Deus Misereatur

The following is written in reply to someone who emailed me last night about my 1st post on Billings: The Word of God for the People of God. The writer wanted to correct Billings' position (and mine) about the fact that Christ is the primary focal point of the Old Testament. ---------------- Are there real, valid reasons for reading the whole of Scripture (Old and New Testaments) as one book, the book about Jesus Christ? Though some want to see a rock-solid barrier between the Old Testament and the New, and others even go so far as to pronounce a wall of separation between Paul’s writings and the writings of the other apostles, it appears that the Jesus truly has “broken down the middle wall of separation” (Eph. 2.14) in Himself. To begin with, Jesus Himself declares, after the resurrection, that all the Old Testament spoke of Him. “Then He said to them, "These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were writ...

One of the primary premises espoused in “The Word of God for the People of God,” is that there is a proper way to approach Holy Scripture. To begin with, the Bible reader needs to come with humility. She is not a technician who manufactures meanings out of Scripture, or manipulates and controls the outcome of this Word of God, but that through Scripture “God “reads” us, reshaping us into Christ’s image by the Spirit’s power” (80). Instead of Christians owning the truth, we are owned by the One who is the truth (82), which means that as the Word of God comes to inhabit us and our cultural context, it will often critique and challenge us and our cultural context (108). Therefore, coming to Scripture in this expectant humility, there is renunciation and transformation, for “reading Scripture is about being mastered by Jesus Christ through a biblical text that functionally stands over us as the word of God, not under us as a word we can control, rearrange, and use for our own purposes” (20...

I ran across this guy while playing online chess. He identified himself as an Orthodox Jew in Canada and asked me a question, “I see you’re a Christian minister. How do you Christians interpret Scripture?” It was an excellent question I thought. We had a nice, short discussion. The major answer I gave him came as a direct quotation from J. Todd Billings’ recent book “The Word of God for the People of God: An Entryway to the Theological Interpretation of Scripture”, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2010. Billings writes, “”Jesus was not just a great teacher, nor was he just God with limbs and a mouth. In Jesus, the whole history of Israel--and through Israel, humanity--was recapitulated, or lived again. But this time the one who was true Israel and true human being did not take the path of the first Adam. As the second Adam, Christ was the righteous one, the perfect human covenant partner. But this perfect covenant partner was also the Word incarnate, the one in whom the fullness of d...

R.R. Reno has been one of the senior editors of the journal First Things for quite some time. His articles are rich, thoughtful, and always worth reading. Recently he has taken on the general editorship of the series Brazos Theological Commentary of the Bible (BTCB), a succession of commentaries that are not so much enamored with historical-critical exegesis, as they are with theological exegesis and exegetical theology. In 2004 Reno left his Episcopal church affiliation and converted to the Roman Catholic Church.  It is because of this last item that I was pleasantly surprised when I ran across something he wrote in his BTCB volume on Genesis. Allow me to set the stage. Reno is commenting on Genesis 1.2, and specifically God’s action of creatio ex nihil . After dealing with those who object that this verse does not teach creatio ex nihil , he then begins to unpack the reasons why earlier pastors/theologians of the Church affirmed this doctrine. One of the early pastors/theologia...

28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29 For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified. 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?...

“25 And when they found Him on the other side of the sea, they said to Him, "Rabbi, when did You come here?" 26 Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. 27 Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him." 28 Then they said to Him, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" 29 Jesus answered and said to them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent." 30 Therefore they said to Him, "What sign will You perform then, that we may see it and believe You? What work will You do? 31 Our fathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written, 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' " 32 Then Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, Moses did not giv...

“[God] who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (2 Timothy 1.9-10). In the 1500s Church Reformers put back on display 5 of the family Gems that had been packed off into the ecclesiastical storage. These 5 Gems are called the 5 Solas. They are, Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Sola Fide, Soli Deo Gloria . In this post we will be enjoying the surprising beauty of the 3rd Sola, Sola Gratia. What Sola Gratia Doesn’t Mean : Some folks have the following mistaken notions: (1) We’re pretty good folk, and so God gives us a pat on the back and says, ‘Keep up the good work team!’ Or (2) God sets the game in motion and then steps back to see what we’ll do. Or (3) God looks at the end of ...