Class Presentation

I'm currently taking a class at Trinity School For Ministry. Trinity is a conservative Anglican seminary right here in Ambridge. The class I'm taking is an intermediate course in New Testament Greek (the original language of the NT). Each one in the class has to do a presentation on a selected passage of Scripture once during the semester. My day was today.

I chose Ephesians 2.4-5 as my passage to analyze. As I was researching and preparing for my 15 minute talk, I realized something important. Strenuous biblical research is difficult and sometimes very tedious, but the payoff is always well worth the effort.

Eph. 2.4-5 brings a sharp change in the chapter's flow of thought. Verses 1-3 emphasize humanity's utter depravity apart from God and how by our nature we are "children of wrath." Verse 4 breaks in with what God has done in Christ. Because he is rich in mercy and great in love, he made us alive together with Christ even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins. We are saved precisely because of his grace. This mercy, love, and grace are all completely undeserved. God chose to make us spiritually alive in the midst of our sinful deadness.

Really good stuff. By the way, you don't need to know Greek to be able to understand the Bible or to study it deeply. While God doesn't expect us to learn biblical languages, he does desire that we be diligent students of his word. Let me encourage you right where you are to study God's life-giving Scriptures with all of your heart. You'll never regret any effort you put into it.