Theological term
Progressive Revelation
16 sermons · All terms
2LCF Chapter 7 - Of God's Covenant
God's covenant with humanity is not an afterthought to the fall but the divinely ordained means by which the Creator bridges the infinite distance between himself and the creature. This study of 2LCF Chapter 7 traces three movements: the necessity of covenant rooted in the creator-creature distinction, the necessity of a covenant of grace arising from man's fall and God's sovereign pleasure to save, and the progressive revelation of that covenant from the protevangelium in Genesis 3 through its ratification in the blood of Christ at Calvary. The sermon insists that the covenant of grace is not merely administered across multiple Old Testament epochs but revealed through them and finally ratified — not administered — in the new covenant, a distinctively Reformed Baptist reading of covenant theology. The hearer is called to rest entirely on the covenant obedience of Christ, the only mediator, rather than on any obedience of their own.
Ask FGBC #12: Can I apply Old Testament promises to my life?
The question of whether Old Testament promises — such as Jeremiah 29:11 — can be applied by Christians today requires careful attention to covenantal epochs, the progress of revelation, and the organic unity of Scripture. The discussion distinguishes between positive laws tied to Israel's tenure in the land, moral principles embedded within those laws that endure, and the climactic focus of all Scripture on the incarnation, sufferings, and glory of Christ (Galatians 4:4). The Old Testament is affirmed as the Christian's book, but application must reckon with the difference between Old Covenant and New Covenant rather than collapsing that distinction into a flat one-for-one transference. Faithful reading looks first for something larger than the reader — the mediator of salvation — and from that vantage point finds genuine ground for hope and doxology.
Ask FGBC #11: What will our days in Heaven look like?
A question about the nature of heavenly existence — whether eternity will feel like endless sameness — draws out a sustained reflection on the creator-creature distinction, the infinity of God, and the progressive unfolding of divine glory to finite creatures. Drawing from Ephesians 2:7's reference to 'the ages to come,' the discussion argues that eternity for creatures will be temporal and successive, not static, because God is inexhaustible and finite creatures can never comprehend the infinite. The corporate dimension of heavenly worship, including Christ's own role in leading his people in the praise of God, is offered as a counterweight to individualistic or tedium-haunted conceptions of the eternal state.
Ask FGBC - Podcast with Jim Butler, Dr James Renihan, Dr Richard Barcellos
This roundtable conversation between three pastors and theologians addresses a wide range of questions submitted by church members, covering biblical theology, covenant theology, baptism, eschatology, and Christian living. The discussion moves from how Christ fulfills Old Testament Israel, through the covenantal basis for believers' baptism, to the nature of the eternal state, the hermeneutics of applying Old Testament promises, the place of ethnic Israel in relation to the church, and the means of grace for raising covenant children. Throughout, the speakers return to a consistent Reformed hermeneutic: Christ is the true and greater fulfillment of all Old Testament promise, the church is the eschatological Israel of prophetic expectation, and the ordinary means of grace — Word, prayer, and faithful worship — remain God's appointed instruments for the conversion and nurture of his people.
CTF 2024 Session 6: Further Explorations in Scripture Interpretation
Christ is the scope of the whole of Scripture — this is the claim Peter makes in Acts 3 and unpacks theologically in 1 Peter 1:10–12, and it is the claim this session presses upon interpreters of the Bible today. Beginning with Peter's sermon in Acts 3 and moving to his mature reflection in 1 Peter 1, the lecture traces how God spoke through the writing prophets from Moses onward concerning the sufferings and glory of Christ, how those prophets studied one another's writings in search of a fuller understanding, and how the coming of Christ together with the New Testament's explanatory revelation made explicit what was implicit in the Old Testament all along. The session closes with several hermeneutical implications: the analogy of Scripture is not a Reformation invention but a prophetic practice; the Old Testament contains a surplus of divinely embedded meaning that awaits later revelation to unveil; and subsequent revelation does not reinterpret the Old Testament but fulfils and illuminates the meaning that was always there.
