1. Gabriel appears to Mary with the shocking announcement that she is to be the mother of the Son of God. How should we view Mary?
  2. How can we know the mysterious workings of God? We look to Jesus: Jesus does His job of Jesus-ing only the way He can Jesus. Jesus never did His Messiah work the way that people thought that He should, and nothing has changed. We are blessed that He is not a God created of our own image and imagination. All of this is revealed to us through the God’s word alone, and in that word we have comfort of what Christ has done for us.
  3. How do you know you are truly repentant? Does your life have to be wrecked by some special sin before you know the Gospel?
  4. Craig and Troy wrestle with the same issue Paul is wrestling through: Wanting our friends and family to be saved and knowing that salvation must come through Christ. As the Prodigal Son believed in his father’s goodness and returned, so too will God restore and graft in all who believe—both Jew and Gentile alike—in His Son Jesus Christ.
  5. The doctrine of election is a doctrine of comfort for all who believe . . . that means it’s for you! Romans 9 is all about the nature of God, and His very nature is to be merciful to the Jew and the Gentile, for the unbeliever and the believer alike. We understand election rightly when our faith looks not at itself, but to Christ.
  6. We’d like to say that Craig and Troy wrestle with the teaching of election, but actually, it’s no struggle at all. The promises of God are freely given to all in Christ, and the elect are those who are in Him. He alone is our security.
  7. I like to think of Jesus as a mischievous badger. Gillespie and Riley again read and discuss C.S. Lewis' The Joyful Christian. This episode, the Incarnation. Do we go far enough with Jesus' incarnation, to where He wants us to go with him?
  8. It’s inconceivable! Gillespie and Riley continue to read and discuss Robert Capon’s “The Mystery of Christ... and why we don’t get it.” Faith, works, and more Christian absurdity.
  9. Would You Like to Play a Game? Gillespie and Riley return to Robert Capon to read and discuss the incarnation of Jesus and how we try to turn free grace into a transaction.
  10. What is the Gospel and what is its purpose? Troy and Craig take on this topic in brief and they explain why this is important for every Christian to understand.
  11. Dear Rome... Yeah, It’s Probably For The Best That We Never See Each Other Again. This week, Gillespie and Riley read and discuss Ulrich Zwingli’s 67 Theses defending the theological reforms in Zurich. Zwingli is provocative, sometimes hyperbolic, but driven by a zeal for the reformation doctrine of Christ alone for the salvation of sinners apart from their works.
  12. How are we to understand election in Romans 9? What does it mean that God loved Jacob and hated Esau?