Philippians

Rejoice in the Lord Alway

Philippians is a thank-you note written in chains. Paul was a prisoner, uncertain whether he would be released or executed. Rival preachers were trying to make his imprisonment harder. And yet the words joy and rejoice run through this short letter more than a dozen times. “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice” (4:4).

That is the point. Paul’s joy was not tied to his circumstances. It was tied to Christ. The letter also holds some of the most loved verses in the Bible: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”(1:21); the great passage on Christ humbling Himself to the death of the cross (2:5–11); “I press toward the mark” (3:14); the peace that passes all understanding (4:7); and “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (4:13).

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Authorship & Setting

Paul writes with Timothy (1:1), and his authorship has never been seriously disputed. He is in bonds, and his chains have become known “in all the palace” (1:13), and he sends greetings from “they that are of Caesar’s household” (4:22). Most believe he wrote from his house arrest in Rome around AD 61–62, though some scholars suggest an earlier imprisonment in Ephesus or Caesarea.

Philippi was named for Philip II of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great. After the Romans won a decisive battle there in 42 BC, they settled army veterans in the city and made it “a colony”(Acts 16:12), a little piece of Rome in Macedonia. Its citizens were proud of their Roman citizenship. Paul draws on that pride when he tells them, “For our conversation is in heaven” (3:20), where “conversation” means citizenship.

This was the first church Paul planted in Europe, on his second journey (Acts 16). Its first members were Lydia, a businesswoman who sold purple cloth, a slave girl set free from a spirit of divination, and the jailer who asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” The Philippians supported Paul’s ministry again and again (4:15–16). They had just sent him a gift by the hand of Epaphroditus, who fell sick and nearly died while serving Paul. Now Epaphroditus was well and heading home, carrying this letter.

Key Figures

• Paul — a prisoner who counted everything loss for Christ and learned to be content in every state.
• Timothy — Paul’s son in the faith, of whom Paul said, “I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state” (2:20).
• Epaphroditus — the Philippians’ messenger, “my brother, and companion in labour, and fellowsoldier” (2:25), who risked his life to serve Paul.
• Euodias and Syntyche — two women who had labored with Paul in the gospel but now needed to “be of the same mind in the Lord” (4:2).
• The true yokefellow — an unnamed partner Paul asks to help those two women reconcile (4:3).
• The rival preachers — men who preached Christ “of envy and strife” (1:15), hoping to add to Paul’s troubles. Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached anyway.
• Caesar’s household — servants and officials in the emperor’s service who had come to Christ, likely through Paul’s imprisonment (4:22).

Greek Word Study

κοινωνία · koinōnia

“Fellowship,” partnership, sharing in something together. Paul thanks God “For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” (1:5). For the Philippians, fellowship was not a potluck. It meant prayer, money, and risk shared in a common mission. Paul also longs for “the fellowship of his sufferings” (3:10).

κενόω · kenoō

“To empty.” Christ “made himself of no reputation” (2:7) is literally “He emptied Himself.” He did not stop being God. He emptied Himself by taking the form of a servant, setting aside His rightful glory and privileges to become a man and die. This is the mind Paul tells us to have.

πολίτευμα · politeuma

“Citizenship,” the state or commonwealth you belong to. The Philippians were Roman citizens living far from Rome. Paul tells them they are citizens of heaven living far from home: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour” (3:20). Our passport has a different capital.

αὐτάρκης · autarkēs

“Content,” self-sufficient. Greek philosophers, especially the Stoics, used it to describe a man who needed nothing outside himself. Paul borrows the word and changes its source: “I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content” (4:11). His sufficiency was not in himself. It was in Christ.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Confident of This Very Thing (1:1–11)

Paul thanks God every time he remembers the Philippians, and always prays for them with joy because of their partnership in the gospel. He is sure of one thing: “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”(1:6). He prays that their love would abound more and more in knowledge and judgment, so they can approve the things that are excellent and be filled with the fruits of righteousness.

MOVEMENT TWO

To Live Is Christ (1:12–30)

Paul’s imprisonment had not stopped the gospel. It had pushed it forward. The whole palace guard knew he was in chains for Christ, and other believers had grown bolder. Some were preaching out of rivalry, but “Christ is preached; and I therein do rejoice” (1:18). Paul did not know whether he would live or die, and he was at peace with either: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (1:21). He had a desire “to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better” (1:23), but he expected to stay for their sake. He calls them to live as citizens worthy of the gospel and to stand together without fear.

MOVEMENT THREE

The Mind of Christ (2:1–11)

“Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves” (2:3). Then Paul gives the reason, in what may have been an early Christian hymn: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men” (2:5–7). He “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (2:8). Therefore God has highly exalted Him, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (2:10–11).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Shining as Lights (2:12–30)

“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure” (2:12–13). We work it out because God is working it in. “Do all things without murmurings and disputings”(2:14), so that you “shine as lights in the world”(2:15) in a crooked generation. Paul says that even if his life is poured out like a drink offering on their faith, he rejoices. He plans to send Timothy, a rare man who genuinely cares. He is sending back Epaphroditus, who was sick nigh unto death, “but God had mercy on him”(2:27). Hold such men in reputation, Paul says.

MOVEMENT FIVE

No Confidence in the Flesh (3:1–11)

Paul warns against those who insist on circumcision as the way to be right with God. If anyone could trust in his credentials, Paul could: circumcised the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, “an Hebrew of the Hebrews”, a Pharisee, zealous enough to persecute the church, and blameless in the righteousness of the law (3:5–6). But “I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord” (3:8). He calls his former credentials dung, so that he could be found in Christ, not having his own righteousness but the righteousness which is of God by faith. “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings” (3:10).

MOVEMENT SIX

Pressing Toward the Mark (3:12–21)

Paul says plainly he has not arrived. “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus” (3:13–14). He weeps over those who live as enemies of the cross of Christ, “whose God is their belly… who mind earthly things” (3:19). But believers belong somewhere else: “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body” (3:20–21).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Rejoice, Pray, Think (4:1–9)

Paul urges Euodias and Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Then: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice. Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand” (4:4–5). “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (4:6–7). “Keep” is a military word: God’s peace stands guard. Then Paul tells them what to think about: whatever is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, “think on these things” (4:8).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Content in Christ (4:10–23)

Paul thanks them for their gift, but makes clear he was not complaining of need: “for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound” (4:11–12). He has learned the secret of being full and hungry, of plenty and of want. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (4:13). Their gift was “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, wellpleasing to God” (4:18). And the God who received it would take care of them: “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (4:19). The saints of Caesar’s household send their greetings.

Christ Typology

The Last Adam Who Did Not Grasp. In the garden, the serpent told Eve, “ye shall be as gods” (Genesis 3:5), and the first Adam reached for equality with God. Many have seen Philippians 2 answering that scene. Christ was in the form of God and equal with Him, yet He did not grasp at it. Adam, a man, tried to make himself God and fell into death. Christ, who is God, made Himself a man and humbled Himself to death, and God lifted Him up. Where Adam grasped, Christ emptied Himself.

The Servant Exalted. Isaiah’s great Servant song begins, “Behold, my servant shall deal prudently, he shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high” (Isaiah 52:13), and then describes His suffering. Philippians 2 follows the same path: the form of a servant, obedience to death, then exaltation. The Servant who went lowest was raised highest.

Every Knee Shall Bow. In Isaiah 45:23, the LORD says, “unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” It is one of the strongest declarations in the Old Testament that there is no God besides Him. Paul takes those words and applies them to Jesus. Every knee will bow at the name of Jesus, and every tongue confess that He is Lord. Paul could not have said more clearly that Jesus is the LORD of Isaiah 45.

The Drink Offering. Under the law, a drink offering of wine was poured out on certain sacrifices (Numbers 28:7). Paul says that if he is “offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith” (2:17), he will rejoice. He saw his own life being poured out like that. But he had learned it from his Lord, of whom Isaiah said, “he hath poured out his soul unto death” (Isaiah 53:12).

The Sweet Savour. Paul calls the Philippians’ gift “an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable” (4:18), the language of the burnt offering, which rose as “a sweet savour unto the LORD” (Leviticus 1:9). Ephesians uses the same words for Christ, who “hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour” (Ephesians 5:2). When God’s people give in His name, their gifts rise to Him with the fragrance of His Son’s sacrifice.

Personal Application

Joy is not the same as happiness. Paul was in chains, facing possible death, with rivals working against him, and he kept telling the Philippians to rejoice. His joy came from what could not be taken: Christ, the progress of the gospel, and the certainty that God would finish what He started. You can have joy in the Lord on a day when you are not happy about anything else.

Settle the question of living and dying. “To live is Christ, and to die is gain” only works if the first half is true. If to live is money, comfort, reputation, or ministry, then death is loss. Paul could face either outcome in peace because Christ was the point of both.

Have the mind of Christ. The cure for strife in the church is not more rules but a different mind. Look not only at your own things but at the things of others. Christ had every right to stay in His glory and chose to serve. Nobody following Him is too important to take the low place.

Forget what is behind and press on. Paul had plenty behind him to boast in and plenty to regret, including persecuting the church. He did not let either one hold him back. Whatever chapter you are closing, God’s high calling is still in front of you. Reach for it.

Learn contentment in Christ. Philippians 4:13 is often quoted as a promise of success, but in context it is a promise of sufficiency. Paul could be hungry or full, abased or abounding, and still be content, because Christ was strengthening him. Pray about everything, worry about nothing, think on what is true, and trust the God who shall supply all your need.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

T

Ephesians

Seated, Walking, Standing

Ephesians is two letters in one. The first three chapters tell us who we are in Christ, and they contain almost no commands. They are pure gift: chosen, adopted, redeemed, forgiven, sealed, raised, and seated with Christ in heavenly places. Then chapter 4 opens with “I therefore… beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called” (4:1), and the rest of the letter shows how to live it out at church, at home, at work, and on the battlefield.

The Chinese pastor Watchman Nee, who spent the last twenty years of his life in prison for his faith, summed up Ephesians in three words: sit, walk, stand. We sit with Christ in heavenly places (2:6). We walk worthy of our calling (4:1). And we stand against the wiles of the devil (6:11). The order matters. You cannot walk the Christian life until you have first rested in what Christ has done, and you cannot stand in battle until you have learned to walk.

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Authorship & Setting

Paul names himself as the author and writes as “the prisoner of Jesus Christ” (3:1) and “an ambassador in bonds” (6:20). Ephesians is one of four letters Paul wrote from prison, along with Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. The traditional view is that he wrote them during his house arrest in Rome, around AD 60–62. Tychicus, “a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord” (6:21), carried it, likely along with Colossians, which it closely resembles. Some modern scholars question whether Paul wrote it, but the early church received it as his without dispute.

Paul knew Ephesus well. He spent about three years there (Acts 20:31), and his preaching hurt the business of the silversmiths who made shrines for the great temple of Diana, one of the wonders of the ancient world, setting off a riot (Acts 19). Yet the letter has very few personal greetings, and the words “at Ephesus” in 1:1 are missing from several of the oldest manuscripts. Many think it was a circular letter, meant to be passed among the churches of the region, with Ephesus as its main stop.

The great theme is the church: one body made of Jews and Gentiles, raised with Christ, filled with His Spirit, built into a holy temple, loved as His bride, and armed for a spiritual war. Ephesians shows what God was doing all along, “the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God” (3:9).

Key Figures

• Paul — writing as a prisoner, “less than the least of all saints” (3:8), entrusted with the mystery of the gospel.
• Tychicus — the faithful messenger who carried the letter and would tell the believers how Paul was doing (6:21–22).
• The Gentile believers — those who were once “without Christ… having no hope, and without God in the world” (2:12), now made near by His blood.
• The gifted leaders — apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, given to equip the saints for the work of the ministry (4:11–12).
• The Christian household — husbands and wives, parents and children, servants and masters, each called to live out the gospel in their relationships (5:22–6:9).
• Principalities and powers — the unseen spiritual forces of wickedness that are the real enemy in the believer’s warfare (6:12).

