John Mark Hicks

PDF version of the Review available here. Beyond the Salvation Wars: Why Both Protestants and Catholics Must Reimagine How We Are Saved, authored by Matthew W. Bates, is a provocative contribution to the “salvation wars.” It not only explores common ground among disputants but also invites them to embrace a holistic perspective “beyond the salvation […]

An English version is available here. Jesús cumple la misión divina de hacer nuevas todas las cosas revirtiendo la maldición. La expiación identifica el acto reconciliador de Dios que restaura la paz entre Dios y la humanidad. Si bien existen muchas teorías sobre la expiación en la historia de la teología, a continuación presento mi […]

This is the “key and high point of the whole epistle” (Barth, Ephesians, 1:275). Though the gentiles were once foreigners and aliens from the commonwealth and strangers to the covenants of promise, through the cross the Messiah has made peace and killed the hostility between Jew and gentile by abolishing the law of commandments in […]

Hebrews 10:1-18 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once […]

Hebrews 9:11-28 But when Christ came as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and perfect tent (not made with hands, that is, not of this creation), he entered once for all into the Holy Place, not with the blood of goats and calves, but with his own […]

God Has Spoken Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact […]

I have now read the fifth of twelve books suggested by FB friends. This one was recommended by Michael Asbell. This is my summary. David Moffitt, Rethinking the Atonement: New Perspectives on Jesus’s Death, Resurrection, and Ascension (Grand Rapids: BakerAcademic, 2022). While the term “atonement” is most often used to describe the cross of Jesus […]

If you only listen to one in this series, listen to this one! Texts: Mark 15:33-37; Matthew 28:5-10 Days 50-51 in Around the Bible in Eighty Days. Death and Resurrection. This is the pinnacle of the gospel story. The Messiah is victorious in both death and resurrection. In death, the Messiah is obedient to death, […]

Because Christ also suffered… If one suffers for “doing good” as an expression of the will of God, Peter writes, it better to suffer for that than suffering for doing evil (1 Peter 2:17). Why is that? Because Christ also suffered… The Christ Narrative—the story of God in which Christ suffers for sins—is the reason […]

Imperial residents, submit to the empire. Slaves, submit to your masters. This submission, Peter tells us, is grounded in our vocation or calling. We are called into a life of submission because Jesus is our model (pattern, example). Our vocational mission as the people of God is grounded in the life of Jesus as the […]