Tag: Digging in Deeper

Digging in Deeper: Romans 8:24-25

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“Now in this hope we were saved, but hope  that is seen is not hope, because who hopes for what he sees? Now if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with patience.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Faith is a word that is essentially connected with the message of the Gospel that can be hard for someone who has not yet embraced it to understand. The nature of Gospel faith is often misunderstood—including by Jesus’ own followers. Another Gospel concept that can be similarly challenging to wrap our minds around is the word hope. Gospel hope is often mischaracterized as little more than wishful thinking. Yet that falls woefully short of what it actually is. Let’s talk a bit about hope, why it is so essential to the Gospel, and what it actually means.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 8:14-17

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“For all those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. Instead, you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba,  Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—if indeed we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

In his magnum opus, Knowing God, author and theologian, J.I. Packer, argues that adoption is the single most important lens through which we should understand the New Testament. It is the theme that lies at the heart of everything else we find there. Without that idea, none of the rest of it makes the kind of sense it should. And in making this argument, he points most emphatically to this passage. God loves us so much that He wants us to be a part of His family. Let’s explore what Paul introduces to us here and why it is so critically important to understand.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 12:19

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“Friends, do not avenge yourselves; instead, leave room for God’s wrath, because it is written, ‘Vengeance belongs to me; I will repay,’ says the Lord.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

We live in the day of the dystopian future story. Not all that long ago, historically speaking, this wasn’t the case. There was a time when a popular view on the return of Christ described in Revelation was post-millennialism, which held that the world was just going to keep getting better (because we made it that way) until Jesus returned to reward us for all our good work. Then the 20th century happened. After two world wars and an ensuing half century of chaos mostly released on the world by the ideas of Darwin, Freud, and Marx, we gave up on a hopeful future, and our thinking turned dark. The Last of Us on HBO, is a great example of this. With the second season now behind us, let’s talk about how it was, and why the Gospel is better.

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Digging in Deeper: Matthew 16:19

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“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

Over the last few Fridays (last Friday, of course, being an exception), we have been taking a long look at Jesus’ response to Peter’s confession of Him as Messiah in Matthew 16. Jesus’ response to Peter is the first mention of the church we encounter in the Scriptures, and the two verses here are perhaps the most important foundation statement on the church in the Scriptures. In our Wednesday night Bible study group, we’ve spent a total of nearly eight weeks talking about these two verses and exploring their implications for the church today as thoroughly as we can. Needless to say, there’s a lot here. This past week, we finally finished the section. Since we’ve touched on all the rest of it here as well over the last few weeks, I thought we would take a look at the last part of it too. Let’s reflect for a few minutes today on what Jesus meant by binding and loosing things on earth and in heaven.

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Digging in Deeper: Romans 8:5-8

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“For those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their minds set on the things of the Spirit. Now the mindset of the flesh is death, but the mindset of the Spirit is life and peace. The mindset of the flesh is hostile to God because it does not submit to God’s law. Indeed, it is unable to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

One of the things I desired when I created this blog was to have a space where people interacted with the ideas I was putting forth. More specifically, I hoped to see it become a forum to foster interactions with people who don’t necessarily agree with the ideas in order to have convicted and civil dialogues about them together. Over the last year and a half that’s begun to happen…sort of. If you are someone who bothers reading the comments, one thing that has become clear over the last couple of years is just how profoundly folks committed to other worldview positions don’t understand the Christian worldview. Paul here explains why. Let’s take a look at this with him.

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