SERMON: Grace and Peace to You – Galatians 1:1-10

I preached this sermon at Ryker’s Ridge Baptist Church on the morning of November, 13 2011. In this message, I speak of Paul’s gracious calling as an apostle, his gracious welcome to the churches at Galatia, and his gracious warning to those who are believing and teaching a false gospel. Grace is something that characterizes Paul’s ministry, and it should ours as well.

I sincerely hope you benefit from this message!

This post stands as the final installment to my five part series, which has dealt with the doctrine of justification and the differences that exist between Protestantism and Roman Catholicism concerning this doctrine. In my first post, I introduced the debate, explaining what is at stake and gave some context to the issue (read it [...]

Roman Catholics and Protestants have many doctrinal commonalities. However, they differ, and differ tragically, when it comes to their soteriology and their views of justification. In the first entry to this series, I introduced the discussion, explaining what is at stake and gave some context to the issue (see this post here). In the second [...]

The Protestant understanding of the doctrine of justification is undoubtedly very different from that of the Roman Catholic Church. Does this difference matter? Should those during the Reformation have made such a large deal about it? Should Protestants and Catholics today just forget about it all and be friends? Or, should we adopt the mindset [...]

Have you ever wondered why Martin Luther and the rest of the Protestant Reformers made such a fuss over the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church during the Reformation? The Reformers certainly disagreed with the Catholics over a number of doctrinal and practical issues, but nothing was more important than their differing views regarding the [...]

The debates that led to the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century were not over minor details of theology. Of the debated issues, the doctrine of justification became the most divisive and controversial issue in the history of Christendom. R.C. Sproul is correct to point out that “both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant [...]

Not only does justification find its expression and stamp in works, but as stated above it seems that James also speaks of faith in Jesus leading to the living out of works in all of life through wisdom.  I argue that the key verse for understanding how wisdom, works, and justification come together in the [...]

As stated above, a cursory reading of the Book of James might stem questions of contradictory when discussing justification with that of Paul.  Why does James speak so much of works?  Why does James speak so much about being a doer of the word instead of being simply a hearer?  James states in 2:14, “What [...]

            The Pocket Dictionary of Theological terms defines justification as a “a forensic (legal) term related to the idea of acquittal, justification refers to the divine act whereby God makes humans, who are sinful and therefore worthy of condemnation, acceptable before a God who is holy and righteous.  More appropriately described [...]

There has been much scholarly debate in New Testament studies concerning the issue of justification in the Book of James.  With a cursory reading of the letter and little knowledge of Paul’s doctrine of justification it might seem that James argues for justification by works.  Does James differ from Paul in his understanding of justification, [...]