2 Corinthians 5:11-21: The Overriding Priority of Being Christ’s Ambassador

This is a Guest Post from Garrett Wishall, a good friend, a fellow student at SBTS, and the managing editor for Southern’s Towers Magazine.
Life is full of choices. Should I hit the snooze or get up? Will I go with hazelnut, mocha or Jamaican bean coffee this morning? Do I watch football or have a [...]

N.T. Wright: The New Testament and the People of God

N.T. Wright.  The New Testament and the People of God: Christian Origins and the Question of God.  Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1992.
In N.T. Wright’s first book in a series of three (with two more projected), the British New Testament scholar gives a full-orbed presentation (535 pp.) on the history, culture, and worldview of the land and the people [...]

Messiah in the Old Testament: A Rap

In class today, Dr. Jim Hamilton released his latest attempt at poetry, only this time it was delivered in the form of a rap.  Following in the footsteps of another SBTS Professor’s Philosophy Rap, Hamilton’s “Messiah in the Old Testament” surveys the Old Testament world of the Bible, pointing all things to the seed-crushing son of God, Jesus [...]

Colossians 1:24: Suffering for the Sake of the Body (pt. 2)

My Final Answer:
The “lack” that Paul’s sufferings are filling up is the representative absence of Christ’s redemptive sufferings. Let me expound: What Christ did on the cross was a singular event in space and time, yet it was for all time and for all people. The distance between the singular event and the fullness of [...]

Colossians 1:24: Suffering for the Sake of the Body (pt. 1)

What does it mean when Paul says in Colossians 1:24: “in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church”?
Initially, it sounds like he is diminishing the work of Jesus Christ on the cross.  Doesn’t it?  Stripped from its context, Paul’s words [...]

The Mystery of Marriage: A Quasi-Ordinance

[This is a follow-up post from The Mystery of Marriage: A Parable of Christ and Church  which reflected on George Knight's article on Ephesians 5 in Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood: A Response to Evangelical Feminism, edited by John Piper and Wayne Grudem [Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1991], 175-76)].
From the foundation of the world, marriage [...]

100: By His Grace, For His Glory

Via Emmaus’ hundredth post is one of pray and praise. 
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!  It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates [...]

Christianity goes back…back…back…back

In a pluralistic world and in a divided Christian church, how do you know that Christianity that is considered historic and called “orthodox” is indeed true?  It is because Darrell Bock answers, quoting the great theologian Chris Berman, “it goes back…back…back…back…”
This week, Dr. Darrell Bock, DTS Professor and author of Breaking the DaVinci Code, commentaries on Luke, [...]

Hollywood and the Holy Word: Substance, Supplication, and the President-Elect

What if Barack Obama were white?  Would he have been elected by such a large margin?  I am doubtful.  It is interesting that this election was decided as much, if not more, by the color of Obama’s skin than the content of his character.  Not that he has no character, many people have spoken highly [...]

P.T. O’Brien, W.E. Vine, and the Heavenly Assembly

Peter O’Brien in his commentaries on Ephesians and Colossians, in his article on the church in the IVP Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, and in his extensive chapter on the heavenly assembly in The Church in the Bible and the World  (edited by D.A. Carson) has argued for the eschatological orientation of the NT term “ekklesia.”  [...]