gravity
be interested to hear anybody's thoughts on sunday night. as i thought more about it, it made me think of a theological conversation about God's transcendence and God's immanence. it's been a long time since i've taken a theology course, but the concept of God's transcendence would suggest that God is way up there and we are way down here and we don't have tons of contact with Him. the concept of immanence suggests that God is present and makes Himself known among us. the stuff i went through the other night - about the things God uses to draw people to Himself - makes me think He can be both at the same time. setting up our conscience and creation and beauty and sacrifice as things that draw us to Himself kind of makes it both. it seems transcendent because He set these things up and they are routine, consistent, and dependable, but they play to His immanence because they draw us into His desire a daily relationship with Him.
a friend also made an observation the other day that i had never thought of. he was talking about fertile soil for the gospel and how Christ approached people with the gospel. it fits in this discussion because the other night i talked about the pharisees having created this intricate set of rules they could follow and Jesus blowing up their little system and presenting a concept of the law that blew away their system and was impossible for a human being to accomplish. well, my friend said that if you analyze Jesus' interactions with people, when He came upon 'hard soil', a person whose soul was proud, He always gave those people the law, because they still needed it to lead them to Christ. He did it with the pharisees and He did it with the rich young ruler. He told them to try harder until they realized their sin and their need for Christ. when He came upon fertile soil, those who had been humbled, He gave them grace. best example would probably be the woman caught in adultery. she knew she was a sinner, she didn't need someone to point out her need, she needed a solution, and He gave her grace. that could transform how i think about talking to people about the gospel.
posted by jeff @ 8:56 PM
1 comments
1 Comments:
"that could transform how i think about talking to people about the gospel."
This is one of those topics that would be great to discuss more indepth. Maybe this is generalizing too much, but it seems that the Western world view has changed in that everything is relative and gray these days. This seems to be very true at least in terms of faith and spiritual belief.
Now, I'm not saying that I want to be able to just go up to someone and hit them over the head with a Bible and yell into a bullhorn telling them to "repent sinner, and turn to almighty Gawd...praise the Lord!" and have them immediately nod their head in agreement. That's obviously canned, impersonal, and totally on the Pharisee tip. And most likely it only leads to something that is not authentic. Indeed, one good thing about everything being relative is that it forces a person to spend more time in conversation getting to know someone genuinely and serving them regardless of their beliefs, rather than just trying to get that spiritual notch in the proverbial belt.
Yet, at the same time, I think it's a lot harder (for me at least) to communicate one's faith these days. I will say that from observing my fiancee :-) and her interaction with other people, I've learned that showing love and grace goes a long way. And it has also helped me a lot to realize that it is not up to me to make someone believe anything. That's not my obligation--the only thing I'm really qualified to do is to honestly share my own story, and how my belief is the driving force behind that.
But what about the people who claim to believe but their lives reflect the complete opposite of that? I realize that we all are human and will always struggle, but what about those who in terms of the faith they claim to have know better, yet feel no conviction? Is this a matter of showing grace or the law? I know the Bible talks about holding your brother accountable, but your brother can get mighty defensive if you try to confront him. He will hit you with a "I go to church and give money to it" faster than you can blink an eye.
Does that make sense? I guess I'm just trying to say that I have friends who once showed such strong faith, in many cases positively influencing me in my own walk. What do you do when you see them fading away? Obviously, you can't hit them over the head with a Bible either, but it doesn't seem right to just stand their and "love on them." Maybe that's where the argument could be made for "tough love", whatever that is.
When do you show the law, and when do you show grace? It's a tough call, and sometimes it's not easy to discern the Pharisee from the adulteress. Even that can be pretty gray...
Ok, I ramble, I know. Who knows if any of it made sense. :-)
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