K. Rex Butts's Blog

“The words of the reckless pierce like swords, but the tongue of the wise brings healing.”

- Proverbs 12:181

By now, you’ve heard what Jimmy Kimmel said about the First Lady, Melania Trump. In case you didn’t, here’s the quote: “Our First Lady, Melania, is here. Look at Melania, so beautiful. Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow.” Since then, conservative voices, including President Trump, have voiced their criticism and even called on ABC to cancel Kimmel’s show. Whether or not ABC should cancel Jimmy Kimmel Live is not for me to say, but I do believe the “joke” was unnecessary.

Since the airing of the show, President Trump and other conservative voices have become vocal about the violent rhetoric among liberals. Jimmy Kimmel’s joke is but one example. The only problem is that there is plenty of violent rhetoric employed by conservatives. For one example, President Trump posted on his Truth Social account that he was glad Robert Mueller was dead, saying, “Robert Mueller just died. Good, I’m glad he’s dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people! President DONALD J. TRUMP” (3/21/26, 12:26 AM).

As far as I’m concerned, grown adults should neither make jokes about anyone dying nor rejoice in the death of anyone. But I’m not interested in adjudicating who’s to blame, liberals or conservatives. Pointing fingers is an endless game that just perpetuates the problem within society. I’m more interested in a solution.

To that end, I ask: What responsibility do we as Christians have in a society where some believe it’s okay to joke about or rejoice in the death of others?

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As you ponder that question, consider three passages of scripture from the New Testament:

Ephesians 4:49, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

James 2:12-13, “Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”

1 Peter 3:8-9, “Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.”

I cite these three passages because they all concern how Christians act, including the way we speak. Speech is an act in itself and is reflective of our character. If we speak words that bring laughter at the expense of others, demean others, rejoice in the suffering of others, or wish ill on others, then we are no different from the world still enslaved in sin.

I have raised the question of what responsibility we, as Christians, have, because we should be the example of “a more excellent way.”2 We should be an alternative to the vile and ungodly rhetoric that is becoming more commonplace in society. This isn’t a matter of politics and taking sides with either conservatives or liberals because we serve a Kingdom that is not of this world. Our calling is to bear witness to the liberal and conservative kingdoms of this world, so that they might see and hear the good news of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God.

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In a society where people can joke about or rejoice in the death of another person, our words must go beyond such banal foolishness. If all of life is sacred, as we should believe, then we should be the ones who speak as if life is sacred. Where there is disrespect, we should be polite. Where people are vilified as enemies, we should speak words that embrace everyone as neighbors.

We would do well to remember and offer up this prayer often attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is error, the truth; where there is doubt, the faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood, as to understand; to be loved, as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

My fellow Christians, remember that we are followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s act accordingly, and speak accordingly!

That’s all.

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Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

The phrase “a more excellent way” is borrowed from 1 Corinthians 12:31. I mention that because the very next chapter is the apostle Paul’s musing on love, which is the “more excellent way” that Paul has in mind.

It has been over a month since I posted anything on my Substack. Life has been very busy over the last month. However, I wanted to share the manuscript of the sermon I preached yesterday with the Southside Church of Christ in Milwaukee. This message, called Follow Me! is based on John 21:15-19 and is the conclusion to a series called Good News, which covered the last two chapters of John’s gospel. I’m sharing this because the text, with the exchange between Jesus and Peter, is often misunderstood yet important for our formation as we consider what it means to believe in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. So here is the message:

As we enter the text we just read, it’s important to remember that Peter is not the only one who has failed to follow Jesus. We all have failed to follow Jesus. And like Peter, Jesus has a question for us.

To be precise, Jesus has three questions, but they’re all asking one question: “Do you love me?”1 It’s all Jesus wants to know: “Do you love me?”

“Simon son of John,” Jesus asks, “do you love me more than these?” The question is asked three times: in verse 15, then again in verses 16 and 17.

Sometimes people have made a big deal about the two different kinds of love in this passage, agápē and phileō. The suggestion is that Peter couldn’t profess the so-called highest form of love for Jesus, agápē, known as unconditional love. Instead, it is suggested that Peter can only profess a lesser form of love, phileō love, a kindred or brotherly love for Jesus. The only problem with that sort of reading is that throughout the Gospel of John, both kinds of love, agápē and phileō, are used interchangeably to speak of the Father’s love for the Son (cf. 3:35; 5:20) as well as Jesus’ love for Lazarus (cf. 11:3, 5), and the apostle John (cf. 13:23; 20:2).

So instead of trying to make a point the text isn’t interested in, maybe we can be surprised that Jesus is asking such a question. After all, like Peter, we’re sinners. In different ways, we’ve all failed to follow Jesus. Maybe our failure was this last week, perhaps last month, or even a year or more ago. Maybe our failure was denying Jesus as Peter did, or maybe we denied him through something we did or failed to do. Maybe we lost our temper and spoke harshly to our family, or maybe we ignored someone in need, or maybe…

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Well, it doesn’t really matter how we have failed to follow Jesus. The point is that we have all failed to follow Jesus, one way or another. Now we find ourselves in the presence of Jesus. It should be a terrifying moment, but it’s not. Jesus never once says a word about judgment or condemnation. Instead, he asks a very simple question: “Do you love me?”

Of course, we love Jesus. Why else are we gathered here this morning?

So we respond, “Yes, Lord, you know we love you.”

But Jesus just looks at us and asks again, “Do you love me?”

Rightfully so, we assure him, “Yes, Lord, you know we love you.”

But.. and this is a big but because Jesus asks us a third time, “Do you love me?”

Is Jesus hard of hearing or what? He’s asked us this question twice, and twice we have responded, affirming him that we love him. So, this time, with a little more emphasis, we answer Jesus again, saying, “Lord, you know everything, you know we love you.”

But that’s just it. Jesus does know everything. And he knows every way in which we have failed to follow him and the ways that we’ll still fail to follow him in the future. Yet, just as he is with Peter, Jesus isn’t interested in condemning us or shaming us. Jesus just wants to ask us if we love him. Not because he doesn’t know the answer, but because he wants us to think about our love for him and what that means.

After hearing us affirm our love for Jesus not once, not twice, but three times, Jesus says for the third time, “Feed my sheep.” At least, that’s what he says to Peter, but I believe he’s saying it to us as well. John isn’t telling us about this exchange between Jesus and Peter just for our entertainment. He’s telling us because Jesus wants to make sure we know the kind of life loving him will require.2

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Jesus says to Peter, “Feed my sheep,” and then he goes on to tell Peter how he will give his own life up for Jesus as someone stretches out his hands. Loving Jesus means serving Jesus, and doing so may mean that we endure hardships and even sufferings for the sake of serving Jesus. We may not have our hands literally stretched out on a cross like Peter eventually did, but serving Jesus will mean having our lives stretched.

After all, the very next words from Jesus are simply, “Follow me!”

And here is the good news. Despite all the ways we have failed to follow Jesus, there is no condemnation from Jesus. Jesus just looks at us and says, “Follow me!” And if we really believe in Jesus, if we really love Jesus, then following him is what we do.

Jesus began his ministry with the call to “Come, follow me… and I will send you out to fish for people.” And now, after his death and resurrection, we hear Jesus say, “Follow me!”

All Jesus has ever wanted is for us to be people who will follow him and participate in his kingdom. And in following Jesus, we’ll become people who will live lives that testify about him and invite others who will also participate in his kingdom.

So if we’re going to follow Jesus, then we do so by following him into the waters of baptism. From there, we follow Jesus into the wilderness, where we resolve to give our allegiance to God. We follow Jesus together as a community committed to loving one another and bearing each other’s burdens. We follow Jesus to the tables of both the righteous and the sinner, serving both, knowing that we, too, are sinners saved by the grace of God. We follow Jesus by offering up praise to God as we remind each other of this story we are a part of, because this good news is the truth. And so we follow Jesus as participants in the mission of God, inviting others to come learn to participate with us just as Jesus invited us to do.

This is what Jesus wants: for us to follow him, to walk in his footsteps, and to follow him into God’s kingdom. Just like walking, everyone has to take the first step. If you’ve never taken the first step in following Jesus, then the invitation is to surrender your life to Jesus and receive him in baptism. Many of us have already made that decision, but just like walking, we all fall now and again. But Jesus isn’t here to shame us for falling. He’s telling us to get back up and start walking again by asking if we love him, then saying two words: “Follow me!”

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Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Nick A. Vaquilar, “Peter’s Journey as a Disciple: An Exegetical-Theological Study of John 21:15-19,” Landas 26 (2012): 92, understands that the Gospel of John portrays Peter as the embodiment of what is true for all disciples and as a model of what it means to love Jesus.

When it comes to a worldview, a big question we must answer is “Who am I?” It’s a question of identity that’s fundamentally about who we believe ourselves to be. As Christians, we must consider what it means to have a Christian or Christ-formed identity.

To understand our Christ-formed identity, let’s begin with two images: the image of God and the image of our baptism into Christ.1 The Genesis creation narrative stresses that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26-27). So we know that from the foundation of creation, we were made the divine image bearers of God. As Christians, we have also been baptized into Jesus Christ, who is the very incarnation of God. In baptism, our old life is buried with the crucified Christ in death and then raised unto a new life in the resurrected Christ (Rom 6:3-4).

The image of God’s likeness and baptism into Christ are identity markers because they signify our origin, being, and belonging. We are not just human beings but God’s beings, created to bear his image and baptized into Christ so that we might be conformed to the image of Christ (cf. Rom 8:29), who is God Incarnate. To be a Christian, then, is to be from God and of God. That is why we can speak of ourselves as God’s children in Christ. But for all the greatness that having a Christ-formed identity is, we have yet to embrace the fullness of a Christ-formed identity until we begin to see ourselves as God’s priesthood existing as aliens and exiles among society.

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Based on what we read in 1 Peter, we must learn to regard ourselves as God’s priesthood living as aliens and exiles among society. Consider the following text…

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.2

Most English translations place a divide in this passage by beginning a new section with verse 11, but there is a connection that we should not miss. To see this connection, we should first remember that Peter is using language from the story of Israel3 and now saying that identification is the church. The language of a chosen (elect) people, royal priesthood, and holy nation is what God has redeemed us to be when he called us from darkness into light. It also means that as long as we live among society at large, our existence will be as aliens and exiles.

Living as God’s priesthood will always come with challenges, or at least it should. But regarding ourselves as aliens and exiles is radical.

We would do much better to remember that the so-called choice between the lesser of two evils is still a choice of evil. But there’s always a third choice: Remember our divine image and baptism into Christ—live accordingly.

Some years back, I was sitting in a Starbucks, writing a sermon on the same passage I’m preaching on today. I decided to strike up a small conversation with the people sitting at the table next to me. During the conversation, I asked them what they would think if a church described itself as aliens and exiles. One woman furrowed her eyes as she asked, “Is it a cult?”

