Sanctification

David Wells on “The Life of Convertedness”

Kirk E. Miller

David Wells wrote a book on conversion called Turning to God: Reclaiming Christian Conversion as Unique, Necessary, and Supernatural.

He describes conversion with this statement:

Christianity without conversion is no loner Christian, because conversion means turning to God. It involves forsaking sin, with its self-deifying attitudes and self-serving conduct, and turning to Christ, whose death on the cross is the basis for God’s offer of mercy and forgiveness. Jesus was judged in our place so that God could extend his righteousness to us. Conversion occurs when we turn from our waywardness and accept Christ’s death on our behalf.[1]

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A Wholistic View of Salvation—“Already/Not Yet”

Kirk E. Miller 3 Comments

Introduction

In contemporary Christianity it is very common to hear that someone “got saved” or to have someone tell you that they were “saved” at such and such a time. But beyond that, the concept of “salvation” remains dormant. I believe this stems from a misunderstanding of salvation, that is, salvation in its entirety.

Now, it is true that many believers can point back to a specific moment of turning from sin towards initial trust in Christ for salvation. In theology we call this moment conversion and it is also the moment we are regenerated (given spiritual birth and life) and justified (counted as righteous before God). In this sense, then, we can rightly say that we were saved upon our conversion. But the idea of “salvation” is Biblically and theologically much more comprehensive than just that one precise moment.

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What the Law Still Cannot Do

Kirk E. Miller

The following is an illustration from Michael Horton’s book, Introducing Covenant Theology. Horton’s illustration can be found in his chapter entitled “New Covenant Obedience” and under the subsection “What the Law Still Cannot Do.”

It’s an illustration of a sailboat. It’s an illustration I have never forgotten, probably never will forget, and come back to time and time again.

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The Gospel for Christians

Kirk E. Miller

This message is the fourth and final message I delivered at Winterfest, 2011, at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in Pembine, WI. Up until this point we had looked at the Gospel [Good News] of Christmas, the Gospel According to Jesus (the cost of discipleship), the Gospel’s [Inevitable] Effects on Those Who are Saved, and finally, in this message we looked specifically at Philippians 1:27-30 and how the Gospel is still the most important thing for us as believers. We took Paul’s principles from this passage and made multiple applications to our contemporary context of how the Gospel ought to affect our lives as believers.

Other Winterfest 2011 messages.

Podcast link.

The Gospel’s [Inevitable] Effects on Those Who are Saved

Kirk E. Miller

This is the third of four messages I gave at Winterfest at Lake Lundgren Bible Camp in December, 2011. In the previous message, The Gospel According to Jesus, we looked at what it takes to follow Christ. In this message, we examined the book of 1 John to see exactly what a follower of Jesus looks like. One of John’s goals in this epistle is to give assurance to those who are saved. On the other hand, his message is hopefully one of conviction for those who are not.

Other Winterfest 2011 messages.

Podcast link.