The Sweet Exchange
It is the idea of exchanging one person’s life and penalty for another’s that Peter uses in 1 Peter 2:22-24.
Sin bearing is the central aspect of Christ’s role. You can believe in Jesus as a good man, as a wise teacher, and as an example of love and compassion. But if you don’t accept his role as the sin-bearer, you have missed the point of Jesus Christ. He came to die. “It was... Continue Reading
Can I Pray Imprecatory Prayers?
In Hebrew Wisdom Literature, lament psalms are the individual and corporate cries of God’s people.
At root, an imprecatory psalm is an invocation of divine cursing. Examples of these imprecations include Psalms 5, 6, 35, 69, and 109, all of which are cited in the New Testament. Curse pronouncements are interspersed throughout the biblical canon. For example, Jesus calls down woes of judgment on religious leaders in Matthew 23. Yes. And... Continue Reading
Ordination of Women to the Office of Deacon or Deaconess?
Deacons are servants, but not all who serve are ordained as deacons.
These texts demonstrate diakonos is normally functional and only rarely limited to the definition of a local church office. When it refers to an office, the context makes it clear that meaning is intended as in First Timothy 3 where offices are the subject of the chapter. In other contexts, where church offices are not... Continue Reading
Expository Thoughts: Luke 19v11-27 – Why Do We Have Misplaced Sympathy For The Wicked Servant In The Parable Of The Ten Minas?
We too readily jump to the conclusion that the king is a “harsh master” who expects too much of his servants and treats them appallingly.
Given that the king is clearly meant to stand for God and/or Jesus in the parable this plays into our deep-seated fears that perhaps he is harsh and unfair and will treat us badly. However, this is to read the parable with our cultural eyes, and to miss the real point because of a misplaced... Continue Reading
The Lies of Feminism
What you believe about women and men is not a political issue, it’s a theological one.
What you believe about people—our nature, our purpose—flows from what you believe about God. What the early feminists believed about God’s design for women and men, particularly in how we relate to each other, is still alive today. A quick perusal of the writing of women such as Susan B. Anthony and Emma Goldman tells us that they believed... Continue Reading
The Redeeming Depression of Jesus
There is, in the Bible, both a natural and a spiritual depression.
There is a sinful and a sinless spiritual depression. Again, Ferguson explains, “In the Bible, we can divide melancholy and depression into two categories–there is a melancholy that is natural and there is a melancholy that is spiritual. We then have to divide between a spiritual melancholy that has a holy origin and a spiritual melancholy... Continue Reading
Why Should I Pray?
We pray because we were made to commune with God.
God’s people have been called to prayer from the beginning. In Eden, the Lord walked with and talked to His image bearers. But after they followed Satan’s lies and rebelled against Him, they hid when the Lord showed up. Prayer was, in the most radical way, hindered. Our triune God is a communion of... Continue Reading
Church: There Is Something Wrong If We Are Not Reminded Of Our Mortality And Jesus Resurrection
We gather together as church to re-orientate ourselves around these eternal realities of life and death, heaven and hell, salvation or condemnation.
The early church seems to have deliberately chosen to meet on the first day of the week to mark the resurrection victory of the Lord Jesus. That is why it is described as the “Lord’s Day.” It is also an anticipation of the great and final “Day of the Lord,” when Jesus returns, the dead... Continue Reading
Toward a Trinitarian Ecclesiology
The historic doctrine of the Trinity affirms that God is one in essence and three in person.
The triune principle at the heart of God’s nature is unit band distinction, that is, all three persons of the Trinity are equal in essence yet distinct in person. The distinction among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit can also be seen in the way they relate to one another and the role each plays in accomplishing the... Continue Reading
The Already and the Not Yet
We are foreigners, aliens, and strangers in a strange land.
We wait between the already and not yet, between what our Lord has declared is already true and what has not yet been revealed. However, our waiting is not in vain, nor is it a passive waiting or an isolated waiting. Rather, we wait for our Groom so that He might gather His bride from every tribe,... Continue Reading