As the year ends, I’m delighted to share my list of favorite reads from 2025. Each book on this list offers something worthwhile—some contain a compelling story, others may shape your understanding of the world, and a few may challenge you, but all will leave you with something to ponder.
In the first eight chapters of Romans, Paul has shown that there is ‘no distinction’ between Jews and gentiles. But all of this raises questions: Does Paul no longer care about the Hebrew people that he is part of? And how can God be faithful to his covenant people if he is now working primarily among gentiles rather than Jews?
“But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.” (Romans 7:6)
It was the outbreak of Christianity, the great Enlightenment of the First Century, which spread the seeds of lasting liberty.
In much of the world, your fundamental identity is based on your involvement in a group. Who you are is integrally tied to the family you grew up in, the religion that you participate in, and the society of which…
“For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed. The night is far gone; the day is at hand.” (Romans 13:11b-12a) There is no doubt that the apostle Paul assumed that the return of Christ was within…
Every category that we create has the potential to shape us as individuals by modifying the way that we think.
There are two certainties in the Christian life: suffering and glory. In Romans 8, Paul highlights aspects of both.
We are in desperate need of a plot. Just as we can’t make sense of the individual events of our lives without putting them into a story, so we can’t make sense of the events of our world without putting them into a storyline. We need narrative.
See five common objections to Christianity along with responses to these challenges.