Greek Word Study

μυστήριον · mystērion

“Mystery.” In the New Testament, a mystery is not a puzzle but a secret God kept hidden and has now revealed. The mystery of Ephesians is “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (3:6). Marriage is a mystery too, pointing to Christ and the church (5:32).

περιπατέω · peripateō

“To walk,” meaning how you conduct your life step by step. We once walked according to the course of this world (2:2). Now we are created “unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them” (2:10). From chapter 4 on, Paul tells us to walk worthy, walk in love, walk as children of light, and walk circumspectly. The Christian life is a walk, not a sprint.

πλήρωμα · plērōma

“Fullness.” The church is Christ’s body, “the fulness of him that filleth all in all”(1:23). Paul prays that believers would be “filled with all the fulness of God” (3:19), and grow up “unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (4:13). God does not intend His people to run on empty.

πανοπλία · panoplia

“Whole armour,” the complete equipment of a heavily armed soldier, from head to foot. Paul was chained to Roman soldiers while he wrote, so he had a model in front of him. “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (6:11). Not part of it. All of it.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Every Spiritual Blessing (1:1–14)

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ” (1:3). In the Greek, verses 3–14 are one long sentence, as though Paul couldn’t stop to take a breath. The Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. He adopted us as children. In the Son “we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace” (1:7). And we were “sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance” (1:13–14), God’s down payment on everything still to come. Three times Paul says it is all “to the praise of his glory.”

MOVEMENT TWO

The Eyes of Your Understanding (1:15–23)

Paul prays that God would give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened” (1:18), so they would know the hope of His calling, the riches of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power toward those who believe. It is the same power that raised Christ from the dead and set Him at God’s right hand, “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion” (1:21). God has put all things under His feet and given Him to be head over all things to the church.

MOVEMENT THREE

Dead, Then Made Alive (2:1–10)

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” (2:1). We followed the course of this world, the prince of the power of the air, and the desires of the flesh, and we were by nature children of wrath. Then come two of the greatest words in the Bible: “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us” (2:4), made us alive with Christ, “and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (2:6). “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works” (2:8–10).

MOVEMENT FOUR

The Middle Wall Broken Down (2:11–22)

The Gentiles were once strangers from the covenants of promise, without hope and without God in the world. “But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (2:13–14). In the temple at Jerusalem, a stone barrier separated the Court of the Gentiles from the inner courts, with signs warning any Gentile who passed it that he would be put to death. Archaeologists have found one of those signs. Christ tore the wall down. Jew and Gentile are now one new man, “fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God” (2:19), built on the apostles and prophets, “Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (2:20).

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Mystery Revealed (3:1–21)

Paul explains the mystery he was given to preach: Gentiles are fellowheirs, of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ. He calls himself “less than the least of all saints”and marvels that he was given grace to preach “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (3:8). Through the church, God is showing His manifold wisdom even to the principalities and powers in heavenly places. Then Paul kneels and prays that they would be strengthened by the Spirit, that Christ would dwell in their hearts by faith, and that, “being rooted and grounded in love,” they would know the breadth, length, depth, and height of the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. He ends with a doxology: “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think” (3:20).

MOVEMENT SIX

Walk Worthy (4:1–32)

Now the walk begins: “walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called… Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace”(4:1, 3). “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all” (4:5–6). The ascended Christ gave gifts to His church, “For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ”(4:12), so that we would no longer be tossed around by every wind of doctrine, but grow up into Him, “speaking the truth in love” (4:15). Put off the old man and put on the new. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil” (4:26–27). “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God” (4:30). “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (4:32).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Walk in Love, Light, and Wisdom (5:1–6:9)

“Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us” (5:1–2). “Walk as children of light” (5:8). Walk carefully, “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil”(5:16). “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit” (5:18), speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, giving thanks always, and “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God” (5:21). Then Paul brings it home. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it” (5:25). Children, obey and honor your parents. Fathers, “provoke not your children to wrath”(6:4). Servants, serve as unto Christ. Masters, treat them well, “knowing that your Master also is in heaven” (6:9).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Stand: The Whole Armour of God (6:10–24)

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (6:10–12). Paul names each piece: the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, “the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked” (6:16), the helmet of salvation, and “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (6:17). And over it all, “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (6:18). Paul asks them to pray that he would speak boldly, even in chains.

Christ Typology

The Bride from His Side. Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 about a man leaving his father and mother and being joined to his wife, then says, “This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church” (5:32). From the beginning, marriage was designed as a picture of something greater. God put Adam into a deep sleep, opened his side, and formed his bride. Early church writers saw the parallel at the cross: the Last Adam fell into the sleep of death, His side was opened, and from it flowed the blood and water that brought His bride into being.

The Temple and the Cornerstone. Isaiah wrote, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation” (Isaiah 28:16). Paul says that stone is Jesus Christ, and the building rising on Him is “an holy temple in the Lord… an habitation of God through the Spirit” (2:21–22). The temple in Jerusalem had a wall to keep Gentiles out. The temple Christ is building is made of both.

The Conquering King of Psalm 68. Paul quotes Psalm 68:18: “When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men” (4:8). The psalm pictures God going up to His holy hill after victory, leading captives in a procession. Paul applies it to Christ’s ascension. He went down into death, rose, ascended in triumph, and now distributes the spoils of His victory to His people as gifts for building up His church.

The Armour of God Is God’s Own Armour.Paul’s list of armour comes largely from Isaiah, where it is the LORD Himself who wears it: “For he put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon his head” (Isaiah 59:17). Isaiah also says the Messiah’s girdle is righteousness and faithfulness (Isaiah 11:5), and praises the feet of him that brings good tidings of peace (Isaiah 52:7). When we put on the armour of God, we are not putting on our own strength. We are clothing ourselves with Christ, who already fought and won.

Personal Application

Know who you are before you ask what to do. Paul spends three chapters on what God has done before he gives a single instruction. If you try to live chapters 4–6 without first believing chapters 1–3, the Christian life will feel like a weight. Start by sitting: chosen, forgiven, sealed, loved, and seated with Christ. The walk flows from the seat.

Saved by grace, for good works. Works do not save you, not even a little. But you were saved for a purpose. You are God’s workmanship, His handiwork, created for good works He prepared ahead of time. Grace is not the end of the story. It is the start of a life God has already mapped out for you to walk in.

Guard your anger. Paul does not say never be angry. He says be angry and sin not, and don’t go to bed with it. Anger that is nursed overnight gives the devil a foothold. Deal with it quickly, honestly, and before God, and then let it go.

Be filled with the Spirit. Paul compares it to being drunk: something else in control of your words, your walk, and your mood. Instead of wine, be filled with the Spirit, and the evidence will be singing, thankfulness, and mutual submission. Being filled is not a one-time event. The verb means keep on being filled.

Know your real enemy. The person who wronged you, the leader who disappointed you, the neighbor who opposes you: none of them is your real enemy. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. That does not mean wrongs don’t matter. It means our weapons are truth, righteousness, the gospel, faith, salvation, the word of God, and prayer, and those are aimed at the powers behind the people, not at the people themselves.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

T

Galatians

Stand Fast in the Liberty

Every other letter Paul wrote to a church opens with a thanksgiving. Galatians doesn’t. After a short greeting, Paul goes straight at it: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel” (1:6). Then he says it twice, so nobody misses it: if anyone preaches any other gospel, even an angel from heaven, “let him be accursed” (1:8–9).

What made Paul so angry? Teachers had come into the Galatian churches telling Gentile believers that faith in Christ was a good start, but to be truly right with God they also needed to be circumcised and keep the law of Moses. It sounded reasonable, even devout. Paul saw it for what it was: a different gospel that would put free people back in chains. Martin Luther loved this short letter so much he said he was married to it. Its message is in one verse: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (5:1).

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Authorship & Setting

Paul names himself as the author, and almost no one, ancient or modern, has doubted it. He usually dictated his letters, but he wrote the end of this one himself: “Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand” (6:11). Some think the large letters point to poor eyesight, which might also explain why the Galatians would have plucked out their own eyes for him (4:15).

Galatia was a Roman province in what is now central Turkey. Scholars debate which churches Paul meant. Some think he wrote to the ethnic Galatians in the north of the province, sometime in the mid-50s AD. Many others believe he wrote to the churches he founded on his first missionary journey in the south: Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe (Acts 13–14). If so, Galatians may be Paul’s earliest surviving letter, written around AD 48–49, just before the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 settled the very question it addresses.

Either way, the issue is the same. The men troubling the Galatians, often called Judaizers, insisted Gentiles had to become Jews to be full members of God’s people. Paul answers in three movements: a personal defense of his gospel (chapters 1–2), a doctrinal argument from Scripture (chapters 3–4), and a practical picture of life in the Spirit (chapters 5–6).

Key Figures

• Paul — a former persecutor of the church who received his gospel “by the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1:12), not from any man.
• Peter (Cephas) — a pillar of the church whom Paul confronted publicly at Antioch for withdrawing from Gentile believers: “I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed” (2:11).
• James — the Lord’s brother and a leader in Jerusalem, who gave Paul the right hand of fellowship (1:19; 2:9).
• Barnabas — Paul’s partner, who was briefly “carried away” with Peter’s hypocrisy at Antioch (2:13).
• Titus — a Greek believer brought to Jerusalem as a test case. The apostles did not require him to be circumcised (2:3).
• Abraham — justified by faith centuries before the law was given, and the father of all who believe (3:6–9).
• Hagar and Sarah — the bondwoman and the freewoman, whose sons Paul uses as a picture of two covenants (4:21–31).

Greek Word Study

ἐλευθερία · eleutheria

“Liberty,” freedom. It is the theme word of the letter. Christ has set us free from the law as a way of being made right with God, and from sin’s slavery. But Paul guards it on both sides: freedom is not permission. “Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (5:13).

παιδαγωγός · paidagōgos

“Schoolmaster” (3:24). In a Roman household, this was a slave who looked after a boy until he came of age, walking him to school, watching his behavior, and correcting him. He was not the teacher and not the father. “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.”Once the son is grown, he no longer needs the guardian.

καρπός · karpos

“Fruit.” Notice that Paul writes “the fruit of the Spirit” (5:22), singular, not fruits. The works of the flesh are many and scattered. The fruit of the Spirit is one harvest, nine flavors of a single life, all growing together. Fruit is not manufactured. It grows from a living connection.

στίγματα · stigmata

“Marks,” the brands burned into a slave or soldier to show who he belonged to. “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus”(6:17). The false teachers wanted to boast in a mark on the Galatians’ flesh. Paul’s only marks were scars from beatings and stonings for Christ.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

No Other Gospel (1:1–10)

Paul is an apostle “not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead” (1:1). He wastes no time. The Galatians are deserting the One who called them, for a gospel that is not really a gospel at all, preached by people who “would pervert the gospel of Christ” (1:7). Paul pronounces a curse on any messenger, including himself or an angel, who preaches something different. He isn’t trying to win a popularity contest: “for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ” (1:10).

MOVEMENT TWO

A Gospel Not From Man (1:11–2:10)

Paul proves his gospel came straight from God. He had been the most zealous persecutor of the church, until God, who had set him apart from his mother’s womb, revealed His Son in him. He didn’t run to Jerusalem for approval. He went to Arabia, then to Damascus. Three years later he spent fifteen days with Peter. Fourteen years after that, he went up to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus. The leaders there added nothing to his message, did not require Titus to be circumcised, and gave Paul and Barnabas “the right hands of fellowship”(2:9). They asked only that they remember the poor.

MOVEMENT THREE

Withstood to the Face (2:11–21)

At Antioch, Peter had been eating freely with Gentile believers, until men came from James. Then he withdrew, afraid of what the circumcision party would think, and the other Jewish believers followed. Paul confronted him in front of everyone. The issue was the gospel itself: “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ” (2:16). Then comes one of the great verses of the New Testament: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (2:20). “For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain” (2:21).

MOVEMENT FOUR

O Foolish Galatians (3:1–14)

“O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?”(3:1). Paul asks them one question: “Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” (3:2). They knew the answer. “Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?” (3:3). Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness, so those who believe are his true children. The law, on the other hand, curses everyone who does not keep all of it. But “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree”(3:13), so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles.