Well, if by cult we mean a sectarian group that uses fear to manipulate, control, and elicit absolute loyalty to a person other than Jesus Christ, then count me out. Nevertheless, it does seem that regarding ourselves as aliens and exiles in the United States is radical. The shadows of Christendom, where church and state were in many ways joined at the hip, loom large. There are too many Christians who are so embedded within American culture that they’re unable to differentiate between America as a nation and God’s holy nation. In fact, some Christians have gone so far as to co-opt Christianity and the Bible to serve American interests, in their partisan expressions, rather than the priestly interests of God’s holy nation.

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Living as God’s priesthood, with an existence that makes us aliens and exiles, is a Christ-formed identity that changes the way we must live in society. Peter is using such language to help us understand how we live differently from people in secular society, not just those to our right or left, but from all people. I emphasize this point because there are people on both sides of the socio-political and cultural spectrum who do not follow Jesus. And don’t be fooled into thinking that an authority figure or talking head follows Jesus just because they occasionally mention the name Jesus and talk favorably about the Bible. Talking about Jesus and following Jesus are two different realities.

As Christians, we are called to the latter, and that means living honorably in society so that unbelievers might see our lives and glorify God one day.4 It’s for this reason that we should be trustworthy people full of integrity, who others can depend on to do what’s right. We ought to be the kind of people who speak and act in a civil manner, even when we disagree with the policies and decisions of those who govern society. As Peter says, “Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor” (1 Pet 2:17).

In our particular time, honorable conduct means we must become more discerning about the people and platforms we sanction and support. If civic duties require us to pinch our noses, then maybe we should consider getting out of the sewage pit. We would do much better to remember that the so-called choice between the lesser of two evils is still a choice of evil. But there’s always a third choice: Remember our divine image and baptism into Christ—live accordingly.

We are called to live as God’s priesthood, existing as aliens and exiles among society. But God will not force us to live in such an existence. The choice is ours. It is, however, a choice we already made with our baptism into Christ, but it’s also a choice we must keep making.

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Marva Dawn and Eugene Peterson, The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2000, 191, first drew to my attention the image of God and baptism into Christ as a way of seeing people.

1 Peter 2:9-12. Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

In the Old Testament, Israel is elected to be “a priestly kingdom and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6), the “priests of the Lord” and “ministers of our God” (Isa 61:6); and the people of God (Hos 2:23). Because Peter is now saying th God’s chosen people—his royal priesthood and holy nation—is the church, we should understand that God’s chosen people is not the modern State of Israel established in 1948, despite what the so-called Christian Zionists claim. For more, see Douglas Harink, 1 & 2 Peter, Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2009), 71.

Peter H. Davids, The First Epistle of Peter, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1990, 96.

I attended my first Ash Wednesday service yesterday at the All Saints Cathedral in downtown Milwaukee. The service was both encouraging and challenging.

As you might expect, the liturgy included readings from Joel, Psalm 103, 2 Corinthians, and The Gospel of Matthew. Later in the liturgy was a recitation of Psalm 51. The liturgy itself drew my attention to both my sins and the grace of God, prompting reflection on what I need to let go of to live fully in that grace. Part of that focus was due to the liturgy's high level of participation. It wasn’t just a priest speaking but the entire congregation.

Of course, the service included receiving the ashes as a cross, symbolizing our mortality, repentance, and penance. Then, towards the end of the service, the bread and wine that signify the body and blood of Christ were received. Overall, though, the service helped me not just remember but also reflect on the fact that I am a sinner, that there are ways about me that are not aligned with God’s will, and that God, full of grace and mercy, allows me to repent and receive forgiveness.

The awareness of both sin and grace is necessary if we’re to live the life of salvation we receive in Christ. Repentance isn’t a one-and-done response to the grace of God, but an ongoing way of life in which the recognition of sin means naming the sin (confession), letting go of the sin (repentance), and letting God reform our lives through his Spirit to become like Christ so that we may be saved (grace).

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We have a choice. Every day we have a choice. When we wake up, we have the choice to follow Jesus or not. God isn’t forcing us to do anything our heart doesn’t desire. So the choice is ours, if following Jesus is what we desire. And when we wake up the next day, the day after the next, and every day from then on, we have the choice to follow Jesus.

Lent is a season to reflect once again on the choice to follow Jesus. What keeps us from following Jesus as we should? What ungodly desires still lurk within us? What do we need to let go of so that we can live the life Jesus has not only called us to live but also given his life so that we can live?

Our God is full of mercy and steadfast love. In the abundance of his grace, God is not just willing to forgive but gives us the opportunity for reflection so that in Christ, we may become the righteousness of God.

“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” - 2 Corinthians 5:21 (NIV)

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I started watching the series Yellowstone over the holidays. The series ran for five seasons, beginning in 2018 and ending in 2024. So I’m just a wee bit late in watching all about the Dutton family, or more like the dysfunctional Dutton family.

I don’t want to give away spoilers, but if you’re familiar with the series, then you know how dysfunctional the Dutton family is. Although fictional, as I watch each episode, here is a family where distrust and resentment flow through the ebb and flow of their daily lives. Conspiring behind each other's backs is par for the course if it will give one family member an advantage over another. Here is a family that has their own little kingdom, a large cattle ranch set in the state of Montana, with the money and reputation to leverage power for their own corrupt gain.

