President Barack Obama’s Faith

 

As I read President Barack Obama’s book entitled “The Audacity of Hope“, I am thoroughly encouraged on how Jesus has shared His human faith with him. I am encouraged at how full of Good News, inclusive, human, spiritual and physical it all is! (it sounds a great deal like Dr. Baxter Kruger’s wonderful “A Note On Jesus Christ and The Church“.!

I thought that as one who may not as of yet looked into President Obama’s faith, you might want to read some of it for yourself in his section called “Faith”, on pp. 244-246.

Here is a small section of it (the rest is pretty awesome, too!):

“I have recorded in a previous book the ways in which my early work in Chicago helped me grow into my man­hood-how my work with the pastors and laypeople there deepened my resolve to lead a public life, how they fortified my racial identity and confirmed my belief in the capacity of ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

But my experiences in Chicago also forced me to confront a dilemma that my mother never fully resolved in her own life: the fact that I had no community or shared traditions in which to ground my most deeply held beliefs. The Christians with whom I worked recognized themselves in me; they saw that I knew their Book and shared their val­ues and sang their songs.

But they sensed that a part of me remained removed, detached, an observer among them. I came to realize that without a vessel for my beliefs, with­out an unequivocal commitment to a particular commu­nity of faith, I would be consigned at some level to always remain apart, free in the way that my mother was free, but also alone in the same ways she was ultimately alone.

There are worse things than such freedom. My mother would live happily as a citizen of the world, stitching together a community of friends wherever she found her­self, satisfying her need for meaning in her work and in her children. In such a life I, too, might have contented myself had it not been for the particular attributes of the historically black church, attributes that helped me shed some of my skepticism and embrace the Christian faith.

For one thing, I was drawn to the power of the African American religious tradition to spur social change. Out of necessity, the black church had to minister to the whole person. Out of necessity, the black church rarely had the luxury of separating individual salvation from collective salvation. It had to serve as the center of the community’s political, economic, and social as well as spiritual life; it understood in an intimate way the biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities.

In the history of these struggles, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death; rather, it was an active, palpable agent in the world. In the day-to-day work of the men and women I met in church each day, in their ability to “make a way out of no way” and maintain hope and dignity in the direst of circumstances, I could see the Word made manifest.

And perhaps it was out of this intimate knowledge of hardship, the grounding of faith in struggle, that the his­torically black church offered me a second insight: that faith doesn’t mean that you don’t have doubts, or that you relinquish your hold on this world.

Long before it became fashionable among television evangelists, the typical black sermon freely acknowledged that all Christians (including the pastors) could expect to still experience the same greed, resentment, lust, and anger that everyone else expe­rienced. The gospel songs, the happy feet, and the tears and shouts all spoke of a release, an acknowledgment, and finally a channeling of those emotions.

In the black community, the lines between sinner and saved were more fluid; the sins of those who came to church were not so different from the sins of those who didn’t, and so were as likely to be talked about with humor as with condernnation. You needed to come to church precisely because you were of this world, not apart from it; rich, poor, sinner, saved, you needed to embrace Christ precisely because you had sins to wash away – because you were human I and needed an ally in your difficult journey, to make the peaks and valleys smooth and render all those crooked paths straight.

It was because of these newfound understandings­ that religious commitment did not require me to suspend critical thinking, disengage from the battle for economic and social justice, or otherwise retreat from the world that I knew and loved-that I was finally able to walk down the aisle of Trinity United Church of Christ one day and be baptized.

It came about as a choice and not an epiphany; the questions I had did not magically disappear. But kneeling beneath that cross on the South Side of Chicago, I felt God’s spirit beckoning me. I submitted myself to His will, and dedicated myself to discovering his truth.”

Did you catch President Obama’s thoughts in paragraph’s 4 & 5 that sound A LOT like the good discussion regarding the Church community that we had on my last blogpost?! Ha-Ha! That’s what I’m talkin about Mr. President!

Are We Obligated to Attend Church…

…and is it a “serious sin to miss church attendance”? Is it even “a breaking of the Great Commandment to love God and neighbor”?

That was a conversation I found myself in recently as a friend invited me to share my comments on the subject. This friend had gone to church services recently and heard the conservative pastor utter such words from the pulpit. By the time I responded, I saw MANY other good and bad comments on the subject. I think most felt the pastor was being overly legalistic and misinterpreting the grace we have in Jesus.

After reading and getting a feel for the direction of the conversation, I decided to pitch in with what many who know me may consider to be a surprising response! Ha-Ha!

What do you think I would say to such a question in the Light of the Jesus, Whom I believe has included everyone and everything in the Relationship He shares with His Father in the Spirit?!

Well – no more need to guess! Here is what I responded with and how I personally reason out the subject in the Light of the Jesus Who has truly adopted all of us into the Life of the Trinity in His own HUMAN BODY! (Remember, I am just personally blogging here about MY thoughts, NOT trying to give you yours! I am open to learning and talking out things in community!) Edited for clarity!

“In Jesus’ grace I, too, have been getting clarity on Church/Worship over the past few years. I can relate with preaching about these things in ways not always faithful to Who Jesus really is! The most valuable thing I have learned lately about Church/Worship is that they are things that begin with Jesus, literally, in His Person! The bible helps us see that HE, Jesus, must and does mediate his relationship between God and man in His own human body! Worship and attending to God, in the first instance, is ONLY something that Jesus does! 

Knowing this helps us see that whenever we are worshiping as the Church, we are only sharing in the Son’s worship and attending to His Father. It is not something we muster up because we have seen and known God for ourselves or out of self-selected tradition! Nor is it something we avoid because we are “free”. Because Jesus DOES worship and attend to His Father as a human, there is a sense in which we are obligated to participate in his life of Worship!

This helps us see that to REALLY be “free” means to share in the life of Jesus AS HE IS! Often times, our discussions about freedom are really discussions only about liberties. We are at liberty to hide in a cave and live like a hermit, but we are not free to do that and experience positive consequences in relationships! So how did, and does, Jesus Worship His Father? In the entirety of His human life, as xxx pointed out, including Church attendance! 

