Month: December 2016

Seeing the Son

In the Bible the Son comes to us through a set of self-disclosures: as the Christophanies in the Old Testament; as the newborn baby in the New Testament; as the Logos-Word in his coming out; as the adult prophet, Jesus, hiking the Palestine hills with a clan of fringy followers, calling, challenging, and stirring hearts; …

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The Feast

In “The Marriage Feast Between Christ and his Church”—a published sermon series by Richard Sibbes (1577-1635) in his Works, 2:437-518—the puritan preacher linked a promised feast in Isaiah 25:6-8 to the ultimate wedding feast of the Lamb promised in Revelation 19:9. Sibbes points to the main feature of this feast, the end of death: “the …

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The Branch

Isaiah is a special read in the Advent season. The book offers a spiritual GPS or Satnav in a world with muddled moral maps. It sets out a reassuring bigger picture of life: in the end everyone will get to a proper destination. Amid job losses, Brexit votes, uncertain elections, crumbling social values, broken marriages, …

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Monuments

Christians and non-Christians alike hear the siren call of personal glory. Jesus, on the other hand, calls us to the highest delight of giving—of elevating others. Let’s compare these callings. Adam launched the monument-making impulse by wanting to be like God. Since Adam we all celebrate personal significance at some level. Yet the impulse divides …

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