A Newsletter of weekly meditations on Biblical Theology and curated resources from The Carson CenterJune 17, 2026
 Read: Exodus 34; Psalm 103 “The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.” (Ex. 34:6) “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Ps. 103:7–8) Sometimes celebrating another birthday or anniversary or New Year is tinged with an underlying sense of sadness—alas, how quickly life passes! In Psalm 103, David stirs up his soul to praise God not only for the benefits he bestows (vv. 2-6), but for his very character, which he had revealed to Moses in Exodus 34, namely, his attributes of mercy, that the LORD abounds in “steadfast love” (vv. 7–8). Although David was certainly inspired by the Spirit to compose Psalm 103, yet much of the song is merely his meditative deductions based on God’s revealed character. For example, because “the LORD is merciful and gracious,” therefore “He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever” (v. 9). David continues his inspired logic, as he contemplates the fleeting nature of human beings in this life: “As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone…“ (vv. 15–16). Rather than despairing, however, David finds hope in the unchanging character of God. Whereas our lives are fleeting, yet “the steadfast love of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him…” (vv. 17–18). God’s unending faithful love offers purpose and hope of eternal life for all know him in Christ Jesus. In the New Testament, when religious leaders denied the resurrection and hope of eternal life, Jesus rebuked them as neither knowing the Scripture nor the power of God—“He is not God of the dead, but of the living” (Matt. 22:32). While his people’s time on the stage of human history is fleeting, they—whether Abraham, Moses, David, you and I, or the many persecuted Christians around the world—are kept in Christ by God’s faithful love, and will one blessed day experience the resurrection of their bodies to enjoy glorious life in a new heavens and earth. – Michael Morales Reflect: How many of the declarations David makes in Psalm 103 could be deduced from God’s unchanging character of compassion and faithful love? Think about areas in your life that tend to cause you anxiety—then meditate on the LORD’s attributes of mercy, and how they offer comfort and hope in those situations. |
  “Is Imputed Righteousness Biblical?” by Thomas Petter In the orthodox Protestant tradition, 2 Corinthians 5:21 has been a key text to support the doctrine of imputed righteousness. The verse reads, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” According to this doctrine, believers possess, on account of their union with Christ, a righteousness that Christ earned by perfectly obeying God’s law in his life, death, and resurrection. Our sin is removed and God bestows Christ’s righteousness on us in one fell swoop. Many have observed that Paul’s discussion in 2 Corinthians 5 is indebted to the “suffering servant” poem of Isaiah 52:13–15 and 53:1–12. Some scholars readily affirm the substitutionary removal of sin because of Isaiah 53 in 2 Corinthians 5 but ignore the substitutionary bestowing of righteousness. This is odd because English translations of Isaiah 53:11affirm that the suffering servant does both. Christ bears the sinners’ iniquities and declares them righteous: “By his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.” When we examine the relationship between the Hebrew and Greek texts of Isaiah 53:11, we’ll see that New Testament writers followed the Hebrew over the Greek version in their understanding of imputed righteousness. |
