Eph 1:13f – ‘The seal of the promised Holy Spirit’

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1:13 And when you heard the word of truth (the gospel of your salvation)—when you believed in Christ—you were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit, 1:14 who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

Compare the same passage in the Authorised Version:

‘In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

…

The doctrine of election: practical relevance

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The doctrine of election, far from being an embarassment or an encumbrance, has a number of practical implications:

1. In Eph 1:3ff, it prompts Paul to issue an invitation to praise.  ‘Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ.  For he chose us in Christ…’

2. In Rom 8:33, it leads to assurance and encouragement.  ‘Who will bring any charge against God’s elect?…

Prov 29:18 – ‘Where there is no vision, the people perish’

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As Jared Wilson remarks, this verse (in the wording of the Authorised Version) is widely misunderstood and misapplied in the evangelical world.  With it we baptise and bless our dreams, our plans, our ‘visions’.

Consider this:

‘In companies without a vision people come to work, they do stuff all day, they meet, they go home. In sports teams without a vision, people come to training, they train, the go home. In life, people without a vision, do stuff, go home and drift aimlessly in the winds of life through to death.

…

Romans 1:16 – Is the gospel ‘dynamite’?

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Rom 1:16 – ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is God’s power for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.’

Because the Gk word for ‘power’ is ‘dunamis’ (from which we get the word ‘dynamite’), preachers have sometimes announced that according to this verse the gospel is the ‘dynamite’ of God unto salvation.  But this is exegetically naive, for several reasons.

Firstly, to make this connection is to commit the ‘root fallacy’ (the fallacy that the meaning of a word can be explained in terms of its original meaning.…

Your mind matters: practical implications

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In Your Mind Matters, John Stott discusses the practical relevance of pursuing a Christian mind.

1. Worship

Christians do not worship ‘the unknown god’ (Acts 17:23).  They are to worship God ‘in truth’ (Jn 4:24).  We are to praise his ‘name’, implying that we are to know and understand his true being and character.  Rational enquiry is found throughough the Psalms: including the study of God’s works in nature (Psa 104) and in history (Psa 77).…

Why your mind matters

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Some Christians are suspicious of an ‘intellectual’ approach to their faith.  If by that they mean ‘merely intellectual’, then of course that would a terrible thing, and would tend to undermine, rather than build up, the true knowledge, love and service of God.

But we are called to worship God with our whole selves, and that includes our minds.

In Your Mind Matters, John Stott sets out four reasons why Christians should use their minds. …

Romans 8:28 – Hope in times of suffering

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Christians take much comfort from Paul’s words in Romans 8:28 – ‘We know that all things work together for good.’

But, equally, they are frequently puzzled and perplexed by these same words.  So often, they do not seem to match our experience.  Thus, they become, not the application of a soothing balm, but a rubbing in of salt in the wounds.

As is so often the case, context is king.  J.D. Greear helps us to place this gem of truth in its proper setting, so that it can shine more truly and more brightly.…

Trimm: four views on Old Testament violence

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What are we to make of the command…

Deuteronomy 7:1f ‘When the LORD your God brings you to the land that you are going to occupy and forces out many nations before you—Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and powerful than you—and he delivers them over to you and you attack them, you must utterly annihilate them. Make no treaty with them and show them no mercy!’

…and its fulfilment?…

Mark 1:41 – ‘Moved with anger’

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Mark 1:40f Now a leper came to him and fell to his knees, asking for help. “If you are willing, you can make me clean,” he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, “I am willing. Be clean!”  The leprosy left him at once, and he was clean.

Some ancient manuscripts have ὀργίζω, ‘angry or indignant’.  This may well be the correct reading.

In this case, we need to examine this ‘anger’. …

Acts 4:13 – Were the first disciples illiterate?

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Acts 4:13 ‘When they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and discovered that they were uneducated and ordinary men, they were amazed and recognized these men had been with Jesus.’

Terms such as those translated ‘uneducated’ and ‘ordinary’ were sometimes used of illiterate persons, leading some sceptics to conclude that such men could not have written the letters ascribed to them.

Sceptics such as Bart Ehrman take agrammatoi to mean that Peter and John were illiterate, and that they could not therefore have penned the NT documents attributed to them. …