Sam Storms: What is it about Jesus that makes him worthy of your adoration and praise? What is it about Jesus that makes him irresistibly attractive? Why is he alone worthy of your whole-hearted allegiance and love? Consider the portrait of Jesus in symbolic language. In Revelation 5:5 he is called “the Lion of the tribe of Judah,” but in Revelation 5:6 is also portrayed as the “Lamb” who had been slain, though now standing, because alive. So, which is he? Both! Jesus is both Lion and Lamb. And it is in this glorious juxtaposition of what appear to be two contrasting images that we find the answer to our question. Think about this for a moment: The Lion in whom we find unimpeachable authority is also the Lamb who embodies humility and meekness in the highest degree. The Lion who wields power and strength that none can resist is also the Lamb who walked this earth in weakness and suffering, resisting none. The
Sam Storms
Standing Firm in the True Grace of God
Sam Storms: At the conclusion of his first epistle, the Apostle Peter says that he has “written briefly,” “exhorting and declaring that his is the true grace of God” (1 Pet. 5:12). He then concludes with this brief exhortation: “Stand firm in it!” All of us regularly encounter countless obstacles and opposition and temptations and excuses and seemingly reasonable grounds for compromise or that would appear to justify backing off from the grace of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter knew this. But his words are pointed, and we need to hear and heed them. Don’t give in. Stand firm in these truths. It’s as if Peter is saying, “What I have written to you will not be popular in the prevailing culture. You will be portrayed as out of step with the times or as naïve or as a person who simply lacks the discernment to know how society has changed. You will be tempted to soft-pedal some of these
Why is it “Far Better” to Die and be “with Christ”?
Sam Storms: How could the apostle Paul say, without the slightest tinge of sarcasm or doubt, that physical death for the Christian is “far better” than remaining alive on the earth (Phil. 1:23)? The older I get, the more I think about death. That may strike some as overly morbid and depressing, but I regard it as biblical realism. Death awaits us all, unless we remain alive until Christ returns. My guess is that Tim Keller, J. I. Packer, John Stott, Billy Graham, R. C. Sproul, Charles Stanley, Jack Hayford, and Pat Robertson, just to name a few well-known Christians who have died in the past 15 years or so, all believed, or at least hoped that they would live until the second coming of Jesus. That they have died is, says Paul, “far better” than if they had remained alive on earth. Why? When I think of all that life on earth affords me, it’s a stretch to think
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Can We Worship God When We Feel Nothing?
Sam Storms: I’ve been asked that question countless times. Many have responded to it by saying that we are morally obligated to worship God even when we feel nothing for him. But if your reason for worshiping God is merely from a sense of moral duty, God would rather you not worship him at all. To say that God is pleased with worship that lacks passion is to say God endorses hypocrisy. How can one ever forget the stinging rebuke Jesus made of the Pharisees in this regard? “You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me. But in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men” (Matt. 15:7-9) If ever there were a scary verse in the Bible, this is it. It frightens me to think that it is possible for me to have “singing lips” and a “distant heart”
Why the Resurrection Matters: 1 Corinthians 15:16-17
Sam Storms: Today, the morning after Easter Sunday, 2023, it is just as important as it was yesterday to know why the resurrection of Jesus from the dead matters. Let me tell you what the Christian claim that Jesus literally rose from the dead means. It means that either I am a blubbering fool or I am telling you the single most important truth that you will ever hear. It means that either I am an absolute buffoon, most to be pitied, or I am a blessed man whose destiny is one filled with glory and honor and unending joy. And the same is true of you. Those are the options. There are no third alternatives. The reason I say this is because I’ve staked my life on the reality of an empty tomb. Everything I am, everything I own, everything I’ve done or hope to do hang suspended on whether or not Jesus of Nazareth rose from the dead.
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Drenched and Dressed in the Holy Spirit
Sam Storms: I often find that Christians live largely in ignorance of who the Holy Spirit is and the relationship that he sustains to all who have come to faith in Jesus. There are two metaphors in the NT that portray how the Spirit relates to each of us, and I want to briefly explain them in this article. The first metaphor or image is found in the words of John the Baptist. In John 1:33 he declares that whereas he baptizes people in water, there is one coming after him who will baptize you in/with the Holy Spirit. I assume most if not all of you have been baptized since you came to faith in Jesus. The one thing you should remember is what it felt like to be immersed in water. You got wet! Your clothes were drenched. Your hair was soaked. And when you stepped out of the baptistry you dripped wherever you walked. In a similar
Good News of Great Joy!
