[TruthTalk] Torrance

[Judy Taylor]

Debbie writes: Another "bicameral" statement made on TT is that love is the sum of the commandments. I love "disobedient people" better when I focus on God's unquenchable love for us. Where else could our love come from?   Just focusing or visualizing love or the "incarnation" will not make it happen in us outside of walking in his ways and dealing with our issues - this walk is supernatural. Our flesh nature recoils against loving enemies and blessing those who curse us.    I also find that the more my faith revolves around the person of Christ and a relationship with him rather than insistence on a set of correct doctrines, the more genuinely alive and active it becomes. Life is relationships; it can't be built on less.   I'm not understanding this "person of Christ" you all talk about because we have no way to know Him outside of His Word. He tells us that "if we continue in His Word" then we are His disciples and we will know the truth and the truth will make us free (Jn 8:31) and "if we love Him we will do what He says" - (would you consider all of this "correct doctrine?) If so my question then is - "how does one have a relationship with Jesus aside from agreement?  Today I had a new aquaintance tell me that "friends can agree to disagree" which is fine but I don't see this in God's Word applying to Jesus and I wouldn't say I have a "relationship" with this lady.  Paul exhorted the Church to all be saying the same thing.   And that brings me to your earlier post, about "majoring on" the inconclusivity of interpretation when we should be "confident in God's word". I know it doesn't seem this way to you, but acceptance of this kind of uncertainty IS confidence in God's word--as something greater than the shape forced on it by our reason or traditions, able to continue to renew and change our thinking (more than once, nudging us along a path).   Do you reckon Satan would have left if during his time of temptation out there in the wilderness Jesus was full of this kind of "doubt and uncertainty" about what Deuteronomy really was saying to God's people?  I mean there were plenty of years in there for reason and tradition to have come on in.  Why wasn't that a problem for Him?   It is confidence in God and his ongoing covenant story rather than in the principles, generalizations, or jots-and-tittles we try to extract from it. The canon in its entirety argues for greater diversity than any one piece of it, and if you take this seriously (So-and-So thinks differently, and may be right!), it makes for not-insignificant uncertainty. It's not hard to allow uncertainty at the margins of our thinking, but harder to submit our ideological "darlings". If you think that some of us who so loudly profess this aren't always much good at carrying it out, you are right!  Debbie   Well Debbie.  Jesus is our Lord and Master and He left us an example that we should follow in His steps.  If he were looking for greater diversity and acting in "uncertainty" this may be an option - but He wasn't and He didn't. Faith is the name of the salvation game and without faith it is impossible to please Him. Our choice today is what our faith will rest in.  The Word of God, or the words of men.   Grace and Peace, judyt