Essays, updates, and reflections on the life, ministry, and ongoing influence of C. John “Jack” Miller — written by Michael A. Graham, author of Cheer Up! and founder of The Jack Miller Project.
Article Index — All posts by year
Article Index
2026
- Jul 19, 2026 — How We Receive New Life — Handed Over to the King
- Jul 11, 2026 — God’s Solution — Perfect Record, New Heart, Good Master
- Jul 3, 2026 — Bad Record, Bad Heart, Bad Master
- Jun 27, 2026 — Self-Centered, Not God-Centered
- Jun 22, 2026 — Graham Family & Ministry Update
- Jun 15, 2026 — A Loving God Sent His Son
- May 21, 2026 — The Gospel Poured Out
- Apr 8, 2026 — Cheer Up! Come On, Let’s Die Together: It’s a Great Way to Come to Life
- Mar 26, 2026 — The Website Is Rebuilt — and a Word About Rose Marie Miller
- Mar 14, 2026 — A Higher Life Theology in Old School Clothing: What Jack Miller Wrote to His Elders About the OPC, the PCA, and the Unity of the Church
- Mar 11, 2026 — Graham Family & Ministry Update
- Mar 7, 2026 — How Beautiful Are the Dirty Feet
- Mar 5, 2026 — How to Build on Your Justification: Jack Miller on Romans, Justification, and the Life of the Justified
- Jan 28, 2026 — Representation and Reality: Reading Scripture Through the Lens of Another Gospel
- Jan 28, 2026 — Having Begun by the Spirit: Artificial Intelligence (AI) as Another Gospel
- Jan 25, 2026 — The Remnant of One: From Remnant Theology to a Theology of Abundance
- Jan 11, 2026 — What Is Grace? (And Why ‘Undeserving’ Isn’t Enough) — A Second Follow Up
- Jan 11, 2026 — Repenting of Being Right: Why Grace Matters More Than Ever Right Now — A Follow-Up
- Jan 9, 2026 — What’s So Amazing About Grace … Especially Right Now!
2025
- Dec 3, 2025 — Master List of Publications at The Jack Miller Project (with Hyper-links)
- Dec 3, 2025 — The Jack Miller Project and the Gary North Challenge
- Nov 24, 2025 — “Faith Working by Love”: The Relationship of Faith and Works from God’s Perspective and Ours
- Nov 11, 2025 — Faith vs. Magic: A Biblical Theology of Science, Culture, and Discipleship in a Disenchanted World
- Nov 1, 2025 — Pentecost, the Sins of Jeroboam, and the Words of Jesus at the Well
- Oct 19, 2025 — When the Word Comes and Speaks: Elijah’s Cave and the Voice of the Living God
- Oct 18, 2025 — When Prophets Cheer for Kings (or Presidents)
- Sep 15, 2025 — “I Do Not Count My Psyche as Precious”
- Sep 9, 2025 — Grazie Mille! Our Final Update from Italy and Croatia
- Aug 29, 2025 — David, Consecration, and the Greater King
- Aug 27, 2025 — From God’s Gospel to My Gospel: The Preached Word and the Revealed Mystery
- Aug 15, 2025 — The Three Priorities of the Church: Guarding the Gospel and Walking in the Obedience of Faith
- Aug 8, 2025 — Real People, Real Grace — The Four Common Features of a Fruitful and Effective Ministry
- Jul 29, 2025 — Recovering the Gospel We Left Behind: Evangelism, Discipleship, and the Harmony of Life in Christ