Sam Storms: And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:8-14) Let’s revisit the night when the birth of Jesus was announced. As
The Gospel is for the Evangelisation and Salvation of the Nations
Sam Storms: In Romans 16:26 Paul explicitly declares that it is the “command of the eternal God” (v. 26) that we take the glorious, good news of the gospel to every tribe and tongue and people and nation. In other words, evangelism and mission are not optional! If you wonder why here at Bridgeway we have devoted at least 12% of our income to missions, both local and global, both to church plants and ministries that make the gospel known around the world, here is the answer. Why do we care about what our missionaries and church planters are doing in Japan and in the Czech Republic and in Turkey and in India and in England and in Slovenia and in Germany and even here in the ever-increasingly pagan United States of America? It is because this is the “command” of our eternal God! And how do we do this? It isn’t only by contributing financial support. It is primarily through “the preaching
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The Gospel is the Source of Strength for Weak People
Sam Storms: I fear we often have an unrealistic image of the Apostle Paul. We tend to think of him as if he were some combination of a Navy Seal and a Super-Hero. And yet, Paul knew what it was like to experience human weakness. When he described his ministry in the city of Corinth he said that he was with them “in weakness and in fear and in much trembling” (1 Cor. 2:3). I don’t need to tell any of you what it is like to feel weak and inadequate and overwhelmed. But here is the good news: The gospel can strengthen you! The gospel can empower you! The gospel can supply you with whatever you need to remain faithful to the Lord and to accomplish whatever he’s called you to do. How, you ask? I’ve got a lot of answers! Consider your suffering. The only way you can suffer unjustly without growing bitter and resentful is tied directly to
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Knowing God – A Reader’s Guide to a Christian Classic
Article by Sam Storms: Theocentricity is a big and imposing word that simply means “God-centered.” To be theocentric means that God himself is the core of all you believe, and the governing, gravitational force of all you do. And in my judgment, no one in recent memory more readily embodied this perspective on life more than the late J.I. Packer (1926–2020), especially in his classic work, Knowing God. James Inell Packer is justifiably known for much. His rigorous, thoroughly biblical articulation of penal substitutionary atonement, his unwavering defense of biblical inerrancy, and his penetrating insights into the contribution of the Puritans are just a few of the many qualities for which he is remembered. But when he himself was asked, “What is the best thing in life, bringing more joy, delight, and contentment than anything else?” he did not hesitate to answer: the knowledge of God (33). Pigmy Christianity Packer had little patience for those who would speak of the Christian
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What Is the Difference between Union and Communion with Christ?
Sam Storms: An important distinction that a lot of Christians misunderstand is between the eternal union we have with God and the experiential communion that we have on a daily basis. By eternal union, I mean the fact that we are in Christ and nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8). Scripture gives us all these potential threats. We think Well, if I don’t respond well to this or if I don’t say the right thing in this current context, I’m going to be cut off from Christ eternally. No. Once we are in Jesus by faith, we are in an eternal bond, union, covenant relationship that cannot be broken, cannot be undermined, cannot be shattered—even in the midst of our sin. But, on the other hand, we have what I call experiential communion. The word experiential is to be contrasted with eternal. Eternal happens all the time. It’s unchangeable, unbreakable. Experiential is what
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3 Things God Will Never Do with Your Sin
Sam Storms: God’s Way of Dealing with Sin vs. Our Way Consider for a moment how we “deal” with others. We keep fresh in our minds their injustices toward us. We nurture the memory of their faults and failings. We never let them forget what they did and we often make sure others are mindful of it as well. We seek every opportunity, often secretly and surreptitiously, to make them pay for their transgressions. We hold it in our hearts and over their heads and persuade ourselves that it’s only fair that they be treated this way. 1. God “Does Not Deal with Us According to Our Sins” Our good and gracious God, on the other hand, “does not deal with us according to our sins” (Ps. 103:10). Our sins do not constitute the rule or standard or plumb line according to which God makes his decisions on how to treat us. He does not recall or bring to the
Do you pray for lost souls? If so, how?
Sam Storms: I assume that you, like Paul, pray fervently for the salvation of close family members or colleagues at work. In Paul’s case, they were the many Jewish men and women of his day who had openly and persistently denied that Jesus was the Messiah. He expressed his profound and persistent sorrow and grief over their lost condition back in Romans 9:1-3. In Romans 10:1 he declares unashamedly that his “heart’s desire and prayer to God” is “that they may be saved.” Paul doesn’t say anything about the nature of this prayer. He doesn’t give any details about the wording that he might use. We don’t know beyond his general affirmation precisely in what way he would ask God to save them, but my suspicion is that he prayed that God might ravish their hearts with his beauty and that he might unshackle their enslaved wills and cause them to come alive! When you pray for lost souls, what specifically are you
The Word became Flesh – A Christmas Meditation on the Most Breathtaking Verse in the Bible
Sam Storms: “The Word became flesh” (John 1:14) Let’s think for a moment of the beauty of Jesus as revealed in the act of incarnation. For some of you that’s a new and unfamiliar word. It may sound esoteric, but without it we are a hopeless people. Without it Jesus is nothing to us and we are nothing to him. So what exactly do I mean by the word “Incarnation”? The idea is found in several texts which speak of Jesus as “coming in the flesh” (1 Jn. 4:2; 2 Jn. 7), being “sent in the flesh” (Rom. 8:3), “appearing in the flesh” (1 Tim. 3:16); he also “suffered in the flesh” (1 Pt. 4:1), “died in the flesh” (1 Pt. 3:18), made peace by abolishing “in the flesh the enmity” (Eph. 2:15), and “made reconciliation in the body of his flesh” (Col. 1:21-22). In sum, “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14). Thus, by the Incarnation we mean that the eternal
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Did Jesus Exist Before Christmas?
