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Well put John,
The keepers are accumulating, I think I'm going to
have to start a file, hows this, "Smithson's Wisdom"
or "Truth According to John"
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 22, 2004
22:55
Subject: Re: [TruthTalk] Unilateral
covenant
Your illustration gives only one
"choice" -- active participation. You seem to
like the idea of a harsh God. One is not a "passive
participant" because he violates accepted norms set by
society. With such "logic,' we would argue that one is
"active" when in compliance with the rules and "passive" when in
violation.
You and I are passive participants, as I
see it, in that life comes to us through no effort of our own; our
bodies survive because, in part, of certain involuntary responses; age
happens; our very personalities and many of our emotional and
intellectual concerns are gifts to us; our (read "my") ravishing good
looks are not indebted to personal effort; whether I am white, black, yellow
or whatever is of no personal effort ----------- in
fact, I could argue effectively that everything I am as a cultural being is
ultimately the result of influences not the result of personal
effort.
So it is with the covenant.
Gal 3:16 tells us that the covenant promise was given to Abraham and his seed,
Jesus Christ. Christ has made it possible for God to view the
heart of man, his intentions, his desire to live for others and be found in
participation with the Communal God. So Abraham is "saved"
in spite of his lack of faith (i.e. the circumstances involving his wife) and
Samson is "saved" in spite of his continued lust and a vengeful attitude that
resulted in his death. Did they participate? Of
course. Did this participation result in their
sanctification. Absolutely not. As high as we
can jump -- we will never look anything but silly when measured
against how high we MUST go to find ourselves in the heavenly place (think
allegory). Our activity is dwarfted by the benefits of God's promises as
we stand ourside our tent, left with nothing to do but count the stars and
say, Praise the Lord.
John
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