Christ Church (Moscow, ID)

Those Christians who have spent much time in conservative Christian circles know that we are pro-life. That almost goes without saying. And we often have some of the basic arguments down, but we need to make sure that we have the true foundational issues down as well. That means, as you should instinctively know, that we have to ground our convictions on the Scriptures that have been given to us by God.

The Apostle Paul commanded the Corinthians to: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong (1 Cor. 16:13).” The greek word there is a wonderful one: andrizomai. It means, “be a man.” God commands the bride of Christ to “man up.” We are to be watchful, vigilant, courageous, and strong. This is one way of saying the Christian life isn’t for pansies or pushovers.

The presence of the Lord Jesus, alive just as He promised He would be, transforms everything. We can see this very clearly in the fall and restoration of the apostle Peter after the resurrection. The account of Christ’s care for Peter is given to us so that we might understand more of His care for us.

We are seeking to recover a Christian sense of time and history, and in some sense this means a recovery of the church year. But though we are seeking to escape a secularized calendar, we must never forget that we got this secular calendar (in part) because of a reaction away from the problem of “saints days glut.” And this means we cannot just be aware of the problems with ourimmediate past. We have to look farther back than this, and hence it is a means of guarding the future. What we need is balance.

Guest preacher Pastor C.R. Wiley at Christ Church Downtown.

The law of God is like math. It doesn’t care about anybody’s hurt feelings. It is straight, and hard, and cold, and altogether righteous. But at the same time, when this cold, cold law is resurrected in the body of Christ back from the tomb, it comes to us as burning love. And this is why we preach cold law and hot gospel.

This message was given by C.R. Wiley at New Saint Andrews College's Disputatio.The last several years, Christ Church has tried an experiment in grace and has not charged for our Grace Agenda conference. In keeping with this spirit of grace, we are accepting free will donations at christkirk.com/give. Be sure to select 'Grace Agenda' in the form.