- Jul 7, 2025 — Returning to God in Truth: Pretense, Half-Heartedness, and the Call to Whole-Hearted Repentance Unto Life
- Jun 24, 2025 — “Let Go and Let God?” When Surrender Isn’t Surrender
- Jun 17, 2025 — The Covenant of Words: How the Gospel Changes Our Speech
- Jun 5, 2025 — The Presumptive Position: How Justification by Faith Alone Topples the Powers We Build to Avoid Christ
- May 26, 2025 — A Hard Decision
- May 22, 2025 — Reformation in Context: Political Power, Ecclesial Authority, and the Gospel
- May 17, 2025 — Popes, Presidents, and the Kingdom of God: Why Christ Still Wears the Only Crown
- May 5, 2025 — When Empathy Becomes a Stumbling Block: How a Modern Virtue Collides with the Cross
- Apr 21, 2025 — Is “Natural Theology” Fallen Theology? Recovering God’s “Natural” in Light of the Resurrection
- Apr 8, 2025 — Why I’m Sharing Jack Miller’s Story Again (and Why I Hope You’ll Share It Too)
- Apr 4, 2025 — Why People Don’t Want Justification (And Why We Preach It Anyway)
- Mar 30, 2025 — “Beware of Me When I’m Right”—Presumption (Self-Confidence) or Faith (Christ-Confidence)
- Mar 11, 2025 — Entering God’s Community of Love: The Gospel That Frees Us from Ourselves
- Mar 6, 2025 — God’s “Faithful Presence” in “The Negative World”
- Feb 27, 2025 — The Unveiling and the Unmasking: Apocalypse and Elenctics in Biblical Theology
- Feb 25, 2025 — “Take Care Then How You Hear”: Hearing, Faith, and the Holy Spirit
- Feb 21, 2025 — Pulling on the Biblical Theology Thread of Levi’s Scattering, the Priesthood of All Believers, and the Gathered & Scattered Church
- Feb 15, 2025 — A Call to Courage: When Reporting Abuse Is an Act of Heroic Love
- Feb 14, 2025 — One Holy Spirit, Three Reformed Voices—David Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Donald Macleod, and C. John “Jack” Miller
- Feb 11, 2025 — The Legal Promise and the Gospel Promise: Understanding Their Relationship
- Feb 6, 2025 — A New Life Course Schedule (Spring 2025) at New Life Vicenza
- Feb 5, 2025 — The Case of the Gospel and the Murder of the Chocolate Lips
- Jan 31, 2025 — The Gospel No One Wants (And Everyone Needs): A Personal Story
- Jan 23, 2025 — The Greatness and Glory of the Legal Promise
- Jan 11, 2025 — Covenant Theology is Not Mono-Covenantalism: Recovering the Biblical, Reformed and Confessional Two-Covenant Framework
2024
- Dec 23, 2024 — 100 Years of Grace and Courage: Happy Birthday, Rose Marie Miller!
- Dec 19, 2024 — Cheer Up! Honoring Jack Miller on His 96th Birthday (Sorry for being a day late!)
- Dec 11, 2024 — The Gospel of “Costly Grace”: Bonhoeffer, Shepherd, and Jack Miller
- Nov 27, 2024 — “Zoe” Life in a “Bios” World: Jack Miller and the Pivotal Debates of Middle Westminster
- Nov 7, 2024 — Christ-Oriented Giving
- Sep 25, 2024 — “Correcting Yourself Before Others” by Jack Miller
- Aug 3, 2024 — “The Law and the Gospel” by Jack Miller
- Jul 23, 2024 — Martin Luther to George Spalatin, 21 August 1544
- Jul 16, 2024 — Does the Holy Spirit Seem to You to Be a Kind of Luxury?
