One In Jesus

N. T. “Tom” Wright has just released another paradigm-shifting book suggesting a new, more scriptural way of understanding the atonement, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright delves deeply into how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus accomplish our salvation.

Rom 2:25-29, Part 6 [JFG]

(Rom. 2:25-29 ESV)  25 For circumcision [the mark of a Jew] indeed is of value if you obey the law [Torah], but if you break the law [Torah], your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [of the heart under Deu 10:16 and 30:6].  

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law [Torah], will not his [physical] uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision [or the heart]?  27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code [Torah] and circumcision but break the law [Torah].

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [merely knowing Torah rather than obeying Torah]. His praise is not from man but from God.

Joel [JFG]

We have to cover Joel 2:28-32a, because the NT authors repeatedly cite to this passage:

(Joel 2:28-32a ESV)  28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions.  29 Even on the male and female servants in those days I will pour out my Spirit.

30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke.  31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes.  32 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.”

At Pentecost, Peter declared this prophecy fulfilled. We generally skip ahead to Acts 2:38, ignoring almost all of Peter’s sermon. But this is the passage that Peter both began and ended with. And it’s the passage that Paul relies on in Rom 10. That is, the two passages we rely on to teach the Five Step Plan of Salvation are both based on this passage in Joel! It just might be important. Continue reading →

N. T. “Tom” Wright has just released another paradigm-shifting book suggesting a new, more scriptural way of understanding the atonement, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright delves deeply into how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus accomplishes our salvation.

Rom 2:25-29, Part 5 [JFG]

(Rom. 2:25-29 ESV)  25 For circumcision [the mark of a Jews] indeed is of value if you obey the law [Torah], but if you break the law [Torah], your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [of the heart under Deu 10:16 and 30:6].  

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law [Torah], will not his [physical] uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision [or the heart]?  27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code [Torah] and circumcision but break the law [Torah].

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [merely knowing Torah rather than obeying Torah]. His praise is not from man but from God.

Jeremiah, the Spirit, and the New Covenant [JFG]

While Ezekiel was speaking for God to the Jews in Babylon, Jeremiah remained behind in Jerusalem, prophesying for God to the king. (Anyone who longs for the gift of prophecy needs to read what Ezekiel and Jeremiah went through for God.)

Like Ezekiel, Jeremiah has much to say about the end of Exile, but he does not speak much in terms of God’s Spirit. Rather, he focuses on the hearts of the people, clearly influenced by Deuteronomy’s insistence that Israel not be “stubborn” and circumcise their own hearts to love God with all their hearts (Deu 10:16). Continue reading →

N. T. “Tom” Wright has just released another paradigm-shifting book suggesting a new, more scriptural way of understanding the atonement, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright delves deeply into how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus accomplishes our salvation.

Rom 2:25-29, Part 4 [JFG]

(Rom. 2:25-29 ESV)  25 For circumcision [the mark of a Jews] indeed is of value if you obey the law [Torah], but if you break the law [Torah], your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [of the heart under Deu 10:16 and 30:6].  

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law [Torah], will not his [physical] uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision [or the heart]?  27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code [Torah] and circumcision but break the law [Torah].

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [merely knowing Torah rather than obeying Torah]. His praise is not from man but from God.

Ezekiel and the Spirit  [JFG]

Ezekiel’s prophecies about the Glory of God establish many of the NT’s metaphors used to describe the Spirit. But there are also several passages speaking more directly to what the Spirit will do in the Messianic age.

(Ezek. 11:17-21 ESV)  17 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’  18 And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations.  19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,  20 that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.  21 But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

Now, “spirit” in v. 19 is generally translated with a lower case “s” — although this is far from certain. The word (ruach) can mean Spirit, life, breath, wind, or even attitude. And Ezekiel is certainly saying that the people will have an attitude change. But as we’ll see, Ezekiel likes to play with the multiple meanings of ruach, so that “spirit” often carries more than one meaning — such as both Spirit and attitude. After all, the Holy Spirit does change our hearts to have a better attitude. Continue reading →

N. T. “Tom” Wright has just released another paradigm-shifting book suggesting a new, more scriptural way of understanding the atonement, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright delves deeply into how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus accomplishes our salvation.