 The bible takes seriously that there is a BODY of Christ on earth as distinct from other bodies. We do not have to miss the point that Jesus has a unique and distinct role for the Church that includes an obligation to attend and relate with each other, regularly! Historically, the Church gathers on Sunday, but we are obviously at liberty, and free, to meet on other days and occasions! However, gather we must! This gathering of the Church is HIS idea and is a necessary part of His making Himself known in the world!

We don’t measure this participation by anything we can come up with from within our fallen human reasoning! We reason in line with Who Jesus is Revealed to be, in the Spirit, in His Church (the community who embraces the Jesus Who is in Relationship with His Father and all of Creation in the Spirit.) As for sin, it would be a sin not to worship God or gather in His name – if it weren’t for Jesus! Jesus, however, does Worship His Father (for us and in our stead!) as a human! Jesus does ATTEND to His Father’s Will (for us and in our stead as a human) even when we don’t! This is why he is the Vicarious Man! He does to and for us what our sinful nature resists from within our human being!

God is worthy of a proper human response, including obligatory worship and attendance – and Jesus, thankfully and graciously, is responding in that obligatory way for each of us – and Jesus refuses to be Who He is without us! This obligation flows from the same heart, of the same God, of the same covenant (in both its old and new parts!). The God of the Old part of the Covenant is the same God of the New part!

The difference is that Jesus is meeting those obligations for us AS A HUMAN BEING because we never could or would apart from him! These obligations do not get or keep us saved or in God’s favor!! Yikes! These obligations are really opportunities to relate with God as He REALLY is – a Relational Being Who never does things truly alone!

 Yes, we who are called to the Church should participate in Jesus’ human Worship with the Church, regularly, (not living unto ourselves), AND, Yes, Jesus is standing in for us when we don’t, so we don’t panic – we repent (rethink), take up our cross and follow Jesus, as he supplies us grace! Rightly understood and explained, I have to go with the pastor on this one!”

Finally, I added:

To clarify, this does not mean keeping the literal Holy Days, and Sabbath’s of the Old part of His Covenant, but it does mean keeping the New things (Communion = common union!, Baptism! Church = his idea, not ours). There is not one of these New things that doesn’t speak to fellowship and community, but it is to be remembered that Jesus did each of these things for us and on our behalf so that even when we rebel and don’t do them, he stands in for us, being ever faithful as a man to God on our behalf! He will forever embrace us and stand in for us regardless, but obedience and sharing in his life even if we suffer for it is good, and not doing so is bad!

Jesus IS everywhere working in His Church and in the world, and because He is in all of those places we can honestly and genuinely pin Him down in all those places!! The reason for my sweeping statements about Jesus standing in for us is that all of our activity (in going to church, and NOT going to church), is FILLED WITH SIN, therefore we need him to stand in for us in every place of our rebellion in a vicarious way!! Karl Barth liked the word “Community” better than “church”, and so do I!

What is it about “obligatory” and “demand” that we don’t like, knowing that it comes from the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ?! This isn’t obligation and demand from the oppression of the evil one, but from He Who has given the World His one and only Son at great sacrifice and cost to Himself! He Who has embraced us in His Son and grasped us so tightly that he will never let us go! Those words have the best and most positive kind of meaning in the light of Jesus!

We must not let the misuse of words (and wrong intentions of sinful men in using them) keep us from a right understanding and use of them in the GRACIOUS LOVE AND UNCONDITIONAL MERCY of the Father, Son and Spirit! To be FREE in Christ is to be God’s SLAVE!!! What’s wrong with that? He is only the best Master one could ever have!! Ha-Ha!!

Embrace Your Humanity!

 

That is the encouragement I gave to an audience at the recent Homegoing Celebration (funeral) of a member in my local congregation, Mrs. Eloise Harrison.

I gave this special encouragement because:

1.) Eloise lived a full life of 85 years embracing her humanity – with 56 of those in a marriage she and her spouse both enjoyed , and,

2.) She embraced Jesus’ personal Revelation to her, in the Spirit, that He, Jesus,  has embraced her and all of humanity in His own PERMANENT GOD/HUMANNESS!!

I was proud to be her pastor, and can confirm all this good news after many good conversations with her in our HUMAN relating, in Christ, together at New Creation Community Church!

This is a HUGELY important point! If we miss this, we miss the Good News of the Gospel! Because we are sinners, we often run so quickly to the subject of salvation that we get “stuck” there and miss the more subtly obvious!

If Jesus is God with Us and He came to US and to save US – who is the US? Who are we? Are we not – is God not (in Jesus!) – HUMAN!? To believe in Jesus Christ is to believe that “God is with Man, as Man!” Do you see the staggering beauty of this Revelation of God in Christ? The Father, Son and Spirit haven’t demanded that we get ourselves into him, or become like him! God isn’t more interested in his rules than he is interested in relating with us as we are!!

This is the great Epiphany = the manifestation of God as man in Jesus! Who would have “thunk” it?! As Baxter Kruger often says, “The difference between Christianity and every other religion is that in religious mythology you always have to “get to God”. In Christianity God has come to us, remains with us as we are, and has gotten us into himself by getting into us – our humanity, literally!” Ha-Ha! John 14:20! Isn’t that beautiful? Isn’t that gracious? Isn’t that truly Good News?!

What greater reason could we have for attending barbeques, fish fry’s, picnics, family reunions, taking cruises, line dancing, break-dancing, walking for Leukemia, assisting the Diasabled Veterans of America, attending sports games and activities, celebrating birthdays, engaging in meaningful work with our minds and hands, attending celebration services with the Church, giving of our time/talent/treasure to family, friends and neighbors, and respectign people at funerals - than to SEE JESUS FOR WHO HE REALLY IS – the Relational God, who has embraced our humanity forever?!!

It cannot be honestly and historically denied! The biblical record is that Jesus Christ spent most of his human life NOT preaching and teaching in a formal and Jewish Rabbinical sense, but living and embracing his (our!)  humanity in community and relationships! The Son of Man came “eating and drinking”! Matt 11:19!

This is why Eloise embraced her humanity, as tough as it was sometimes! This is why you and I want to embrace human life, as tough as life can be! This is why we FEAR and HATE death! We were meant for life in the flesh and our guts know it!!

Christianity is NOT about trying to escape the flesh and becoming an eternal and flourescent lightbulb! I am NOT saying we won’t glow with joy and the new effervescence of glorified humanity, but I am saying that however we will be, WE WILL BE HUMAN!!