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Now, there is more to the show and the family dynamics than I am sharing here. But I make these observations because it reminds me of how humans are so prone to chasing after kingdoms that cannot last. We chase after kingdoms that are more of an illusion because they never deliver the peace and security they pretend to offer. They’re little kingdoms whose foundations are so feeble and frail that we must constantly strive to keep them, exerting the Nietzschian will to power—becoming monsters if necessary.

Jesus Christ offers us a different kingdom, one whose foundation doesn’t depend on our own strength but upon the redemptive work of God. The Kingdom of God is what Jesus proclaimed as the good news he was inaugurating in the world.

“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’”1

(Matt 4:17; Mk 1:14-15). This means the Kingdom of God is received by us rather than achieved by us. That’s good news because it means we become participants in a kingdom that depends on the redemptive power of God rather than our feeble and ultimately unreliable power. Participating in God’s kingdom requires only repentance and belief in the good news, ultimately trusting that, through the crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation of Jesus Christ, God’s kingdom is eternal. Such participation is what we are doing as we follow Jesus Christ,2 which becomes our witness or testimony to God’s kingdom.

Either we run the race marked out for us by God, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, or we’ll run another race, marked out by a kingdom of this world, fixing our eyes on things like partisan politics.

I'm sharing this with you because I have a significant concern at the start of 2026. For over twenty-five years, I have served as a minister of the gospel and have done so among the Churches of Christ. I am ever thankful to serve in ministry, but over time, ministry has become more difficult. Churches are declining and aging. Congregational ministry is more challenging because the cultural contexts of established congregations have changed, and the idea of planting new churches remains beyond the imagination of many congregations.

Over the years, as Christians have encountered the difficulties of ministry and congregational decline, the blame was often attributed to the rise of the isms: postmodernism, relativism, and secularism. Now I recognize that the emergence of any new cultural shift presents new challenges that can make ministry more difficult. However, rather than making these isms into scapegoats for the difficulties of ministry, we have to spend more time looking in the mirror.

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To whatever extent social media can tell us about the decline of Christianity in the United States, much of the problem is one that Christians must own. Far too many professing Christians appear more interested in seeking after the little kingdoms of this world. Just observe the responses to the latest breaking news regarding politics and society. This past weekend, it was the news of the U.S. military strike in Venezuela, leading to the capture of the Venezuelan President Maduro. Like clockwork, even before all the facts and details were known, Christians immediately began to either condemn or defend the U.S., which seemed more like either a condemnation or an affirmation of President Trump. Why? It’s as though partisan politics has become the master, enlisting believers into the service of ideological kingdoms of this world.3

We, who profess to be Christians, must reconsider what race God has called us to run. Consider this text from Hebrews 12:1-2:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

In this text, our life as Christians is described as a race, and we are urged to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ as we run it. Here’s the challenge: We can only run one race at a time! Either we run the race marked out for us by God, fixing our eyes upon Jesus, or we’ll run another race, marked out by a kingdom of this world, fixing our eyes on things like partisan politics.

If we want to see Christianity thrive on mission with God in the United States, seeing the nation pursue the way, truth, and life of Jesus Christ, then we must live as a witness of God’s kingdom. That means running the race that Jesus Christ ran, keeping our eyes fixed upon our Lord.

Whatever the United States once was, it is a pluralistic nation of many religious, political ideologies, and social values. With all due respect to the nation's cultural diversity, if we’re followers of Jesus, we want to see people in the United States become followers of Jesus. The only way that happens is for us to live as witnesses of God’s kingdom, and that only happens by continuing to run the race God has marked out for us to run.

As 2026 unfolds, perhaps this is a time to renew our commitment as Christians and refix our eyes upon Jesus Christ—the pioneer and perfecter of our faith!

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Mark 1:14-15; cf. Matt 4:17. All scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Mark 1:17; Matt 4:19.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I have been just as guilty in times past. There have been times when I have rushed to take up a side with little discernment. There have also been times when I sounded more like an echo chamber of partisan ideology than a follower of Jesus. I regret that. I also want to be clear that Christians should never speak about events and happenings. In a society where human trafficking, racism, and violence are on the rise, Christians should speak, but there needs to be discernment. Any response from Christians ought to reflect the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God rather than sound like an echo chamber of partisan politics. The question Christians must discern is how to respond to events in a manner that reflects the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God?

Last Sunday was the Second Sunday of Advent, the day when our attention is drawn to the peace that God makes possible in the coming of Jesus Christ. One of the readings is a passage from Isaiah 11:1-10.

The prophetic vision of Isaiah looks to the future, the coming of a new Davidic king who will faithfully rule with righteousness and equity. But then we have this strange imagery that signifies the peaceable kingdom the new king will establish. Isaiah 11:6-9 says,

The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.1

The imagery of this text is well captured in a painting by Edward Hicks from 1834.

Can you imagine a wolf living with a lamb or a calf and a lion feeding together, being led by a child?

I can’t. In fact, the only way I imagine a wolf and a lamb or a lion and a calf coexisting in the same pasture together is because the bellies of the wolf and lion are already filled with another lamb and calf. It’s okay because I don’t think the point of the text is a literalism that says predatory animals will one day share space with animals of prey, where the latter don’t become food for the former.

The point of the text is Isaiah's vision of peace out there on the horizon. Such peace is predicated on the coming of the new king. As I mentioned earlier, the coming of this king will be another David.2 That is to say that the king’s reign will be good, as opposed to the evil that characterized most of the reigns of Israel’s other kings. So it will be a kingdom characterized by God’s peace.

