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Every year we devote one issue of SBJT to a study Lifeway’s January Bible study book. For 2016, our focus is on Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church. In focusing our attention on this specific book of Scripture, I am reminded about the story told by Kent Hughes regarding one of the world’s most…

Paul does not write abstract theological disquisitions. His word is always a “word on target,” intended to address the needs of his readers at times in which he himself cannot be present with them. ((J. C. Beker, The Triumph of God: The Essence of Paul’s Thought (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990), 12.)) All of Paul’s letters…

The Glory of God in 2 Corinthians ((Matt wrote the bulk of the exegetical section, and Chris wrote most of the theological section.)) I cannot expect to understand the mysteries of God … If I understood God, He could not be the true God. A doctrine which I cannot fully grasp is a Truth of…

Καταργέω and the People of the Shining Face (2 Corinthians 3:7-18) ((This article is adapted from a presentation by the same title at the 2014 national meeting of The Evangelical Theological Society and the fuller commentary treatment of the passage in George H. Guthrie, 2 Corinthians (BECNT; Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 203-232.)) In…

Second Corinthians 3 is a hotly debated and difficult text. For example, Thomas Schreiner says 2 Corinthians 3 is “one of the most controverted texts in the Pauline corpus,” ((Thomas Schreiner, book review of Paul, Moses, and the History of Israel: The Letter/Spirit Contrast and the Argument from Scripture in 2 Corinthians 3, by Scott…

Introduction Evangelical Christians from various perspectives have wrestled with how the New Testament (NT) relates to the Old, and, more specifically, how the new covenant relates to the prior biblical covenants. Should the relationship primarily be cast in terms of continuity, such that the nature and structure of the new covenant are in essential continuity…

Living by faith means longing for more than this world.

Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul.By Simon Gathercole. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2015. 128 pp., $19.99 Paperback.  Simon Gathercole is senior lecturer in New Testament studies in the Faculty of Divinity of the University of Cambridge and Fellow and director of studies in theology at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He has published several books, such…

When a sermon doesn’t go well, most of us get very discouraged and if the despair is great enough, it might cause us to question whether we should continue to preach at all.