If you plan on spending any amount of personal time with Jesus Christ in eternity, then you better get used to wearing skin and carrying around a few bones in a human body! If you don’t plan on being human, you sure are going to be mad, or sad, for a long time  - because human you will be!! 1 Cor 15:22! Ha-Ha!!

God doesn’t throw his creation away like last weeks trash! He redeems it! He renews it! He makes it new!! Where do you think we get the idea of recycling from?! lol!

Encouragingly, the new body won’t be weak and wear out like this sin-filled one! It will be raised a strong and imperishable body! 1 Cor 15! This speaks to the “not yet” part of our life in Christ! In Him, in his literal human body, our human nature has been redeemed and renewed ALREADY, and that is why we can have real hope and certainty for a better quality of human life that we know “not yet”! Our real human life is hidden in Jesus with God!

So, embrace your humanity, NOW, and don’t be too fearful of who or what can kill the body! Jesus is a living witness to us all that God has joined us in our humanity forever, raised it anew, and has accepted, validated and confirmed that being human is good and very good! At great cost and sacrifice to himself, the Son of God will forever mediate to us other human beings the vibrant  relationship he shares with his Father in the Spirit, in his human being! 1 Tim 2:15!

WOW!!! Again!

Is There REALLY an Unpardonable Sin?

 

Technically speaking – NO! (there is no scripture that actually says “unpardonable”).  And untechnically speaking – Yes! (there is a sin the bible says won’t be forgiven).

That probably doesn’t immediately help those who are fearful that they have committed this sin, but I begin this way so that we can learn to appreciate that the bible educates us as much through paradox as through other methods. In interpreting the scriptures we need to be able to hold two apparently contradictory thoughts together as one whole in order to get at a more accurate and proper understanding of God’s grace in the light of Jesus Christ!

I will try to simplify what can be discussed in a longer way, and if you want a longer answer simply Google “unpardonable sin”. There is lots of good stuff out there.

Here are the scriptures used to discuss this topic (and notice the special emphasis on dishonoring God the Holy Spirit – Who has been sent to educate us about the Truth – John 16!):

Mark 3:22-30 and Matt 12:31-32 . 

I promised to follow up with this post based on Boyd’s comments from my last post, so here are godly and biblical thoughts in the Revelation of Jesus Christ:

1.) Is Jesus Fully God and Fully Man in One Person without mixture or confusion? We in Christianity say “Yes!!” Our creeds emphasize this, especially the Chalcedon Creed. The significance of this is that it was agreed upon by the church at large (including the Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, and many Protestant Christian churches).

PLEASE NOTICE THAT TO GET AT ANY TRUTH WE MUST BEGIN WITH ANSWERING THE QUESTION: WHO IS JESUS?

2.) This means that, technically speaking, when the Son of God became Man He took on the fullness of our actual fallen human nature, forgiving, saving and healing everything that was wrong with that broken human nature. As the old church father’s would say, whatever Jesus did not assume, he did not forgive, or save or heal. In reverse, whatever he did assume, was completely and utterly forgiven, saved and healed.

So, if you don’t believe that Jesus was fully human, you cannot hold as true that you or anyone can ever be fully forgiven, healed or saved! That would be the end of any hope for anyone or anything – period! It would also be a massive failure on God’s part to have sent his Son to save us, only to realize that he only almost saved us! Yikes! We need a very different and REAL God thank you very much!!

On the other hand, to believe God the Son became forever fully human, while remaining fully God, means that all of humanity is fully forgiven, saved and healed in the Person of Jesus Christ. This means hope for the good future of everyone and everything! It also means massive success on God’s part – having sent his Son to save the lost and realizing that he actually did! Hallelujah! Now THAT is the Good News!

3.) Did you see that word “forgiveness” in those statements above? Forgiveness is NOT just an “I forgive you” from the mouth of God, or pouring out Jesus’ blood externally on Jerusalem sand to fix your real 21st century relational problems! Forgiveness is the act of God making things RIGHT, LITERALLY, in the very Person of His Son Jesus! Of making things right in our real and fallen human nature, so that there is ACTUAL reconciliation and ACTUAL redemption in our humanity, not pretend reconciliation and fake redemption!

To take all of this seriously is to KNOW that every sin imaginable, including your sins against God the Father, Son AND Spirit (Who is ONE!) are forgiven, LITERALLY, in Jesus!!! 

4.) So where does the unforgiven part come in? Good question!

If everyone and everything is completely forgiven and made right in Jesus Christ, this means that anything we have said or spoken, or thought in a wrong manner against God the Father, Son and Spirit, and other people and creatures is forgiven! That is what Jesus is trying to emphasize in his comments when he says that whatever we say against the Son of Man will be forgiven.

We do this in our lostness and our ignorance, and that is why Jesus forgave even that! Father please forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing! Luke 23:34!

HOWEVER, if God the Holy Spirit shares with you this truth of your complete and total forgiveness, salvation and healing in Jesus (and He does and forever will!), BUT you, in essence, keep calling Him a liar and refuse to embrace the truth – HE IS NEVER GOING TO FORGIVE THAT! In other, more clear words, for God the Holy Spirit not to forgive that sin means for Him not to AGREE WITH YOUR LIES ABOUT HIS TRUTH!!! How could He?! You, in your distinction can deny the truth, but He will NOT EVER DENY HIMSELF!! He IS the Truth!

It’s not that your sin and blashemy against the Holy Spirit has not been forgiven, it’s just that YOU keep thinking and acting like it has not been forgiven, even when He helps you clearly see in the Person of Jesus that it has been forgiven! You are not treating the Holy Spirit like God but are acting like God yourself and that can’t be forgiven = or BE RECEIVED AS FORGIVEN BY YOU as long as you keep calling that Truth a lie!!)

I am currently in a red jump suit as I write this. As long as I receive this jump suit for what it is, I am in a red jump suit. However, in an intentional moment of stupidity and rebellion I can refuse to see it as a red jump suit and call it a blue jump suit (even though I can plainly see it is a red one!) As long as I think it is blue, it is “not” red to me, as bright red as it may really be! No sane person embracing their sanity (instead of embracing my self-chosen insanity) could ever forgive me or agree with me that the suit is blue when it is plainly red unless they wanted to purposefully participate in ignorance!!

