But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him — our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. – Isaiah 53:5 Jesus is the Lord, but it’s the crucified Jesus who is Lord–precisely because it’s his crucifixion that has …
N.T. Wright, Simply Jesus, 122-123: Without the perspective that sees evil as a dark force that stands behind human reality, the issue of “good” and “bad” in our world is easy to decipher. It is fatally easy, and I mean fatally easy, to typecast “people like us” as basically good and “people like them” as …
[The following is adapted from yesterday’s message at The District Church, “Learning How to Live Well.” Listen to the podcast here.] I want to point out three things, regarding Paul’s analogy of the fruit of the Spirit. 1. It’s not something we can acquire by simply trying harder. Throughout Galatians, Paul dismantles the idea that all God wants …
[The following is adapted from yesterday’s message at The District Church, “Learning How to Live Well.” Listen to the podcast here.] The life well lived is not an impossibility. Jesus says in John 10:10, “I came that they might have life, and life to the full.” The Greek word used for “life” here is zoë, …
So I’ve been reading through the Bible in a year. Today I reached the end of Job. It’s a fascinating book. And bemusing, too. My understanding of what it says has definitely changed over the years, and even now, I’m not completely sure what to make of it all—especially all of the words that Job’s …