Queen's Road Cell

26  In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27  to a virgin betrothed [ b ] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. 28  And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” [ c ] 29  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30  And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 32  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, 33  and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 34  And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” [ d ] 35  And the angel answered her, “...

I asked the question: do you have to first repent in order to be saved? The answer to this question is not as straightforward as it might first appear. We might think that repentance is indeed a prerequisite to salvation, since repentance is commanded in Scripture (e.g. Ac 26:20, Ro 2:4). Sometimes the call to be saved is phrased only in terms of repentance (Ac 2:38, Mt 3:2, Lk 13:3, Ac 17:30, Ro 2:4) and sometimes only in terms of belief (Mk 16:15. Lk 8:12, Ac 16:31, Ro 10:9-10). A large part of the difficulty here can be resolved if we see that repentance and belief are two sides of the same coin. We cannot come to Jesus in faith without leaving the place where we were, and we cannot repent truly if we have not been attracted by the beauty of the Lord. I think it is right to affirm that salvation logically precedes repentance, even though the two are all of a piece. This logical order may be simple in theological terms, but its outworking in individual lives can be complex, wi...

We continue our studies of the Biblical perspectives on evangelism. Paul writes in 2 Cor 5:11-21 that evangelism is “the ministry of reconciliation”. This carries the presupposition that we are at enmity with God and that evangelism aims at restoration of a broken relationship. His motivations for evangelism (v. 11-15) are ·          the fear of the Lord (v. 11, c.f. 7:1) who will judge and reward us (v.10) for our deeds, including the deeds of sharing the gospel. This judgement is not to determine salvation or condemnation, but to establish how faithful as stewards we have been and how our rewards will be like (c.f. 1 Cor 3:12-15) ·          to establish the credibility of the true gospel in contrast to false teaching (v.12) ·          the controlling love of Christ (v.14) who died and was raised for our sakes. We now are free to no longer live for o...

We addressed the issue of the similarities and differences in these parallel passages in the gospels: 28  One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” 29  “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. [ e ] 30  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ [ f ] 31  The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [ g ] There is no commandment greater than these.” 32  “Well said, teacher,” the man replied. “You are right in saying that God is one and there is no other but him. 33  To love him with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 ...

We began our study by looking at Romans 10:5-17. Here, Paul contrasts the "righteousness that is based on the law" (v.5) and "the righteousness based on faith" (v.6).The Jews had sought to establish their own righteousness through the former, instead of the God's righteousness based on the latter (v.3). Paul takes the words of Deut 30 and says that, just as Christ is the 'end' (the objective and completion) of the law (v. 4), so also the words of Dt 30:12-13 also find their ultimate fulfilment in Christ, who has both come down from heaven and is raised from the dead. His completed work makes works of the law unnecessary. Instead, the word of life is found in confessing (the truth of our allegiance to Christ in public, before others) with the mouth and believing (trusting in) the whole complex of belief associated with His resurrection (i.e. the need for His death as atonement for our sin and His resurrection from the dead). We noted that co...