Tuesday, December 02, 2008
What Lies At The Center?
The Bluefish Quotes LB Graham:
The real problem is, I think, our desire to place these things in juxtaposition instead of look at them as an integrated whole. The new covenant in Christ is not in opposition to the old, but completes it. Under the old we knew what our lives with God were supposed to look like, but we did not have sufficient access to the power necessary to get there. Under the new, the Holy Spirit is able to indwell us, becasue God's mercy has made it so, and that which was impossible is now possible.
The key, I think is neither mercy nor behavior, but will. We cannot will ourselves into "Christian behavior," we become legalistic. If, by will, we choose to rely on Christ's mercy, we become worldly people wrapped in religious rhetoric. But if we submit our will to the mercy of Christ, our behavior will change.
You see, Christ lays at the center of Christianity. When put mercy, or grace or behavior or anything else in the center, that thing reflects us, we hold the center and we have not yet obtained the totality of the gospel.
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Christianity revolves, not around good behavior, but around God’s mercy shown to man in the death and resurrection of Christ.I want to respond to this, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, got it - let's move on." I understand the essential truth of this statement, and I understand the seemingly contra statement that mercy which does not change behavior is of no consequence, or as James put it, "Faith without works...."
The real problem is, I think, our desire to place these things in juxtaposition instead of look at them as an integrated whole. The new covenant in Christ is not in opposition to the old, but completes it. Under the old we knew what our lives with God were supposed to look like, but we did not have sufficient access to the power necessary to get there. Under the new, the Holy Spirit is able to indwell us, becasue God's mercy has made it so, and that which was impossible is now possible.
The key, I think is neither mercy nor behavior, but will. We cannot will ourselves into "Christian behavior," we become legalistic. If, by will, we choose to rely on Christ's mercy, we become worldly people wrapped in religious rhetoric. But if we submit our will to the mercy of Christ, our behavior will change.
You see, Christ lays at the center of Christianity. When put mercy, or grace or behavior or anything else in the center, that thing reflects us, we hold the center and we have not yet obtained the totality of the gospel.
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