Stewards of His Wealth, Not His Other Stewards

Posted on May 28, 2026 by RC

God has made of each of us a steward. He is both the maker and owner of all things. As owner it is His prerogative to place what is His under the care of whomever He wishes. His stewards, in turn, will answer to Him. Thus far I can’t think of any reason any believer could have to object to anything. Let me know if I missed something.

Despite all of us agreeing on the above I found myself disagreeing with an old friend not long ago. A gifted young man, a writer and a speaker in the homeschool circuit, a friend. He recounted an experience he had wherein he witnessed another man buying a fishing boat for close to $60,000. He pointed out the man paid cash. While acknowledging that he didn’t know if the boat buyer was a Christian, he rightly pointed out that this man would one day answer to God. For this and every other purchase he makes. No objection here. Everything thus far fits in the above paragraph.

What followed, however, was judgment by my friend against this man. My friend was practically incredulous that a man would spend $60,000 on a fishing boat. Didn’t that man know, my friend wanted to know, of all the good that $60,000 could do if funneled in a more “spiritual” direction? Lest we think my friend forgot that it is God who judges, he quoted for us his readers the tenth commandment, God forbidding coveting.

As sound as my friend is, as carefully as he typically thinks through matters of a Christian worldview, he succumbed to what we all succumb to. He mistook his rules for God’s rules. He assumed that his priorities were already in line with God’s. Not only that but he assumed that this man was bound, with the real money God placed in his care, to have the same priorities my friend has with imaginary money. I do not doubt my friend is an outstanding steward of all God has placed in his hands. But God didn’t place that $60k in his hands.

As God’s stewards we are told we must not be wasteful. We are told we must be generous. We are told we must give cheerfully. What we are not told is that we may not buy a fishing boat. Or a hand tailored suit. Or a steak and lobster dinner. In fact, we are, in a manner of speaking, told we must buy those things, if we have met our obligations and want those things. God commands:

And you shall spend that money for whatever your heart desires: for oxen or sheep, for wine or similar drink, for whatever your heart desires; you shall eat there before the Lord your God, and you shall rejoice, you and your household (Deut. 14:26).

God is no stingy master. Remember that He has no need of all that He’s placed under our care. He wants from us obedience to His commands, and that we would feast in His presence. He delights when we submit to His Word and respond to His faithful provision with joyful gratitude.

If two men had an equal amount of God’s wealth to steward, and both met all their God given obligations, and one man wrote a check to some ministry for $60k and the other bought a fishing boat for $60k, is one more pleasing to God than the other? What if the first did so with a grumpy disposition, and the second sang praises to God while reeling in a hefty catfish?

Two things. Don’t judge God’s stewards with your law. Do delight in all of His good gifts, without shame or fear.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Biblical Doctrines, Economics in This Lesson, ethics, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Sacred Marriage, American Empire, Ministry Update & More

Posted on May 27, 2026 by RC

Lisa and I dive into the hot topic of Athalia and Josheba. That’s right. Athalia and Josheba. Plus, what we as a nation have lost in becoming empire. I give a ministry and health update and confess we all struggle with legalism. Check it out. Share with friends. Give us some feedback. Have a ball.

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, grace, Health, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Semper Reformanda? Yes- Secundum Verbum Dei

Posted on May 26, 2026 by RC

Ought we to always be Reforming? Of course.

The Reformation was chock full of shorthand slogans. The five solas of the Reformation came to light under the banner of Post Tenebras Lux, after darkness light. The five points of Calvinism, blossomed long after Calvin’s death and in response to the five points of the Remonstrants. There is, however, one more, the runt of the litter, semper reformanda, always reforming. It’s a perfectly wonderful slogan and a valuable principle. It has, however, often been hijacked.

What we don’t mean by the call of the church to always reform is to reform away from the Reformation. Or worse still, away from the Word of God. Sadly, for centuries those who would lead the church into error have defended their novel ideas with this phrase. It’s time we took it back.

We need a new reformation. And if God should in His grace grant us one, we will, in the midst of it, need a new reformation. We should be, this side of eternity, always reforming because this side of eternity, each of us and all of us together fall short of the mark. It is a shameful reality that individually and corporately we are too easily satisfied. Many of us make a long journey to come to embrace those great slogans of the Reformation, and then make the mistake of thinking it is all we need. It is a good thing to know, embrace and defend these slogans. It is a better thing to know, embrace and rest in Jesus.

