Jeremy Myers

One reason I am writing this Grace Commentary is to feel out and flesh out a new approach to God that I have been mulling over in my head.

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Is God a Sum of His Attributes?

Probably the primary area of theology that has changed in the past few years is my view of God. I used to think of God as the sum total of His attributes, and depending on what point in theology I was trying to make, I would focus on one attribute or another. If you look in most theology books, this is how God is viewed. The sections on “Theology Proper” are often little more than a cataloged list of God’s characteristics and attributes. The one God is then a sum of all His attributes.

I also had a hierarchy of attributes to God, which helped shape my understanding of Scripture.

For example, when I was a hyper-Calvinist, I viewed the Sovereignty of God as His primary attribute. It was at the top of the list. However, about twelve years ago, I began to move away from Calvinism by seeing that IF Scripture lists one attribute of God as primary, it would be the holiness of God (cf. Isa 6:3; Rev 4:8).

Wholly Holy

Transitioning from viewing holiness as God’s primary attribute rather than sovereignty caused a seismic shift in my theology. If God’s primary attribute is sovereignty, then God can do whatever He wants, and it is okay for Him to do it, even though it may appear sinful to us. You will often hear Calvinists say that God causes things like rape and murder, but He is not the author of such things.

[Read more…] about New Approach to God

Grace means “free” and so one of the reasons I have named this the “Grace Commentary” is because I strive to make them available for free. It is the Grace Commentary because it is the Free Commentary. It is free for all to read online at GraceCommentary.com, and when each book is finished, I send a free digital copy to everyone who is on my email list.

But I did not just seek to write a free commentary. I wanted to fill a perceived void within the commentaries that are available. Some commentaries are so academic, they are almost unreadable, and are helpful only to those with advanced seminary degrees. Others, however, do very little digging into the text, and are only one step removed from a daily devotional. Then there are commentaries that focus extensively on referencing the Greek and Hebrew, while others don’t refer to these languages at all.

I wanted to write a commentary that dug deep into the text, dealing with nearly every word and phrase in its context and referencing the Greek and Hebrew where necessary, but do all this in a way that is readable and understandable to the average person. I seek to bring Scripture to life in such a way that the mind and the heart of the reader race together in excitement with the implications of what is being learned. Toward this end, I include as much historical and cultural background information as I can, since this, I believe, is really what helps shed light on Scripture and brings it to life for us today.

I also have tried to consider most of the major streams of theology and Bible interpretation that exist. Many commentaries focus only one tradition of interpretation, and neglect or ignore the others. To the best of my ability, I have tried to consider all. I research the views of Arminians and Calvinists, Catholics and Protestants, Baptists and Pentecostals. I even read Jewish scholars for their input on the Hebrew Scriptures.

[Read more…] about Approach to the Grace Commentary

I first envisioned this Grace Commentary Series when I was about ten years old. The memory is as vivid as if it was yesterday. I was in the sanctuary of the church in which my father was a pastor, and had just come from browsing through his commentaries and books about the Bible. I was looking over the free literature on the information counter, and noticed that all of the newsletters and pamphlets were of lesser quality than the books on my father’s shelves. There were some basic Bible study guides and devotional material, but little of it was of any value.

It occurred to me, however, that these newsletters and pamphlets were published on a monthly or even weekly basis and then made available for free to anyone who wanted them. Over the course of a year or two, the publishers of these newsletters probably used as much paper and ink to print one set of these study guides and pamphlets as could be used to print one full-length commentary.

I asked myself then, and still wonder today, “Why couldn’t an organization, instead of sending out a monthly newsletter which was of limited value, instead send out a full-length commentary every year or two, from which the readers would greatly benefit in their study and understanding of Scripture?”

The reasons are probably numerous and varied. For example, it is probably easier for ministries to maintain a sizable mailing list by sending out monthly newsletters rather than one book every year or two.  Also, in a sound-bite society, there may not be as much demand for a in-depth analysis of Scripture as there is for short stories and ministry updates that can be read and digested in less than five minutes. So for these and other reasons, most ministries and organizations continue to send out the monthly newsletters.

The internet is changing all this.

Today, with the aid of email and the World Wide Web, it is entirely possible to do both. A ministry can send out free monthly newsletters by email, can post online updates to full-length books they are writing, and also send out free copies of books when they are published.

This is some of what I am doing through my TillHeComes.org blog, and the GraceCommentary.com websites. I have a free email newsletter which comes by email, and I try to send out 3-4 free ebooks per year. As I write my Bible Commentaries, I post each section online for people to read and interact with, and when the commentaries are done, I send out free digital copies to the subscribers on my email newsletter. Books that were sent out previously are made available for sale on Amazon at a nominal price, simply to cover some of the expenses of having a website.

[Read more…] about About the Grace Commentary

What Bible translation is being used for the Grace Commentary? I will be using the Grace English Bible. Never heard of it? That is because along with writing a full-length commentary on Scripture, I will also be writing a brand new translation of the Bible.

But a new translation is the last thing we need, right?

Actually, a new translation is exactly what we need.

A New Translation of the Bible

I agree with C. S. Lewis who wrote that “If we are to have translation at all we must have periodic re-translation. There is no such thing as translating a book into another language once and for all, for a language is a changing thing” (God in the Dock, 230-231).

I have no illusions that my translation will be the best Bible translation available, or that it will be used by a large number of Christians for hundreds of years to come. Such an outcome might actually lead to some negative consequences, much as the sole reliance by some Christians upon the King James Version has led to some poor theology and poor practices. I am all for new translations and the reworking of older translations so that people can always read and study Scripture in the common language of their day.

[Read more…] about Bible Version Used