Always Reforming

This post is an adaptation of my sermon notes from 12/23. One of life's most fundamental questions, one that we must all ask ourselves is, “Who is Jesus?”   This question has received many answers, and many of them are correct, if incomplete.   Jesus is God.   He is a man.   He is a teacher and a shepherd and our Savior.    The Reformed tradition has long thought it best to view Christ through the lens of His three offices: Prophet, Priest, and King.   Of these three, people like to emphasize His Kingship the least as it is the most repulsive to our human nature (see the Garden of Eden).   Liberal Christianity likes to speak of Christ as our Prophet, Evangelical Christianity likes to speak of Christ as our Priest, but it seems nobody wants to speak of Christ as our King!   The New Testament, however, strongly emphasizes the Kingship of Christ.   In fact, o f the three offices He occupies, His Kingship is perhaps emphasized the mo...

This is the time of year that many Reformed people on the internet like to let everyone know of their disdain for Christmas.  They are a rare breed, but vocal.  They point out that the Bible doesn't tell us exactly when Christ was born (we can be pretty sure it wasn't December, at any rate), nor does it command us to celebrate it with a festival.  They are absolutely correct on both counts.  Furthermore, they allege, celebration of man-made holidays like Easter and Christmas distracts from the observance of the weekly Sabbath (Sunday).  Some of these folks are vocal and condescending in their proclamation of their superiority.  Many of them are not. I was raised in a home that generally followed this line of thought.  We celebrated Christmas, but never as a "Church" holiday.  We had a sibling gift exchange and we went had family get-togethers, but my father, who pastored the church I attended growing up, never preached a Christmas sermon (never ...