By Simon Jooste, pastor of RCSS Embodiment is central to salvation, so is suffering in the body. Without the incarnation, passion, and ongoing enfleshed intercession of Christ, there is no redemption. This was the heartbeat of the apostle Paul’s preaching in ancient Corinth, a city pulsing with ideas and illicitContinue Reading
Was there a more un-sanctified and immature congregation of which we have an apostolic record than the Corinthian congregation? From a reading of Paul’s two canonical letters to them, they were beset by power struggles and schisms within, tolerant of gross immorality, besotted with flowery rhetoric, and unimpressed by theContinue Reading
John Piper has complained that the historic Reformed understanding of the Christian faith and life produces what he calls a “debtor’s ethic”. The assumption is that a “debtor’s ethic” is something that we are supposed to reject out of hand. I have previously criticized his rejection of Reformation theology, pietyContinue Reading
Like the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), Romans is in three parts: guilt, grace and gratitude. We may consider Romans 1:1–17 the prologue to the epistle. The guilt section runs from 1:18–3:20. Here Paul is preaching the law in its first use: to convict the world of sin and its need for a Saviour. Failure toContinue Reading
The phrase “acid test” referred originally to the process of determining whether or not a metal is gold. It has become a metaphor for determining the quality or nature of a thing. If an interpreter of Romans does not see its threefold structure and/or does not understand Romans 2:13 toContinue Reading
When someone challenges the idea that the Christian life is not about desperately clinging to one’s earthly rights, there has become a new axiom in response, one that is now used to the point of being cliché, namely, “tell that to Paul who appealed to his Roman rights in Philippi”.Continue Reading
Among the many spiritual ills that afflicted the Corinthian congregation was a class of leaders, self-appointed “Super Apostles” (2 Cor 11:5, 12). These so-called “Super Apostles” compared themselves to the Apostle Paul and claimed to be superior to him. Where Paul’s speech was imperfect, theirs was polished. Where he wasContinue Reading
Christianity is a dogmatic religion, on that much the greatest theologians across the Christian spectrum agree, from Martin Luther to John Henry Newman. There is a famous saying of Dorothy L. Sayers with which I begin my class on the Doctrine of God at Grove City College each year: “TheContinue Reading