Mordecai’s words to Esther, in the Jew’s moment of existential threat, are apt for our present cultural crisis: For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time [kairos] as this?” Esther 4:14 Israel was … [Read more...]
Romans: The Hope of Glory, Part 5a
EXPOSITION: Chapter 5:1-21 5:1-11—From Justification to Salvation 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice [boast] in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice [boast] in our sufferings, … [Read more...]
Romans: De-Creation & Re-Creation—Paradise Restored, Part 5
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...]
Clarifying the ‘End Times’ from Daniel & Revelation: Studies in Eschatology
First, the meaning of the term ‘end times’ must be clarified. Chilton comments, … what is often missed is the fact that the expression ‘the last days’, and similar terms, are used in the Bible to refer, not to the end of the physical world, but to the last days of the nation of Israel, the ‘last days’ which ended with the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.[1] This may be a … [Read more...]
Romans: Justification by Faith Alone Verified from the OT, Part 4c
EXPOSITION: Chapter 4:1-25 The Problem of Gospel Myopia Gospel Clarity With his progressively prosecuted argument from 1:18 to its brilliant climax in the passage 3:21-31, the question must be asked as to why Paul continues with another chapter. Surely it is a case of overkill! Not at all, the apostle now goes for the jugular—the chapter is pure polemics and highly … [Read more...]
