What is the best way Protestants today should look back on the Reformation? Should we think of it more like a happy birth or an ugly divorce?
Articles by Gavin Ortlund
19 results found
An Open Letter to Those Who Divide over Doctrine
We live in polarized times. Outrage and rancor seem to be simmering all around us, and it’s making it harder to talk across ideological lines.
It’s more difficult to think too much of yourself when you remember what is currently riveting the attention of the mightiest angels.
Why Study the Books of 1–2 Kings?
This is a theologically rich book that makes a unique contribution to our understanding of our sin and frailty, God’s character and provision, and the plan of redemption being worked out in history.
Can Humility and Social Media Coexist?
We cannot stop the incessant screaming and scrambling that is the internet. But we can try to reduce our own involvement in the problems and do whatever we can to contribute to a healthier culture.
2 Ways You Can Make Your Pastor’s Job a Joy
It’s so important to say that humility toward leadership is not a blind and uncritical following. We always want to measure what we are being directed towards or encouraged in by Scripture.
4 Ways to Practice Theological Humility
Our zeal for theology must never exceed our zeal for our actual brothers and sisters in Christ. We must be marked by love.
A Call for Theological Humility
There are plenty of issues over which Christians will be tempted to divide. We must even be willing to make sacrificial adjustments for the sake of our unity with others in the body of Christ.
What True Humility Is and Is Not
One mistake that we can make in thinking about humility is seeing it as self-hatred, as though to be humble means you’re constantly attacking yourself or you’re denying your own worth.
Why You Should Read This Obscure Old Book about Pastoral Ministry
Every pastor faces that tension of cultivating a rich inner-life, focusing on the spiritual aspect of calling, without neglecting the mundane responsibilities of ministry.
The Deceptively Easy Path to Prideful Humility
There is a danger, in thinking about humility, that we can become so self-preoccupied in the process, and it kind of defeats the point.
2 Ways Leaders Can Exemplify Humility to Those under Their Authority
Make it your personal ambition to build up those around you, and let them flourish in their gifts.
How Does the Cross Lead Us to Humility?
For an awakened heart—a heart that’s been touched by grace and the gospel—there’s a different kind of humility that is produced when you think about what Jesus did for you.
There’s No Heaven That Envy Can’t Turn into Hell
Envy is one of those sins that hides and lurks. And so many times we can be experiencing envy that's robbing our joy, and yet we're not even aware that we're struggling with the sin of envy.
What Happens when Doctrine Suffers from Historical Amnesia
As evangelicals, we tend to go right to the cross and to Jesus dying to save us, and sometimes we forget that’s not the only thing that he did to save us.
Why Modern Christians Should Stay Hitched to Church History
Theological retrieval is a way to draw attention to things that you were assuming that you didn’t even know that you assumed.
No, Good Theology Didn’t Start with the Reformation
Sometimes evangelicals view church history as though our main tradition is the last 500 years, but there's much more to our history.
Guard against These 4 Dangers When Doing Historical Theology
Theological retrieval can be very beneficial, but it can also go wrong. It may also be useful to briefly articulate several potential dangers.
History: Stranger than Fiction
Discovering church history is like going through the wardrobe into Narnia and discovering there’s a whole world back there just waiting to be explored.