For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, Romans 8:3 NASB Weak – Oh, the pitiful Law! It just couldn’t do what God wanted. It was so inadequate to rescue us. It…
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. Romans 8:2 NASB For – Maybe we should look at this verse in the NIV: “because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.” You’ll notice…
Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romans 8:1 NASB No condemnation – More than anything I want this verse to be true. “No condemnation,” οὐδέν κατάκριμα (ouden katakrima) in Greek is very strong. The “no” is unconditional. “No one, nothing, not ever” is the sense of it. That’s good news. According…
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” Luke 4:18-19 NASB He…
In 2021 Bob Gorelik and I will join Yoav Bruck for a tour of Israel. It will be a wonderful reunion. Thinking about it reminded me of something I wrote some years ago on my first trip to the Holy Land Thoughts about being a naturalized citizen of the Kingdom Today Israel simmers in…
A long time ago, God decided to be a blacksmith. I don’t think He originally intended to enter that trade. While He has always been a master craftsman with metal, I am quite sure that He didn’t deliberately learn the art of heating and beating things into shape because He enjoyed the task. God became…
And they all continued in amazement and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” Acts 2:12 NASB What does this mean? – Are you “full of sweet wine”? That’s what some of the bystanders thought when they heard the Galilean followers of Yeshua the Messiah speaking in their own languages. It was obvious…
Wisdom makes one wise person more powerful than ten rulers in a city. Ecclesiastes 7:19 NIV Ten rulers – Most modern translations of the Hebrew Scriptures are based on a text complied by a group of rabbinic scholars called the Masoretes. They worked between the 6th and the 10th Centuries CE in Tiberias and Jerusalem. They…
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but those who deal faithfully are His delight. Proverbs 12:22 NASB Abomination – tôʿēbâ isn’t a word we hear often. Oh, sorry. I meant that the English translation of tôʿēbâ is a word we hear often—“abomination.” It would certainly be familiar to ancient readers of the Tanakh, but…
The Lord God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” Genesis 2:16-17 NASB Knowledge of good and evil – Just what was this tree of the…
