Romans 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
In my last blog, I mentioned how this passage reminds me of the teachings of Dr. Larry Crabb. Years ago I did a series of pastoral sermons called "Sullivant on Crabb". The points of those messages have provided a very helpful framework that became deeply integrated into my heart and mind as a follower of Jesus and a spiritual director to others. In my following blogs, I will unfold the essence of this framework. It deals with our basic condition as human beings, how and why our problems develop and how God works to help us face and surmount those problems as we who follow Jesus are progressively conformed to his image.
The framework begins with a biblical definition of the human being. We are the crowning touch of God's original creation who were made according to his likeness and image...we are therefore "image bearers". Yet, because of the tragic fall of our first parents into independence from God (the essence of spiritual rebellion), the corruption of human nature and the many-faceted "death" that resulted...we have inherited a terrible fallen-ness and broken-ness that affects every aspect of our beings (the essence of depravity). So...at a core level...a paradox defines our condition--we are "fallen-image bearers". If we don't discern and navigate this paradox, we will be confused about our lives, our goals, this age, our relationships, our true enemies and God himself.
The second main point of the framework follows the first. One one hand, because we are image bearers, every human being possesses "dignity" that must be affirmed and respected. On the other hand, because we are fallen, we simultaneously possess "depravity" that must be exposed and overcome, if we are to be restored to the unmarred image of Christ. Whole schools of thought, movements, institutions and both religious and secular worldviews have, throughout the centuries, emphasized one side of the paradox of the human condition to the neglect of the other, thereby offering a distorted view of humanity and insufficient solutions to our problems.
The challenge before us is to discover and expound upon the "radical middle" of this paradox that holds these opposing truths in necessary tension. This results in the relaxation of a boatload of unnecessary tension.
Psalm 8:3-6 (Our Dignity)
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet....
Romans 5:12,19 (Our Depravity...and Our Destiny)
...sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 103
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
I have been very blessed through many years to learn from Dr. Larry Crabb--both through his ground-breaking books and in person. (I have had the unusual and joyful opportunity to get to know most of the authors of our generation whose books have impacted me the most.) For decades now, Larry has studied, pondered, wrestled with, prayed through, reconsidered and written about the doctrines, instructions, poetry and narratives of Scripture and applied them specifically to the conditions and situations of our individual lives and relationships with God and people. I have great admiration and respect for this dear friend in Christ and will say more about his teaching in the next few blogs.
I think of Larry's body of work when I read again the final sentence of this paragraph from my devotional paraphrase of Romans 15: "All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future."--wow, what a lineup.
Let's ponder briefly the quote above.
First, God has given us the amazing gift of the holy Scriptures. They are meant to be meditated upon and applied by us throughout our whole lives and are an inexhaustible supply of reliable truths that are divinely inspired, or "God-breathed". Are we doing this kind of study in both our personal and communal lives? So much more could be said about the power of the written and spoken word of God in this world and in our lives!
Second, and I'll start at the end point, to live in an atmosphere of hope is a present tense experience whose power lies in a certainty about a marvelous future because of something absolutely revolutionary that happened in the past...the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Followers of Jesus Christ are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as "prophetic" (i.e. future reality) witnesses to the kingdom of God that is truly here and present now, but not fully revealed or demonstrated, as it will surely be. Jesus is risen from the dead and, because of this, all the other effects of the fall of both angels and humanity into rebellion against God and it's countless negative consequences will surely be undone.
Then, the Scriptures are filled with the knowledge we need to live lives of integrity (i.e. wholeness) and true success. At one point God laments through the prophet Hosea, "...my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests...." Hos 4:6 Followers of Jesus are called to live as "royal priests" in our fallen world who embody and radiate the wisdom, beauty and knowledge of the living God to all the earth. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Pet 2:9
Next, Paul refers to how the Scriptures inspire the cultivation of the virtue of patience in our lives. Without holding before us the perpetual example of the heroes of faith in the Bible, who loved and served God and people (and who also recovered from failing to do so!), we can easily lose heart in the saga of our struggles with injustice, rejection, abandonment, illness, material need, tragedy, seemingly unanswered prayer and personal failure...to name just a few trials of life. But again and again, the Bible provides for us divine perspectives that equip us with the kind of "shock absorbers" for our life's "vehicle" so that our hope does not bounce out of the car. One of these primary perspectives is how patience (like the kind that God possesses) can only be worked into our souls through enduring and surmounting trials...and another...that there will be a more than commensurate, but eternal, reward for the temporary sufferings we experience, if we do not give up.
