Bible and Mission

  When we speak of Jesus as the ‘Lord’, we do more than honour Him. [1]   To call Jesus ‘Lord’ is also to acknowledge that He exercises divine roles and authority.   One of these is that the Lord is the Creator.   Another is that the Lord is exclusively the Lord Jesus Christ.   Also, the Almighty is the Lord mighty to save us.   We therefore acknowledge that Jesus is God, participating in divine identity with the Father and the Holy Spirit.   I would like to show how the first Christians related certain Old Testament passages to their confession that Jesus is Lord and then show how this interpretation came from Jesus Himself.   In the use of the Old Testament, we can find implications about Jesus’ Lordship that the title alone does not reveal. Think about the full meaning of saying, ‘Jesus is Lord’.   This seems to have been a succinct way confession in the early Church that indicated someone was a Christian.   In 1 Corinthians 12.3, P...

  Introduction Seeing Jesus approach him, John the Baptist declared, 'Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world' (John 1.29).  His testimony was of Jesus' impending crucifixion, His shedding of blood in death as a sacrifice for sin for the whole world.  In this essay, I will examine the ways in which the Old Testament's hope in God as Saviour comes to fulfillment in Jesus Christ. In his Lectures in Old Testament Theology , Dennis Kinlaw draws attention to similes and metaphors applied to God. [1]   The metaphors derive from various social paradigms.   One metaphor comes from a political paradigm: God is King and Lord.   A second comes from the judicial context: God is Judge.   A third derives from the family paradigm: God is Father.   Kinlaw’s fourth paradigm is marriage: God is the Groom to His people. I would point out that these metaphors and paradigms also relate to Jesus in the New Testament.   If God is said to be ...

  The second week of Advent focusses on peace.   I suppose that the first week’s focus on hope hits us first in a more personal way.   I say, ‘I hope’.   But when we speak of peace, we often have grander notions in mind, like peace in the Middle East or in Ukraine.   In today’s lesson, we will start with the idea of peace on earth but end up with a focus on the peace of the Church, in our families, and in our own lives. Governments We have heard the phrase, ‘Peace through strength’.   It is perhaps most associated with policies of governments during the Cold War, but ‘peace through strength’ was the heart of imperial Rome, the pax Romana .   The first emperor, Augustus Caesar, boasted that he had brought piracy under control and fought numerous wars to establish peace in the empire. Yet we have learned to fear governmental power.   An article entitled ‘Slipping through our fingers: How democracy is being eroded’ mentions multiple ways in whi...