God did not need to make the world. But once He’s made it, He cannot be a righteous God unless He deals righteously with sin (by punishing it) and righteously with His people (by justifying them). This is why Paul says the cross demonstrates God’s righteousness so that He might “be just and the justifier.” God’s demonstration of righteousness is not merely for the sake of MANIFESTING righteousness; it is for the sake of BEING righteous. Given the fact of creation, the manifestation is necessary to the being.
Wassailing at Christmas
Every year on January 17, revelers gather in an orchard near the Butcher’s Arms in the Somerset…
Rome and the Church in the United States
Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste…
Marriage Annulment and False Mercy
Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in a juridical-pastoral formation course of the Roman Rota that the…