I agree that the final judgment is according to works. We are justified—made right with God and given a title to heaven—by faith alone apart from works. This faith, though, always and necessarily leads to good works, such that at the final judgment works can be necessary as evidence that we have already been accepted by God. So works are necessary as evidence, not basis.

One analogy may be going to a concert. When you are going to a concert you buy a ticket. Then, to get into the concert, you have to bring the ticket. But the ticket is not what gave you the right to get in. Paying the money is what gives you the right. The ticket is the evidence that you paid, that you bought entrance into…

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I talked this morning at our Friday morning chapel on why sound doctrine grounds and leads to effective action for good. I asked six questions in my message:

First, does the Bible teach this—that is, does the Bible teach that doctrine grounds and leads to diligent and zealous practical action for good? Second, if so, why does sound doctrine lead to effective action? Third, is doctrine alone enough? Fourth, what are some historical examples of this? And fifth, what are the implications of this?

Here’s part of what I had to say on my first point:

To show that the Bible teaches that sound doctrine is the foundation of good works and leads to good works, there are two pieces of evidence I …

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As I prepare for my seminar Friday at our National Conference on “Rethinking Productivity in Light of Justification by Faith Alone,” I'm realizing that a lot of things in my preparation probably won't make it into the actual seminar. Here's one such segment which, although it might not make it in to the seminar, is absolutely critical to the way we should be as Christians and why things like learning to be more productive matter:

Christians are to be eager and enthusiastic in dreaming up ways to do good for others. We are to not just to do good when the opportunity comes to us—although we are to do it then, also—but we are to think hard about ways we can be proactive in serving people. And…

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Prosperity teachers sometimes teach that if we give, God will in turn give back more to us than we have given. This, then, becomes an incentive to give and a subtle way of advocating the idea that "God wants you to be rich."

There are two main problems with this worth mentioning. First, while it is true that God absolutely does give back to us more than we have given (see, for example, Matthew 19:29 or the feeding of the five thousand), this is not always (or usually) financial. God gives to us in a multitude of ways, and finances are only one such way—and, by far, not the most important.

Second, when God does give back to us, it is not so that we can keep it to ourselves—as though …

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This is a well-balanced and helpful word from Tim Keller in his book Ministries of Mercy:

Often books and speakers tell Christians that they should help the needy because they have so much. That is, of course, quite true. Common sense tells us that, if human beings are to live together on the planet, there should be a constant sharing of resources. So when the statistics are brought out to show Americans how much of the world’s resources we use, it creates (rightly) a sense of concern for those with less than ourselves.

But this approach is very limited in its motivating power. Ultimately it produces guilt. It says, “How selfish you are to eat steak and drive two …

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Posting all of our content online for free is something we love to do. There is also a theology behind it. We made this video to talk a bit about that. In it I discuss three reasons we post everything for free:

1. It reduces friction
2. The gospel is free
3. We exist first to serve, not be served

You might also be interested in a couple of articles I wrote about this:

• Make it Free
• Objections to Making it Free

I pray for the economy at all times, not just times of crisis, because as Christians we are to wish for and seek the welfare of others. There are few things that have more impact on the welfare of large groups of people, in the physical sense, than the state of the economy. Therefore, I believe that the command to “love your neighbor” implies that we desire, seek, and pray for the welfare of the economy.

A healthy economy serves people in multiple ways. Here are two.

First, it is better for people to be able to work for their living than to have to depend upon others to provide for their needs. For example, Paul exhorts the Thessalonians to work with their hands so that they “will …

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There has been a good discussion on my article “Make It Free” over at Joshua Blankenship’s blog. It inspired me to address some of the main objections I often hear against my perspective that media ministries should post everything online, for free, without requiring registration, in a maximally usable interface.

Objection 1: People value what they pay for. Therefore, if you make all of your online sermon audio and other online content free, people won’t value it.

Response: This is the least powerful objection for a media ministry, in my opinion, simply because the gospel is free. Does that lead us to not value the gospel? Of course, some people will want to say, “Yes! Look around!…

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The vision that we follow for our website is this: Post everything online, for free, without requiring registration, in a maximally usable interface. I've just written an article setting forth this vision in more detail. It is called Make it Free: Improving Online Effectiveness by Removing All Barriers to Accessing and Sharing Content.

We love the way this vision serves others through the internet and commend it to all media ministries. We make no claims to have everything figured out. We offer this article as a service to any other organizations that think the same or are considering whether to pursue a similar approach.

Update: Read answers to some common objections. 

So often we think of God as non-enthusiastic or even gloomy. The exact opposite is true: He loves to be God, He takes great pleasure in all that He does, and He is enthusiastic about serving His people and working for their welfare. For example, God says in Jeremiah 32:41: "I will rejoice in doing them good." Jesus said in John 15:11, "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you." And Paul writes in 1 Timothy 1:11 of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God." Blessed means happy. So Paul is saying: "the glorious gospel of the happy God."

God is infinitely happy because he is infinitely glorious. And, the good news is that he invites us to enter into his happiness. Here is w…

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