I have been thinking about the idea of having a personal relationship with Christ. But what does "personal relationship" mean? It sounds good and makes us feel warm like a microwaved jelly donut, but what is it really? I think the concept of a personal relationship is imbedded in the biblical concept of faith.
"Into Faith"
First, We have salvation now and eternally if we believe into Jesus. I use the word "into" for a reason. The concept of faith is an “into” concept. Faith in John's gospel best explains this consept. This “believing into” phrase appears in John some 36 times and only 8 elsewhere in the New Testament [ii] "Believing into" is an expression of what is now described in the commonly used religious phrase "personal relationship with Jesus." John uses this phrase to speak of simple faith. So a personal relationship is equal to simple faith.
Simple faith
The word “simple” is not to imply it is ignorant trust or some gullible mental assent. Simple is used to imply that this faith is not complex. This lack of complexity rises from the fact that it is a relational concept. Faith in John’s gospel does not just believe about Jesus (intellectually) like the way someone would believe the First President is Washington or the U.S. capital is Washington D.C. Jonh's concept of Faith is a believing into Jesus (relationally). [i] Such faith can only be in reference to another person. It is a subject-to-subject kind of trust, commitment and loyalty. So “Believing into” is when someone places faith into a person. By such simple faith, Jesus becomes a personal mediator for those that believe into him. “This means to entrust oneself to Jesus, fully accepting what he proclaims himself to be.”[iii]
Now this “believing into” is not without evidence. You can only believe into someone you know is willing an able to do what has been promised. It is an "all or nothing" belief, like jumping on the back of a tightrope walker and letting him carry you across the grand canyon. You trust they can do what they say and act on that belief. As in the tightrope walker you trust they can deliver you across unharmed and act on that by jumping on his back. With regards to Jesus, you believe that all the promise made by God in the Old Testament, and every hope for a future beyond death, "is found as a yes and amen in Jesus." (2 Cor 1:20) On the cross, He was seen as willing to forgive sin by becoming the payment for our sin. In the resurrection, he is seen as able to overcome death. He is willing and able to save! This is the gospel! The gospel story is the evidence given for “believing into” Jesus (John 20:30-31).Living Commitment
Believing into Jesus does not stop at trusting what he has done on our behalf. Such faith is simple but encompasses all of life. That is it affects our life in the here and now. Trueblood states of this belief into Jesus, “to be committed is to believe in. Commitment, which includes belief but far transcends it, is determination of the total self to act upon conviction.”[iv] He means that we are to embody our commitment to Christ in all aspects of our personal life. We do this "embodying" in our life when what is committed too is truly held as being of ultimate value. This means simple faith is also a living commitment to a real person. A commitment we are to embody in our daily life.
Ultimate LoyaltyThree, their is also a loyalty involved in this simple faith. Jesus is not just Savoir but the Most high King of kings. He is our king, our general, Our leader into whom we are to be loyal. Such is like an oath of service that is made not to the Army or Navy but to a living a resurrected Lord of one’s life. In personal relation into him, we trust all into him and commit our self unconditionally to His cause. This means 1.) We aim to become the kind of person Jesus would have us be. 2.) We do not have to find our purpose in this life, we nee only commit to his cause. He lay the path and we walk it, in the knowledge that he walked it and gives us the power to do the same and the mercy to get up every time we fail. 3.) What he says to do is not optional, or up for review. His teaching is our marching orders and his teachings is not easy. "love your enemy," "Forgive them that hurt you." "Go and tell the world" "oh by the way the world will hate you for my name sake... tell them anyway" (from the DIV, Dawson international version) Much of what Jesus gives us to live by is easy to talk about and praise for its lofty virtue, but hard to place into practice. Real life is muddy and complex. It takes an unwavering loyalty to do what is asked of us. But it is still simple. It is still just a doing your orders, nothing more. Trueblood explains this when writes,
“A Christian is a person who confesses that, amidst the manifold and confusing voices heard in the world, there is one Voice which supremely wins his full assent, uniting all his powers, intellectual and emotional, into a single pattern of self-giving. That Voice is Jesus Christ. A Christian not only believes that he was; he believes in him with all his heart and strength and mind.” [v]
End Notes--------------------------------------------------------------------
[i] Barnabas Lindars, SSF, JOHN (Sheffield England: Sheffield Academic press 1990) p. 73
[ii] Ibid p. 73
[iii] Ibid p. 73
[iv] Elton Trueblood, The Company of the Committed (Harper Collins publishers, 1961) pg. 22
[v] Ibid pg 23
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Meditations on Faith
Meditations on humanity and Christ's human nature
Humanity, the Sad Song of Creation.
