The Surprising God: Preaching grace

Key points of Christ-centered, trinitarian theology

1. The Triune God created all people to participate through the vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ in the love relationship enjoyed by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

2. The Son became human, the man Jesus Christ, to reconcile all humanity to God through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension.

3. The crucified, resurrected and glorified Jesus is the representative and the substitute for humanity at the right hand of God, and he draws all people to himself by the power of the Holy Spirit.

4. In Christ, humanity is loved and accepted by the Father.

5. Jesus Christ paid for all our sins – past, present and future – and there is no longer any debt to pay.

6. The Father has in Christ forgiven all our sins, and he eagerly desires that we turn to him.

7. We can enjoy his love only when we believe that he loves us. We can enjoy his forgiveness only when we believe he has forgiven us.

8. When we respond to the Spirit by turning to God, believing the good news and picking up our cross and following Jesus, the Spirit leads us into the transformed life of the kingdom of God.

Related quotes

“The range and significance of the atoning exchange that took place in Jesus Christ, according to Torrance, is as comprehensive and boundless as the eternal nature, being and love of the Triune God incarnate in Jesus Christ… Torrance sees the redemptive exchange as opening the door to all of God’s creative and sanctifying purposes of humanity.

“Following Athanasius, Torrance also emphasizes the universal range of Christ’s redemptive activity, for Christ’s life, death and resurrection on our behalf and in our stead, ‘Christ as Man represents all mankind… all who belong to human nature are involved and represented – all human beings without exception’. Torrance rejects any and every idea of limited atonement, for if in the incarnation the Son of God assumed the actual fallen nature of humanity, then all human beings without exception are involved and represented. Only if Christ’s humanity (and atoning reconciliation) has no inner ontological connection with those for whom he died, but is regarded as an external instrument used by God as he will, in effecting salvation for all those whom God chooses can the atonement be limited to only some people.

“The Universal range of Christ’s effective incarnational redemption, Torrance contends, includes not only all people, but the entire universe: the universal range of the redemptive work of Christ takes in not only all humanity, but the whole created universe of time and space, including all things (ta panta) visible and invisible, earthly and heavenly alike…

“In light of statements like these some might think that Torrance embraces universal salvation. This, however, would be a grave misunderstanding of his position. Torrance see universalism and limited atonement as twin heresies which rest on a deeper heresy, the recourse to a logico-causal explanation of why the atoning death of the Lord Jesus Christ avails or does not avail for all people. Torrance rejects universalism because we cannot explain why some people believe and others do not, any more than we can explain why evil came into the world. The gospel, Torrance argues, does not even tell us precisely how evil is vanquished by Christ and the cross. It is a mystery before which the angels veil their faces. But the gospel tells us that God has loved us to the uttermost and has entered the dark depths of our sinful humanity within this fallen creation in order to make our misery, shame, sin, guilt, alienation and godlessness his own, substituting himself for us, thwarting evil, redeeming and restoring us to union and communion with the Triune God who loves us more than he loves himself.”

Elmer M. Colyer, “The Incarnate Savior: T. F. Torrance on the Atonement,” in An Introduction to Torrance Theology, edited by Gerrit Scott Dawson, pgs. 53-54.
_____

“The Torrance tradition in theology is notable, I think, for underscoring the range of the vicarious life of the incarnate saviour. There is nothing here of an incarnation and atonement only for some, but not for all…

“It was Tom Torrance’s teacher, H.R. Macintosh, I think, who once said that we should press as far towards universalism as we can without actually end up there. If we are thinking about the incarnate savior of the world, and not about the incarnate saviour of some of the world, then we are thinking in global, indeed, cosmic, universal terms…

“And yet right here too the Church insists on a degree of soteriological reserve, in some measure always aware of the ugly messiness of our sin and of the consequences for both God and us, not the least of which is Calvary’s cross. We are confronted with a great mystery that is certainly not reducible to our theological formulas, or indeed ever adequately solvable, and which we can only talk about under our breath with quiet respect for the staggering sweep of the grace, the holiness and the majesty of the Lord God, who, while he loves us in freedom, will not be mocked. The problem may be stated thus: Jesus lived, died, rose again, and ascended for all; union with Christ and faith in Jesus our Lord is by the gift of the Holy Spirit; the faithless, those who resist life in Christ and refuse to confess him, will be judged into damnation by God. Given that God actualizes his relation with us and our relation with himself through union with Christ, which is the principal work of the Holy Spirit, why does God not enable everyone to hear and receive the gospel? Here, it seems, there is a terrible limit to our theology, for we have to say that, on the one hand, Jesus Christ is all in all, the beginning and the end, pantokrator, and on the other, that there is a human freedom to confess or reject Jesus as Lord. The limitation of our minds means we live within the antinomy of an irresistible universal grace and a human freedom that can be terrible in its consequences, and we cannot collapse the antinomy into either Arminianism or limited atonement.”

Andrew Purves, “Who Is the Incarnate Savior of the World?” in An Introduction to Torrance Theology, edited by Gerrit Scott Dawson, pgs. 31-32.
_____

Karl Barth describes our human reaction to the Word of God which says to us “You are Mine!”

"We might imagine the conversation to which it gives rise and some of the forms which it necessarily takes. The man to whom it is said thinks and says that he is not this new, peaceful, joyful man living in fellowship. He asks leave honestly to admit that he does not know this man, or at least himself as this man.

