“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” -Romans 12:2 The first step in our reasonable service, our spiritual worship, is to refrain from conforming ourselves to the […]
Crumbs From Our Master's Table
[CRUMBS IS ON A TEMPORARY HIATUS UNTIL EST. JUNE 2022]
CRUMBS is a free, daily morsel of truth you can consume in a minute but chew on all day long. It is nourishment for the soul delivered straight from the King's table to your email inbox. Of course, these morsels are not a substitute for the nourishment of the Word and Sacraments served on the Lord's Day, but they are good with coffee or tea in the morning.
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Our Spiritual Worship
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” -Romans 12:1 This is a good place to recall that Paul’s letter to the Romans follows a chiastic structure that reaches its highest and most important […]
Unsearchable!
“Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” For from him and through […]
All Consigned to Disobedience
“For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on […]
The Effectual Call
“For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.” -Romans 11:29 Paul affirms the validity of the covenant promise to (remnant or believing) Israel by use of a merism, a kind of trope called a synecdoche. A merism is a rhetorical device (or figure of speech) in which a combination of two (usually contrasting) […]
As Regard the Gospel and Election
“As regards the gospel, they are enemies for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers.” -Romans 11:28 For clarity’s sake, Paul’s categories are as follows: Gentiles, which represent the believers, the church; broader Israel which includes both the elect remnant and the unbelieving ethnic Jews; the elect […]
All Israel Will Be Saved
“And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, “The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”; “and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”” -Romans 11:26–27 God will save all Israel in the way he just described (and is about […]
Take Heed Lest You Fall
“Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.” -Romans 11:25 This statement is a summary, an expansion, and a warning. It is a summary explanation of what […]
One Olive Tree
“And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the […]
Continue in His Kindness
“For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God’s kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.” -Romans 11:21–22 As Paul has already noted in […]