At the start of another year, remember that you were made for more than trivial pursuits. There’s nothing wrong with New Year’s resolutions, but remember: You will never find ultimate satisfaction in people, possessions, or pursuits. Solomon said that striving after the things of this world is like striving after the wind (Eccl. 2:11). There’s no profit in it. What we’re really hungering for can only be found in Christ. The longing we experience can only be satisfied if we strive after Jesus. 

Did you make it past Quitter’s Day this year?
By the second Friday of January, most people have thrown in the towel. That’s 14 days max. Many don’t even last that long, but within a fortnight it’s all over for the bulk of them. The majority has completely given up. They quit. Two weeks is the most they can endure. It’s all the holding power their New Year’s resolutions have over them.
But why? Why do our best efforts falter so quickly? Why do so many of us just give up? Why can’t we consistently keep the virtuous promises we make to ourselves? Because there’s a flaw that keeps us from pressing on to do what we know is good for us. That’s why.
History shows that despite all our best efforts and all humanity’s grand achievements, we still hunger for a significance that remains out of our reach. Even when you don’t quit, even when you keep all your resolutions, you will never be able to satisfy the hunger at the center of your own story by your own efforts. Simply put, you are not enough for you.
This is why every New Year we revisit our commitments to gym workouts, diets, Bible reading plans, etc. It’s a second chance at fulfilling the longings of our soul left unsatisfied from another year gone.
These promises and pursuits stem from an internal longing for something more. You and I long for a new beginning—a second birth, of sorts—because we know there’s so much more for us than life on this earth gives. To C.S. Lewis, this longing was a clue to the meaning of life. “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,” he said, “the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
The longing we experience points us beyond ourselves. There is a yearning in our hearts for something we can never reach on our own, though we try.
Read More
Related Posts:

God graciously chose to covenant with us, and second, he undertook the conditions of the covenants on our behalf when we failed to do so. When we understand this covenant love, we are motivated to respond with lives of grateful obedience. We are inspired to obey his law, not as a means to earn salvation under the Covenant of Works, but as a joyful response to his covenant faithfulness to us.

The Bible is a book about the greatest story, and it touches on hundreds of themes. When we read it, we tend to focus on one of these things; the overall narrative or the themes. Typically we use biblical theology to follow scripture’s story; and systematic theology to trace scripture’s themes. Covenant theology combines these approaches. It helps us step back and see that the Bible tells the story of redemptive history (biblical theology) by using a specific theme or structure: God’s covenants (systematic theology).
Now, this doesn’t mean that covenant theology replaces the other approaches. Covenant theology is really a hermeneutic, a way of reading the scriptures, building on the strengths of both biblical and systematic theology to understand the Bible as a cohesive whole.
In this article, I’ll briefly define a covenant, introduce the Covenants of Works as well as the Covenant of Grace, and in so doing demonstrate how covenant theology helps us understand what Christ has done for us. Some will be familiar with the concepts, while others may have only recently discovered covenant theology. This article is primarily written for the second group, though I hope those of us familiar with these concepts will find our memories refreshed and our hearts encouraged.
What Is a Covenant?
A covenant is a mutual agreement between two parties, where both parties are bound to each other to perform the conditions contracted. At a basic level, it’s a contract. There are blessings for keeping the terms of the covenant, and curses for breaking them. But biblical covenants are deeper than just an agreement to perform a certain action. They connect people to each other and establish a relationship between them; in the scriptures, especially, they connect man and God.
Covenants are typically agreements between equals. So we must for a moment acknowledge the obvious imbalance between God and man. First, we are not equals. Humans depend on God for existence. He is the Creator. We are the creature. Secondly, as part of God’s creation, he has authority over us. He doesn’t need our consent. But God doesn’t force us to simply do as he commands. Instead, he graciously condescends to us, coming to our level and binding himself in covenant to us. By covenanting with us, God chooses to enter into relationship with us. And this means that every covenant is based on God’s grace, even the Covenant of Works.
The Covenant of Works
The Covenant of Works was made with Adam in the Garden of Eden, before the fall. But this covenant doesn’t just involve Adam: God appointed Adam as a representative of all humanity. Adam had a natural right to represent us as the first man, and perhaps more importantly, a legal right which he received from God. This means that Adam’s actions affect us, just as a king who signs a peace treaty signs not just for himself, but for every citizen.
One might summarise the Covenant of Works in this way: “Do this and live.” Note: God does two things here. Firstly, he sets a law (do this) and gives a promise (you will live). If God had only commanded us to do this, there wouldn’t have been any grace. He would simply demand obedience. If God only told us to live, then we’d have a promise but wouldn’t be drawn closer to God. It’s only as a covenant, a mixture of promise and law, that we get the full picture. For it’s by obedience to God that we can draw closer to him and enjoy life. This is the blessing offered under the Covenant of Works.
Let’s expand on that summary. God required Adam to perfectly and personally obey his Law. Adam knew the Law through reason, nature, and of course, God’s plain command. The Ten Commandments would later summarise what Adam was required to obey (Exodus 20:1-26). “Perfectly” and “personally.” These words are important. Perfectly is simple enough to understand.
Read More
Related Posts:

