Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Misunderstanding “Galatianism” has caused several problems in the Reformed church. Because circumcision is at issue in the Galatian epistle, some have fallen into thinking that ritual per se, rather than anything uniquely Mosaic or Jewish, is the object of Paul’s critique. Likewise, his polemic against “works of the law” is…
Many texts in the NT become more perspicuous if we keep in mind the possibility — and indeed ubiquity — of Gentile God-fearers in the Old Covenant. After the special covenant with Israel is set up, Gentiles are not altogether excluded from the hope of salvation. Israel’s special status in…
I was once trying to get a sermon out of Ephesians 1.12-14 and it seemed obvious that I should look for two parallel statements both ending with the phrase, “to the praise of his glory.” Paul here begins talking about two groups of people (“you” and “we”), and he later…
WHY A DENOMINATION WITH SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN ROOTS SHOULD CAREFULLY CONSIDER THE “NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PAUL” In my denomination, the PCA, we are continually haunted by the sins of our racist Southern past. It has become an annual rite at General Assembly for the issue to be addressed one way or…
Recent debates over whether or not, “justification is central” to Paul’s theology have reminded me of a sermon I once heard by a Presbyterian seminary student. This African American student challenged his audience on the sin of racism and the ways it might manifest itself among us. Like any good…
In Charles Hodge’s 1853 article, “Idea of the Church,” his stated aim is to analyze the idea of the Church proposed in the Apostles’ Creed, in which, “the Church is declared to be “the Communion of the Saints.” He writes: The conception of the Church as the communion of saints…
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It is striking that when Paul begins to discuss the specifics of life under grace and in Christ, he emphasizes the bodily character of this life. We are “co-crucified” with Jesus, so that the “body of sin” might be done away (Rom 6:6). And the key exhortation that grows out…
Brendan Byrne has this to say about Paul’s description of baptism as baptism into the death of Jesus: “behind the expression here lies the characteristically Pauline idea of the risen Lord as personally constituting a sphere of influence or milieu of salvation’into’ which believers are drawn through faith and baptism,…
Brendan Byrne has this to say about Paul’s description of baptism as baptism into the death of Jesus: “behind the expression here lies the characteristically Pauline idea of the risen Lord as personally constituting a sphere of influence or milieu of salvation’into’ which believers are drawn through faith and baptism,…
What does it mean to be “under grace”? Does this reality somehow cancel out the necessity of obedience? Is an insistence on obedience inconsistent with Paul’s insistence that we are justified by faith alone? Rom 6:14-15 provides the answer. This is the only place in Romans (unless I’ve missed something)…
The word Paul uses for “impute” in Rom 5:13 is used in only one other passage in the NT, Philemon 18. (The Greek is ELLOGEO; elsewhere, the word translated as “impute” is LOGIZOMAI.) Perhaps an examination of Philemon 18 will shed some light on Paul’s usage in Rom 5:13. Paul’s…
This is a brief overview of a project on the atonement, first delivered as my inaugural lecture as Senior Fellow of Theology at NSA a few years ago. (I don’t think this has been posted already; if it has, my deep apologies.) My title is ?Cross and Culture,?Ebut that needs…
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