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Schoolmaster and the Sons (3:15–4:7)

God’s promise to Abraham came 430 years before the law, and the law cannot cancel it. “Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions” (3:19), to show sin for what it is, until Christ came. The law was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Now that faith has come, we are all children of God by faith. “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (3:28). “But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (4:4–5). “Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son”(4:7).

MOVEMENT SIX

Why Go Back? (4:8–31)

Before they knew God, the Galatians were slaves to false gods. Why would they want to go back to “the weak and beggarly elements” (4:9), keeping days and months and seasons to earn favor? Paul reminds them how they once received him like an angel of God, despite the illness he had when he first preached to them. Now they treat him like an enemy for telling the truth. “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (4:19). Then he turns to Abraham’s two sons: one by a slave woman, born of the flesh, and one by the free woman, born by promise. “Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all”(4:26). “Cast out the bondwoman and her son”(4:30).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Stand Fast in Liberty (5:1–15)

“Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (5:1). If they let themselves be circumcised to be justified, Christ will profit them nothing. “Ye are fallen from grace” (5:4), Paul says, meaning they have stepped off grace as the ground they stand on. In Christ, circumcision means nothing either way: what counts is “faith which worketh by love”(5:6). “A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump”(5:9). And freedom is not a license for the flesh: “by love serve one another” (5:13), because the whole law is fulfilled in loving your neighbor as yourself.

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Walk in the Spirit (5:16–6:18)

“Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (5:16). Paul lists the works of the flesh, then the fruit of the Spirit: “love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law”(5:22–23). Restore a fallen brother in a spirit of meekness. “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ” (6:2). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” (6:7). “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (6:9). Paul closes in his own large handwriting: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ” (6:14).

Christ Typology

The Seed of Abraham. God promised Abraham that in his seed all nations would be blessed. Paul points out something about the wording: “He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ” (3:16). The promise was always headed toward one Descendant. Everyone who belongs to Christ becomes Abraham’s seed and an heir of the promise (3:29).

Isaac and Ishmael. Paul himself says, “Which things are an allegory” (4:24). Ishmael was born the ordinary way, when Abraham and Sarah tried to make God’s promise happen in their own strength. Isaac was born when it was humanly impossible, by God’s promise alone. Ishmael mocked Isaac, as those born of the flesh still persecute those born of the Spirit. Christ is the true Child of Promise, and in Him we are free sons, not slaves.

Hanged on a Tree. The law said, “he that is hanged is accursed of God” (Deuteronomy 21:23). To a first-century Jew, that verse made a crucified Messiah unthinkable. Paul turns it around: Jesus did hang on the tree, and He did bear the curse. It was our curse, the curse of the broken law, and He took it so we could receive the blessing.

The Seed of the Woman. God sent His Son “made of a woman” (4:4). The first promise of a Redeemer in the Bible was that the woman’s seed would crush the serpent’s head (Genesis 3:15). In the fulness of time, the promised Seed arrived, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under it.

The Heir Come of Age. Paul compares God’s people under the law to an heir who is still a child. Though he owns everything, he lives like a servant under guardians until the date his father has set (4:1–2). When Christ came, that date arrived. The Son came so that we could stop living as underage servants and cry, “Abba, Father” (4:6).

Personal Application

Guard the gospel. The danger in Galatia was not people denying Jesus. It was people adding to Him. Anytime someone says you need Jesus plus a ritual, plus a rule, plus a particular group’s approval, to be right with God, that is another gospel. It is still Jesus and nothing else.

Don’t go back to the yoke. Some believers who have been set free from heavy religious systems find themselves slipping back into the same patterns: earning, performing, fearing disapproval. Paul’s question still stands: having begun in the Spirit, are you trying to finish in the flesh? You were not saved by grace to be kept by works.

Crucified, and alive. “I am crucified with Christ” is not a call to try harder. It is a statement of fact. The old you was nailed to the cross with Him. The life you live now is His life in you, lived by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave Himself for you. Say it personally, the way Paul did: for me.

Restore gently. When a brother or sister falls, the Spirit-filled response is not to expose, shame, or discard them. It is to restore them in meekness, knowing you could fall too. Bearing one another’s burdens is how we fulfill the law of Christ.

Don’t grow weary. Sowing and reaping are separated by time. Whatever you have been faithfully sowing, in your family, your work, your service to others, the harvest has a due season, and God sets it. Don’t quit in the gap between planting and harvest.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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The Final Stretch

Where we are, where we’re going, and how this series will end

Folks, Lord willing, we are in the home stretch. Forty-six posts ago we started at “In the beginning”and we have walked together through the Law, the history books, the poets, the prophets, the four Gospels, Acts, and Paul’s letters to Rome and Corinth. Eighteen books remain in this series, from Galatians through Jude. Most of them are short letters, and a few of them fit on a single page.

I want to finish this strong. Not for my own sake, but because the One we have been tracing from Genesis forward deserves a finished work. Paul said near the end of his life, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith”(2 Timothy 4:7). That is the goal here. “If the Lord will” (James 4:15), we will finish this course, and I can close this chapter and move on to whatever He has next.

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A Spoiler Up Front: Revelation

I will not be writing a post on Revelation, and I want you to know that now so nobody is waiting on it.

Revelation opens with a promise that no other book in the Bible makes in quite the same way: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand” (1:3). And it closes with a solemn warning against anyone who would add to or take away from the words of that prophecy (22:18–19). I take both of those seriously. That blessing is promised to the one who reads it, and I want you to have it firsthand, not secondhand through me.

So this one is yours. Read it yourself, slowly and prayerfully. Keep Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, and Isaiah open beside you, because Revelation leans on them on nearly every page, and we have already walked through every one of them together. You have the tools now. Go do that work yourself. I’ve done enough of the chewing for you.

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How This Blog Will Close

After Jude, there will be one final post, and then this blog will be complete. It will be an overview of fraud in the clergy: its history, its impact on the lives of God’s children, and where it stands as we head out of 2026 and into the years ahead.

This is not new. Eli’s sons took the best of the sacrifices for themselves while the people watched (1 Samuel 2:12–17). Ezekiel thundered against shepherds who fed themselves and not the flock (Ezekiel 34:2). Jesus drove the money changers out of His Father’s house. Paul warned the elders at Ephesus that “grievous wolves” would come in among them, “not sparing the flock” (Acts 20:29). Peter said they would come “through covetousness”and “with feigned words make merchandise of you” (2 Peter 2:3). The pattern is as old as the priesthood, and the damage it does to sincere believers is real.

Let me be clear about one thing ahead of time. That post is not an attack on faithful shepherds. There are many of them, and Scripture says the elders who rule well are worthy of double honor (1 Timothy 5:17). But Jesus also told us, “Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing… Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:15–16). God’s people deserve to know how to tell the difference.

Thank you to every one of you who has read along, shared these posts, and sent a word of encouragement. Let’s finish this together.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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2 Corinthians

Treasure in Earthen Vessels

Second Corinthians is Paul’s most personal letter. In it he talks about despairing of life, about tears, about a thorn in the flesh he begged God to remove, and about a list of beatings, shipwrecks, and sleepless nights. He is writing to a church he loved, where some had been persuaded by smooth, impressive teachers that Paul was weak, unimpressive, and not much of an apostle.

Paul’s answer is surprising. He does not try to prove that he is strong. He agrees that he is weak, and then shows that weakness is exactly where God’s power is seen. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us” (4:7). This letter has comforted suffering believers for two thousand years, and it includes a verse that gave this blog its name: “For we walk by faith, not by sight” (5:7).

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Authorship & Setting

Paul names himself and Timothy in the opening line, and the letter’s authorship has never been seriously questioned. The history behind it takes some piecing together. After writing 1 Corinthians, Paul made what he calls a visit “in heaviness” (2:1), a painful trip in which someone in the church openly opposed him. Afterward he wrote a severe letter “out of much affliction and anguish of heart… with many tears” (2:4). Some think that letter is 1 Corinthians. Many think it was a separate letter that has not survived.

Paul then left Ephesus, anxious to hear how the Corinthians had received his letter. He couldn’t find Titus in Troas, so he went on to Macedonia, where Titus finally met him with good news: most of the church had repented and still loved Paul (7:5–7). From Macedonia, around AD 55–56, Paul wrote this letter. He was preparing to visit them a third time (12:14; 13:1) and to collect their offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem.

The tone changes sharply at chapter 10, where Paul turns to confront a group he sarcastically calls “the very chiefest apostles” (11:5). Some scholars believe chapters 10–13 were originally a separate letter. Every manuscript we have presents the letter as one, and a pastor who has just been comforted by a repentant majority while a stubborn minority still opposes him might well write exactly like this.

Key Figures

• Paul — an apostle “by the will of God” (1:1), defending his ministry not by his strength but by his sufferings.
• Timothy — Paul’s son in the faith and co-sender of the letter.
• Titus — Paul’s coworker, who carried the severe letter, brought back good news, and was sent again to complete the collection (7:6–7; 8:6, 16–17).
• The disciplined offender — a man who had been punished by the church and had repented. Paul urges them to forgive and comfort him, “lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow” (2:7).
• The Macedonian churches — poor and persecuted believers who begged to give generously to the saints in Jerusalem (8:1–5).
• The false apostles — impressive outsiders who preached “another Jesus” (11:4), boasted in their credentials, and took advantage of the church (11:13–20).
• A man in Christ — caught up to the third heaven fourteen years earlier, which Paul tells in the third person and then makes clear was his own experience (12:1–7).

Greek Word Study

παράκλησις · paraklēsis

“Comfort,” “encouragement,” literally a calling alongside. In 1:3–7, the noun and its verb appear about ten times in five verses. It is related to Paraclete, the name Jesus gives the Holy Spirit in John 14. God comforts us, not just so we feel better, but so we can come alongside others with the same comfort.

καταλλαγή · katallagē

“Reconciliation,” a change from enmity to friendship. God “hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation” (5:18). Notice who moved first. We did not reconcile God to us. He reconciled us to Himself, then sent us to tell others.

χάρις · charis

“Grace,” undeserved favor. In chapters 8–9, Paul uses it again and again for the offering itself: the grace given to the Macedonians, the grace of giving. The model for it all is “the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich” (8:9). Giving is grace flowing through us.

ἀσθένεια · astheneia

“Weakness,” infirmity, lack of strength. The false apostles despised it. Paul boasted in it: “Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me” (12:9). Weakness is not God’s obstacle. It is His opening.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

The God of All Comfort (1:1–2:13)

“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble” (1:3–4). Paul tells them that in Asia he was pressed beyond his strength, “insomuch that we despaired even of life” (1:8), so that he would learn to trust “in God which raiseth the dead” (1:9). He explains why he changed his travel plans: not because he was fickle, but to spare them another painful visit. God is not fickle either: “For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen” (1:20). He urges them to forgive the man who caused grief, “Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices” (2:11).

MOVEMENT TWO

Ministers of a New Covenant (2:14–3:18)

“Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place” (2:14). Paul doesn’t need letters of recommendation. “Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men” (3:2). He contrasts the old covenant, written on stone, with the new, written by the Spirit on hearts. Moses’ face shone so brightly after meeting God that he wore a veil, and Israel still reads the old covenant with a veil over their hearts. But when anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. “Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty”(3:17). “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory” (3:18).

MOVEMENT THREE

Treasure in Clay Jars (4:1–18)

Paul does not use deception or tamper with God’s word. If the gospel is hidden, it is hidden from those whose minds the god of this world has blinded. “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (4:6). That treasure is carried in clay pots, so everyone can see the power is God’s. “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (4:8–9). “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day” (4:16). Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us “a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (4:17).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Walking by Faith (5:1–6:13)

Our earthly body is a tent that will be taken down, but we have a building from God, eternal in the heavens. Meanwhile, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (5:7), and would rather be “absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord” (5:8). We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. “For the love of Christ constraineth us” (5:14). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (5:17). God has given us the ministry of reconciliation, so “we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (5:20–21). “Behold, now is the day of salvation” (6:2). Paul describes a ministry carried out “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things” (6:10).

