Theology Archives - Word of Grace Studies

What is God’s expectations for a Christian?

Christianity is completely different from living under Law. It is a life that is lived by grace through faith. The Gospel of the Christ was given to Paul to pass on to us so that we would know what is involved in our salvation, the possessions that we have, our position before God, and how to live a life that truly glories God.

What is “The Christ”
In 2 Corinthians 5:17 Paul writes, “therefore, since someone is in Christ; a new creation, the old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new.”

Paul is referring to our position before God and this new creation that He made when He created the Church. All those who are in this new creation are apart of the body of The Christ, where Christ Jesus is the head, that the Church is the body.

Baptism
Baptism is a very important part of the Christian life. When you were saved, you were immersed (baptized) into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, 1 Corinthians 12:13 “For by one Spirit we all were immersed into one body, whether Jew or Greek, whether slave or free man, we were all made to drink by one Spirit.” The Holy Spirit placed us into the body of Christ through Spirit baptism.

The body of Christ is a new creation that was made by God on the day of Pentecost – the day the Holy Spirit came to reside upon the earth in believers, Acts 2. Within this new creation, some changes have happened that are important to understand. 2 Corinthian 5:17 “Since someone is in Christ; a new creation, the old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” Many translation have […]

Psalm 1

In the opening chapter of the Psalms, a contrast is drawn between the way of the man who delights in the Law from Jehovah and the way of the wicked. Can this contrast be applied to Christians today, and if so, how, without allegorizing the passage.

Allegory of the Scripture is used to imply a different meaning than the literal meaning of the text. Unlike a literal translation, allegorization is an extremely dangerous method of interpretation, as it has no way to verify the meaning apart from taking the author at his or her word. It is often said to be a higher, spiritual, interpretation; however, when the Spirit from God bore along men to write the Scriptures, He did not have them use methods that where contrary to the normal use of the language.

To understand the Psalms we need to look at the meaning of the text, the words used, who it was written to, and the context of the whole passage. Can the Psalms be used for Christians?

Let us take a look and see…

Happy is the man that does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of the sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scoffer, but his delight is in the Law from Jehovah, and in His Law he utters day and night. And he will be like a tree planted upon the canals of waters, which produces fruit in its time and its leaves do not wither. And all that he does will prosper.

Although many English translations use the word “blessed” to open the Psalms, the original language uses a word that means “happiness”. If we do not understand the meaning behind the word “blessed”, […]