THIS GOSPEL - OR NOT
21/01/25 09:54
The theology that becomes our mode of living usually came to us from our parents and the socialisation of the home. We are fortunate if our parents are Godly and even more fortunate if their gospel is the gospel of Jesus and the apostles. The “way” of our journey is alive when this way is the person of Jesus and more. In Jesus the trinity is in us and we are in the trinity.
TO PURSUE LIFE IS TO PURSUE WISDOM
If we are open to life and pursue it because life is what it is – everything, we will be walking along a path of increasing revelation.
The Spirit of Christ instructed the early church leaders to choose deacons who were ‘full of wisdom and the Holy Spirit’. Wisdom is always preferable to folly and the Holy Spirit is required to make the most of wisdom – which united with revelation is the effect of being One Spirit with God. We can live this way or live imprisoned in erroneous ideas.
NO STAGNATION IN CHRIST JESUS
In The Torch and the Sword, the observation is made that the Spirit of God is always moving. Plants that are not growing are dying. A life devoted to propping up the past places us in the folly of the climate change denier. Boasting of common-sense too often means confidence in one’s own ignorance and feeble mind.
STULTIFIED AND UNSEEING
The only ‘current affairs’ some people engage on tv is, is the weather. They made up their minds about everything else as a teen and have not amended their ideas since. Since they are married to their Bubble, they prefer its false comfort. But the world has changed. We need to outgrow some of the ideas of our parents, particularly the ideas that come from misinformation. limited opportunity and lies. It’s the poor in spirit, meaning the humble and open minded, who see God and increasingly get to know God as God is.
KNOWING IS A JOURNEY
The bounty of Knowing God as God is, is that we get to know and be our real self. In deviant and limited views of God the self is bound and the soul withers, even in the midst of busyness.
“Theological investigation .. takes place within the life of the Church, in response to the Gospel, as we humbly seek to know God as the God who has made Godself known in Christ. Torrance thinks this was the same context in which the Nicene theologians worked to overcome Arius’ heresy; they wrote with a doxological orientation, doing theology “on their knees.” (1)
YOU – THE EXPRESSION OF GOD’S LIFE
There is a need to overcome the law heresy. A god who is defined by the law and a christ who is subservient to the law is no more the Christ of God than Father Christmas is real. This view of God is just as harmful as the non-God of Arianism. It damages the Christian faith and the well-being of people by making a lesser god and a stunted people.
KINGDOM LIFE
Moralism, attention to rules, a life in the Ten Commandments is not a life in God. It’s a life in you. Godliness and the gracing of the self happens because Jesus has become us. The fruits of the Spirit are the fruits of union with God – not a thing in itself and not something you are doing to earn union. You already have it. Live from where Christ has positioned you.
NOT WILL POWER
“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, integrity, humility and self-control are not fragile, fading emotions, produced by willpower. They are the fruit of what you know in your spirit to be true about you. Fruit is the effortless, spontaneous expression of the character of the tree. This knowledge ignites the law of perfect liberty. “Against such, there is no law.” Galatians 5:13-15,22,23. These character qualities are not rewards for the most diligent and disciplined among us, neither are they “pie in the sky, wishful thinking” illusions. They reflect in fact the very nature of our authentic design”. (2) In Christ you grow into the you that is you by design and salvation.
Are you hoping for the healing of the world? This healing is not found in externalities, in religious will power, legalism, manipulated moralism, more government control or a reversion to fascism. It happens when Jesus changes the hearts of individuals and entire societies. “To speak of Jesus is to speak definitively about the being of God, about all creation, about the human race—the whole human race—and about their relationship to each other. In this incarnate Son, the life of the triune God and of creation and of all humanity are not separated, but bound together in relationship, indeed in union. Jesus is himself the one in whom these relationships originate and are sustained. He is the union.” Jesus is the healing of the world.
(1) Morrison, Stephen D.. T. F. Torrance in Plain English (Plain English Series Book 2) (p. 100). Beloved Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.
(2) Du Toit, Francois. God Believes in You . Mirror Word Publishing. Kindle Edition.