- Apr 24, 2024 — Continuance in Justification by C. John Miller, 11 April 1979
- Apr 7, 2024 — By the Pool of Bethesda (John 5) with Alfred Edersheim
- Mar 27, 2024 — “Who Is Really on Trial?” Jack Miller
- Mar 17, 2024 — “The Word of God in the Life of the Church” by Jack Miller
- Mar 13, 2024 — Garbage Truck Evangelism
- Mar 9, 2024 — Beauty: A Letter from Jack Miller to World Harvest Mission Leadership Team just after the Collapse of the New Era Foundation
- Mar 6, 2024 — “Those Who Truly Stand in the Tradition of Augustine, Luther, and Calvin” by Jack Miller
- Feb 29, 2024 — Jack Miller on “The Primacy of Faith in Carrying the Gospel to Others”
- Jan 13, 2024 — What Jack Miller means by “Preaching the Gospel to Ourselves”
2023
- Dec 21, 2023 — New Life “Distinctives”—Reflections on the Early Days of New Life Church
- Dec 18, 2023 — Merry Christmas to You and Happy Birthday to the late Dr. C. John “Jack” Miller
- May 6, 2023 — “[I]f we don’t reach the cities of our land for Christ, we won’t reach the nation”—To New Life-Glenside on Leaving the OPC
- Apr 19, 2023 — “Denominations, Unless Revived by Repentance, Usually Fade After 50 to 70 Years” Letter from Jack Miller to Elders at New Life Church
- Feb 13, 2023 — “Authority for the Conflict” by Jack Miller
- Jan 11, 2023 — Grace and the Pastor’s Work
2022
- Dec 19, 2022 — Praying Together Effectively by Jack Miller
- Oct 31, 2022 — Abandoning the Idea of a Calvinist Remnant
- Oct 4, 2022 — The Lord is My Chosen Portion
- Jul 29, 2022 — Keeping Your Mental Health in a Violent Society by C. John “Jack” Miller
- Jul 6, 2022 — “Justification by Faith in the 20th Century” by C. John “Jack” Miller
- Jun 27, 2022 — Arrived in Vicenza
- May 30, 2022 — Preach Faith Until You Believe and When You Believe Preach Faith
- May 28, 2022 — An Interview with My Father—Dayton Graham (1936–2004)
- May 4, 2022 — A Skeptic Witnessing to Skeptics
- Apr 27, 2022 — A New Life Conference at Faith OPC in Long Beach
- Mar 26, 2022 — A New Life Seminar: Evangelism & The Foundations of Discipleship
- Mar 16, 2022 — Witnessing to the Virtuous
2021
- Sep 13, 2021 — The Primacy of Faith—A Sermon with My Personal Testimony
- Aug 28, 2021 — Jack Miller on The Relation Between Man’s Faith and the Holy Spirit
- Aug 17, 2021 — A Search For New Life … “Childhood Not Pleasant, I Hated Being Black”—The Story of Charles Brown
- Jul 5, 2021 — Next Steps in Ministry—Ministry Data Forms, Curriculum Vitae and Resume
- Jun 19, 2021 — Letter from John Berridge to Lady Huntingdon at the death of her daughter
- Jun 15, 2021 — “Listening is Another Way of Saying, ‘I Love You.’”
- Apr 30, 2021 — “Preach the Gospel to Yourself”—Jerry Bridges & Jack Miller
- Apr 9, 2021 — “Finished Work” — April 7, 2021 Sermon for Ann Marie (Myer) Graham
- Mar 27, 2021 — How Jack Miller Became a Trinitarian
- Mar 22, 2021 — Absolutely Convinced Jesus is Coming Back—Easter Sermon by Jack Miller
- Feb 15, 2021 — A “Dear John” Letter for Pastors by Jack Miller
- Feb 11, 2021 — Launch Forth Into the Deep — Another Modern Day Parable by Jack Miller
- Feb 8, 2021 — A Modern Parable by Jack Miller
- Jan 26, 2021 — Jack Miller on “How is the Holy Spirit Unleashed?”
- Jan 9, 2021 — Bott Radio Two-Part Interview for “Cheer Up!”
2019
- Nov 7, 2019 — “A New Life” Booklet and Sonship: Evangelism as the Foundations of Discipleship
- Oct 20, 2019 — The Jack Horner Approach to Claiming God’s Promises
- Oct 8, 2019 — “This is As Important As Anything I’ve Ever Said to You.” Jack Miller
- Oct 3, 2019 — The True Charismatic Movement
- Sep 28, 2019 — The End of the Struggle
- Sep 21, 2019 — Brokenness: The Way of Grace
- Sep 14, 2019 — Christ Crucified for “My Shameful Sins” and “My Everyday Respectable Sins”
- Aug 27, 2019 — Do You Have The Fruit Of The Spirit?
