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The project happened through Jesus’ Kingdom work, which reached its climax on the cross and because the power of death was defeated on the cross, that opened the way for creation to be set free from its slavery to decay, from its corruption and death, starting with Jesus’ own physical body...

Jesus having been crucified and then raised from the dead, Jesus ascended, he has gone up to be in the heaven with God. Heaven is God’s dimension of our present reality, but then Jesus has come down with the gift of the Spirit, making Jesus’ presence a reality to all his followers everywhere...

Adam and Eve forfeited their calling as the Royal Priesthood, but God promised that one of their descendants would be an even better priest, who will defeat evil and intervene on their behalf to restore the blessings of Eden. This descendant would be a Royal Priest like Melchizedek, that Abraham...

Now, through Israel’s story, God raises up many people, who could have been this Royal Priest, like Abraham, Moses and David, but they all fail. Their stories point forward, anticipating the ultimate Royal Priest and this brings us to Jesus. In the time of Jesus, the people of Israel were ruled...

God’s inviting everyone to be priests, like Adam and Eve were priests in Eden. But, it turns out the people are afraid of God, and they don’t want to come close to God’s presence and so, Moses goes alone up to the top of Mount Sinai. Moses famously gets the Ten Commandments, the first two being...

The design of the Torah itself, is showing that Israel consistently failed at being the covenant partners that God recruited them to be through Moses on Mount Sinai and so Moses himself anticipate the day in his speeches in the Torah, when God will circumcise the heart, transform the heart of...

There’s a serious lack of rightness we see going on around us and it puts us in a constant state of agitation, anxiety and discontent, but if we’re hungering for righteousness, what we desire is a time and a place when there is true justice, when everybody does right by everybody. If we’re not...

This isn’t just behavior, it’s character, the core character of a person, but depravity, we can overemphasize that to a degree of actually not being faithful to the full portrait of human nature, because humans are a lot more in God’s eyes, than depraved. But that compromised nature is really a...

The Hebrew word for light is “or” and look at the word play in Torah. T”or”ah, let your light shine, we are the embodiment of the Torah.

The calling to live in reality by the teachings of Jesus is itself a part of and a result of a response to this transformational work that God’s doing in the human family and so, it’s God’s work in us and it’s our work with God. If we’re open to letting Jesus work in our minds and our hearts...

Jesus is saying, continue faithfully to be his ambassadors, his heralds, his salt and light in the world, be who we are and stop being something that we’re not. We are the embodiment of the covenant through which God’s long-lasting promises to his people are going to move forward, we are the...

This coming descendant will be both a royal priest and a sacrifice. But as it stands, humanity is outside of Eden and things have spiraled into chaotic violence, but God chooses from the wreckage a couple, Abraham and Sarah. God calls them to journey to the land of Canaan and he promises to give...

Throughout the gospel of Matthew, the word mercy and it’s connected words imply that merciful action is the concrete expression of our loyalty to God and what God demands is not so much activity directed to God, but loving kindness directed towards other people. The good life belongs to those...

God is the one who searches the heart, Proverbs and Psalms talk about this, this is about why God tests people, to discern what is in us. God in his wisdom and generosity will be just and fair and generous with how he evaluates people, but he’s evaluating us. We can see James and Paul reflecting...

The tabernacle was a sacred tent, that the Israelites carried as they journeyed to the promised land. The tabernacle was sacred, because it’s where the heavenly presence of Israel’s God lived on earth. The tabernacle had an important design to show just how special it was. There’s the outer...

Now, Paul and some of the other New Testament writers, what are they constantly talking about? That righteousness doesn’t come by the law. It comes by this person, Jesus. That person, that second person right there is God, he is wisdom, he is the word, he is the angel, all these things that we...

To be pure of heart means, that our behavior, that’s observable to others, is doing right by God and doing right by others and that it’s matched completely by our internal lives and motivations that are doing right by God and right by others. We can fake it, while manipulating others, Jesus is...

Exodus 34:6, “Gracious,” the Hebrew word is “khanun,” which is related to the Hebrew noun “khen.” This word “khen” is often translated as “grace” or “favor.” One meaning of khen is delightful or favorable, Psalms 45:1-2, a skilled poet is said to have lips of khen, that is, he can craft...

Matthew 4:17, from that time Jesus began to announce, a summary of Jesus’s teaching is in one sentence, Matthew gives it to us, Jesus is announcing, to turn around. In Hebrew, repent is literally “to turn around,” there’s something happening, that requires you to go in a different direction, the...

Exodus 34:6, “Compassionate,” or in Hebrew, “rakhum.” This word also appears as a noun, “rakhamim” or “compassion.” Both of these words are related to the Hebrew word for womb, “rekhem.” Compassion in the Hebrew Bible, is centered in a person’s core. The word invites us to imagine a mother’s...