Let us turn our attention to humanity for a moment. What are we, good, bad, indifferent? I would say not one of those, but all of those. Man is a contradiction. Pascal describes man this way. “What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe!”[i] In us all is greatness, yet in us all is wretchedness. We construct orphanages and Auschwitz. We speak of peace but fight wars. We kill carelessly in a selfish fit then become heroes in a moment. We are full of such possibility but drained by our on depravity. Born to us is Mother Teresa and Jeffery Dommer. I think the best portrait one can draw of humanity was done by William Wordsworth. He wrote, “But hearing often times The still, sad music of humanity.”[ii] We are sad music. We are both beautiful and depressing to experience. Dismal yet inspiring to enjoy. This contradiction is not original to us. Before the fall, man was just beauty, harmony, simple, created great. Now, we are a contradiction. Humanity is a paradox of glory and shame and into this paradox Jesus stepped becoming the divine paradox. Jesus became as we did, except His contradiction was that he became the God/man.
As Gregory of Nazianzus, so eloquently states, “That which he has not assumed, he has not healed,”[iii] Christ assumed all of humanity to heal all of humanity. Christ’s humanity is a matter of soteriology, the study of salvation. Christ had to be fully human to fully save us. Migliore states it well, “If God in Christ does not enter into solidarity with the hell of our human condition, we remain without deliverance and without hope.”[iv] He can’t redeem what he has not experienced. This is the theological necessity of Christ humanity. Redemption rests on the absolute fact that God became man to raise man back to his proper place of relationship. The Word became flesh, humanity in all its greatness, the second Adam walked with the shamed of the earth to redeem there shame and unveil there potential for greatness. Part of Christ’s mission was to experience life. He had to become man to the fullest, thus to give us life he lived. He did not become man’s wretchedness but man’s greatness. It was in the violence of the cross he became our wretchedness. The cost of love was in him, being willing to become what he is not so others could become his adopted siblings (Rom 8:16-18, 29-30). His life filled every portion of what it is to be human. He is a standard to measure ourselves by and by this standard we are both condemned and redeemed. His identification with us is our eternal life (John 17:3; Gal 2:20). Jesus was authentic humanity. Human life as it is truly to be lived. He became as humanity was, is and is to be. Charles Finny has a practical definition that highlights the authentic nature of Christ's humanity. “Christ was in all respects a perfect human being, possessing both a human body and human soul, with all the attributes of a perfect man.”[v]
Readings : Heb 2: 8-11, Heb 4:14-16, Heb 5: 7-9
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Heb 2: 8-11
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Heb 4:14-16
During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
Heb 5: 7-9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Notes
[i] “Blaise Pascal,” http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/TopPage/Pascal_Quote.shtml
[ii] 2010 Popular Quotations, edited by Thomas W. Handford, SAGE DIGITAL LIBRARY VOLUMES 1 - 4 (Albany, OR. USA: SAGE Software Version 2.0 © 1996) p. 353
[iii] Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101 in Christology of the Latter fathers, library of Christian classics, vol. 3, ed. Edward R. Hardy (Philadelphia: Westminster press, 1954), p. 218
[iv] Daniel L. Migliore, Faith seeking understanding: an introduction to Christian theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing company, 1991) p. 146
[v] Charles Finny, “Theology lectures” SAGE DIGITAL LIBRARY VOLUMES 1 - 4 (Albany, OR. USA: SAGE Software Version 2.0 © 1996) p. 196
