace
  • Practical Theology
  • Hurt and Shame

The Paradox of Pastoral Preaching

  • By Brad Gray 06/14/18
At times, evangelical Christianity can be a paradox. For as much as Protestants have spurned Roman Catholicism, they’re much more Catholic than they’d ever like to admit.
  • Ministry of the Church
  • Preaching
  • Reformation Doctrine
  • Law and Gospel
  • Scripture

The Divine Portrait of Love

  • By Brad Gray 04/05/18
Whenever preachers get up to speak about the topic of love, they very often go to passages like 1 Corinthians 13, and they are very apt to do so — for there, under the Spirit’s design and influence, the apostle Paul gives, perhaps, the most complete view of love we’ve ever been given.
  • God
  • Love of God
  • Jesus Christ

The Drug of Behavioral Preaching

  • By Brad Gray 01/29/18
Preaching is a dangerous and difficult task. Some occupations might involve more harrowing situations and circumstances but I will continue to contend that there’s not a more perilous or vulnerable position to be in than behind the pulpit.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Ministry of the Church
  • Preaching
  • Modern Theologians
  • Robert Capon

You Don't Have To Be Great

  • By Brad Gray 07/19/17
Renowned Scottish philosopher, writer, and historian Thomas Carlyle once quipped, “The History of the World [is] the Biography of Great Men.”
  • God
  • Justification
  • Grace

Good News From A Far Country: Preaching Law & Gospel

  • By Brad Gray 06/26/17
I believe it’s no small charge to assert that there’s a massive problem in the majority of America’s pulpits.
  • Ministry of the Church
  • Preaching
  • Reformation Doctrine
  • Law and Gospel

Acquittal By The Attorney's Blood

  • By Brad Gray 03/13/17
One of my favorite shows in recent memory is the American law enforcement drama Law & Order.
  • Arts and Culture
  • Film and Television
  • Jesus Christ
  • Reformation Doctrine
  • Law and Gospel

Law-Abiding Citizens

  • By Brad Gray 01/16/17
Among the things that perturb me about modern Christianity is our residual clinging to a sort of “Christian-karma.”
  • Holy Spirit
  • Holiness
  • Sanctification
  • Reformation Doctrine
  • Law and Gospel

Green Jackets & White Robes

  • By Brad Gray 11/28/16
I don’t know much about golf, but I do know that The Masters is like the Super Bowl for golfers.
  • Justification
  • Forgiveness
  • Imputation
  • Righteousness

The Righteous Revenant’s Revenge

  • By Brad Gray 11/14/16
As an avid movie-goer, one of the ways Scripture comes alive for me is to picture the stories as if they were scenes and beats from a live-action movie.
  • Arts and Culture
  • Film and Television
  • Justification
  • Forgiveness
  • Righteousness

Gospel Upside-Downness

  • By Brad Gray 10/26/16
Have you ever really thought about how crazy your salvation is? You may have never thought of it in those terms, but truly, your redemption and rescue from eternal damnation is a jarring truth, one that should spawn tears of joy and shouts of praise.
  • Justification
  • Grace
  • Redemption
  • Salvation
  • Gospel

Interpreting Reality Through Redemption

  • By Brad Gray 08/24/16
If you know me in the least, then you know of my fondness for the 2010 film Inception.
  • Arts and Culture
  • Film and Television
  • Jesus Christ
  • Justification
  • Grace
  • Redemption
  • Sin

Endurance To The End

  • By Brad Gray 08/15/16
The Christian life is compared to many things throughout Scripture. It's likened to a soldier going to war, a sheep under the care of a shepherd, or the journey of a pilgrim to a far-off city.
  • Jesus Christ
  • Salvation

Pejorative Piety

  • By Brad Gray 08/02/16
One of the things you get used to if you talk about this thing called “grace” often enough, is sooner or later you’ll be looked down on by your peers.
  • Holy Spirit
  • Sanctification
  • Jesus Christ
  • Justification
  • Grace

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