Dear Readers,
I have been thinking lately about three things: peace, unity, and reconciliation. These things must go hand in hand with the Christian, as these are the subjects most important to God. I wish to write to you a series of letters on these things, in hope that you may work towards the goal God has, to create peace, unity, and reconciliation among humanity. The first one that I write to you about will be peace, as it is the central theme to what God works towards.
The Bible as a whole is told as the long history and narrative of God's graceful salvation of mankind. As long as we have been capable of thinking and acting freely we have been at war with God. We onslaught him daily with our defiant acts of turning from him and making ourselves the gods of our minds. It is not his wish for this war to continue or last forever. He took a destructive act to clean the slate the first time through the deluge, but declare peace following it. However, we continued the war.
Given our warring with God, it would not be wrong of God to destroy mankind once and for all, but he didn't. Instead, in the midst of war he declared the universal peace through the birth, life, and death of Jesus. He took the initiative to make peace with humanity, to save us from ourselves. This story begins in the Old Testament which is what I point you to today.
The Old Testament is the interwoven stories of wars, families, parents and children, friends, neighbors, enemies, joy and sorrow, love and hate, and fear and courage. At the center stage is the Kingdom of Israel and it's rise and fall. It can be described as the Tragedy of Israel and the Hope of Men. The amount of sorrow, pain, and brokenness found in this tragedy is one to make the reader sink into depression if we read it only as the history of Israel and it's people. But, behind this sad story is the hope of men.
The temple was leveled, the priesthood disbanded, the kingship fallen, and the kingdom destroyed. Israel was a house of destruction, but God was not destroyed with it. God was not the tribal god of a petty kingdom of the Levant, he is the Universal King. He was not confined to the temple or disappeared when the Hebrews were scattered. He remained, and so did his mercy and love. God promised a future built on the little acts of faith and trust, not kingdoms or powerful monarchs.
The story of the Old Testament is the story of the deep love and mercy that God has for mankind. God's creation of all things is an act of love. God's calling of Israel to be the light of the world was an act of love. Hearing and freeing the Hebrews from servitude was an act of mercy. God not withdrawing from people due to corruption and conquest was an act of mercy. His sending prophets to redirect the Kingdom of Israel back to the right path was an act of mercy. God being in the midst of the exiled and comforting the grief worn people and promising them a new hope was an act of mercy. The sending of Jonah to Gentiles and spreading the message of redemption to all was an act of mercy.
The story of the Old Testament ends with the call of Daniel to find peace through patience and wait with patience the coming of the Kingdom of God. We must live faithfully, mercifully, and patiently trusting God for peace. We also must find little ways to make peace in our lives and refuse to bow before the false idols of warfare and exploitation. These are the continuing acts of God's mercy. Aligning ourselves with God's way is aligning ourselves with the way of peace. We must look behind the curtains of the Old Testament narrative and read behind the lines to find what God is preparing for, the Gospel of Peace and the Way of Life.
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gospel. Show all posts
Friday, May 30, 2008
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Salvation II
Dear Readers,
I will now continue our conversation about salvation and it's complexities. In my last letter I presented to you, the different ways in order to be saved as represented by the New Testament authors. In this letter I will continue in that line with the addition to the teachings of Jesus on the subject as well as the relation to the atonement to his teachings.
As I expressed in my last letter on this subject, Paul of Tarsus and Jesus clash in their soterology. Jesus tells us that eternal life is gained through following the moral law with the aid of God, Paul on the other hands tells us otherwise:
In later New Testament writings, the future tense of salvation shifts to the past and present and a transformation takes place: Jesus is no longer the savior of man in the future, but the savior that has already came. So we must now come the realization that salvation is an ongoing process, that will culminate with the final salvation when the Day of the Lord comes. The ongoing process can be expressed like this:
Jesus has saved us from the penalty of sin.
Jesus is saving us from the power of sin.
Jesus will save us from the presence of sin.
He has saved us as being the scapegoat for mankind in his execution and proving it through his resurrection. He is saving us by continuing his message of seeking righteousness and doing good works which is shunning sin (Note my brothers, that man cannot do good works by himself. It is through the power and help of God that we can do our good works). He will save us by judging us according to our works and then condemning sin and death to the second death.
It is through grace that mankind is capable of doing good works and having love and compassion to one another. This grace is given by God, and it is this grace that Jesus points to in his parables and when he tells people how to obtain eternal life. The grace is God's to give, and it through this grace that we are now able to do the works that the Lord commanded us to do.
