Tuesday, March 21, 2006
The Power Of The Gospel
So, riding way back into the blogging past, Jollyblogger re-posts on something iMonk once said. Quoting iMonk
It's an old familar thought - the one about the fact that the genuine power of the gospel lies not in salvation, but transformation. God is not saving us, He is remaking us, He is restoring to us that of His image that we have lost. That transformation will play out on so many levels, personal, church, state, and so on.
I have said repeatedly on the blog that when it comes to a lot of questions the answer is not in the system, but in the person. For example, both Roman Catholics and Presbyterians have huge problems, and those problems stem from the fact that we are not fully transformaed, that if we were it wouldn't make much difference which form of church government was involved, the problems would disappear.
So, this says to me there is a heirarchy of transformation. God first transforms us as individuals, we then become His tools to transform other things, like church, state and society. I know, not exactly revelatory stuff. But two conclusions I want to draw from that may be a bit more important.
Firstly, this means that we must be diligent in allowing God to do His transformative work in ourselves. That is to say, if I feel called to work as a Christian in government, I still have to "work out my salvation with fear and trembling." It is not a license to be a little "more worldly" than say a pastor.
The second conclusion I want to draw relates backto JB's/iMonk's point. After ourselves as individuals, God seeks to transform the church - that's the second level/priority. I think the American church in general and evangelicalism especially has lost sight of that.
We really need to begin to do actual work on being God's people corporately. That's not about doing the "best ministry" that's about being God's people together. something iMonk/JB point to us not doing.
We need to stop worrying about doing minstry and start worrying about being the church. I hope that makes sense to you, because it makes a lot of sense to me.
Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: church, Christianity, transformation, priorities
I've decided that Archie Bunker is the patron saint of Christians who can't stop making their point. Christians who love to argue. Christians who can't stand it that someone somewhere disagrees with them. Christians who are caught up in theological controversy like University of Kentucky basketball fans are caught up in defending their team.I ran across this post while listening to Dennis Prager go on and on about the how many awful things were happening but all the while dismissing the doctrine of original sin (well, he is jewish....) and a thought struck me.
It's an old familar thought - the one about the fact that the genuine power of the gospel lies not in salvation, but transformation. God is not saving us, He is remaking us, He is restoring to us that of His image that we have lost. That transformation will play out on so many levels, personal, church, state, and so on.
I have said repeatedly on the blog that when it comes to a lot of questions the answer is not in the system, but in the person. For example, both Roman Catholics and Presbyterians have huge problems, and those problems stem from the fact that we are not fully transformaed, that if we were it wouldn't make much difference which form of church government was involved, the problems would disappear.
So, this says to me there is a heirarchy of transformation. God first transforms us as individuals, we then become His tools to transform other things, like church, state and society. I know, not exactly revelatory stuff. But two conclusions I want to draw from that may be a bit more important.
Firstly, this means that we must be diligent in allowing God to do His transformative work in ourselves. That is to say, if I feel called to work as a Christian in government, I still have to "work out my salvation with fear and trembling." It is not a license to be a little "more worldly" than say a pastor.
The second conclusion I want to draw relates backto JB's/iMonk's point. After ourselves as individuals, God seeks to transform the church - that's the second level/priority. I think the American church in general and evangelicalism especially has lost sight of that.
We really need to begin to do actual work on being God's people corporately. That's not about doing the "best ministry" that's about being God's people together. something iMonk/JB point to us not doing.
We need to stop worrying about doing minstry and start worrying about being the church. I hope that makes sense to you, because it makes a lot of sense to me.
Cross-posted at How To Be A Christian And Still Go To Church
Related Tags: church, Christianity, transformation, priorities
