Paul wrote to the Colossian church, “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love that you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” Remember, Paul is in a Roman prison cell as he writes this letter and he is filled with rejoicing. Most people only rejoice when their circ...  Read More

Ben Sasse, former Senator from Nebraska, is dying with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. But he is fighting to stay alive as long as the Lord allows. He is writing, he is podcasting, and he is continuing to love his wife and his daughters of 24 and 22. And he has a son. He said in a recent podcast, “Our wonderful providential surprise is a decade younger…our boy is 14. And when you get a precise date on ...  Read More

“I commend to you our sister Phoebe.” That’s how Paul started the end of his letter to the Romans. In Paul’s personal greetings, he mentioned 29 people and commended them for their work in the gospel. Phoebe was first. Then, “Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who risked their necks for my life, to whom not only I give thanks but all the churches of the Gentiles give thank...  Read More

The answer is simple: whatever we are sowing, whatever we are cultivating, that is what’s growing. Paul said in Galatians, “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” Some see this as connected to his admonition before that, to pay the laborer (those who teach the Word) his wages. But others see it as a reference to walking in the Spirit. Both are import...  Read More

In Galatians, Paul answers the question, “Why did Christ set us free?” For freedom Christ has set us free. That is an indicative, a settled truth. We have been set free by Christ. It is followed by an imperative, a command. “Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” You are free in Christ. And in Christ, you are to remain free. That will take effort, but that effort is ...  Read More

In Luke’s gospel account, the women at the empty tomb were asked a question they could not answer. The angels said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” It’s a great question! But the truth is, they didn’t seek the living among the dead. They sought the dead. They were looking for a dead body.  The angels asked a question that strikes at the very heart of where most people find the...  Read More

Remember that great old gospel song that started, “Would you be free from the burden of sin, there’s power in the blood, power in the blood, Would you o’er evil a victory win, there’s wonderful power in the blood!” Paul starts off this section with an even older hit. “There’s Power in the Law.” Have you heard this one? It goes like this. “Would you throw off all the freedom of grace, there’s power...  Read More

“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.” Paul wrote that in his first letter to the church in Corinth. Notice that this is NOT a command but a statement, a fact: every man is the head of his household. As some have said, you can be a bonehead, a meathead, a musclehead, an airhead or a knucklehead…but you ...  Read More

The same people whom Paul says would once have given their eyes to him now treated his message with disdain. The one who was their father in the faith was now their enemy. The Galatians had been courted by the Judaizers. The works-righteousness legalists showered them with affection, made much of them, and won them over. Some cults today use this technique and call it “love bombing.” They find the...  Read More

Paul tells us, “you are all sons of God,” in Galatians. Paul uses sons, not “sons and daughters,” simply because with sonship in ancient cultures came the right to inherit. Are all people sons of God? Find the important qualifiers in this verse: “For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith.” They serve as bookends for sonship: “in Christ Jesus” and “through faith.” We have all the r...  Read More

Paul tells us in Galatians the law did not come to tell us about salvation but to tell us about sin. “It was added because of transgressions.” Some have said the law is a mirror that when we look into it, we see who we really are. But you know that no one who looks in a mirror and sees dirt on his face then takes the mirror off the wall to clean the dirt away. The law can only show us our sinfulne...  Read More

Paul called Abraham to the witness stand as an expert witness in his plea with the Galatians. This must have been a shock to the Judaizers and some of the Jewish believers, because Abraham was their guy! They prided themselves on being the sons of Abraham. Jesus had told the Jews that if they were really sons of Abraham, they would be doing the works that Abraham did. What were the works Abraham d...  Read More