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Such peace, shalōm in the Hebrew Bible, is more than just the absence of violence and conflict. Yes, peace includes the absence of violence and conflict, but peace is so much more. To have peace is to have our complete life reordered and restored so that we can live in reconciled relationships with God and each other, which is only possible through the coming of Jesus Christ, who has made such peace possible through his death on the cross.

The coming of Christ, which is what Advent draws our attention to, comes with a call to repentance. The point of the prophetic vision is not to say that there will be a literal day when wolves and lions no longer see the lambs and calves as food. The vision is about God establishing a kingdom in this world where the “earth will surely be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, just as the water covers the sea.”3 It’s a vision in which our hearts are changed because we come to know the way of the Lord.4

As the church, we are called to be the people whose testimony says that a life of peace is possible when men and women surrender their lives to King Jesus.

But what is Advent and the vision of a peacable kingdom if we don’t believe it and embody it?

If you find that to be a provocative question, then good, because it should be. There are too many examples of people who have claimed to be Christians but have engaged in some of the worst human atrocities in history. The violence and conflicts that disrupt peace are never the problem; they’re just a symptom of a problem: hearts that have yet to believe the gospel and be formed in Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Nelson Mandela once said, “No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.” He’s right.

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Advent is about the coming of Jesus Christ, who came to inaugurate God’s kingdom—a peaceable kingdom. Jesus makes that possible through his crucifixion, resurrection, and exaltation. But we dare not miss that we are called to embody the peaceable kingdom of God as a testimony to the world. We do that by learning from Jesus to practice the very virtues that make for peace, putting away the ways of envy, greed, and self-serving behavior that cultivate a climate of fear where violence seems like the only solution. In place of such envy, greed, hatred, and self-serving behavior, we learn how to love one another, becoming humble servants who seek each other’s best interests even when we might disagree with each other.

The other day, I was sitting in a local coffee shop when the song Happy Xmas (War Is Over) by the late John Lennon came on the radio. It’s a Christmas song we hear every year during the holiday season. Like a good poet and even a good prophet, Lennon draws attention to the sad reality of a world where people can say “Merry Christ-Mas,” celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ, in a world that’s still marred not just by war but the sort of conflicts and strife that divide families and communities. But it doesn’t have to be like this. As the church, we are called to be the people whose testimony says that a life of peace is possible when men and women surrender their lives to King Jesus.

Such testimony is possible because we learn from Jesus, becoming filled with the knowledge of the Lord, so that we may bear witness to the peaceable kingdom of God. In other words, we live to show the world what the world is becoming because of the coming of Jesus Christ, who is coming again to complete the reordering and restoring of God’s new creation—the peaceable kingdom.

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Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 121.

Isaiah 11:9, CEB.

John N. Oswalt, “God’s Determination to Redeem His People (Isaiah 9:1-7; 11:1-11; 26:1-9; 35:1-10,” Review and Expositor 88, 159-160, “The point being that those who are the recipients of this messianic hope “do not need changed teeth or digestive systems to participate in the kingdom where there is neither hurt nor destruction, but we do need changed hearts where the experiential knowledge of God reigns supreme (v. 9; cf. Hos. 4.1-3).” See also John N. Oswalt, The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 1-39, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1986) 283, where he discusses the literalist and spiritualistic interpretation, noting the problems associated with such approaches.

This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, the day when our faith is drawn back to the promise of hope God has made. The Old Testament reading comes from Isaiah 2:1-5, where the prophet Isaiah proclaims a vision for the days when the nations will flock to the mountain of the Lord

In the last days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.” The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore. Come, descendants of Jacob, let us walk in the light of the Lord.1

Indeed, this vision is one of hope. Not hope as in wishful thinking or some desired outcome, like we often use the word hope in our everyday language. The hope Isaiah speaks of is a promise. Such hope means waiting with confidence in a promise, knowing what God will do because of what God has already done. This understanding of hope is why the late Jürgen Moltmann, in his seminal book Theology of Hope, spoke of hope as the future being present to us.2 It’s a hope for the future that’s present to us now because it’s Messianic Hope, a promise that God fulfills in the coming of his Son, Jesus Christ.

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The promise that God fulfills in the coming of Jesus Christ is the reason why the First Sunday of Advent draws our attention back to this Messianic Hope. The prophet Isaiah sees a time when life will be restored and reordered, where righteousness and justice are the norm.3 The old will be made new. Dare we hope that a new creation will emerge from the old creation?

Yes! But don’t miss the scope of this hope. The promise of Messianic Hope that God fulfills in the coming of Jesus Christ has never been about Jewish nationalism. Because the promise of hope cannot be confined to Jewish nationalism, we must resist the lure of turning the promise into a vision of Christian nationalism.4 In other words, the Messianic Hope that Advent calls us into is not about making any nation, including the United States, adopt Christianity as a matter of law and/or a cultural framework for the values that form civic life. Nations and people don’t learn the ways of the Lord so that they may walk in his paths by having those ways forced upon them. Co-opting Christianity to a nationalistic agenda misses the vision of hope proclaimed by Isaiah.

Instead of the coercive power that undergirds Christian nationalism, we embody the hope we have, pursued by faith with love.

