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Speak the Word
In the sermon this last week, I noted on Joshua 11:23, that “the land had rest from war,” only once great wars had been fought. It is, of course, important to note that the wars Joshua fought were of a very particular nature.…
We considered in section 15 of Ridderbos’ chapter “The Life in Sin,” that the “world” and this “age” are not usually neutral terms in Paul, merely connoting geography or time—they are moral and, one might say categorical, categories.
This view also informs his understanding of Paul’s use of the word “flesh” (sarx), as Ridderbos continues in section 16 to speak of the universality of sin.…
Herman Ridderbos (1909–2007) was a Dutch theologian who served for over forty years at Kampen Theological Seminary as a professor of New Testament. Although his name has been familiar to me for many years, I had never read him until I recently ordered Paul: An Outline of His Theology as I was wrestling with some thoughts from my studies in Galatians concerning sin and its relationship to the law.…
Like many other words in the New Testament (or Old), the Greek word sarx (flesh), has a range of meaning roughly centered on the idea of the physical, tangible body. Drawing from Thomas Schreiner’s study of Paul’s theology, Paul, Apostle of God’s Glory in Christ, he mentions five categories of usage:
It is this last category that has prompted much theological discussion throughout Christian history, and that discussion is pertinent to our Christian lives and walk.…
For most men, the battle against lust is significant. And the statistics show that for Christian men in the church at large, they are not winning. Although these statistics have sometimes been exaggerated, they are still alarming (https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/factchecker-do-christian-men-watch-more-pornography/). What is crucial to note, however, is that this is not the normative life for the Christian man.…