Tim & Ashley

I made another discovery in Ephesians 5 last Sunday. My last post was about how Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. That was verse 25. The next verse tells us why: “That [or, In order that] He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word, [in order that] He might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

That’s a great passage. But again, following along in my Biblia Sacra, I noticed something new:  The verb for “cleanse” in verse 26? It’s an aorist. Past time. Completed action.
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My pastor preached a message from Ephesians 5 last week. Isn’t it interesting how God sometimes speaks through His servant and sometimes quite apart from His servant, but if you are expecting to hear from God, you will? The Psalmist writes, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law” (Psalm 119:18). I hope you prayer that prayer when approaching a sermon or preparing to read your Bible.
Well anyway, I was following along in my Biblia Sacra (Greek & Hebrew Bible) and suddenly noticed something I’d never observed before:
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“Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image. . .’” (Genesis 1:26a).

Theologians have debated the exact meaning of that phrase for millennia, but one thing is quite clear: Of all creation, mankind is the only one created “in the image of God.”

That idea brings with it a lot of implications, and I’ve been thinking about them for quite a while. Maybe I’ll post some more thoughts in the coming days or weeks, but for now I want to point out two recent articles that attracted my attention.
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