- Aug 8, 2019 — How Will We Define Faith?
- Jul 31, 2019 — Healing Aloneness
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How We Receive New Life — Handed Over to the King
Should politics and religion mix? Mark 1:14–15 answers with one word that keeps returning — handed over. The Son went into the hands of sinners to bring us into the hands of God, and receiving the new life means resting in his hands, by repentance and faith.
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God’s Solution — Perfect Record, New Heart, Good Master
Isaiah 52:13–53:12, the servant God shows us, and the life he calls prosperous — the fourth of the Five Facts. We strayed our own way and were left with a bad record, a bad heart, and a bad master. Pierced in our place, the servant clears the record, gives the new heart, and lives to…
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Bad Record, Bad Heart, Bad Master
Romans 3:9–26, the three barriers, and the God who answers all three — the third of the Five Facts. Self-centeredness left us with a bad record, a bad heart, and a bad master, and no power to mend them. But now God justifies the guilty freely in Christ, and the response is to say amen.
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Self-Centered, Not God-Centered
Ephesians 2:1–7, the powers of the air, and the end of magic — the second of the Five Facts. We are self-centered, not God-centered: dead under powers we were sure we had outgrown. But God, rich in mercy, makes the dead alive.
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Graham Family & Ministry Update
Dear Friends, It has been about three months since our last update, and once again a great deal has happened. When I last wrote, we were still in Mount Juliet, the basement torn up from the flood, and I was preparing to leave for an island I had visited but never lived on. I write…
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A Loving God Sent His Son
The first of Jack Miller’s Five Facts of the gospel: a loving God sent His Son Jesus into the world to bring us a new and abundant life. An essay on John 10:10 and John 3:16–17 — the zoe life Christ lived, laid down, and gives; why the promise can feel larger than our experience;…
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The Gospel Poured Out
An essay on Romans 5:1–5, prepared for Pentecost Sunday. The gospel is not a doorway we walk through and leave behind — it is the foundation we live on, with the Spirit’s poured-out love as the umbrella overhead. On the prior pour of regeneration, the Pentecost pour of love, and the standing we receive when…
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Cheer Up! Come On, Let’s Die Together: It’s a Great Way to Come to Life
Thirty years since the death of Jack Miller. An essay marking the thirtieth anniversary of Jack Miller’s death—and the passing of Rose Marie Miller on March 26, 2026—telling the full story of elenctics, Sonship, and grace for the long haul.
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The Website Is Rebuilt — and a Word About Rose Marie Miller
If your Facebook feed was filled with posts from The Jack Miller Project today, I owe you an apology. Over the last several days I’ve been rebuilding the website from the ground up, and part of that work involved migrating my 2026 Substack essays onto the WordPress blog. Facebook treated each one as a new…
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A Higher Life Theology in Old School Clothing: What Jack Miller Wrote to His Elders About the OPC, the PCA, and the Unity of the Church
by Michael A. Graham In April 2023, I published a letter that Jack Miller wrote to the elders of New Life Presbyterian Church on December 8, 1989, laying out his reasons for recommending that New Life leave the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and affiliate with the Presbyterian Church in America. Readers can find it here: “If…
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Graham Family & Ministry Update
Dear Friends, It has been about six months since our last update, and a lot has happened. We are grateful for your friendship, prayers, and support over the years, and we want to share where things stand as we enter another season of change. Our last update covered the end of our three and a…
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How Beautiful Are the Dirty Feet
A Confession and a Discovery: (Follow Up to Yesterday’s article) By Michael A. Graham I have a PhD. I wrote Jack Miller’s biography. I have been a pastor for twenty-five years. I have preached Isaiah and Romans more times than I can count. And until this week, I had missed something that was right in…