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| All faith is from God, but not all believe. Who recieves the gift of faith? The person who trusts God, dies to all he has become apart from God, believing and hoping that God will raise him from the dead to live a new life. Salvation may involve an exchange, but it cannot be reduced to an exchange. But even in the exchange, I'm not trading my crap for faith. I have to have faith prior to the exchange or I don't move in God's direction. Faith always begins and ends with trust. I believe in God to the extent that I trust him and obey him. The entire weight of the Bible is behind this understanding of faith. If faith is knowledge, it is the knowledge that God is loving, compassionate, just, trustworthy. But you don't really know any of those things until you take the plunge, "step out" in faith, and do what God is calling you to do. There is no knowledge in our head about God that will save us. Only the knowledge of God revealed in a relationship. But that knowledge only comes when, like the prodigal son, we realize our desperate situation apart from God, humble ourselves, return to our real home, and feel the death-annihilating embrace of the Father. | | |
| Thanks, Bumbe, for the feeeedbaaack! No, seriously, I appreciate the comments. We need as many perspectives as possible to get a clearer view of the truth.
Toward the end of his rather long greeting in Romans (around verse 7) Paul sees his mission in part as an attempt to bring about among the Gentiles "the obedience of faith." Paul has a lot to say about faith in Romans, but I think it always needs to be understood in the light of this concept. Whatever else it means to Paul, faith means obedience. Paul was a Jew and a Pharisee, and no matter how radically his conversion transformed his understanding of God's mysterious purpose, it never negated the fundamental understanding of faith as a loving and obedient response to God. Again, this corrective is so necessary in a day when discussions of faith are dominated by intellectual and theological concepts. The simple faith of a child that Jesus prized so highly is born through humility and trust, and always blossoms into a genuine, wholehearted obedience. As Bonhoeffer said, "The one who believes is the one who obeys, and the one who obeys is the one who believes." Any effort to understand faith apart from a profound surrender to God, apart from trust and obedience, remains a act of futility, mere intellectual gymnastics. It's like describing the flavor of honey without ever tasting it oneself. | | |
| We are not able to access Xanga from our computer at home. We're working on it, but in the mean time, we're having to blog when we can. Today, it's at WSU. Blog entries and comments on other blogs may be scarce for a little while. | | |
| As I read through Romans, I want to gain a deeper understanding of
Paul's apostleship to the Gentiles. It is very difficult for us
to understand the tremendous controversy that raged around Paul and his
work with Gentile believers. I want to understand what his ministry
really meant for Israel and for the fledgling church. I also want
to see more clearly what the apostolic calling means.
Paul sees himself as "set apart for the gospel of God, which he
promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures."
What does it mean to be "set apart" for the gospel? What do you
think?
Although it is a familiar idea to Christians, this concept of the
gospel as promised by God through the prophets in the Hebrew scriptures
is very intriguing to me. Christians have always believed that
Jesus was the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecies, but is this all
that Paul is saying here? Christian theology developed an
elaborate typology in which Christ could be seen in every passage of
the OT, but is this the best way to approach this issue today? In
some ways, these approaches are like a one way street, running in the
direction from the NT to the OT--in other words, the New Testament is
used exclusively to understand the Old. This very terminology
reflects this--new versus old. But what would it mean if the
approach to scripture became a two way street? What if we
immersed ourselves in the Hebrew scriptures and sought to understand
the gospel as fully as possible in their light. Such an approach
would certainly be nearer to the experience of early
Christians--understanding the Hebrew scriptures more on their own terms
and viewing Jesus as the fulfillment of what they teach us about God.
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| Reading RomansI'm reading Paul's letter to the Romans, and I thought I would keep a
journal--a kind of running commentary, recording my reflections and
observations. Romans is historically important, particularly to
Protestants--important, revolutionary changes in the life of the church
have resulted from fresh readings of Romans. In this time, when
many of us are looking for a way of renewal for the church, I thought
it would be interesting and helpful to listen again to what Paul said
in this letter, that is the great statement of his understanding of the
gospel. I do not believe that any of these observations will be
earth-shaking, bringing about revolutionary change. I simply hope
that these reflections will lead to a deepening of our understanding
and practice of our Christian faith.
Romans 1:1--Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set aside for the gospel of God,...
Paul identifies himself, first and foremost, as a servant, a slave of
Jesus Christ, and not as an apostle. Ultimately, his identity was
not rooted in his calling, but in his relationship with Jesus. As
Christ's slave, Paul found the deepest answer to the question of who he
was. His life was shaped by radical love for and obedience to the Lord
Jesus. This devotion defines who he is. In this Paul has
left us a great example. I'm taking more seriously his admonition
to others: imitate me as I imitate Christ. Am I a devoted servant
of Jesus Christ? Is my life defined by love and obedience in
response to his living voice? Or do I see myself primarily in the
light of my calling, as a minister and not as a disciple?
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