The Joshua Victor Theory

  Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. During October, I am going to highlight some Reformation themes from our Scripture readings as I have done in the past, leading up to the 503 rd anniversary of Luther’s nailing the 95 Theses. October 31, 1517 marked a monumental turning point in the history of the Christian church, as Martin Luther began to reopen the Scripture and led a reexamination of how the teachings of the church compared to the Bible, and led a return to God’s Word. Key among those rediscoveries of Biblical teaching was the teaching of “righteousness.” For October, as “Reformation month”, we will examine the Biblical concept of righteousness. In Philippians 3, Paul contrasts two very different kinds of claims we can make before God. Human beings stand “before God”, who is the Creator and Judge of all. We can’t hide or escape His judgment. Digging our head in the sand and saying there is no God, is like a ...

• To know and to do—very different things (P. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary). Jesus established that the teacher knew the Law correctly—but to do it is a far greater matter. A great many good things we know we ought to do, by the 10 Commandments, but how much harder is it to do than to simply know? A child may know their parents told them not to fight with their siblings—but doing it… • Jesus teaches the Law’s promise: “Do this and you shall live”. That’s all well and good if you can do it, but if you don’t do it? Gal. 3:10-11 tells us this very command becomes a curse to us, because “cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them. 11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.”” • Teacher wanted to justify himself. Betrays his motive. Wants the law to do what the law cannot do, because of our sinfulness. 21 Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! ...

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. This is the fourth and last week where our readings are from the end of Hebrews. Previously we’ve seen how Hebrews makes the case that Jesus is superior over all things, and that our faith is centered in Him. The closing chapters show how to run the race by faith, endure hardships, receive God’s discipline, and be encouraged by the heavenly cloud of witnesses that cheer us on. In this last chapter, the author picks up what might seem like some miscellaneous pieces of advice on how to live. They are called “exhortations”, or encouragements to continue doing what is right. Exhortations are a form of the “Law”, or commands of God—but with the difference that they’re set in the context of the new identity we’ve been given in the Gospel—the reality that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, and made us a new creation and new community in Him. Let me explain a little more. ...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Sometimes in life it seems like we get obsessed with counting. There are all sorts of things we might count or keep track of, for all sorts of reasons. Maybe counting beans, maybe counting our money, balancing and checking it. Maybe we are counting the days—till we finish school, graduate, move somewhere, have a baby, find out who the new president will be. Maybe counting the achievements we’ve made, or the hurts we’ve felt, or the possessions we’ve acquired, with a sideways glance to seem how we measure up to someone else. We use numbers and quantities, measurements and comparisons. We search for advantage to ourselves, counting up our gains, our profits, our rewards. Or we count up our losses, and worry what to do about them. Counting life this way can be exhausting. Or it can fill us with pride and arrogance. It depends whether we’ve counted up ourselves on the winning or losing end. Paul knew some cou...