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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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1 Corinthians

The Great Exchange: Understanding Second Corinthians 5.21

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. My argument is simple: What Paul means in writing the quotation above in context is the same as what he was telling the Ephesians when he wrote,…

by Mark HorneJune 7, 2004
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Biblical Theology

What is Biblical Theology (Part 3) : The Art of Biblical Theology

THE ART OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY IN PRACTICE: INTERTEXTUALITY AND TWO PAULINE CASE STUDIES The Art of Biblical Theology: Intertextuality Biblical Theology is really an art. Like other skills of this sort, it is not a matter of following rules (though there are certainly guidelines and techniques). Rather, it’s matter of…

by Rich LuskJune 6, 2004
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Biblical Theology

What is Biblical Theology: (Part 2) The Christotelic Spiral

Click HERE for Part 1 Reading Christotelically Jesus Christ is the heart of God’s plan for creation and history. There is no “hidden plan” or “hidden God” lurking behind Christ; rather, in and through Christ God has revealed himself and his intentions towards the world. In Christ, the Father has…

by Rich LuskJune 6, 2004
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Biblical Studies

What is Biblical Theology? (Part 1)

STORY THEOLOGY AND A THEOLOGY OF STORY Defining Biblical Theology What is Biblical Theology? How does it compare to other ways of doing theology, such as Systematic Theology? Geerhardus Vos suggested that whereas Biblical Theology draws a line, Systematic Theology draws a circle. That is to say, Biblical Theology is…

by Rich LuskJune 6, 2004
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Hebrews

Living by His Faith: Some Rough Thoughts on the Faithfulness of Christ

The gospels strongly imply Jesus lived by faith in the promise of his heavenly Father. How else can his prayer life understood? How else could he have wrestled through the Gethsemane experience? How else could he have committed himself into his Father’s care at death? How could Jesus have presented…

by Rich LuskJune 6, 2004
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John

John 3:16

John 3:16 is probably best-known, or at least, best-liked Bible passage in North America: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This declaration of God’s love of the whole world is greatly comforting…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2004

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Reformers and Pietists

Bavinck says that, in order to distinguish the “knowledge” that was essential to saving faith from the “assent” of Catholic definitions of faith, the Refoemrs insisted that “the knowledge of saving faith [is] a matter of the heart rather than of the intellect.” On this point, then, Pietists are doing…

April 7, 2009
Literature

Dickens’ baptismal allegory

In a 1994 article in the South Atlantic Review , John Cunningham proposes to read Great Expectations as a baptismal allegory. In the first half of the novel, baptismal imagery is inverted, but as the book progresses everything turns rightside up: ” Great Expectations attains a comic resolution as the…

April 7, 2009

Centered in God

Karl Jaspers summarizes Cusa’s argument for an infinite cosmos: “Because the cosmos is an image, it is infinite, but its infinity is of the imitative kind, which denotes endlessness, the possibility of always going further. In time, eternity is endless duration. In space, the infinite is the endless; in the…

April 6, 2009

Sermon notes, Easter Sunday

INTRODUCTION In Colossians 2-3, Paul unfolds the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We were “buried with Him in baptism” ( 2:12 ), and we have also been raised with Him (3:1). Our participation in Good Friday and Easter determines the shape our lives take. THE TEXT “If then you…

April 6, 2009

Body of the flesh

Paul says that in the circumcision made without hands, the “body of the flesh” is stripped off by the “circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). I take “circumcision of Christ” to to be a reference to Jesus’ death. He is the seed of Abraham according to flesh, and so He has…

April 5, 2009
Politics

Hauerwas’s challenge

Hauwerwas tells Shortt: “Some think the just war is a series of exceptions to from the general Christian commitment to non-violence, but I think the stronger justification of just war involves claiming that it is what is required if you are to do justice. Accordingly, justice requires punishment; it will…

April 4, 2009

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