A riff on Judas.
All in New Testament
Paul's Address to Bondservants in Colossians 3
The Christian gospel speaks to all people in every situation all the time. You cannot get any socially lower than a slave. But Jesus doesn’t ignore the lowly. He speaks directly to them.
Who is the "I" in Romans 7:7-25?
Paul says he cannot understand his own actions. There is much controversy over exactly who Paul is referring to in this passage. Throughout verses 7-25, he uses the personal pronoun I. So who is he talking about?
The Battle We Cannot Win and the Battle We Cannot Lose
In Romans 7:7-13, Paul talks about the Christian as if he is two people in one body. There is the Moral Self with a high moral compass, wanting to obey the law. Then there is the Law-Breaking Self who breaks the law. Before coming to Christ, we are both of these selves. We are slaves to our desire to live the "right" life, and yet we are slaves to our desire to make our flesh feel good.
Dying to Racism, Living to God
Remember Galatians 2:11-14, when Paul opposed Peter to his face. Why did Paul oppose him? When certain Jews came from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles to eat with the Jews. Peter, who knew the gospel, stepped outside the gospel with his racism. Paul rightly saw this as an anti-gospel move and called Peter out on it. Peter’s racism wasn’t a private problem, it was a public heresy.
Two Kinds of Forgiveness
In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus tells a parable about an unforgiving servant. Through it, he's helping us see two kinds of radical, radical forgiveness and radical unforgiveness, and what will happen if we ignore the former for the latter.
The Gospel is a Rescue
As J.B. Lightfoot says, “The gospel is a rescue, and emancipation from a state of bondage.”
You Have A Problem with the Old Covenant
In Jesus, the shadows of the Old Testament have faded away. Jesus is the founder of the new covenant. The terms he brings are different, they are more gracious and more merciful.
What Obedience Looks Like
There are two types of people – those who listen and those who don’t. Which one are you?
Valentine's Day
It’s Valentine’s Day - the day most people pretend to hate because they either don’t feel loved, or don’t want to show love, but also because they always wish the love they had was more intense, more real.