2019

Our most recent five posts have considered the cessation of supernatural gifts. They are no longer an ongoing, day-to-day reality in the church’s experience. We will now return to our series of Meditations in Matthew. Our last two posts in that series dealt with Matthew 27–28. One (here) showed how Jesus…

This post continues our answer to a reader’s objection to our Miraculous Gifts post. There we dealt with 1 Cor 13:8–10 and said “that which is perfect” (1 Cor 13:10) refers to the messianic age.  If our identification of the “perfect” is correct, Paul was showing the Corinthians when God…

A gracious reader has raised questions about our Miraculous Gifts post. These queries arise from our view of “that which is perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10–12. There, Paul says: When that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a…

A “perfect” condition requires “perfect” people, a “perfect” relationship to God, and “perfect” knowledge. Paul envisioned all these for the saints: But when that which is perfect (Gk. teleios) has come, then that which is in part will be done away. When I was a child, I spoke as a…

Metaphors matter. The Scriptures use them to give a full-orbed description of the “last days” of the Mosaic age (e.g., Heb 1:2; Gen 49:1). God gave Israel a “new birth” through Christ’s resurrection (1 Pet 1:3; Eph 2:6). Christ then began to reign in his kingdom after Israel’s “regeneration” (Matt…

  A valued reader disagrees with our interpretation of “that which is perfect” in 1 Cor 13:10. In our post The Miraculous Gifts we said the “perfect” stands for the messianic age in which we now live. Our reader says “this ‘perfection,’ teleios, to which Paul refers, is the eternal…

“Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone [of the Temple] shall be left here upon another, that shall not be thrown down.… Then they crucified Him.… He is risen from the dead” (Matt 24:2; 27:35; 28:7 NKJV).  Peter W. L. Walker makes an important observation about these events. “The…

In Matthew 27 we have reached the zenith of prophetic revelation. Here, Jesus offers “one sacrifice for sins forever” (Heb 10:12a NKJV) in the “last days” (Heb 1:2) of the Mosaic age. After his resurrection in Matthew 28, Jesus “sat down at the right hand of God, from that time…

We have now come to the last five days of Jesus’s life on earth. Philip later used Isa 53:7–8 to show the Ethiopian eunuch what happened next: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; And as a lamb before its shearer is silent, So He opened not His mouth.…

Jesus is now entering the prophetic crossroads of the ages. He has just finished giving the Olivet Discourse (Matt 24–25) on Tuesday of Passion Week. He will die on the cross and rise from the dead within five days. The Old Testament prophecies about the messianic-age kingdom depend on what…