Let us turn our attention to humanity for a moment. What are we, good, bad, indifferent? I would say not one of those, but all of those. Man is a contradiction. Pascal describes man this way. “What a chimera, then, is man! what a novelty, what a monster, what a chaos, what a subject of contradiction, what a prodigy! A judge of all things, feeble worm of the earth, depositary of the truth, cloaca of uncertainty and error, the glory and the shame of the universe!”[i] In us all is greatness, yet in us all is wretchedness. We construct orphanages and Auschwitz. We speak of peace but fight wars. We kill carelessly in a selfish fit then become heroes in a moment. We are full of such possibility but drained by our on depravity. Born to us is Mother Teresa and Jeffery Dommer. I think the best portrait one can draw of humanity was done by William Wordsworth. He wrote, “But hearing often times The still, sad music of humanity.”[ii] We are sad music. We are both beautiful and depressing to experience. Dismal yet inspiring to enjoy. This contradiction is not original to us. Before the fall, man was just beauty, harmony, simple, created great. Now, we are a contradiction. Humanity is a paradox of glory and shame and into this paradox Jesus stepped becoming the divine paradox. Jesus became as we did, except His contradiction was that he became the God/man.
As Gregory of Nazianzus, so eloquently states, “That which he has not assumed, he has not healed,”[iii] Christ assumed all of humanity to heal all of humanity. Christ’s humanity is a matter of soteriology, the study of salvation. Christ had to be fully human to fully save us. Migliore states it well, “If God in Christ does not enter into solidarity with the hell of our human condition, we remain without deliverance and without hope.”[iv] He can’t redeem what he has not experienced. This is the theological necessity of Christ humanity. Redemption rests on the absolute fact that God became man to raise man back to his proper place of relationship. The Word became flesh, humanity in all its greatness, the second Adam walked with the shamed of the earth to redeem there shame and unveil there potential for greatness. Part of Christ’s mission was to experience life. He had to become man to the fullest, thus to give us life he lived. He did not become man’s wretchedness but man’s greatness. It was in the violence of the cross he became our wretchedness. The cost of love was in him, being willing to become what he is not so others could become his adopted siblings (Rom 8:16-18, 29-30). His life filled every portion of what it is to be human. He is a standard to measure ourselves by and by this standard we are both condemned and redeemed. His identification with us is our eternal life (John 17:3; Gal 2:20). Jesus was authentic humanity. Human life as it is truly to be lived. He became as humanity was, is and is to be. Charles Finny has a practical definition that highlights the authentic nature of Christ's humanity. “Christ was in all respects a perfect human being, possessing both a human body and human soul, with all the attributes of a perfect man.”[v]
Readings : Heb 2: 8-11, Heb 4:14-16, Heb 5: 7-9
In putting everything under him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to him. 9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering. Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
Heb 2: 8-11
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Heb 4:14-16
During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
Heb 5: 7-9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
End Notes
[i] “Blaise Pascal,” http://www.dividingline.com/private/Philosophy/TopPage/Pascal_Quote.shtml
[ii] 2010 Popular Quotations, edited by Thomas W. Handford, SAGE DIGITAL LIBRARY VOLUMES 1 - 4 (Albany, OR. USA: SAGE Software Version 2.0 © 1996) p. 353
[iii] Gregory of Nazianzus, Epistle 101 in Christology of the Latter fathers, library of Christian classics, vol. 3, ed. Edward R. Hardy (Philadelphia: Westminster press, 1954), p. 218
[iv] Daniel L. Migliore, Faith seeking understanding: an introduction to Christian theology (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing company, 1991) p. 146
[v] Charles Finny, “Theology lectures” SAGE DIGITAL LIBRARY VOLUMES 1 - 4 (Albany, OR. USA: SAGE Software Version 2.0 © 1996) p. 196
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)