Clarity Concerning the Cross: A Good Friday Reflection

What did Christ achieve on the cross and how did he do it? Answers to such questions have often been complicated by terminological confusion—particularly the distinction between substitution, representation and incorporation. Did Jesus atone for our sins by dying instead of us or by representing us? Was his death something we did along with him or something he did for us and without us? In what sense did we die with him? As we come to this Easter weekend, particularly in the midst of the Coronavirus crisis, it will be good for our souls to give our attention to such...

Rob Smith

On Not Preaching Resurrection this Easter.

John McClean

COVID-19 Grief and Our Easter Hope

Catherine

The Tragedy of Judas

Tom Habib

An Almost Empty Tomb

Joshua S. Hill

Make “Resurrection Resolutions” (because New Year’s resolutions are futile)

Matthew Payne

Why do people make New Year’s resolutions? Perhaps it’s the sentimental sense of newness and possibility that comes with the calendar year ticking over. It’s a cue for us to recall our best intentions for life and to renew our determination to live them out. “This year will not be like the last. I can change…” But the reality is that most people fail to live out their New Year’s resolutions, often with alarming speed. New Year’s Resolutions are silly really. We all know that. There’s nothing about a new year that promises personal renewal. It doesn’t offer a new...

Make “Resurrection Resolutions” (because New Year’s resolutions are futile)

Matthew Payne

What Steve Smith’s Press Conference Reveals About Easter

Stephanie Judd

Like many Australians of my age, I grew up sharing my summer with Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist, and other Australian cricketing greats. My dad has always been a lover of cricket, and its gentle presence in our living room was part of the character of our home, and indeed our family. Since leaving my parents’ home some ten years ago the cricket has rarely featured in my own home. It appears the love was more my dad’s than my own. Lingering Affection But for whatever reason, my fondness for the game of cricket has never left me. Perhaps...

What Steve Smith’s Press Conference Reveals About Easter

Stephanie Judd

The Crux of Christianity

Mark Thompson

At the heart of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ and the great salvation he has won for us. Christians are not satisfied with a vague and nebulous notion of God or a utopian vision for the human race. We also reject the reduction of our faith to a set of rules or a pattern of moral behaviour. The Christian faith is much more particular than that. It is centred on God’s rescue mission, a mission that makes very clear what God is like and what are his plans for us. This means that at the heart of everything we...

The Crux of Christianity

Mark Thompson

Don’t Just ‘Prove’ The Resurrection. Talk About Why It Matters.

Matthew Payne

Why did Jesus rise from the dead? In my experience most Christians can’t answer this question very well. I suspect that the reason is that they have hardly ever heard it taught. One of the most common answers I’ve heard over the years is that Jesus rose ‘to prove that he is God’. But the Bible never identifies this as the reason, and there was surely ample proof already available for Jesus’ divinity given the number of miracles that he performed in his public ministry. The Trinity, miracles, predestination, the resurrection… We spend most of our time trying to prove...