Category: FiGS

Formed in God’s Story: Romans 9–16

Join is in person or by podcast for twelve sessions in the second half of Romans.

Update 2025-09-11: Added final pocasts, and full notes.

Where does the gospel take us? What kind of world is created as the Spirit of God sets us right through trust in his Anointed? What kind of community develops as people do right by each other as the expression of faithfulness to God, mirroring the way God in Christ did right by his earthly realm out of his faithfulness to us?

Romans 9–16 explores these questions. We are no longer a divided, warring people, for those who were not God’s people are now called God’s people. We offer ourselves in God’s service, to love each other sincerely, sharing meals together as the Father’s family, embodying the transformation that comes to the world as we recognize God’s Christ is our Lord.

In August/September 2025, we’re exploring these chapters together, with two sessions each Wednesday evening. The notes are available as a single PDF  covering Romans 9-16, or as separate PDFs for each week along with the podcasts below .

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Invitation to Romans

Update 2020-06-14: Notes and podcasts are now available for all sessions, along with a PDF of the notes for all six weeks.

Fourteen years ago, I set out to seek the kingdom of God, the centre of Jesus’ teaching and mission. Nine years ago, I launched this blog to share the results. Now I’m ready to apply this research to the book of Romans.

The kingdom perspective brings freshness and depth to familiar words like gospel, faith, righteousness, and salvation. These life-giving words restore relationship between heaven and earth, revealing how our heavenly sovereign, out of faithfulness to us has done right by us in providing his Christ as our Lord. This gospel calls for us to respond with faithfulness to him, so his life in us results in us being right with him and doing right by him in response, so earth is restored as a mirror of heaven’s faithfulness and righteousness to us. That’s the impact of the gospel we see in Romans.

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Podcast – Genesis 12

This podcast (22 min) covers the topics blogged on Genesis 12:

Included posts:

You can download the notes on Genesis 11–12, or the full notes for the series (75-page PDF).

This is the final podcast from the series Formed in God’s Story: Genesis 1–12.

Previous podcasts:

Formed in God’s Story: Genesis 1–12

Free course with notes and podcasts on Genesis 1–12.

Update 2024-03-28: Final podcasts and full notes added.

The first eleven chapters of Genesis make an astounding claim. The Lord God is not only the covenant God of Israel (the message from Exodus onwards). He is the God of all people, Lord of heaven and earth. It’s all his creation, established by his sovereign decree.

The rest of Scripture builds on this foundation, as what God established in the beginning comes together in the end. As the prophets promised, the word of the Lord is not a fruitless echo in a void; it’s the life-giving command that transforms creation (Isaiah 55:11-13).

The word that was there in the beginning became a living, breathing, embodied reality in his creation as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). It’s in him that the whole creation is restored, so the story ends with the one who is seated on the throne declaring, “See! I am making everything new” (Revelation 21:5).

That’s the foundational importance of these early chapters of Genesis. Over six evenings in February/March 2025, we’ll slow down and savour just two chapters a night:

Continue reading “Formed in God’s Story: Genesis 1–12”

Formed in God’s Story: Book of Revelation

Final update 2024-11-14: The notes for all six weeks are now available as a single PDF, with two podcasts for each week.

Fascinated, or frightened? What are your feelings about the Bible’s final book?

Can we read it without interpretative methods dividing us into Futurists, Preterists, Historicists, and Idealists? Piecing together John’s visions of Armageddon, Babylon, and the Millennium has tended to divide us.

But asking “When is this book about?” may be the wrong question. Asking “Who is this book about?” may be more productive. If Scripture is the revelation of God, what does the final book reveal about God?

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Psalm 145: God’s reign restored in David

The final Psalm of David points us to where we’re headed.

To conclude this survey of the Psalms, we’ve chosen something very significant: the last psalm “of David.”

It’s a praise psalm, as God’s anointed points his people to their true sovereign, the one who always reigns:

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Psalm 118: Trusting God’s gracious love

Gratitude is gladness springing from relational faith.

Psalm 118:1-4 (NIV)
1 Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say: “His love endures forever.”
3 Let the house of Aaron say: “His love endures forever.”
4 Let those who fear the Lord say: “His love endures forever.” …

This thanksgiving psalm calls us to join in, with gratitude for God’s unfailing love, his covenant loyalty (ḥě·sěḏ). We’ll see what the Psalm meant for Israel first, since what it means for us rises out of what it meant to them.

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What about other gods?

Why do some Psalms speak of God in comparison to other gods?

The Lord’s first commandment for Israel was, You shall have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). So, did they think there were other gods?

Worship him, all you gods! says Psalm 97:7. They describe the Lord as exalted far above all gods (verse 9). So, did they believe in other gods?

As always, understanding Scripture requires us to appreciate the framework they were using. It’s worth the effort to understand their worldview, and how it developed over time.

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Psalm 97: The Lord is king

Questions to deepen our praise.

In Book 4 of the Psalms, we discover exuberant praise. The whole kingdom fell in Book 3, both Israel and Judah. David’s reign has gone, so why are they glad?

Psalm 97:1 (NIV)
The Lord reigns, let the earth be glad; let the distant shores rejoice.

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