God
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(Romans 3:21-31) John Calvin once said that there is not probably in the whole Bible a passage which encapsulates most profoundly the righteousness of God in Christ than Romans 3 verse 20 through 31. Noteworthy is the fact that Galatians and Romans are the doctrinal books of Paul. They are the systematic theologies of the…
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(cf. Jude 24-25) Aren’t you glad to know that God is willing to work with us in the midst of our failures and problems? Against the backdrop of man’s failure, and man’s inability, and man’s rebellion comes the truth that sets our feet on the rock of the Gospel of grace. And the God who…
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(Romans 3:1-20) It would seem from Romans chapter two that a Jew having the covenant of circumcision was no better off than a Gentile because it is only in Chapter 9 verses 4 and 5 that Paul would enumerate all the Jewish advantages. In our day, of course, it is an advantage to be born…
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The Olivet Discourse found in Matthew chapters 24 through 25 (cf. Mark 13; Luke 21) has been such a focal point for different interpretations that have caused much divisiveness in the church. Jesus was answering His disciples’ query about His Second Coming, and the thrust of His entire discourse had two main emphases: ‘You do…
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(Romans 2:17-29) Verses 17 and following obviously talk about the Jew. “…if you call yourself a Jew;” this is a first class conditional statement (assumed to be true), “…if you rely on the law” – with a definite article ‘the law’; probably refers to the Mosaic Law. “…and boast in God; if you know his…
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Aren’t you glad the Bible is not just a book of rules, not just a series of propositions and imperatives? Well, it’s good to know that the Bible has huge sections of poems, huge sections of letters or what you call epistles that various Apostles wrote to different churches. While it is practically nice to…
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(Romans 2:1-16) In Romans chapter 1, we learned about the degradation, and poverty, and godlessness of pagan society and culture. However, it is important that we realize the description of pagan societies did not really meet all the pagans. There are many moral pagans like Seneca whom Tertullian commends as being a moral man against…
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Paul wrote in Romans 8:20, “…creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God”. But in Romans 8:28, “God causes all things to…
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Can you think of an example of something you heard offered as an interpretation of something in the Bible that made you suspicious even if you don’t know for sure why? You know at times, we can be suspicious of things and we can’t necessarily describe why. It’s like knowing what somebody looks like but…
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Another compelling reason for the need to interpret Scriptures correctly is the danger of ‘unique interpretations’. ‘Unique interpretations’ are like when you hear something new and say, “wow, I never heard that before. Unbelievable! I never would have figured that out for myself.” But I submit to you ‘unique interpretations’ are usually wrong. Well, that’s…