tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post871079325300899792..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: God our Emmanuel. . .Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-14511062593621467272014-12-27T18:46:24.608-06:002014-12-27T18:46:24.608-06:00Janis, thank you for your response. The problem w...Janis, thank you for your response. The problem with analogies and paradigms is that they are an attempt to bridge the gap between our human understanding and the Word of God. Sometimes they work, and sometimes they do not. Here is what God says about this subject through the prophet Isaiah, 41:26, “26 Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know, and beforehand, that we might say, "He is right"? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. 27 I was the first to say to Zion, "Behold, here they are!" and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. 28 But when I look, there is no one; among these there is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. 29 Behold, they are all a delusion; their works are nothing; their metal images are empty wind.” What this says about God’s way of salvation is that nobody could have thought of it, and the fact is that our Lord, when He started on His path of saving us, was rejected, because what people expected was something entirely different. So we should listen to the Word of God and not add anything to it. Here is how the writer of Hebrews explains the entire work of salvation in very simple words, 8:10, “When he said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings" (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He does away with the first in order to establish the second. 10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds," 17 then he adds, "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.<br />Earlier, in the same book we read, Hebrews 2:9, “ But we see Him Who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.” Absurd as it may sound, the only Son of God, the Son He loved, suffered death “by the grace of God.” This is the same grace about which St. Paul speaks, Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,…” No, we cannot understand that God so loved the world. We can only believe it because the Holy Spirit makes it possible for the children of God to believe His Word.<br />Peace and Joy!<br />GeorgeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-87453218293448933482014-12-27T16:38:38.343-06:002014-12-27T16:38:38.343-06:00Ah, but there can be both. All analogies fail, bu...Ah, but there can be both. All analogies fail, but if you open the door of a prison cell, and the prisoner refuses to leave, but eats bread, drinks water, fights rats, and sleeps on the floor, is that not both?<br /><br />i am pretty new to Lutheran theology, but I believe this falls under the 'paradox paradigm': Christ died (in 6 hours, yes, but He gave up His Spirit - it wasn't torn from him.) for all, but if one of those freed from prison refuses to leave and dies there, it is his fault, not our Lord's. <br /><br />I exited Calvinism because it had to contort itself to make paradoxical passages of Scipture "work." Philosophy and logic/reason should not govern Theology; God's thought is not ours...Janis Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02947508427040251166noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-21667633180403269372014-12-27T14:07:05.350-06:002014-12-27T14:07:05.350-06:00Does the justice of God demand forgiveness after t...Does the justice of God demand forgiveness after the wrongs are punished? That would not be just, would it? Did He not say through the prophet, Jeremiah 31:34, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more"? So there is either forgiveness or punishment, but there cannot be both, even if the person punished and the person forgiven are two different people. Or, when our brother sins against us should we punish him before we forgive him seven times seven times? <br />We often wonder why there are so many Biblical interpretations, leading to innumerable sects. But we see the clear text of Scripture and it is as if it is not there at all.<br />Did our Lord suffer the punishment for our sin or did He make a sacrifice for them? I know - the official position of the LCMS, which believes itself to be the true visible Church of Christ on earth, is that it is both. If He was punished, what was the need for sacrifice, and vice versa? <br />Is the sin of the world such a small thing that the punishment for all of it is to hang on a cross for six hours? Have there not been thousands who died on crosses, and many more who died of more horrific tortures, and they did not atone for a single one of their sins? But the “just God” decided to “punish” His sinless Son for six hours and that was it? Is it a requirement for Christians to be bereft of their senses?<br />Scripture teaches clearly and unequivocally, Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, …”. But we go through all kinds of quasi-logical smoke and mirrors to come to the conclusion that when it came to the one time that the sin of the whole world was taken away, six hours on a cross was enough. <br />What good does it do us to believe in a verbally inspired, perfect Scripture, when we ignore its clear words?<br />Peace and Joy!<br />George A. MarquartAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com