Tommy Mann

  Hebrews 7:25 says this of Jesus: “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”   The Greek word that is translated uttermost only appears one other time in the Bible, and that is in Luke 13 where Jesus heals a woman. Luke, himself a physician, said the woman had a disabling spirit that rendered her unable to fully straighten herself, but “he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight (v.13).”    The word means completely, not halfway. Jesus did not heal this woman until she could stand up a little bit straighter, but until she was  fully  erect. When Jesus heals, He heals to the uttermost.    But the author of Hebrews tells us that when Jesus saves, He saves to the uttermost. He does not forgive some of our sin, make us a little better, and help us break some bad habits. No, He goes all the way, making us God’s children, bringing ...

  Do you know the difference between a dentist and an orthodontist? If you are like me, you don’t. According to WebMD, “ An orthodontist is a dentist trained to diagnose, prevent, and treat teeth and jaw irregularities. They correct existing conditions and are trained to identify problems that may develop in the future .” They use devices such as braces, retainers, and bands and correct issues such as overbites, crooked or crowded teeth, and jaw misalignment.    If you are like me, you did not go to dental school, but you may have been called to be an orthodontist. In his letter to a pastor named Titus, Paul told him,   “This is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and appoint elders in every town as I directed you (1:5).”   That phrase “put…into order” is a pair of Greek prepositions attached to the word  orthoō,  which means “to make straight.” Orthoō, as you might have guessed, gives us our word orthodontist. Just...

I recently wrote about the importance of milk in our diet. Paul scolded the Corinthians for still being on the milk of the Word rather than the meat, meaning that the church had not grown to maturity the way a baby likewise progresses from milk to meat.    I said that we often create a false dichotomy, asking people if they are on milk or meat, as if Paul’s point was to choose one or the other; we need both the basics and the advanced doctrines. The author of Hebrews makes that point better than I can, writing, “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food (12:12).”   We sometimes think of milk as the stuff of babies when it should be thought of as the building block of health. We should move toward maturity, but we all need to be constantly reminded of the basics. We might call this the ABC’s.    We cannot read sentences or paragraphs if we do not ...