Stopping to Think

I previously posted some interaction with a particular part of this commentary here.  The Gospel According to John by D.A. Carson My rating: 5 of 5 stars DA Carson has been my go-to for the past two years of studying John's gospel. The combination of wise and scholarly interaction with commentators both contemporary and historical, the rich exegetical insights, and the commitment to applying the text as the word of God to the people of God set this commentary apart from the others that I used. View all my reviews

Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by D.A. Carson My rating: 5 of 5 stars As a bivocational, small-town church planter, this was hugely encouraging. Tom Carson, and many men like him over the centuries, labored in relative obscurity. Often having little observable success. But God sees their labors, and as the writer to the Hebrews says, he is not so unjust as to forget them. So keep reading your Bible, ministering to people with that Bible, and trust that the Lord who sent you will work. Be faithful to the end. May the Lord raise up more men like this in our day. View all my reviews

What was the Apostle John aiming for when he wrote the gospel which bears his name? The apostle tells us in chapter 20, verse 3 1, that everything he has written was so that we might believe, and that by believing you may have life in his [Jesus’] name. Having considered the content of the belief (that the Messiah, the Son of God, is Jesus), we should ask what is the belief itself? What does it mean to believe in Jesus? What it's Not Reading through John’s gospel, one thing clear: he is not seeking a mere intellectual assent. Saying, oh yes, that’s what I think! is not the sort of belief he is driving for. John 2:23-25 , Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Jesus looks at the belief of those who have seen him do signs, and yet he does...

Why did the apostle John write the gospel which bears his name? In John 20:30-31, we read his answer:  Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. Which would seem to indicate that John's intention is to answer this question: Who is Jesus? The answer he provides: The Christ (or the Jewish Messiah , the anointed one from God), the Son of God.    However, in an article published in the Journal of Biblical Literature in 1987 (and then more briefly in his excellent commentary, the Gospel According to John ), D.A. Carson makes the argument that we ought to understand those words in a slightly different order. His argument essentially boils down to this: in v31 , the Greek phrase, ἵνα πιστεύητε ὅτι, translated so that you may believe that  refers not to who Jesus  is...

"Theology without proclamation is empty. Proclamation without theology is blind." DA Carson Commonplace Monday is a series of posts wherein, on Monday mornings, I share short quips, sentences -perhaps as much as a paragraph- which I have collected in my various commonplace books and files. If I wrote down or recall where it came from I will certainly give attribution. However, sometimes I write down things and not where they came from. So if you see anything like that here and recognize it, that's what comment sections are for.