New Knowledge from God and the Hardened Knowledge of Idolatry

One way that we will have to understand the Gospel as a very relevant word, a very relevant message, for very intelligent people is that we have to understand the Gospel as a gift of new knowledge about God, new knowledge given from God Himself.  And we have to understand in learning the Gospel out of Scripture with the Lord that the knowledge of this life becomes the central idol for many intelligent people’s lives, the idol of their minds and their hearts.  We have to understand that sin is a knowing experience; we breathe our fall from Adam and Eve in our words and our actions, and even in our thoughts.  We create knowledge as the comfort god for our lives apart from the true God.  And the faith of the Gospel that we have to grasp out of Scripture in new relationship with the Lord is that we do battle with our false desires for knowledge in this life, in using our minds and our hearts to new grace-rooted relationship with the Lord and using the inscribed Word to rejoice with God as our righteous Heavenly Father, the Father of lights and the Giver of new knowledge.

New Knowledge of Priestly Grace and the Bible Study Guide

One of the issues I’m working on in my next commentary lesson on Romans, in the lesson of knowledge of this life used as an idol against God and new knowledge of God given in the Gospel message, is that we look to the good things of this life, the things of the heavens and the earth that properly give knowledge of God to us for His glory, for our own self-centered purposes.  We glorify ourselves with the good things and knowledge of this life.  And worse than that, the knowledge that God gives us of Himself in direct saving revelation of the Bible actually becomes knowledge that we use to gratify ourselves in self-righteousness.  Knowledge from the Bible becomes a false god to us, a false god created apart from the true God.  We use the Bible apart from the God of the Bible in self-righteousness.  Self-righteousness is a false god and false savior.

New Knowledge from God and the Mockery of Sinners

The next commentary lesson that I plan to write on the book of Romans has to do with the issue of knowledge – the knowledge of life that we use as our idol apart from God, and the new knowledge of God in the Gospel message that comes from God Himself in His inscribed Word.  The commentary lesson is tentatively titled, “New Knowledge of God and the Hardened Knowledge of Idolatry.”  The lesson is based on Romans 1:18-23.

Righteousness in Christ and the Power of God for Worship: A Word of Grace for Both Intellectuals and Idiots Alike

If we are to understand faith in Christ and how it connects with people, there are two things we have to understand about the nature of the Gospel.  We have to understand that the Gospel shatters boundaries; it shatters strongholds that people erect among each other as expressions of the fall of Adam and Eve.  And we have to understand that the Gospel is rooted in the power of God in such a way that God leads people to a real comprehensive saving faith in Christ, based on God’s inscribed Word, the Bible, and based on God’s gift of the witness of the Holy Spirit for the Bible.

Four Major Ramifications of the Gospel: Bondservant Humility, Powerful Grace, Communicative Grace, and Spiritual Maturity for Discipleship

There are four major ramifications, very earth-shattering and life-changing and atonement-liberating potentialities, of the Gospel message that the apostle Paul lays out in the beginning words to the book of Romans for his students.  These four ramifications of the Gospel are: bondservant humility, powerful grace, communicative grace, and spiritual maturity for discipleship.

Introduction to the Book of Romans

If you were a devout Christian coming from a deeply religious background – say, a Calvinistic evangelical background – and you asked me how I would introduce the book of Romans from the New Testament, my source of inspiration for the introduction would likely surprise you: the story of the prophet Elijah’s mockery against the prophets of Baal in the first book of Kings in the Old Testament.  In this story of 1 Kings, Elijah outlines his responsibilities as a prophet for the people of Israel.  Elijah is to lead the people to distinguish the true God, the LORD God of Israel, from all false gods, including the god Baal.  And Elijah allows for an altar to be set up as a sort of show-down between Elijah himself and the prophets of Baal, with the Israelites’ corporate approval.

Wisdom Born from Above: A Preview to My Commentary on the Book of Romans

My major project for this year, and very potentially for the next couple of years, is to write a commentary on the epistle to the Romans for this blog “New City.”  This major project could easily be called the most important project of my life.  This is because Romans changed my life like no other writing.