Do you get a sense of the intentional insanity that we can choose in our distinction – potentially forever?! Good Grief! That would be eternal Hell fire and brimstone for sure, ESPECIALLY in trying to relate with others!! What “burns” more than bad relationships in a life of relationships???! Nothing!!

So, in the Relational power of the Spirit Who is with you and all people - change your mind and believe the Good News! You are wholly adopted, included, forgiven, healed and saved in the Very Person and Humanity of Jesus Christ – even from your blasphemy against God!  I John 2:1-2!

Don’t trample this truth underfoot and steal your own joy by participating in your completely forgiven, healed and saved humanity as a willfully, sinful, and distinct foolish person! Heb 10:26!

Simple Ways to Share and Express God’s Good News!

 

Are you looking for ways to express the Good News of the Father, Son and Spirit’s Love for us that are simple? Statements that are filled with Good News clarity without all of the valid, but heavy theological terms and language you could speak? Something short but to the point?

I thought I would try to assist you with that on this post. Three things have brought it to mind of late: 1.) Helping my local congregation to do it. 2.) Reading a great book called “The Crucifixion of Ministry” (one of my top ten books of all time).

In this book, writer Andrew Purves, rightly points out that our responsibility as pastors and ministers of the Gospel is to “…first approach people not with God’s judgment or even with God’s forgiveness. We cannot assume that a person knows who the God is who judges or forgives him or her. Instead we come announcing and bearing the love of God.” He continues, “Thus the first pastoral movement of the ministry of grace must be quite simply (although of immense significance) the announcement ‘Jesus Christ is Lord, and this Jesus is God who loves you.’ The statement stands over and against all other claims to divinity and all other definitions of divinity.”

Finally, under the section “Announce the Love of God” on p.130, Purves adds that the Gospel “…is the announcement of the human reality as St. Paul saw it; ‘for you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3)…’the first pastoral act of our participation in the ministry of the grace of God is the announcement in word or act: ‘Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus who is God loves you.’”

That’s a simple expression of the Gospel and easy enough to speak, isn’t it? (by Jesus through your vocal cords! )

I think that any preacher or proclaimer of the Gospel should always start with making a similar statement to their audience before they “move on” to other stuff because, in REALITY, there is no other stuff! God the Father, Son and Spirit IS Love and has included all of humanity in His loving, shared, relationship in the person of Jesus! That is the most fundamental truth undergirding every human life!

3.) The third thing that got me thinking about this post was the very practical and simple expression of the Gospel made by one of my Pastor friends, Bill Winn, recently. He had received a similar letter of spam and unsolicited e-mail, as I did, by a person who had gotten a hold of our e-mail addresses. In most of these spam letters, we receive some religious take on a subject. The subject matter is usually not centered on the “Who” of Jesus but some distracting “what”, “where”, “why”, “when” or “how” topic. This e-mail spam was typical.

However what was not typical, was Bill’s great response! His response to the distracting topic was so simple but profound and to the “Christ Point”, I was inspired to write this blog post and share it with you! Here is Bill’s Gospel reply and MANY simple ways to share and express God’s Good News with others. It has been edited for anonymity but Bill’s EXACT words of the Gospel remain untouched.

“Dear [Anyone],

 

You belong to the Father, Son, and Spirit. You always have. You always will. The real concern for you is not [to be distracted by such and such a subject] but to answer the question; “Who is Jesus?”

 

The Father’s eternal purpose for humanity was to gather us together, in His Son, and to have us in relationship with Himself. He has accomplished that in the Incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ, Who is fully God and fully man.

 

Christ Jesus is also the vicarious man. Jesus is you, for you, as you, with you, and in you in the presence of the Father.

 

Acts 17:28 is where Paul said that all mortals, “live, move, and have their being in Jesus.”

 

You died when He died. You were raised when He was raised. You ascended to the right hand of the Father with Him.

 

You are beloved of the Father. Jesus and the Father have been face to face in relationship from all eternity with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God too. The Holy Spirit is the One by which we call out “Abba Father” in the first instance.

 

[Anyone], my friend, you are utterly and completely adored by the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As Jesus is so are you in this world. He has shared every spiritual blessing with you already and has made good on the Father’s dream to have the fall of the first Adam undone and to have humanity adopted into His circle of fellowship. He is the Last Adam.

 

Learning to live Loved in the Father’s embrace,

Bill

 

PS you might like these books: Jesus and the Undoing of Adam, C. Baxter Kruger, The Great Dance, C. Baxter Kruger, The Mediation of Christ, T.F. Torrance, On the Incarnation of the Word of God, St. Athanasius, The Shack, Wm. Paul Young.”

Isn’t that a GREAT but simple response spoken by the Holy Spirit through Bill? You Go Jesus in Bill!!! And, YES!, even though Bill doesn’t typically respond to these or get positive feedback, when he wrote this letter, he did get a response with positive feedback!! Hmmmmmm – I wonder why???!!!! You KNOW why!!!

The Best News I Ever Heard!, pt. 3

 

Here, I continue with part 3 of my series of posts about the Gospel as interpreted by T.F. Torrance in his book The Mediation of Christ; a book in harmony with Who Jesus is and the ancient Church’s view. This time I will tackle only paragraph 3, which says:

“Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.”

This passage is loaded yet again with the tremendous Good News about Jesus and all of Humanity in Him!

Suppose you were in a life and death situation, and you desperately wanted to live! You could only grab either a strong chain, and survive, or grab a weak chain, and die. Which one would you grab in order to live? Isn’t it EASY to evaluate what you would do in order to live?

In another scenario, what if your small child was hanging precariously from a cliff, and their only options for survival were to a.) grab your hand with their small strength, or b.) have you grab their small hand in your HUGE strength (by comparison). What would YOU do to see them saved; to see them be who they already are in their relationship with you, forever?

That’s easy, too!! YOU WOULD TAKE A HOLD OF THEM AND SAVE THEM! Wouldn’t you?!

In the above statement, Torrance is trying to make this dynamic in our relationship with Jesus clear! By definition, sin means being “weak!” – or having no REAL purity of strength; being powerless and tainted! It means humanity hanging precariously from a cliff toward permanent death and non-existence (as Athanasius might have put it).

