Who JESUS Is…
The heart of the Christian gospel is the penal, substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ. As we should expect, this most salvific of all doctrines is taught throughout the Scriptures. It is pervasive, stated both propositionally and illustrated through many types and figures. This note considers a few examples of this foundational jurisprudential doctrine that C. S. Lewis so memorably describes as “deeper magic from before… Read more »
Where in the Bible …is Poetry
Protestant biblical theology requires a rigorous historical as well as grammatical exegetical approach and a disciplined typological method. – J. I. Packer The greatest crisis in the early life of the apostolic church was clearly the challenge to the gospel of free grace represented by the Judaizers, the controversy which necessitated the first ecumenical council at Jerusalem (Acts 15:1-3). Paul’s epistle to the Galatians represents… Read more »
Where in the Bible …is Suffering
“I bear on my body the marks of Jesus” Galatians 6:17 There is a pattern to our sufferings in this life. For Christians, no hurtful wound is merely random or meaningless. It is the goodness of God’s providence that makes our sorrows meaningful, for suffering always precedes glory, as the Savior said of his own wounding (Luke 24:26). Paul encouraged the little, struggling church in… Read more »
Where in the Bible …is Resurrection
Recalling Adam and the first garden, with its two trees of death and life in the midst (Gen 2:9), the evangelist poetically places Jesus’ cross in the midst (John 19:18) of his account of the Garden of Gethsemane (John 18:1) and the Garden Tomb (John 19:41). It is upon the cross, then, that John presents Jesus as the new Adam, whose own tree of cursing… Read more »
Where in the Bible …is Resurrection
“Joseph…said to them, ‘You are spies; you have come to see the nakedness of the land!’…So he put them (Jacob’s sons) all together in prison three days. Now Joseph said to them the third day, ‘Do this and live, for I fear God’” (Gen 42:9, 17-19)Genesis 42:1-22 The drama of Joseph’s confrontation with his brothers, who had come to Egypt seeking bread in a time… Read more »