Thinking with my fingers on Facebook. Feel free to chime in with your thoughts, reflections, arguments, etc. Just be nice and respectful to me and anyone else who joins in. I am open to learning. Are you? In my evangelical SBC upbringing, I was told that salvation is wholly the work of God. Jesus accomplished it all at the cross. To that I said and still say, AMEN! Then I was told that I was required to have faith, make a confession, accept Jesus, etc. If I didnt, I would not be saved. So, here is my question: How is the requirement that I have faith and accept Jesus NOT a work? If I have to do anything - affirm a certain doctrine, accept a proposition, etc. - then Gods grace is really not sufficient. It needs me. What am I missing here? I believe that scripture teaches that Christ redemption was universal for the race. (Please follow me here...I am not affirming universalism, but universal reconciliation.) I hope the distinction will become a little clearer as I type and your read. Again, I am opening myself up to challenges as we proceed. So lets be nice. I affirm a theory of atonement that sees Jesus as the Vicarious Human, accomplishing for me everything that I could not accomplish on my own. With that, I also seem him fulfilling a second theory of atonement - called Christus Victor (seeing Jesus as victor over all that is evil). Jesus defeats the powers of sin and death for me. He accomplished for me all that I could not accomplish on my own - being a broken human being. This includes faith. My ability to have faith is broken and insufficient. So, then, Jesus trusted/depended/relied/had faith in the Father and lived completely by the Spirit. Jesus did MORE than just die for me. He lived for me. His sinless perfection was not merely to make him a worthy substitution is a legal courtroom battle (else he could have died at Herods hand in his infancy) - as the Penal Substitution Theory affirms. Rather everything about Jesus - life, ministry, death, resurrection, ascension - ALL that he did for the human race because it could never accomplish that for itself. It is effective and efficient for everyone. I do not need to accept it to be true for it to be true. I do not need to accept it to be saved (else I am ultimately responsible for my salvation). A person does not need to believe all of this to be loved by God...each person will be loved by the Father throughout all eternity. Period. Further, Gods love is not a slice of the pie in Gods existence - being offset by some other quality. Gods love is the whole pie shell. Gods love for the race is seen in every aspect of Gods being. Gods love is Gods DNA. It is his core. Jesus revealed this as God incarnate. So what is LOSTNESS? Being lost is living outside the awareness of Gods grace in Christ revealed for humankind. Sometimes that lostness is willful rebellion. Sometimes is it simply ignorance. Sometimes, sadly, it is the result of religions effort to bind people up in what they must do or not do, rather than pointing people toward what Jesus Christ has done and accomplished. So, I can exist outside of an awareness of Gods grace - but that does not change the reality of Gods grace. I can put myself outside of that awareness of Gods love - and that is fully what hell is all about in theological terms, as I read the scripture. Being loved and rejecting it is hell. How long will people reject that love and grace? I am not sure why anyone would...but they can reject it for eternity. Lets examine scripture...a passage that I believe is pivotal to understanding the gospel. In Luke 15 we learn about lost things. There is a lost coin that a women searches and finds. There is a lost lamb that the shepherd searches and finds. There is a lost young son who is never beyond his Fathers loves (Father searches for him over the hills). When the boy realizes the shape he is in, it is ONLY in comparison to his knowledge of what things were really like in the Fathers house. There is also an elder son who sees the party and refuses to go in...the Father again searches. Father, I did all this for you, and you never had a party for me! the boy says. Father replies, All I have was already yours! God is represented by the woman, the shepherd, and the Father. Each had a item that was lost. None of these items could find themselves. Each needed to be found (and they were). Each were LOST only inasmuch as they already belonged (it was the womans coin, the shepherd lamb, and the Fathers sons). In the case of the younger son - he was included in the Fathers love even while in the far country. He was not outside the Fathers heart. He simply did not realize that until the robe, the kiss, the family crest, and the party. Read the story. Youll see that he came ready to confess (to do the religious thing) in the hope of just being a servant in the Fathers house. The Father had none of that. Read it for yourself. Next notice that the he elder son was always there. He was always doing the right things. He was a religious sort - and didnt realize that his religion availed him nothing. He was loved because the Father was Father, and he was a son. The question we are left with is this: Did the elder son eventually go into the party? The text does not answer that...either option is possible. When I preach this I usually say something like: You are that elder son. What are you going to do? Ultimately, the question of evangelism is this: The Father holds you in his heart - will you go home to his embrace (for the wondering child) OR All the Father has is already yours. Will you enjoy the party?
Posted on: Thu, 31 Jul 2014 14:19:06 +0000