Posts from 2025

A mystery! Not like a murder mystery, where a detective can find just enough evidence to answer all our questions. No, what Paul means by mystery here in Romans 9-11 is a kind of thing that we will not grasp even once we have found answers. It envelopes us and draws us into the unsearchable depths of God. We do not approach with tools or equations, but with wonder and adoration. The heart of Israel has been hardened (11:25). This…

I magnify my ministry to the gentiles, in order to make my own people jealous, and thus save some of them. – Romans 11:13-14 So, it is in fact Paul’s great love for his own people Israel that possesses him to betray them. This is the faithful betrayal. The only way Paul can honor his beloved kindred is to turn on them, to champion the gospel that bypasses Israel and reaches the whole world. For Paul to proclaim the gospel…

If God’s love and promises are in fact so unswerving, then why does it appear that Israel, the longtime recipient of God’s promises, is on the outside looking in? This is the question Paul bitterly wrestles with in Romans 9-11. As the verses go by, the layers of his answer slowly fold back. First, God’s unpredictable mercy has a way bringing new people to the table, while those who assumed their automatic place at the table may not have a…

Allow me to state the obvious (but not as obvious as it seems): the Gospel of John is a story about Jesus. Why is that something that needs clear stating? Because sometimes we need reminding that Jesus is not just a teacher with some good ideas and advice. Jesus is not an instrument by which we achieve happiness and success (which would reduce him to a pawn in our narrative and needs). He is nothing less than the focal point…

Zeal. Knowledge-less zeal. That is, unfortunately, the defining trait of the longtime people of God (Romans 10:1-2). That’s what religion so often makes out of us. A lot of zeal. A lot of passion and energy. But not nearly enough of simply knowing the presence of God. Not enough of being confronted by God. Not enough loving God for God’s own sake. This problem keeps popping up throughout Romans – religion creates as many problems as it solves. In Paul’s…

When Jesus is asked the question, “Who is my neighbor?” he responds with his famous parable of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). The question is not asked in good faith. We’re told that the questioner, an expert in Jewish law, wants to test Jesus and to himself be declared right and justified in the process. So “who is my neighbor?” really means “who is not my neighbor?” The questioner wants to know whom he is allowed to exclude. He wants to draw…

“My heart is filled with bitter sorrow and unending grief.” (Romans 9:2) How can such a gloomy statement so immediately follow the joyful outbursts of Romans 8? In short, the good news of Romans 5-8 has inadvertently created a problem for Paul. If God’s definitive act of rescue through the death and resurrection of Jesus is so completely true and sufficient and life-giving, then what is Paul to make of all his Jewish brothers and sisters who have not come…

Romans 5-8 is a nonstop thrill ride, accelerating us from one piece of explosive good news to the next. “Hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (5:5) “Just as one man’s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man’s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all.” (5:18) “We were buried with him by baptism into death, so…

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” (Romans 8:18) Here is yet another piece of the astonishing gospel of Romans 8. Suffering is a given in the New Testament. Suffering is not a glitch; it’s the norm. Jesus suffered, so why wouldn’t we suffer along with him? But God is up to something, getting ready to take all our pain and tears and failures and…

Romans 8 still haunts us the with question, what will it look like to walk in the Spirit (today, this week, this year)? But would we be surprised to discover that we are already doing just that, that the Spirit is already having its way with our hearts, and in ways we often don’t recognize? How many of us feel that we’re not praying enough, that our prayer life is not what it ought to be? Is there some spiritual…

What a happy and blessed life belongs to those who do not follow the paths of wickedness and cynicism, but their delight is in God’s law, and they meditate on it day and night. Here is how the book of Psalms begins. Beatitude, an excited pronouncement of blessing, happiness, and good fortune for those who allow themselves to be rooted in a daily diet of scripture, contrasted with the emptiness of being rooted in nothing. These blessed, happy, fortunate ones…

Romans 8 hits us with some astonishingly good news, but also continues to haunt us with the question – what will it look like to walk in the Spirit? Not for the sake of “getting” the Spirit (that already happened (8:9); the Spirit is in us just as we are in the Spirit!), but for the sake of awakening us to what the Spirit is doing in and around us. Fortunately, in Romans 12, we find a robust answer to…