Theological Fragments

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The word "Gospel" comes from an Old English word that means "Good News"--which, of course, is the meaning of the Greek word that "gospel" replaces. When Jesus came to preach his message, it was described as "Good News." So what exactly was that good news? I have preached/taught on this topic many times, and whenever I ask the audience to summarize the Gospel in one verse, they always pick the same one. You know which verse I'm talking about: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. ​(John 3:16, ESV) In the Western Church, John 3:16 is considered the most important verse in the Bible. It is so central to the message of the Bible that it has become shorthand for the entire Gospel--hence why people write it on signs and in their greasepaint at sporting events. The idea seems to be that if a person got curious enough to look that verse up, they would fin...

"We beasts remember, even if dwarfs forget, that  Narnia was never right except when a Son of Adam was King."   (Trufflehunter,  Prince Caspian ) Last time, I talked about why God created the human race--to rule over the world on his behalf. This, of course, is a radical shift in how most of us were taught to think about the Christian life. We were taught that being a Christian means waiting for Heaven, not taking stewardship of the Earth. This shift in focus begs a question: what exactly is our relationship with creation in Scripture? Last time we looked at Genesis 1:26-28, where God declares that he has created humanity to rule the Earth. There we find God establishing an ecosystem between Heaven and Earth. God created the world, with its plants and animals, and he called it good. God loves his creation--you can see that in God's responses to Job, beginning in Job 38. He creates human beings--physical creatures with spiritual awareness, with the capacity t...

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[From Part I Chapter V, " Our Duty to Remain in Love's Debt to Each Other "] Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8 ESV)  “Let us begin with a little thought-experiment. If a lover had done something for the beloved, something humanly speaking so extraordinary, lofty, and sacrificial that we men were obliged to say, ‘This is the utmost one human being can do for another’—this certainly would be beautiful and good. But suppose he added, ‘See, now I have paid any debt.’ Would this not be speaking unkindly, coldly, and harshly? Would it not be, if I may say it this way, an indecency which ought never to be heard, never in the good fellowship of true love?  If, however, the lover did this noble and sacrificial thing and then added, ‘But I have one request—let me remain in debt’: would not this be speaking in love?” [1]

[From Part I Chapter III.A, " Love is the Fulfilling of the Law "] Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.  ~Romans 13:10, ESV  “Christian love… is sheer action…. It never becomes engrossed in anything beforehand and never gives a promise in place of action. It never draws satisfaction from imagining that it has finished. It never loiters delighting in itself; it never sits idly marveling at itself. It is not that secret, private, mysterious feeling behind the lattice of the inexplicable, which the poet wants to lure to the window, not a soul-mood which fondly knows no laws, wants to know none, or wants to have its own law and harkens only to singing—it is pure action and its every deed is holy, for it is the fulfilling of the law.” [1] We do not tend to think of love and law together. Evangelical and Secular society each have their own reason for this—in Evangelical culture, the law represents cold, rigid expectations, ...

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