What is the use of the Law?

Going through Romans 7, I find a lot of our discussions could use more background than we have. When talking about “the Law”, there are two questions I have found very helpful in finding my way through Biblical texts, as well as conversations about them with others. The first I Read more…

Romans 1:14-17 thoughts

This passage contains what is almost unanimously agreed to be the thesis of the book of Romans. It has a couple ambiguities, perhaps because multiple readings each contain aspects which will be brought out in more detail later. First, I’m not sure about the three for‘s in this passage. The Read more…

This is Love

Last week in Re|engage, we talked about Love, and how God defines it in the Bible. One thing we looked at was 1 John 4:7-21; my map of the passage follows: This is another passage I’ve seen many times before, but I was struck by the beauty of how it Read more…

Epiphany 2017

the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. (Ps 146:8 ESV) I took two days off altogether from writing, for Sunday worship and rest, then Christmas day, and yesterday I got back to putting edits into Read more…

Just and Justifier

God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as Read more…