Rom 2:25-29, Part 3 [JFG]

(Rom. 2:25-29 ESV)  25 For circumcision [the mark of a Jews] indeed is of value if you obey the law [Torah], but if you break the law [Torah], your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [of the heart under Deu 10:16 and 30:6].  

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law [Torah], will not his [physical] uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision [or the heart]?  27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code [Torah] and circumcision but break the law [Torah].

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [merely knowing Torah rather than obeying Torah]. His praise is not from man but from God.

The Glory of God in Ezekiel [JFG]

We rarely study the major prophets in Bible class. The books are just too long to cover in a 13-week quarter. And no one feels qualified to teach them. And so it becomes a self-fulfilling gap in our knowledge. No one knows this stuff, and so no one teaches it, and so no one knows it.

The best book on Ezekiel is The Message of Ezekiel by Christopher J. H. Wright (no kin to NT). But before you attempt to cover the whole thing, get some software or website that lets you easily do word searches in a single book, and just search “Spirit” or “glory” or “temple” to get a feel for the message and language of the book. Other words and themes will come to mind as you do your word studies. And while you’ll only see bits and pieces of a much larger, masterful work, it’ll help you understand what’s going on. Continue reading →

N. T. “Tom” Wright has just released another paradigm-shifting book suggesting a new, more scriptural way of understanding the atonement, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright delves deeply into how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus accomplishes our salvation.

Rom 2:25-29, Part 2 [JFG]

(Rom. 2:25-29 ESV)  25 For circumcision [the mark of a Jews] indeed is of value if you obey the law [Torah], but if you break the law [Torah], your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [of the heart under Deu 10:16 and 30:6].  

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law [Torah], will not his [physical] uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision [or the heart]?  27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code [Torah] and circumcision but break the law [Torah].

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [merely knowing Torah rather than obeying Torah]. His praise is not from man but from God.

In the last post, we barely began considering the OT passages that teach what Paul says in Rom 2:25-29, that is, that true circumcision is circumcision of the heart by the Holy Spirit.

Now, if you’re familiar with the flow of Romans, then you should see that in this passage is the foundation for the first several verses of chapter 8, which begins with a discussion of the importance of the possession of the Spirit. In writing both chapter 2 and chapter 8, Paul assumes that his readers know what the OT says about the Spirit, circumcision of the heart, and the new covenant. But few modern readers do; rather, we assume that Romans is a self-contained explanation of entirely new principles, rather than building on centuries of revelation.  Continue reading →

N. T. “Tom” Wright has just released another paradigm-shifting book suggesting a new, more scriptural way of understanding the atonement, The Day the Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion. Wright delves deeply into how the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus accomplishes our salvation.

Rom 2:25-29

(Rom. 2:25-29 ESV)  25 For circumcision [the mark of a Jews] indeed is of value if you obey the law [Torah], but if you break the law [Torah], your circumcision becomes uncircumcision [of the heart under Deu 10:16 and 30:6].  

26 So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law [Torah], will not his [physical] uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision [of the heart]?  27 Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code [Torah] and circumcision but break the law [Torah].

28 For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  29 But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter [merely knowing Torah rather than obeying Torah]. His praise is not from man but from God.

In most Bible classes on Romans that I have attended, this passage was skipped. I mean, it makes no sense if you’re not familiar with the OT background. Paul assumes that his readers are as familiar with the “Spirit” passage in the OT as Church of Christ members are familiar with their baptism passages. The Second Temple period Jews prayed daily for God to outpour his Spirit as promised in the Law and the Prophets. Continue reading →