Tick, Tick, Boom. In this episode of Banned Books, we discuss Romans 3 while reading Philip Melanchthon’s commentary on Paul’s epistle. The main topics of conversation are the limitations of the law, faith that saves, gratuitous forgiveness and the living, and the present tense power of the gospel.
Justification is famously called the article upon which the church stands or falls. It is the article upon which The Lutheran Reformation stood boldly and confessed the Scriptural truth that we are made right before God by grace through faith on account of Christ alone.
This is an excerpt from “Confession and Absolution” by John T. Pless in Common Places in Theology: A Curated Collection of Essays from Lutheran Quarterly, edited by Mark Mattes, (1517 Publishing 2023).
The Parable of the Lawless, Polygamist Groom. In this episode, we discuss the parable of the ten virgins as preached by John Piper. We converse about law and promise, red herrings, who’s wise and foolish in the parable, the bondage of the will and the doctrine of election, and the consequences for hearers of such parabolic sermons.
If we take the article of justification out of the center, very soon we will not know why we are evangelical Christians or should remain so.-Hans J. Iwand