"The Word of grace replies: 'All honour to your honesty, but my truth transcends it. Allow yourself, therefore, to be told in all truth and on the most solid grounds what you do not know, namely, that you are this man in spite of what you think.'

"Man: 'You think that I can and should become this man in the course of time? But I do not have sufficient confidence in myself to believe this. Knowing myself, I shall never become this man.'

"The Word of grace: 'You do well not to have confidence in yourself. But the point is not that you can and should become this man. What I am telling you is that, as I know you, you already are.'

"Man: 'I understand that you mean this eschatologically. You are referring to the man I perhaps will be one day in some not very clearly known transfiguration in a distant eternity. If only I had attained to this! And if only I could be certain that even then I should be this new man!'

"The Word of grace: 'You need to understand both yourself and me better than you do. I am not inviting you to speculate about your being in eternity, but to receive and ponder the news that here and now you begin to be the new man, and are already that which you will be eternally.'

"Man: 'How can I accept this news? On what guarantee can I make bold to take it seriously?'

"The Word of grace: 'I, Jesus Christ, am the One who speaks to you. You are what you are in Me, as I will to be in you. Hold fast to Me. I am your guarantee. My boldness is yours. With this boldness dare to be what you know you are.'

"Man: 'I certainly hear the message, but . . .'

"In this perplexed and startled 'but' we see the attack, and who it is that is attacked."

Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, Volume IV, "The Doctrine of Reconciliation," Part Three, First Half. Eds. G.W. Bromiley and T.F. Torrance. T. and T. Clark: Edinburgh, 1961. p. 250.
_____

"To say, 'I don't have to repent because God has already forgiven me,' is like saying 'Because my lover has forgiven me, there's no need for us to be loving.'

"To say, 'I don't have to live a moral life because God has forgiven me,' is like saying 'Because my beloved loves me and desires me, I don't have to be with her.'

"There is always a possibility that we can reject the divine Lover's love and life, but we should never be under the illusion that this possibility is more than a tragic folly. Rejecting our divine Lover, spurning God's love and life, is possible, but it is insanity. And it is hard to understand why anyone would."

Michael Jinkins, Invitation to Theology
_____

"...Saying that God would predestine some people to hell -- after Jesus went out of his way to say he came to save them all -- isn't Gospel. It's just moralism in theological drag."

Robert F. Capon, The Mystery of Christ...& Why We Don't Get It
_____

“God will not come into certain corners of our lives until we open those corners to him. Certainly, God knows our hearts better than we know our hearts. But he will not work in those areas unless we say, "Come." That's part of the active relationship of God giving us perfect freedom to invite him to come. It isn't just amounts of knowledge we're talking about. It is the life relationship, the interaction with God, that changes us."

Richard Foster, Plain Truth Interview with Mike Feazell
_____

7.21.2009

Preaching grace

In "Christian Preaching: A Trinitarian Theology of Proclamation," Michael Pasquarello writes,

"Perhaps the most offensive and scandalous aspect of speaking the Word of God in our time may be the notion of grace, which announces that from beginning to end our human lives are not of our own making, management, or control. In learning to confess that we are sinful creatures of a gracious God, we discover that our lives are constituted as gifts rather than possessions, whose purpose is to know and love our Creator.

"In Christian worship, then, we acknowledge our grateful dependence according to the particular wisdom displayed in the self-giving of Christ, through which the Spirit evokes responsiveness and receptivity to the God who speaks both creation and salvation. Thus, in a time that calls for a strong, robust message of faith, hope, and love, there is no 'deeply felt need' more urgent than proclaiming the 'foolishness' of the cross - the power and wisdom of the gospel that creates a people of loving praise and glad obedience in whom the Spirit bears witness to the flourishing of humanity before God."

2 comments:

Robert said...: Actually, Jesus never once preaches grace. Show me one scripture in the New Testament where Jesus mentions grace? It doesn't exist. Grace comes into the "gospel" through Paul's writings, yet early Clementine writings suggest that Paul is an imposter, that he is really, Simon Magus.
Who are we to trust? Our Lord and Saviour, who taught obedience to the LAW? OR a false imposter teaching grace?

I know who I trust.; July 22, 2009 5:19 PM
Ted Johnston said...: Robert,

I must respectfully disagree with your assertion. I find in the Holy Scriptures that Jesus came preaching (declaring) good news for the impoverished, freedom for the imprisoned, restoration of sight for the blind and release from bondage for the oppressed. Moreover, he proclaimed "the year of the Lord's favor." (Luke 4:18-19).

In Mat. 11:28, Jesus invites those who are weary and burdened by the yoke of the law, to instead put on his yoke - the yoke of the truly gracious one, who is "gentle and humble in heart." It is in following Jesus that they will find the true "rest" of God.

If all this is not a proclamation by Jesus of the grace of God, I don't know what is.

We do well to listen to Jesus' beloved disciple, John, who declared Jesus to be God become flesh, and the one who is with us "full of grace and truth." (John 1:14).; July 22, 2009 5:43 PM

The Surprising God

Join the discussion

Blog archive

Other GCI blogs

Related articles, videos & websites

Related books

Support GCI - buy books here

Key points of Christ-centered, trinitarian theology

Related quotes

7.21.2009

Preaching grace

2 comments: