The first thing we need to do when opening a New Testament letter is understand who it's seeking to address, and why. Alden's new innings of discussions on Christians and the Law does so on one of the essential pieces of the scriptures - The Book of Romans.
you can read this introductory study for yourself here.
I'm already thirsty for more!
Tuesday, 2 October 2012
Monday, 10 September 2012
The New Day
"I see a beautiful city and a brilliant people rising from this abyss. I see the lives for which I lay down my life, peaceful, useful, prosperous and happy. I see that I hold a sanctuary in their hearts, and in the hearts of their descendants, generations hence".
A Tale of Two Cities, Quoted by Jim Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises.
I had a shock in church last night.
We were singing John Newton's Amazing Grace, which had suddenly 'grown' a chorus (which was fine), and a new final verse, which really wasn't.
The lyrics talked about the earth 'melting away like snow' - "The earth shall soon dissolve like snow". Now I know Peter talks about the refining of creation at the end of the age (Greek: kainos, meaning renewal, not neos, meaning brand new) - change that will reform everything, even the very elements - but the end of the material creation is certainly not what's planned here, so why are we happy to sing lyrics which speak about the world being "dissolved"? Why are we still, so often, thinking of the eternal as something less not more real than what we currently know?
In Psalm 93, the Majesty and splendor of the Lord and His throne is married to the establishment and permanence of the earth, which 'shall not be moved' (verse 1). Since the moment God formed this realm through the going forth of His Word and the nurturing of His Spirit, He has had one goal in mind - to dress and beautify creation, through His Son and those who are His kin with the great delight and refreshment God Himself knew on the seventh day, when He sanctified His work and resided within it. The great yearning of all creation, notes Paul in Romans 8, is to escape the futility now imposed upon it because of our rebellion and to live again in the weight and significance of what was and what shall be - that is the great and precious promise God has made to us - "I will never destroy every living thing".
The earth is the Lord's - everything in it is His, made to express and reflect His glory; a living, breathing work of art and beauty, that, in the ages to come, will truly and entirely "sing" of that wonder.
I couldn't sing the new added words to Newton's hymn, but instead, recalled the final verse that I've always sung before: "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun". The New Jerusalem is on its way, adorned and radiant, from heaven to earth - there we shall truly enjoy and exult the Lamb, forever!
When He renews the land and sky,
All heav'n will sing and earth reply
With one resplendent theme: The glories of our God and King!
from 'Creation Sings' by Keith & Kristen Getty.
A Tale of Two Cities, Quoted by Jim Gordon in The Dark Knight Rises.
I had a shock in church last night.
We were singing John Newton's Amazing Grace, which had suddenly 'grown' a chorus (which was fine), and a new final verse, which really wasn't.
The lyrics talked about the earth 'melting away like snow' - "The earth shall soon dissolve like snow". Now I know Peter talks about the refining of creation at the end of the age (Greek: kainos, meaning renewal, not neos, meaning brand new) - change that will reform everything, even the very elements - but the end of the material creation is certainly not what's planned here, so why are we happy to sing lyrics which speak about the world being "dissolved"? Why are we still, so often, thinking of the eternal as something less not more real than what we currently know?
In Psalm 93, the Majesty and splendor of the Lord and His throne is married to the establishment and permanence of the earth, which 'shall not be moved' (verse 1). Since the moment God formed this realm through the going forth of His Word and the nurturing of His Spirit, He has had one goal in mind - to dress and beautify creation, through His Son and those who are His kin with the great delight and refreshment God Himself knew on the seventh day, when He sanctified His work and resided within it. The great yearning of all creation, notes Paul in Romans 8, is to escape the futility now imposed upon it because of our rebellion and to live again in the weight and significance of what was and what shall be - that is the great and precious promise God has made to us - "I will never destroy every living thing".
The earth is the Lord's - everything in it is His, made to express and reflect His glory; a living, breathing work of art and beauty, that, in the ages to come, will truly and entirely "sing" of that wonder.
I couldn't sing the new added words to Newton's hymn, but instead, recalled the final verse that I've always sung before: "When we've been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise, than when we first begun". The New Jerusalem is on its way, adorned and radiant, from heaven to earth - there we shall truly enjoy and exult the Lamb, forever!
