Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in. Who is this King of Glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Happy Easter!
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Implications of the Objective Genitive: The Resurrection
It is with some surprise I note the lapse of time between the last post and this one. I took an impromptu trip to Columbus, OH for a funeral last week. The service was done by the deceased's husband; it's a worthwhile listen, focusing pretty exclusively on who God is.
Returning to our regularly scheduled programming, I wanted to write a few notes on what it means when we talk about being justified by the faithfulness of Christ.
Justification is the legal declaration of righteousness. God instructs the Israelites in Deuteronomy to justify the righteous and condemn the wicked (25.1), and in Proverbs he says that one who justifies the wicked and condemns the godly is an abomination (17.15). We see in Luke that the people justify God (7.24), and in Romans God is justified in what he says (3.4).
In at least these cases, it's clear that justification is not the same as making someone righteous. It's true that words have shades of meaning, so it is perhaps unjustified (tongue in cheek, I swear! But it does go to the point) to cling ferociously to a single definition of the word.
So the first consequence, I think, of treating "faith in Christ" as "faith of Christ" is that we are turned to look at the resurrection. The resurrection is the proof of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, and therefore the proof of his faithfulness.
We see an interesting connection between justification and faith in Romans 4 and 5:
We can easily connect righteousness (4.23-5, 5.1) in all of the verses, as well as faith (4.24, believe and 5.1, faith).
It seems to me that the justification of 4.25 is as inevitable as the trespasses. There's a parallelism here; it is because of our sin that Christ was put to death, and it is because of our justification that he was raised.
This reinforces the progression of Ro 1.17,18: "from faith to faith." From Christ's faithfulness to do the work he was sent to do to my faith in him.
A bit farther down in the passage, we read: "9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Ro 5; emph added).
The justification of 5.1 is the same justification as 5.9, and the reconciliation of 5.9 is the peace of 5.1. I am not at peace with God because of something I do, neither am I justified by my own exercise—rather it is the blood of Christ that justifies (his faithfulness) and creates peace between men and God.
[1] The condition isn't actually in the text; this could be as well translated, "to whom it shall be imputed, {to us} who believe...." Compare the ESV: "24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord...."
Returning to our regularly scheduled programming, I wanted to write a few notes on what it means when we talk about being justified by the faithfulness of Christ.
Justification is the legal declaration of righteousness. God instructs the Israelites in Deuteronomy to justify the righteous and condemn the wicked (25.1), and in Proverbs he says that one who justifies the wicked and condemns the godly is an abomination (17.15). We see in Luke that the people justify God (7.24), and in Romans God is justified in what he says (3.4).
In at least these cases, it's clear that justification is not the same as making someone righteous. It's true that words have shades of meaning, so it is perhaps unjustified (tongue in cheek, I swear! But it does go to the point) to cling ferociously to a single definition of the word.
So the first consequence, I think, of treating "faith in Christ" as "faith of Christ" is that we are turned to look at the resurrection. The resurrection is the proof of the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ, and therefore the proof of his faithfulness.
We see an interesting connection between justification and faith in Romans 4 and 5:
23 Now it was not written for his {Abraham's} sake alone, that it {righteousness} was imputed to him; 24 But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe[1] on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; 25 Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.
1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
We can easily connect righteousness (4.23-5, 5.1) in all of the verses, as well as faith (4.24, believe and 5.1, faith).
It seems to me that the justification of 4.25 is as inevitable as the trespasses. There's a parallelism here; it is because of our sin that Christ was put to death, and it is because of our justification that he was raised.
This reinforces the progression of Ro 1.17,18: "from faith to faith." From Christ's faithfulness to do the work he was sent to do to my faith in him.
A bit farther down in the passage, we read: "9 Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 10 For if, when we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life" (Ro 5; emph added).
The justification of 5.1 is the same justification as 5.9, and the reconciliation of 5.9 is the peace of 5.1. I am not at peace with God because of something I do, neither am I justified by my own exercise—rather it is the blood of Christ that justifies (his faithfulness) and creates peace between men and God.