What does Reformation look like? I have for years tried to offer up my own suggestions. Like Luther before me I have presented theses as items for debate and discussion, believing that getting these ironed out will bode well for the well-being of the church. The truth is, however, that we could have all our theological ducks in a row, all our orthopraxy worked out, and still be in desperate need of Reformation. We need to have our hearts re-formed, from the inside out, such that we know more fully the depth, scope and horror of our own sin. This is a reforming that lasts a lifetime.

We must also have our hearts re-formed, from the inside out, such that we know more fully the depth, scope and beauty of our Lord’s redemption of us. This is a reforming that lasts a lifetime. We must have our hearts re-formed, from the inside out, such that we know more fully the depth, scope and immutability of the Father’s love for us, His forever children. This Reformation will go on forever. As we forever move further up and further in we will grow in our capacity to receive His immeasurable love.

We, by His grace, pray for Reformation now knowing we are being re-formed for eternity. He has gone to prepare a place for us. He sent His Spirit to prepare us for that place.

Posted in apologetics, Biblical Doctrines, church, Doctrines of Grace, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, Reformation, theology, Theses | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Ask RC: Did God create us because He was lonely?

Posted on May 25, 2026 by RC

Of all the silly notions that run rampant in our thoughtless, sentimental times, this one may well take the cake. That’s the “Boy howdy is this a silly idea” cake mind you. It is beautifully true and truly beautiful that He does indeed love us. He delights to be in relationship with us. All of which is rather a long way from He needs us lest He be lonely.

Let me suggest two reasons, one a bit ethereal and abstract, the other more obvious. First, God is all sufficient. That, of course, is not language we typically use. It’s a fancy way of saying He not only doesn’t need anything, but He can’t need anything. That is, God did not work hard to get Himself to the place where all His needs are met.

No, when there was God and nothing else He was already without any needs. It’s not as though He had some odd sense of dis-ease, pondered it for a while and then determined to make man, to see if that would scratch His itch. He had no itch, and never will have an itch. God did not create man to fill an empty place in Him but to make known His absolute fullness.

Second, not only was God not alone prior to the creation but God’s essence is “not aloneness.” That God is trinitarian is not accidental. Please don’t misunderstand. By “not accidental” I don’t mean that it happened on purpose. In fact, it didn’t happen, because it has always been.

What I mean by “not accidental” is that the tri-unity of God is essential to what He is. If I weighted forty pounds less and were three inches taller I would not have changed my essential being. If my hair were thick and the hue of a red, red rose, I’d still be me. God’s trinitarian nature isn’t like that. Make Him one being in three roles and He would be something and someone completely different from what and who He is.

Which is why there was no loneliness prior to the creation. There was no aloneness. God the Father enjoyed perfect, infinite union with the Son and the Spirit. The Son enjoyed perfect, infinite union with the Father and the Spirit. The Spirit enjoyed perfect, infinite union with the Father and the Son. No person of the Trinity could ever say of another, “I feel like I just don’t know you.” Nor could any person of the Trinity experience a moment of loneliness.

No, God has never been lonely. His motive for creating the world, and mankind is the same as His ultimate motive for all that He does, to make manifest His own glory. That is done in part in and through His genuine love for us, the sacrifice Jesus made to restore our relationship with Him. He is not in the least aloof and indifferent toward us. Neither, however, has He ever sat by His phone waiting for us to call.

Posted in 10 Commandments, Ask RC, Biblical Doctrines, RC Sproul JR, theology, wonder | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Last Things First: Jesus Is Lord Now and Forever

Posted on May 22, 2026 by RC

It was my habit — my sophomoric habit — to proudly argue from my ignorance that we ought always to consider last things last. That is, recognizing the great difficulty in grasping the meaning of the end times and the final book of God’s Word, I thought discretion the better part of valor, and I suggested formerly that we can wait to figure out what the end means until after we have mastered all the other important stuff, like the stuff I was interested in and with which I felt reasonably competent.

I was awakened from my eschatological slumbers, however, not by finally finding a crystal clear exposition of the issues but by simply seeing the title of the book. If God revealed truths about Jesus to John, and John, by the power of the Spirit, is revealing those same truths to the church, it is not humility but arrogance that suggests, “Let’s set this aside for another time.” Jesus is revealed in the book of Revelation. His kingdom is revealed in the book of Revelation. And that is something we are called to see, even as we are called to seek.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told His disciples that they were called to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. How, though, would they know when they had found it? What would their eyes see when they beheld it?

