The book of Genesis is a book of origins. In fact, the title itself, “Genesis”, is the Greek word meaning “origins”. The Hebrew title of the book of Genesis is “bereshith” (ברשית) which means “in the beginning”. We find in Genesis the origins for...
This is a short excerpt from Holiness in Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom. Wipf and Stock, 2014. All rights reserved. Consider Romans 1:1–4 for a moment. This is Paul’s salutation to the churches in Rome. In this salutation, Paul does...
This is a short excerpt from Holiness in Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom. Wipf and Stock, 2014. All rights reserved. Too often we read the gospels against an empty backdrop. As modern readers we tend to be very illiterate of the Old...
The book of Genesis is a book of origins. In fact, the titled itself, “Genesis” is the Greek word meaning “origins”. The Hebrew title of the book of Genesis is “bereshith” (ברשית) which means “in the beginning” (although there’s still quite a bit of...
Mark 2 is one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament. I love this chapter because Jesus does something quite radical that is rather easy to miss (interesting that we can miss something radical when we don’t have the eyes or context to see it)...
The people of Israel, while defeated and sent to exile, maintained hope for restoration. The catalyst for hope came through both the prophets (the exilic and post-exilic Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Obadiah, and...
Jesus redefines what power is. All over the New Testament Jesus is referred to as the Son of God. In our modern context, we interpret this to be the Bible’s way to attesting to the divinity of Jesus. This case certainly can be made, but there is...
Have you ever noticed that God is always choosing the least likely people to do his work in the world? The story of Saul and David (1 and 2 Samuel) is intended to portray precisely this. What’s fascinating is that the story of Saul is not really...
We cannot miss how Paul, in the overall structure of the Epistle to the Romans, juxtaposes the contrast between Holy Spirit and the Torah as two different, but related means for sealing the covenants, both old and new. The Holy Spirit as the new...
We celebrated Pentecost last week. We are reminded during the season of Pentecost that Jesus, as he always does, fulfilled his promise to his disciples by sending the Holy Spirit. Questions remain, however, as to where we go from here. What does...