[1] The condition isn't actually in the text; this could be as well translated, "to whom it shall be imputed, {to us} who believe...." Compare the ESV: "24 but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord...."
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Wordplay
If you're looking for something actually good to read, I'd recommend Dan's post on grace that he wrote Friday. It's pretty fantastic.
If you're still with me, I'm taking a small break from my posts on faith / justification for a moment to wish my one (two?) readers a happy March, and to share something I noticed this morning as we went through Luke five in church.
To wit, compare 5.5 and 5.8:
"And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net."
"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
There is a transition here in Peter's relationship to Jesus. In 5.5, he uses the word EPISTATA (επιστατα), an unusual word (in the NT) that generally means "overseer" (perhaps too literally, one who is appointed above another). But after he brings in the not-so-proverbial boatload of fish, Jesus is no longer a master, but Lord, KURIOS (κυριε).
And take care to note that in the former verse, he is "Simon," but in the latter he is "Simon Peter."
A similar transition happens in verses 7 and 10, although it's somewhat more subtle in translation:
"7 And they beckoned unto their partners, ..."
"10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon."
The word for partners in verse 7 is METOCOS (μετοχοις), but the word in verse 10 is KOINONOS (κοινωνοι). The roots of the word used in verse 7 are "with" and "to hold onto," which brings to my mind an idea of competition. But the latter word is one of sharing and fellowship.
The miracle that Jesus works instantly transforms his relationship with the newly-minted disciples, and their relationships with each other.
I don't want to go away from this passage without hitting what is perhaps a more central point, and that is how Christ speaks to Peter. I find Peter's words of contrition appropriate: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." But at the beginning, as at the end, Jesus speaks gracefully to him: "Fear not."
One of the threads of the gospel is the utterance of those two words. We read it in the greetings of the angels to Mary and Zacharias, and to the shepherds. Jesus repeats it in refrain many times to his own, coupling it often with statements of his deity (as they are tossed on the waves, he comes to them and says, "Fear not. I am").
It's difficult to know exactly how to conclude this; but at least it has made me thankful.
If you're still with me, I'm taking a small break from my posts on faith / justification for a moment to wish my one (two?) readers a happy March, and to share something I noticed this morning as we went through Luke five in church.
To wit, compare 5.5 and 5.8:
"And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net."
"When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
There is a transition here in Peter's relationship to Jesus. In 5.5, he uses the word EPISTATA (επιστατα), an unusual word (in the NT) that generally means "overseer" (perhaps too literally, one who is appointed above another). But after he brings in the not-so-proverbial boatload of fish, Jesus is no longer a master, but Lord, KURIOS (κυριε).
And take care to note that in the former verse, he is "Simon," but in the latter he is "Simon Peter."
A similar transition happens in verses 7 and 10, although it's somewhat more subtle in translation:
"7 And they beckoned unto their partners, ..."
"10 And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon."
The word for partners in verse 7 is METOCOS (μετοχοις), but the word in verse 10 is KOINONOS (κοινωνοι). The roots of the word used in verse 7 are "with" and "to hold onto," which brings to my mind an idea of competition. But the latter word is one of sharing and fellowship.
The miracle that Jesus works instantly transforms his relationship with the newly-minted disciples, and their relationships with each other.
I don't want to go away from this passage without hitting what is perhaps a more central point, and that is how Christ speaks to Peter. I find Peter's words of contrition appropriate: "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord." But at the beginning, as at the end, Jesus speaks gracefully to him: "Fear not."
One of the threads of the gospel is the utterance of those two words. We read it in the greetings of the angels to Mary and Zacharias, and to the shepherds. Jesus repeats it in refrain many times to his own, coupling it often with statements of his deity (as they are tossed on the waves, he comes to them and says, "Fear not. I am").
It's difficult to know exactly how to conclude this; but at least it has made me thankful.
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