Now, what is God, being good and gracious to do? Is he to be seen as worse than you? Would he give his child only the option of grabbing His Huge Hand and holding on for dear life, or else? Or, is our Father to be seen as he is revealed in Christ? One who knows and sees that you and I are utterly incapable and unworthy of Him; as the Father who knows that if He is to have us permanently with Him, He must take a hold of us?!

Just as our “natural” reaction to our child in the above predicament would be to grab them and not present them with or even ask them which option they wanted, we, too, have been taken hold of by Jesus apart from our believing and doing anything! And, in fact, wouldn’t you (if you had all strength and power) grab a hold of your child and NEVER LET THEM GO?!

C’mon now, be for real!!! If for whatever reason you can’t think of your child in this way, then substitute any person that you REALLY love and care for!! After all, God SOOOO LOVED the World (cosmos) that He gave His only begotten Son…” – John 3:16! In other words, the Father, Son and Spirit put His full weight and strength as God behind securing us from disappearing forever down the gaping “sin hole” in Jesus – the fullness of God in a human body!!” Col 2:9!!

For one who already believes in Jesus Christ, we believe that with the exception of Jesus Christ, or the Son of God made flesh, everyone has sinned in human flesh! This makes everyone too weak to be saved by their own decision, belief or faith doesn’t it? If God requires 100% faith for salvation from someone who obviously can’t offer it, then it stands to reason they could never be saved, right? All humans, by scripture, are in just such a position! Romans 3!

How then are we all to be saved UNLESS Jesus saves us? Unless Jesus steps into into our exact position and lives and does for us what we obviously cannot do for ourselves? And if what Jesus did to save us was done 2000 years ago, doesn’t it stand to reason that it had to be done to all of us – then?! How can we escape such clear and godly logic as revealed in Jesus and through careful discernment of the scriptures?

Finally, Torrance concludes this paragraph with the proper and Trinitarian Who is Jesus logic! If the Triune God has thrown His weight behind grabbing a hold of us in the Person of Jesus Christ, who could dare escape such an eternal grip?! I mean, this is THE Father grasping us in HIS Son, in THE Spirit! This isn’t some human fable about Superman, Ironman or, God forbid, the Incredible Hulk!

I have seen some women leave an audience of many people with their child bound firmly in their grip while the child was throwing a tantrum of the most violent sort! You have probably seen or even done this, too! Solely because of the child’s temper and action, combined with the parents fury (and pride because of the public spectacle), that child was NOT going to escape the parental grip, no matter what! They might hurt themselves TRYING to get out of the parents embrace, but it was them, the child, who was going to get hurt, NOT the parent or the parents pride!! No Way!! You can feel me, can’t you!! Ha-Ha!!

God’s grip on humanity is similar to this real life scenario! Because Jesus (God!) has taken hold of us in his godly pride, and will not have us be a spectacle of the enemy, he has taken hold of us in such a way that he will NEVER let us go! The only thing that is going to happen, that can happen, to us, if we don’t ever line up with our embrace in the Father’s arm is get hurt! Experience hell! Be damned in God’s grip!

But God will be damned before that should ever happen! We will be who we are, and He will have us with Him – embraced and in His arms – regardless!! Therefore, we might as well repent! We might as well respond to the loving nature of the grip and live in proper alignment with it, and not live alien to it! It starts hurting too badly to keep flinging our elbows in anger and breaking our own jaws and bones in the process! The Father’s grip on all of humanity, in Christ, is NOT going away! He will be our God and we will be his people!

Believe in His Love, therefore! Be and Live in His embrace with obedience! Do not Be and die in His embrace in disobedience! BUT – whether we live or whether we die – we are the Lord’s – forever and always! Romans 14:8!

The Best News I Ever Heard!, pt.2

I hope you were excited and thrilled from head to toe with what the late Thomas F. Torrance had to say about the Good News of Jesus Christ in my last post! Honestly, I never get tired of reading, hearing, thinking and speaking about it! I have received much personal feedback from others who appreciate it as well. Thanks to each of you!

I promised to follow up on the last post by elaborating on and clarifying the rich things T.F. Torrance was trying to get across to us about Jesus the Christ. I would like to clarify, and put in my own words, the first two paragraphs from his writings on pp.94-95 out of The Mediation of Christ. Here are the first two pararaphs of his writing again:

“How then is the Gospel to be preached in a genuinely evangelical way? Surely in such a way that full and central place is given to the vicarious humanity of Jesus as the all­ sufficient human response to the saving love of God which he has freely and unconditionally provided for us. We preach and teach the Gospel evangelically, then, in such a way as this:

God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very Being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself.”

Wow! What a delicious Gospel mouthful! Here is my translation of what Torrance is trying to get across to us:

In his first paragraph, Tom Torrance is stressing that there is a genuine WAY to preach the Gospel, and by implication, a disingenuine way to preach it. To me, Torrance’s writing is reminiscent of the words of the Apostle Paul in the book of Galatians where he writes in chapter 1, verses 6-9,

“6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should proclaim to you a gospel contrary to what we proclaimed to you, let that one be accursed! 9 As we have said before, so now I repeat, if anyone proclaims to you a gospel contrary to what you received, let that one be accursed!”

T.F. Torrance is emphatic that in the Gospel, Jesus must be given His proper place and be seen as the Gospel Himself!! The Gospel is not primarily a doctrine, creeds, or statements and words trying to describe Jesus! Jesus, or the Son of God made human, IS the Gospel in His own literal Person and Being! Your best friend is not the words “best friend” written on a piece of paper, or the words “this is my best friend” that you say to other people when describing your best friend! Your best friend is ACTUALLY your best friend - him/her, the person to whom your words and writings are pointing!!!

Torrance understands that because Jesus is the one who created and sustains all things, when he stooped and stepped into our actual humanity, he was actually living out our humanity for us, and in us! Literally in our full blown and carnal humanity! Just as Adam had some type of literal impact on all of us when he sinned as a human being, so Jesus Christ had an impact on all of us when he undone Adam’s sin as a human being! Romans 5!

Jesus not only became part of his creation, he is the One Who perpetually sustains everything in creation! If Jesus doesn’t sustain it, it can’t, and doesn’t, exist! Therefore, Jesus’ influence on everyone and everything is vastly greater and more significant than a mere sinful man like Adam’s influence!!!! In the exact same sense, what you do with and in your life does NOT have as much influence as Jesus’ life has on your life!! You ARE who you are in Jesus!!

