Showing titles in Commentaries

What is Christianity really all about? Drawing on passages from Romans 1 to 12, J. D. Greear unpacks the essential aspects of the Christian message, showing both secular and religious people what the gospel is and how it addresses our most pertinent questions. The gospel, as he explains, is not just about life after death: it’s about reclaiming the life we’ve always yearned to live.

Wisdom, encouragement, and exhortation is contained in this audiobook. Not because of the author's brilliance, but because of the words of truth contained in the gospel of Mark. And just as the apostle Mark didn't draw any attention to himself, so also J. C. Ryle clearly and wonderfully directs his words and our thoughts toward the inspired words of scripture. If we truly love God, we will love his word; and the more we study his word, the more we will love God.

Before the Bible was a book, it was flesh and blood. Sean Gladding takes us between the lines of Scripture to listen in on the conversations of people wrestling with the Story of God for the first time. Whether sitting around a campfire in Babylon, reclining at a table in Asia Minor or huddled together by candlelight in Rome, we meet people encountering the Story for the first and the hundred-and-first time. With them we hear a tale that is at once familiar and surprising. The Story of God, the Story of Us is an account of Scripture that introduces us to people who remind us of ourselves, because as much as the Bible is a story about God, it's also a story about us—a story, perhaps, we have yet to hear. Read by the author and his wife, Rebecca.

The Pastoral Letters, unlike Paul's other writings to entire churches, are intimate correspondences to individuals: two to Timothy and one to Titus. They provide practical guidance for local churches and their leaders while offering theological insights into Jesus and the gospel. Wright's focus in this book is the letters' content and its relevance today.

David, King of the Jews, possessed every flaw and failing a mortal is capable of, yet men and women adored him and God showered him with many more blessings than he did Abraham or Moses. His sexual appetite and prowess were matched only by his violence, both on the battlefield and in the bedroom...

Regarding gender relations, the evangelical world is divided between complementarians and egalitarians. While both perspectives have much to contribute, the discussion has reached a stalemate. Michelle Lee-Barnewall critiques both sides of the debate, challenging the standard premises and arguments and offering new insight into a perennially divisive issue in the church. She brings fresh biblical exegesis to bear on our cultural situation, presenting an alternative way to move the discussion forward based on a corporate perspective and on kingdom values.

Does your knowledge of the Old Testament feel like a grab bag of people, books, events, and ideas? How many times have you resolved to really understand the OT? To finally make sense of it? Perhaps you are suffering from what Sandra Richter calls the "dysfunctional closet syndrome". If so, she has a solution. Like a home-organizing expert, she comes in and helps you straighten up your cluttered closet. Whether you are a frustrated do-it-yourselfer or a beginning student enrolled in a course, The Epic of Eden will organize your understanding of the Old Testament.

Renowned pastor-theologian Gregory A. Boyd tackles the Bible's biggest dilemma. The Old Testament God of wrath and violence versus the New Testament God of love and peace - it's a difference that has troubled Christians since the first century. Now, with the sensitivity of a pastor and the intellect of a theologian, Gregory A. Boyd proposes the "cruciform hermeneutic", a way to read the Old Testament portraits of God through the lens of Jesus' crucifixion.

Read by the author. Follow Andrew Klavan to a deeper, richer understanding of the words of Jesus. Andrew Klavan believed what he read in the Gospels, but he often struggled to understand what Jesus really meant. So he began a journey of wrestling with the beautiful and often strange words of...

What does it mean to be human? This timeless question proves critical as we seek to understand our purpose, identity, and significance. Amidst the many voices clamoring to shape our understanding of humanity, the Bible reveals important truths related to our human identity and vocation that are critical to the flourishing of all of creation. Carmen Joy Imes seeks to recover the theologically rich message of the creation narratives starting in the book of Genesis as they illuminate what it means to be human.

The world has become a confusing place. Every day we are confronted with cloudy moral issues that once seemed clear. When did the simple things get so complicated? But instead of wondering how we got here, maybe we should revisit how we got started. And there's no better place to start than the beginning of God's Word, the book of Genesis.

Discover the transformative power of the Exodus story as The Greatest Exodus takes you on a journey from chaos to covenant, from divine victory to royal enthronement. This book will not only deepen your understanding of the Bible, but also change your life in the process.

Few, if any, thinkers and writers today would have the imagination, the breadth of knowledge, and the literary skill to conceive of a powerful secular alternative to the Bible. But that is exactly what A. C. Grayling has done, creating a nonreligious bible drawn from the wealth of secular literature and philosophy in both Western and Eastern traditions, using the same techniques of editing, redaction, and adaptation that produced the holy books of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic religions.

While many Christians would readily affirm this truth, the widely held assumption that the Bible depicts a male God persists—as it has for centuries. This misperception of Christianity not only perniciously implies that men deserve an elevated place over women, but also compromises the glory of God by making God appear to be part of creation, subject to it and its categories, rather than in transcendence of it.

We are saved through faith, and with this gift come many other blessings. We have the Holy Spirit to empower us for the work of the Kingdom. We have the necessary spiritual armor to fight off enemy attacks. We have the promise of eternity with a loving Father and perfect God. But not only has God given us the promise of an eternity in heaven—He has given us the reality of a relationship with Him right here on earth. Be encouraged in this good news and stop seeking the things of this world, for we already have the priceless gift of eternal life in Christ!

Reading Revelation Responsibly is for those who are confused by, afraid of, and or preoccupied with the book of Revelation. In rescuing the Apocalypse from those who either completely misinterpret it or completely ignore it, Michael Gorman has given us both a guide to reading Revelation in a responsible way and a theological engagement with the text itself. He takes interpreting the book as a serious and sacred responsibility, believing how one reads, teaches, and preaches Revelation can have a powerful impact on one's own—and other people's—well-being.

You can know a lot about Jesus and not know Him at all. We’re not meant to simply know a lot of facts about Jesus. Truly knowing someone requires personal knowledge coming from being with someone over time and building trust. Knowing about someone is just the first step toward truly knowing...

After Fee published his magisterial God's Empowering Presence, he was asked to write a more accessible volume that would articulate Paul's priorities for experiencing the life of the Spirit in the church. Fee's bestselling introduction to Paul and the Spirit, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, went on to sell over 70,000 copies. This book by one of the greatest evangelical and Pentecostal New Testament interpreters of our time argues that the presence of the Spirit is, for Paul and for us, the crucial matter for the Christian life.

In the early 19th century, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, conceived the idea of extracting a gospel purified of what he saw as extraneous philosophical, mythological, and theological elements. To do so, he took verses from the four canonical gospels and arranged them into a single narrative, focusing on the actual words of Jesus.

Many portions of the New Testament introduce a compassionate Jesus who turns the other cheek, loves his enemies, and shows grace to all. But the Jesus we find in Revelation and some portions of the Gospels leads an army of angels bent on earthly destruction. Which is the true revelation of the Messiah - and how can both be in the same Bible? How to Read the Bible and Still Be a Christian explores this question and offers guidance for the faithful conflicted over which version of the Lord to worship.