Kirk E. MillerDoes Romans 7 describe the experience of a believer struggling with sin, or is Paul referring to something else entirely? Many in Protestant traditions assume that Paul’s use of the first-person pronoun in this passage reflects the believer’s...
Wyatt GrahamWhy does so much evil exist in the world? Why do men murder? Why do countries go to war? Why do people exploit others? Why do we live in a world marked by human evil? Foundational to answering these questions is the doctrine of original sin...
Joel BiermannAdmittedly, this is not one of the first questions people ask. Much more common is the question, Why do bad things happen to good people? For Christians, though, an equally disturbing question is: Why do good people do bad things? It is a...
Jeffrey Wiesner“Am I sinning?” This is an inevitable question those in ministry will be asked. Christians want to know whether or not particular thoughts, words, and deeds are sinful. A glance at recent Google monthly search metrics reveals how anxious people are...
Michael F. BirdOur Western world is Christian enough to grasp that words like sin, repentance, and redemption are technical Christian terms. But it is post-Christian enough to not understand what those words mean within the storyline of Scripture or within a...
John Mark ComerI recognize that a growing number of people have an emotional allergy to the word sin, but it is just the word we use to name the felt experience of the human condition that pretty much all luminary thinkers agree on. Whether ancient, modern...
Mary DeMuthWhen I first became a Christian as a teen, I didn’t know any of the lingo erupting around me. When I first heard the word backslider, I pictured a person on their backside careening down a Slip ‘N’ Slide. Since people mentioned...
Timothy MillerFar from receding after the Gospels, the theme of repentance continues throughout the book of Acts. When a guilty crowd asked how they should respond to their complicity in the death of Jesus, their Messiah, Peter commanded them, "Repent and be...
Andrea BurkeAs I write this, we are just waking from the sugarcoated dream of the Christmas season. We have tried and tasted every delectable culinary bite we could. Salt-and-pepper-crusted medium-rare steak. Racks full of drying homemade pasta. Mugs of rich...
Bible Study MagazineBy Stephen Witmer I lay awake, staring into darkness, mentally replaying a conversation from earlier that day. My friend had misunderstood me and then condemned me for it. I felt deeply wronged. I also felt a toxic mixture of anger, self-pity, and...
Genevieve ScheeleIntroduction The history of biblical exegesis and hermeneutics is not without controversy, and the apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Romans is no exception. It has more allusions and quotes from the Hebrew Bible than any other New Testament work, but is...