The vision of Isaiah comes with an invitation for God’s people to “walk in the light of the Lord.” In other words, because we believe in the promise of Messianic Hope, we are called to embody that hope. But let’s not mistake what such embodiment means. It cannot be the attempt to make nations into Christian nations,5 because it’s not how Jesus Christ embodied the promise of Messianic Hope. Had Jesus sought to bring about God’s kingdom-reign through a means of nationalistic agendas, he could have easily done so. It’s not as if there was a lack of Jewish nationalists in the Second-Temple era of Judaism that Jesus lived among. Jesus embodied the promise of Messianic Hope by being crucified on a Roman cross and told his disciples that if they wanted to continue following him, they must embrace the cross too (cf. Mark 8:34).

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So as we journey through Advent, resist the lure of Christian nationalism. The promise of hope God makes in the coming of Jesus Christ is for all nations. What God wants from us is to be the people who will embody the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Instead of the coercive power that undergirds Christian nationalism, we embody the hope we have, pursued by faith with love. That is, we learn to love people by serving them, trusting that God is at work in us through his Spirit, opening space for us to share our reason for hope—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Perhaps then, people will see our witness and turn to God for the new life made possible by the coming of Jesus Christ.

Our response in this season of Advent is to remember the promise of hope God has made in the One who was, is, and is to come as an invitation for us as a church. Advent is a call for us to live out of the promise of hope we have in Jesus Christ, so that the rest of the nations and people will know why Advent matters.

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Isaiah 2:1-5; all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Jürgen Moltmann, Theology of Hope: On the Ground and the Implications of a Christian Eschatology, trans. James W. Leitch (New York: SCM Press, 1967; Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993), 161, who grounds this understanding of hope in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Moltmann says, “Christ is risen and beyond the reach of death, yet his followers are not yet beyond the reach of death, but it is only through their hope that they here attain to participation in the life of the resurrection. Thus resurrection is present to them in hope and as promise. This is an eschatological presentness of the future, not a cultic presence of the eternal.”

J. Alec Motyer, The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993), 54.

Andrew L. Whitehead and Samuel L. Perry, Taking America Back for God: Christian Nationalism in the United States, updated ed., New York: Oxford University Press, 2020, 2022, define Christian nationalism as “a cultural framework—a collection of myths, traditions, symbols, narratives, and value systems—that idealizes and advocates a fusion of Christianity with civic life.”

Contra to Andrew Torba and Andrew Isler, Christian Nationalism: A Biblical Guide to Taking Dominion and Discipling Nations, Gab AI, 2022, xxi, who “seek to reestablish states that recognize Jesus Christ as King, the general Christian faith as the foundation of state government, and state laws that reflect (in every way possible and reasonable) Christian morality and charity.”

My family and I used to live in Columbia, Maryland, about 20 miles north of Washington, D.C., where all the Smithsonian Museums are located.1 One of the perks of visiting a Smithsonian Museum is that they don’t charge admission fees, which means my wife and I can do something with our children without breaking the bank.

I never thought I would enjoy visiting an art museum, since I thought it would be boring. However, my wife wanted to visit the Smithsonian National Museum of Art. So we took the children, which meant we would only be there for a couple of hours because they would get bored. Once we started touring the museum, it became apparent that we should have gotten someone to watch our children.

My assumption that art museums were boring was way off. As we walked through the Smithsonian Museum of Art, I was mesmerized. Every display was so captivating. It became apparent that I could spend all day just walking around that art museum, taking it all in.

I mention this experience because I’ve also given some thought to the church as God’s artwork and what that means for the mission of God.

There’s a passage in Ephesians that is significant to this line of thought. In the second chapter, we’re told that we were dead in our sins and transgressions, but that we were made alive in Christ by God. Now that matters because it’s God, not us, who is doing the redemptive work of salvation. We were dead, and couldn’t do anything but God did. So Ephesians 2:8-10 says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”2

There it is. By God’s grace, we have been saved. It’s not by our works, but by the redemptive work of God, which makes us alive in Christ to do good works. But there’s a particular word in v. 10 that I find very fascinating.

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The New International Version uses the word handiwork. “For we are God’s handiwork…” Other English translations might use the word workmanship or masterpiece. In the original language, the word is poiēma, which is where our English words “poem” and “poetry” come from.3 Of course, poetry is a form of art. So v. 10 in the New Jerusalem Bible reads, “We are God’s work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life.”

I’m not sure if you have given much thought to the church as God’s artwork. But I believe we need an ecclesiology that views the church, both universally and locally, as God’s artwork. The congregations you serve with and the congregation I serve with are all displays of God’s artwork.4

Our task as the church is good works, not to earn salvation, but because we have already received salvation. A life of good works is our way of participating in the mission of God.

Now I’ve served as a minister of the gospel for long enough that I’ve seen trends come and go. I recall reading books about church growth, some of which were good. I even took a seminary class on the subject. There was a time when every church I spoke with about ministry opportunities asked whether I had read Rick Warren’s book The Purpose-Driven Church. Then came the Spiritual Formation phase, followed by the Emerging Church phase, and then the Missional Church phase.

I’m not sure what phase we’re in now, but I know many congregations that are experiencing decline. They realize that door-knocking campaigns and gospel meetings don’t work as effectively as they once did, but they’re unsure what to do. Well, I’m not here to offer any advice that promises church renewal if your church will do this, this, and that. Frankly, I’m weary of such notions. However, I do want to say that perhaps we’re overthinking what it means to participate in God’s mission.

