The Lord asks his people in Isaiah 49:15, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?” How would we, his people today, answer that question, I wonder? (more…)
Category Archives: Atonement
Review: “Living the Cross Centered Life”
Review
Living the Cross Centered Life: Keeping the gospel the main thing
CJ Mahaney
Multnomah, Sisters, 2006. 176pp.
Is there anything more important than the cross of Christ? Each of the Gospels centres on Jesus’ journey to the cross. Jesus’ wonderful mission statement in Mark 10:45 describes the goal of his ministry as the giving of his life as “a ransom for many”. The Apostle Paul resolved to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Cor 2:2). The cross is the centre of God’s plan for humanity. (more…)
Preaching the gospel from Ruth
Pastoral Ministry
Five Festal Garments: Christian Reflections on the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther
Barry Webb
Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester, 2000, pp. 192.
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Translation and the atonement
Interchange
One feature which must override all others in biblical translation is accuracy. Since the RV appeared, all its successors (apart from the NASV) seem to contain one common error: Mark 10:45 reads “… to give his life as a ransom for many”. Linguistically, the word ‘as’ does not appear in any original manuscript; theologically, it introduces a note of ambiguity and is therefore dubious. Bishop Donald Robinson, who has advised me on this, points out that Tyndale’s 1534 edition reads “to give his life for the redemption of many”, a permissible interpretation in the light of the two main Hebrew words underlying the Greek ‘lutron’.
The Word Became Flesh
Review
The Word Became Flesh: Evangelicals and the incarnation
Edited by David Peterson
Paternoster Press, Carlisle, 2003, 216pp.
Available for ordering from Moore Books (more…)
FallacyWatch: The bridge keeper
Have you heard the ‘bridge keeper’ illustration? It’s supposed to help us understand the death of Jesus. It goes like this:
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He’s at it again
Couldn't Help Noticing
Changed by the Cross of Christ
The death of Jesus takes many things out of our hands. Christ died instead of me, to pay the penalty for my sinful rebellion against God my creator. He died, so I don’t die. All that is required of me is to sit back and allow Jesus to do it all for me—purchase my forgiveness and qualify me to share in the inheritance God has reserved for his adopted children. It leaves me a passive (but very grateful) bystander. (more…)
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Interchange
Written in Blood
Interchange
Written in Blood
Thought
Is the cross becoming less than crucial to Christian thinking? Jonathan Fletcher urges us to keep the atonement at the centre of our faith.