When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether He was the One, Jesus sent back this message: “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them” (Matt. 11:4–5). Are we to look for signs and wonders in order to recognize the kingdom?

In another instance, the disciples sought to keep children away from Jesus. They reasoned that He was far too busy for such a distraction. Jesus, however, had a surprising response: “They were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God” (Mark 10:13–14). Should we, then, be looking for the kingdom where we find children? Do we recognize its borders by the youth of its citizens?

In a third instance, after Jesus had been crucified, after He had been raised from the dead, and just as He was about to ascend to His throne, the disciples asked whether the kingdom would now come. Jesus replied that they would not be told the day and the hour, but that they would be His witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth after the Spirit came in power. Should we, then, look for the kingdom where tongues of fire descend or where the gospel has discipled the nations?

The gospel did, even in the first century, go forth as Jesus predicted in Acts 1. Many were brought into the kingdom. When the Christian faith arrived at Thessalonica, the angry crowd described our missionaries as “men who have turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). From humble beginnings, we see in the book of Acts the gospel changing the world. Is that, then, where we find the kingdom — where believers have unbelievers shaking in their boots?

It was not long after Jesus’ ascension, however, that a counteroffensive was launched on two competing fronts. First, the Jewish authorities kicked the faithful out of the temple and out of the synagogues. Second, the Roman Empire turned on Christians, persecuting them fiercely and putting them to death.

It was in this context that John wrote what he saw. He showed the people of God the better country for which they longed. He showed them the kingdom they were seeking. Revelation reveals Jesus not in His humility, not in His tender care of the broken, not in the agony of His passion, and not in the joy of His resurrection. What the book of Revelation reveals is Jesus as our King, the Jesus who reigns. This is what is revealed — the King ruling over His kingdom.

Because we are soft, we think we are likewise being “persecuted.” Hollywood makes fun of us. Academia mocks us. And Washington turns a deaf ear to our concerns. We tear our clothes, throw dust in the air, and weep bitterly because we cannot see the kingdom, because we are weak and despised.

The same Spirit, however, who revealed the truth to John is revealing the same truth to us. He is giving us eyes to see. Our Lord reigns. He reigns in heaven, and from there goes forth into battle with principalities and powers. He reigns also, however, on earth — not just in our hearts and not just in our churches. No, Jesus reigns wher’er the sun doth its successive journeys run. All authority in heaven and earth has been given unto Him. Wherever there is a there, there you will find the kingdom of God. Last things first — Jesus is Lord.

Posted in assurance, Biblical Doctrines, eschatology, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, sovereignty, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sneaking Them Into Whose Kingdom? No Repentance Required

Posted on May 21, 2026 by RC

I’m old enough to remember when “lifestyle evangelism” was all the rage. We were encouraged to get ourselves out of the salt shaker and into the world. The thought was that if we didn’t lead our conversations with unbelievers with the reality of sin and the need for repentance, if we simply lived a clean life in front of our neighbors, they’d be clamoring to know our secret. We are, as the Bible tells us, epistles read by men. Israel corporately was given the promise that if they honored God’s covenant, the whole world would be drawn to them. Count me among fers and agin the agins.

The devil, soon enough, arrives ready to twist and distort. What we have witnessed over the last forty years is plenty of lifestyle and precious little evangelism. And along the way our lifestyles have increasingly come to reflect the lives of those we’re supposedly witnessing to. Our message to the world is “We’re not so different from you. It’s just a little step to come to Jesus.” We treat Jesus like a juicy worm hanging from a hook bereft of a barb.

We invest millions in billboards with pithy quotes that God never said. Or we go on television to tell the world not that Jesus died so our sins could be forgiven, but that He gets us. All thinking we can sneak them through the Pearly Gates. We think we are shaving off the bristly parts. To remove the offense, however, is to remove the gospel.

Consider the Pharisee and the tax collector. The former man embraced a comfortable gospel. We are not perfect in ourselves. But, if we would cooperate with God, He will help us become what we ought to be. Remember he prayed, “I thank You Lord that I am not like other men.” “I thank You” acknowledges his need for grace. “Not like other men” suggests he didn’t need that much of it.

The latter man, the tax collector, was so uncomfortable he couldn’t even lift his head. He understood, without understanding all it would cost, that his only hope was mercy. He understood, and confessed what he was, a sinner. “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” There is the offense, without which there can be no gospel.

The irony is that in hiding what is offensive to the unbeliever about the gospel we expose what is offensive about believers to the unbeliever. Proclaiming a gospel that suggests the unbeliever is almost there communicates that the difference between the believer and the unbeliever is in the goodness of the believer. “Come to Jesus so you can be like me.”

