The Good News in a Difficult Passage

There are some portions of Scripture where the meaning is extremely clear. These are passages that we can understand what its author is communicating with relative ease. Acts 4:12—”And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (NET)—does not require a great deal of explanation, for example. The same is true of Acts 16:31, Romans 10:9, and many others.

But some passages are a little more challenging. These passages...