Cross
How is the Bible “God-Breathed”?
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Bible Interpretation, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Inspiration, Jesus
Topics: Biblical Interpretation
The historic-orthodox church has always confessed that all canonical writings are “God-breathed” (1 Tim 3:16). But what exactly does this mean? How could God guarantee that the writings that his “breathing” produces are precisely what…
Re-Thinking Divine Sovereignty
Category: General
Tags: Cross, God's Sovereignty, Open Theism, Power
Many people in the church have been taught that divine sovereignty is synonymous with unilateral control. Some have even argued that if God is not in control of everything, then something must be in control…
Why Did Jesus Cry Out that God Had Forsaken Him?
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Crucifixion, The Cross
Verse: Matthew 27
At the climax of Jesus’ suffering on the cross, Jesus cries out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46) It’s a jarring moment in the narrative. To forsake is to abandon….
The Sine Qua Non of the Kingdom
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Judgment, Love
Topics: Following Jesus
In contrast to the habit of judgment which I challenged in the previous post, God calls his people to love the way that God loves. But what exactly does this mean? People have a lot…
Cruciform Theology in Four Steps
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, God's Love
Topics: Interpreting Violent Pictures and Troubling Behaviors
The culmination of the biblical narrative of the cross reframes everything about who God is, what it means to have faith in God, and how we read the Bible! The entire Old Testament leading up…
The Cross as a Trinitarian Event
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jürgen Moltmann, Trinity
Topics: Attributes and Character, Trinity
On Calvary, the all-holy God fully identified with sinners, suffering the consequences of our sin as though he himself were guilty. While God is never culpable for the evil he allows, he nevertheless assumes responsibility…
Sin-Bearing God
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Divine Accommodation
Topics: Attributes and Character
On the cross, God became our sin, as Paul wrote: “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us” (2 Cor 5:21). However, God didn’t begin to be a sin-bearing God when…
How the Anabaptists Emphasized the Cross
Category: General
Tags: Anabaptists, Christus Victor, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus
Because the Anabaptists have generally emphasized faith that is evidenced by works and thus on Jesus’ life as an example to be followed, it may prima facia appear that the saving work of the cross…
A Cruciform Dialectic
Category: General
Tags: Character of God, Cross, Cruciform Theology, Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
One of the most important aspects of God’s action on Calvary, I believe, is this: God revealed himself not just by acting toward humans, but by allowing himself to be acted on by humans as…
The Perfect Love of God
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, God is Love, Jesus, Triune Love
Topics: Attributes and Character
The Father, Son and Spirit exist as the infinite intensity and unsurpassable perfection of eternal love. We know this about the triune God not by speculation but because Jesus demonstrated that love (Rom 5:8) in…
What the Resurrection Says About the Cross
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Humility, Love, Resurrection, Sacrifice
As with every other aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry, even the resurrection must be understood in light of the cross. This event was not just the resuscitation of a random corpse. It was the resurrection…
Greg and N.T. Wright at the Missio Alliance Gathering!
Category: General
Tags: Atonement, Cross, Greg Boyd, Missio Alliance, N.T. Wright, The Holy Spirit
The Missio Alliance North American Gathering will be held April 27-29 in Alexandria, Virginia. The theme this year is Awakenings: The Mission of the Spirit as the Life of the Church. Featured speakers this year…
Do the Gospels Fabricate Prophetic Fulfillment?
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Jesus, Old Testament, Prophesy
Topics: Biblical Interpretation, Christology
Skeptically-inclined scholars, and especially critics of Christianity, frequently argue that the Gospel authors created mythological portraits of Jesus largely on the basis of OT material they claim Jesus “fulfilled.” In other words, they surveyed the…
The Cross and The Trinity
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Cruciform Theology, Trinity
Topics: Attributes and Character
Out of love for humankind, Scripture tells us, Jesus emptied himself of his divine prerogatives, set aside the glory he had with the Father from before the foundation of the world, became a human being…
Cross-Shaped Transcendence
Category: General
Tags: Cross, God's Character, Nature of God, Transcendence
Topics: Attributes and Character
Hellenistic philosophers traditionally embrace a conception of God as the simple, necessary, and immutable One. They do this in order to try to explain the “unmoved mover” who is absolutely distinct from the ever-changing, composite,…
Knowing the Eternal God
Category: General
Tags: Cross, God's Character, Perichoresis, Trinity
If all our knowledge about God is to be oriented around the cross, as I argue in many places (see this post for instance), what does this mean for how we reflect on God’s transcendence?…
Redefining Omnipotence
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Love, Omnipotence
Topics: Attributes and Character
Traditional, classical theology has equated divine power with God causing and determining all things to exist. God supposedly acts on everything as their cause, but nothing in any way acts on him. Yet, these assumptions…
How Much Are You Worth?
Category: General
Tags: Cross, God is Love, Trinity
We know what something is worth to someone by what they are willing to pay for it. Consider, then, what our heavenly bridegroom was willing to pay to redeem us and make us his bride….
Nothing but Christ Crucified
Category: General
Tags: Cross, Good News, Identity in Christ, Jesus
One of the most remarkable expressions of the all-encompassing nature of the cross is reflected in an incidental, but extremely important, comment that Paul made in his First Letter to the Corinthians. He noted that…