(from Holiness in Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom. Wipf & Stock, expected 2014). Another dimension of holiness that emerges when we look at it with the interpretive lens of the New Perspective is holiness as mission. This...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...