Sam Storms: That may sound like a strange question to ask, but such was the title of an article I recently read. 63% of church-going Christians said Yes, which means that 37% said No. When the survey included all American adults, only 41% believe Jesus existed before his birth in Bethlehem. So, let’s get this straight. What I’m about to say may at first sound heretical, but be patient with me. No, Jesus, the human being who walked the earth, died on a cross, and was raised from the dead, did not exist prior to his being conceived in the womb of a young virgin girl named Mary. Before you cast me aside as an apostate, listen closely. The Son of God, the second person of the Holy Trinity, has always existed. There are countless texts that affirm the eternal pre-existence of God the Son. One thinks immediately of two texts in John’s gospel, where Jesus himself said this: “Jesus said
How does Hope Serve to Sanctify our Souls?
Sam Storms: The words of the apostle John in 1 John 3:2-3 are both inspired and inspiring. He tells us that if we put our hope in the return of Christ, in the prospect of seeing Jesus “as he is,” this will serve to purify or sanctify our souls. Here is the passage: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3). How exactly does this work? What is it about our hope for the return of Jesus and seeing him face to face that serves to purify our souls? I can think of four things. (1) We know that we will stand in the presence of Jesus to be judged for the things done in his grace and power.
Three principles of the Christian life
Sam Storms: One of my spiritual and theological mentors was Russ McKnight. Not many will have heard of that name, but Russ’s influence on me and numerous others, including a dozen or more men now in full time ministry, was monumental. Russ was a layman who served as an Elder at Metropolitan Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. I first met Russ in 1969 on the campus of the University of Oklahoma. Russ was teaching a Bible study on Romans every Saturday morning in the Student Union building. Russ was the first man who taught me about the doctrines of sovereign grace, or what is more commonly known as Calvinism. I was a thoroughly convinced Arminian at the time, and Russ’s love, patience, and remarkable gift at unpacking the truths of the Bible eventually led to my embracing the doctrines of grace. Russ sold his business in the late 1970’s and moved to Dallas where he studied for his master’s degree
Providence and the Counterintuitive Wonders of God
Sam Storms: It’s only one word, Providence, but it is indescribably rich and complex and challenging and comforting. It is also the title to John Piper’s most recent book (Crossway, 2020, 751pp.). Piper defines providence as God’s “purposeful sovereignty.” In other words, it is more than mere sovereignty. It is more than power or oversight. It is the way in which God directly and intentionally brings about his ultimate aim of glorifying himself. One of the things that you will read from John is his emphasis on what he calls “counterintuitive wonders” (14). These wonders of how God governs the world “are not illogical or contradictory, but they are different from our usual ways of seeing the world – so different that our first reaction is often to say, ‘That can’t be.’ But the ‘can’t’ is in our minds, not in reality” (14). Right from the start of this massive and important work, Piper encourages his readers to “let the word of
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His Nearness to Us, Our Dearness to Him
Sam Storms: One of the more precious passages in all of Scripture to me is Psalm 16:11. Here David speaks of the presence of God and the inimitable pleasure and power that flood the soul of those who experience it. Knowing this ought to instill in us a ravenous hunger for intimacy with God. What surprises many is to discover the immense practical benefit of such desire. I first saw this in something said by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews. In the opening verses of chapter thirteen we are exhorted to love each other (v. 1), to be hospitable (v. 2), to be compassionate to the oppressed and needy (v. 3), to pursue sexual purity both inside and outside of marriage (v. 4), and perhaps most difficult of all, not to love money but to be content (v. 5). A formidable task indeed! How can God possibly expect such behavior from people as self-absorbed as we? The answer,
Spurgeon on the eternal security of the believer
Sam Storms: Few theological issues are as fraught with as much controversy and rancor as that of the security of the believer in Jesus Christ. I continue to marvel at how energetic people are on both sides of this issue when it comes to defending their cherished view. Without delving into the subject in exegetical detail, I would like to cite the words of Charles Spurgeon. His zeal for the truth of eternal security is deserving of our careful and prayerful consideration. “If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be; and then there is no gospel promise true, but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worthy my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then He will love me forever.
Already Not Yet 