Extra Credit Podcast

It Takes Training To Be a Sinner The movement from Adam to Christ is the movement from being born from below to being born from above. It’s the movement into becoming truly human as God is human. But that movement involves a death. Paul puts it succinctly in Colossians 3:1—11. We have already died and our lives are hidden in Christ, but we must continue to take off the “old human” (Adam) and put o...

Not “How” but “Who” Last week we began a study of what it means to be “truly human.” And we began with the truly human one: Jesus of Nazareth. It is not the case that Adam came first and then, when things went wrong, God sent his Son to be born of a virgin as a reaction to Adam’s sin. This typical way of thinking makes it so that Jesus is made in Adam’s image and—to caricature a bit—turns Jesus in...

God’s Hands in the Dirt A few years ago I noticed that there are many of passages in Scripture where God has his hands in the dirt. He’s a working-class God, not afraid to get his hands dirty. This is one of the ways in which he differs from other gods of antiquity. When I started looking into these passages I noticed that every time God “plays in the dirt” he seems to be up to the same thing. The...

"The tree of life, the cross of Christ, the center of God’s world..." -Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Creation and Fall Insider/Outsider Paradigm The book of Ruth, as we’ve said, is subversive. It’s challenging the dominant narrative of the day as seen in people like Ezra and Nehemiah. Upon reading Deut. 23, Ezra and Nehemiah conclude that there are insiders and there are outsiders. God loves and accepts Is...

“The last thing God needs is to be noticed.” -Chris E.W. Green A field trip with the old rabbis… Chapter four of the book of Ruth completes the primary movement of the story. It’s a movement from emptiness to fullness. Our story began with empty bellies—bellies that had no food and no children. It began with three deaths (Elimelek, Mahlon, Kilion), but it ends with three births (Obed, Jesse, David...

A Good Friday sermon on John 19:1—30. So they took Jesus, 17 and carrying the cross by himself he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. 18 There they crucified him and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them. 19 Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” 2...

“Only good where evil was, is evil dead… That alone is the slaying of evil.” -George MacDonald, Lilith Naomi’s Plan: Risky and Risqué Chapter 3 of the book of Ruth is the crucial episode in the story. The plot reaches its climax. But it is also the most disputed part of the book. It’s purposely written with ambiguous language that leaves a lot to the reader’s imagination. In Ruth 3 Naomi devises a...

“Perhaps the self-same song that found a path Through the sad heart of Ruth, when, sick for home, She stood in tears amid the alien corn…” John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale “And chance so chanced it…” Everything just seems to fall into place in the book of Ruth. But while nothing is predetermined, neither are there any accidents. It is no accident that Ruth and Naomi arrive back in Bethlehem at the...

“[Ruth is the] loveliest complete work on a small scale, handed down to us as an ethical treasure and an idyll.” -Goethe Subversion Many interpreters have referred to the book of Ruth as a “subversive” story. If something is subversive, it is a quiet but powerful overturning of some other authority. It’s subtle. And if something is effectively subversive, its long-term effectiveness depends on it...

“Death used to be an executioner, but the gospel makes him just a gardener.” George Herbert Already-Not Yet? We’ve let the explosive heart of the good news of our union with Christ radiate out in many different directions over the last couple months looking at faith , scripture , ethics , personality , and Israel . There is one last line of questioning that I want us to tackle: If we are so deeply...

This week we turn to a very deep question, and one that has caused terrible problems in the church throughout its history: When Saul met the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus what exactly happened for him? Saul was zealous for the the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That zeal was leading him to persecute the church and he was doing this for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In his me...

It’s not surprising that there is a wide range of opinions among New Testament scholars over what Paul means by the little phrase “in Christ.” Views range from the more figurative—to be “in Christ” is akin to being “in the hands of Christ” so that he cares for you—to the more literal and real (or, even spatial)—we are located in Christ like Noah and his family were in the ark. As I see it, the dif...

