So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. Romans 7:12 NASB Law – Why is the Law holy? Before you answer, consider the radical difference between the Greco-Roman view of Law and the Semitic biblical view of Law. Christine Hays offers some insight: “Divine law can be minimally…
For certain people have crept in unnoticed, those who were long beforehand marked out for this condemnation, ungodly persons who turn the grace of our God into indecent behavior and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ. Jude 1:4 NASB Our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ – Jude worries about the influence false teachers have on the…
For He established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers that they were to teach them to their children, so that the generation to come would know, the children yet to be born, that they would arise and tell them to their children, Psalm 78:5-6 NASB Testimony/ law – Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Remember? Teach your children…
Therefore Sheol has enlarged its throat and opened its mouth without measure; Isaiah 5:14a Without measure – Why do people go to Hell? No, it’s not a theological trick question. Why do you think God would send people to Hell? Is it because they were wicked and deserved long-lasting punishment? Is it because true justice demands that…
He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. Psalm 103:10 NASB According to – Is God just? Frankly, I hope not. Justice means the application of the law without bias. It is personified in the famous blind lady holding the balance scales. If God blindly measures me…
When God began to create heaven and earth—the earth being unformed and void, Genesis 1:1-2a Parsha: Bere’shit JPS Tagged Tanakh To create – Biblically-based religions are susceptible to a subtle but dangerous trap. They can easily become religions of the book rather than religions of the God revealed in the book. You and I, being familiar…
Then you are to say to them, ‘It is because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. Jeremiah 16:11 NASB Law – There are two unbridgeable chasms between Christianity and Judaism. The first,…
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB Grace/works – I used to think I knew what Paul was writing about. Decades ago, I had the right theological perspective on Paul. He was…
so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:4 NASB So that – Before we can figure out what the consequences of perí hamartías (“for sin” Hebrew ʾāšam) meant for Paul, we’ll need to determine who the pronoun refers…
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…
