One cannot be a serious Christian without being strong and courageous. There are two particular elements of growing in Christ that require courage and both are a result of being obedient to Jesus. First, obeying Jesus in public life requires great...
Four weeks ago my wife gave birth to our fourth child. This time around was different. This time we decided to deliver here in Haiti. By God’s grace, everything went extremely well and mom and baby are doing great. One of the downsides to having...
Sanctification is a hard thing. It’s an intimidating thing. The word itself essentially means “the process of becoming holy”. One of the issues with this definition, however, is the lack of clarity that many have regarding the...
What is sanctification according to Paul? This is the question that I wrestle with in my upcoming book Holiness in Fresh Perspective: Covenant, Cross, and Kingdom (Wipf and Stock). Before answering this question, let’s take a step back and ask 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...
(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...
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 worldview and theology of the Hebrew Bible emerges out of the cultural and intellectual milieu of the ancient Near East. While many have argued that the Hebrew Bible is essentially the same as the sacred writings of its ancient neighbors, this...
To understand the Trinity, an entirely new way of thinking about reality had to be developed. The old philosophical framework, the old paradigm, nor the old lens, had the terminology, parameters or scope for dealing with what scripture revealed...