MOVEMENT FIVE

Come Out From Among Them (6:14–7:16)

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers” (6:14). Light and darkness, Christ and Belial, the temple of God and idols have nothing in common. “For ye are the temple of the living God” (6:16). “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord”(6:17). Paul then opens his heart: when he came into Macedonia, he had fightings without and fears within, but God comforted him by the coming of Titus. He does not regret the severe letter, because it led them to real repentance. “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death” (7:10).

MOVEMENT SIX

The Grace of Giving (8:1–9:15)

The Macedonian churches, in “a great trial of affliction… and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality” (8:2). They begged to be included, because they “first gave their own selves to the Lord” (8:5). Paul points to the example of Christ, who became poor so that we might be rich, and to the manna in the wilderness: “He that had gathered much had nothing over; and he that had gathered little had no lack” (8:15). “He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully” (9:6). “For God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you” (9:7–8). It all ends in worship: “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift” (9:15).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Weapons Not Carnal (10:1–11:33)

Paul’s opponents said his letters were weighty but in person he was weak and his speech contemptible (10:10). He answers that his warfare is not fought the world’s way: “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds… and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” (10:4–5). He is jealous over them “with godly jealousy” (11:2), because they are tolerating false apostles. “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light”(11:14). Then, as a “fool,” Paul boasts, but not in his credentials. He boasts in his sufferings: five times thirty-nine lashes, three beatings with rods, a stoning, three shipwrecks, a night and a day in the deep, hunger, cold, and “the care of all the churches” (11:28). He ends the list with the most humiliating moment of all, being let down in a basket over the Damascus wall to escape.

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Strength Made Perfect in Weakness (12:1–13:14)

Paul tells of a man caught up to paradise who heard unspeakable words. Then he tells what came after: “there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure” (12:7). Three times he begged the Lord to take it away. The answer was no, and something better: “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (12:9). “For when I am weak, then am I strong” (12:10). Paul is coming a third time, and he tells them to get ready: “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith” (13:5). He closes with a benediction that names the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost together: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen” (13:14).

Christ Typology

The Veil Taken Away. When Moses came down from Sinai, his face shone, and he put a veil over it (Exodus 34:29–35). Paul says the glory of the old covenant was real but fading, and that a veil still lies over the heart when the old covenant is read. “Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away” (3:16). In Christ, believers behold God’s glory with unveiled faces and are changed into His image. Moses saw the glory and reflected it for a while. We see it in the face of Jesus Christ, and it keeps transforming us.

Gideon’s Pitchers. Many have noticed the echo between 2 Corinthians 4 and Judges 7. Gideon’s three hundred men carried lamps hidden inside clay pitchers. At the signal, they broke the pitchers, the light blazed out, and God won the battle. Paul writes that God has shined light into our hearts and that we carry this treasure in earthen vessels. When the clay is cracked, the light gets out, and everyone can see the victory is God’s.

Made Sin for Us. “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (5:21). On the Day of Atonement, the high priest laid his hands on the scapegoat and confessed Israel’s sins over it, and it carried them away (Leviticus 16:21–22). Isaiah said the Servant would make “his soul an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10). The sinless One took our sin, and we receive His righteousness. It is the great exchange.

The Manna Principle. Paul quotes Exodus 16:18 about the manna, where those who gathered much had nothing left over and those who gathered little had no lack. God gave His people bread from heaven, enough for everyone, and they shared it. Jesus is the true bread from heaven, and those who have received Him give in the same way: generously, trusting the God who supplies daily bread.

The Rich One Who Became Poor. Second Corinthians 8:9 is a whole gospel in one verse. The eternal Son, rich in the glory He had with the Father, became poor: born in a stable, raised in Nazareth, with nowhere to lay His head, and dying naked on a cross. He did it so that we could become rich in Him. This is why Paul calls the gift “unspeakable”(9:15).

Personal Application

Your comfort is meant to be passed on. Paul says God comforts us in all our tribulation so that we can comfort others in theirs. Whatever God has carried you through is not just your story. It is equipment. Someone else is in the place you used to be, and the comfort you received is meant for them too.

Walk by faith, not by sight. What you can see right now is not the whole picture. Paul’s outward man was wearing out, his circumstances were hard, and his reputation was under attack. But he looked at the things which are not seen, because those are eternal. Faith is not pretending the troubles aren’t real. It is trusting that they are light and momentary compared to what God is preparing.

You are a new creature. If any man be in Christ, the old has passed away. Your past sins, your old reputation, and the labels other people put on you do not define you. God does not see you through your history. He sees you in His Son.

Take every thought captive. Strongholds are not usually built in a day. They are built one thought at a time: a lie believed, a fear rehearsed, a grudge replayed. Paul’s weapons are not carnal. Answer the lies with the truth of God’s word, and bring those thoughts back under Christ’s authority, again and again.

God’s grace is sufficient. Paul prayed three times for the thorn to go, and God said no. Sometimes the answer to our prayer is not removal but grace to carry on. If you are living with a thorn that has not gone away, it may be the very place where Christ’s power rests on you. When you are weak, then you are strong.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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1 Corinthians

The More Excellent Way

If you have ever thought your church had problems, read 1 Corinthians. The believers in Corinth were split into factions over their favorite preachers. A man was living with his father’s wife, and the church was proud of how tolerant it was. Members were suing each other in pagan courts. Some got drunk at the Lord’s Supper while others went home hungry. Their worship services were chaotic, and some of them were saying there is no resurrection of the dead.

And yet Paul opens by calling them “sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints” (1:2), and thanking God for them. That is the gospel at work. God does not wait for a church to be fixed before He calls it His. Out of this messy congregation came some of the most treasured chapters in the Bible: the foolishness of the cross, the body with many members, the love chapter, and the great resurrection chapter that ends in shouting at death itself.

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Authorship & Setting

Corinth sat on the narrow isthmus between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese, with a harbor on each side, so trade from east and west passed through it. The Romans destroyed the old Greek city in 146 BC, and Julius Caesar refounded it as a Roman colony in 44 BC. By Paul’s day it was wealthy, crowded, proud, and known for its immorality. Above the city, on the hill called Acrocorinth, stood a temple of Aphrodite. Long before Paul, the Greeks had coined a verb, “to Corinthianize,” meaning to live immorally.

Paul founded the church on his second missionary journey and stayed eighteen months (Acts 18:11), working as a tentmaker with Priscilla and Aquila. A few years later, while ministering in Ephesus (16:8), he received bad reports from “them which are of the house of Chloe” (1:11) and a letter from the church asking questions. He answers the reports first, then works through their letter, often starting a new topic with “Now concerning” (7:1; 8:1; 12:1; 16:1). He mentions an earlier letter that we no longer have (5:9). 1 Corinthians was written around AD 53–55.

The co-sender is “Sosthenes our brother” (1:1). He may be the same Sosthenes who, as ruler of the Corinthian synagogue, was beaten in front of the governor Gallio (Acts 18:17). If so, the man who once led the opposition was now standing with Paul.

Key Figures

• Paul — the church’s spiritual father, who planted it (3:6) and wrote to it “as my beloved sons” (4:14).
• Apollos — an eloquent teacher from Alexandria who watered what Paul had planted. Paul never treats him as a rival, only as a fellow servant (3:5–9; 16:12).
• Cephas (Peter) — named as one of the leaders the factions rallied around, and as a witness of the risen Christ (1:12; 15:5).
• Chloe’s household — the people who reported the divisions to Paul (1:11).
• Sosthenes — Paul’s co-sender, possibly the former synagogue ruler of Corinth.
• The immoral man — a church member living with his father’s wife, whom Paul tells the church to put out, for the saving of his spirit (5:1–5).
• Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus — members who came to Paul and refreshed his spirit. Stephanas’s household was the first fruits of Achaia and had “addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints” (16:15–17).

Greek Word Study

σχίσμα · schisma

“Division,” a tear or rip, like a tear in a garment. “I beseech you… that there be no divisions among you” (1:10). Paul uses it again for the divisions at the Lord’s table (11:18) and in the body (12:25). It is the word our “schism” comes from. Factions tear the body of Christ.

χάρισμα · charisma

“Gift of grace,” a gift freely given. It comes from charis, grace. Paul uses it for the spiritual gifts in chapter 12. The point is in the word itself: these are gifts, not achievements. Nobody earned a charisma, so nobody can boast in one.

ἀγάπη · agapē

“Love,” translated “charity” in the KJV of chapter 13. It is the self-giving love that seeks another’s good at its own cost. The Corinthians prized knowledge, eloquence, and spectacular gifts. Paul says without agapē they are nothing more than noise. “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (8:1).

ἀνάστασις · anastasis

“Resurrection,” literally a standing up again. Some in Corinth taught “that there is no resurrection of the dead” (15:12). Paul answers with the longest teaching on the resurrection in the Bible. Christianity does not stand without it.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Divided Over Preachers (1:1–4:21)

“Every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided?” (1:12–13). The Corinthians were treating preachers like philosophers to follow. Paul answers with the cross: “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God”(1:18). God chose the foolish, the weak, and the despised, “That no flesh should glory in his presence” (1:29). Paul came “determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified” (2:2). “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase” (3:6). “For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ” (3:11), and every man’s work will be tested by fire.

MOVEMENT TWO

Purge Out the Old Leaven (5:1–6:20)

The church is tolerating sexual immorality that even pagans condemned, and they are puffed up about it. Paul tells them to remove the man so that he might be brought to repentance, and to clean out the old leaven: “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (5:7). Believers are taking each other to court before unbelievers. Then Paul gives a list of sins that exclude people from God’s kingdom, and follows it with grace: “And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” (6:11). The body matters to God. “Ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body” (6:19–20).

MOVEMENT THREE

Marriage and Singleness (7:1–40)

Answering their letter, Paul teaches that husband and wife belong to each other and should not deprive one another. Believers should not leave their marriages, even to unbelieving spouses, if the unbeliever is willing to stay. Each person should serve God in the situation where He called them. Paul also commends singleness as a gift that frees a person for undivided devotion to the Lord, while saying clearly that marriage is no sin. “But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and another after that” (7:7). And over it all: “the time is short” (7:29).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Liberty and Love (8:1–11:1)

Can a Christian eat meat that was sacrificed to an idol? Paul agrees that idols are nothing, but “Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth” (8:1). If my freedom wounds a weaker brother’s conscience, I sin against Christ. Paul himself gave up his rights for the gospel: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (9:22). He disciplined his body like a runner going for the prize. Then he points to Israel in the wilderness, who all ate the manna and yet fell. “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples” (10:11). “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able” (10:13). “Whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God”(10:31).

MOVEMENT FIVE

Order at the Lord’s Table (11:2–34)

Paul addresses head coverings in worship, a passage believers have long applied in different ways, but with a clear principle about honor and God’s order. Then he turns to something worse. At their shared meals, the wealthy were eating first and getting drunk while poorer members went hungry, and they were calling it the Lord’s Supper. Paul reminds them what Jesus did on the night He was betrayed: “this do in remembrance of me” (11:24). “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come” (11:26). A man should examine himself before he eats, and discern the Lord’s body.

MOVEMENT SIX

One Body, Many Members (12:1–31)

“Now concerning spiritual gifts.” There are diversities of gifts, administrations, and operations, but the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God. “But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal” (12:7). The church is a body. The foot is not less a part of it because it is not a hand. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of thee.” “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him” (12:18). The members that seem weaker are necessary. When one member suffers, all suffer with it. Then Paul says, “and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way” (12:31).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

The More Excellent Way (13:1–14:40)

Tongues without love are noise. Prophecy, knowledge, mountain-moving faith, and even martyrdom without love are nothing. “Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up” (13:4). Every gift the Corinthians bragged about will pass away. “Charity never faileth” (13:8). “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face” (13:12). “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity”(13:13). In chapter 14, Paul applies this to their worship. Every gift exercised in the assembly must build up the church. “For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (14:33). “Let all things be done decently and in order” (14:40).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

If Christ Be Not Raised (15:1–16:24)

Paul gives the gospel he received: “that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (15:3–4). He lists the witnesses, including more than five hundred at once, most still alive. “And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (15:17). “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept”(15:20). “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive” (15:22). The body is sown in corruption and raised in incorruption. “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump… the dead shall be raised incorruptible”(15:52). “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” (15:55). So be steadfast, “forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord” (15:58). Paul closes with the collection, travel plans, and a word in Aramaic: “Maran-atha” (16:22), “Our Lord, come.”

