Summarising chapter 7 – ‘The Cross as Divine Consent’
The relationship between God and his people is not that of a ‘forced marriage’:
‘God has given us free will and we can freely accept or reject his proposal.’
But what if we decline? “Please accept my gracious offer…or else!”
We have seen that God is Christlike – and his nature is therefore cruciform (Cross-shaped) and kenotic (self-giving).
But how can such a God be said to reign?…
Lk 17:20 Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, 17:21 nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”
Various interpretations have been proposed:
(a) Some think that this is a later addition to the Gospel, attempting to deal with the so-called ‘delay of the Parousia’ and seeking to ‘spiritualise’ the notion of the kingdom of God.…
John Piper talks about the challenges and blessings of reading the Bible from cover to cover.
First, three challenges:-
1. You will be opposed. “Satan hates the word of God and will disincline you, blind you, distract you, bore you.” He will do anything to keep you from the word. Pray for his subversive aims to backfire. “Ask God to keep your heart inclined, remove your blindness, grant you focus instead of distraction, and give you excitement instead of boredom.”…
From the teaching of John Piper:-
Here are ten reasons we need the word daily.
(1) Scripture is a means of preserving our salvation. Salvation is a dynamic reality that functions in three tenses: past, present, and future. And in the present reality, “God saves us daily by Scripture” (1 Tim. 4:16).
(2) Scripture meets Satan’s temptations (John 8:32, 44; 1 John 2:14). “Every time Jesus was tempted by the devil, he struck back with ‘the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God’” (Eph.…
It is generally agreed that a period of some 40 years lies between the Gospels and the events they record.
How, then, were the stories of those events passed on.
New Testament scholar Bart Ehrman thinks about transmission in terms of the ‘telephone game’:
…‘You are probably familiar with the old birthday party game “telephone.” A group of kids sits in a circle, the first tells a brief story to the one sitting next to her, who tells it to the next, and to the next, and so on, until it comes back full circle to the one who started it.
Rev 19:11 Then I saw heaven opened and here came a white horse! The one riding it was called “Faithful” and “True,” and with justice he judges and goes to war. 19:12 His eyes are like a fiery flame and there are many diadem crowns on his head. He has a name written that no one knows except himself. 19:13 He is dressed in clothing dipped in blood, and he is called the Word of God.…
According to Matthew 2:1 and Luke 2:4-7, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea – about 6 miles south of Jerusalem.
However, Israeli archaeologist Aviram Oshri surmised that Jesus was born, not in Bethlehem of Judea, but in Bethlehem of Galilee.
It is certainly not news that there were two Bethlehems – one in Judea and the other in Galilee. The latter is mentioned in Josh 19:15.
As reported in this article in The Times of Israel, Oshri asks:
…‘How would a woman who is nine months pregnant travel 175 kilometers on a donkey all the way to Bethlehem of Judea?
Summarising chapter 6 – Of Lions, Lambs and Donkeys.
1. Kenosis – Cruciform Power
God reveals himself, not as an eagle or a lion, but as a lamb. We must think of God, not in terms of power, but in terms of humility.
According to Phil 2:7, Christ emptied himself (the word is ‘kenosis’). This does not mean that Christ gives up his divine attributes, but rather that he assumes our human nature. Moreover, in doing so, he reveals the true nature of God: loving and self-giving to the point of death.…
10:6 These things happened as examples for us, so that we will not crave evil things as they did. 10:7 So do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 10:8 And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand died in a single day.
The reference is to Num 25:9 which, however, puts the number who died in the plague as twenty-four thousand. …
Without a doubt, Jesus taught with great authority.
In what ways is that authority delegated to us today?
Roy Zuck answers:
1. Jesus’ words were from God the Father; he taught only what the Father instructed him to teach.
As we faithfully study and then teach the Scriptures, we are communicating those words of our Lord to others. We are part of a divine chain of communication from God the Father, to God the Son, to us (by revealed truths in the Bible), to our students.…
