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! 🙂

Gospel Panic and Exhaustion…

 

…is often the first thing that takes hold of you when you begin to take seriously that God’s Good News is better than you ever thought! The reason for this is that there is no good thing in our fleshly humanity, apart from Jesus Christ! Therefore, when we are confronted with the weight and burden of God’s goodness and glory (in contrast to our sinfulness), it is very difficult to believe and embrace.

Often times, when proclaiming the Good News of Humanity’s Inclusion in the Life of the Triune God, solely by God’s grace, the accusation is put forth that we are not calling a person to “repentance and change!” Nothing could be FURTHER from the truth! This is proven by the fact that when people are called to think of God in all of His goodness and Inclusive grace, the last thing a person wants to do is believe that and repent (change their mind radically, resulting in a radical change of action)!

By the way, changing your mind IS an action and DOING something, too!! 🙂

 

In God’s ever-present grace, I preach the Gospel in unbounded joy and increasing zest and freedom – NOW! It wasn’t this way at first! See more of my personal story, entitled “Nothing Less than Radically Shocking!” here. Being as lost we all still are in the clinging flesh of fallen Adam, there is no such thing as not being called to repentance when we hear the Good News of the Gospel proclaimed! We are either found believing the Truth about Jesus and ourselves in Him, or we are found not believing it. If found not believing it, we are placed in a crisis of belief IN AND APART FROM ANYONE SAYING “Repent and believe this Good News!”

When hearing the Gospel, which says confidently and unequivocally that, “In Jesus Christ every person, dead or alive, has been Embraced, Saved, Included and Adopted into the Life of the Triune God, and always will be!”, our fallen flesh begins to go into a denying panic! I’ve noticed that it typically follows this same pattern for most people trained in religion: Shocking disbelief, leading to “fighting mad” or, if embraced as truth, “descending” to total embarrassment and humility, and finally, progressively accompanied by great liberating “can’t shut up about it” joy!

Up to this point, it may seem as if I am just spouting out a bunch of theology and thoughts on my constant Gospel theme of Humanity’s Inclusion in the Life of the Triune God. But, I was reminded of this process and experience when re-reading an e-mail I received in the recent past after sharing the Gospel and a few resources with a fellow Pastor! I want to share his response with you. I keep it tucked in the back of my bible to encourage me in the suffering and joy that comes with sharing and being confronted by the Good News of the Person of Jesus Christ!

May you be encouraged and strengthened by this REAL LIFE interaction I had with a Pastor as you begin to embrace God’s Good News, continue to repent and embrace it more, or participate with Jesus in sharing it with others. Like the panic and exhaustion that I hear women discuss regarding pregnancy, as the “baby” of the Good News is being birthed from the inside out, it is not always joyful at first!  🙂

 

Here is the response and experience of the already Christian pastor, verbatim, with ONLY the name of the pastor being excluded for anonymity:

“Tim,

I hope you are asleep as I write this but I can’t sleep. I just spent the last 3 hours reading my sermon notes for tomorrow and trying to find my Augustinian influence and writing it out.

I need those web links for the free books please. I am ordering “On the incarnation of the Word of God” and “The Forgotten Father”

Did you weep over any of this? Because I found myself on my knees in tears tonight asking God to break me down and rebuild me into a REAL preacher of the true Gospel. I’ve decided that I am going to seek the true Gospel no matter what the cost.

I suddenly feel like my relationship with God has been superficial all these years. I’m not discouraged. Oh quite the opposite I am more excited about God than I have ever been because I think my experience and relationship with Jesus has been and is awesome and now I see that I have not even scratched the surface.

I can’t wait to know Him more. Its like that song “In the secret” I do want to know Him more.

This is all fresh and new and I am trying hard not to panic. I am praying a lot tonight but I just wanted to email you to say I think I am going to get it, I don’t believe God would tease me. If He has introduced me to this theology I know it is because He wants me to understand.

I am ready to commit to learning the real Gospel, the Gospel with power and lifechanging authority.

Last year I read “Making a difference in Preaching” and now I see that the real way to make a difference in preaching is to discover the real Gospel and preach that and then let the power of God’s Word make the difference.

So again please send me links to the free books I can read. I feel like I am in the middle of the desert and all I want is water. I have 200 books on my shelf but none of the ones I desperately want to read. 

Whew,

This is exhausting,

I’ll keep in touch.

PS I loved the rap. May I play it at my church? “