Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7047 The phrase “in Christ” appears in Paul’s letters more frequently than almost any other expression, and yet it tends to wash over readers without registering its full weight. It is not filler language or pious decoration. It is Paul’s most concentrated shorthand for the most fundamental thing that is true of a person…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7046 Union with Christ is one of the richest and most comprehensive concepts in the New Testament, and it functions as the theological foundation on which virtually every other aspect of salvation rests. It is also among the most underappreciated. Believers who have sat under solid Bible teaching for years can sometimes be unfamiliar…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 7041 “The perseverance of the saints” is a technical term from Reformed and Calvinist theology where it forms the fifth point in what has become known as the five points of Calvinism. But the underlying question it addresses, whether genuine believers can lose their salvation and what the relationship is between present faith and…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7043 Did Christ die for every human being who has ever lived, or only for those who would ultimately believe? The question of the extent of the atonement is one of the most theologically significant in Christian history, and the answer has practical consequences that reach all the way into how the gospel is…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7045 Scripture repeatedly and plainly states that Jesus died for all people, and yet it is equally plain that not everyone will be saved. For some, this seems like a genuine tension requiring a theological resolution. Understanding how the biblical picture holds together not only resolves the apparent difficulty but opens up the full…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 7040 “Prevenient grace” is a term drawn primarily from Wesleyan and Arminian theology, and it addresses a question that no serious theology of salvation can sidestep: given that the fall has seriously affected human nature, how is it possible for any person to respond to the gospel at all? Understanding what the doctrine claims,…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07034 Predestination is a word that makes many people uncomfortable, whether because it suggests a rigid determinism that leaves no room for human freedom, or because popular presentations of it have been unnecessarily harsh. But the discomfort is not a good reason to avoid a concept that appears repeatedly in the pages of Scripture….
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 07035 The doctrine of effectual calling is one of the five points of Calvinist soteriology, and whilst the terminology is distinctively Reformed, the underlying question it addresses is genuinely biblical: how does a person come to respond to the gospel? Why do some hear the same message and believe whilst others hear it and…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 07032 The phrase ordo salutis is Latin for “order of salvation,” and it refers to the logical sequence of the various elements involved in a person coming to salvation and continuing in the Christian life. It is a theological framework rather than a biblical phrase, but the question it addresses is thoroughly biblical: does…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 07033 Election is one of the most debated doctrines in Christian theology, and the stakes are genuinely high — because the way election is understood directly shapes how a person thinks about God’s character, human freedom, the gospel offer, and the basis of assurance. The word itself simply means choosing or selecting, and no…