"Rather than retaliating in kind they are to retaliate in kindness"
a passion for life Prepared For Mission Bible Study notes p70, 73 commenting on Romans 12:14-21
Showing posts with label Christian life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christian life. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Why I am a legalist!
I said, "Pah! Lutherans! "Oh, how I hate your law", eh? Antinomians!"
Revd Glen Scrivner said (oh, I paraphrase a little bit, maybe): "Huh! If they are antinomian law-haters, are you willing to be called a legalist who thinks the law is the end of Christ?!"
I said (smiling): "Okay then, you bet! Why not?! Yeah. Bring it on. As long as I'm allowed to distinguish and ask "in what sense?""
So why I am a legalist:
Of course we are not saved by good works of the law. What a stupid blasphemous idea. How impossible.
The law is holy, righteous and good.
Some rules are good and happy: e.g. do not get drunk on much wine, do not have sex with people you are not married to.
Laws are not antithetical to relationship. They can express and shape and grow out of relationship.
Lots of the Bible is law.
Law is one of the main ways God relates to us.
Law (torah) is best understood as God's loving fatherly wisdom to his redeemed, saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone etc., children. We imagine ourselves sat on Daddy's knee as we read Ex 20.
And the law is the end of Christ. Yes. He did not come to abolish it: he fulfills it, he brings us a renewed, glorified law. The law leads us to Christ and Christ leads us back to the crucified and risen law. We keep the royal law of Christ, the law of love. We are saved for good works of the law-keeping. Sin is lawlessness.
Revd Glen Scrivner said (oh, I paraphrase a little bit, maybe): "Huh! If they are antinomian law-haters, are you willing to be called a legalist who thinks the law is the end of Christ?!"
I said (smiling): "Okay then, you bet! Why not?! Yeah. Bring it on. As long as I'm allowed to distinguish and ask "in what sense?""
So why I am a legalist:
Of course we are not saved by good works of the law. What a stupid blasphemous idea. How impossible.
The law is holy, righteous and good.
Some rules are good and happy: e.g. do not get drunk on much wine, do not have sex with people you are not married to.
Laws are not antithetical to relationship. They can express and shape and grow out of relationship.
Lots of the Bible is law.
Law is one of the main ways God relates to us.
Law (torah) is best understood as God's loving fatherly wisdom to his redeemed, saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone etc., children. We imagine ourselves sat on Daddy's knee as we read Ex 20.
And the law is the end of Christ. Yes. He did not come to abolish it: he fulfills it, he brings us a renewed, glorified law. The law leads us to Christ and Christ leads us back to the crucified and risen law. We keep the royal law of Christ, the law of love. We are saved for good works of the law-keeping. Sin is lawlessness.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
We need the rain
J. C. Ryle says:
“Winter as well as summer, cold as well as heat, clouds as well as sunshine; are all necessary to bring the fruit of the Spirit to ripeness and maturity. We do not naturally like this. We would rather cross the lake with calm weather and favourable winds, with Christ always by our side, and the sun shining down on our faces. But it cannot be like this. This is not the way that God’s children are made ‘partakers of his holiness’ (Heb. 12.10). Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Job were all men of many trials. Let us ne content to walk in their footsteps, and to drink of their cup. In our darkest hours we may seem to be abandoned, but we are never really alone....
"Let all true Christians take comfort in the thought that their Saviour is Lord of waves and winds, of storms and tempests, and can come to them in the darkest hour, 'walking upon the sea'. There are waves of trouble far heavier than any on the Lake of Galilee. There are days of darkness which try the faith of the holiest Christian. But let us never despair if Christ is our friend. He can come to our aid, at a time we thought impossible, and in ways that we did not expect. And when he comes, all will be calm."
(Expository Thoughts on John 6:15-21, The Classic NT Comm., p99f)
“Winter as well as summer, cold as well as heat, clouds as well as sunshine; are all necessary to bring the fruit of the Spirit to ripeness and maturity. We do not naturally like this. We would rather cross the lake with calm weather and favourable winds, with Christ always by our side, and the sun shining down on our faces. But it cannot be like this. This is not the way that God’s children are made ‘partakers of his holiness’ (Heb. 12.10). Abraham, and Jacob, and Moses, and David, and Job were all men of many trials. Let us ne content to walk in their footsteps, and to drink of their cup. In our darkest hours we may seem to be abandoned, but we are never really alone....
"Let all true Christians take comfort in the thought that their Saviour is Lord of waves and winds, of storms and tempests, and can come to them in the darkest hour, 'walking upon the sea'. There are waves of trouble far heavier than any on the Lake of Galilee. There are days of darkness which try the faith of the holiest Christian. But let us never despair if Christ is our friend. He can come to our aid, at a time we thought impossible, and in ways that we did not expect. And when he comes, all will be calm."
(Expository Thoughts on John 6:15-21, The Classic NT Comm., p99f)
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