In the love of the Triune God, Jesus did all of this for us, and TO us, without asking for our input and waiting to see what we would decide about it. He cast God’s vote FOR us before we could even think about trying to have a thought about it. He lived our life for us, AS US, graciously, freely, and without our having to change our current and bad ways first! Before YOU, literally, were born, Jesus lived your life for you, before the Father, as an acceptable life and loving response to the Father’s Love!

In the 2nd paragraph, Torrance is emphasizing that the Father’s problem with you was not that you disobeyed his laws! We have all disobeyed his laws, but the Father, Son and Spirit are not legalists who care more about rules than relationships! They don’t care more about things than they do people!! The Father doesn’t care more about Himself than he cares about you!! The Father loves you and I so much He decided that our rule breaking and fleshly and weak tendencies would NEVER keep Him from US – the people, the relationship He values!

The Son made us from dust and knew we would fall on our faces!Therefore, the Triune God planned to send Jesus before the foundation of the world to become our humanity for us, and remain forever a human for us, so that our perfect humanity would always be upheld in Him, even if we inevitably broke some of the rules!!

Torrance reveals in this paragraph that God will never undo what he has done for you, and you will always be acceptable and alive forevermore in Jesus! In order to undo His love and life for you, God would have to change Who he is and undo everything he has done in the Life of Jesus on our behalf, and that simply ain’t gonna happen!! Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever!! Hebrews 13:8! Because Jesus is exactly like His Father and the Spirit, there is NO chance that any Person of the Godhead will think differently of you or love you any less!! Colossians 1:19-20!

Because of Who Jesus is, you and I don’t ever have to fear that we will never exist again after our physical death, or that our loved ones who have died will be snuffed out, permanently! There is no such thing as being annihilated! The only time we would have to fear having no existence at all is if we can imagine Jesus having no existence, because our lives are upheld, literally, in His!!! The Father, Son and Spirit have decided that you and I will live forever, regardless! God has pledged and given Himself to us, in the human being Jesus, as our eternal guarantee!!

Again, to undo all of what He has done, God would have to deny Himself, but that is IMPOSSIBLE because God CANNOT deny Himself or he would NOT be God!!! 2 Timothy 2:13! None of this is theory or based on fallen human reasoning! This is what we see Revealed LITERALLY in Jesus the God/Man! The Triune God is ACTUALLY and UNCONDITIONALLY our Salvation in Jesus’ own Person and Being!!!!!

Chew on, and rest in, all of this for a little bit, and I’ll be back to tackle another paragraph or two on the next blog post!!

The Best News I Ever Heard!, pt.1

 

In this blog post I want to share with you my favorite passage out of all the books I have ever read so far! It completely and positively transformed my entire experience of life when I first read and understood it! I was freed and liberated for life in ways that I cannot fully describe with words! In other words, I was floored!

THIS passage is an example of how the Gospel of Jesus Christ REALLY should be preached, and what is REALLY meant by the Good News! I hold it up as my prime example for preaching God’s Good News, and am striving to say this same thing in all of my communication on this blog! To understand this is to understand why it is called Good News – period!!

It is taken from pp.94-95 out of the book entitled, “The Mediation of Christ“, by the late Thomas F. Torrance. He writes in a very deep and profound way, and this is more of his “simple” writing! :-)  Most of you should be able to read and understand the words just fine, but I don’t want to leave it to chance. Therefore, I will take the next few blog posts to elaborate on this passage in more explicit detail, to help you see the richness and practical expression of what is being communicated.

Here is the passage:

“How then is the Gospel to be preached in a genuinely evangelical way? Surely in such a way that full and central place is given to the vicarious humanity of Jesus as the all­ sufficient human response to the saving love of God which he has freely and unconditionally provided for us. We preach and teach the Gospel evangelically, then, in such a way as this:

God loves you so utterly and completely that he has given himself for you in Jesus Christ his beloved Son, and has thereby pledged his very Being as God for your salvation. In Jesus Christ God has actualised his unconditional love for you in your human nature in such a once for all way, that he cannot go back upon it without undoing the Incarnation and the Cross and thereby denying himself.

Jesus Christ died for you precisely because you are sinful and utterly unworthy of him, and has thereby already made you his own before and apart from your ever believing in him. He has bound you to himself by his love in a way that he will never let you go, for even if you refuse him and damn yourself in hell his love will never cease. Therefore, repent and believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.

From beginning to end what Jesus Christ has done for you he has done not only as God but as man. He has acted in your place in the whole range of your human life and activity, including your personal decisions, and your responses to God’s love, and even your acts of faith.

He has believed for you, fulfilled your human response to God, even made your personal decision for you, so that he acknowledges you before God as one who has already responded to God in him, who has already believed in God through him, and whose personal decision is already impli­cated in Christ’s self-offering to the Father, in all of which he has been fully and completely accepted by the Father, so that in Jesus Christ you are already accepted by him. Therefore, renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow Jesus as your Lord and Saviour.

To preach the Gospel of the unconditional grace of God in that unconditional way is to set before people the astonishingly good news of what God has freely provided for us in the vicarious humanity of Jesus.

To repent and believe in Jesus Christ and commit myself to him on that basis means that I do not need to look over my shoulder all the time to see whether I have really given myself to him, whether my faith is at all adequate, for in faith it is not upon my faith, my believing or my personal commitment that I rely, but solely upon what Christ has done for me, in my place and on my behalf, and what he is and always will be as he stands in for me before the face of the Father.

That means that I am completely liberated from all ulterior motives in believing or following Jesus Christ, for on the ground of his vicarious human response for me, I am free for spontaneous joyful response and worship and service as I could not otherwise be.”

Please tune in to my next few posts as I clarify what is written here, and hopefully in a way that really reaches you where you live, move and have your daily being!

Are You “Lazy” (in the Truest Sense?!)

 

I recently visited another community of the Church gathered, and proclaimed the Good News that All of Humanity is Included in the Life of the Triune God in Jesus! I especially honed in on Jesus’ comments in John 6:27-29, where he encouraged all of us in the fact that the work of God is to believe in Him Whom God has sent! This set of scriptures becomes even more plain and clear  when you look up the word “work” in the Greek and discover that it is the word “ergon” and that this word REALLY does mean “action, labor, deeds, toil, etc.”

