The Joshua Victor Theory

  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. What does God have to prove? He doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone, right? He’s GOD after all. But in Romans 3:19-28, it says twice that God proved or showed His righteousness (v. 25-26). What did He do and why? God showed His righteousness by justifying believers in Jesus. On Reformation Day, we continue to contemplate that great word “righteousness” as today we reflect on God’s Righteousness. As we zero in on this aspect, many other facets of this beautiful diamond sparkle unseen. We are only glimpsing the great gift of God’s Righteousness from one angle. Righteousness is a central theme of Romans and Apostle Paul’s ministry itself. It became central to Martin Luther’s Reformation 500 years ago. Not only Paul and Luther beat that drum. This theme of righteousness runs all through the Bible. Two key points today: 1) God’s righteousness is His character, and 2) He imputes or credits His righteousn...

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. One of the most fascinating stories in the Old Testament is the prophet Jonah. Jonah happens to be the only prophet Jesus directly compares Himself to, and He says the Sign of all signs that will prove who Jesus is, would be the Sign of His three day burial and resurrection. Jesus says this was foreshadowed by the 3 days and nights Jonah was in the belly of the whale. Jonah lived about 800 years or so before Jesus, during the time when Assyria was the mega power in the Middle East, and had a reputation for its terrifying armies and the total destruction they brought on conquered lands. Nineveh, the capital city, was the heartland of the wicked empire that spread violence across the Middle East, even to Israel. It’s not too hard to figure out why Jonah didn’t want to obey God’s command to go there and cry out against their evil. The prophet Jonah can teach us a lot about ourselves. Instead of obeying God, Jo...