They were eleven friends, and they blew the friendship. Jesus poured three years into them, taught them great truths—let them into his very heart . But when popular opinion turned, when crowds...
In Exodus 33, the Lord delivered the bad news to his people that he would not go with them to the Promised Land because they were “a stubborn and rebellious people” (33:3).
Forty-five American missionaries were arrested in a foreign country. Then they were tried, convicted, and sent to prison for sharing their Christian...
God, who set up the sacrificial system of the Old Testament, says he doesn’t need sacrifices. Rather, he desires worship and obedience.
A woodpecker can peck 20 times a second. A second. And if you think that little jackhammer gives you a headache, think of his cranial strain. But no . . . a woodpecker's skull has extra air pockets...
When I was growing up in Glendale, California, I lived about a quarter-mile from my grandparents. In fact, their house was on my route home from school, and I often stopped in to...
If we are to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), we have a crucial role to play. We must choose to say “No” to the ways of the fallen world.But...
Almost all religions in the Greco-Roman world involved sacrifices of one kind or another. People would offer their gifts to the gods in order to gain their favor. If you wanted a successful harvest...
Chapter 12 marks a major turn in the flow of Romans. For eleven chapters, Paul has explained how God’s own righteousness leads us into a right relationship with him through Christ. Now he...
Throughout Romans, Paul has been dealing with the question of how we are made right with God. Is it through our own efforts? Our own good works? Or is it through God’s grace...
Let’s be clear. There is a mystery in God’s story that we will never fully solve. That mystery begins in the fact that God is “rich in mercy” (Eph. 2:4), yet doesn’t give...
Romans 8:1 is one of the most important verses in all of Scripture, from both a theological and a psychological point of view. Theologically, this verse makes crystal clear the fact of our...
One of the first things I believed when I became a Christian was that I had eternal life . . . or at least I would have it after I died. John 3:16...
The original language of Romans 6:13 is structured in a way that makes a powerful point, though this is sometimes lost in translation. It could be laid out in this way:Do not present...
In Romans 6, Paul responds to a possible implication of the fact that we are brought into right relationship with God by...
Romans 5 outlines the terminal impact of Adam’s sin: because one man sinned, all will be condemned, all will die. Yet God’s...
Recently I received a note from a young woman who was struggling with a renewed sense of her own sinfulness. She saw clearly just how wrong her sin was and how much it...
In Romans 4, Abraham demonstrates that we are made right with God, not by works of the law, but because of faith. Though Abraham was the founder of the Jewish nation (v. 1)...
We have already seen in Romans that the good news of God’s salvation in Jesus Christ comes in response to the bad news of our sin. Romans 3:23-24 puts this in a nutshell...
Throughout the Scripture, God sets apart people for himself and his purposes. Often the Bible uses the language of holiness to depict this act of setting apart. In Psalm 4:3, however, the language...
