We don't have to mirror the anger around us. We don't have to join every fight. We don't have to treat neighbors as enemies because the world has divided them into opposing camps. We don't have to grasp for power as though everything depends upon us winning...   Read More

After eleven chapters describing the mercy and faithfulness of God, Paul finally turns and says, in effect: Now live like people who have received that mercy...   Read More

Paul has looked at Israel and the nations, promise and unbelief, judgment and mercy, covenant and grace. He sees a story far larger than anything human beings could have planned. Then he remembers whose story it is. “Everything is from him and through him and for him. To him be the glory forever. Amen” (v. 36). There is freedom in that confession.   Read More

Our place in the tree should make us grateful, not arrogant. Who have we decided is probably beyond God's reach? Whose unbelief, resistance, failure, or distance from God have we begun treating as permanent?   Read More

The Law wasn't a failed experiment that Jesus replaced. Israel’s story, its promises, and its hope were moving toward the Messiah. Jesus is where the road has been leading. And now, Paul says, God’s saving grace has come near.   Read More

We aren't shaped by mercy simply so that we can enjoy having received mercy. We are shaped into people through whom God’s mercy can reach the world. That fits the larger story Paul has been telling from the beginning of Romans. Grace creates a new people. The Spirit forms them into the likeness of Christ. And then God sends them into the world as living evidence of what new creation looks like. The Potter is still working.   Read More