Theological term
Economy of Salvation
2 sermons · All terms
The Children of the Devil, Part 2
John 8:42–47 presents one of the most confrontational moments in Christ's public ministry: his declaration that the religious leaders who claimed God as their Father were in fact children of the devil. This sermon works through three elements of that indictment — the rejection of their claim to divine sonship (v. 42), the affirmation of their total inability to receive Christ's word (v. 43), and the opening of his identification of their true father (v. 44). The doctrine of eternal generation grounds the argument: because the Son is consubstantial with the Father, rejection of the Son is conclusive proof that God is not their father. The sermon extends the application to warn the church against those who, like these leaders, do the desires of the devil — whether as false teachers within or persecuting powers without — and calls believers to the one antidote: love for Christ as the fruit of regeneration and sovereign grace.
The Incarnation of the Word, Part 2
John 1:15–17 presents the preeminence of the incarnate Word and the fullness of grace and truth that flows from Him to needy sinners. The testimony of John the Baptist — that Christ ranks before him because He was before him — is an affirmation of Christ's co-eternity, distinctness, and consubstantiality with the Father, in accord with the Nicene Creed. Verse 17 is not a sharp antithesis between Moses and Jesus but a contrast in the mode of divine revelation: the law was mediated through Moses, while grace and truth came through the mediator Himself, who is the very embodiment of God's glory. The sermon calls hearers to stand in awe of the preeminent Redeemer, to find every spiritual need met in His inexhaustible fullness, and to close with Christ without delay.