The Blessed Man [Romans]
The theme of our passage is blessedness. Justification by faith puts a man in the most blessed of conditions. David is called as a witness to the fact that righteousness is imputed to a man without works. The passage quoted, Ps 32.1-2, proclaims the blessing of a man to whom God does not impute sin. This is the opposite side of imputed righteousness, not imputed sin. Here is the great blessing of the saved man: the without-law righteousness from God imputed to him on the basis of faith AND the guilt and penalty of his sins imputed to Christ, ‘nailed to the cross’ with him, setting the believer free forever from death and hell.
The Facets of Man (2) [Basic Theology]
We continue to discuss the makeup of human nature, especially the spiritual aspect, by now considering in turn various terms that describe ‘facets’ of our nature. Today we consider the terms ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ and attempt to distinguish between them while noting there is an over-lap and something of an integration of terms here.
After the doings of the lands… [Communion, Leviticus]
Lev 18
We begin the Holiness Code section of Leviticus with a look at laws focused on preserving morality in and out of marriage. The bulk of the chapter consists of prohibitions against various forms of incest, but it also includes prohibitions of child sacrifice and perverse immorality. The redemptive message of these prohibitions is found in 1 Cor 6.9-11: ‘and such were some of you.’ No sin, no matter how distasteful and perverse, can bar the door to the washing, the sanctifying, or the justifying available by the death of Christ and the ministration of the Spirit.
Comments