TOPIC INDEXPractical Theology (6)
  1. “The lack of assurance of one’s standing before God causes a person to do anything to make things right in a vain attempt to gain eternal certitude. ”
  2. There in that moment, the waters of baptism reached down deep into the forsaken path of the grave with a man whose body and mind could no longer hold onto any reality otherwise.
  3. We find such a temptation when the devil causes us to question God’s election or predestination of us in “eternity as a past event” (i.e. “eternity-past”).
  4. When we explain away God’s Word, we jettison the reality of our ominous diagnosis in the “Thou shall/shall nots” of the law, and with it the sweet cure in the, “This is My body/blood” of the Gospel.
  5. Jesus takes that burden away in the “I forgive you and them” and gives us His “light” burden.
  6. This story is all-too-common, and illustrates a key dynamic driving the youth out of church.