1 Corinthians 15:20, “But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” Just as the first rays of morning on the Eastern horizon mean day is at hand; just as the first buds on the trees tell us that Spring has come; and just […]
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1 Corinthians 6:19–20, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” One of the foundational beliefs in the present Western world is “I am my own,” or in other terms, “autonomy.” “I can do what I want with my body”; “I can do what I
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Ezekiel 37:12-13, “Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am YHWH, when I open your graves…” The people of God will be raised from the grave of their spiritual exile only
John 17:21, “that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” The identity of God as manifest in the crucified and risen Jesus is the Whole around and in
“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the
2 Corinthians 4:10, “…always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.” Because of the Christian’s union to Christ in the Spirit, Paul can interpret all Christian suffering that is endured in faith as a fellowship with Jesus in His death….and yet,
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Psalm 40:1-3, “I waited patiently for YHWH; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God.”
Galatians 6:14, “…far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
Hebrews 9:24, “For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear before God on our behalf.”
Luke 5:20, “…when He saw their faith, He said, ‘Man, your sins are forgiven you.’” Luke 5:20, 7:9, 7:50, 8:48, 17:19, 18:42, These six passages from Luke’s gospel all share the same dynamic, namely, Jesus acknowledging the faith of someone who has come to Him and—in explicit response to that faith—His “saving” or “healing”
Ephesians 6:16, “In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one.” Verse 16, like the rest of the armor passage, is built around a participle that expounds the manner in which we are to “stand” (v.14). So, “stand…taking up the shield of
Ephesians 2:14, “For He Himself is our peace…” Christ as our peace…..He is peace not only between man and man, and man and God, but also—as Colossians 1:20 tells us—between all things in heaven and on earth. In Christ, all things are reconciled, all things are set at peace. In Him all of creation is
Matthew 10:33, “…whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father…” Matthew 26:74, “[Peter] began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, ‘I do not know the man.” In light of Matt 10:33, we would expect Peter’s denial of Jesus in 26:74 to have damned him…but the expectation-surpassing grace of
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John 17:22-23, “The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you
John 17:11, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” In 17:6 Christ says that He has manifested the Father’s Name to those whom the Father has given Him. Now in verse 11 He asks that those same ones
Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.” To take up our cross means to follow after Jesus Christ–the Beautiful One who has satisfied our soul, who is the End of all our Desiring, who is Divine Love incarnate. It means to press
1 Timothy 3:16, “Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.”
1 Timothy 2:5-6, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…” Racist dissonance turns to Ethnic harmony only under the ransoming blood of Christ.
Matthew 24:9, “…you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake.” Christian, the world does not primarily hate our morals, it does not primarily hate our sub-culture, it does not primarily hate our worldview – the world primarily hates our GOD….and that is why it hates–and will increasingly hate–those who love and
Colossians 2:18-19, “Let no one disqualify you…not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.” ALL Christian growth and unity comes from this single thing: Holding fast to the biblically-revealed Christ, who is the Head
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