The Promises of God

That victory over death shows the victory of the new Adam over the old Adam. And as I said at the very beginning of this book, it is not simply that Jesus restores us to the position we enjoyed in the garden of Eden prior to the fall. We transcend that situation, because we participate in a victorious Adam who passed the probation and earned entran

What was the significance of this sign? In the ancient Near East, circumcision was not restricted to Jews. It was administered widely as a cleansing rite, a sign of regeneration, purification, and sanctification for one born unclean. That’s one of the points of parallel between baptism and circumcision. Both are signs of the covenant and both are s

I think it is significant that these elements of the Mosaic covenant are revealed in this order according to the unfolding of the will of God, especially that the exodus occurs first. It is not that God first gave the law and then, on the basis of the people’s obedience to the law, He redeemed them. Their redemption, their deliverance from bondage,

However, the biblical view is that all people are in a covenant relationship with God even if they deny it. We cannot escape this covenantal relationship that was forged between God and us in Adam. Paul referred to Adam’s representation in his epistle to the Romans, where he told us that we all sin in Adam (5:12), even though we were not there in t

I’m persuaded that the new covenant began in the upper room on the night before Jesus’ death, when He changed the significance of the Passover and declared the making of a new covenant in His blood—which He ratified the next day on the cross. So, that’s when I think the period of redemptive history that we call the new covenant really began.

I believe that the hardest thing for people to grasp in the Christian faith is that salvation is of the Lord. It is God who saves. The story of Abraham leaves no doubt about this. Abraham and Sarah’s son, Isaac, was born completely through the power of God. God brought the descendants of Abraham into the Promised Land. The book of Joshua is replete