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Compton
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Joined: 2005/2/24
Posts: 2732


 Re:

We were reading through 1 Corinthians 9: 19-23 this morning. The passage demonstrates Paul's patience with people of various backgrounds even as he maintained only one gospel. I believe every sentence could be a revelation for those who seriously wrestle over the oft perceived tension between grace and truth.

"...though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more.

And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law;

To them that are without law, as without law, (being not without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might gain them that are without law.

To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.

And this I do for the gospel's sake, that I might be partaker thereof with you."

If the early Church was merely an exclusive form of Judaism, or inclusive syncretism, we can safely conclude it wouldn't have made a difference. Afterall, the world already had Judaism and pagan syncretism.(edit: cultural polytheism) By the Holy Spirit, Christians were more then a bunch organized according to a particular line of reason or rules, but a society organized by revelation.

This revelation of the Gospel penetrated the darkness of all existing pagan and religious world views as a narrow beam of light from the singularity of Jesus Christ. Yet this single ray was broad enough to shine upon Jews and Barbarians, gentiles, slaves, and women; all of different cultures. In Christ, the Church grew in numbers without resorting to syncretism or liberalism, or feeling compelled to stamp out every little spark of difference they detected in other people. I believe it continues to be our calling today to understand more fully what it means to be "in Christ", and along the way we will learn more fully the sufficiency of Christ, and consequently the difference between grace and legalism.

Of what are we certain? I am becoming certain of nothing in this life except Christ. Through all of God's wise disappointments in my life, I am a carving, and God is the carver. If I have even one fine sounding theological branch of knowledge that erodes certainty in Christ, then it is because I have not been whittled down enough.

Blessings,

MC


_________________
Mike Compton

 2009/1/18 17:36Profile





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