God's Purpose

This teaching stream explores God’s Purpose in time-space history.

Humankind dreams of a better world, but how can that happen? God has a plan for human flourishing – a new world here and now – and it's revealed in the person of Jesus Christ and his Gospel. It is explicated through the biblical motif of 'Kingdom & Covenant'—God's Government and its Constitution as the genius of a New World Order.

Romans: Re-Creation by the Spirit—Paradise Restored, Part 5d

September 15, 2019 by David Orton

EXPOSITION: Chapter 8:1-39 Romans 8: The Climax of the Covenant As explained in the Introduction to this section (Chs. 5-8), this chapter reiterates and consummates Ch. 5. In the meantime, Chs. 6 and 7 have addressed the hurdles of sin and the law to the universal reign of grace introduced in Ch. 5 but now fully explicated in Ch. 8. The four chapters form a chiastic ring … [Read more...]

5 Books on the Victorious Christian Hope for History

August 3, 2019 by Virginia Orton

The devastating effects of certain defective eschatological scenarios in the contemporary church are seen in the retreat and decline of the Christian faith and social order in our time. Eschatology is not merely a narrow view of ‘the end’ but concerns more fully the entire direction and goal of God’s purpose in history. It therefore has a profound influence on a … [Read more...]

God’s Beautiful Plan

July 17, 2019 by W. J. Ern Baxter (1914-1993)

In the face of the ugliness of a sin ravaged world, mired in wars and bloodshed, despair and disease, brokenness and corruption, Ern illuminates the beauty of God’s plan. This plan, purposed before time, began in Eden, continued in Canaan, and was fulfilled in the coming of Christ. With the inauguration of Christ’s kingdom on earth through his atoning work, God’s Spirit-filled … [Read more...]

Romans: The Problem of Sin, Part 5b

June 23, 2019 by David Orton

EXPOSITION: Chapter 6:1-23 The Definition of Sanctification The problem of sin in relation to the Christian life is generally termed “sanctification” with the term found only twice in this epistle, here in ch.6 in v. 19, 22. The Greek word hagiasmos means consecration, purification; from hagiadzo – to make holy, purify, or consecrate, which is from hagios meaning sacred or … [Read more...]

Romans: De-Creation & Re-Creation—Paradise Restored, Part 5

April 30, 2019 by David Orton

EXPOSITION: Chapter 5:1–8:39 In the next four chapters Paul takes his Gospel to the next level, to its end game: from justification to glorification, from ch. 5 to ch. 8. In fact, his language now switches from the polemical to the confessional, to a declaration of the victory of Christ in history. Having established the juridical basis of man's reinstatement as a … [Read more...]