Christ Over All

Toby’s metaphor of the Jews as an “apostate older brother” is sentimental but misleading. Not only is it misleading, but to make the claims he does necessarily distracts from those whom God has declared are actually the true Israel: the church.

Some days, being annihilated in the end appeals much more to my flesh than denying myself daily and picking up my cross (Luke 9:23).

The “ethnicity” produced by Christianity is not a matter of shared genetics, geography, or cultural heritage in the worldly sense. Instead, it is a new spiritual reality based on a shared spiritual birth and a common Lord. The New Testament consistently portrays the Church as a new humanity, a new people, a new family forged by the Holy Spirit.

The act of forgiveness is 5-fold, and consists of confession, repentance, forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration. These are distinct but interconnected steps in a spiritual process of mending broken relationships with God and with other people.