Tag: Christian theology

Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 9:22

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“According to the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

A little something different this week seeing as how we are just a few days from the single most significant day in the life of the church. This Sunday morning (at least in the Western church) we will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. This one event is the pivot on which the whole of human history swings. There is literally no more significant event in all of recorded history than this one. In order to get us ready for the day when it arrives, let’s do just a bit of thinking about how and why things had to go the way they did in order for the way to a right relationship with God to be made open to us. We’ll start this morning with a bit of context about how to get right with God in the first place.

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More Than We Imagine

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This week brings us to the third part of our series, What We Believe. With the Lifeway and Ligonier Ministry State of Theology survey as our jumping off point, we have been working to clarify some pretty core questions of Christian theology on which professed followers of Jesus in our culture recently reflected some pretty profound confusion. We have so far looked at the doctrines of God and the Holy Spirit. This week we are talking about Jesus. No other person in human history has attracted amount of interesting into the question of who exactly they are as Jesus has. Let’s take a look at the Scriptures together to see what He had to say about Himself and what that means for us.

More Than We Imagine

We’re talking about a survey in this new teaching series, so I thought we’d do a little survey of our own this morning. By a show of hands, who currently has an appliance at home that is still working and which is more than ten years old? How about twenty years? Thirty years? Who has an appliance that is still working that is more than thirty years old? They don’t make them like that anymore, do they? 

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Truly Unique

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What exactly is it we believe about God? Better yet, what should we believe about God? The Scriptures are obviously our most important guide here for followers of Jesus. Recent results from The State of Theology survey conducted last year by LifeWay and Ligonier Ministries, however, suggests that folks who self-consciously identify themselves as followers of Jesus hold some beliefs about Him and about the Christian worldview that do not line up with the Scriptures in any way, shape, or form. Over the next few weeks leading to Easter, we are going to examine some of the most egregious examples and talk about why the truth is so much better. In this first part, we will address the idea that God accepts worship from all different religions. Let’s dig in to see what’s true and how we can live in light of that.

Truly Unique

A few years ago, I was given a Kobalt 80V battery-operated leaf blower. All the leaf blowers I had owned to that point were ones you had to plug in. Being able to go cordless for the first time (and at a point when leaves in our backyard will pile up to a foot deep in the fall if we don’t stay on it) was fantastic. What I like even more than its power and portability, though, is the fact that its battery works in multiple different tools. I now own a leaf blower, a set of hedge trimmers, and a chainsaw that all use the same battery. That is just super convenient. 

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Digging in Deeper: Hebrews 4:3-9

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“For we who have believed enter the rest, in keeping with what he has said, ‘So I swore in my anger, “They will not enter my rest,”‘ even though his works have been finished since the foundation of the world. For somewhere he has spoken about the seventh day in this way: ‘And on the seventh day God rested from all his works.’ Again, in that passage he says, ‘They will never enter my rest.’ Therefore, since it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news did not enter because of disobedience, he again specifies a certain day – today. He specified this speaking through David after such a long time: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. Therefore, a Sabbath rest remains for God’s people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Let me state the obvious right out of the gate here: This is a much bigger block of text than I normally put at the beginning of a post. I had to do it like this. I’ve honestly been sitting with this text for over a week now, trying to find a way I could break it down into smaller sections without losing the argument entirely, and there’s just not a way I could have done it. Maybe you can think of one, and please share it if you do, but every part of this section is all feeding into where the author lands in v. 9. And that point was to completely reorient his audience’s understanding of Sabbath. His words here should probably change yours too. Let’s break this down together.

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Morning Musing: Hebrews 2:17

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“Therefore, he had to be like his brothers and sisters in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in matters pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the people.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Why did Jesus come to earth? Why did God become a man? No other religion has something like this as a part of its body of beliefs. Well, none did before this. A handful have copied it since, but the very idea of such a thing was completely unheard of before it happened. And the copies that have come along since have been imperfect recreations at best. So, why did it happen? The author of Hebrews gives us a very important reason here.

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