You Tube Theology

The NT epistle for the First Sunday of Lent (Lent 1) in Year C is Romans 8b–13. It is a slightly odd choice by the lectionary, since the passage starts in verse 5, and you really need to read from there.

Paul does two important things as he reads the Old Testament. First, he notices the actual tension between being set right with God by obeying the commandments, and being set right by trust in God's gift (that is, by faith). He then reads Deut 30, a passage about the renewal of God's people after exile, in the light of what God has done in Jesus, and replaces the act of obedience with the achievement of Jesus.

The argument is quite close, and needs reading carefully—but in fact fits with Paul's whole argument in Romans!

Come and join Ian and James as they explore these questions! Revd James Blandford-Baker is vicar of Histon and Impington, two villages just north of Cambridge. Revd Dr Ian Paul is Associate Minister of St Nic's, Nottingham, and writes the widely-read blog www.psephizo.com.

The video on the gospel reading for this week of the Temptations in Luke 4 can be found here: https://youtu.be/sGiM7MAKJ0k

You can read the written commentary about it here: https://www.psephizo.com/biblical-studies/why-is-jesus-tempted-in-luke-4/