Archives: stuart-heath

Doing good: The shape of the Christian life (Part 1): Why we don’t

Life

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Stuart Heath argues that the Christian life is more than just having faith, it’s about doing good.

This is Part 1 of a three-part series. Read Part 2 and Part 3.

“Being Christian is not about doing good things”, quoth the preacher. “It’s about trusting in Jesus.” Here is the uniqueness of the Christian story: God in Christ has acted on our behalf. We could never be good enough to satisfy God’s requirements—we deserve to be condemned. But Jesus took our punishment for us, rescuing us from God’s right anger. God calls us not to earn our salvation, but to trust that he can save us. This is a beautiful, soul-satisfying truth. But when we talk about being Christian, if we only ever speak about ‘believing in Jesus’, we are dangerously out of step with the New Testament. (more…)

Review: “The Old Evangelicalism”

Review

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The Old Evangelicalism: Old truths for a new awakening
Iain H Murray
Banner of Truth Trust, Edinburgh, 2005, 226pp.

Recent debates in my circles (about the nature of the Trinity, and about who is suitable to be ordained or to preside at the Lord’s Supper) show an uneasy footing with regard to theologians of the past. Sometimes we are keen to legitimate our standing in the apostolic tradition, and so we selectively cite those earlier divines who shared our opinions. Sometimes we confer on some past thinker a godlike authority, and then proceed to marry our thoughts precisely to theirs. Sometimes we are so convinced of an historically eccentric view, we ignore all our forebears, rebuffing them with a cry of “Sola scriptura!” (more…)