The messianic titles in Isaiah 9:6 (Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace) are epithets that could apply only to a divine ruler, a King worthy of receiving both the love and reverence that are reserved for God Himself.
Writing to Christians, Peter used all of the ideas in Exodus 19:5,6: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you . . . ” (1 Peter 2:9).
Abraham is the prime example of how salvation works: the forefather of all who trust in God’s promises enough to actually walk by faith. And when the whole host of Abraham’s spiritual family gets together in heaven, what a reunion that’s going to be!
“It is to [the coming Prophet] you shall listen,” Moses had said in Deuteronomy 18:15. And when Jesus was transfigured and seen talking to Moses and Elijah, God spoke from heaven and said, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7).
When it comes to the most important parts of life, the broken heart is not a problem; it’s a blessing (Matthew 5:3,4). As long as sin is a reality in our lives, we will need to see it for what it is and, in godly sorrow, seek God’s forgiveness.
In Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is the supreme example of faith: both the ‘archegos’ (leader, pioneer) and the ‘teleiotes’ (completer, perfecter) of faith’s endurance. As far as “the faith” is concerned, Jesus is both the Originator and the Consummator of it.
Martha saw the force of what Jesus said. He would be nothing less than God Himself, totally breaking the power of sin and death — founding a kingdom where the redeemed people of God could enjoy a life that was “eternal” in every sense of the word.
It is simply not true to the Scriptures to say that a prayer like the “Sinner’s Prayer” is sufficient. We don’t find in any of the conversions to Christ in ...
For eternal salvation, where else can we go but to Jesus Christ? As Peter said when Jesus asked him if he and the other disciples were going to turn away ...
When, at judgment, we hear the Lord say the worst words imaginable, “Depart from me,” fellowship with God will then be out of our reach. But for the time being, ...
If we’re not willing to see (1) what God teaches us in the Scriptures, (2) the true status of our relationship with God, and (3) the true motives behind the ...
“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). And lest I think of “sinners” as the whole human race, I need to understand this: if I were ...
The gap between the events in Jesus’ life and the books recording those events was not two or three centuries; it was only a few years. The last of the ...
What sense would it make for evangelists of the faith in the first century to hang their whole case on the fulfillment of the Old Testament in the events in ...
The Bereans in Acts 17 had the right idea. They listened eagerly as Paul argued that Jesus was the Messiah, but as they listened they were “examining the Scriptures daily ...
What distinguished Zacchaeus from so many others who crowded around Jesus was not that he was lost, for every person Jesus ever met fell into that category. But Zacchaeus recognized ...
The “gospel” is the greatest of all proclamations: not one concerning Caesar, but the very King of the universe. God is establishing the kingdom predicted by the prophets, offering the ...
Even to the Jews who took the prophets seriously, it needed to be shown that the death and resurrection of the Messiah were predicted by the prophets — and that ...
The One whom David foresaw in Psalm 16:10 is the only person in the world who, having been killed, did not “see corruption.” His resurrection proved Him to be the ...