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...
This week we remember Pentecost (Acts 2). Pentecost is arguably the fourth most important event Church calendar after Christ’s birth, the Christ’s death, and Christ’s resurrection. But what makes Pentecost so important? At Pentecost God’s long...
The book of Exodus never ceases to amaze me. It is, without a doubt, one of my favorite Old Testament books. It’s claim to fame is the dividing of the Red Sea as the climactic event in which the people of Israel walk out of slavery without ever...
The image of God is a crucial dimension in the meta-narrative. Any doctrine of salvation that does not take into account the image of God will end up out of whack. Readers are simply unable to grasp the essential human problem and God’s solution...
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...
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...