Sculpture by Guido Rocha
… If you trust in Jesus, that’s at least one thing this image says to you.
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)
You Can’t Imagine How Loved You Are
The Justifying Power Is His Alone
The good news of what it means to be “in Christ” must be combined with the good news of how one can be “in Christ.”
Spirit-granted faith is the means that brings us into the glorious reality of union. Faith is not the end and it is not our hope. Faith is only the embracing, not the thing itself embraced.
Calvin says it this way in Institutes III.XI.7,
We compare faith to a kind of vessel; for unless we come empty and with the mouth of our soul open to seek Christ’s grace, we are not capable of receiving Christ. From this it is to be inferred that, in teaching that before his righteousness is received Christ is received in faith, we do not take the power of justifying away from Christ.
John Murray on Union with Christ
John Murray:
There is no truth, therefore, more suited to impart confidence and strength, comfort and joy in the Lord than this one of union with Christ. It also promotes sanctification, not only because all sanctifying grace is derived from Christ as the crucified and exalted Redeemer, but also because the recognition of fellowship with Christ and of the high privilege it entails incites to gratitude, obedience, and devotion. Union means also communion and communion constrains a humble, reverent, loving walk with him who died and rose again that he might be our Lord
Redemption Accomplished and Applied, [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955], 171.
On Straight-Jackets and Hermeneutics: Let the Text Speak, Too!
Richard Bauckham:
Those who try to map the broad outlines of the biblical narrative, discerning the purpose of God portrayed in it, are often tempted to override the untidy complexity of the actual narrative and non-narrative contents of Scripture. For the systematic theological mind the little stories too awkwardly resist their easy assimiliation into an overall plot. There are too many fragments that seem to lead nowhere and too many that seem to point in opposite directions.
It is tempting to take the principle of a canonical hermeneutic, that the parts must be understood in the light of the whole, as a reason for simply supressing the not readily assimilable parts. But these inescapable features of the actual narrative form of Scripture surely have a message in themselves: that the particular has its own integrity that should not be supressed for the sake of a too readily comprehensible universal. The Bible does, in some sense, tell an overall story that encompasses all its other contents, but this story is not a sort of straitjacket that reduces all else to a narrowly defined uniformity. It is a story that is hospitable to considerable diversity and to tensions, challenges and even seeming contradictions of its own claims.
The Bible and Mission, 93f.
How the Apostle Paul Commends His Ministry
The apostle gives two reasons why he commends his apostolic message to others.
- The first reason is in [2 Corinthians 4:5]: “For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’s sake.” That is, he commends himself not as the content of his message or center of attention but only as a messenger through whom Christ is preached.
- The second reason he commends his ministry is that through his message God shines new-creational light through Paul to others so that they will see “the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ” (v. 6). That is, Paul elaborates on [2 Corinthians] 3:16–4:2 by saying that through his message people can perceive “the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (4:4) and be transformed by it.
Greg Beale, A New Testament Biblical Theology, (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011), 457, formatting added.
Christian, Five Things to Do If You’re Struggling
Jerome Weller was a theology student under Martin Luther’s direct influence, living in his home and tutoring his children for nearly a decade. In July 1530, Luther wrote a letter of advice to Weller who was in the midst of a depression.
. . . Excellent Jerome, You ought to rejoice in this temptation of the devil because it is a certain sign that God is propitious and merciful to you. You say that the temptation is heavier than you can bear, and that you fear that it will so break and beat you down as to drive you to despair and blasphemy. I know this wile of the devil. If he cannot break a person with his first attack, he tries by persevering to wear him out and weaken him until the person falls and confesses himself beaten.
Whenever this temptation comes to you, avoid entering upon a disputation with the devil and do not allow yourself to dwell on those deadly thoughts, for to do so is nothing short of yielding to the devil and letting him have his way. Try as hard as you can to despise those thoughts which are induced by the devil. In this sort of temptation and struggle, contempt is the best and easiest method of winning over the devil. Laugh your adversary to scorn and ask who it is with whom you are talking. By all means flee solitude, for the devil watches and lies in wait for you most of all when you are alone. This devil is conquered by mocking and despising him, not by resisting and arguing with him. . .
When the devil throws our sins up to us and declares we deserve death and hell, we ought to speak thus: “I admit that I deserve death and hell. What of it? Does this mean that I shall be sentenced to eternal damnation? By no means. For I know One who suffered and made a satisfaction in my behalf. His name is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Where he is, there I shall be also.”
Yours,
Martin LutherLuther: Letters of Spiritual Counsel, trans. and ed., Theodore G. Tappert, 1960, (Vancouver, BC: Regent College Publishing, 2003), 85ff., paragraphing mine.
Five Actions Summarized
In review, Luther mentions five pieces of advice:
- Rejoice because temptation testifies of God’s mercy to you.
- Do not dwell on the deadly thoughts of the Devil.
- Laugh your adversary to scorn.
- Be around other believers.
- Proclaim the good news of Jesus for you and your salvation.
Read the original post.
What Is the New Testament?
Greg Beale in A New Testament Biblical Theology (Baker, 2011) —
Jesus’ life, trials, death for sinners, and especially resurrection by the Spirit have launched the fulfillment of the eschatological already-not yet new-creational reign, bestowed by grace through faith and resulting in worldwide commission to the faithful to advance this new-creational reign and resulting in judgment for the unbelieving, unto the triune God’s glory. (163)