Only when we beat our own breasts, crying out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner” do we invite unbelievers to do the same. The path between heaven and earth is not something we go up. It is what He came down. For all those, and only those who confess our only hope is in Him.

Posted in Biblical Doctrines, Big Eva, Books, church, Devil's Arsenal, evangelism, friends, friendship, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, preaching, RC Sproul JR, repentance, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Sacred Marriage, Bathsheba; Pandemic du Jour and More

Posted on May 20, 2026 by RC

Neither temptress nor victim, Bathsheba reminds us of God’s grace. More fear mongering from the state, introducing the prophet Joel and remembering who we are by remembering Whose we are. All wrapped up in a bow, just for you. Who could say no to such a gift?

This week’s Jesus Changes Everything Podcast

Posted in 10 Commandments, church, covid-19, Health, Jesus Changes Everything, Lisa Sproul, politics, prophets, RC Sproul JR, Sacred Marriage, scandal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Beauty Community: Our City of Light on a Hill

Posted on May 19, 2026 by RC

There is a reason our heart sometimes has its reasons that reason knows not of. We are not disembodied minds. Nor are we often motivated by something as sterile as the conclusion to a syllogism. Neither are those outside the kingdom. We demonstrate our worldliness when we think the world needs to learn how to think like us. Because they bear the image of God, even in their sin they want things to make sense, to live in a world of truth and coherency. Because they bear the image of God, even in their sin they want things to be just. To live in a world of law and fairness.

Because they bear the image of God, however, even in their sin they want to take in and be taken in by beauty. To live in a world both stirring and sublime. Because we are being remade into the image of our risen Husband, we are called to live, as individuals and in community, lives marked by truth, goodness and beauty. Which is just another way of saying we are to be a city on a hill.

Consider the experience of Ruth. Her husband, brother-in-law and father-in-law all died. Her mother-in-law instruct Ruth and Orpah to go back to their own mothers and find new husbands. Orpah saw the sense in it herself. The syllogism led to that decision. Ruth saw the beauty of Naomi, and the promised beauty of the people of God in the Promised Land. She embraced a better answer.

Why does Ruth insist to her mother-in-law, “Whither thou goest I will go?” Because she had experienced grace and beauty in Naomi, and likely in Elimilech, Chilion and Mahlon. Why does Ruth insist, “Your people will be my people?” Because she learned from Naomi that she came from a land where widows were protected and provided for, where they were safe. Why does Ruth cry out, “Your God will be my God?” Because she knew that He was responsible for the first two things. It was His law that made Israel a welcoming land, and His grace that made Naomi a warm blessing.

Jesus said, “By this will all know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). The proof is not in the pudding but the bonding. As we bicker with each other, snipe and snark, we lie about our Redeemer. As we are knit together inside the kingdom, as we love one another well, the very glory of the trinity shines forth. When we carry one anothers’ burdens, as we delight in one another, as we live out the one anothers in our daily lives we offer life to the walking dead all about us.

We are called to commemorate, communicate, cultivate the love of Christ within the church, knowing such He uses to call into His communion those yet outside the kingdom. May He find His bride beautiful.

Posted in beauty, Biblical Doctrines, church, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What is the doctrine of illumination of the Holy Spirit?

Posted on May 18, 2026 by RC

Illumination is that doctrine that describes the work of the Holy Spirit in helping the believer to understand God’s Word. Though regeneration is required to rightly understand the Word, while having spiritual eyes comes before having spiritual sight, they are not, strictly speaking, the same event. Rather illumination describes how the Spirit comes to us as believers opening up the Bible.

There are at least two ways we tend to misunderstand this. First, illumination is not the Holy Spirit bringing us new revelation. Our insights into the text are not on par with the text itself. I sought to make this point some years ago when many charged a well-known radio preacher of failed prophecy when his prediction of the return of Christ failed to come to pass. That preacher did not claim new revelation. Nor did he even claim special, supernatural insight into the text. Rather he argued that his interpretation of the text led him to his conclusion. He was a bad exegete, not a lying prophet.

Second, illumination is not the Holy Spirit giving us a particular text to answer our questions. If, for instance, I am wrestling over a decision to cut all carbs from my diet, and I come upon that text where King David eats the showbread, this is not the Holy Spirit nudging me to eat bread. The Bible speaks of the Urim and Thummim, the breastplate of the High Priest that provided divine revelation from time to time, but the Bible is not our own personal Urim and Thummim.

