dot-to-dot

There were fourteen generations recorded from Abraham to David, fourteen more from David to the exile and another fourteen from the exile to Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17). So, forty-two generations in all.

Revelation 13:5 speaks of the beast being given authority for 42 months. Which is, of course, three and a half years - and you might choose to write that as "time, times and half a time" (Rev. 12:14; Dan. 12:7). It might not then surprise you to find reference to three and a half days, somewhere along the line (Rev. 12:9,11).

Just saying, that's all.

Doing the main thing

"Given the contents of the New Testament, one might expect local congregations of Christians to be entirely devoted to the spiritual formation of those in attendance. What we actually find in most cases is constant distraction from this as the central task: By the demands of the organization; and by the requirements of our 'faith and practice'—our traditions. Often there is the recognition that what we wind up 'having to do' is not what we really feel it should all be about."

Dallas Willard, quoted by John Ortberg

The use of 'Christ' in Peter's first letter

Peter refers several times in his first letter to ‘Christ’. Almost universally those references are focussed upon the sufferings of the Messiah, the exception being 5:14.

Is Peter simply specifying that Jesus suffered (which of course is true) or is his language intentionally incorporative? That is to say, is he using 'Christ' as shorthand for ‘the Messiah and his people’?

like the angels

Where there is no death there is no need for procreation, and so the exclusive relationship within which procreation takes place is no longer appropriate: "they neither marry nor are given in marriage". This is not to say that there is no love, but there is no need for the exclusivness and jealousy which are an essential part of married life on earth. We may hope that Jesus speaks not of something lost , but of something gained in heaven.

R. T. France, Mark (The People's Bible Commentary) p.161

sanctification: just do it

Mike Bird is concerned that "some are beginning to replace the imperative element in Christian sanctification...with the need for more knowledge of the indicative " I think he is absolutely spot-on & has said with his usual clarity what I had been mulling over in my usual fogginess for some time.

He elaborates:

I am concerned that the "now go and do this" and "in response let us live like this" or "don't do this" that we find in the Scriptures are being marginalized in the name of a piety that is largely cognitive rather than transformative, a piety that is cerebral rather than practical

And then concludes:

Good theology, godward passion, and christocentric interpretation is not enough. Based on the words of Jesus, Paul, and James I'm willing to say that the differences between the sheep and the goats, between the followers and the fans, between hearers and doers, and between wearing a cross and carrying one, is whether one earnestly struggles against sin and earnestly seeks after godly virtues in the power of God's Spirit. It is mediation on grace, imitation of Christ/God, transformation of the self, and actively pursuing application that will make us godly people.

a fresh translation

Actually, the NRSV isn't all that fresh now, in the sense of being newly-done. But its handling of 'that we may walk in them' (good works) in Ephesians 2:10 struck me in a fresh way:

"For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

on acquired passivity

Grace originates in an act of God that is absolutely without precedent, the generous, sacrificial self-giving of Jesus that makes it possible for us to participate in resurrection maturity. It is not what we do; it is what we participate in. But we cannot participate apart from a willed passivity, entering into and giving ourselves up to what is previous to us, the presence and action of God in Christ that is other than us. Such passivity does not come easy to us. It must be acquired.

Eugene H. Peterson, Practise Resurrection, p.95

on the sentence that is ephesians 1:3-14

Who can resist this marvellous, tumbling cataract of poetry that introduces us to the vast and intricate complexities of this world in which we live? Not many. Paul is playful, extragant and totally engaging as he tells us what is going on in this God-created, Christ-saved, Spirit-blessed world into which we have been born and are now growing up. This is no small, cramped world in which we live from hand to mouth. The horizons are vast. The heavens are high. The oceans are deep. We have elbow room to spare.

The sheer size, the staggering largeness, of the world into which God calls us, its multi-dimensional spaciousness, must not be reduced to dimensions that we are cosily comfortable with. Paul does his best to prevent us from reducing it. Sin shrinks our imaginations. Paul stretches us. He counters with holy poetry. If we calculate the nature of the world by what we can manage or explain, we end up living in a very small world. If we are going to grow to the mature stature of Christ, we need conditions favourable to it. We need room. The Ephesian letter gives us room, dimensions deep and wide. Ephesians plunges us into ocean deeps, and we come up gasping for air. This is going to take some getting used to.

Eugene H. Peterson, Practise Resurrection, p.54

on truly hating sin and not just its consequences

A man who only opposes the sin in his heart for fear of shame among men or eternal punishment from God would practice the sin if there was no punishment attending it. How does this differ from living in the the practice of the sin? Those who belong to Christ, and are obedient to the Word of God, have the death of Christ, the love of God, the detestable nature of sin, the preciousness of communion with God, and a deep-rooted hatred of sin as sin to oppose to all the working of lust in their hearts.

John Owen (quoted in Tim Chester You Can Change, p.126)

on the ascension

Knowing this [the ascension of Jesus], with the knowiug elaborated and deepened in worship, the church has the neccesary room to live robustly under the conditions of resurrection. If we don't know this, the church, its imagination conditioned by death and the devil, will live timidly and cautiously.

