The Surprising God

This post is excerpted from "On Misdiagnosing Legalism and Finding the Right Remedy," a lecture from Grace Communion Seminary President Dr. Gary Deddo. Though legalism is a real problem (Gal. 3:1-5, 10) some charges of legalism are unwarranted. Understanding what legalism is (and thus its remedy) begins by answering a fundamental theological question: Is God good and opposed to all evil? If so, has God revealed his will so that we may live toward his good ways and away from the ways of evil? In other words, is obedience to the will and ways of our Creator and Redeemer good, and is disobedience sinful, that is, a collusion with the evil that our Triune God opposes? Is obedience a certain kind of relationship with God that God enables by revealing to us his will and ways so that we may obey and so do what is good? Answering yes to these questions reflects an understanding that God intends for our relationship and interaction with him to always be what Scripture refers t...

For many, the word 'liturgy' conjures up images of rigid, formulaic worship. But as this post seeks to explain, structuring worship in accordance with a Christ-centered and gospel-shaped liturgy is a powerful and dynamic way to facilitate the conversion of one's worldview to Christ. Is liturgy biblical? Some say that liturgy is not biblical because the word does not appear in Scripture. Note, however, that the New Testament uses the verb leitourgia to speak of service (ministry-worship) within the church (2 Cor. 9:12) and the noun leitourgos to speak of those who provide this service ( Rom. 15:16), including Jesus who is identified as the supreme  leitourgos  (Heb. 8:2) . From these two Greek words comes our English word liturgy , which  means “the service (work) of the people.” The word liturgy is then used informally to refer to the order of service by which the worship of the church is structured. Given this informal use, it can be said that all churches (whethe...