When He renews the land and sky,
All heav'n will sing and earth reply
With one resplendent theme: The glories of our God and King!
from 'Creation Sings' by Keith & Kristen Getty.
Sunday, 19 August 2012
Confession
"If we confess our sins, then He is faithful and just to us, and will forgive us, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness". 1 John 1:9.
It's been interesting being back in a church these past few months, going through a set service of prayers and thanksgiving before the ministry of the word, especially focusing upon our need for grace at the end of what is often difficult weeks.
The aim here is actually very simple. It's to bring us back to the focal-point of our faith... to allow us to see once again what Christ has done and what that means for us as we face the realities of a life which can often seem so far from God and what He intends.
Some people 'read' all this the wrong way round. They take the verse I've quoted above as a pretext for believing that it is their action (in confession and repentance) that is the thing of value, and not the essential work of Christ alone, that this is meant to bring us to, which counts. It's a tragic mistake, because it means that being right with God becomes dependent upon what we say and do, not what He has already accomplished.
Robert Farrar Capon puts it like this:
"All real confession (that is not just a fudging of our own crooked books) is subsequent to forgiveness. Only when, like the prodigal, we are finally confronted with the unqualified gift of someone who died*, in advance, to forgive us, no matter what, can we see that confession has nothing to do with getting ourselves forgiven. Confession is not a transaction, not a negotiation in order to secure forgiveness; it is the 'after' - the last gasp of the corpse (us) - our finally accepting we're dead and accepting His resurrection.
Forgiveness surrounds us...
we only confess to wake ourselves to what we already have".
(Parables of Grace).
It's our realizing that what was ours in the moment He saved us on the cross makes us forgiven 'before, during and after' our sins, because all of this is resolved solely because there is a forgiver, who has acted to forgive, freely and completely, and we are buried and raised into that in our union (baptism) with Christ.
The entire aim is reconciliation, and our moments of confession are to lead us to the one who has brought that peace through the blood of His cross.
so go and call your neighbor
proceed with all due haste
go grab your wife and sweet family
see there is no time to waste
we're gonna drink out of that fountain
on a hill called double cure
i wanna show you my allegiance Lord
yes i wanna be a son of Yours
ask me why i love Him
He gave riches to this poor
yes and i will one day see that face
over yonder shore
Lyrics from 'Double Cure' by Vigilantes of Love.
(*Most of us don't see a 'death' in this parable, aside from the fatted calf, but as Capon shows, there are several - his book is worth reading just for the insights here, but there are many more).
It's been interesting being back in a church these past few months, going through a set service of prayers and thanksgiving before the ministry of the word, especially focusing upon our need for grace at the end of what is often difficult weeks.
The aim here is actually very simple. It's to bring us back to the focal-point of our faith... to allow us to see once again what Christ has done and what that means for us as we face the realities of a life which can often seem so far from God and what He intends.
Some people 'read' all this the wrong way round. They take the verse I've quoted above as a pretext for believing that it is their action (in confession and repentance) that is the thing of value, and not the essential work of Christ alone, that this is meant to bring us to, which counts. It's a tragic mistake, because it means that being right with God becomes dependent upon what we say and do, not what He has already accomplished.
Robert Farrar Capon puts it like this:
"All real confession (that is not just a fudging of our own crooked books) is subsequent to forgiveness. Only when, like the prodigal, we are finally confronted with the unqualified gift of someone who died*, in advance, to forgive us, no matter what, can we see that confession has nothing to do with getting ourselves forgiven. Confession is not a transaction, not a negotiation in order to secure forgiveness; it is the 'after' - the last gasp of the corpse (us) - our finally accepting we're dead and accepting His resurrection.
Forgiveness surrounds us...
we only confess to wake ourselves to what we already have".
(Parables of Grace).
It's our realizing that what was ours in the moment He saved us on the cross makes us forgiven 'before, during and after' our sins, because all of this is resolved solely because there is a forgiver, who has acted to forgive, freely and completely, and we are buried and raised into that in our union (baptism) with Christ.
