NOT THE OT WITH JESUS ADDED

If we have been raised in the notion that our beliefs are the truth; socialised with the mindset that our version of Christianity together with its collection of proof texts and habits of biblical interpretation are the Christian doctrine of God or a legitimate perspective of it (when it is not) – we will have, in spite ourselves become contained in a false reality, drowned in a goldfish bowl of illusion that burdens us with a false gospel and a false christ.

If we have a passion for life/truth and are not just a bit of flotsam floating down the river of common myths, we will perceive the light and life of Christ where He shines and follow Jesus into increasing levels of spirit and life. Or not. And just settle for the Laodicean limited life that is our communal form of the opiate of the people.

AN ENTIRELY NEW THING
Thomas Torrance perceives that, “We must take into account the fact that this triune self-revelation of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, mediated to us through the Gospel, is something utterly new which we could not otherwise know or conceive.” [It’s not a bunch of information]

DEPARTURE FROM THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE CULTURE
“When God addresses us, he tells us something about himself which we could never tell ourselves, something so radically different that it creates a new situation in human existence and history and calls for new ways of thinking and speaking about God on our part.” [It’s not another collection of information. It’s life itself]

NEW WORD OF LIFE
“That is why, as Jesus himself said, his contemporaries had such difficulty in understanding what he was saying, because they were unable to grasp his Word. And that is why also the unique self-revelation of God in Jesus Christ gave rise among his followers to a new genre of literature, the gospels and epistles enshrined in the New Testament Scriptures, which may not be interpreted aright simply through comparison with other religious literature ancient or modern, but only in the light of the distinctive message they were divinely inspired to convey, and out of the kind of intelligibility imposed upon them by the Word and Spirit of God.” (1)

A MISSED THE POINT GOSPEL
If we assume that the scriptures are presenting a Christ empowered moralism and that the nature of Christianity is a Christ ‘revved up’ version of the knowledge of good and evil, we will have imported into the New Testament scriptures a religion that is not there and which it does not promote.

Why? The New Testament is not a moral compendium. It is the declaration and explanation of the truth that forgiveness, righteousness and the Way of unlimited life is ours in the Person of Jesus Christ. The New Testament witness is that Christ is our life. It’s ‘In Him is life and that life is the light of all’.

ROBBERY GOSPEL
If our message is a moral agenda and the promotion of ‘Christian values’ we have missed the point and robbed ourselves and those we touch. Robbed the self and others of the transformed life that is the spirit and life of Christ expressed as  us. When our Christ is not the expression of the Christian doctrine of God, we fail to become who we could have been in this life. Despite our effort to make the best of a warped gospel, we limit the life that is ours in Christ and deny it for those in our circle so that they are denied the life without limit that Jesus so generously gives.

‘The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ John 10.10 NIV.
 
 
(1)Torrance, Thomas F.. The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (T&T Clark Cornerstones) (pp. 18-19). Bloomsbury Publishing. Kindle Edition.