To be united with Christ is not about some static identity that you and I now “have.” Being united to Christ touches you at the very level of your being so that your life is now being formed into the very life of Christ. Our union with Christ is not just about who we are but has everything to say about how we live —our ethics. As Irenaeus put it, “Christ became what we are in order to make us what...

“For only in Christ is there removed not the reading of the Old Testament, which keeps hidden the strength of grace, but the veil by which it is hidden.” - St. Augustine On the road to Damascus Saul finds a new center for all of life. This crucified and risen Jesus is not just another part of creation. He’s the very heart of all creation. The life of Jesus flows in and through all things that exis...

We often refer to Paul’s encounter with the risen Jesus on the Road to Damascus as a “conversion.” But it is an odd conversion. Paul does not leave behind his knowledge of the Law and the Prophets. He does not leave behind his devotion to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he does have to reconfigure all that he knows around a new center—a new beating heart—Jesus of Nazareth. One thing that...

Over the past four years I’ve become increasingly convinced that the heart of Paul’s theology can be traced back to his encounter with the risen Jesus on the road to Damascus. “Saul, Saul, why do you you persecute me ?” After this encounter—and still blind—Paul sat in a house on the Street called Straight, he was surely meditating deeply on these words. He hadn’t harmed Jesus directly, had he? He...

“He who sustains the world lay in a manger, a wordless Child, yet the Word of God. Him whom the heavens do not contain, the bosom of one woman bore. She ruled our King; she carried Him in whom we exist; she fed our Bread.” -St. Augustine When Jesus calls us to receive the little children in his name and to become little children ourselves he is not speaking of some reality that he knows nothing of...

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who, then, is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven....

Angelology has nothing to say to us if it is separated from Trinitarian theology. The one God the angels face is triune. Their worship of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is simultaneously their service to us (and vice versa). Just so, the angels consistently refuse to be worshiped. They won’t accept worship, because they were created to worship (see Col. 2:18 and Rev. 22:8—9). There is, however, one...

“In the resurrection, the wounds of Christ do not disappear; they are glorified. Only the devil appearing as Christ has no wounds, being too vain to bear them.” -Maggie Ross In his Church Dogmatics III.3 Karl Barth discusses the doctrine of angels for about 200 pages. It is only at the very end of this discussion that he briefly (approximately 25 pages) undertakes the topic of the “Devil and his a...

This week we move to the middle tier of the angelic hierarchy to discuss dominions, powers, authorities (and principalities). Here is Dionysius the Areopogite’s ordering of the hierarchy: Top : Seraphim, Cherubim, Thrones Middle : Dominions, Powers, Authorities Bottom : Principalities, Archangels, Angels Two things come to mind with this middle tier of angelic choirs: first , all these words have...

Two questions have been on my mind in thinking through a theology of angels. First, why is it that in the story of Jacob’s Ladder (and again in John 1:51) that the angels ascend and then descend? We would imagine they would first descend from heaven to what is lower—the earth—and then ascend. So, why the reversal of the movement of angels? The second question is deeply connected to the first: why...

Hebrews 13:2 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This week we take up the hospitality of angels and the question of guardian angels. Here are some of the questions we tried to cover: * Why are angels and hospitality so often tied together? How do angels show hospitality? How are we to respond to the hospitality of angels? * One of the best (a...

When discussing a theology of angels we are met with a whole range of problems. Doesn’t the belief in angels belong to an older, more simple-minded time? What does it mean to believe in angels in a modern world of science and technology? C.S. Lewis said there are two equal but opposite errors we make when it comes to angels and demons: we either make too much of them or we make too little of them....

After a brief teaching on the power of sin Taylor Johnson led us through an incredibly meaningful time of prayer, interceding for all those affected by suicide. I hope you will listen and pray along with the class. The prayer guide he created is really beautiful. You can download it below to follow along with the class and pray on your own. If you haven’t already, you can subscribe to Taylor’s Sub...