So in conclusion my brother's I have discovered this: salvation is the grace of God upon man to shun sin by following in Jesus' way. Jesus has given his life as the final scapegoat to God for the sin of man that we may not suffer the penalty of sin, and has shown us the way to escape the power and influence of sin through acting compassionately and lovingly (and repenting when we do sin). He will, in the course of time, come to cast away all sin and it's penalty. In this process he will indeed save (to rescue, to heal completely) us by making us whole and restoring us to the mankind that God has envisioned us to be.
- Ιάσων
I will now continue our conversation about salvation and it's complexities. In my last letter I presented to you, the different ways in order to be saved as represented by the New Testament authors. In this letter I will continue in that line with the addition to the teachings of Jesus on the subject as well as the relation to the atonement to his teachings.
This passage in the Gospel of Mark is a direct conversation between a rich man and Jesus on how to gain eternal life (salvation). Jesus makes it very clear, follow the commandments, most importantly treat others as you would have them treat you and act compassionately towards one another.
"As Jesus was starting out on his way to Jerusalem, a man came running up to him, knelt down, and asked, 'Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?'
'Why do you call me good?' Jesus asked. 'Only God is truly good. But to answer your question, you know the commandments: 'You must not murder. You must not commit adultery. You must not steal. You must not testify falsely. You must not cheat anyone. Honor your father and your mother.'
'Teacher,' the man replied, 'I've obeyed all these commandments since I was young.' Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. 'There is still one thing you haven't done,' he told him. 'Go and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heave. Then come, follow me.' At this the man's face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, 'How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God!'" - Mark 10:17-25
As I expressed in my last letter on this subject, Paul of Tarsus and Jesus clash in their soterology. Jesus tells us that eternal life is gained through following the moral law with the aid of God, Paul on the other hands tells us otherwise:
But, Paul does express a future tense in salvation as Jesus does in the synoptics, in his epistles:
"So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law." Romans 3:28
"This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed." Romans 13:11Notice the future tense in Paul's wording. Salvation, like the Kingdom of God is a present and future process.
"But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control." Philippians 3:20-21
In later New Testament writings, the future tense of salvation shifts to the past and present and a transformation takes place: Jesus is no longer the savior of man in the future, but the savior that has already came. So we must now come the realization that salvation is an ongoing process, that will culminate with the final salvation when the Day of the Lord comes. The ongoing process can be expressed like this:
Jesus has saved us from the penalty of sin.
Jesus is saving us from the power of sin.
Jesus will save us from the presence of sin.
He has saved us as being the scapegoat for mankind in his execution and proving it through his resurrection. He is saving us by continuing his message of seeking righteousness and doing good works which is shunning sin (Note my brothers, that man cannot do good works by himself. It is through the power and help of God that we can do our good works). He will save us by judging us according to our works and then condemning sin and death to the second death.
It is through grace that mankind is capable of doing good works and having love and compassion to one another. This grace is given by God, and it is this grace that Jesus points to in his parables and when he tells people how to obtain eternal life. The grace is God's to give, and it through this grace that we are now able to do the works that the Lord commanded us to do.
So in conclusion my brother's I have discovered this: salvation is the grace of God upon man to shun sin by following in Jesus' way. Jesus has given his life as the final scapegoat to God for the sin of man that we may not suffer the penalty of sin, and has shown us the way to escape the power and influence of sin through acting compassionately and lovingly (and repenting when we do sin). He will, in the course of time, come to cast away all sin and it's penalty. In this process he will indeed save (to rescue, to heal completely) us by making us whole and restoring us to the mankind that God has envisioned us to be.
- Ιάσων
Salvation
Dear Readers,
A topic of great interest and importance has taken me by force and refuses to let me go. Salvation is a central theme to Christianity and I am diving headfirst into the different concepts of salvation.
The thing that got me thinking, researching, and searching for the meaning of salvation was an accidental stumbling upon the concept of universal salvation. It was a new concept for me personally, as I had grown up being taught an exclusive viewpoint on salvation. So, I read all I could about it. Wading waste deep in the Church Father's treatise on the subject was a major feat, and I've yet to complete reading them all. Half-way through reading Origen's works I came to realize that I didn't truly know the subject of salvation and not knowing that I couldn't fully understand how it could be universal.
I've come a long way since then. Reading the New Testament again, with a special emphasis on salvation, I've come to realize too, that in this second part of the Bible, there is no consensus on how one becomes "saved". From my readings I've found out there is no less than 4 ways that the writers of the New Testament believed people could be saved:
With all these possibilities, it concerns me, as would anyone who is fully aware of the non-consensus and leads me to the ultimate question: what if you choose the wrong one?
