Simply Gospel

The Old Covenant is more than a codified list of commands. It is more than a list of “dos and don’ts.” What it comes down to, in the midst of those detailed commands and expectations, is a system of faith and a covenant of relying on God more than others or self. It is predicated entirely upon faith, and – though our covenant, its terms, and its sacrifice are different – our relationship with God is no different today. Our lives in God are predicated entirely on our faith. On that faith rests the foundation of our spiritual lives. II… Continue reading

Paul, in Romans chapter 1, walks us through a process that inevitably leads to apostasy. We recently looked at the dangers of apostasy from the book of Hebrews, but how does such unfaithfulness creep into our lives? In verses 18-24, after speaking to the power of salvation in God’s word, Paul writes about the plainness of the divine in the world around us. He reveals, however, that people gave up the glory of God to place the divine in the objects of Creation. Apostasy crept in, and it can overtake us today as well. Verse 21 establishes that, at one… Continue reading

In Philippians, Paul addresses the Christian mindset. Like the Beatitudes of Christ’s sermon on the mount, these words focus on who we should be inside, and these internal attitudes should then affect everything we say, think, and do. Philippians 1:21 initially proclaims that to live is Christ, and Paul feels torn between his desire to join Christ in Heaven and his need to continue helping Christ’s cause in this life. All Paul does is focused on living Christ and drawing closer to a home with Him, and he encourages his fellow Christians to have that same focus. Like him, our… Continue reading

In Galatians 5, we find what many regard as the key of the whole book. He says, in verse 1, that Christ set us free for the sake of freedom, and we, therefore, should not entangle ourselves again into the chains of this world. This concept of freedom in Christ is something Paul has been building up to throughout the first few chapters of this book, returning time and again to freeing ourselves from the enslavement of the things of this world so we might have liberty in Christ. Prior to Christ, God’s people we under a schoolmaster in the… Continue reading

Shortly after 3:00 a.m. one morning several years ago, a young lady was attacked in the street by a man with a knife. She was attacked a couple of times, and each time, the lights around the street came on to see what was going on. Thirty-eight people witnessed this attack, but no one wanted to get involved. Thirty-eight people watched a young lady assaulted three times, and they watched her die. No one, however, interceded in any way – not even to call the cops. The young lady’s death may have been prevented had someone simply decided to get… Continue reading

I want you to think a moment about paperclips. Now, at first blush, you might think there is not much to think about when it comes to paperclips. They’re pretty simple, aren’t they? You don’t have to tax your imagination overmuch to figure out what they are for. They say what they do, and they do what they say. They also do it pretty well, but is that all they have to be? Do they have to be regulated to the lowly function of clipping papers together all of the time? Thinking Outside the Box In the book Breakpoint and… Continue reading

The book of Hebrews was written to people who are likely second-generation Christians who are still struggling with the tensions between the traditions of Judaism and the teachings of Christianity. Many had, currently or at one time, relatives who would have seen Jesus as a false teacher. They would have had family and friends reject them, and the temptations would have been great to slip back into the traditions of their past. In this light, the Hebrew writer includes five warnings in his epistle to these struggling Christians. Neglect Hebrews 2:1 encourages them and us to give all the more… Continue reading