Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11128. Praying for enemies is not offered in Scripture as an optional spiritual extra reserved for the unusually mature Christian, it is a direct command from Jesus Himself: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:44). I want to be honest that this is one of the hardest instructions in…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 12057. Is sex before marriage wrong? Yes, and I am aware that saying so plainly puts me at odds with almost everything a young person in Britain has ever been told. What I want to do is show you why Scripture says it, because a rule without a reason will not survive a single…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 11087 Do I need to forgive myself? The question arrives constantly in pastoral conversation, usually from someone who believes God has forgiven them and still cannot get free of something they did. They have confessed it, sometimes for years, and the weight has not lifted. I want to say two things that sound contradictory…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 11008. The question of remarriage after divorce is one of the few where I have watched churches cause real and lasting damage in both directions. Some have treated remarried believers as permanent second-class members. Others have waved the whole matter through as though Jesus had never spoken about it. I want to set out…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7099 The question of why Jesus died rather than God simply issuing a pardon is one of the most honest questions anyone can ask, and it is usually asked with real feeling. If God is almighty and loving, why the blood? Why not one merciful word from the throne and the whole matter closed?…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7088. Ongoing forgiveness and the forgiveness received at conversion are related but not identical, and failing to distinguish them causes two opposite problems. Some Christians live in fear that unconfessed sin has undone their salvation. Others conclude that since everything was forgiven at the cross, confession is unnecessary. Both have collapsed a distinction Scripture…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 7084. Whether the worst sinners imaginable could be forgiven is a question people ask in two very different tones of voice, and the tone matters. Some ask it as a challenge, expecting Christianity to flinch. Others ask it because of somebody in their own family, and they need to know whether there is a…
Reading Time: 9 minutesQuestion 07006. Few passages have caused more private agony than the one about the unforgivable sin, and I have lost count of the number of believers who have come to me convinced that they have committed it. They are almost always the last people on earth who could have done so, and I want to…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 6073. Unintentional sin is a genuine biblical category, and the answer to whether we are responsible for it is yes, with a very large mercy attached. Scripture is clear that ignorance does not simply cancel guilt. It is equally clear that God made specific provision for the person who sinned without realising it, and…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 6008. Confession of sin is one of those practices every Christian knows they should maintain and many quietly find confusing. What exactly are we doing when we confess? Is it grovelling? A ritual formula? Informing God of things He somehow missed? And if the cross has already dealt with my sin, why confess at…