Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04044 Being sensitive to the Spirit’s leading is one of those phrases that Christians use regularly but rarely unpack. It can sound mystical or subjective — as though some believers have a special spiritual sixth sense that others lack. But the New Testament’s teaching on this is more concrete and more accessible than that….
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04043 Galatians 5:16-25 contains one of the most practically important passages in Paul’s letters. In a single sustained argument, he sets out two contrasting ways of living: life driven by the flesh, and life shaped by the Spirit. The contrast is not between the irreligious and the religious. It runs through the middle of…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 7069 The question of salvation divided Western Christianity in the sixteenth century and has not been formally resolved since. The Protestant Reformation turned fundamentally on the question of how a person is justified before God, and the Council of Trent, convened by Rome between 1545 and 1563, responded by issuing specific condemnations of the…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion Q04011 Prayer is often treated as though it were entirely a human activity, a matter of finding the right words or generating sufficient sincerity. Scripture presents a far more astonishing picture. The Holy Spirit is not a passive observer of our prayer life; He is an active participant in it, working from within us…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 06076 The question of what Paul’s thorn actually was has occupied readers for centuries, partly because Paul is deliberately vague and partly because the passage sits within one of the most extraordinary sections of personal disclosure in the entire New Testament. In 2 Corinthians 12:7-10, Paul describes having been caught up into the third…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04015 The phrase ‘the procession of the Holy Spirit’ sounds abstract enough that most Christians assume it belongs to the world of academic theology and has little to do with their daily experience of God. That impression is understandable but mistaken. What is at stake in this doctrine is the Spirit’s genuine identity as…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 6007 Once we become Christians, is it possible to reach a point where we no longer sin? Some have taught a doctrine of “entire sanctification” or “Christian perfection,” claiming that believers can achieve sinless perfection in this life. Others seem to think that since we are saved by grace, it does not particularly matter…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 6009 Every genuine Christian wants to overcome sin. We hate the way it dishonours God, damages our relationships, and disrupts our peace. But how? We have tried willpower and failed. We have made resolutions and broken them. We have promised God we would do better, only to fall into the same patterns again. Is…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4063 Paul identifies three conditions for Spirit-filled living in Ephesians 4 and 5, and 1 Thessalonians 5: do not grieve the Spirit, do not quench the Spirit, walk by the Spirit. They are simple to list and genuinely demanding to live. Understanding why each one matters — and where each one is most likely…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 10109 How does a believer grow in holiness? The question sounds simple and turns out to be one of the most contested in Christian thought. On one side stands the quietist: “Let go and let God” — spiritual growth is entirely His work, and the believer’s task is to get out of the way….