So, what must we DO to act on the labors and deeds of God – to do his works? BELIEVE IN (EMBRACE) JESUS! In other words, trust Who Jesus is and who we are in Him! Talk about HARD WORK!!!

It seems that most of us would almost rather do ANYTHING than work that hard!!! We would rather DO things we can ”see”, such as creating and marking off things on a dutiful checklist – pray today, fast today, go to church today, read the bible today, etc. We would rather create elaborate vision and mission statements for our organized gatherings. We would rather engage in creating huge programs with lots of classes for learning the practices to sustain and grow those programs. We would rather spend millions on architectural plans to build a huge building for the church to meet in, with the possibility of growing to hundreds of thousands of people in attendance, so that we can get lots of tithes and build an even larger facility! And on and on!

I think you get the point! In truth, I think we would rather be “lazy” than REALLY work! (Please, please NOTICE that I said “we would RATHER do other things than believe”, I didn’t say we don’t believe!! I also did NOT say we shouldn’t or couldn’t do the things mentioned above but that we “would RATHER do other things than believe!)

Now don’t miss another point in all of this (and stand unecessarily condemned!) Remember, there is NO condemnation to those in Christ – Romans 8:1! I am using the word “lazy” in parentheses for a reason! I am doing this to make the point that we believers are not really lazy at all but that we sometimes think we are (or at least KNOW that others are!), and that we need to rethink and reconsider this entire subject of works in the light of Jesus Christ!

Let’s begin with the Gospel to sort all of this out in a clear way.

In Ephesians 1 and 2 we learn that the Good News, or Gospel, is that in Jesus Christ, God the Trinity, Humanity and Creation are NOT separated but bound together in Eternal Union and Communion - forever!

In Christ, all of humanity is reconciled, adopted, and saved, and sits at the right hand of God blessed with all spiritual blessings! God the Trinity included and adopted us all, mysteriously, while we were still sinners and still dead in our transgressions and sins. All of this means that Humanity’s Inclusion in the Life of the Triune God is solely by Grace, AND literally happened to each of us, 2000 years ago, in the Divine/Humanity of Jesus!

Understanding this Good News gives us the proper perspective on Jesus’ comments about work in John 6. Because Jesus knows Who He is, and Who we are in Him, He is encouraging us not to engage in trying to pay for things twice!!   No sane person would pay for their house again AFTER it was immediately paid off and the debt was fully cleared, would they? No sane child would try to pay their parents for conceiving them and foul up good parent child relationships until the parents accepted the arbitrary payment, would they? These things are RIDICULOUS!

In John 6, and in my own translation,  Jesus is saying, “All of you ARE who you are in me! You are included in the Eternal Life of the Father, Son and Spirit in me!, Don’t try to get into this life in your own way, which is no REAL way at all! Stop trying to do physical labors, deeds and acts in order to get and stay included in God’s Life! You don’t have to pay for things twice, cause I have paid for everything once for all!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I want you to work! I am the God Who IS and DOES! However, I want you participate with me in my doing and trust that I AM God’s work, living in you! That is enough work for each of you for the rest of your lives because you are yet in Adam’s sinful flesh, making it very difficult for you to believe the truth about Me being your Work!!”

Isn’t that so true????? It is not hard for you to believe that “you” are doing God’s work when you engage in the things so highly emphasized by the church today; things such as church attendance, tithe paying, evangelism, etc. That seems status quo and easy!! It’s like lifting toothpicks for exercise! BUT it is EXTREMELY difficult for us to believe that Jesus is God’s work and that there REALLY is nothing we HAVE to do!!! That’s like trying to lift 1,000,000 lbs.!!!! That is HARD WORK!

In reality, the hard work of believing and embracing Jesus is IMPOSSIBLE WORK apart from Jesus working in us to will and do it!! We are simply too sinful and weak to lift that much weight! We are addicted to the steroids of our own human reasoning and the rampant legalism promoted by religiosity! But even that weight has been lifted in Jesus, because Jesus shares His actual and strong faith with us! Galations 2:20!! 

In conclusion. let me wrap up with two final thoughts on this subject.

1.) Because we are who we are in Jesus, we are all working hard everyday! Jesus works and his Father works, therefore we HAVE to be working in our union with God in Jesus!! Just look at the hours HE puts in everyday on your job, at school, with your family and friends, in your exercise program, into cooking, your donations to the poor and service organizations, in the church, etc.! You surely weren’t arrogant enough to think that you were doing that all by yourself, were you???? There is ONLY ONE Who is Good and that is God! “Your” good works are only a participation in His Good Works! We are His Workmanship, created IN CHRIST to do HIS GOOD WORKS!!! You live, move and have your being in God!

So, we should STOP pressing people so much about working at the church building or in religion with us!!! Rather, we should encourage them in the work Jesus is already doing in them daily, almost everywhere they go, along with us!! They are blind about His good work in their daily relationships and lives, and are burdened under the illusion of thinking that they haven’t done enough and have to do more – and it is killing them!!!!! Good Grief! Jesus’ burden is LIGHT and his yoke EASY!!

2.) Most of us aren’t REALLY lazy because the Reality of our life is Jesus, Himself, and He is always Working in us in His Rest!!! I believe we appear to be lazy because we concentrate too much on appearances, and appearances ARE laziness!!! Also, for a person to be TRULY lazy would mean certain physical and social death in a short period of time. Think about that – DEEPLY!!!

So don’t be overly discouraged that you haven’t met your spiritual goals! Jesus has met them all for you and will continue to meet them in and through you in a way that is meaningful to you AND OTHERS!

So, are you lazy (in the truest sense?!) In Adam’s flesh, most certainly, and especially as we are too focused on appearances, attendance, and working to get others included rather than living in the REALITY of Who we and others actually are already in Christ! Jesus, Himself, is proof of our laziness! We could not get the work of God done without Him coming to Be it and Do it!

However, as we are believing and embracing Jesus in His grace, we are absolutely NOT a lazy person because believing is the hardest work of all (in the sinful flesh of Adam) but, in Jesus, believing is the Work that brings the greatest experiences, rewards, and spiritual “muscles” ultimately!!! John 6:27-29!

I Really “Goofed” Up…

 

… preaching the Gospel before one particular group at a Gospel conference a few years ago!

