Redemption is not pitted against creation.
I've been really proud of myself lately. I haven't brought my laptop to a single class (a habit that took a lot of willpower to break out of) and have actually felt myself grasping concepts I never could before. My lack of computer usage, however, has also made my notes look like this:
The pictures, I suppose, stimulate my brain more and keep me awake...and some of them actually have to do with class, but when you catch yourself drawing suicidal leaves in fall and Jesus as Super Baby complete with cape...
Oy.
A couple of classes ago, we were talking about the doctrine of creation. Essentially, we were discussing what the point of creation was, if people were beginning to think that salvation/redemption was for abolishing what God created. Many are under the impression (based on a few off-campus discussions I've had) that God created a perfect world, Adam and Eve screwed it up, we were left to a crappy version of it, Jesus came to give us hope of the day in which he would come back, get his followers, blow it up, then make a new one. Because of this understanding, people then assume that the laws and commandments we have had for centuries are also corrupt, so through Jesus we no longer have to follow them.
Of course, if you were to argue, "So we're allowed to murder now, eh? Good, that librarian was a right wen-" they would slap you upside the head and send you to the nearest psychiatric ward. Question their own sins (lust, dishonesty, pride, sloth, etc) and they offer that they are free through Christ's sacrifice. Seems a bit like hypocrisy. To clarify, I'm certainly not suggesting it's kosher to go around murdering people because we'll be forgiven via proper repentance.
Romans 6:15-20
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
The habit people get into, I think, is qualifying sin by comparing it to sin. "This is all going up in flames eventually anyway, so my sin isn't so bad...it's not breaking the law, at least." What they don't realize is that it's eating away at them, and they won't recognize true salvation until they give that over to Christ. Salvation, from my experience, is a continual process, not a singular moment. Some may have a "conversion experience," as I had, but none of us will be perfect, devoid of sin complete, until God is finished with us. And recognizing our natures, that'll take...just short of forever.
The Law was not abolished through Jesus, but rather given to man as a tool to recognize his own frailty and perversion. God never made a "sin pyramid" for us to function within the limits of, purity is not something easy to come by, but that doesn't mean we should allow both understandings to render us complacent.
Where do you see God working?
Through my online class, lately. Really hammering a lot of understandings I could never grasp before.
What do you hear God saying?
"Don't allow others' pride to bait you into your own."
How do you see God working?
Rapidly, wonderfully, now that I'm open to it.
I've been really proud of myself lately. I haven't brought my laptop to a single class (a habit that took a lot of willpower to break out of) and have actually felt myself grasping concepts I never could before. My lack of computer usage, however, has also made my notes look like this:
The pictures, I suppose, stimulate my brain more and keep me awake...and some of them actually have to do with class, but when you catch yourself drawing suicidal leaves in fall and Jesus as Super Baby complete with cape...
Oy.
A couple of classes ago, we were talking about the doctrine of creation. Essentially, we were discussing what the point of creation was, if people were beginning to think that salvation/redemption was for abolishing what God created. Many are under the impression (based on a few off-campus discussions I've had) that God created a perfect world, Adam and Eve screwed it up, we were left to a crappy version of it, Jesus came to give us hope of the day in which he would come back, get his followers, blow it up, then make a new one. Because of this understanding, people then assume that the laws and commandments we have had for centuries are also corrupt, so through Jesus we no longer have to follow them.
Of course, if you were to argue, "So we're allowed to murder now, eh? Good, that librarian was a right wen-" they would slap you upside the head and send you to the nearest psychiatric ward. Question their own sins (lust, dishonesty, pride, sloth, etc) and they offer that they are free through Christ's sacrifice. Seems a bit like hypocrisy. To clarify, I'm certainly not suggesting it's kosher to go around murdering people because we'll be forgiven via proper repentance.
Romans 6:15-20
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
The habit people get into, I think, is qualifying sin by comparing it to sin. "This is all going up in flames eventually anyway, so my sin isn't so bad...it's not breaking the law, at least." What they don't realize is that it's eating away at them, and they won't recognize true salvation until they give that over to Christ. Salvation, from my experience, is a continual process, not a singular moment. Some may have a "conversion experience," as I had, but none of us will be perfect, devoid of sin complete, until God is finished with us. And recognizing our natures, that'll take...just short of forever.
The Law was not abolished through Jesus, but rather given to man as a tool to recognize his own frailty and perversion. God never made a "sin pyramid" for us to function within the limits of, purity is not something easy to come by, but that doesn't mean we should allow both understandings to render us complacent.
Where do you see God working?
Through my online class, lately. Really hammering a lot of understandings I could never grasp before.
What do you hear God saying?
"Don't allow others' pride to bait you into your own."
How do you see God working?
Rapidly, wonderfully, now that I'm open to it.