The New Testament's teachings can be divided into 4 parts:
The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke)
The Maverick Gospel (John)
The Epistles
Miscellaneous Passages
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus is seen as giving two paths to salvation: One through good works and two by doing as the apostles did and living a simple life and following Jesus' example.
However the gospel of John, so unlike the other and earlier gospels, gives a more complex and mystical way to obtain salvation. There is no mention of works in John, just the belief that one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Logos to be saved.
Paul on the other hand, developed a unique Christology and salvation-belief. As reflected in the Gospel of John, Paul describes Jesus as the Logos and the Son of God. From his epistles we get the modern belief of salvation, that is believing in the atonement of man via the execution of Jesus. Paul takes one step further than the Gospel of John and says not only do we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God/Logos, but we must have faith in his resurrection in order to be saved.
The other miscellaneous passages of the New Testament require that one must be baptised in order to receive salvation.
All however, agree on this: sin gets in the way of man being reunited with God. All methods of salvation tell us to repent of our sins ("Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand!" As John the Baptist exclaims to us from the pages)
It becomes more complicated when you choose one method over the other. One would logically follow the sayings Jesus as expressed in the Synoptic Gospels as they were written earlier than John's, but yet the authentic epistles of Paul were written even earlier. The only hindrance to taking Paul's formula and word for it, is that he never lived with, saw, or heard Jesus. We have the account of his conversion, but it is possibly a later added story, as it is not mentioned by Paul himself. It is all quite complicated.
I will continue our discussion of this topic in a following letter, but until then my brothers, meditate on things brought up in this one.
- Ιάσων
A topic of great interest and importance has taken me by force and refuses to let me go. Salvation is a central theme to Christianity and I am diving headfirst into the different concepts of salvation.
The thing that got me thinking, researching, and searching for the meaning of salvation was an accidental stumbling upon the concept of universal salvation. It was a new concept for me personally, as I had grown up being taught an exclusive viewpoint on salvation. So, I read all I could about it. Wading waste deep in the Church Father's treatise on the subject was a major feat, and I've yet to complete reading them all. Half-way through reading Origen's works I came to realize that I didn't truly know the subject of salvation and not knowing that I couldn't fully understand how it could be universal.
I've come a long way since then. Reading the New Testament again, with a special emphasis on salvation, I've come to realize too, that in this second part of the Bible, there is no consensus on how one becomes "saved". From my readings I've found out there is no less than 4 ways that the writers of the New Testament believed people could be saved:
- Salvation by faith alone (sola fide)
- Salvation by works and faith
- Salvation by works alone
- Salvation by faith only by love
With all these possibilities, it concerns me, as would anyone who is fully aware of the non-consensus and leads me to the ultimate question: what if you choose the wrong one?
The New Testament's teachings can be divided into 4 parts:
The Synoptic Gospels (Mark, Matthew, Luke)
The Maverick Gospel (John)
The Epistles
Miscellaneous Passages
In the synoptic gospels, Jesus is seen as giving two paths to salvation: One through good works and two by doing as the apostles did and living a simple life and following Jesus' example.
However the gospel of John, so unlike the other and earlier gospels, gives a more complex and mystical way to obtain salvation. There is no mention of works in John, just the belief that one must believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the Logos to be saved.
Paul on the other hand, developed a unique Christology and salvation-belief. As reflected in the Gospel of John, Paul describes Jesus as the Logos and the Son of God. From his epistles we get the modern belief of salvation, that is believing in the atonement of man via the execution of Jesus. Paul takes one step further than the Gospel of John and says not only do we must believe that Jesus is the Son of God/Logos, but we must have faith in his resurrection in order to be saved.
The other miscellaneous passages of the New Testament require that one must be baptised in order to receive salvation.
All however, agree on this: sin gets in the way of man being reunited with God. All methods of salvation tell us to repent of our sins ("Repent! For the Kingdom of God is at hand!" As John the Baptist exclaims to us from the pages)
It becomes more complicated when you choose one method over the other. One would logically follow the sayings Jesus as expressed in the Synoptic Gospels as they were written earlier than John's, but yet the authentic epistles of Paul were written even earlier. The only hindrance to taking Paul's formula and word for it, is that he never lived with, saw, or heard Jesus. We have the account of his conversion, but it is possibly a later added story, as it is not mentioned by Paul himself. It is all quite complicated.
I will continue our discussion of this topic in a following letter, but until then my brothers, meditate on things brought up in this one.
- Ιάσων
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