In this Lent episode of In Light of the Cross, we continue reflecting on God as Father by focusing on the New Testament theme of adoption, using Romans 8. We talk about how being led by the Spirit means we’re God’s children—adopted into his family—so we can cry “Abba, Father,” and live as heirs with Christ even while we still suffer.

Paul’s “now and not yet” frames adoption as both already true and still awaiting its full experience in the future resurrection and the redemption of our bodies. We also trace how creation’s restoration is tied to the revealing of God’s children, showing God’s cosmic plan to redeem all creation.

We end by inviting each other to reinterpret stress and hardship through our identity as God’s loved children and pray the Lord’s Prayer together.

00:00 Lenten Theme Setup

00:59 What Adoption Means

01:46 Romans 8 Adoption

02:32 Suffering and Future Glory

04:34 Grafted Into One Family

05:28 Cosmic Redemption Scope

07:32 Now and Not Yet

09:33 Living as Gods Child

10:44 God Gives Good Gifts

11:42 Reframing Trials for Good

13:26 Reflection and Lords Prayer

In episode 22 of In Light of the Cross, we transition from how the cross interprets the Old Testament to talking about God, ourselves, and our relationships in light of the cross, and we preview five post-Easter episodes focused on our new life, resurrection, and future.

We explore a key shift from the Old to the New Testament: in the New Testament we can call God “Father.” While God is referred to as Father of Israel a handful of times in the Old Testament, no one personally addresses God that way in prayer, but Jesus consistently does—except on the cross when quoting Psalm 22—and teaches us to pray “Our Father.”

We read Romans 8:12–17 on adoption, crying “Abba, Father,” and being heirs and co-heirs with Christ, and we note Hebrews 2:10–11 that Jesus calls us brothers and sisters. We close by inviting honest prayer, lamenting imperfect earthly parents, receiving God’s perfect fatherhood, and praying the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Podcast Focus Recap

00:27 Series Roadmap Ahead

01:30 Pause and Prayer

02:00 God as Father Shift

02:58 Old Testament Contrast

04:42 Jesus Teaches Our Father

05:47 Abba and Adoption

07:22 Heirs and Siblings

09:00 Personal Application Prayer

11:06 The Lords Prayer Close

We wrap up our Old Testament series by looking at how everything comes into focus when we read it in light of Jesus and the cross, like a mystery where the ending makes sense of all the earlier clues. We review sin’s four dimensions from Adam and Eve—breaking God’s command, betraying trust, aligning with and becoming enslaved to the enemy, and forfeiting the good life with God—and how the cross undoes this through justification (substitutionary sacrifice), reconciliation and redemption (restoring what’s been lost), victory over the enemy (seen in Exodus and David), and new life through resurrection.

We trace the Old Testament’s repeated pattern that no human hero can fix humanity’s “Adam DNA,” pointing to the need for a new kind of life Jesus brings. Throughout, we emphasize the scarlet thread of grace and end by encouraging ongoing dependence on grace through prayer, concluding with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Old Testament Through the Cross

00:56 Four Dimensions of Sin

02:47 The Cross Undoes the Curse

04:54 Need for New Humanity

06:05 Resurrection New Body

07:24 Scarlet Thread of Grace

09:15 Living by Grace Today

10:22 The Lord's Prayer Closing

In this episode we finish our Old Testament overview by looking at the wisdom books—Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon (sometimes Psalms is included)—as personal guidance for living in light of God rather than part of Israel’s main narrative.

In Proverbs we see wisdom as the “grain of the universe,” ultimately embodied in Jesus, and 1 Corinthians highlights the cross as God’s wisdom: self-giving love that overturns worldly ideas of power; Jesus also fulfills Proverbs’ righteousness, showing our need for his righteousness.

Job raises unjust suffering, and while it doesn’t give an intellectual answer, Christ gives a heart answer by suffering with us.

Ecclesiastes exposes the emptiness of grasping for pleasure, while Jesus shows purpose through giving and serving.

Song of Solomon celebrates marriage and points beyond it to Christ and the church, made possible through the cross.

00:00 Intro Flying Solo

00:15 What Is Wisdom Literature

01:55 Proverbs Wisdom And The Cross

06:35 Job Unjust Suffering

08:25 Ecclesiastes Meaning Of Life

09:56 Song Of Solomon Love And Marriage

11:44 Reflection And Lord's Prayer

In this episode of In Light of the Cross, we pause to invite the Spirit and explore the Psalms as a unique part of Scripture: poetry that is largely people’s words to God, yet inspired for our good and also God’s words to us.

We reflect on how the Psalms point to Jesus in several key ways:

1. through the theme of the unjust suffering of the righteous (including Psalm 22 language echoed by Jesus on the cross),
2. through David and the psalmists modeling a rightly oriented heart of worship, lament, confession, and trust that Jesus fulfills perfectly,
3. and through explicitly Messianic Psalms like Psalm 2 and Psalm 110, which Jesus uses in debate to reveal the Messiah as both David’s son and David’s Lord.

We then meditate on Psalm 23, listening for a phrase to pray over, and close by reciting the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Lenten Series Intro

00:45 Centering Prayer

01:08 Why Psalms Matter

02:26 Psalms Fulfilled in Jesus

02:54 Righteous Sufferer Theme

04:53 Righteous Heart Model

06:27 Messianic King Psalms

07:59 Psalm 110 and Jesus Debate 1

1:03 Reading Psalms by the Spirit

12:14 Psalm 23 Meditation

14:50 Lord's Prayer Closing

We follow the story after Judah’s exile, focusing on God’s faithfulness in the post-exilic period through Haggai, Ezra, and Nehemiah. After Babylon falls to Persia, Cyrus decrees in 538 BC that a remnant can return and rebuild the temple; opposition halts the work until Haggai calls them back, and the temple is finished in 516. Decades later, Nehemiah, the king’s cupbearer, returns to rebuild Jerusalem’s ruined walls amid mockery and resistance. When the wall is complete, the people gather to hear Ezra read the Law, celebrate, confess sin, and renew the covenant in writing. We note how this restoration still exposes humanity’s ongoing bent toward unfaithfulness and points to the need for Christ and the cross, including Haggai’s promise of greater glory and peace fulfilled at the temple in Jesus’ life and sacrifice. We close by applying God’s “long game” faithfulness personally, praying for trust in his purposes and ending with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Setting the Theme

01:13 Haggai Bridges the Gap

01:39 Return and Rebuild

03:07 Nehemiah Rebuilds Walls

04:22 Ezra Reads the Law

05:20 Covenant Renewal

06:27 Pointing to Messiah

07:05 Why We Need Christ

08:33 Haggai Temple Promise

10:07 Old Testament Through Cross

11:05 Personal Application

12:32 Closing Lords Prayer

In this episode of In Light of the Cross, we reflect on the role of the prophets in the Bible’s scarlet thread and invite the Spirit to speak as we begin. We discuss what a prophet is (God’s mouthpiece, more forth-telling than fortune-telling), how prophets fit alongside priests and kings, and the difference between writing and non-writing prophets like Moses, Elijah, and Elisha.

We also explore how prophets acted as covenant enforcers who warned against idolatry and injustice, while also offering promise of restoration and the coming Messiah. Using Isaiah (42, 61, 65) and Isaiah 53, we see how the cross clarifies prophecies about Christ’s suffering in his first coming and his future kingdom in his second. We close with confession, a call to renewed faithfulness, and the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Lenten Focus

00:39 Centering Prayer Pause

01:13 Why Prophets Matter

02:05 What Is a Prophet

03:02 Prophets Priest and King

03:54 Covenant Enforcers and Exile

05:34 Messiah Promise in Isaiah

07:18 Prophecies Fulfilled in Jesus

10:30 Suffering Servant Isaiah 53

11:25 Personal Confession and Prayer

In episode 16 of In Light of the Cross, we dig into David as a central Old Testament figure who powerfully points to Jesus. Using David and Goliath as our launching pad, we push back on the usual “be brave like David” take and instead read the story as salvation: Israel needs a substitute, and God wins through apparent weakness—foreshadowing Christ’s victory over sin and death at the cross, a victory shared with his people.

We also explore how the battle has a spiritual-warfare backdrop, including connections to the Nephilim and the “giants” tradition. From there we trace David’s kingdom as a glimpse of what could be, his great sin with Bathsheba, and God’s forgiveness, showing why we still need the true Anointed One and the everlasting kingdom fulfilled in Jesus.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

01:06 Why David Matters

02:14 David Points to Christ

02:57 Rethinking David and Goliath

03:47 Victory Through Weakness

05:36 Nephilim and Spiritual War

09:00 Cross as Cosmic Victory

10:14 Kingdom Glory and Fall

11:18 Promise Fulfilled in Jesus

12:20 Wrap Up and Prayer

We pick up in the dark era of the Judges, where Israel’s repeated failure and idolatry are met again and again by God’s grace through deliverers, and we zoom in on Ruth as a “scarlet thread” leading toward David and ultimately Jesus.

We walk through how Naomi’s family fled famine to Moab, how Naomi lost her husband and sons, and how Ruth—an impoverished foreigner—chose loyal, sacrificial love by clinging to Naomi and returning to Bethlehem.

We unpack Boaz as the kinsman-redeemer who pays to restore Elimelech’s lost land and marries Ruth despite the cost, contrasting him with another relative who refused.

We end by connecting redemption in Ruth to Christ redeeming us by his blood, and we’re invited to gratitude, sacrificial love, and prayer.

00:00 Recap and Hope

00:58 Prayer for Lent

02:00 Ruth in Judges Era

02:15 Who Were the Judges

04:49 Ruth Chooses Naomi

06:26 Boaz the Redeemer

07:37 What Is Redemption

09:53 From Ruth to David

11:43 Redeemed by Christ

14:12 Our Response and Prayer

In this episode of In Light of the Cross, we keep tracing how the cross and resurrection illuminate the Old Testament by focusing on Exodus’s tabernacle (and later the temple) as God’s “tent/house” among his people, showing his longstanding desire to dwell with them despite sin.

We walk through how the sacrificial system and priesthood addressed the problem of God’s holiness alongside human sin, and how the temple’s structure—especially the Most Holy Place as a perfect cube and the ark as God’s throne-footstool—symbolized God’s presence without an idol.

We connect this story arc back to Genesis and forward to Jesus, noting John 1:14’s idea that Christ “tabernacled” among us and Jesus identifying his body as the true temple.

We then look to Revelation 21 where the New Jerusalem is described as a cube, signaling God’s final dwelling with his people, and we conclude that even without the fall, God would still have come—incarnation wasn’t a backup plan.

We close with a Herschel illustration about pardon leading to communion, personal reflection, and the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Introduction

00:38 Big Question and Pause

01:50 Why the Tabernacle Matters

02:48 Tabernacle And Temple Meaning

04:15 Sacrifice And Holy Spaces

06:26 From Eden To Temple

08:35 Jesus As True Temple

11:16 New Jerusalem Hope

14:17 Would Jesus Still Come

15:28 Herschel Pardon Illustration

16:58 Personal Application Prayer

18:04 Closing Lords Prayer