Caffeinated Reformed

10/08/2026

"Viewed concretely, law and Gospel differ not so much in that the law always meets us in the form of command and the Gospel in the form of promise, for the law too has promises and the Gospel too has warnings and obligations."

- Herman Bavinck

https://rbs.org/events/2025/expository-preaching

27/07/2026

Repentance is as necessary as faith for salvation. Salvation is salvation from sin. It involves more than forgiveness. It includes our sanctification. It must therefore engage those who are saved in the turning away from sin which is involved in repentance. There can be no salvation which allows for an unchanged pattern of continuing in sin (cf. Rom. 6:1ff.). But while repentance is as necessary as faith for salvation, it is related to justification in a different way. By faith alone Christ is received and rested on as Saviour. Justification is by faith (alone!), not by repentance. But repentance is as necessary to salvation by faith as the ankle is essential to planting the foot on the ground, or as the beating heart is to the use of the eye for vision. Both are essential, but they are not related to the same act in the same way. Faith is the individual trusting in Christ; repentance is the same individual quitting sin. Neither can exist apart from the other.

– Sinclair B. Ferguson, The Holy Spirit, Contours of Christian Theology, 134.

15/07/2026

"God is glorified not only by His glory’s being seen, but by its being rejoiced in. When those that see it delight in it, God is more glorified than if they only see it."

– Jonathan Edwards

11/07/2026

If we observe Paul’s own practice concerning the scruples of “weaker” brethren, it is quite clear that he always accommodated his personal liberty and practice in order not to offend the sensitive among his congregations. On several occasions a similar problem arose in his churches. At times it involved eating food dedicated to idols (1 Cor 8:1–13; 10:23–33); at times it involved those who objected to eating meat (Rom 14:1–15). In such instances, whereas Paul agreed with those advocating freedom, he always surrendered his own freedom in order not to offend the “weak”, and he urged those who had a similar understanding of the freedom of the gospel to do the same. For Paul circumcision was an irrelevant issue in itself, for it only involved the presence or absence of a piece of skin unless one argued that the removal of this piece of skin was a requirement for salvation. Thus when a theological issue was at stake, he refused to have Titus circumcised (Gal 2:1–3); but in the case of Timothy, when it did not involve a theological issue but permitted greater freedom in ministering among the Jews, he was willing to have him circumcised (Acts 16:1–3).

To understand Paul’s view of freedom,we must recognize that he was so free that, unless a theological issue was at stake, he could willingly surrender his freedom in order to facilitate the spread of the gospel. This is seen most clearly in 1 Corinthians 9:19–23. Although free, Paul voluntarily became a slave to the weaknesses of others … [He] would have no problem urging Gentile believers that they should keep the decree when they were in the presence of Jews, for truly free persons are only free when they can surrender their freedom out of love for the weak. For Paul this could even involve taking a Jewish vow, if it helped in his ministry among the Jews (Acts 18:18; 21:26).

- R. H. Stein, ‘Jerusalem,’ Dictionary of Paul and His Letters (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity, 1993), 471.

25/06/2026

Only enough for today.

The tests follow a particular pattern: God will give us what we need for today and today alone. No mystery here, it is all spelled out.

​This is what the Lᴏʀᴅ has commanded: "Each one is to gather as much as he needs. Take an omer for each person you have in your tent." The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little. And when they measured it by the omer, he who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little. Each one gathered as much as he needed. Then Moses said to them, "No one is to keep any of it until morning." —Ex. 16:16–19

​"Take as much as you want, but don't keep even a crumb for tomorrow." In various forms, this will become God's plan for human life. You will encounter it again when Jesus trains his disciples and sends them out on a missionary journey with no extra supplies (Mark 6:7–9). The plan, of course, is genius. Dump a year's supply of manna into cold storage and, guaranteed, you will forget God until the supply disappears (Deut. 8:10–14). Such prosperity would be a curse. God's strategy is to give us enough for today and then, when tomorrow comes, to give us enough for that day too.

​Do you see how this is exactly what we need? Fears and worries live in the future, trying to assure a good outcome in a potentially hard situation. The last thing they want to do is trust anyone, God included. To thwart this tendency toward independence, God only gives us what we need when we need it. The emerging idea is that he wants us to trust him in the future rather than our self-protective plans.

— Edward T. Welch

20/06/2026

The conversion of Saul of Tarsus is the fourth great strand of biblical evidence—joining the fact of the empty tomb, Jesus’ numerous post-crucifixion appearances to his disciples, and their sudden transformation from fearful friends to fearless ‘kerygmatics’—for the historicity and reality of Christ’s resurrection and the supernatural origin and character of Christianity.

— Reymond, Robert L. Paul, Missionary Theologian.

17/06/2026

A Gospel-Centred Letter (Phil.1:1-2)BBCQ Morning Worship (14/06/26...

13/06/2026

One of the first steps in combating fear and worry is to slow down. "Be still" (Ps. 46:10) is another of God's exhortations to fearful people.

— Edward T. Welch

20/05/2026

When the broad evangelical church embraces untethered empathy, it renders Christians incapable of thinking through basic categories: Does pro-life mean protecting infants in the womb or illegals at the Southern border? Do government schools bless Christians or challenge their First Amendment rights? Is homosexuality a sin, found in the flesh, forbidden in the law of God, and overcome by the Savior, or is it a personhood group with an immutable but morally neutral untapped blessing to be stewarded and sanctified, rendering q***r treasures in heaven? When empathy is unhitched from the Truth, it becomes an idol and a god. And feelings create tyrannical idols and gods.

— Rosaria Butterfield

16/05/2026

At the heart of Philippians is Christ’s suffering in “becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross” (2:8). Christ not only saved the Philippians through his suffering and sacrifice, but is the exemplar of authentic Christian living. This cruciform pattern shapes Christian life. The believer is not only “in Christ” in salvific terms, but lives out the pattern of the cross.

— Mark J. Keown, Philippians, vol. 1, Evangelical Exegetical Commentary (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2017), 59.