Gaining Righteousness
Evangelical pastors routinely use Galatians to teach their congregations that salvation hinges purely upon "faith" (passive belief or trust) in Jesus. Through faith, we receive Jesus' righteousness & are justified…
The Messiah in Us
This blog series has explored how Evangelical Christians have long misunderstood the book of Galatians & Paul's doctrine of "justification by faith." In short, evangelicals have constructed a false dichotomy…
Family Division
The book of Galatians is perhaps the most misunderstood book in the New Testament. For most evangelicals, Paul's epistle to the Galatians soundly refutes "works" based righteousness. That is, our…
The Vineyard
Isaiah chapter 5 contains a song about a landowner who made every effort to cultivate a flourishing vineyard: "My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug…
Pulling Things Together
In evangelical circles, Ephesians 2:8-9 is perhaps the most frequently quoted text in the entire Bible: "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves,…
All Israel Shall Be Saved
For the last few weeks, we've been considering the status of ethnic Jews within God's overall purposes. The Apostle Paul spent three entire chapters (9-11) in the book of Romans…
The Presence of God
In this series of blogs, we've set out to answer tricky questions raised by the ongoing conflict in Israel. The large majority of Israel's population are, of course, ethnically Jewish.…
Will the Real Israel Please Stand Up?
Events in Israel continue apace. The Israeli Defense Forces have initiated ground operations in the Gaza Strip in order to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages. The war has transfixed…
The Plight of Israel
Last week, we examined the horrendous massacre perpetrated by Hamas terrorists on October 7th. Hamas still holds about 200 hostages and continues to hurl rockets towards Israel. The Israeli Defense…
Beware of Wolf
The Apostle Paul was an inveterate traveler. He was driven by the knowledge that God had given him the task of bringing the gospel before the Gentiles. Many Bibles have…