Reading the Bible for all its worth

"Has it every bothered you, as it has bothered me, that not a one of the last judgment scenes in the Bible reads the way it is supposed to read! We expect the Bible to describe the last judgment this way: The Lord will say, those who have believed in me come stand on my right and hand and those who did not believe in me go to outer darkness. But the Bible never paints the picture that way. It is always, instead, the books will be opened and "each person was judged according to what he had done" (Rev. 20:12-13).

If I could challenge you to read one sermon, it very well might be the one from which this excerpt is taken. Check it out at: http://sermons.faithtacoma.org/Scripture/Introduction.htm

Part 2 is just as challenging: http://sermons.faithtacoma.org/Scripture/Introduction%20No.%202.htm

"The fact of the matter is, my brethren, it is as clear to me as can be that the redemptive-historical men and the law-grace men, had they been standing over Matthew's shoulder or James' shoulder, or the shoulder of many other a biblical writer, would have suggested that they put things differently than they did. We want, rather, to let God decide what we need to hear, how we need to hear it, and with what emphasis. And if that means that we must hold together convictions that are not easily held together, if it means we must work both in thought and in life to be faithful to truths that must be held together with might and main, well, then, so be it. It is the nature of reality that it should be so and so the nature of true faith in Christ and God."

Praise God for his grace which has freed us from the power of sin's consequence as well as the power of sins dominion in our lives today! We are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to righteousness!