He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Revelation 21.5 The renewal of creation gives Christians a distinctive outlook. Scientific theory suggests that, if climate change doesn't get us first, eventually the sun will cool and the lights will go out on planet earth. The Bible proclaims a very different future in which Jesus' return is accompanied by the descent of heaven to e

“What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground." Genesis 4.10 Justice matters; from fair play to the rule of law, a sinful society requires parameters otherwise all hell will break loose. The trouble is that, in our sinfulness, human beings have the unhelpful tendency to be more conscious of the speck in our neighbour's eye than the log in our own. And so the pursuit of justice becomes more about retribution, even revenge, than reconciliatio

“Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” Hebrews 10.30 Matthew chapter 18 relates Jesus' parable about a servant who is arrested on account of a huge debt he owes to his master. Out of pity the master cancels the debt. No sooner is the servant free than he harangues a fellow servant, who owes him a much smaller debt. The other servants report the outrage to their master, who calls in the ungrateful servant and deals with him accordingly. To recognise the sheer scale and sufficiency

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6.23 Jesus' willing sacrifice of his perfect life on the cross fulfilled the Old Testament law, thereby opening the way back to intimacy with God and breaking the power of sin to separate us - from God, from each other, from creation. Jesus' resurrection is proof because, as the verse above reminds us, death is the consequence of sin but, where there is no sin, death cannot h

"God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them..." 2 Corinthians 5.19 I mentioned yesterday that Christ's atonement for sin lays the foundation for forgiveness and reconciliation at every level. But what is atonement and how can it fulfil such a versatile and comprehensive role? In a nutshell, "atonement" (at-one-ment, as my college chaplain used to render it) amounts to the restoration of good relations between two parties so tha

“You are the salt of the earth... You are the light of the world..." Matthew 5. 13 & 14 Over part 1 of my summer holiday I confined my reading to two books only. One was 'An Aghaidh Choimheach', Iain Moireach's collection of short stories, with which I am struggling on account of his rich Lewis dialect. However I expect to include the relevant (Dualchaint) module during next semester, so that should help plumb the mysteries... The other is the Archbishop of Canterbury's contr