Instead illumination is when the Holy Spirit helps us understand a given text as it actually is. It is His work as the perfect exegete, helping us poor exegetes try to stay out of trouble. Such is certainly not as glamorous and exciting as the giving of new revelation. It is, however, where the power is. One blessing of a sound understanding of the work of illumination is it helps us have a sound understanding of the importance and work of the Word of God.

Illumination can, indeed should work alongside the Spirit’s work of conviction. Here the Spirit not only helps us understand the text, but helps us understand ourselves. James tells us that the Word of God is like a mirror. It shows us what we are, with all our blots and blemishes. But, James tells us, we are prone to forget. The work of conviction is the Spirit showing us those spots, and helping us not to forget.

In John 14 Jesus promises to send the Spirit, whom He calls “another helper.” A good exegete would ask here, “Helper for what?” The Spirit is the one who beautifies us, who washes the bride, who, in a word, sanctifies us. The work that we need help with is to become what we are being made into, reflections of the glory of Christ. The Spirit, like our Husband, washes us with the water of the Word. Along the way He helps us understand it, to see ourselves in it. He is, however, also the Encourager. He shows us our sin, but reminds us of our standing. We have a long way to go, but we have also already arrived.

Posted in Ask RC, Bible Study, Biblical Doctrines, Holy Spirit, RC Sproul JR, theology, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Broken Homes, Broken People and the Gospel

Posted on May 15, 2026 by RC

Broken people create broken homes. That is, before we can offer the balm of Gilead to those living in broken homes, we need to be perfectly clear how we got that way. For all the pressures assaulting the family, for all the allure of the world, and for all the temptations of the Devil, it is the flesh, our own sin natures, that destroy our homes. We are so self-deluded, however, that we have lost sight of how self-destructive we are. We think we are but victims, when the hard truth is that we are villains.

Wisdom tells us, for instance, that a wise woman builds her house, but a foolish woman, with her own hands, tears it down (Prov. 14). Wives, who are called to be keepers at home (Titus 2), too often become destroyers of homes. In like manner, Proverbs also highlights at least one way that men destroy their own lives. Folly, like a carnal woman, beckons us, offering all her pleasures. But, the Bible tells us, her household is the way of Sheol, going down to the chambers of death (Prov. 7:27). Our homes are in shambles because our lives are in shambles.

We don’t, of course, do this on purpose. No one gleefully plans to destroy his own home. A man, when he begins to allow his eye to wander, doesn’t determine that he wants to destroy not only his own life but the lives of his wife and children as well. No one self-consciously drops a bomb on his own house when he starts looking at the pictures on the Internet. What we do instead is determine that God is a liar.

He tells us, after all, not only what we are supposed to do and supposed not to do; He also tells us the fruits of our actions. God tells us that as we love our wives and children, we will rejoice with them at the table, our children arrayed like olive plants (Ps. 128). He also tells us that the unfaithful man hates himself, that our sins will find us out, and that when we sow the wind, we will assuredly reap the whirlwind. God tells us, shows us the very pathway toward blessing and joy, and we proudly, foolishly blaze our own trails. Then, we wonder how we came to be broken and bloodied after falling off a cliff.

Our homes, however, can only begin to heal of their brokenness as we come to accept and understand our own brokenness. When we face up to the reality of our sin, when we confess the kind of people we are, God in His goodness draws near. He does, after all, give grace to the humble. That grace will not likely come in the form of the eradication of all our temptations. It may come, however, in helping us to see them for what they are — invitations to death.

They might also take a whole different form. When we recognize our own brokenness, we in turn know that we can’t trust ourselves. When left to ourselves we will choose for ourselves, and, in so doing, choose foolishly. God has ordained the church to call us to faithfulness. Through the right preaching of the Word, He reminds of His wisdom. Through the right exercise of the sacraments, we not only remember our brokenness but His faithfulness. We not only look back to our Husband dying for us at Calvary, His body broken and His blood spilled, but we look forward to the marriage feast of the Lamb. We enter into eternity and taste that He is good.

Our hearts, our homes, our churches, our world need to know three things. First, we are great sinners. Second, Jesus is a greater Savior. And last, all those resting in Him are infinitely, and unchangeably beloved of the Father, by name.

Posted in 10 Commandments, church, communion, Devil's Arsenal, kingdom, Kingdom Notes, RC Sproul JR, repentance, sexual confusion, wisdom | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments