1. Make no mistake, sinners are in fact being pursued by a most hideous beast called sin, death, and the devil, unleashed and striking continuously.
  2. The God who abundantly restores is still in the business of total restoration, even today. Even now the God of heaven restores dead sinners to life.
  3. Every part of Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene in John 20 was incredibly intentional and personal for God to systematically redeem what was lost.
  4. Hamilton writes lucidly. He has that rare gift of walking the tightrope between the academy and the church, being able to communicate to both groups in the same book.
  5. The Messiah is exiled from God on the cross as Israel was. Forsaken as Israel was forsaken. Cast away from Yahweh as Israel was. Why?
  6. The Word of the Lord is sure. The enemy is defeated. Salvation is waiting for you.
  7. God is often hidden in history, even as we make it now, but He is always manifest where He has promised to be.
  8. Mephibosheth’s story is a living parable of the gospel. It reeks of redemption, demonstrating precisely what Christ does for even the chiefest of sinners.
  9. In Israel, once a year, a priestly climber would reach the peak of a very different kind of mountain. Here's his story.
  10. Viewing the Word as a unified theological narrative prevents us from treating the Scriptures like a cage match between competing theological systems, with prophets duking it out with apostles, and psalmists with evangelists, all supposedly fighting for their voice to be heard.
  11. Christ has received the mark of law that we might be marked with the gospel, with the sign of his holy cross on our heads and hearts as redeemed children of God.
  12. This Christmas season we are thankful that even though we “fallers” are unable to climb up to God, he came down the ladder to us.