2LCF Chapter 7 - Of God's Covenant
The doctrine of God's covenant is not merely one column in the architecture of systematic theology — it is the architecture itself, the organizing and unifying principle of the entire Bible. This session works through 2LCF Chapter 7, examining the ground of covenant necessity in the creator-creature distinction, the nature of God's voluntary and revelatory condescension, the occasion and provisions of the covenant of grace, and the progressive revelation of that covenant from the protevangelium to its formal ratification in the New Testament. The distinctively Baptist formulation — using 'revelation' rather than 'administration' — reflects the conviction that the covenant of grace was not formally and properly a covenant until Christ ratified it in his blood, a distinction with direct bearing on the doctrine of baptism and the composition of the church.
Better Things in Christ
Hebrews 1:1–4 presents Jesus Christ as the apex of divine revelation, the eternal Son who bears the undiminished nature of the Father, and the perfect High Priest whose finished work secures salvation for all His people. The sermon moves through three considerations: the singular greatness of Christ's revelation over all prior prophetic speech, the infinite excellency of His person as the brightness of the Father's glory and the exact imprint of His nature, and the perfection of His redemptive regency demonstrated in His expiatory sacrifice and His session at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Against any drift toward lesser things — whether Old Covenant shadows, Roman Catholic purgatory, or the kenotic diminishment of Christ's deity — the congregation is called to hold fast their Christ, rejoice in the revelation God has given, and fear the consequences of neglecting so great a salvation.
The Stewardship of the Mystery of Christ
Ephesians 3:1–7 presents Paul simultaneously as prisoner and steward — his imprisonment for preaching Gentile inclusion in the covenant of grace is inseparable from the divine commission that caused it. The sermon traces the apostolic stewardship of the mystery of Christ: a truth partially disclosed in the Old Testament through types and promises, but fully unveiled in the New Testament through the Spirit's revelation to the apostles and prophets. The content of the mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs of the same body, not a parenthetical people of God, but full partakers of the covenant promise in Christ through the gospel — a reality that demolishes any two-peoples-of-God framework. The power enabling that ministry is God's alone, not the orator's persuasion, so that faith rests in divine power rather than human wisdom.
The Magnitude of Salvation
1 Peter 1:10–12 raises a question that magnifies the gospel: if the Old Testament prophets searched so carefully for what believers now possess, how great must this salvation be? The sermon traces three witnesses to that greatness — the prophets who inquired but did not receive the full disclosure, the apostles who proclaimed what the Spirit now made plain, and the angels who bend over in perpetual wonder at a redemption they themselves never needed. The pattern of Christ's sufferings followed by glory is shown to be the shape of every believer's life, grounding present endurance in the certainty of future inheritance.
Sola Scriptura: The Bible Alone
Hebrews 1:1–3 opens with the declaration that God has spoken — a claim the author of Hebrews treats not as background noise but as the controlling fact of redemptive history. This sermon works through six attributes of Scripture drawn from those opening verses: its divine source, its authority, its finality in the Son, its intended beneficiaries, its perspicuity, and its sufficiency for faith and life in the new covenant community. The Reformation's sola scriptura is shown to be not a negative protest but a positive testimony: Scripture alone is God's last, best, and sufficient word, complete in Christ, requiring no supplement from tradition, continuing prophecy, or moralistic self-help.
2LCF Chapter 8 - Of Christ the Mediator, Part 9
Christ alone holds the threefold mediatorial office of prophet, priest, and king — an exclusivity the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith defends in chapter 8, paragraphs 9 and 10 against any claim, ancient or modern, to share or transfer that role. These two paragraphs, unique to the Baptist confession and absent from both the Westminster and Savoy documents, ground the exclusivity of Christ's mediatorship in 1 Timothy 2:5 and unfold its necessity in the threefold frailty of man: ignorance requiring his prophetic word, alienation requiring his priestly sacrifice, and utter inability requiring his kingly rule. The sermon traces each office through Hebrews, Luke, Acts, John, and Revelation, arguing that the old-covenant pattern of separate prophets, priests, and kings points forward to the one God-man who holds all three perfectly and to their fullness. The practical burden is that believers avail themselves of Christ's mediatorial work through the appointed means of grace — preaching, prayer, baptism, and the Lord's Supper — finding in him alone their acceptance before God.