The entire aim is reconciliation, and our moments of confession are to lead us to the one who has brought that peace through the blood of His cross.
so go and call your neighbor
proceed with all due haste
go grab your wife and sweet family
see there is no time to waste
we're gonna drink out of that fountain
on a hill called double cure
i wanna show you my allegiance Lord
yes i wanna be a son of Yours
ask me why i love Him
He gave riches to this poor
yes and i will one day see that face
over yonder shore
Lyrics from 'Double Cure' by Vigilantes of Love.
(*Most of us don't see a 'death' in this parable, aside from the fatted calf, but as Capon shows, there are several - his book is worth reading just for the insights here, but there are many more).
Saturday, 18 August 2012
The nub of things.
"The figure of the tortured and executed Jesus is the overthrowing of the Satanic image of God (oppressor, judge, accuser), for God as friend, lover, victim, counsel for the defence, fellow accused and flayed flesh and blood. It replaces the Satanic God not with humanity at its most triumphant, as rationalist humanism does, but with humanity at its most torn and vulnerable". Terry Eagleton.
Really worth reading: Humanism and Christ.
Really worth reading: Humanism and Christ.
Thursday, 2 August 2012
Tuesday, 24 July 2012
Sunday, 15 July 2012
The Death Within
"By the mystery of your Incarnation, your nativity, your baptism,
by your agony, by your crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension,
and the coming of your Holy Spirit,
Good Lord, deliver us". The Great Litany.
It makes for pretty uncomfortable reading, but it's clearly there in the Gospels.
Jesus was becoming known by what He could do - the 'signs' that the Kingdom had clearly come meant that He was gaining quite a following. It was, no doubt, the very thing that John the Baptist and others were looking for, hoping for - the one who would truly bring the life and message of God.
Of course, the problem quickly becomes such 'signs' themselves. Jesus understood how that is what was wanted by the many who followed, not the genuine reality of the kingdom behind such power, and that is what truly counts. That's why the 'popular' moment of His ministry ends and the 'difficult' period truly begins - why He stops the majority of such public miraculous activity to journey to Jerusalem where He knows He will be killed.
For us, that's a hard truth - not exactly what we would expect of a Messiah, but then again, there are some 'mysteries' about the very nature of life itself that are at the core of what is happening here, and it is those that we rarely encounter.
Take death itself. We normally talk about this as Christians only in terms of its relationship to sin, and therefore, as both being 'enemies' of life. Now, it's clearly right to see death in it's ultimate, godless expression as just that (what is often talked about as 'the second death'- the point of eternal separation from God), and there's no denying that our mortal deaths are moments of great sorrow and tragedy, but there's something vital for us fallen creatures about that final moment. It can actually become, as it was for the thief on the cross, the moment of liberation into life, which is why our baptism is a baptism 'into' Christ in His death and resurrection.
Death is actually the instrument or means God uses to bring about life. Think for a moment of the splendor that was Eden - a gloriously furnished creation, which would sustain the creatures God makes to live there through every 'seed bearing' grass, herb and tree (Genesis 1:11&12, 29 & 30) He provides. The natural world is sustained by these plants 'giving seed' to the earth which die to yield new life, so God weaves the value of death into His creation from the very beginning.
The Same mystery is clearly evident in the creation of Eve. Unlike all other creatures He has made, He causes this person to be fashioned by placing Adam in a 'deep sleep' (2:21 - 'to die') to form the one who is truly 'bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh'. This, as Paul alludes to towards the end of Ephesians 5, is one of the clearest images in Scripture of the relationship between Christ and the Church (5:30-33), and in both, it is the work which God does 'within' death that is key to the glorious creation which follows.
It is perhaps hard for us to understand such works - they run so contrary to the way in which we would chose to achieve things, but the necessity is no doubt due to the manner of character (the nature of the Son) which God is seeking to place within us.