What are the good works we’re supposed to be doing? It’s the life we live in the name of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. So when people from the church visit someone in a hospital or assisted living facility, it’s good work. When the church prays for a young couple whose first pregnancy has complications, it’s a good work. When the church does a giveaway for people in the neighborhood, it’s a good work. When some people from the church invite a guest to lunch at the local diner, it’s a good work. When the church embraces people whose nationality, language, and documented status differ from its own, it’s a good work.

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Earlier this year, I asked my church to invite people to our Easter Sunday worship gathering. That meant I had to ask someone because far be it from me to ask a church to do something I’m not willing to do. However, that meant talking to a stranger, which, as an introvert, is always a chore. So, I knocked on my neighbor’s door and invited her to our Easter worship service, and she came.

Most of the church I serve knows the story of my wife and me losing our first child. But because it’s Easter Sunday and I’m preaching on the resurrection of Jesus, I say something like “The resurrection of Jesus says that my son’s not dead forever.” As I say that, I look at my neighbor, and she’s in tears.

After the sermon, I approached my neighbor, and she asked if she could share something with me. “Sure,” I said.

My neighbor looked at me and said, “Two years ago, my daughter took her own life, and this is the first time I’ve been back to church. My husband won’t come and doesn’t want to talk about religion with anyone because he’s so angry with God.”

Of course, I told my neighbor that I was sorry about the loss of her daughter. And then I said, “I hope being here today helps you know that there’s hope.”

This past July 6th, my neighbor, Barb, was baptized into Christ. I share that with you just as a reminder that we never know how God is working, but God is always working for the redemptive good. So let’s open our eyes to see the opportunities God is opening for us to do such good works. For as we do, God is working redemptively among us, putting us on display as portraits of the gospel.

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This is the manuscript for a “talk” I gave at the Resoration Collective gathering in Dallas, Texas, on Tuesday, November 11, 2025.

Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

D. Edmond Hiebert, “God’s Creative Masterpiece,” Direction 23 (Spring 1994): 117.

K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022), 60, the church as God’s artwork is an embodiment of the gospel understood through a Christ-centered and Kingdom-oriented reading of the Bible. “As we follow Jesus, embodying the gospel in a manner that is centered in Christ and oriented towards the kingdom, God is painting a picture for the world of what the future will be when Christ comes again. Of course, the painting isn’t complete, but as we engage in doing the good works that God has prepared for us, we become a living portrait of what the gospel—then good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God—really looks like.”

There are twenty-eight chapters in the New Testament writing of Acts, which picks up where Luke left off, with the story about God’s redemptive mission fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Acts continues this story of God’s mission to the ends of the world, extending from the Jews to the Gentiles. What began in Luke with Jesus is now carried forward by the followers of Jesus. Those who accepted the invitation to follow Jesus into the in-breaking realm of God’s kingdom are now extending the same invitation to Jews and Gentiles

Last December, I began preaching through the Gospel of Luke, followed by Acts. Now I have finished the series on Acts. But Acts is far from done if we’re following Jesus because doing so means we’re all actors and actresses in the ongoing mission of God. We continue extending the invitation of the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God—to our neighbors.

The writing of Acts begins by imagining us as witnesses of Jesus Christ. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you, and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (1:8).1 The final chapter of Acts is also about witnessing. “He witnessed to them from morning till evening, explaining about the kingdom of God, and from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets he tried to persuade them about Jesus” (28:23). Between the first chapter and the last chapter, what we read is the story of the Jesus movement, a community of believers, living as a witness to the gospel.

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I don’t believe it’s a mere coincidence that Acts ends with Luke telling us how Paul “proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ…” (28:21). Everything stands or falls on this proclamation. It is what matters.

The Bible is filled with many moral teachings. Without any doubt, following the teachings of the Bible will result in a virtuous life. We will be better husbands and wives, better parents, better brothers and sisters, better neighbors, and even better employees in whatever job we do. But none of that matters without the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. Without this gospel, we are all still hopeless. Not only are we still bound to the plagues of our sin, but death still holds us captive to a fight we cannot win. But with the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God, God fulfills the promise of hope.

Although Paul spoke of this hope as “the hope of Israel” (28:20), it’s a hope for us all. But it also means we must continue living as participants in the mission of God, bearing witness to the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. That’s why there is no end to Acts, even though the writing we know as Acts ends with the twenty-eighth chapter.

“I’m not worried about the future of Christianity in America if we, who follow Jesus, continue living as gospel witnesses. As long as we follow Jesus, we’ll always be the church Jesus wants us to be.”

In his theological commentary on Acts, Willie Jennings describes Paul’s witness to his fellow Jewish people as “trying to turn the reading practices of his own people in a new direction in, toward and through the life of Jesus.”2 Like many of us, the Jewish people had scripture too. Still, they needed to see how scripture testifies to Jesus as the Messiah who fulfilled the promise of hope that God made regarding the restoration of the kingdom. I’m convinced that there are Christians who need to have their Bible reading practices turned away from legalism, nationalism, and prosperity, and turned towards Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God.

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In Gospel Portraits, I discuss the need for reading the Bible as a “Christ-centered and Kingdom-oriented narrative.”3 This is a participatory reading of scripture whereby we (re)imagine ourselves as actors and actresses in the story, discerning how we play our part as witnesses.4 The reason why such a reading of scripture matters is because, to circle back to Jennings' point, not only do we need our reading practices turned towards Jesus, but so does the rest of the world.

Only when our neighbors learn to navigate life through the gospel lens of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God will they begin to discover the life God is redeeming them to live. But we’re not living in any of the twenty-eight chapters of Acts anymore; we’re living in a subsequent chapter. Our chapter, set in an American context, is one where people have already heard something about Jesus and the kingdom of God. However, the marriage of legalism, nationalism, and prosperity to Christianity has muddled the testimony. It’s for this reason that we must pay as much attention to the way we live as to the content we preach, because if our life, what we live for, isn’t congruent with the content of our preaching, then we undermine our witness.

Although the writing of Acts ends with twenty-eight chapters, the acts of participating in the mission of God do not. There are subsequent chapters. Our chapter, perhaps titled Christianity in America, must continue bearing witness to the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. This is what matters. I’m not worried about the future of Christianity in America if we, who follow Jesus, continue living as gospel witnesses. As long as we follow Jesus, we’ll always be the church Jesus wants us to be. The forms by which we worship, the space where we gather together, and whether we serve fried chicken or pulled pork at a fellowship meal do not matter. What matters is that we bear a living witness to the kingdom of God as the promise of hope God has fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

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Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Willie James Jennings, Acts, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017, 244.

K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God, Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022, 110. On the same page, I go on to write, “As we read the Bible, whether from the Old or New Testament, we are invited to read in a manner that instructs us on how we follow Jesus and embody the kingdom of God he proclaimed.”

Ibid, 113. See also N.T. Wright, Scripture and the Authority of God: How to Read the Bible Today, New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2011, 121-127; The New Testament and the People of God, Christi Origins and the Question of God, vol 1., Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992, 139-143.

This past Sunday, a baptism took place during the Southside Church worship gathering. After confessing faith in Jesus Christ as Lord, Tim was immersed in water as a believer. It’s always a wonderful occasion to see someone surrender their life to Jesus Christ in the waters of baptism.

Baptism is a sacramental act, a means by which God’s grace is received. It’s participation in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As the apostle Paul writes:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.1

To be clear, baptism is not a human work. The believer is simply submitting to the redemptive word of God, who is raising the believer unto new life in Jesus Christ. This is why baptism is an essential step in living as followers of Jesus Christ.

Because baptism is an act of surrender where, by faith in Jesus Christ, we die to our old life and are raised unto new life in Christ, baptism has everything to do with discipleship. We’re baptized not just for the forgiveness of sins, but in the name of Jesus, with the promise of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:38). Being baptized in the name of Jesus Christ means we acknowledge and submit to the authority of our Lord. Baptism is a commitment we are making, a declaration that says our allegiance is now with Jesus Christ.

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In Acts 19, there are twelve disciples whom Luke describes as believers, people who are Christians. They’re seeking to follow Jesus Christ just like anyone who believes should. The problem is that they’ve only received the baptism of John the Baptist and have never heard about the baptism of Jesus Christ. Because of this, they are baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and then receive the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 19:5-6). Receiving the baptism of Jesus was their identification and commitment to the way of Jesus, the new life that is only received by laying down their lives. As Jennings writes, Paul invited these disciples “to baptize their discipleship in Jesus, and thereby join their lives to his in such a way that they will lose their life in the waters only to find it again in the resurrected One.”2

“Our baptism matters because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ. It’s a commitment that ought to change the way we operate in the world.”

Baptism has never been just about receiving a ticket to heaven. It’s not our “get out of jail” free card. Baptism is our initiation into a new way of life in which we live in the name of Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is our commitment to living as witnesses of Jesus Christ, leaving behind all the ways of the old creation, so that we can live as God’s new creation—Gospel Portraits. Because we’re baptized, we embody the gospel by conforming to the beliefs, values, and habits of Jesus Christ.3 It is the reason why Paul, back in Romans, brought up baptism as the reason why we shouldn’t continue sinning.

Baptism matters. When we were baptized, it mattered. When we witness others receiving baptism, it matters. Our baptism matters because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ. It’s a commitment that ought to change the way we operate in the world.

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I wasn’t around in the 1960s. So I don’t know what life was like in America during those turbulent years. I know the Vietnam War was unpopular and that there were a lot of protests during those years. The assassinations of President Kennedy, Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr., and Robert Kennedy were terrible and only made matters worse. But in the twenty-four years since 9/11, the United States of America has become increasingly polarized, filled with vitriol, and violence.

Sadly, this is the USA. As I write, the nation is sinking deeper and deeper into an evil pit, with people becoming so accustomed to it that they no longer recognize the madness. I’m not saying this to point fingers because everyone, including us, is a sinner. But what the nation needs from us who follow Jesus Christ, whether or not people recognize it, is for us to remember our baptism and live accordingly. Nobody needs us to be liberals or conservatives. What they need is for us to be the body of Christ, to remember our baptism, and be the people Jesus has taught us to be.

Our baptism matters because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ, which is how people will be saved from all the madness. But as a pastor, I am concerned that too many Christians are forgetting their baptism and the commitment their baptism demands. We live as followers of Jesus Christ so that we serve as a portrait of the gospel, not so that we can make America great or build up the nation. There are plenty of people to do the nation’s business, but only the church can serve as witnesses to the gospel—the good news of Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. And we surrendered our lives to Jesus Christ in baptism, not just to receive the promise of salvation, but so that we will live as witnesses of that salvation.

So remember our baptism because it signifies our commitment to living as followers of Jesus Christ. Let’s go live accordingly!

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Romans 6:3-4; Unless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Willie James Jennings, Acts, Belief: A Theological Commentary on the Bible, Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2017, 184.

K. Rex Butts, Gospel Portraits: Reading Scripture as Participants in the Mission of God, Euguene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2022, 56.