Christ Typology

Christ Our Passover. At Passover, Israel had to remove every bit of leaven from their homes before the lamb was slain. Paul tells the Corinthians to clean out the old leaven of malice and wickedness, “For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us” (5:7). The Lamb has already been slain, so the household should be clean. Holiness is not how we get the Lamb. It is how we live because the Lamb was given.

The Rock That Followed Them. Israel in the wilderness “did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ” (10:3–4). The rock Moses struck at Horeb poured out water for a thirsty nation (Exodus 17:6). Paul does not say it was merely a picture of Christ. He says Christ was there, supplying His people in the wilderness long before Bethlehem.

The Firstfruits. Under the law, on the day after the sabbath during the week of Unleavened Bread, Israel brought the first sheaf of the barley harvest and waved it before the LORD (Leviticus 23:10–11). It was the promise that the full harvest was coming. Jesus rose on that very day, the first day of the week after the Passover sabbath. Paul calls Him “the firstfruits of them that slept” (15:20). His resurrection is the first sheaf. Ours is the harvest.

The Foundation and the Temple. Paul calls Christ the only foundation (3:11), and then tells the church, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (3:16). The glory that once filled Solomon’s temple now dwells in a people built on Christ. That is why divisions, immorality, and lawsuits are so serious: they deface God’s dwelling place.

Maranatha. Paul ends with an Aramaic prayer that the earliest believers clearly used often enough that Gentile churches in Greece knew it: “Maran-atha,” “Our Lord, come.” It is the same longing that closes the whole Bible: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus”(Revelation 22:20). It is also the word that closes every post in this series.

Personal Application

Follow Christ, not personalities. The Corinthians were not following false teachers. Paul, Apollos, and Peter were all faithful men. The problem was that the people had made them into team captains. Gifted preachers are servants, “ministers by whom ye believed” (3:5). If your faith rises and falls with a particular leader, it is built on the wrong foundation.

Your body belongs to God. Corinth said what you do with your body doesn’t matter to your spirit. Paul said it matters a great deal: your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and it was bought with a price. Holiness is not just about what you believe. It is about what you do with your eyes, your hands, and your appetites.

Let love limit your liberty. You may be free to do something, and still choose not to do it because it would harm a weaker brother or sister. Mature believers measure their choices not only by “Is this allowed?” but by “Does this build up the people around me?”

You are needed in the body. If you have felt like a foot among hands, or a member nobody notices, Paul says God placed you exactly where it pleased Him. The church is not complete without you. And if you have been tempted to tell another member “I have no need of thee,” the same chapter answers you.

Your labor is not in vain. Every verse of the resurrection chapter leads to its last line. Because Christ is risen, nothing done for Him is wasted: not the prayers no one heard, not the service no one thanked you for, not the faithfulness no one saw. Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. Maranatha.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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Romans

The Just Shall Live by Faith

Few books have changed history the way Romans has. In AD 386, a restless young teacher named Augustine heard a child’s voice say, “Take up and read,” opened to Romans 13:13–14, and was converted. In the early 1500s, a troubled monk named Martin Luther wrestled with Romans 1:17 until he understood that the righteousness of God is a gift received by faith, and the Reformation followed. In 1738, John Wesley listened to someone reading Luther’s preface to Romans at a meeting on Aldersgate Street and felt his heart “strangely warmed.” Again and again, God has used this letter to wake up His church.

Romans is the fullest explanation of the gospel in the Bible. Paul starts with the bad news, that the whole world stands guilty before God, and then lays out the good news step by step: justification by faith, peace with God, freedom from sin’s power, life in the Spirit, God’s faithfulness to Israel, and what a transformed life looks like. Its theme is in the first chapter: “For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith” (1:17).

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Authorship & Setting

Paul names himself as the author in the first line, and no serious voice in the early church ever doubted it. He dictated the letter to a scribe, who added his own greeting near the end: “I Tertius, who wrote this epistle, salute you in the Lord” (16:22). The letter was carried to Rome by Phoebe, “a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea” (16:1), the port town of Corinth.

Paul wrote from Corinth near the end of his third missionary journey, around AD 57. He was about to carry the offering from the Gentile churches to the poor believers in Jerusalem (15:25–26), and afterward he hoped to visit Rome on his way to Spain (15:24, 28). He had never been to Rome. He did eventually get there, but as a prisoner, as Acts records.

The church in Rome had both Jewish and Gentile believers. Around AD 49, the emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome (Acts 18:2), and for a few years the church there would have been mostly Gentile. When Jewish believers returned after Claudius died in 54, there were real tensions over the law, food, and holy days. Much of Romans, especially chapters 9–11 and 14–15, speaks right into that situation: one gospel, one body, Jew and Gentile alike.

Key Figures

• Paul — a servant of Jesus Christ, “called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God” (1:1).
• Abraham — the father of all who believe, declared righteous by faith before he was ever circumcised (4:1–25).
• David — who described the blessedness of the man whose sins are forgiven and covered (4:6–8).
• Adam — the one man through whom sin and death entered the world, “the figure of him that was to come” (5:14).
• Israel — Paul’s own people, whom he loved so much he could wish himself accursed for their sake (9:3), and whom God has not cast away (11:1–2).
• Phoebe — a servant of the church at Cenchrea who had helped many, including Paul, and who carried the letter to Rome (16:1–2).
• Priscilla and Aquila — Paul’s coworkers, who “have for my life laid down their own necks” (16:3–4), and who now hosted a church in their home in Rome.

Greek Word Study

δικαιοσύνη · dikaiosynē

“Righteousness,” being right with God. In Romans, it is first God’s own righteousness, His perfect justice. Then it is the right standing God gives to those who believe. The related verb dikaioō, “to justify,” means to declare someone righteous, as a judge would in court. It does not mean God pretends we are good. It means He declares us right with Him because of Christ.

ἱλαστήριον · hilastērion

“Propitiation” (3:25), the sacrifice that satisfies God’s righteous wrath against sin. In the Greek Old Testament this same word is used for the mercy seat, the lid of the ark of the covenant where the high priest sprinkled blood on the Day of Atonement. Hebrews 9:5 uses it that way too. God set Christ forth as the mercy seat.

λογίζομαι · logizomai

“To count,” “to reckon,” “to impute.” It is an accounting word. “Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness” (4:3). Paul uses it again and again in chapter 4. Righteousness was credited to Abraham’s account, not earned. Then in 6:11, Paul uses the same word for us: reckon yourselves dead to sin and alive to God. Count on what God has counted true.

κατάκριμα · katakrima

“Condemnation,” the sentence of a judge that follows a guilty verdict. Paul uses it in chapter 5 for what came through Adam (5:16, 18). Then he opens chapter 8 with “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (8:1). The sentence has been cancelled.

Eight-Movement Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Not Ashamed of the Gospel (1:1–17)

Paul introduces himself and his gospel: it concerns God’s Son, “made of the seed of David according to the flesh; And declared to be the Son of God with power… by the resurrection from the dead” (1:3–4). He tells the Romans he has long wanted to visit them. Then he states his theme: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (1:16). The righteousness of God is revealed in it, from faith to faith, and the just shall live by faith.

MOVEMENT TWO

The Whole World Guilty (1:18–3:20)

Before the good news, Paul makes sure everyone knows they need it. The Gentiles had the witness of creation, yet they “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator” (1:25), and God gave them up to their own desires. The moral person who judges others is guilty of the same things (2:1). The Jew had the law but did not keep it. Paul strings together verses from the Psalms and Isaiah: “There is none righteous, no, not one” (3:10). The law speaks so that “every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God” (3:19). Nobody gets in on their own record.

MOVEMENT THREE

Justified Freely by His Grace (3:21–4:25)

Then comes the turning point: “But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested”(3:21). “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”(3:23–24). God set Christ forth as a propitiation, “that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (3:26). In chapter 4, Paul proves this is not new. Abraham was declared righteous by faith before he was circumcised, so he is the father of all who believe. He believed God “who quickeneth the dead” (4:17), and so do we. Jesus “was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification” (4:25).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Peace with God and the Two Adams (5:1–21)

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (5:1). Even tribulation becomes useful, producing patience, experience, and hope that does not make ashamed, because God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Ghost. And this is how we know that love: “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (5:8). Then Paul steps back to see the whole human story in two men. Through Adam’s disobedience, sin and death came to all. Through Christ’s obedience, grace and righteousness come to many. “But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound” (5:20).

MOVEMENT FIVE

Dead to Sin, Alive to God (6:1–7:25)

“Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid” (6:1–2). Grace does not make sin safe. In baptism we were buried with Christ and raised to walk in newness of life. “Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (6:11). Sin pays wages, but God gives a gift: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord”(6:23). In chapter 7, Paul describes the struggle of a man who loves God’s law but finds another law at work in him: “For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (7:19). He cries, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”and answers his own question: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (7:24–25).

MOVEMENT SIX

No Condemnation (8:1–39)

Romans 8 begins with no condemnation and ends with no separation. The Spirit of life in Christ has set us free from the law of sin and death. We have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but “the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father” (8:15). The whole creation groans, waiting for the day of redemption, and we groan with it, but the Spirit helps our weakness and intercedes for us. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (8:28). “If God be for us, who can be against us?” (8:31). “Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us” (8:37). Neither death nor life, angels nor principalities, nor anything else in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

MOVEMENT SEVEN

What About Israel? (9:1–11:36)

If the gospel is for everyone who believes, what has happened to God’s promises to Israel? Paul writes with great sorrow. God’s word has not failed. His promises have always run through His sovereign choice, not mere physical descent: Isaac, not Ishmael; Jacob, not Esau. Israel stumbled because it sought righteousness by works instead of faith. And the way of faith is open to all: “if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (10:9). “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (10:17). But God has not cast away His people. There is a remnant chosen by grace. Gentile believers are wild branches grafted into the olive tree, and must not boast. “And so all Israel shall be saved” (11:26), because “the gifts and calling of God are without repentance” (11:29). Believers understand that verse differently, but every reading agrees that God keeps His word. Paul ends in worship: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God!” (11:33).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

A Living Sacrifice (12:1–16:27)

Eleven chapters of doctrine turn into five chapters of life: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:1–2). Paul describes the church as one body with many gifts, and love without hypocrisy: “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good” (12:21). He addresses the governing authorities, and the debt of love: “Owe no man any thing, but to love one another”(13:8). He tells believers who disagree over food and holy days to stop judging each other: “Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God” (15:7). He closes by greeting more than two dozen people by name, many of them women who labored in the gospel, and with a promise: “the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly”(16:20).

Christ Typology

Adam, the Figure of Him to Come. Paul calls Adam “the figure of him that was to come”(5:14). The Greek word for “figure” is typos, the word our English “type” comes from. This is the Bible itself doing typology. Adam was the head of the old humanity, and his one act of disobedience brought condemnation to all who are in him. Christ is the head of the new humanity, and His one act of obedience brings life and righteousness to all who are in Him. Everyone belongs to one man or the other.

The Mercy Seat. Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the high priest went behind the veil and sprinkled blood on the mercy seat, the golden lid of the ark, covering the broken law inside. Paul says God set forth Christ “to be a propitiation through faith in his blood” (3:25), using the same Greek word the Old Testament used for the mercy seat. Christ is the place where God’s justice and mercy meet, and it is His blood that covers our sin.

Abraham and the God Who Raises the Dead. Abraham believed God’s promise of a son when his own body was “now dead” and Sarah’s womb was dead (4:19). He believed in the God “who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were” (4:17). Paul says this was written for us too, because we believe in the same God, “him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead” (4:24). The child of promise born from a dead womb pointed to the Son of promise raised from a sealed tomb.