In the book of Revelation, John speaks of the 'Lamb's book', written 'before (or from) the foundation of the world' (13:8). It is this nature - expressed in the image of a slain lamb - that defines the God who has made us, sustains us and is at work to complete the work He has begun in what He has made. This nature resides at the core of His character, His work, His love and His goal for us and creation, which is why the 'power' of His kingdom lies in the clear unveiling of the 'message of the Cross' - from Christ's emptying of Himself to live a life aquatinted with sorrow and grief, to death amongst the lost. The seal of God's new creation is a world lead through such depths by Christ, that these powers may never hold dominion over the realm which is coming, which is overseen by the throne of the Lamb.
We cannot face our pains, trials and the dreadfulness of death alone - it is truly a tragedy for us to seek to do so - but through the Lamb of God, these woes become the very means God has used to invest eternity with the fulfilled Word who has come to us, that this realm may truly be furnished through Him.
by your agony, by your crucifixion, burial, resurrection and ascension,
and the coming of your Holy Spirit,
Good Lord, deliver us". The Great Litany.
It makes for pretty uncomfortable reading, but it's clearly there in the Gospels.
Jesus was becoming known by what He could do - the 'signs' that the Kingdom had clearly come meant that He was gaining quite a following. It was, no doubt, the very thing that John the Baptist and others were looking for, hoping for - the one who would truly bring the life and message of God.
Of course, the problem quickly becomes such 'signs' themselves. Jesus understood how that is what was wanted by the many who followed, not the genuine reality of the kingdom behind such power, and that is what truly counts. That's why the 'popular' moment of His ministry ends and the 'difficult' period truly begins - why He stops the majority of such public miraculous activity to journey to Jerusalem where He knows He will be killed.
For us, that's a hard truth - not exactly what we would expect of a Messiah, but then again, there are some 'mysteries' about the very nature of life itself that are at the core of what is happening here, and it is those that we rarely encounter.
Take death itself. We normally talk about this as Christians only in terms of its relationship to sin, and therefore, as both being 'enemies' of life. Now, it's clearly right to see death in it's ultimate, godless expression as just that (what is often talked about as 'the second death'- the point of eternal separation from God), and there's no denying that our mortal deaths are moments of great sorrow and tragedy, but there's something vital for us fallen creatures about that final moment. It can actually become, as it was for the thief on the cross, the moment of liberation into life, which is why our baptism is a baptism 'into' Christ in His death and resurrection.
Death is actually the instrument or means God uses to bring about life. Think for a moment of the splendor that was Eden - a gloriously furnished creation, which would sustain the creatures God makes to live there through every 'seed bearing' grass, herb and tree (Genesis 1:11&12, 29 & 30) He provides. The natural world is sustained by these plants 'giving seed' to the earth which die to yield new life, so God weaves the value of death into His creation from the very beginning.
The Same mystery is clearly evident in the creation of Eve. Unlike all other creatures He has made, He causes this person to be fashioned by placing Adam in a 'deep sleep' (2:21 - 'to die') to form the one who is truly 'bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh'. This, as Paul alludes to towards the end of Ephesians 5, is one of the clearest images in Scripture of the relationship between Christ and the Church (5:30-33), and in both, it is the work which God does 'within' death that is key to the glorious creation which follows.
It is perhaps hard for us to understand such works - they run so contrary to the way in which we would chose to achieve things, but the necessity is no doubt due to the manner of character (the nature of the Son) which God is seeking to place within us.
In the book of Revelation, John speaks of the 'Lamb's book', written 'before (or from) the foundation of the world' (13:8). It is this nature - expressed in the image of a slain lamb - that defines the God who has made us, sustains us and is at work to complete the work He has begun in what He has made. This nature resides at the core of His character, His work, His love and His goal for us and creation, which is why the 'power' of His kingdom lies in the clear unveiling of the 'message of the Cross' - from Christ's emptying of Himself to live a life aquatinted with sorrow and grief, to death amongst the lost. The seal of God's new creation is a world lead through such depths by Christ, that these powers may never hold dominion over the realm which is coming, which is overseen by the throne of the Lamb.
We cannot face our pains, trials and the dreadfulness of death alone - it is truly a tragedy for us to seek to do so - but through the Lamb of God, these woes become the very means God has used to invest eternity with the fulfilled Word who has come to us, that this realm may truly be furnished through Him.
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