cross

The offering of Isaac is one of the most widely misunderstood and mis-preached stories in the Bible, which is frustrating, because the book of Hebrews tells us exactly what is going on. Perhaps most notably, Soren Kierkegaard interpreted this story to mean that true faith is a “teleological...

We are not going to preach the cross better than the Apostles did. But if we use the template for preaching that they used, we find a very clear pattern that is remarkably different than the dominant way the cross is preached today. How did the Apostles preach the cross? Let’s look at two...

“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not...

Not all perspectives on penal substitution are the same. Penal substitution advocates have disagreements within themselves, mainly on 2 main points: (1) To what degree did Jesus actually become sinful, or become a sinner on the cross? and (2) Was the Father really angry or wrathful towards the...

Consider this silly thought experiment. You are out for a morning walk with your dog. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, the air is crisp, it’s a great way to start the day. You come to your favorite part of your route, a trail that goes through some woods. Shortly after entering the...

1) The Problem/Solution Narrative: According to penal substitution, the central problem with humanity is that we deserve wrath, and the central solution is that we avoid it because Jesus suffers this wrath in our place. Problem: deserving wrath / Solution: avoiding wrath But in the Bible, sin...

The linked post is not strictly about music or hymns, but is related. It is some thoughts that grew out of a biblical text and some research on a hymn. We often sing "Must Jesus bear the cross alone, And all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for everyone, And there’s a cross for me" and...