Reflections and meditations about the Bible by Peter DeHaan, PhD.
Good deeds and right living don’t earn our salvation, but they do confirm it Paul writes to his friends in Thessalonica. He reminds them—and us—that salvation is a gift from God. We can’t earn it and can only receive it through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9). But it seems that many people do try to earn their […]
The Bible Isn’t the Point, It’s the God Revealed in the Bible Hebrews chapter 10 opens with a line worthy of contemplation. It says, that the Law—that is the Old Testament—merely hints at what we have to look forward to, of the good things God has in store for us. The law shouldn’t be our […]
One of the Reasons We Learn about God Is So We Can Teach Others In the letter written to the Hebrew people who follow Jesus, there’s a short phrase that’s easy to skip over. The author, who I suspect is Paul, criticizes the people he’s writing to. He says they should be at a point […]
Jesus Wants Us to Fully Forgive Others So That We May be Fully Forgiven In asking the simple question, “Is God’s forgiveness conditional?” the answer seems obvious: “No! God’s forgiveness is unconditional.” I was taught that if I followed Jesus, he would forgive me. It was a fact. Forgiveness was unconditional. It made sense, and […]
We are to go out and preach repentance under the power of the Holy Spirit After Jesus calls his disciples, he trains them and then sends them into the world. He gives them five simple instructions: Go Out To be effective Jesus’s disciples can’t hang out with each other. They need to go out into […]
A grand adventure awaits us but only if we are willing to leave what we have behind The first chapter of Mark talks about Jesus calling his disciples. As he walks along the shore, he comes across two brothers fishing. Jesus says, “Come, follow me, and I will send you out to fish for people” […]
God Will Shine So Brightly that We Won’t Need the Sun to See As the epic battle in Revelation continues, just before Babylon—the symbol of all that’s evil—is about to receive her final punishment, an angel comes from heaven. John writes that this angel has great authority, and his splendor illuminates the earth (Revelation 18:1). […]
What We May Perceive As a Lack of Love May Actually be the Embodiment of It In the book of Revelation, John shares a grand vision with an epic scope, far reaching and future focused. But before we get to that, God has some first-century messages for seven area churches. Three of these messages appear […]
Considering Jesus as the Word of God Shines New Light on Some Verses in the Bible The book of John, which is a biography of Jesus, opens with a most poetic passage. It calls Jesus the Word. It confirms Jesus’s presence at creation and that he took part in it. In fact without Jesus creation […]
God Removes Branches from His Tree and Adds Others To It In Romans 11 Paul talks about graft. Not political graft but the biological kind. In this case, grafting takes a branch from one tree and attaches it to the stock of another tree. When done correctly the added branch will grow into the trunk […]