Possibly the greatest hurdle for people to embrace Christianity is the fact that in the face of the terrible suffering we see in the world, we still preach a God who is both supremely good, and supremely powerful. And these two things seem totally incompatible. If God were all-powerful, he could eliminate the suffering. If…
Category: Things
Why is God silent?
True story: An accountant with a PhD, a man and his wife were immigrants from China some years ago. Invited to church, they became involved with the congregation. Shortly after, though, his wife was diagnosed with cancer. She affirmed faith in Christ and was baptized. A few weeks later, she died. He also confessed Christ…
Introduction
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:14 ESV). The Bible is like a forest. A forest is a beautiful, living thing, filled with…
Jesus in Romans
In Romans Paul presents Jesus as a conduit, the one through whom God has effected forgiveness for his readers and the subsequent realities they enjoy. Jesus is relatively passive here. Elsewhere in the New Testament he plays a more active role (see, for example, 1 Corinthians 1:17, 2 Corinthians 3:3, Galatians 2:20, etc). In Romans,…
Romans in the meta-narrative of Scripture
The Scripture is not a string of stories, poems and genealogies arranged like beads on a necklace. Rather, it tells a single story with each “book” serving as chapters related to each other and contributing a necessary element to the meta-narrative of the whole Scripture. This is indicated in Romans (and many of Paul’s other…
Paul’s Reason for Writing Romans
When asked to state the theme of Romans most pastors and theologians would answer, ‘The Gospel’. They would cite as Paul’s “theme statement” verse Romans 1:16 ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for everyone who believe, to the Jew first and also the Greek.’ Therefore, Paul…
The Grand Story
Conviction 3: The knowledge of the Bible and of the story it tells is necessary to effective, Biblical preaching. Later that day something even more unsettling happened. During afternoon rest period I was flipping through the magazines provided for us, when all at once I reached for the Bible that I kept on my nightstand…
What Preaching Is
Conviction 2: The Bible, in its entirety, is God’s testimony concerning his son Jesus. Preaching the Word is indispensable to Christianity (John Stott, Between Two Worlds).c Sunday after Sunday, two pastors stand before their respective people and deliver a message. They have spent many hours in the study in preparation. Afterwards, their listeners approach them…
Preaching is all about Jesus
Conviction 1: Every sermon must have Jesus as its centerpoint. If we are not determined that in every sermon Christ is to be preached, it were better that we should resign our commission forthwith and seek some other vocation… No sermon which fails to exalt Christ is worthy to be called Christian preaching. (James Stewart,…
Introduction
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? (Romans 10:14 ESV). The Bible is like a forest. A forest is a beautiful, living thing, filled with…