A graphic circulating online asks how a man never under the first covenant could be redeemed from transgressions under it. The question carries a premise it never states: that the only redemption there is, is redemption from covenant transgressions. Paul says guilt reached men who never had a covenant to break, and so does the remedy.

Who are the other sheep of John 10:16? The dispute turns on a word neither side had stopped to define. Scripture uses fold of a place — something built, entered, left or become — and never once of a people. Define the word and the sentence reads itself: Israel's own scattered, brought back to one fold under one shepherd.

Romans 11 is not describing how the Body of Christ is formed. It is explaining the transitional olive tree during the Acts period, when kingdom blessings were temporarily extended to Gentiles to provoke Israel to jealousy. This article shows what the warning of being cut off means and why the two programs must be kept distinct.