The early church father, St. Augustine of Hippo, argued in his work, “ On Grace and Nature ,” that the punishment for sin is a surrender to even more sin. Any person who has truly wrestled with their sinful desires and honestly allowed God to crucify those sins, knows this truth. The commission of one sin leads to an imperceptible ease in the commission of others. Then, as those other sins mount in both number and severity, there comes a blindness to the family of sins to whi

Right before Paul begins a long, honest, and blunt teaching regarding God’s wrath against unrighteousness, he sets the stage for that teaching with four important theological truths. Those truths permeate all of his doctrine throughout his entire letter to the Roman church, and they have particular relevance to God’s wrath toward the sinfulness of people. They also point to his love for those people and his desire to rescue them from that wrath. In Romans 1:16-17 , Paul gives

Paul wrote the book of Romans to both Jew and Gentile believers who belonged to the church in the city of Rome. Interestingly, it is unlike any of the Gospels or the Book of Acts which preceded it.  Like all of Paul’s writings, the book of Romans is actually a letter and not a book – and it reads in stark contrast to any of his other letters anywhere in the Bible.  The Gospels and Acts are largely historical narratives that just tell us what happened in the life of Jesus, and

At the beginning of the Book of Acts, the world of the disciples was in disarray.  They had seen their teacher, their mentor, and their...

We are prone to think that sailing through life with God at the helm of our ship glides us through smooth and peaceful waters.  However,...

What exactly is a child or baby dedication? Well, the one thing it isn’t is the one thing it looks like it is. Dedicating a child to the...

Attribution: Shoot for the Stars, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons. Image cropped...

Prior to his crucifixion, Jesus faced a trial before a Jewish religious court called the Sanhedrin. He also faced a trial before  Rome's...

The Book of Acts tells us so many important things regarding Christian history.  Mainly,  it tells us about the first days of the Church...

It is sometimes said that people don’t believe in God because they don’t want his righteousness interfering with their sins and...

The writer of Proverbs declares seven things that are an abomination to God.   The first is a prideful spirit reflected in the...

The day after the Roman authorities rescued Paul from unexpected religious violence at the temple, they took him before the Jewish...

Paul frequently suffered the assaults of lies during his ministry.  Famously, James and the brothers at Jerusalem counselled him that a...

The Spirit powerfully animated Paul all throughout his third missionary journey, giving him life and direction. One important point in...

All human beings are plagued with sins that challenge their relationship with God and then poison their mind against his peace. This is...

After Paul left the Ephesian elders at his stop in Miletus, he headed toward Jerusalem ( Acts 20:17-38 ). At Miletus, he shared with...

It is often said that comparison is the thief of joy.  This is because when we compare ourselves to others and their material or earthly...

God totally disrupted and upended the pagan Greek world through the work of Paul and his disciples ( Acts 19:1-20 ). He didn’t use...

There is a truly bone chilling line in Acts 19  that would make for a dramatic and memorable horror movie scene! Seven sons of a Jewish...

Over and over again, the Bible presents salvation as a free gift.  In fact, Paul specifically calls it a free gift in Romans 6:23 . Then,...