The Stumbling Stone. Paul joins two of Isaiah’s prophecies: “Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed” (9:33). The same stone that saves those who trust it trips up those who try to build their own way. Christ is either your foundation or the thing you keep tripping over.

The Deliverer out of Sion. Paul quotes Isaiah 59: “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob” (11:26). The God who promised a Redeemer to Israel has sent Him, and He will finish what He started, for Jew and Gentile alike.

Personal Application

Do not be ashamed of the gospel. Paul was headed to the capital of the most powerful empire on earth, a city full of philosophers, politicians, and pagan temples, and his message was a crucified Jew from Galilee. He wasn’t embarrassed. The gospel is not one opinion among many. It is the power of God for salvation.

Live in the “no condemnation.” Many believers know Romans 8:1 by heart and still live under a cloud of guilt for sins God has already forgiven. Conviction from the Spirit is specific and points you to Christ. Condemnation is vague and points you to yourself. If you are in Christ Jesus, the verdict is in, and it will not be overturned.

Trust Romans 8:28 the way Paul meant it. It does not say all things are good. It says God works all things together for good to those who love Him. The next verse tells us what that good is: to be conformed to the image of His Son. He wastes nothing, not even the hard things, in making you more like Jesus.

Offer yourself as a living sacrifice. Old Testament sacrifices were killed and burned. God asks for something harder: a sacrifice that stays on the altar while it is still alive and able to climb off. It starts in the mind. Renew your mind in the word of God, and your life will follow.

Receive one another. The Roman believers disagreed about meat and holy days, and both sides were tempted to look down on the other. Paul did not tell them those questions were meaningless. He told them to stop judging another man’s servant, because each of us will give account to God. Where Scripture is clear, stand firm. Where faithful believers differ, receive one another as Christ received you.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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Acts

Ye Shall Be Witnesses

Luke opens his second volume with a sentence that changes how we read the whole New Testament: “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach” (1:1). Began. The Gospel of Luke was only the start of what Jesus did. The book of Acts is what He kept doing, now from the right hand of the Father, by His Spirit, through His church.

In thirty years, a frightened group of about a hundred and twenty people in an upstairs room becomes a movement that reaches Samaria, Ethiopia, Antioch, Asia Minor, Greece, and finally Rome itself. Prisons cannot hold it. Persecution only spreads it. And the book ends without really ending. The last verse leaves Paul in Rome, “preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ, with all confidence, no man forbidding him” (28:31). The story is still being written.

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Authorship & Setting

Acts is the second half of Luke’s two-volume work, addressed to the same Theophilus. At several points the writer stops saying “they” and starts saying “we” (16:10–17; 20:5–21:18; 27:1–28:16), which tells us he was there for much of Paul’s travels, including the voyage and shipwreck on the way to Rome. The early church unanimously named Luke, the beloved physician, as its author.

The book covers about thirty years, from Jesus’ ascension around AD 30 to Paul’s two years under house arrest in Rome, around AD 60–62. Luke says nothing about the outcome of Paul’s trial, the persecution under Nero, Paul’s death, or the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. For that reason, many conservative scholars believe Acts was written around AD 62, right where the story stops. Others date it later.

Jesus gives the book’s outline Himself in 1:8: “ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Chapters 1–7 take place in Jerusalem. Chapters 8–12 move into Judaea and Samaria and open the door to the Gentiles. Chapters 13–28 carry the gospel across the Roman world. Peter leads the first half of the book, and Paul leads the second.

Key Figures

• Peter — the fisherman who denied Jesus, now preaching boldly at Pentecost and opening the door of the gospel to the Gentiles.
• Stephen — a deacon “full of faith and power”(6:8), the church’s first martyr, who died praying for the men stoning him.
• Philip the evangelist — who preached Christ in Samaria and led an Ethiopian official to faith on a desert road (8:5–40).
• Saul of Tarsus, called Paul — a Pharisee who persecuted the church until the risen Jesus stopped him on the road to Damascus, and who became the apostle to the Gentiles.
• Barnabas — whose name means “The son of consolation” (4:36). He vouched for Saul when no one else would, and later gave his cousin Mark a second chance.
• Cornelius — a Roman centurion who feared God and prayed. He was the first Gentile household to receive the Holy Spirit (10:1–48).
• Lydia — a seller of purple from Thyatira, “whose heart the Lord opened” (16:14). She was the first convert in Europe.
• Priscilla and Aquila — a tentmaking husband and wife who worked with Paul, risked their lives for him, and taught the eloquent Apollos the way of God more perfectly (18:1–28).

Greek Word Study

μάρτυς · martys

“Witness,” one who testifies to what he has seen. “Ye shall be witnesses unto me”(1:8). So many of these witnesses died for their testimony, beginning with Stephen, that the word eventually came into English as martyr. A witness doesn’t need to be clever. He only needs to tell the truth about what he has seen.

δύναμις · dynamis

“Power,” ability, might. “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you” (1:8). It is the same word used for Jesus’ mighty works. The church was not told to go in its own strength. It was told to wait until it was clothed with power from on high.

ἐκκλησία · ekklēsia

“Church,” literally “called-out ones,” an assembly summoned together. In the Greek Old Testament it described the congregation of Israel. In Acts it means a people, not a building. The church met in houses, by rivers, and in rented halls, and was the church in every one of them.

παρρησία · parrēsia

“Boldness,” freedom of speech, plainness. The council marveled at the boldness of Peter and John, “and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (4:13). The church prayed for boldness and was filled with the Spirit (4:29–31). And the very last phrase of Acts, “with all confidence” (28:31), translates this same word.

Eight-Movement Narrative Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Wait for the Promise (1:1–26)

For forty days after His resurrection, Jesus shows Himself alive and speaks of the kingdom. He tells His disciples not to leave Jerusalem but to “wait for the promise of the Father” (1:4). Then He gives them their commission and is taken up into a cloud. Two men in white tell them, “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (1:11). The disciples go back to the upper room and continue “with one accord in prayer and supplication” (1:14), with the women, Mary, and Jesus’ brothers. Matthias is chosen to replace Judas.

MOVEMENT TWO

Pentecost (2:1–47)

On the day of Pentecost, a sound like a rushing mighty wind fills the house, tongues like fire rest on each of them, and they are all filled with the Holy Ghost. Jews from every nation hear them speaking “the wonderful works of God”in their own languages (2:11). Peter, the man who denied Jesus to a servant girl, stands up and preaches to thousands. He quotes Joel and David and declares that God has made the crucified Jesus both Lord and Christ. Pierced in heart, they ask what to do. “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost” (2:38). About three thousand are added that day, and they continue “stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers” (2:42).

MOVEMENT THREE

Boldness in Jerusalem (3:1–5:42)

At the temple gate called Beautiful, Peter tells a man lame from birth, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (3:6). He leaps up praising God. Peter and John are arrested and told to stop speaking in Jesus’ name. Instead Peter declares, “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (4:12). The church prays for boldness, and the place where they are gathered is shaken. Ananias and Sapphira lie to the Holy Ghost and fall dead. The apostles are jailed, freed by an angel, and arrested again: “We ought to obey God rather than men” (5:29). Beaten and released, they leave “rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name”(5:41).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Stephen (6:1–8:3)

When a complaint arises about the daily care of widows, the church chooses seven men full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom to serve, including Stephen. Stephen does great wonders and is dragged before the council on false charges. His defense walks through Israel’s history, from Abraham to Joseph to Moses to Solomon, showing a people who always resisted the ones God sent. The council is enraged, but Stephen, looking up, sees “the Son of man standing on the right hand of God” (7:56). They stone him. He prays, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” and “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge” (7:59–60). A young man named Saul watches the coats and consents to his death.

MOVEMENT FIVE

Scattered Seed (8:4–9:43)

Persecution drives the believers out of Jerusalem, “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word” (8:4). Philip preaches Christ in Samaria, and the city is filled with joy. Then an angel sends him to a desert road, where an Ethiopian treasury official is reading Isaiah 53. Philip “began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus”(8:35), and the man is baptized on the spot. Meanwhile Saul, breathing out threats, is struck down by a light on the Damascus road: “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” (9:4). Blind for three days, he is visited by a frightened disciple named Ananias, receives his sight, and begins preaching Jesus as the Son of God. Barnabas brings him to the apostles. Peter heals Aeneas and raises Dorcas.

MOVEMENT SIX

The Door Opens to the Gentiles (10:1–12:25)

An angel tells the centurion Cornelius to send for Peter. Meanwhile in Joppa, Peter sees a vision of unclean animals and hears, “What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common” (10:15). He goes to Cornelius’s house and says, “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons”(10:34). While he is still speaking, the Holy Ghost falls on the Gentiles. The church in Jerusalem accepts it, and in Antioch, where Jews and Gentiles worship together, “the disciples were called Christians first” (11:26). Herod kills James and jails Peter, “but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him” (12:5). An angel leads Peter out of prison, and he knocks at the door of the very house where they are praying for him.

MOVEMENT SEVEN

To the Ends of the Earth (13:1–20:38)

The Holy Ghost sends Barnabas and Saul out from Antioch. Saul, now called Paul, preaches in synagogues and cities across Cyprus and Asia Minor. When Jewish believers insist Gentile converts must be circumcised, the council at Jerusalem decides that “through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved”(15:11), Jew and Gentile alike. A vision calls Paul into Macedonia. In Philippi, Lydia believes, and Paul and Silas are beaten and jailed. At midnight they pray and sing praises, an earthquake opens the doors, and the jailer asks how to be saved: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house”(16:31). The Bereans search the scriptures daily. In Athens, Paul preaches the unknown God. He spends years in Corinth and Ephesus, and bids the Ephesian elders farewell with the words of Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (20:35).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

Bound for Rome (21:1–28:31)

Paul goes to Jerusalem knowing chains await him, and he is seized in the temple and nearly killed by a mob. Over the next years he gives his testimony again and again: to the crowd, to the council, to the governors Felix and Festus, and to King Agrippa, who tells him, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian” (26:28). Paul appeals to Caesar and sails for Rome. A storm drives the ship for two weeks, and an angel stands by Paul in the night: “Fear not, Paul; thou must be brought before Caesar” (27:24). The ship breaks apart off Malta, and all 276 aboard reach land alive. A viper fastens on Paul’s hand, and he shakes it off unharmed. At last he arrives in Rome, a prisoner in his own rented house, and preaches to all who come to him.

Christ Typology

Sinai and Pentecost. Pentecost, the Feast of Weeks, came fifty days after Passover, and Jewish tradition came to associate it with the giving of the law at Sinai. At Sinai, God came down in fire and the mountain shook, and after the golden calf, “there fell of the people that day about three thousand men”(Exodus 32:28). At Pentecost, the Spirit came down with fire, and about three thousand were saved (Acts 2:41). Paul put it this way: “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Corinthians 3:6). The law written on stone exposed sin. The Spirit writes God’s law on human hearts.

Babel Reversed. At Babel, proud men tried to build a tower to heaven, and God confused their language and scattered them across the earth (Genesis 11). At Pentecost, God came down from heaven, and people from every nation heard the gospel in their own languages. At Babel, language divided the nations. At Pentecost, the Spirit began gathering them into one people in Christ.

The Rejected Stone. Before the council that crucified Jesus, Peter quotes Psalm 118: “This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner”(4:11). The builders of Israel looked at Jesus and threw Him on the rubble pile. God raised Him from the dead and made Him the cornerstone of an entirely new temple, built out of living stones from every nation.

Stephen Dies Like His Lord. Luke writes Stephen’s death so it echoes Jesus’ death, which he recorded in his first volume. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them” and “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit.” Stephen prays, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge”and “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Notice that Stephen prays to Jesus the way Jesus prayed to the Father. And notice what Stephen saw: the Son of man standing, as though He had risen from His throne to receive His servant home.

Christ in His Body. Saul never laid a hand on Jesus. He persecuted Christians. Yet the risen Lord asks, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?” Christ is so united to His people that what is done to them is done to Him. That is the deepest reason Acts begins with “all that Jesus began.” He has not stopped. The church is His body, and He is still at work in it.

