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 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...
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...
The Kingdom is now, but not yet. Jesus’ rule has been established through the Cross and resurrection. Through faith in Jesus people are able to becomes citizens of the Kingdom. At the same time, the Kingdom is not yet. Jesus has yet to pronounce...
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...
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...