Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
For many people Christmas comes on December 25 and is over December 26. The tree is taken down along with the lights and the other decorations, and everyone begins setting the house in order for the new year. No more Christmas hymns. No more celebrations (well, until New Year’s Eve).…
The Ascension and the Incarnation should not be disconnected in our Christmas thinking or celebrations. As N.T. Wright notes, the ascension is "a central and vital feature without which all sorts of other things start to go demonstrably wrong. . . . where the ascension has been ignored or misunderstood,…
“In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness.” Thus John describes the incarnation of the Son. He comes as the living and life-giving light of the world. That’s good news. In the beginning, God spoke and light shone…
Christmas is all about Jesus. The angels announce Jesus’ birth, shepherds and wise men come to see Jesus, Herod wants to kill Jesus. We occasionally think of the Father who sent the Son, but we keep returning to the Son made flesh in Bethlehem’s manger. Meanwhile, as always, the Spirit…
Christmas is about many things, but one of the chief things revealed in the gospel of Christmas is the humility of God. We don't often think of humility as an attribute of God. If God is glorious and exalted, we think, He must be haughty and proud and self-centered. We…
John famously begins his Gospel with a piece of theology: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Matthew starts with a genealogy. John celebrates Advent with a hymn, Matthew with a list. For John, Jesus is the Word of creation…
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John 4:10-14 Jesus fulfills the entirety of the Old Testament. That is John?s gospel: The Law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh to dwell among us. He gives wine in place of the water of purification; His body is…
In this morning?s sermon, we considered the continuities and discontinuities between the Old and New Covenant with regard to liturgy. Contrary to some Protestant traditions, Jesus did not teach that the New Covenant would dispense with rites, signs, material substances, and physical actions in worship. That is not what Jesus…
The worship of the Christian church is ?spiritual?Eworship, worship ?in the Spirit?Eand ?through the Spirit.?E Every Christian can agree on that. What we cannot agree about is what this means for our worship. For some Christians, spiritual worship means worship that ignores our bodies as much as possible. Spiritual worship…
Ephesians 5:1-2, 25 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you, and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma . . . . Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also…
One of the most illuminating chapters of Ward’s book on the covenant of works is his discussion of grace and merit in chapter 17. Some highlights: 1) He notes that the word “grace” is used in the NT “without any notion of favour in the presence of demerit,” citing Lk…
The Hour Is Coming, John 4:1-42 INTRODUCTION The relationship between the Old and New Covenants is one of the critical issues in Christian theology, including liturgical theology. Most of the differences in liturgical tradition within the church are bound up with evaluations of Israel?s worship in the temple. In the…
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