The Logos Bible Software Blog
Few—if any—modern authors have had as much impact on Christianity as C.S. Lewis. His writing, encompassing everything from carefully argued treatises to satire and children’s fantasy, reflects his imaginative take on the Christian faith.
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We often think of beauty as a matter of taste. A concerto that moves one person to tears may put another to sleep. But what if beauty isn’t in the eye of the beholder? What if it’s rooted in the very nature and being of God? [Read more…]
Logos Bible Software provides a wide array of efficient and comprehensive research tools in one place so you can get the most out of your study. And for a limited time, you can expand and deepen your Logos library even more while saving 20–50% in the process. [Read more…]
This is a guest post from Dr. Samuel Lamerson, professor of New Testament at Knox Theological Seminary.
While I was in graduate school, I paid my bills by working as an entertainer. I was a juggler, magician, and ventriloquist. Every so often, someone would ask me what else I did, and I would explain that I was writing a PhD dissertation. Then they’d usually yawn and ask for more card tricks. [Read more…]
In this excerpt from Christianity Considered: A Guide for Skeptics and Seekers, author John M. Frame reminds us that salvation comes from trusting what God says about Jesus—and this is only possible with what Frame calls “a new mind.”
For a limited time, when you get Christianity Considered along with another recent release from Lexham Press, you’ll get a third for 50% off.
Why did Jesus, the Son of God, become man? He came to die in our place, to die the death we should have died because we had sinned against God:
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. (Eph 2:8–10)
Good works, we see here, are a result of the gift, not a cause of it. We who receive the gift are “created in Christ,” so that we can perform good works. If we cannot earn salvation by good works, how does salvation come to us? The Bible answers, by faith, as above in Ephesians 2:8. Faith is simple trust. It is expecting God to keep his promise:
For the promise to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith. … In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. (Rom 4:13–25)
God promised Abraham a son, who in turn would beget more children, eventually as many as the sand of the sea; and God would bless them all for the sake of Abraham. That seemed too much for Abraham to believe. How could he have even one son when he was over 100 years old and his wife Sarah was beyond her childbearing years? But Abraham in the end believed God’s promises, not the apparent contrary evidence. He is our model of a new mind. God has promised us also an impossible blessing: that God will forgive our sin through the death of Jesus. All we need to do is believe. One of the best-known verses in the Bible is John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”
Salvation comes from trusting what God says about Jesus.
You see how Scripture contrasts Abraham’s faith with our conventional judgments of probabilities. The old mind could never expect that Abraham could have a son with his wife. The old mind would simply reject the possibility. Saving faith is possible only to the new mind. The new mind says that God is fully able to save sinners through the death of Jesus. We don’t understand how it can be. But his word promises this salvation, and nothing is more dependable than God’s word. If modern man has problems with the idea of blood atonement (making us right with him through the violent death of his Son), then God is fully able to deal with those problems.
Faith in Christ does not come through the reasoning of the old mind. Rather, faith in Christ comes through a different kind of wisdom, what I have been calling a new mind, what Paul calls the mind of Christ:
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Cor 2:6–16)
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Christianity Considered is a powerful book for Christians looking for a better understanding of the faith as well as skeptical readers seeking to understand the intellectual tradition that has done much to shape the modern world.
And don’t forget—when you buy any two Lexham new releases, you’ll get a third for 50% off.
Bridge the gap between Old Testament exegesis and application with Preaching and Teaching the Last Things: Old Testament Eschatology for the Life of the Church. It’s free this month only, and you can get two more exegetical resources for under $7.
All three works are from Dr. Walter Kaiser, author of more than 40 books, professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and an expert on exegetical methods. [Read more…]
September is a great time to save on commentaries, collections, and study guides—all selected to take you deeper into the Word, your personal studies, and your daily walk. [Read more…]
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Danish theologian and philosopher Søren Kierkegaard addressed the greatest troubles he saw in his day, including faithlessness, despair, and anxiety. He lived during the Industrial Revolution, in a time when humanity’s scientific potential outweighed the possibilities of faith. Kierkegaard’s writing serves as a corrective for our postmodern era, helping us return faith to the focus of our lives.
In this excerpt from his book, Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard holds up the example of Abraham as one who exhibited the kind of faith necessary for true greatness. [Read more…]
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