new covenant

Son, Servant, or Friend of God?

October 4, 2010 // 53 Comments

How do you mainly identify with God? As a (a) servant of God, (b) a friend of God, or (c) a son of God? When a friend posed this question on his Facebook page yesterday, I was so surprised at the results, that I decided to poll E2R readers on E2R’s FB page. (Before you read on, answer the question for [...]

Joseph Prince: Preacher of Grace

August 24, 2010 // 274 Comments

So the Americans have finally discovered Joseph Prince. A few weeks ago Charisma magazine published an interesting article on the Singaporean preacher entitled “Prince of Grace.” The article describes the growing impact of Prince’s grace preaching, particularly in the US television market. I don’t live [...]

The Fear of God in the New Covenant

May 14, 2010 // 16 Comments

Jesus died on the cross to reconcile man to God and so that we might live free from the fear of punishment. Yet the phrase “the fear of the Lord” comes up many times in the New Testament. What does it mean to have the fear God under the new covenant? The following is a special guest post from my friend Ryan [...]

Incomplete Deeds: The Zombie Church of Sardis (Rev 3:1-6)

April 11, 2010 // 18 Comments

UPDATE: This is an old article. An updated and expanded commentary on this passage can be found in Paul’s book Letters from Jesus. What a wonderful thing for a church to get a letter from Jesus! The seven churches of Revelations 1-3 were a real mixed bag with some getting rebukes and others encouragement, but [...]

Psalm 51 – The Badness of David versus the Goodness of God

March 23, 2010 // 15 Comments

Christians sometimes battle with guilt and condemnation even though God declares them “not guilty” and Christ has given us the gift of “no condemnation” (Rms 8:1). Some think that the way to shake off these bad feelings is to confess their sins. This is a little bit like saying “I feel condemnation [...]

Top 12 blessings in the New Covenant

March 17, 2010 // 57 Comments

In Christ we can participate in all of the blessings God promised to Abraham (Gal 3:14,29). We also get all of the blessings promised under the law covenant and none of the curses (Gal 3:13). This is pretty amazing when you think about the blessings God offered in the Old Testament: To Abraham and his descendants [...]

How to read your Bible without getting confused

March 10, 2010 // 91 Comments

Have you ever been confused by a passage in the Bible that seemed to contradict to something else in the Bible? Paul said that the entire Bible is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. But he also said that we need to “rightly divide the word of truth” (2 Tim 2:15-16). We [...]

“He Qualifies You” by Chad Mansbridge

March 4, 2010 // 5 Comments

I picked up this little book on my last trip to Hong Kong and read it in an hour. It was an hour well-spent. In this book Chad Mansbridge, of Bayside Church International, outlines the three main covenants of the Bible, namely, the covenants that God made with Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Why do you need to know [...]