Eugene H. Peterson, Practise Resurrection, p.44

growing up in church

Maturity develops in worship as we develop in friendship with the friends of God, not just our preferred friends. Worship shapes us not only individually but as a community, a church. If we are going to grow up into Christ we have to do it in the company of everyone who is responding to the call of God. Whether we happen to like them or not has nothing to do with it.

Eugene H. Peterson, Practise Resurrection, p.36

on the death of sin

No sin can be crucified either in heart or life unless it first be pardoned in conscience, because there will be want of faith to receive the strength of Jesus, by whom alone it can be crucified. If it be not mortified in its guilt, it cannot be subdued in its power.

William Romaine (quoted in You Can Change by Tim Chester, p.49)

bartimaeus as exemplar

Mark's gospel regularly handles the issues of discipleship - what it means to follow Jesus, truly and faithfully. And the disciples regularly get it wrong.

At the close of a lengthy section in his gospel, Mark presents us with the account of the healing of Bartimaeus. Physical blindness has already been used in this gospel as a pointer towards the spiritual myopeia of the 12. And now, it seems, Bartimaeus is held up as an exemplar of the kind of faith disciples ought to display:

he asks (cf. 9:28f - the disciples seem not to have been prayerful)
he asks for mercy (cf. 10:37 - James & John seek honour)
he persists
he has the highest view of Jesus ('Son of David')
his focus is on his fundamental need (he needs his sight; the disciples look for greatness - 9:34)
he honours God's power to do the hardest thing (his sight)
he follows Jesus on the way, the way that leads to a cross (cf. 10:32, the disciples' astonishment on the way)

gifts & the giver: an integrated life

For me, this post by Doug Wilson hits many nails on many heads - the importance of the physical, the resurrection, enjoying God via the gifts he gives and so on.

And the comment about glorified saints being difficult to shop for would be worth the price of the article, were the author charging for it.

christians & guilt

A really helpful piece by Kevin DeYoung.

Here's a taster:

2. Christians tend to motivate each other by guilt rather than grace. Instead of urging our fellow believers to be who they are in Christ, we command them to do more for Christ (see Rom. 6:5-14 for the proper motivation). So we see Christlikeness as something we are royally screwing up, when we should it as something we already possess but need to grow into.

david powlison on god's sovereignty in suffering

Especially helpful talk on suffering. Worth sharing as widely as you can.



HT: Justin Taylor

keller: justification & justice

From Out of Ur's report of a talk given by Tim Keller on the topic of justification & justice:

As Keller describes them, the justification people are all about justification by faith alone. Only after being justified can a person live as he/she ought to live. While Keller was in full agreement with this doctrine, he said the unfortunate implication for many of the justification people is the belief that "we are mainly here to do evangelism" and they view "justice as a distraction."
The justice people, on the other hand, tend to downplay or completely ignore the doctrine of justification by faith. Instead they can focus on language about "defeating the powers" or seeking the renewal of communities. Also good ideas, but not if justification is lost in the mix.
Keller believes this rift between justification and justice is completely unbiblical. "Justice and justification," he said, "are joined at the hip. They are a seamless cloth."

Worth pondering.

atkinson: lamb of god

If you want some well-written, thoughtful meditations on Jesus as the Lamb of God that take you into a deeply-satisfying theological reading of the text, you won't go far wrong with David Atkinson's little book, Jesus Lamb of God.

thinking out loud 3 - the birth of hope

When we suffer, we need hope. And if we have hope - real, solid hope - we can go on and, somehow, get through the hard times.


I don't doubt that that is true. But I want to set it in the light of Romans 5:4,5 where Paul is speaking about Christians doing the seemingly-odd thing of glorying in their sufferings - how can that possibly be so? He tells us that it can, and does, happen because

we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. (v.4)

In his formulation, hope is at the end of the process; it grows out of the development of attested character, which is itself the product of persevering under trial.

If I had been asked to write that sequence I would have opted for suffering-hope-perseverance-character, or possibly with perseverance and character reversed. But I definitely would have put hope next to suffering as the dynamic which alone will allow for perseverance and character, however they are then ordered.


Can we persevere without hope? In 1 Thessalonians 1:3 Paul is quite clear that the endurance seen in that church was the product of hope. I don't think he's suggesting in Romans 5:4 that hope is entirely absent until character is securely formed on the back of perseverance. But maybe he is suggesting that the energising reality of hope is most securely-grounded where perseverance and attested character are the soil in which it is birthed.


Does this mean, then, that such hope is a human construct or achievement, since it depends (at least in part) on perseverance and character? Perhaps Romans 5:5 helps us here: the hope in which we can boast and rejoice will not ultimately be seen to be empty because God has poured his love into our hearts through the gift of his Spirit.


But maybe the even more important question is how we can help those who are suffering - do we simply urge them to hope in God, giving solid biblical reasons for doing so? Clearly that is never out of place and can be of great value. But maybe we need to somehow help them to just keep going, even in the absence of deeply-felt hope, standing with them, holding them up insofar as we can, seeking to encourage the perseverance that develops character and that then gives birth to a deeper, more secure hope.

keller: on proverbs

More from the 'pen' of Tim Keller on handling the book of Proverbs.


I especially appreciate his emphasis on the cumulative interpretation of Proverbs - without that, the understanding and application of material from Proverbs can be very two dimensional.


He also writes helpfully on a way to discern and appropriate the riches of Proverbs: in community with others.