Personal Application

Wait for power before you run. The disciples had been with Jesus for three years, seen Him risen, and received the Great Commission. And He told them to wait. Ministry in our own strength wears us out and accomplishes little. Ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit, and keep asking. The book of Acts shows the same people being filled again and again (2:4; 4:31).

Boldness comes from being with Jesus. The council did not see trained speakers in Peter and John. They saw unlearned and ignorant men, and they could tell where those men had been. Time with Jesus is not preparation for the real work. It is the source of it.

No one is beyond His reach. If you had told the church in Acts 8 that Saul of Tarsus would become their greatest missionary, they would have laughed or wept. Keep praying for the people you think are too far gone. The Lord who stopped Saul on the Damascus road is still in the business of interrupting people.

Be a Barnabas. When Saul came to Jerusalem, the disciples were afraid of him. Barnabas took him by the hand and brought him in. Later, when Paul gave up on Mark, Barnabas gave him another chance, and Mark went on to write a Gospel. The church needs prophets, teachers, and evangelists. It also needs sons and daughters of consolation who will stand beside the person no one else will trust yet.

Sing at midnight. Paul and Silas were beaten, bleeding, and chained in the inner prison. At midnight, they prayed and sang praises to God, “and the prisoners heard them” (16:25). Someone is always listening to how a believer handles the dark. Your praise in a hard place may be the very thing that leads another person to ask, “What must I do to be saved?”

Acts has twenty-eight chapters, and the story isn’t finished. Luke ends with the gospel still going out, boldly and without hindrance. The same Spirit who filled that upper room fills believers today, and the same commission stands: to Jerusalem, Judaea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. The church is still writing the twenty-ninth chapter, and you are part of it.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

T

John

That Ye Might Believe

Matthew starts with Abraham. Luke goes back to Adam. John goes back before creation itself: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (1:1). The first three words are the same as the first three words of Genesis. John is telling us that before there was a world, there was Jesus, and that the One who walked the dusty roads of Galilee is the One through whom “all things were made” (1:3).

John is different from the other three Gospels. Most of what he records is found nowhere else: the wedding at Cana, Nicodemus by night, the woman at the well, the raising of Lazarus, the long upper room discourse, and Thomas touching the wounds. John tells us exactly why he wrote: “But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (20:31). Every sign and every conversation in the book is chosen to bring a reader to faith.

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Authorship & Setting

The author never gives his name. He calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” and says he leaned on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper (13:23; 21:20). The closing verses identify him as the eyewitness behind the book: “This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things” (21:24). The early church held that this was John, the son of Zebedee and brother of James, one of the inner three with Peter. Irenaeus, writing around AD 180, said John published his Gospel while living at Ephesus. Irenaeus had learned this as a young man from Polycarp, who had known John personally.

Tradition places the writing late in John’s life, around AD 85–95, making it the last of the four Gospels. Some scholars argue for an earlier date. Either way, John seems to assume his readers already know the basic story, so he supplies what the others left out, and goes deeper into who Jesus is.

The book is built around seven signs, from water turned to wine to Lazarus raised from the dead, and seven “I am” sayings: the bread of life, the light of the world, the door, the good shepherd, the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth, and the life, and the true vine. One note on the text: the account of the woman taken in adultery (7:53–8:11) is not found in the earliest manuscripts, and many Bibles mark it. Many believe it records a true event preserved by the church, and it fits everything else we know of Jesus.

Key Figures

• John the Baptist — the witness sent from God, who pointed away from himself: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (3:30).
• Nicodemus — a Pharisee and ruler who came to Jesus by night (3:1–2), later defended Him (7:50–51), and helped bury Him (19:39).
• The Samaritan woman — a woman with five husbands behind her who met Jesus at Jacob’s well and brought her whole town to see Him (4:1–42).
• The man born blind — healed on the sabbath, questioned by the Pharisees, thrown out of the synagogue, and found again by Jesus (9:1–38).
• Lazarus, Martha, and Mary — a family in Bethany whom Jesus loved. He wept at Lazarus’s tomb and called him out after four days (11:1–44).
• Peter — who denied Jesus three times beside a fire of coals, and was restored three times beside another one (18:18; 21:9–17).
• Mary Magdalene — the first person to see the risen Lord, who knew Him when He spoke her name (20:11–18).
• Thomas — who would not believe without seeing the wounds, then made the highest confession in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God” (20:28).

Greek Word Study

λόγος · logos

“Word.” To a Jewish reader, it called to mind the word of God that created the world (“And God said”) and spoke through the prophets. To a Greek reader, it meant the reason and order behind the universe. John takes both and says the Logos is a Person, and “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (1:14). God’s final Word to the world is His Son.

ἐγώ εἰμι · egō eimi

“I am.” When God revealed His name to Moses, the Greek Old Testament rendered it with these words (Exodus 3:14). Jesus uses them in the seven “I am” sayings, and also on their own: “Before Abraham was, I am” (8:58). His hearers understood exactly what He claimed and picked up stones. When soldiers came to arrest Him and He said, “I am he,” they went backward and fell to the ground (18:6).

πιστεύω · pisteuō

“To believe,” to trust, to commit to. John uses the verb nearly a hundred times, yet never once uses the noun “faith.” For John, believing is not something you have but something you do. It means coming to Jesus, receiving Him, and resting your whole weight on Him.

μένω · menō

“To abide,” to remain, to stay. “Abide in me, and I in you” (15:4). It is the word for a branch staying connected to the vine. John also uses it of the Spirit remaining on Jesus at His baptism (1:32–33). Abiding is how believing continues day after day.

Eight-Movement Narrative Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

The Word Made Flesh (1:1–51)

The prologue moves from eternity to Bethlehem: the Word who made all things came to His own, and His own received Him not. “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God” (1:12). John the Baptist sees Jesus coming and cries out, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world” (1:29). Andrew finds his brother Simon. Philip finds Nathanael, who doubts that anything good can come out of Nazareth. Philip’s answer is the best evangelism method ever devised: “Come and see” (1:46).

MOVEMENT TWO

New Wine, New Temple, New Birth (2:1–3:36)

At a wedding in Cana, Jesus turns six stone water pots into the best wine of the feast, “This beginning of miracles” (2:11). In Jerusalem He drives the money changers from the temple and says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19), speaking of His body. A respected teacher named Nicodemus comes by night and is told, “Ye must be born again” (3:7). Then comes the most famous verse in the Bible: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (3:16).

MOVEMENT THREE

Living Water and a Lame Man Walking (4:1–5:47)

Jesus sits tired at Jacob’s well and asks a Samaritan woman for a drink. He offers her water that will become “a well of water springing up into everlasting life” (4:14), tells her everything she ever did, and reveals that He is the Messiah. She leaves her water pot and brings the town, and they confess Him as “the Saviour of the world” (4:42). He heals a nobleman’s son from a distance. At the pool of Bethesda, He finds a man who has been lame for thirty-eight years: “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk” (5:8). It is the sabbath, and the leaders begin to seek His death, because He called God His own Father, “making himself equal with God” (5:18).

MOVEMENT FOUR

The Bread of Life (6:1–71)

Jesus feeds five thousand with five barley loaves and two fishes, then walks across the stormy sea to His disciples: “It is I; be not afraid”(6:20). The next day the crowd wants more bread, and He tells them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst” (6:35). His words about eating His flesh and drinking His blood are too hard for many, and they walk away. Jesus asks the twelve if they will go too. Peter answers, “Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life” (6:68).

MOVEMENT FIVE

The Light of the World (7:1–8:59)

At the Feast of Tabernacles, when by tradition water was poured out at the altar each day, Jesus stands and cries, “If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink” (7:37). The crowds are divided. A woman caught in adultery is dragged before Him, and He sends her accusers away one by one: “Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more” (8:11). Then, at the feast when great lamps were lit in the temple courts, He says, “I am the light of the world”(8:12). He tells the Jews who believed Him, “ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (8:32), and “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (8:36). When He says, “Before Abraham was, I am,” they take up stones to kill Him.

MOVEMENT SIX

The Good Shepherd and the Resurrection (9:1–12:50)

Jesus heals a man born blind, and the Pharisees cross-examine him until he answers, “one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see” (9:25). They throw him out, and Jesus finds him. Then Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep” (10:11). When Lazarus dies, Jesus waits two days, then comes to Bethany and tells Martha, “I am the resurrection, and the life” (11:25). At the tomb, “Jesus wept” (11:35). Then He cries, “Lazarus, come forth” (11:43), and a dead man walks out. The council decides that Jesus must die. Mary anoints His feet, He enters Jerusalem, and He says His hour has come: “Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone”(12:24).

MOVEMENT SEVEN

The Upper Room (13:1–17:26)

Jesus takes a towel and washes His disciples’ feet, then gives them “A new commandment… That ye love one another” (13:34). Judas goes out, “and it was night” (13:30). To the eleven He says, “Let not your heart be troubled” (14:1). He is going to prepare a place for them, and He is “the way, the truth, and the life” (14:6). He promises the Comforter, the Spirit of truth. He is the true vine, and they are the branches. He warns them of tribulation, and then says, “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (16:33). In chapter 17, He prays for Himself, for His disciples, and for all who will believe through their word, “That they all may be one” (17:21).

MOVEMENT EIGHT

It Is Finished; He Is Risen (18:1–21:25)

In the garden, the arresting soldiers fall back at His word. Peter warms himself at a fire and denies Him three times. Pilate asks, “What is truth?” (18:38), with the Truth standing in front of him, and then presents Him beaten and crowned with thorns: “Behold the man!” (19:5). From the cross, Jesus gives His mother into John’s care. Then He says, “It is finished” (19:30), bows His head, and gives up the ghost. On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene weeps at the empty tomb until a man she thinks is the gardener says her name, and she knows Him. Thomas sees the wounds and falls before Him. By the Sea of Galilee, Jesus cooks breakfast over a fire of coals and asks Peter three times, “lovest thou me?” Each time Peter answers, Jesus tells him, “Feed my sheep” (21:15–17).

Christ Typology

The Passover Lamb. John the Baptist names Him “the Lamb of God” at the start (1:29), and John’s Gospel times the crucifixion with the preparation of the Passover (19:14), when the lambs were being slain. A sponge of vinegar is lifted to Him on hyssop (19:29), the same plant Israel used to apply the lamb’s blood to their doorposts in Egypt (Exodus 12:22). And the soldiers do not break His legs, “that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken” (19:36), quoting the Passover law (Exodus 12:46).

The Tabernacle. When John writes that the Word “dwelt among us” (1:14), the Greek verb means “pitched His tent” or “tabernacled.” In the wilderness, God’s glory filled the tabernacle in the middle of Israel’s camp. John continues: “and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” The glory that once rested over a tent of skins now walked among men in a body of flesh.

The Bronze Serpent. “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (3:14). In Numbers 21, Israelites bitten by serpents looked at a bronze serpent on a pole and lived. The cure for the serpent’s bite took the shape of the serpent. Christ, who knew no sin, was made sin for us and lifted up on a cross, and everyone who looks to Him in faith lives.

The Manna. When the crowd reminds Jesus that their fathers ate manna in the wilderness, He answers that Moses did not give them the true bread from heaven: “Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead… I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever” (6:49–51). The manna kept Israel alive for a day. Christ gives life that never ends.

Jacob’s Ladder. Jesus tells Nathanael, “Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (1:51). In Genesis 28, Jacob dreamed of a ladder set on earth that reached to heaven, with angels going up and down on it. Jesus says He is that ladder: the one meeting place of heaven and earth, the way God comes down to us and the way we come to God.

Personal Application

Believe, and keep believing. John never uses the noun faith, only the verb. Believing is not a box you checked once. It is coming to Him, receiving Him, and abiding in Him every day. If your faith feels weak, John’s answer is not to try harder but to stay closer: “Abide in me, and I in you.”

Free indeed. “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” The freedom Jesus gives is not just freedom from a bad situation or a heavy burden. It is freedom from sin’s slavery, from condemnation, from having to earn God’s acceptance. Some of the people who heard Him say it were offended, because they didn’t think they were slaves. Freedom starts with being honest about the chains.

