There looks to be some chiastic action going on in Romans 3:27-30: A. Where is boasting? Excluded B. By law of works? C. No: Law of faith C. justification is by faith B. not by works of law (reversing word order of previous verse) A. God is God of Jews and Gentiles The value of this is to highlight the nature of the “boasting” in v 27. It is no doubt boasting about one’s performance of the law, confidence that... Read more
Most commentaries I’ve examined assume that Paul’s discussion of the work of Jesus in Romans 3:21-31 centers in the cross. The reference to blood and to propitiation (or propitiating sacrifice) in v 25 justifies this, but this doesn’t mean that Paul’s focus is exclusively on the cross. Several things support the notion that he also has resurrection in view: 1) Paul’s summary of the gospel in 1:3-4 is a brief narrative of death and resurrection, not merely a story of... Read more
Romans 3:21 begins a section where Paul expounds, for the first time in Romans, on the revelation of the righteousness of God. One of the ways to characterize current debates about this passage, and about the righteousness of God and justification in general, is to ask whether this is about the righteousness that is given to those who believe as a matter of ordo salutis or whether it is about the righteousness of God Himself manifested in historia salutis .... Read more
Romans 3:21 begins a section where Paul expounds, for the first time in Romans, on the revelation of the righteousness of God. One of the ways to characterize current debates about this passage, and about the righteousness of God and justification in general, is to ask whether this is about the righteousness that is given to those who believe as a matter of ordo salutis or whether it is about the righteousness of God Himself manifested in historia salutis .... Read more
Henry Ansgar Kelly’s Ideas and Forms of Tragedy from Aristotle to the Middle Ages (Cambridge, 1993) is a careful and useful study of the use of the word “tragedy” from the ancients through the 14th century. He narrowly focuses on the uses of the word-group itself, and shows that the word meant many different things to different writers. Along the way, he makes a couple of important observations: a) Many writers in the later patristic period and the medieval period... Read more
Sermon Outline for January 25: God and Mammon, Luke 16:1-17:10 INTRODUCTION Though Jesus begins a new parable in Luke 16:1, and is speaking to the disciples, in many ways chapter 16 is a continuation of what Jesus said in chapter 15. There is no change of scene, so Jesus is presumably still at the table with tax gatherers and sinners, as well as Pharisees and scribes (cf. 16:14). There are, moreover, a number of verbal links between chapter 16 and... Read more
Eucharistic meditation, January 18: Luke 15:23-24 As the church has always recognized, the Lord’s Supper was instituted by Jesus Christ as a blessing to the people of God. In it, we memorialize Jesus’ death, celebrate His victory over sin and Satan, and are refreshed in the power of the Spirit. It has always been seen that God is the principal actor in the Supper, and His work is the focus of our attention. And yet, and yet. Jesus came eating... Read more
Exhortation for January 18: The parable of the prodigal son has many levels, but one layer is that the story of the prodigal is the story of man. It is the story of Adam. Like Adam, the younger son has a great inheritance, but he despises it. Worse still is his attitude toward his father. In ancient Israel, an inheritance might be divided before a father’s death, but asking for one’s inheritance and then cashing it in was equivalent to... Read more
The elder brother in the parable of the prodigal is a piece of work. He enjoys the abundance of his father’s house, and obviously also enjoys his father’s affection. Yet, he is simmering with bitterness and anger, which breaks to the surface as soon as he hears the sound of joy at his brother’s return. He refuses to call his father “father,” speaks of himself as a slave (DOULOO, “slaving away,” v 29), is so alienated from his father that... Read more
Jesus describes the sinners who gather around Him as repentant sinners. What signs have they shown of being repentant? In the context of Luke 15, there are several. First, the chapter opens by saying that tax gatherers and sinners are coming near to “listen to Him” (v. 1). Hearing and obeying are of course closely linked in Scripture, and the fact that these sinners are listening to Jesus suggests that they have become obedient to Him. Against the OT background... Read more
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