The Work of Redemption in All Creation

We humans are pretty self-centered. I’m not speaking primarily of us as individuals, though that is certainly the case for most people. No, I mean that we humans, as a race, a species, are pretty self-centered. Oh, not all of us, but a substantial number of us think that humans are the pinnacle of...

Joseph and the Egyptian Slaves

In most ancient literature, the heroes tend to be very good, with few flaws, while the villains tend to be very bad with few redeeming qualities. Not so in the Bible. Jesus’ disciples are good guys with major flaws—Judas’s betrayal, Peter’s denial, Thomas’s doubting. Paul is a former murderer. David, a man...

Getting Rich on Human Suffering

Years ago there was a guy I knew who owned and operated a small finance company. He loaned money to individuals, generally people who couldn’t get a loan from a bank because of various reasons—inconsistent employment, insufficient annual income, bad credit history, etc. Of course, he charged them a higher...

Having Faith to Work the Plan

Many of us have been taught that Bible doesn’t allow any mixture of works in the appropriation of our salvation, but Paul, James and, especially, Jesus don’t necessarily support that contention. Part of the problem is that we treat gaining salvation as a single point in time—one second I wasn’t saved, the...

Working Out Your Own Salvation

One of the central tenets of Protestant theology is the idea that salvation is given by grace alone and achieved through faith alone; it is impossible to earn it through good works. This is as good a paraphrase as there is of Ephesians 2:8-9: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not...

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