Jerry Batson taught religion at several schools of religion, served as associate dean of Beeson Divinity School at Samford University in Birmingham and filled pastorates in Alabama Baptist life throughout his career. He now provides a basic theology lesson for Alabama Baptist readers.
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Theology 101 — Salvation as Justification
Not only does justification mean that we are acquitted of all charges along with their rightful penalty, but that we are also fully accepted into right standing before God.
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Theology 101 — Salvation as Adoption
When you receive the Spirit, you have been adopted into the family of God — “heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ,” as Paul writes in Romans 8.
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Theology 101 — Salvation as Conversion
True repentance involves trust in Christ and true faith in Him involves repentance from sin and unbelief. The combination of the two equals Christian conversion.
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Theology 101 — So Great a Salvation
The word “salvation” can mean several things, but in the Bible, the term has to do with the spiritual and eternal deliverance God has provided fallen and sinful humans through sending His Son as our Savior.
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Theology 101 — Incriminating Mismatches
Jesus had a descriptive term for people whose confession and conduct don’t match up. We find that term in Luke 6:42: “hypocrite.”
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Theology 101 — Our Great Salvation
One way of grasping God’s provision of “great salvation” (Heb. 2:3) is to ponder three important biblical terms: regeneration, sanctification and glorification.
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Theology 101 — Life’s Greatest Virtue
In Jesus’ questions to Peter in John 21:15–17, we see a call to practice life’s greatest virtue — love (1 Cor. 13:13).
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Theology 101 — Our Trustworthy God
God is trustworthy, and “the divine attribute that reveals God to be worthy of human trust is His immutability or unchanging nature.”