Of course, I have learned that ONLY Jesus, God Himself, can proclaim the Gospel without goofing it up! However, Jesus has decided not to proclaim it without allowing us “clay jars” to participate (2 Cor 4:7), so on we go in the “foolishness of preaching” (1 Cor 1:21) by which people come to understand Who Jesus is and who humanity and creation are in Him in the power of the Spirit! What a miracle of Triune God’s Grace! I love it!!

I was reminded about the incident I want to relate to you because of two great blog posts recently offered up by my friend Jonathan Stepp. He has surely got me thinking and a lot of us talking! To me it is very inspiring and radical stuff (in a positive way) to think about in the Light of the Cosmic Christ! Colossians 1!

Now to the public “goof up” I made.

I was preaching and proclaiming the Gospel Truth about Who Jesus is and who we are in Him. I was saying something like “because Jesus created and sustains everything, whatever happened to him, happens to everything he sustains, which is nothing short of everything. Therefore, when Jesus died, all of humanity died (just like Paul said in 2 Cor 5:14), and when Jesus rose, everyone and everything rose in Him (as Paul and Peter both say -  Eph 2:4-7, 1 Peter 1:3).”

With my next few words I threw out what became a radical Gospel bomb (in following the above Christ-centered and Trinitarian logic), and said something like, “In one real sense, because everyone is REALLY united with and in Jesus, and Jesus is the head of the Church, His actual Body, then EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, is REALLY already in the Church!”

If you have gone to church for very long or are religious in any supposedly Christian way, then you can imagine how that went over for most of the crowd! Ha-Ha! Understatement! But, to be fair, there were quite a few people who did like it, received encouragement from it and let me know it in very enthusiastic ways! In fact as soon as I finished and went back to my seat, a young woman left her seat and approached me and my family, quickly, to encourage us and let us know how much she appreciated that exact statement!

I call my radical statement a “goof up” for a couple of reasons. It was a “goof” up, sort of, in that the Truth of the One God in the Three Persons of the Father, Son and Spirit, reveals to us in Jesus that there REALLY is distinction within the Godhead and creation. Distinction is important for there to be personal existence and real love. if there were no distinction, I would not be me, and you would not be you. We’d be a single, blobby mess!

If there were only One God Being without distinct persons, then there would be no one else to love or give to. There would only be a single self-centered existence, and that is NOT God because God IS LOVE! The Father must have someone to love for there to be love, and so must the Son and Spirit. God is love because there is Unity without loss of distinction among the Persons. The fancy theological word for this truth is “Perichoresis“. This is what my good friend Dr. Baxter Kruger is always blogging about here.

Therefore, there was something right in people’s negative reactions when I uttered that “goof-up” about everyone being in the church. Part of the stumbling over this is that, In the United States, particularly, we have been trained to think more about our independence than our interdependence. Even the church is a culprit behind people committing the Gospel “crime” of “over-exclusivity” as we constantly overemphasize personal decision, personal salvation and personal prayer time over and against our cosmic union with God and each other in Jesus Christ!

On the other hand…

…I call it a “goof up” in parentheses because, in one real sense of Being and Seeing, we all, REALLY, are who we are in Jesus Christ! Jesus is our Reality and the Truth about Who we REALLY are even if we are blind to it, and/or forever oppose and reject it! Our real life is HIDDEN IN HIM – Colossians 3:3! We ALL REALLY DO live, move and have our being in God- Acts 17:28!! If we can believe that in Adam we are all sinners (and in Adam we all are!), then how come it is so hard for us to believe that in the Father’s Son made human, Jesus, we have all been made righteous?! Romans 5:6-19!

How is it that Adam gets more respect and praise than Jesus? Adam did NOT create us, nor does he sustain us – Jesus does! If Jesus, the One Who created and sustains us, stepped into our shoes and undid the work of Adam, as a human being, how is it that we have not all been positively impacted by His Human Life and Goodness? The truth is, we all have been positively impacted and affected! Romans 5:6-19, again! We REALLY do need to change our minds (repent) and embrace the Good News!

I must admit, I felt “crazy” and a bit weird after saying such a statement myself (it was NOT in my notes!) After all, I have grown up in the church, too, and am a trained Christian pastor for goodness sake! I, however, went where the Christo-logic of the Gospel I was preaching took me, and it has actually been confirmed and stated by other Christian’s too. Check out this post on writings from the Great 20th century Christian theologian Karl Barth! This post describes the wrestling that we go through on the subject of our Inclusion in the Triune Life when confronted by the Gospel of God’s Grace Revealed in Jesus!

Recently I took a church history class and was pleasantly SURPRISED to see that I am not the first Christian to have said or embraced such a “goof up”! Justin Martyr, one of the first Historians and Apologists of the early Christian Church actually took a similar approach and Christo-logic when proclaiming the Gospel to the Greek philosophical culture of his day. In his book “The Story of Christianity”, pp.53-56, Justo L. Gonzalez, writes the following with regard to Justin Martyr:

“According to the Fourth Gospel, this Logos is “the true light that enlightens” everyone. This means that, even before the incarnation, he [Jesus] is the source of all true knowledge. Paul had already said (1 Cor. 10:1-4) that the ancient Hebrews’ faith rested on none other than Christ, who had been revealed to them before the incarnation. Now Justin added that there were also among the pagans those who knew the same Logos, however dimly. Whatever truth there is in the writings of Plato was granted to him by the Logos of God, the same Logos who was incarnate in Jesus. Therefore, in a way, Socrates, Plato, and other sages of iniquity “were Christians,” for their wisdom came from Christ. This is not to say, however, that the incarnation was not needed, for those philosophers of old knew the Logos “in part”, whereas those who have seen him in his incarnation know him “fully.”

What Justin thus did was to open the way for Christianity to claim whatever good it could find in classical culture, in spite of its having been pagan. Following his inspiration, there soon were other Christians who tried to build further bridges between their faith and ancient culture.”

Hmmmmm. “Goof up” or Bridge building? I am sure it’s probably BOTH seeing that the Triune God shares His Truth with the world through “clay jars” and is NOT prevented by any barrier from helping people to see who they are in Jesus, His Son!! Ha-Ha!! (You can find Jonathan Stepp’s blog posts right here and here!)