Really appreciated this sermon. Thanks for sharing and may God continue to bless your ministry of the Word.

Excited to subscribe!

Would love to know what texts you use when you teach WR. (Maybe you’ve already shared somewhere)

Quite a line

Jer 29:11

Congrats!

The SBL paper title writes itself

There's a bit of self-critique in this comment 😅

Ooh. That’s an interesting topic!

All together, a remarkable Christological reading of Gen 1-3. The word of the gospel, expanding and bearing fruit in good works and knowledge of God, is the means by which the creation commission is reaching its telos in Christ. /End

For this reason, ethical transformation is a renewal in the imago Dei: In 3:10: "You have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator (κατ’ εἰκόνα τοῦ κτίσαντος αὐτόν)." +

Likewise, the "filling" of creation occurs with the "fulness" of divine presence which is first in Christ (1:19) and now dwells in believers (2:10). +

Believers walk "in Christ" (2:6), "rooted" (ἐρριζωμένοι) in him—a profoundly apropos metaphor for those "bearing fruit" through the gospel. +

So, a presupposition of Christ's image-status undergirds the letter. But strikingly, those in Christ share by grace in the same. Their life involves "bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God." Again καρποφοροῦντες καὶ αὐξανόμενοι (in 1:10). +

Arguably, the Christological reality has shaped even how Paul conceives of his gospel ministry. The growth of the gospel is, fundamentally, Christ's work, as Second Adam, in fulfillment of the creation commission. +

But even before Paul/Timothy arrive at that claim, the language of imago Dei is brought to bear on gospel proclamation. In 1:6, the gospel is "in the whole world bearing fruit and increasing" (καρποφορούμενον καὶ αὐξανόμενον; again, cf. Gen 1:28). +

There is, of course, the stunning theological claim in 1:15. Christ is the "image of the invisible God (εἰκὼν τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ἀοράτου), the firstborn of all creation" (cf. Gen 1:28). +