1. 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.
  2. The Advents of Christ (past, present, and future) elicit faith in the word of Christ, confirmed by his presence.
  3. Your Christian faith is a bloody faith, and that ought not make you fearful or scared or embarrassed.
  4. He also took our own history and suffered all the agony and pain of our own lives.
  5. Each week during this year’s Advent series, we will take a look at a specific implication of Christ’s incarnation. This week, we will discover how God reaffirms the goodness of his creation by making all things new in the incarnation.
  6. Look the judge in the eye and pin your sin on Jesus, the divine judge’s son. Jesus knows you can’t do it, so he trades places with you and pits himself against God’s righteous demands.
  7. Jesus meets us in our life of lies, in our falsehoods, in the untruth of our being, and in the company, we create to cover up our nakedness.
  8. When we — sinful, reprehensible we — become the enforcers of justice, we never bring about true justice. We either go too far or not far enough.
  9. The church’s reformation is not about fragmentation, but a way forward to unity around that which is central to the church, around Christ and him crucified.
  10. There are plenty of reasons why you do not already do whatever you want out of fear of the law, and you will find these reasons persist and remain long after the gospel has its way with you.
  11. As the body positivity movement has gained traction, we must also be aware of some of its pitfalls
  12. We do not have to endure the pain and suffering of this fallen existence forever, just for a little while.