All Articles For Shand, Mark

Q. 70 What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace unto sinners, in which He pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His sight; not for any thing wrought in them, or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, by God imputed to them, and received by faith alone. Q. 71 How is justification an act of His free grace? A. Although Christ, by His obedience and death, did make a proper, real, and full satisfaction to God’s justice in the behalf of them that...

“It is better indeed that men should be brought to serve God by instruction than by fear of punishment or by pain. But because the former means are better, the latter must not therefore be neglected…. Many must often be brought back to their Lord, like wicked servants, by the rod of temporal suffering before they attain the highest grade of religious development…. The Lord Himself orders that the guests be first invited, then compelled, to His great supper.” This quotation is taken from Augustine’s anti-Donatist writings in which he offers his interpretation of the command in the parable of...

Rev. Shand is a pastor in the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. A man is said to be justified in the sight of God when in the judgment of God he is deemed righteous, and is accepted on account of his righteousness; for as iniquity is abominable to God, so neither can the sinner find grace in his sight, so far as he is and so long as he is regarded as a sinner. Hence, wherever sin is, there also are the wrath and vengeance of God. He, on the other hand, is justified who is regarded not as a...

Rev. Shand is pastor of the Winnaleah congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. Though John Wycliffe (c.1329-84) died some 130 years prior to Martin Luther’s nailing of his ninety-five theses to the church door in Wittenberg, he is rightly described as “The Morning Star of the Reformation.” The sixteenth century Reformation did not arise in Europe as something entirely new and unconnected with the past, but it had a lengthy gestation period, arguably beginning with Wycliffe. Luther is often credited with igniting the Reformation, but many of the views that he espoused had previously been articulated by Wycliffe...

Rev. Shand is pastor of the Winnaleah congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church of Australia. The fundamental doctrinal position of the Westminster Assembly regarding the Sabbath Day is set forth in the Westminster Confession of Faith in Chapter XXI, which bears the heading, “Of Religious Worship and the Sabbath-day.” The Confession declares: VII. As it is the law of nature, that, in general, a due proportion of time be set apart for the worship of God; so, in his Word, by a positive, moral, and perpetual commandment binding all men in all ages, he hath particularly appointed one day in...