The Excellence, the Wonder, and the Glory
Hebrews 1:1–4 presents the glory of Jesus Christ as the culmination and surpassing excellence of all divine revelation, redemption, and reign. This sermon works through the opening verses of Hebrews under three headings: the excellence of Christ's revelation over the partial and preparatory word of the prophets, the wonder of his redemption accomplished by one who is simultaneously the radiance of the Father's glory and the sovereign upholder of the universe, and the glory of his present reign at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Believers are called to rejoice in the removal of the guilt of sin through Christ's exclusive and perfectly executed atoning work, while those outside Christ are warned that to neglect so great a salvation leaves no escape.
A Brief Survey of Covenant Theology, Part 1
What is a divine covenant, and why does 'covenant theology' accurately describe the Bible's own architecture? This lecture — the first in a three-part survey — defines divine covenants as relational arrangements sovereignly initiated by God for man's benefit, with ways and means established by God alone to obtain the designated blessings. Drawing on Nehemiah Cox, 2 Samuel 7, Exodus 19, and Hebrews 10, the speaker demonstrates that both Testaments are covenantally structured documents: the Old Testament is the covenantal record for old covenant Israel, and the New Testament is the covenantal record for the new covenant church, both centering on Christ in his sufferings and glory. The lecture concludes that covenant theology is not an alien grid imposed on Scripture but the organic, Christocentric shape of biblical revelation itself, best interpreted by allowing the New Testament to illuminate the Old.
Justification by Faith Alone
Hebrews 11:1–3 defines faith not as wishful thinking but as an absolute, rock-solid certainty in the promises of God — the present essence of a future reality. Beginning with the historical crisis of Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms in 1521, this exposition traces the Reformation recovery of sola fide through the three classical components of saving faith drawn from the Reformers: notitia (knowledge of the gospel facts), assensus (intellectual assent to those facts), and fiducia (personal trust placed in Christ alone). The sermon argues that justification by faith alone has been God's singular means of saving his people across all of redemptive history, from Abraham through the hall of faith in Hebrews 11. Hearers are urged to examine whether they have moved beyond mere knowledge and agreement to genuine trust in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
Happiness in Knowing Jesus
Peter's confession in Matthew 16:13–17 — 'You are the Christ, the Son of the living God' — stands as the theological heart of Matthew's Gospel and the definitive answer to the question Christ puts to every hearer: who do you say that I am? The sermon traces the progressive disclosure of Christ's identity to the disciples, distinguishes His title of function (Christ, the promised Messiah) from His title of being (Son of the living God, co-eternal within the triune Godhead), and grounds Peter's right answer not in flesh-and-blood reasoning but in the sovereign, revelatory grace of the Father. The central application is that all true happiness belongs to those who know Christ, and that this knowledge — divinely given, not humanly achieved — is the supreme blessing of the Christian life.
Always the Cross
What does the cross of Christ mean, and why has it always stood at the center of God's redemptive purposes? Expounding 1 Corinthians 1:18–25, this sermon surveys the cross under four headings: its eternal origin before creation in the determined counsel of God, its progressive disclosure throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, its certain historical chronicle in the Gospel narratives, and the New Testament epistles' divine commentary on its substitutionary and sacrificial nature. The cross is not a symbol or an afterthought but the fulfillment of God's eternal purpose — a substitutionary, sacrificial, and finally efficacious work that alone brings peace between God and man, and the only ground on which sinners may rest for eternal life.