Now available on-line is Mark A. Garcia, “Debating Justification Productively: A Review Essay” SBET 31:2 (2013): 211-26, which is basically a review essay of Justification: Five Views, thorough and quite enjoyable read. I should add, by the way, that Mark A. Garcia’s own book Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold Grace in Calvin’s Theology is worth at least knowing about. Read more

What if I told you that the Paul provides the key themes of the New Testament in his letter to the Galatians by means of a specific grammatical structure? In Galatians, four times Paul modifies an abstract noun with the genitive Christos. Notice the list we end up with: The Grace of the Messiah (1:6) The Gospel of the Messiah (1:7) The Revelation of the Messiah (1:12) The Faith of the Messiah (2:15-16; 3:22) Grace, Gospel, Revelation, and Faith. Are there... Read more

Here is the book cover for How God Became Jesus: The Real Origins of Belief in Jesus’ Divine Nature: A Response to Bart D. Ehrman. Will be available in both paper back and on kindle. The official release date is 25 March! Oh, here’s the blurb for those who haven’t seen it: In his recent book How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher From Galilee historian Bart Ehrman explores a claim that resides at the heart of the Christian faith—... Read more

A few years ago, Kevin DeYoung and Greg Gilbert published the book What Is the Mission of the Church?: Making Sense of Social Justice, Shalom, and the Great Commission. At that time I wrote an extensive review of the book on this blog. The general premise of the book was that the church’s mission is singularly to make disciples. Not all of Jesus’ commands, they contend, are part of the mission of the church. Not all that God is doing... Read more

The other day I was reading and reflecting on the theme of schism in the New Testament. I read over the famous passage 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us.” Sad to say that the history of interpretation of this verse is really the history of Presbyterianism... Read more

David Wilkie Coffee with Jesus Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2013. Available at Amazon.com As you all known I’m not adverse to a joke or a bit of a laugh. And David Wilkie’s Coffee with Jesus is hilarity laced with genuine reflections on Christian discipleship. I confess that I was having a rather bad day, feeling drained, stretched, stressed, lacking sleep, lethargic, and depressed. Reading this book cheered me up a bunch. The wonders of a good laugh with Jesus. Here’s the blurb:... Read more

The Anglican Communion of North America has produced To Be a Christian: An Anglican Catechism, written by several folks including J.I. Packer, Mark Galli, and Justyn Terry and others. It includes an exposition of basic tenets of faith, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Ten Commandments. I love the first item in the catechism, which is about the gospel, great way to begin any theological venture! 1. What is the Gospel? The Gospel is the good news of... Read more

Over at First Things Mark Movsesian has responded to my post about the growing support among medical professionals and politicians for a ban on circumcision in Scandinavia. I believe he has not only missed the point of my post, but has falsely characterized my response to him and others like him. I would like to address his response with two points. First, Movsesian is wrong to characterize me as critical of Christians for speaking out about the ban on non-therapuetic circumcision of... Read more

All of my books have a special place in my life and memory, but my volume Are You the One Who is to Come? The Historical Jesus and the Messianic Question is among my favourites. It feels kind of like my Habiltation and I think I made a solid scholarly case for Jesus as a messianic claimant. Sadly, though it seems to be largely ignored in most studies on messiahship that I’ve read over in the last couple of years (sigh!). Anyway,... Read more

For Paul, “sin” is not just behavior, but more akin to force and dark power that holds sway over people. While the doctrine of “original sin” gets a hard time (I prefer talking about original “guilt” and original “death”), G.K. Chesteron famously said, original sin is the only Christian doctrine that is empirically verifiable. All people sin. All people imitate sin. All people have a propensity to sin. All people are guilty of sin. That human beings sin, transgress, break... Read more