Finally, there is the comfort that God gives us through our engagement with holy Scripture. I think that comfort is the most mysterious of the elements here in view. (Why do scrapes feel better when kissed by our amazing mothers?) We all long for comfort in our lives and we too often settle for false ones that do not go deep enough or last long enough to satisfy our aching hearts. So much could be said here, but it is sufficient to say that the most exquisite comfort possible comes to us by experiencing the genuine presence of the Trinity in the midst of a life in which, assuredly, not everything is going well and nothing is going perfectly. This, most often and most promisingly, happens for us as God interacts with us through his written word. The Holy Spirit...who is called "the Comforter"...who originally inspired the writings and has watched over their accurate transmission through the centuries is the very same Spirit who draws near to us, rises within us, kisses our hearts and whispers the truth we need to hear into our spirits. There is no comfort in this hurting earth greater than this.
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
I have been very blessed through many years to learn from Dr. Larry Crabb--both through his ground-breaking books and in person. (I have had the unusual and joyful opportunity to get to know most of the authors of our generation whose books have impacted me the most.) For decades now, Larry has studied, pondered, wrestled with, prayed through, reconsidered and written about the doctrines, instructions, poetry and narratives of Scripture and applied them specifically to the conditions and situations of our individual lives and relationships with God and people. I have great admiration and respect for this dear friend in Christ and will say more about his teaching in the next few blogs.
I think of Larry's body of work when I read again the final sentence of this paragraph from my devotional paraphrase of Romans 15: "All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future."--wow, what a lineup.
Let's ponder briefly the quote above.
First, God has given us the amazing gift of the holy Scriptures. They are meant to be meditated upon and applied by us throughout our whole lives and are an inexhaustible supply of reliable truths that are divinely inspired, or "God-breathed". Are we doing this kind of study in both our personal and communal lives? So much more could be said about the power of the written and spoken word of God in this world and in our lives!
Second, and I'll start at the end point, to live in an atmosphere of hope is a present tense experience whose power lies in a certainty about a marvelous future because of something absolutely revolutionary that happened in the past...the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Followers of Jesus Christ are empowered by the Holy Spirit to live as "prophetic" (i.e. future reality) witnesses to the kingdom of God that is truly here and present now, but not fully revealed or demonstrated, as it will surely be. Jesus is risen from the dead and, because of this, all the other effects of the fall of both angels and humanity into rebellion against God and it's countless negative consequences will surely be undone.
Then, the Scriptures are filled with the knowledge we need to live lives of integrity (i.e. wholeness) and true success. At one point God laments through the prophet Hosea, "...my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests...." Hos 4:6 Followers of Jesus are called to live as "royal priests" in our fallen world who embody and radiate the wisdom, beauty and knowledge of the living God to all the earth. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Pet 2:9
Next, Paul refers to how the Scriptures inspire the cultivation of the virtue of patience in our lives. Without holding before us the perpetual example of the heroes of faith in the Bible, who loved and served God and people (and who also recovered from failing to do so!), we can easily lose heart in the saga of our struggles with injustice, rejection, abandonment, illness, material need, tragedy, seemingly unanswered prayer and personal failure...to name just a few trials of life. But again and again, the Bible provides for us divine perspectives that equip us with the kind of "shock absorbers" for our life's "vehicle" so that our hope does not bounce out of the car. One of these primary perspectives is how patience (like the kind that God possesses) can only be worked into our souls through enduring and surmounting trials...and another...that there will be a more than commensurate, but eternal, reward for the temporary sufferings we experience, if we do not give up.
