A live manger scene from years past.
I woke up at 5am. I am very emotional for many reasons. One of my newer church attenders told me I seemed angry recently in my messages. It is not anger, its a combination of zeal and frustration. I so desire to reveal God in Christ, the one we sing about...you know....God and sinners reconciled.
Boyd Purcell in his book, Christianity without Insanity, shares what is one of the key issues with the way we have been traditionally taught, that atonement which was given to all sinners while they were still sinners, out of the love of the God who is love, has been morphed downward into a "provisional atonement". Which only applies to those who specifically request it and excludes then...sinners who need a God who loves and accepts them with grace. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not counting their sins against them. Then the declaration to sinners, Be reconciled to the One who has already been reconciled to you.
I am angry and frustrated because the church has been mostly "sin counters", pointing out how much God hates sinners, and thereby short circuiting the one thing that can turn sinners into saints...grace.We sing it, and then radiate the opposite.
3 comments:
I share your frustration Don. I recently spent a month debating the nature of justice with a cyber-friend. Some simply cannot see the restorative justice of a loving God and choose to cling to the retributive justice of an angry God.
An on this issue we agree deeply, and must be patient and persistent in helping folks understand and become ambassadors instead of inquisitors.
So true Don.
Merry Christmas
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