Having completed proof reading my recent books and revising an earlier book, I am now engaged in preparing new studies of the letters of James and I Peter. I am currently looking at translations of the Greek text as well as researching background information, and I expect to begin posting around mid November to Early December 2025.
Revised book - In the beginning - A commentary on the early chapters of Genesis
Are you struggling with the traditional interpretation of the Genesis creation story?
Why is it that dinosaurs are not mentioned? Does Genesis present us with an accurate portrayal of the origins of humanity that stand up to scientific and historical evidence? What about talking snakes? And where did Cain’s wife come from? Did people like Adam really live for hundreds of years? Was the flood in Noah’s time a global event?
Many aspects of the early chapters of Genesis have come to be regarded as fables or metaphors devised by primitive people to explain their origins. Yet the Apostle Paul obviously regarded Adam and Eve as real people who existed in the past. Was he wrong?
‘In the beginning’ is a study that explores this early narrative from the opening verse of Genesis to the time of Abraham’s birth. It offers some radical, new, but coherent interpretations that nevertheless remain consistent with the text of Scripture. This study, originally written in 2020, has now been revised to remove some repetitive sections of text, amplify a few explanations and eliminate some grammatical errors. It is available from Amazon as a paperback book.
New book - A commentary on I Corinthians
The Corinthian Christian fellowship had its fair share of problems - division between the leaders as well as partisanship in the assembly, and one Christian was engaged in behaviour that was shocking even to outsiders and bringing the fellowship into disrepute. Some Christians were consulting non-Christian lawyers to settle their disputes, and ambition was causing division within the fellowship such that some Christians were being negated. There was also a degree of disorder when it came to celebrating the Lord’s Supper and to manifesting spiritual gifts. Some were even denying that resurrection existed.
In this verse-by-verse commentary, Rob Laynton explores how the Apostle approached these very practical problems. In the process he draws out principles for today’s Christians and their leaders as they seek to live a godly life day-by-day.
The study is available as a 400 page paperback from Amazon
Book - Against Christian Legalism
The recent posts that have been presented on this blog are also available in paperback book format. If, like me, you prefer to browse a book rather than scroll on a phone or computer, then this book is available to buy on Amazon.
From the very beginning of the Protestant Reformation, when it came to Christians living a clean, divinely approved life day-by-day - some Christian leaders directed Christians to ‘divine Law’ as a ‘spur’ to being set-apart from the values and principles of the world.
This became an ‘orthodox’ approach for many Protestant Christians, and a legacy of ‘Christian legalism’ that has come down to some Evangelical Christians today. Christian legalists divide Covenant law into ‘Ceremonial law’ – fulfilled in the Messiah, and ‘Moral law’ – that remains in force. Is a Christian stealing? Then Christian legalists direct them to the ‘Moral law’, like the Ten Commandments, which say ‘You shall not steal’, so as to drive such a Christian to the Lord in repentance. Christian legalists argue that to challenge this procedure is to challenge the word of God itself, to risk engaging in permissive ungodliness and excessive freedom, and they even cast doubt on the persistent challenger’s faith and loyalty to God.
But did the Apostles actually teach this approach? Is this how they exhorted Christians to live a godly life day-by-day? Remaining faithful to Scripture, this study by Rob Laynton explores some key New Testament passages that challenge ‘Christian legalism’, so as to set out the principles of holiness that the Apostles taught.
I Timothy 1 v 19b – 20 - Excommunication [2]
In Corinthians Paul says, ‘…hand over one from of this sort to close beside Satan, penetrating towards the aim of the ruination of the flesh in order that the breath is being delivered to safety within the Day of the Lord’ (I Corinthians 5 v 5). Paul places his focus on the Day of the Lord which is associated with the fair Judgement of God by means of His Messiah, when secret matters of the heart and things done in darkness will be revealed. For the Apostle the Day of the Lord is in many ways the time of completion and fulfilment for Christians. It is the time of rousing up from out of the dead, standing up again, full redemption and the allotment of divine rewards and inheritance to Christians as sons and heirs in God’s house.
The ‘breath’ being delivered is often interpreted by commentators to refer our ‘soul’, by which they tend to mean an immortal incorporeal ‘true self’ sheathed by our physical body. That’s according to orthodox Christian tradition anyway. I am proposing that our ‘breath’ is our inner ‘direction and movement of energy’, related to life, sensitivity and responsiveness to God.
I suggest that if Christians are regarded and treated as an ‘outsider’ as a result of their excommunication, then this leads them to ‘necessary proportionate recompense of their wandering off course’ (Romans 1 v 27b). This recompense, this proportional and appropriate payment for wandering off course, may take a number of forms. Such an individual may become materially wealthy and/or successful – but lose their breath – their energy and sensitivity to the Lord and thus suffer loss within the Day of the Lord. Or they may suffer illness, or loss of their favourable situation or reputation, or experience adversity, regret, a sense of abandonment or isolation, or any number of such things. By experiencing such adverse circumstances the aim is that they come to see that they have turned to ‘broken cisterns’ instead of the ‘water of life’. The hope is that as a result they may turn back in repentance towards obedient trust in and sensitive responsiveness to God and His Messiah, thus delivering their breath now, at this present time, and thus receiving the beneficial future consequences of this within the Day of the Lord.
There we are, Paul is quite consistent. He was no legalist, nor was he a permissive liberal. Nor was he anti-law in the sense of opposing or negating the principles and aims of divine law. Christians are placed under the free gift of God by means of the Messiah, who fulfils the requirements of divine law on their behalf and pays the price required by law for their self-forfeiture. Paul was therefore against Christians referring to the external written codes of Levitical law as a means of godliness, arguing that Christians are not under Levitical law, or any written system of law for that matter. Rather, Christians have been transferred into a royal priesthood of the order of Melchizedek with Jesus the Messiah as their High Priest. The principles of divine law are written in the Christian’s deep inner core, and borne witness to by the indwelling Breath. So Christians are exhorted to walk around day-by-day within the sphere of the Breath. In other words, in this respect, the locus of the dynamic of the Christian life is within, rather than by reference to and imposition of external written codes. The focus is on union with the Messiah as their Lord and Saviour, and on the Breath enlightening and illuminating the Christian’s perception of unseen realities. It is on Christians co-working with God by exercising their mind, such that they reason things through to their proper conclusion. It is on carrying these enlightened principles and conclusions across from within into their speech and behaviour in practical beneficial love, especially to fellow Christians, so that they speak and behave consistently with their calling, and bring forth the primary Fruit of the Breath. In the process they are being transformed into the image of the Messiah as the Breath opposes the impulses of the Christian’s fleshly constitution.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)