Finally, there is the comfort that God gives us through our engagement with holy Scripture. I think that comfort is the most mysterious of the elements here in view. (Why do scrapes feel better when kissed by our amazing mothers?) We all long for comfort in our lives and we too often settle for false ones that do not go deep enough or last long enough to satisfy our aching hearts. So much could be said here, but it is sufficient to say that the most exquisite comfort possible comes to us by experiencing the genuine presence of the Trinity in the midst of a life in which, assuredly, not everything is going well and nothing is going perfectly. This, most often and most promisingly, happens for us as God interacts with us through his written word. The Holy Spirit...who is called "the Comforter"...who originally inspired the writings and has watched over their accurate transmission through the centuries is the very same Spirit who draws near to us, rises within us, kisses our hearts and whispers the truth we need to hear into our spirits. There is no comfort in this hurting earth greater than this.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Romance of Romans-Part 102
Romans Chapter 15 cont'd
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
What stands out to me in this little paragraph of Romans 15 is how vital it is for us to continually possess hope in our lives. Paul says here that the aim of all the Scriptures, and our Father's primary intent on providing them for us, is that we might "have hope". In Colossians 1-5a the apostle states, "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.... The implication here is that hope is the fountainhead of both faith and love...the three virtues of a life lived in the Spirit that receive special attention throughout the New Testament writings. Paul seems to say that if we possess this hope, then both faith and love will naturally and obviously spring forth from it.
Hope is always about our expectations of the future. And...our expectation of the future continually affects our convictions, perspectives, attitudes, decisions, emotions, actions and reactions in the present. Can you personally identify with this connection? Having a Christ-centered hope is about having a genuine, under-girding and confident optimism about our lives in the future...a kind of life that is truly inexpressibly..FULL...of love, beauty, peace, harmony, understanding, purpose, satisfaction, joy and well-being. No more tears (as in ripping); no more tears (as in what flows from our eyes). This life will be lived in the very presence and fully displayed power of God with his entire eternal family in a renewed heavens and earth in which the tension between the invisible and visible aspects of God's magnificent creation will be forever relaxed.
The circumstances of our lives in the future very often stand in stark and harsh contrast to the circumstances of our lives in this fallen age. The circumstances of Jesus' earthly life are an example for us to look to regarding what we will encounter as we follow him in our earthly life. He experienced rejection and injustice in this world...though, paradoxically, he also walked in the joy of his Father's approval...and we also will have our share of the same. Yet, the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures will supply for us the knowledge, patience and comfort we will need to not give up on this life or the people in our world...and especially...our unshakable belief in the goodness of God. Hope informs us that there is redemptive divine purpose for and profound meaning to all of our sufferings and sorrows. We foresee...by the power of hope...that it will be worth it all.
Even the most powerful man of all, Jesus Christ, didn't use his power to create for himself a pain-free and pleasure-filled earthly life. As scripture says, "I have personally identified with and embraced the rejection they have shown you O God." All the scriptures have been written to impart knowledge, patience and comfort to us so that we can live in hope- a confident expectation of a glorious future.
Comments:
What stands out to me in this little paragraph of Romans 15 is how vital it is for us to continually possess hope in our lives. Paul says here that the aim of all the Scriptures, and our Father's primary intent on providing them for us, is that we might "have hope". In Colossians 1-5a the apostle states, "We give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you, since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of your love for all the saints; because of the hope which is laid up for you in heaven.... The implication here is that hope is the fountainhead of both faith and love...the three virtues of a life lived in the Spirit that receive special attention throughout the New Testament writings. Paul seems to say that if we possess this hope, then both faith and love will naturally and obviously spring forth from it.
Hope is always about our expectations of the future. And...our expectation of the future continually affects our convictions, perspectives, attitudes, decisions, emotions, actions and reactions in the present. Can you personally identify with this connection? Having a Christ-centered hope is about having a genuine, under-girding and confident optimism about our lives in the future...a kind of life that is truly inexpressibly..FULL...of love, beauty, peace, harmony, understanding, purpose, satisfaction, joy and well-being. No more tears (as in ripping); no more tears (as in what flows from our eyes). This life will be lived in the very presence and fully displayed power of God with his entire eternal family in a renewed heavens and earth in which the tension between the invisible and visible aspects of God's magnificent creation will be forever relaxed.
The circumstances of our lives in the future very often stand in stark and harsh contrast to the circumstances of our lives in this fallen age. The circumstances of Jesus' earthly life are an example for us to look to regarding what we will encounter as we follow him in our earthly life. He experienced rejection and injustice in this world...though, paradoxically, he also walked in the joy of his Father's approval...and we also will have our share of the same. Yet, the Holy Spirit and the Scriptures will supply for us the knowledge, patience and comfort we will need to not give up on this life or the people in our world...and especially...our unshakable belief in the goodness of God. Hope informs us that there is redemptive divine purpose for and profound meaning to all of our sufferings and sorrows. We foresee...by the power of hope...that it will be worth it all.
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