For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believers, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. —Romans 1:16, emphasis added. Often times we overlook the fact that 99% of Jesus’ recorded words in the...
For far too long now Christians have told the story of Jesus as if it hooked up not with the story of Israel, but simply with the story of human sin as in Genesis 3, skipping over the story of Israel altogether. —N.T. Wright The concept of covenant...
When God fulfills his World Renewal Plan through Jesus, his Son, he is not only setting up a government (Kingdom metaphor), but also creating a family. This, once again, means that our metaphors for God’s World Renewal Plan will often times flow...
There is a crucial connection to be made between human behavior and human nature. Living beings behave according to their nature. If God prescribes a certain kind of human behavior it is for the purpose of reflecting a certain kind of nature. The...
So I’m upping the ante on my reading in apocalyptic and eschatological literature. I encountered this quote yesterday and thought it worth sharing: Ideas have consequences. . . . At worst, such belief [in a rapture] is a form of escapism. The...
Even a completely innocent, self-giving act (such as the Cross) that is driven by love and compassion can, and will be perverted by the World. This reality, however, does not give license to do anything less than follow Jesus' example.
God did not bring Israel out of Egypt so they could wander the desert. No, he brought Israel out of Egypt so that he could establish his Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In much the same way, sinners are not saved through the Cross simply so...
Various people have various definitions of the Gospel of Christianity. Most North American protestant evangelicals would define the Gospel as the story of the substitutionary atonement in the Cross through Jesus that allows for the forgiveness of...
Excerpt from Holiness in Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom (Wipf and Stock) God’s promises David that his offspring would be the one with the eternal anointing to rule over God’s people. In this promise rests the concept of the...
A quick blurb from Holiness in Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom (Wipf and Stock, expected 2014). When we lose the complex backdrop of God’s World Renewal Plan when reading the New Testament and interpreting God’s salvation into our...