Coming Worthily

This coming Sunday, 7 June, we will be celebrating the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Grace Church continues in the practice of our former Evangelical and Village congregations, as well as the tradition of the church through the centuries…

Unfathomable Love

We love to sing that hymn together: “Amazing love! How can it be that Thou My God shouldst die for me” (And Can It Be That I Should Gain, by Charles Wesley). We are immediately struck by the truth that the love of God in Christ towards us sinners is, as Wesley understood it, AMAZING!

Worn, Weary, but Strengthened

These verses from Paul’s second letter to the believers at Corinth can be considered part of the testimony of the Apostle as he labors in the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. One of the great themes of his two letters to the Corinthians is his own defense of the Gospel ministry committed to him by our Lord and for which he suffered greatly…

Take Up and Read

It is the longest chapter in the Bible and its main focus is the Word of God. Variously described as God’s statutes, judgments, testimonies, Word, truth, precepts, along with a host of other very helpful terms, the Lord has set in the center of His Word the importance and centrality of the Word in the life of the believer…

Why Did Jesus Come?

As pastors, we decided a few weeks back to do a sermon series together on the subject of “Why Did Jesus Come?” a fitting series for this time of year as we give thanks to God for the incarnation! Some may think such a series rather presumptuous as it is often impossible to get to the “why” of things…

The Cross as a Pulpit

Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Ephesians 5:1-2

The passage from Ephesians 5 quoted above is an important one in the context of the Apostle Paul’s letter to this beloved church. In light of beginning our recent study in the book of Leviticus, there is no doubt that the Apostle is bringing to mind the language of the burnt sacrifice offering of Leviticus 1 where we read: “And the priest shall burn all on the altar as a burnt sacrifice, an offering made by fire, a sweet aroma to the Lord.” As we noted this past Lord’s Day, that language reminded the priest and the worshiper that God was satisfied with the worship He had commanded as the people came with their sacrifice to make atonement for their sins. His wrath and justice were satisfied through the offering of the animal on the altar.

Christ, the Christian’s Scapegoat

Leviticus 16:21-22 And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness.

The teaching of the doctrine of imputation (simply explained as the reckoning or assigning to someone something that is not their own—as the above text shows us in the fact that the sins spoken of were not the sins of the goat, but of the people) is one of the more difficult doctrines to teach and to understand.