Tomorrow is the Super Bowl.  I hope it’s a good game and I must confess I’ll probably check out of the halftime show.  I’m sure Beyoncé will do a fine job, but there’s no topping U2’s arrestingly sublime performance from 2002.  This is a repost from last year, the day after the big game. The Giants and […]

I’m using Richard Hays’s brilliant commentary on 1 Corinthians this semester and am enjoying it immensely.  This is Hays on Paul’s opposition of corrupted human wisdom vs. the shameful cross of Christ. God, however, has revealed in Christ another kind of wisdom that radically subverts the wisdom of this world: God has chosen to save […]

  By your Word were all things created By your Word were all things given That all might live in your garden Eat the fruit of the land Drink your living water Grow in strength and wisdom Husband and wife Brother and sister Mother and child   God of Peace, sow seeds of hope in […]

I’m teaching Romans and 1 Corinthians this semester, so I’m giving some thought to spiritual gifts.  Paul speaks of these throughout both letters. It seems to me that “spiritual gift” talk among evangelicals has been hijacked by the Disney ideology—what’s important is that I am given opportunities to exercise my giftedness.  I need find fulfillment, […]

In Romans 4:5, Paul identifies God as the one “who justifies the ungodly.”  Those who read this passage as an abstract discussion of the mechanics of justification will conclude that Paul is stressing the purely passive manner in which justification is received by morally unworthy people.  It does not come as a result of anything […]

In Romans 4, Paul sets Abraham before his audience for consideration.  Why does he do this?  Is it to give an Old Testament example of justification by faith?  Not exactly. Following the grammar in vv. 13-16, it’s apparent that Paul calls upon Abraham to advance his argument that the divided factions in the Roman church […]

Over the last few weeks I’ve noted that Paul’s letter to the Romans is a pastoral letter to a church struggling to maintain unity in the midst of developing conflict. Paul’s narrative of the human body from corruption to transformation runs through the letter as a subtext.  It supports his contention that all Christians in […]

Over the last few days, I’ve heard from good friends in various places facing different kinds of troubles.  Psalm 13 is a prayer of one in despair (Common English Bible): How long will you forget me, Lord? Forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long will I be left to my own […]

* I used to open our Midtown services with a welcome that clarified why we gathered, who we were, and whose we were. Welcome to Midtown Christian Community.  Welcome in the name of Jesus Christ, the one who died but now lives and reigns from heaven. Jesus Christ is our life, and he is on […]

I wrote yesterday that Paul’s narrative of the human body from corruption to transformation is a subtext of Romans.  It serves his analysis of the situation in the Roman church and supports his argument that no group has any basis to judge another.  Because bodies have been hijacked by the cosmic power of Sin, ethnic […]