Michael Gorman has a short piece about his forthcoming work on participation and mission in Paul. Consider these two quotations: According to Paul, God is on a mission to liberate humanity—and indeed the entire cosmos—from the powers of Sin and Death. The fullness of this liberation is a future reality for which we may, and should, now confidently hope. In the present, however, God is already at work liberating humanity from Sin and Death, through the sin-defeating and life-giving death... Read more

When it comes to the question of “sanctification” (i.e., growth in holiness, Christ-likeness, and godliness), I frequently pose my students this question: Are we sinners saved by grace, or, saints who sometimes sin? On the former, it anchors our identity in our fallen nature and Adamic heritage, so that we are by nature sinners who have been grafted into Christ. The problem I have with that view is that it reduces us to a kind of worm that has been... Read more

Gerald Bray (editor); Timothy George (general editor) Reformation Commentary on Scripture: New Testament, Volume 10: Galatians, Ephesians Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2011. Available at Amazon.com. After the booming success of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, the long awaited Reformation Commentary on Scripture series (RCS) has been launched by IVP with the first installment on Galatians and Ephesians compiled by Gerald L. Bray. For folks interested in reception history and historical theology, these volumes are sheer gold, and Bray’s first... Read more

Over at ABC Religion and Ethics On-Line is an article by N.T. Wright on Suspending Scepticism: History and the Virgin Birth. His final words are: If the first two chapters of Matthew and the first two of Luke had never existed, I do not suppose that my own Christian faith, or that of the church to which I belong, would have been very different. But since they do, and since for quite other reasons I have come to believe that the God of Israel,... Read more

Yes, I know that Tim Tebow Keeps Winning! He’s a great football player.Though I use the term “football” rather loosely since its played by obese effeminate men wearing more padding than a pillow factory and they are hardly athletes if they cannot run for longer than 30 seconds without a three minute break, but I digress. Also, Tebow is evidently a devout and gracious Christian man, so he’s a great role model. But I just have to say that this... Read more

Andrew Byers has published a really good book Faith Without Illusions: Following Jesus as a Cynic-Saint. This book is one that I resonated with. I must confess I am a Christian cynic, hopefully becoming what Andrew labels a “Cynic-saint”. What is a Christian cynic you ask? Andrew defines a Christian cynic as one who through painful disillusionment comes to embrace reality with an embittered spirit. Its a sickness. But cynicism is the “new spirituality”. So many believers have now slid... Read more

Maybe I’m slow on picking up on this, but www.academic-bible.com (The scholarly Bible Portal of the German Bible Society) has the following books available for viewing on-line for free: Hebrew Old Testament following the text of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia Greek New Testament following the text of the Novum Testamentum Graece (ed. Nestle-Aland), 27. Edition Greek Old Testament following the text of the Septuagint (ed. Rahlfs/Hanhart) Latin Bible following the text of the Vulgate (ed. Weber/Gryson) Find all the resources... Read more

Jim Hamilton (SBTS) does a proto-review of Greg Beale’s NT Theology based on Beale’s lectures about biblical theology from his, then, forthcoming book. James M. Hamilton, “Appreciation, Agreement, and a Few Minor Quibbles: A Response to G. K. Beale,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 10 (2011), 58–70. Read more

HT: Scot McKnight Read more

For a new year book bargain bonanza, Scot McKnight’s The King Jesus Gospel is now available as an ebook from Amazon.com for only $4.06! I think this is Scot’s most important book to date and one well worth reading for anyone interested in gospel and evangelicalism! Read more