AGENTS OF REAL HOPE
19/02/24 14:41
The Gospel of the Kingdom is about a oneness and companionship with God, that manifests by the Spirit as us and with us. Christ in you is heaven in you and as such it is the new creation hope of the earth.
PREACH IT ALL
“When we preach the Gospel only in terms of its benefits, we miss the point. The Gospel is not a list of things God offers us in exchange for our faith and allegiance to Him. The Gospel is Jesus Christ. The chief benefit of salvation is not freedom from sin or an escape from hell; it is ultimately fellowship with God. God is both the means and the end of our salvation. We focus too often on the benefits of salvation that we miss Jesus Himself who is its benefit.” (1) You are alive in Christ but vitiated in false christ’s of your own making.
RETARDATION
Before the cross the law led to Christ. Since the cross Christ leads to Christ by the Holy Spirit. A contractual relationship with God is pure old covenant and legalism – a valley of dead folks bones. At best it is ignorance and at worst ingratitude when what is already ours is oneness with God that is a huge advance on the fellowship that we had before the cross. New covenant life is a life of interwoveness with the trinity, a fellowship with persons, not abstractions and a genuine adventure of self-discovery along with the new our privilege of being agents of the new creation of society and the earth.
CHRIST IS OUR LIFE
We do not live the Christian life by our own strength. Paul made this clear enough when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:19-20). If the work of Christ for our salvation is separated from His saving person, then the Christian life deteriorates into a series of external works and religious efforts. With a firm focus on Christ’s vicarious humanity, we return to a fuller understanding of salvation by grace alone. (2)
Christ our life means that Christ by the Spirit, is you personally, us as the church collectively and that Christ is the restored world potentially. The aim of the new covenant minister of the gospel is to offer life – life to Believers who inherit more than they are living and life to the non-Believes who need to know that they are not orphans and that there is a real and living way of saving the earth from ourselves. This ‘way’ is Christ our life personally and cosmically.
(1) Morrison, Stephen D.. T. F. Torrance in Plain English (Plain English Series Book 2) (p. 142). Beloved Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.
(2) Ibid. (pp. 142-143). Beloved Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.
PREACH IT ALL
“When we preach the Gospel only in terms of its benefits, we miss the point. The Gospel is not a list of things God offers us in exchange for our faith and allegiance to Him. The Gospel is Jesus Christ. The chief benefit of salvation is not freedom from sin or an escape from hell; it is ultimately fellowship with God. God is both the means and the end of our salvation. We focus too often on the benefits of salvation that we miss Jesus Himself who is its benefit.” (1) You are alive in Christ but vitiated in false christ’s of your own making.
RETARDATION
Before the cross the law led to Christ. Since the cross Christ leads to Christ by the Holy Spirit. A contractual relationship with God is pure old covenant and legalism – a valley of dead folks bones. At best it is ignorance and at worst ingratitude when what is already ours is oneness with God that is a huge advance on the fellowship that we had before the cross. New covenant life is a life of interwoveness with the trinity, a fellowship with persons, not abstractions and a genuine adventure of self-discovery along with the new our privilege of being agents of the new creation of society and the earth.
CHRIST IS OUR LIFE
We do not live the Christian life by our own strength. Paul made this clear enough when he wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:19-20). If the work of Christ for our salvation is separated from His saving person, then the Christian life deteriorates into a series of external works and religious efforts. With a firm focus on Christ’s vicarious humanity, we return to a fuller understanding of salvation by grace alone. (2)
Christ our life means that Christ by the Spirit, is you personally, us as the church collectively and that Christ is the restored world potentially. The aim of the new covenant minister of the gospel is to offer life – life to Believers who inherit more than they are living and life to the non-Believes who need to know that they are not orphans and that there is a real and living way of saving the earth from ourselves. This ‘way’ is Christ our life personally and cosmically.
(1) Morrison, Stephen D.. T. F. Torrance in Plain English (Plain English Series Book 2) (p. 142). Beloved Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.
(2) Ibid. (pp. 142-143). Beloved Publishing, LLC. Kindle Edition.
