Colossians 2:23, ‘These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.’ What is the ‘indulgence of the flesh’? Certainly something like lust, illicit sexuality, drunkenness, and various forms of addiction come to mind. […]
Isaiah 1:9, ‘If YHWH of Hosts had not left to us a survivor (or, in the Greek OT, ‘seed’), we should have been like Sodom, and become like Gomorrah.’ Ultimately, the judgment humanity has to face is not an attack of Assyrians or an exile to Babylon (the judgments Israel faced when Isaiah wrote the
Exodus 14:14, ‘YHWH will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.’ Moses speaks this promise to Israel as they stand on the banks of the Red Sea. Death is before them in the churning waves of the abyss, death is behind them in the hammering hooves and flashing swords of the Egyptian
The seed that fell on the ‘good soil.’ The ‘seed’—which Jesus tells us is the ‘word of the kingdom, 13:19 —is once again depicted as the crucified and risen Jesus Himself. The only saving word that ever has or ever can be spoken, is the word of Who God Is, declared in the flesh of
Parable of the Soils 4/4 (Matthew 13:1-8; 18-23) Read More »
A bit of a longer post today. Besides creating art for Full of Eyes, I’m also the pastor of a small congregation in rural Ohio. Recently, Anna Mae, the mother of one of our members, fell down the stairs at her home and her frail, 94 year, old body was terribly broken. The prayers and
The seed that fell ‘among thorns.’ As in the other pictures, the ‘seed’ (which is the ‘word of the Kingdom’, 13:18) is represented as the Crucified and Risen Jesus. He is the True Word who—being the perfect declaration of who God is—embraces, embodies & fulfills every word of God. In this picture, the resurrection illumined
The Parable of the Soils 3/4 (Matthew 13:1-8; 18-23) Read More »
This second image exposits the seed that fell ‘on rocky ground.’ The ‘seed’ that Jesus tells us is the ‘word of the Kingdom’ (13:18), is ultimately the crucified and risen Jesus Christ Himself. The essence of the ‘Good News’ that Jesus proclaimed (and which His disciples continue to proclaim) is not some*thing*, but some*one*, namely
The Parable of the Soils 2/4 (Matthew 13:1-8; 18-23) Read More »
2 Corinthians 5:21, ‘For our sake, [God] made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that IN HIM we might become the righteousness of God.’ The union of Christ and His Bride lies at the heart of the Gospel. We see that here in this text. Why is Christ ‘made sin’? Because He
2 Corinthians 5:21 Read More »
This first image considers the seed that fell ‘along the path (Matt.13:4,19). First, Jesus tells us that the seed that is sown is the word. Now, the ‘word’ (of God, of the Kingdom, of the Gospel) is ultimately Jesus Christ Himself, as He is known in His Crucifixion and Resurrection (1 Cor.1:17-18ff). Thus the ‘seed’
The Parable of the Soils 1/4 (Matthew 13:1-8; 18-23) Read More »
Psalm 42:11, “Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” How do we know that ‘we shall again praise Him’? How do we know that this darkness is going to lift? That we will rise again from this pit? That the hopelessness that has devoured days, months, years of
Luke 19:41-42, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.’ As Jesus draws near Jerusalem, He weeps because the City of Peace is blind to that which truly makes for peace. What, specifically, is it that makes for peace?
Luke 15:24, ‘For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ This statement unites a number of concepts from ch. 15 and links them in mutually illuminating relationships. Already in the first two parables, we’ve learned that lost=unrepentant sin, and found=repentance. But now, at the climax of the
Leviticus 17:11, ‘For the soul of the flesh is in its blood, and I, I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement concerning your souls, for its blood, by the soul [LXX: ‘in place of the soul’], will make atonement.’ By weaving the intangible soul-life of flesh into inseparable union with
Obadiah 16-17, ‘…all the nations shall drink continually; they shall drink and swallow, and shall be as though they had never been. But in Mount Zion there shall be those who escape, and it shall be holy…’ It seems like a strange metaphor to modern ears, but Scripture occasionally presents God’s judgment as a strong
Hebrews 11:1, ‘…faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.’ You’ve probably heard someone ask, ‘If God wants people to believe in Him, why not give us irrefutable proof?’ But that line of thinking misses the point entirely. The desire to have ‘proof’ is the desire to have specific
Luke 9:58, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.’ The Text Considered In this world, the Incarnate Word of God in whom all of reality is upheld, had no where to lay His head, no place that was true His home.
Isaiah 37:14, ‘Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of YHWH, and spread it before YHWH.’ The Text Considered The letter that Hezekiah receives here is a message from the king of Assyria saying that YHWH is unable to save His people
2 Corinthians 4:17-18, ‘This light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.’ The sufferings of this age—which are the sufferings of Christ on our behalf—are working eternal glory for those
2 Corinthians 4:17-18 Read More »
Luke 9:31, [Moses and Elijah] ‘were speaking about His exodus (ἔξοδος) which He was about to achieve in Jerusalem.’ Notice that it is AS Jesus speaks with Moses and Elijah that His death (which in 9:22 is presented as something that happens TO Him) is spoken of as the Exodus that He will ACHIEVE. There
Psalm 127:1, ‘Unless YHWH builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.’ And what is the ‘house’ that YHWH builds? Ultimately, it is the House of the Crucified and Risen Jesus Christ. Christ Himself is The House built by the Lord on the cross and from the tomb, raised up from the ashes