Wellum speaks candidly: “Scripture already gives us a specific theology and worldview, and our ‘making sense’ of it, that is, the constructive task of theology, must be true to the Bible’s own biblical-theological framework” (394). What is refreshing about this assertion is that Wellum doesn’t deny the existence of pre-existing frameworks. Rather, he contends that the Bible itself has a theological framework that we must discern and then utilize in our doctrinal development. What is the biblical-theological framework that the scriptures themselves give us? Wellum claims it is first rooted in the four plot movements of the Bible: Creation; Fall; Redemption; New Creation.

Calvin, Aquinas, Turretin. Berkhof, Hodge, Bavinck. Frame, Grudem, Horton. Gratefully, modern pastors have a large swath of insightful systematic theologies to peruse. Some are voices from distant history; other influential works have been written in recent years. We owe a significant debt to these theologians, who ask and answer the kinds of questions that the church in every generation wrestles with for its own edification and the spread of the gospel.
This all begs the question: if we have so much systematic theological material, delivered over many centuries, why do we need yet another one in 2024? Why give time and energy to read Dr. Stephen Wellum’s new systematic theology? Does his work offer something unique? My resounding answer is: “Yes!”
Let me give you three reasons why every thoughtful Christian in 2024 should read Wellum’s magisterial new work.
1. It Is a Theology Considered in Light of Our Present Cultural Moment and Thus Functions as a New Christian Apologetic
Dr. Wellum righty says that “systematic theology is never done in a vacuum” (32).[1] He explains that the “theological task is not only to formulate doctrine correctly but also to defend the truth in light of our specific challenges” (32). In the 13th century, Aquinas wrote his Summa Theologica in the context of a scholasticism that demanded the Church defend the reasonableness of the Christian faith to nonbelievers. Three centuries later, Calvin wrote his Institutes of the Christian Religion to defend the Protestant church as it was being falsely accused and persecuted by its Catholic opponents.
Likewise, Wellum seeks to do theology to “help the church fight the battle of our day, which is the battle over whether objective truth is possible and over its epistemological warrant” (34). This battle is over entire worldviews, or social imaginaries. As a result of our current Zeitgeist, historic theology is now viewed with skepticism. In brief, Wellum cogently argues that the Enlightenment sowed seeds of skepticism that cultivated modernity and postmodernity. These seeds resulted in the rejection of sola Scriptura, which in turn led to a rejection of a “theology from above” (36). Today, then, the church must reject doing theology “from below” and instead retrieve again a theology “from above.” Wellum claims that “the church must learn to articulate, defend, and proclaim the truth from a revelational ground, and not a modern or postmodern one” (78).
Today the central debate is whether truth is possible. The plausibility structures have changed with “people no longer thinking that objective truth is possible to attain” (80). Our battle today is over entire worldviews, which demands that theology “must start from the Bible’s own view of reality, knowledge, and moral norms.” (82). Furthermore, we must present the Bible’s view of reality as an integrated, comprehensive “package” because this is the only way for theology to be viewed as plausible in our present cultural moment.
Wellum’s aim in his theological project is not to merely catalogue theological doctrines, but to develop and present an entire counter-cultural worldview—to offer a “theology from above.” This “package” begins with the Triune God and His word-revelation and then showcases a full-orbed picture of God, this world, and the church. For pastors, this sort of approach will prove fruitful for not only teaching Christians how to think theologically, but equipping them to think well as they present this compelling “package” to those outside the church.
2. It Is a Theology That Presents Doctrine in a Way That Respects the Bible’s Own Theological Framework
This may be viewed as an unfair assertion, as every systematic theologian would claim this goal! However, not every systematic theologian reaches this goal. The reality is that we all bring particular theological frameworks to our doctrinal studies. We may have a dispensational or covenant theology framework. We may lean Calvinist or lean Arminian in our reading of the scriptures. Thus, we may be tempted to overlay the biblical text with our personal frameworks, looking at the text through our pet lenses to confirm from the text already-held beliefs. This can be dangerous.
Read More
Related Posts: