Last week covered the covenant of works and mankind’s original integrity to keep it. Now turn to the historical roots of sin itself, in the very first temptation, tracing how the doctrine of original sin flows from that moment.

Calling adults childish usually means sulking, pettiness, jealousy, and dividing into rival gangs behind competing leaders. That’s exactly the picture Paul confronts in a Corinthian church splitting into factions around different preachers.

The confession’s treatment of hamartiology, the doctrine of sin, works through the basic questions everyone eventually asks: what is sin, where did it come from, why do we die, and how is a sinful nature passed from one generation to the next.

Have you ever had to scramble to find something nice to say about someone? Despite all of Corinth’s dysfunction, Paul still finds real grounds for gratitude in what grace has done in them.

Bringing God’s word to a culture that doesn’t want to hear it is never easy, but God prepares his servants for exactly that task. Isaiah’s famous throne-room vision is the prophet’s own call to ministry.

Every church has its problems. We’re not in the new creation yet, so every church is still under construction, with all the universal weaknesses that come with that. Consider how Paul addresses a famously troubled church as 1 Corinthians opens.

This whole series in Esther began as a study of the providence of God, and now, at the story’s climax, we see how thoroughly God has brought his purposes to pass, through miracles, through ordinary means, even through the sins of both believers and unbelievers.

How do you live as the church in a pagan, pluralistic culture? A new series in 1 Corinthians opens by first turning to Acts 18, where Paul actually plants the church in a city not unlike our own.

Every December brings the same question everyone asks around Christmas: what do you want, what do you need? John 3:16 turns that ordinary question toward the far greater gift God gave because of what we actually need.

If Christmas came down to one word, it would be Immanuel, God with us. Isaiah’s prophecy shows how Christ reveals God to us, becomes our substitute, and saves us, all in his incarnation.