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Jesus Jesus Christ

How Jesus Became God; or, When the Divine Realm is Like a High School Cafeteria

What is divinity? What does it mean to be divine? Is there a pyramid-scale of divine status? In other words, is divinity like a high school cafeteria with all the cools seniors at one end and the dorky freshmen at the other? Today I’m continuing the video series on “Why Bart Ehrman is Cheating” in […]

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discipleship Jesus Jesus Christ Recent Posts

Jesus Isn’t Complicated

Following Jesus isn’t complicated. But that doesn’t mean it is easy. Some want to make Jesus complicate so that they don’t really have follow him closely. It’s an excuse for not really wanting to do the hard work of following Jesus. Others want to make following Jesus easy because they want to pretend that life […]

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Christology discipleship God Jesus Jesus Christ Recent Posts

Why We Miss What “Jesus is King” Really Means: In 15 Slides

It is easy to miss what “Jesus is King” really means here in the West. And we miss why the ancient church grew so explosively (for Christ the King Sunday—and just to be clear, Jesus is a very different kind of King). Here are 15 slides (with brief captions [they explain the slide below]) on […]

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20 For 20 evangelical evangelicalism Gospel Jesus Christ

The Other Bridge Illustration: Visual Christus Victor

For all those visual learners who need to see it to understand it. This is the “Other Bridge Illustration.” And yes, I drew these while at Starbucks. (David Fitch and I did an entire podcast on this topic if you are interested.) The Original Bridge Illustration But first we must talk about the Original Bridge […]

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discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology Jesus Christ Recent Posts

Being the Temple for the World, #5

  Here is the complete series: 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4, 5, 6. As we saw in the last post, humanity was created in God’s image and likeness to be God’s representative in the world (royal-image), and to be God’s very representation in the world (cultic-image). God’s presence had been given to humanity (indeed, to […]

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Christology ecclecia ecclesiology Jesus Christ Liturgical Calendar missional Recent Posts

Being the Temple for the World, #4

Here is the complete series: 1, 2, 3a, 3b, 4, 5, 6. So we have talked about how Heaven and Earth are best thought as God’s Temple, and that God rests in his temple residence as the ruler of the cosmos. This naturally leads us to ask, “Ok, so what does humanity have to do with […]

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ecclesiology Jesus Christ missional Recent Posts Scripture Tabernacle Temple theology

Being the Temple for the World #3b

(SNARK: I’m hoping to answer, “Everything you didn’t know you didn’t know about it about God resting.”)

Yesterday the post was getting long so I cut it off and will pick it up now (see this for the beginning of the series).

Yesterday we talked about “The Cosmic Temple of Creation: A Dwelling…”, in that heaven and earth were made to be a dwelling place for God to rest. But what exactly does this means.

The Cosmic Temple of Creation: …For Resting (which is Productive)

If a temple is a place for a god’s dwelling and ruling, then this is what we need to understand by a god resting in a temple. “Rest” is not a cessation of work, but a sitting down from all the preparatory work to engage in the real work of ruling. Let me explain.

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Christology discipleship Jesus Jesus Christ Racism Recent Posts

Grieving For Ferguson and Beyond

I’m in information overload about Ferguson right now. I can’t sort out my thoughts, which is rare, but I have an overriding feeling: GRIEF

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Christology discipleship ecclecia ecclesiology economics evangelical God Jesus Jesus Christ missional Recent Posts

The poor you will always have with you.

For the poor you will always have with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish: but you will not always have me. (Mark 14:7)  From crude realism to hopeless resignation, this quote from Jesus is confusing at best and disheartening at worst. What? So poverty and inequality are just a fact […]

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ecclecia ecclesiology evangelical Jesus Christ Recent Posts

The Un-Household Codes

Misogynists? Was Paul faithlessly capitulating to the social norms of his day? Was Paul really a supporter of subjugating women in the home? Was Peter again reverting to his old ways when he offers commands to wives? Were these stalwarts of the faith hopelessly captive to their culture? This is often how we react when […]