In the opening scene of the narrative, God creates the heavens and the earth. The theological thrust of both creation narratives (Genesis 1 and 2), is the sovereignty of God, as Creator. There are clues in the text that highlight this. One of the...
Not long ago I encountered a well-intentioned brother sporting a bright orange T-shirt. On the center of the shirt was a graphic borrowed from the popular board game Monopoly. The graphic was a Monopoly Chance card that said in bold font, “Get Out...
Isaiah 6:1-8 is one of my favorite passages of scripture. As a missionary having attended many missions conferences, I have heard countless messages centering on the famous verse, “here I am, Lord, send me” (6:8). The takeaway of the message usually...
Paul, at every point, frames his theology within scripture’s meta-narrative of salvation. Paul cannot think about Jesus cut-off from the Old Testament. Jesus changed everything about how Paul understood Adam and Eve, the Garden, Abraham, Moses...
And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the...
“…for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work…” Hebrews 4:10 It seems counter-intuitive to think of the holy life as one of rest. Most often we associate spiritual discipline and long-suffering with the way of the holy life...
Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect Romans 12:12 The Scriptures use a variety of metaphors to...
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5:8). Take a moment and think about all the ways in which we can apply the word pure. We can talk about pure water, purebred animals, sounds can be pure, gold can be pure, and the list...
Why did Jesus die? Is there really a short and simple answer to this question? Can the most important event in human history really be summed up in one quick line? Think about the various kinds of answers we can come up with. We could give...
The Crucial Pillars of the New Perspective Going back to the original question, what is the gospel according to Paul? N. T. Wright has made a career out of answering this question. In his research, Wright has identified several crucial pillars that...