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From Behind the Veil: The Epistles of John
Deep Exegesis:The Mystery of Reading Scripture
1 & 2 Kings
Brazos Theological Commentary
The Promise Of His Appearing: An Exposition Of Second Peter
A Great Mystery: Fourteen Wedding Sermons
Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, And Hope In Western Literature
Miniatures & Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austen
The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism
A Son To Me: An Exposition of 1 & 2 Samuel
From Silence to Song: The Davidic Liturgical Revolution
Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante's Divine Comedy
Blessed Are the Hungry: Meditations on the Lord's Supper
A House For My Name: A Survey of the Old Testament
Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature
Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide To Six Shakespeare Plays
Wise Words: Family Stories That Bring the Proverbs to Life
The Kingdom and the Power: Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church
Why do you seek the living among the dead?
That was the angel’s question to the women who came to the tomb on the day of Jesus’ resurrection. Instead of finding Jesus, they found an empty tomb with the stone rolled away. Confused and desperate, they sought Jesus among the tombs, weeping. Someone has stolen His body. Where have you taken my Lord? Where have you laid Him? Tell us where you have hidden Him.
But the angel asks, Why do you seek the living among the dead?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 9:07 am
INTRODUCTION
In Colossians 2-3, Paul unfolds the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We were “buried with Him in baptism” (2:12), and we have also been raised with Him (3:1). Our participation in Good Friday and Easter determines the shape our lives take.
THE TEXT
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. . . .” (Colossians 3:1-17).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, April 6, 2009 at 4:06 am
Paul says that in the circumcision made without hands, the “body of the flesh” is stripped off by the “circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11).
I take “circumcision of Christ” to to be a reference to Jesus’ death. He is the seed of Abraham according to flesh, and so He has to be “circumcised.” On the cross the flesh of Abraham is removed once and for all. On the cross, the Father condemned sin in the flesh.
But why a “body” of flesh?
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Sunday, April 5, 2009 at 6:34 am
INTRODUCTION
Last week, we saw that for Paul the cross delivers us from all powers, human and angelic and demonic, that rule human life. For Paul, one of those powers is the Law, but the cross delivers us from that too.
THE TEXT
“For I want you to know what a great conflict I have for you and those in Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ. . . .” (Colossians 2:1-23).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, March 30, 2009 at 4:07 am
Unlike many who write about Paul’s teaching on the “powers,” GB Caird pays attention to Colossians 1:20, where Paul claims that things in heaven – which much include powers and principalities (1:16) are reconciled and pacified by the cross. When they do notice this verse, writers like Walter Wink push it out to the eschaton.
Caird notes that Paul is far from sharing this pessimism about the future of the powers: ”Paul seems to me to say that the Christian’s loyalty to society and the state, which are derivative authorities, must always be subordinated to his loyalty to the absolute authority of God in Christ; and that by the continued influence of Christ, working through his loyal followers in the church, the state itself may be brought progressively more and more within the Christian dispensation, and the affairs of state directed not merely by the ethics of law but by the ethics of the Gospel.”
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Saturday, March 28, 2009 at 11:27 am
These notes depend a great deal on NT Wright’s Tyndale Commentary on Colossians.
INTRODUCTION
On the cross, Jesus bore our sins so that we are delivered from sin and eternal death. But the effect of the cross is broader than this. According to Paul, it has cosmic effects. Nothing is the same after the cross of Jesus.
THE TEXT
“Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are in Colosse: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints. . . .” (Colossians 1:1-23).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 3:55 am
INTRODUCTION
As Pastor Sumpter pointed out last week, Israel’s calendar was part of her pedagogy. But Paul says that we are now full-grown sons (Galatians 4:1-7) and appears to associate observing days and seasons with reversion to childhood (Galatians 4:10-11; Colossians 2:16-17, 20-21). Is recognizing a church calendar an act of Judaizing?
THE TEXT
“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. . . .” (Colossians 2:8-23).
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, December 8, 2008 at 10:15 am
Wright on Colossians 2:8: He points out that Paul uses the rare verb sylagogein (”to take captive”) because “it makes a contemptuous pun with the word synagogue.” Paul’s warning is not just about those who would take captive, but about the temptation to lapse back into old covenant modes and ways. Given the exodus allusions earlier in the book (inheritance, redemption, transferred from darkness to light), this is a warning against returning to “Egypt,” the Egypt that Judaism had become.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, November 10, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Reflecting on Colossians 1:19-20, NT Wright notes that the incarnation and cross were not “undertaken with reluctance or merely because there was no other course. God not only acted in this way: he ‘took pleasure’ in doing so.”
Much popular atonement theology suggests otherwise: The conflict between God’s mercy and justice puts Him in a tight spot, which He resolves by sending His Son to receive the penalty for us. Jesus is God-as-substitute for sinners, but our formulations often suggest that God was forced into the atonement.
As Barth liked to emphasize, God remains Lord even in His revelation, the incarnation. Even – especially – here, He acts according to His good pleasure.
posted by Peter J. Leithart on Monday, November 10, 2008 at 3:11 pm
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