⏱️ Estimated Reading Time: 3 min read
On today’s Equipping You in Grace, Dave Jenkins and Dr. Robert Cara have a wide-ranging discussion on justification from the Bible and church history, and how justification relates to the Christian life and ministry, along with The Doctrine on Which the Church Stands Or Falls: Justification in Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Pastoral Perspective edited by Dr. Matthew Barrett (Crossway, 2019).
What you’ll hear in this episode
- What justification is.
- How important it is for Christians to have a robust biblical and theologically informed understanding of the doctrine of justification for their life and ministry.
- How important it is that Christians have a good grasp on what the Church has taught on justification from church history.
- How evangelicals should respond to challenges from Rome on justification.
- How evangelicals should respond to challenges from the New Perspective on Paul on justification.
- What is the necessity of understanding justification for pastoral ministry.
- Recommended reading on justification.
- Justification and the ministry of Jesus as Advocate.
- The Reformation as a Bible-centered movement.
- How Protestant should interact with Roman Catholics on justification.
- The dangers with the New Perspective on Paul and how Christians should respond to it.
- How justification addresses the guilt and shame of sinners.
- How justification addresses sinners worthless and why it matters.
- Justification and union with Christ.
About the Guest
Dr. Robert J. Cara is the Hugh and Sallie Reaves Professor of New Testament at RTS-Charlotte and Provost and Chief Academic Officer for the RTS institution. He has been a professor at RTS since 1993. Dr. Cara was an engineer for seven years before the Lord re-directed him toward seminary. As a former college basketball player for Penn State-Capitol, he has developed a reputation as an energetic and challenging classroom teacher, and he is a personable scholar who is very student oriented. As an ordained minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, Dr. Cara has been very involved at both the presbytery and synod levels. He is a former vice-moderator of the denomination and for several years was the chairman of the denominational Inter-Church Relations Committee. He preaches regularly in the Charlotte area.
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Thanks for listening to this episode of Equipping You in Grace!
Dave Jenkins is happily married to his wife, Sarah, and lives in beautiful Southern Oregon. He is a writer, editor, and speaker who loves Christ, His people, the Church, and sound theology.
Dave serves as the Executive Director of Servants of Grace Ministries and the Executive Editor of Theology for Life Magazine. He is the Host and Producer of the Equipping You in Grace Podcast and a contributor to and producer of Contending for the Word.
He is the author of The Word Explored: The Problem of Biblical Illiteracy and What To Do About It (House to House, 2021), The Word Matters: Defending Biblical Authority Against the Spirit of the Age (G3 Press, 2022), and Contentment: The Journey of a Lifetime (Theology for Life, 2024).
You can connect with Dave on Facebook, X (Twitter), Instagram, YouTube, or subscribe to his newsletter.
When he is not engaged in ministry work, Dave enjoys spending time with his wife, going to movies, sharing a meal at a favorite restaurant, or playing a round of golf with friends. He is also a voracious reader, particularly of Reformed theology and the Puritans, and is often found working through a stack of new books from a wide range of Christian publishers.
Dave earned his M.A.R. and M.Div. from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary.




