Life on Purpose

danielblackrocks asked: What are some of your favorite books on the finished work of Christ? I've really enjoyed Benjamin Dunn's "The Happy Gospel" and am just starting Rob Bell's new one called "Love Wins" and Robert Capon's "Kingdom, Grace, Judgement: Paradox, Outrage, and Vindication in the Parables of Jesus"...

The two books that I am currently reading for class which cover the work of Christ are Millard J. Erickson’s Systematic Theology and Alister E. McGrath’s The Christian Theology Reader.

How is Rob Bell’s new book?  I’ve heard various reviews.

Theology in Song

This is a critical response to Charles Wesley’s classic hymn, And Can It Be.  It specifically looks at how Wesley views the inner workings of salvation.

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In the hymn, And Can It Be, Charles Wesley lays forth his understanding of the significance of Christ’s work on the cross. From the beginning of the hymn, he clearly depicts the death of Christ as having substitutionary implications when he proclaims, “Died he for me who caused his pain, for me - who Him to death pursued.” In absolute wonder he continues, “amazing love, how can it be, that thou my God shouldst die for me?”

The theme of Penal Substitutionary Atonement is further elucidated in fifth stanza when Wesley speaks of the atoning blood of Christ as that which “quenched the Wrath of hostile Heaven.” He clearly sees Christ as a propitiation, the wrath bearing sacrifice who has absorbed the righteous indignation of a holy and just God. The final verse drives this very point home with its triumphant declaration of freedom which bespeaks our union with Christ. “No condemnation now I dread. Jesus, and all in Him is mine.”

However, theme of substitution is not the only one seen. In the fourth stanza we see the theme of Christus Victor raise is victorious head. We are given the image of a prison cell - cold, dark, and lifeless. When suddenly, the dungeons dreadful void is pierced by a soul quickening, spirit enlightening ray, emanating from the eyes of our risen and victorious Savior. This wonderful victory is then transfered to those held captive as chains fall off and hearts are set free.

In this wonderful hymn, Wesley draws together two components of Christ’s atoning work. Both his work as a propitiation for our sins, and the Victor over sin and death. We can now join the Seraph’s in their unending quest “to sound the Depths of Love divine.”

- SDG

T-Wilks 

The City we long for…

Below is a reflection for class on the essay, Human Longing for God, by church father Gregory of Nyssa (c.335-394).  It takes a brief look at his theological understanding of the interworkings of salvation; past, present, and future.

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As we watch in horror as a natural disaster tears lives apart half a world away, our hearts are filled with one question - why? This question is caused by an implicit understanding that this is not the way things ought to be. Cities ought not ravaged by great tremors, homes ought not be swept away by boiling tides, and families ought not be divided by the pall of death. Using the Platonic notion of “the Good,” Gregory of Nyssa explores the deep longings of the human heart. The longing for a place where we experience life as it ought to be.

With the sin of the first Adam, paradise was lost. Humanity exchanged “immortality for death,” and “the joys of paradise for illness and drudgery.” According to Gregory, when we survey the world around us, with all of its pain and misery, we are filled with grief when it is compared the life which we were intended to live. The theme of cosmic restoration is key in his understanding of salvation. He places great emphasis on the salvific work of the Second Adam (Christ), specifically in the restoration of the “oughtness” of life.

While present circumstances fill us with sadness, “the soul should fix its gaze on the “true Good,” and not be immersed in the illusion of this present life. For “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Cor. 2:9).”

- SDG, 

Timothy Wilkins