IT'S NOT COMPLICATED - 2
07/09/23 14:31
A type of Christianity that serves to promote our version of the gospel is either ‘no gospel at all’ or such a shadow of the real that the effect on the non-believing world is the opposite of the outcome we have in mind. The core of the gospel is as simple and undiluted as Christ our life where ordinary folks become the manifestation of the Christ and the vehicle of the trinity at large in the world.
OLD LIES
Every variation and addition to Christ our life comes to us in the tradition of the original lie. Don’t make a religion out of theft.
Just as Jesus is the I AM of Himself and the alpha and omega of His own gospel, so attempts to vary the Gospel are adulterations whether or not these changes are minute or substantial. Christ mediates Himself, which means He mediates His Gospel in spirit and in truth to you.
TRUTH AND LIFE
Since this Gospel comes from the triune God who lives in intimate union yet as individuals - authentic ‘Knowing’ is God’s kind of ‘knowing.’
We will not understand the Gospel of Jesus if we have adopted a rational-legal lens through which to receive it. The genuine lens is oneness with God in Jesus. We are included in God in the same kind of oneness that is the trinity. As sons we are part of God and truly ourselves in Christ.
WHOSE ENDS?
Thomas Torrance observes that, “The Cross has the effect of emptying the power-structures that the world loves so much, of their vaunted force. And so people continue trying to make Jesus serve their own ends in the world, thereby 'crucifying' him all over again.” (1) Should we adopt a divergent gospel this is what we do. Once we revert to the law, we make what would have been Christ our life, into us our life- which subverts the cross and leaves us striking blows in the air.
Paul’s ‘my gospel’ was the Gospel of Jesus and John, which is Christ in you. The incarnation means that Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches and fruit as expressions of Him.
(1) Thomas Torrance The Mediation of Christ, p 31.
OLD LIES
Every variation and addition to Christ our life comes to us in the tradition of the original lie. Don’t make a religion out of theft.
Just as Jesus is the I AM of Himself and the alpha and omega of His own gospel, so attempts to vary the Gospel are adulterations whether or not these changes are minute or substantial. Christ mediates Himself, which means He mediates His Gospel in spirit and in truth to you.
TRUTH AND LIFE
Since this Gospel comes from the triune God who lives in intimate union yet as individuals - authentic ‘Knowing’ is God’s kind of ‘knowing.’
We will not understand the Gospel of Jesus if we have adopted a rational-legal lens through which to receive it. The genuine lens is oneness with God in Jesus. We are included in God in the same kind of oneness that is the trinity. As sons we are part of God and truly ourselves in Christ.
WHOSE ENDS?
Thomas Torrance observes that, “The Cross has the effect of emptying the power-structures that the world loves so much, of their vaunted force. And so people continue trying to make Jesus serve their own ends in the world, thereby 'crucifying' him all over again.” (1) Should we adopt a divergent gospel this is what we do. Once we revert to the law, we make what would have been Christ our life, into us our life- which subverts the cross and leaves us striking blows in the air.
Paul’s ‘my gospel’ was the Gospel of Jesus and John, which is Christ in you. The incarnation means that Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches and fruit as expressions of Him.
(1) Thomas Torrance The Mediation of Christ, p 31.
