Themelios: vol. 39 no. 3, November 2014

by The Gospel Coalition

Publisher:

Gospel Coalition

, 2014

Overview

Themelios is an international evangelical theological journal that expounds and defends the historic Christian faith. Its primary audience is theological students and pastors, though scholars read it as well. It was formerly a print journal operated by RTSF/UCCF in the United Kingdom, and it became a digital journal operated by The Gospel Coalition in 2008. The new editorial team, led by D.A. Carson, seeks to preserve representation, in both essayists and reviewers, from both sides of the Atlantic. Each issue contains articles on important theological themes, as well as book reviews and discussion from the most important evangelical voices of our time.

Key Features

• Offers an editorial by D.A. Carson
• Discusses books written by an assortment of authors and theologians
• Provides articles by contributors from numerous denominations and professions

Contents

• “Editorial: The Underbelly of Revival? Five Reflections on Various Failures in the Young, Restless, and Reformed Movement” by D.A. Carson
• “Off the Record: Is It a Mistake to Stay at the Crossroads?” by Michael J. Ovey
• “Bye-bye Bible? Progress Report on the Death of Scripture” by Robert W. Yarbrough
• “Three Reflections on Evangelical Academic Publishing” by Andrew David Naselli
• “Participants In What We Proclaim: Recovering Paul’s Narrative of Pastoral Ministry” by Steven L. Porter
• “The Gradual Nature of Sanctification: Σάρξ as Habituated, Relational Resistance to the Spirit” by Stephen Witmer

Top Highlights

“On this view of σάρξ, it turns out that sanctification is not fundamentally a matter of increased willpower in engaging the means of grace, but rather, choices to place one’s self in positions of growing trust in and dependence on the person of God. While such choices certainly involve willpower, the intentionality of the choice is attuned to the need to die to autonomy and to grow in greater trust and dependence.” (Page 483)

“The relational resistance view maintains that σάρξ is not simply ingrained inclinations to behaviorally sin, but more fundamentally ingrained inclinations to resist the Spirit of God and to live autonomously from his life-giving presence. Christ-followers do not come into the Christian life with merely habituated sinful desires, dispositions, and their resultant sinful behaviors (the deeds of the flesh), but more profoundly Christ-followers bring with them the habituated, idolatrous proclivities of their pre- and post-conversion attempts to live autonomously from God.” (Page 474)

“Hence, the conflict for the Christian in Gal 5 is not a conflict of his desires to sin as opposed to his desires not to sin. Rather, it is a relational conflict between trusting the Spirit with his intention to bring about fruit (i.e., walking in the Spirit) and trusting in one’s autonomous desire to find life apart from the Spirit.” (Pages 476–477)

“Each conveys the divine intent Paul identifies in their experience of weakness and suffering in ministry: first, so that it might be clear the power originates from God and not themselves (v. 7); second, and most central, so that the resurrection-life of Jesus would be evident as their lives are sustained in suffering (vv. 10, 11); and finally, so that it might function as an effective witness to the Corinthians and a means God uses to extend his grace to them (v. 15).” (Page 463)

Product Details

• Title: Themelios: Volume 39, No. 3, November 2014
• Author: The Gospel Coalition
• Edition: 3
• Series: Themelios
• Volume: 39
• Publisher: Gospel Coalition
• Print Publication Date: 2014
• Logos Release Date: 2014
• Pages: 223
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subject: Religious studies › Periodicals
• Resource ID: LLS:THEMELIOS39_3
• Resource Type: Journal
• Metadata Last Updated: 2025-02-04T21:34:09Z

About The Gospel Coalition

Brian J. Tabb (PhD, London Theological Seminary) is academic dean at Bethlehem College & Seminary and an elder of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He also serves as managing editor for Themelios, published by the Gospel Coalition, and is the author of Suffering in Ancient Worldview.

D.A. Carson is a research professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. He has been at Trinity since 1978. Carson came to Trinity from the faculty of Northwest Baptist Theological Seminary in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he also served for two years as academic dean. He has served as an assistant pastor and pastor and has done itinerant ministry in Canada and the United Kingdom. Carson received a bachelor of science in chemistry from McGill University, the master of divinity from Central Baptist Seminary in Toronto, and the doctor of philosophy in New Testament from the University of Cambridge. Carson is an active guest lecturer in academic and church settings around the world. He holds membership on the Council for the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Carson has also written many books that have garnered international acclaim, including his award-winning title The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism.

Daniel Strange is academic vice president and lecturer in culture, religion, and public theology at Oak Hill College, London. He is the author or coauthor of several other books, including The Possibility of Salvation Among the Unevangelised: An Analysis of Inclusivism in Recent Evangelical Theology.