Your testimony doesn’t need to be complicated. The man born blind could not answer every theological question the Pharisees threw at him. But he knew one thing: he was blind, and now he could see. You do not have to win every argument to be a faithful witness. Tell what He did for you.

Love one another is a command, not a suggestion. Jesus did not say people would know His disciples by their doctrine, their buildings, or their programs, but “if ye have love one to another”(13:35). He showed what that love looks like with a towel and a basin. No task is beneath someone who follows a foot-washing King.

He restores failures. Peter denied Jesus three times beside a fire. Jesus built another fire and asked three times, “Lovest thou me?” He did not humiliate Peter. He recommissioned him. If you have failed Him, He is not done with you. He is still asking the same question, and still handing out the same assignment: feed My sheep.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

T

Luke

The Son of Man Came to Seek and to Save

Luke is the only Gospel writer who tells us up front how he did his work. Many had already written accounts, he says, so he went back to the eyewitnesses, “having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first,” and wrote it all out in order for a man named Theophilus, “That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (1:3–4). Luke was a careful man, and his Gospel reads like it. It is the longest of the four, and the first of two volumes. The second is the book of Acts.

It is also the warmest. Luke is the Gospel of the shepherds and the manger, the Good Samaritan, the prodigal son, Zacchaeus in the tree, the thief on the cross, and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. More than any other Gospel, it shows Jesus going after the people everyone else had written off: the poor, the sick, women, Samaritans, tax collectors, and sinners. Luke’s key verse says it plainly: “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost” (19:10).

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Authorship & Setting

The Gospel does not name its author, but the early church agreed it was Luke, and the evidence points the same way. Acts opens, “The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus” (Acts 1:1), so the same man wrote both books. In Acts, the writer shifts from “they” to “we” when he joins Paul’s travels (Acts 16:10 and after), which places him among Paul’s companions. Paul names Luke as “the beloved physician” (Colossians 4:14), and near the end of his life writes, “Only Luke is with me” (2 Timothy 4:11).

In Colossians 4:10–14, Paul lists the men “of the circumcision” who were with him, then names Luke separately, which suggests Luke was a Gentile. If so, he is the only Gentile author in the Bible, and that fits his Gospel. He traces Jesus’ genealogy not just to Abraham but all the way back to “Adam, which was the son of God” (3:38). Jesus is the Savior of the whole human race.

Acts ends with Paul under house arrest in Rome, around AD 62, with no word of his trial’s outcome. Because Luke was written before Acts, many conservative scholars date it around AD 60 or a little earlier. Others place it later. Luke writes as a historian, anchoring events to rulers and dates (2:1–2; 3:1–2). He also gives us material found nowhere else: the birth of John the Baptist, the songs of Mary, Zacharias, the angels, and Simeon, and many of Jesus’ best-known parables.

Key Figures

• Theophilus — the “most excellent” man Luke wrote for, probably a person of rank who had been taught about Jesus and needed to know it was true.
• Zacharias and Elisabeth — an aged, childless priestly couple, “both righteous before God” (1:6), and the parents of John the Baptist.
• Mary — the young virgin of Nazareth who answered Gabriel, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (1:38).
• Simeon and Anna — two faithful elders who waited for years in the temple and recognized the infant Jesus as the Lord’s Christ (2:25–38).
• Martha and Mary — two sisters in Bethany: one busy serving, the other sitting at Jesus’ feet (10:38–42).
• Zacchaeus — a rich chief tax collector in Jericho who climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus and came down a changed man (19:1–10).
• The penitent thief — a dying criminal who asked to be remembered and was promised paradise that same day (23:39–43).
• Cleopas — one of two disciples on the road to Emmaus who walked with the risen Christ without knowing it (24:13–35).

Greek Word Study

σῴζω · sōzō

“To save,” and also “to heal” or “make whole.” Jesus tells the sinful woman, “Thy faith hath saved thee” (7:50), and tells the woman with the issue of blood, “thy faith hath made thee whole” (8:48). It is the same verb both times. In Luke, salvation is never only about the soul. Jesus came to make the whole person whole.

σπλαγχνίζομαι · splanchnizomai

“To be moved with compassion,” literally to be moved in the gut. Jesus feels it for the widow of Nain (7:13). The Samaritan feels it for the beaten man (10:33). The father feels it when he sees his son a great way off, “and had compassion, and ran”(15:20). This is what God’s heart looks like toward the lost.

σήμερον · sēmeron

“Today,” “this day.” “For unto you is born this day… a Saviour” (2:11). “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears” (4:21). “This day is salvation come to this house” (19:9). “To day shalt thou be with me in paradise”(23:43). In Luke, salvation is never only someday. It arrives today.

χαρά · chara

“Joy.” Luke begins with “good tidings of great joy” (2:10) and ends with the disciples returning to Jerusalem “with great joy” (24:52). In between, Jesus says there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (15:7, 10). Luke’s Gospel is full of people singing.

Eight-Movement Narrative Outline

MOVEMENT ONE

Songs Before the Dawn (1:1–2:52)

Gabriel tells Zacharias in the temple that his barren wife will bear a son, and he is struck mute for his doubt. Six months later Gabriel comes to Mary in Nazareth. She believes, and when she visits Elisabeth, she sings: “My soul doth magnify the Lord” (1:46). John is born, and Zacharias’s tongue is loosed in praise. Then Jesus is born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger, and angels appear to shepherds: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (2:14). In the temple, old Simeon takes the baby in his arms and says he can die in peace. At twelve, Jesus stays behind in the temple: “wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (2:49).

MOVEMENT TWO

Son of Adam, Son of God (3:1–4:13)

Luke dates John’s ministry to the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar, then shows John preaching repentance with practical fruit: share your coat, collect only what is owed, do no violence. Jesus is baptized while He is praying, a detail only Luke gives, and the Spirit descends in bodily shape like a dove. Then comes the genealogy, traced back to Adam, the son of God. Immediately after, Jesus is led into the wilderness, where He is tempted forty days and wins every round with the word of God.

MOVEMENT THREE

The Nazareth Sermon (4:14–6:49)

In His hometown synagogue, Jesus reads from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” (4:18). He rolls up the scroll, sits down, and says, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” When He reminds them that God sent Elijah and Elisha to Gentiles, the crowd tries to throw Him off a cliff. He goes on to Capernaum and heals many. After a miraculous catch of fish, Peter falls at His knees: “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (5:8). Jesus calls him anyway, calls Levi too, and teaches on a level place: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful” (6:36).

MOVEMENT FOUR

Faith Among the Outsiders (7:1–9:50)

A Roman centurion shows more faith than anyone in Israel. At Nain, Jesus stops a funeral and gives a widow back her only son. In a Pharisee’s house, a sinful woman washes His feet with tears and dries them with her hair. The Pharisee is offended, but Jesus says, “Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much” (7:47). Luke notes the women who traveled with Jesus and supported Him from their own means (8:1–3). He stills the storm, frees the man with Legion, heals a woman, raises Jairus’s daughter, and feeds five thousand. Peter confesses Him as “The Christ of God” (9:20), and on the mountain Moses and Elijah speak with Him about His coming death in Jerusalem.

MOVEMENT FIVE

Setting His Face to Jerusalem (9:51–13:35)

Then Luke turns the whole story toward the cross: “he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem”(9:51). Much of what follows is found only in Luke. A lawyer asks, “Who is my neighbour?” and Jesus tells of the Good Samaritan: “Go, and do thou likewise” (10:37). Martha is busy and anxious while her sister sits and listens, and Jesus says, “Mary hath chosen that good part”(10:42). He teaches His disciples to pray and to keep knocking. He warns the rich fool, “this night thy soul shall be required of thee” (12:20). And He laments over Jerusalem, the city that kills its prophets.

MOVEMENT SIX

Lost and Found (14:1–16:31)

Jesus tells of a great supper where the invited guests make excuses and the poor, maimed, halt, and blind fill the hall. Then, with Pharisees grumbling that He eats with sinners, He tells three stories in a row: a lost sheep, a lost coin, and a lost son. The younger son wastes everything and comes home rehearsing a speech. The father sees him a great way off, runs to him, and throws a feast: “For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found” (15:24). The elder brother, who never left home, refuses to go in. The section closes with the rich man and Lazarus, a warning that the great gulf is fixed after death.

MOVEMENT SEVEN

Seeking the Lost on the Road to the Cross (17:1–21:38)

Ten lepers are healed, and only one comes back to give thanks, and he is a Samaritan. A widow keeps coming to an unjust judge until he gives in. A Pharisee prays about himself, while a publican will not lift his eyes: “God be merciful to me a sinner” (18:13), and he goes home justified. In Jericho, a blind beggar receives his sight, and Zacchaeus climbs a tree, receives Jesus into his house, and gives half his goods to the poor. Jesus enters Jerusalem and weeps over it. He cleanses the temple, answers His enemies, praises a widow’s two mites, and warns of the city’s coming destruction and His return.

MOVEMENT EIGHT

The Cross, the Road, and the Upper Room (22:1–24:53)

At the Last Supper, Jesus tells Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (22:31–32). In the garden, His sweat falls like great drops of blood, and He heals the ear of the high priest’s servant. When Peter denies Him the third time, “the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter”(22:61). On the cross He prays, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (23:34), promises the thief paradise, and dies with “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” on His lips. On the third day, two discouraged disciples walk to Emmaus with a stranger who, “beginning at Moses and all the prophets… expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself” (24:27). They know Him in the breaking of bread. He appears to the eleven, opens their understanding, and is carried up into heaven as He blesses them.

Christ Typology

The Last Adam. Luke places the genealogy right before the temptation, and that order matters. The list ends with “Adam, which was the son of God,” and the next scene shows another Son of God facing the tempter. The first Adam was in a garden with every tree but one and fell. The last Adam was in a wilderness, hungry after forty days, and stood. “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Luke wants every son of Adam to know there is a new Head of the human race.

The Year of Jubilee. In the Nazareth sermon, Jesus reads that He has come “to preach the acceptable year of the Lord” (4:19). That is Jubilee language. In Leviticus 25, every fiftieth year liberty was proclaimed: debts cancelled, slaves set free, family land returned. Jesus announced that the true Jubilee had arrived in Him, release for the captives and liberty for the bruised. What Israel practiced once every fifty years, He came to accomplish for good.

The New Exodus. On the mountain of transfiguration, Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about “his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem” (9:31). The Greek word translated “decease” is exodos. Moses led the first exodus out of Egypt through the blood of the Passover lamb. Jesus was about to lead a greater one out of sin and death, through His own blood, at Passover.

The Whole Bible Is About Him. On the Emmaus road and again in the upper room, Jesus teaches that everything “written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms” was about Him (24:44). That is the conviction behind this whole series. Every type and shadow we have traced from Genesis to Malachi, the risen Christ claimed as His own.

Personal Application

Salvation is for today. Luke keeps saying “this day.” The shepherds didn’t wait. Zacchaeus came down in a hurry. The thief had only hours left and was promised paradise that same day. If there is something you have been putting off with God, Luke’s Gospel says: not someday. Today.

The Father runs. The prodigal came home with a speech prepared, and never got to finish it. The father was already running, already embracing, already calling for the robe and the ring. Whatever distance you have put between yourself and God, He sees you a long way off, and He is not waiting at the door with His arms crossed.

Choose the good part. Martha was not doing anything wrong. She was serving Jesus. But she was so busy working for Him that she had no time to sit with Him. Service that crowds out time at His feet will eventually turn into resentment, the way Martha’s did. The one thing needful is to listen to Him first.

He has prayed for you. When Satan asked to sift Peter, Jesus did not say He would stop it. He said, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Peter still fell, but his faith did not die, and Jesus already had his next assignment ready: “when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.” If you are in a season of sifting, your High Priest is praying for you by name.

Let Him open the Scriptures to you. The two on the Emmaus road were not short on information. They were short on understanding. When Jesus opened the Scriptures, their hearts burned within them. Read the Bible looking for Him, and ask Him to walk with you while you read. He still makes Himself known to those who invite Him to stay.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY · MARANATHA

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