Not What We Would Expect

It is part of the character and genius of the Church that its foundation members were discredited men; it owed its existence not to their faith, courage, or virtue, but to what Christ had done with them; and this they could never forget. 

--C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge University Press, 1968), 416 n. 1

Luther's Reforms

In my opinion Charles Wesley is the finest English hymnwriter, Thomas Cranmer the best liturgist, William Tyndale the most perceptive Bible translator, Hugh Latimer the finest preacher, and the Westminster divines the ablest catechists. Imagine all of these gifted people gathered up into one individual. What it took a dozen Englishmen two hundred years to do Martin Luther did in twenty. 

--Victor Shepherd, Witnesses to the Word: Fifty Profiles of Faithful Servants (Clements, 2001), 33

Hosea 11 in Matthew 2

Perhaps the most difficult use of the OT anywhere in the NT is the quotation of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15. In the current JETS Greg Beale argues that if we read Matthew 2:15 under the assumption of divine authorship of the whole Bible, and under the assumption that Matthew read Hosea 11:1 in the broader context of Hosea 11, and recognize what earlier texts Hosea himself is drawing on (Num 23-24), then actually both Matthew and Hosea are reading and writing in a way that is responsible according to grammatical/historical exegesis.

The upshot of the article, in Dr. Beale's conclusion:

Therefore, Matthew contrasts Jesus as the 'son' (2:15) with Hosea's 'son' (11:1). The latter who came out of Egypt was not obedient, and was judged but would be restored (11:2-11), while the former did what Israel should have done: Jesus came out of Egypt, was perfectly obedient, ddi not deserve judgment but suffered it anyway for guilty Israel and the world in order to restore them to God. Matthew portrays Jesus to be recapitulating the history of Israel because he sums up Israel in himself. Since Israel disobeyed, Jesus has come to do what they should have, so he must retrace Israel's steps up to the point they failed, and then continue to obey and succeed in the mission Israel should have carried out. The attempt to kill the Israelite infants, the journey of Jesus and his family into Egypt and back to the Promised Land again is the same basic pattern of Israel of old. Hence, Jesus did what Israel should have done but did not do. This use of Hos. 11:1 also is an example of how important Exodus patterns were to Matthew and the other NT writers in understanding the mission of Jesus and the church. Jesus' journey out of Egypt is identified as Israel's eschatological exodus out of Egypt to which Israel's first exodus out of Egypt pointed. 

--G. K. Beale, 'The Use of Hosea 11:1 in Matthew 2:15: One More Time,' Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 55 (2012): 710

It Is Not a Hard Saying

Christ, according to Paul, will do everything or nothing; if righteousness is in slightest measure obtained by our obedience to the law, then Christ died in vain; if we trust in slightest measure in our own good works, then we have turned away from grace and Christ profiteth us nothing.

To the world, that may seem to be a hard saying; but it is not a hard saying to the man who has ever been at the foot of the cross; it is not a hard saying to the man who has first known the bondage of the law, the weary effort at establishment of his own righteousness in the presence of God, and then has come to understand, as in a wondrous flash of light, that Christ has done all, and that the weary bondage was vain. What a great theologian is the Christian heart--the Christian heart that has been touched by redeeming grace!

. . . That is the centre of the Christian religion--the absolutely undeserved and sovereign grace of God, saving sinful men by the gift of Christ upon the cross. . . . Everywhere the basis of the NT is the same--the mysterious, incalculable, wondrous, grace of God.

--J. Gresham Machen, What Is Faith? (1925), 193-95

The Lion Awakes