I grew up in a Christian home, became a Christian at a very young age, was the son of a “preacher-man,” and walked with the Lord all through growing up. After high school I kind of became lukewarm for a couple years, and when in Las Vegas with some friends the Lord really started to get a hold of me through some unique circumstances (that persisted for quite some time). It was at that point that my “lukewarmness” died, and I recommitted my life to Jesus Christ (no, I’m not Keswick). I basically vowed, that I did not want to waste my time anymore; that I would live my life to the fullest — whatever that means — for Him. One of the primary expressions of that commitment has been to read the Bible, and by God’s grace I have (at least a couple times through a year since 1995, and the NT by itself probably hundreds of times over that period).
My point, I am a die-hard Bible guy! I am not a systematic theologian at heart, I am a man of the “Word!” To me, I don’t think that I have any other way of knowing my Savior; but of course, through His “Word!” I just wanted to make this clear, if it wasn’t already. I don’t often refer to the “Word” here, ironically; mostly it has something to do with this dogmatic schema or that. But my primary concern is the “Word!” There is nothing, no knowledge of God without the “spectacles” of His Word.
So anyway, I just wanted you to know this about me; if you didn’t. I am all about the Protestant Reformation “principle” (principium) of sola scriptura! By the way, I should note, I don’t read theΒ Word with logico-deductivo lenses; I read it in a way that says: “I want to know Jesus!” Not to sound ‘holier than thou’, but it’s true! I remember when I was in Sunday-school as a little boy (2nd grade), my Sunday-school teacher said that the Bible was God’s love letter to us; that stuck with me, I’ve never forgotten that . . . that’s the way I approach my Scripture reading (which, ironically, is one of the reasons I am doing more systematic theology vs. “Biblical studies” at this point), and thinking — and that’s the way I even try to approach the ‘inner logic’ of the Word, or Dogmatic theology; without the love of God in Christ, it all means nothing!
You might as well know . . .
Hey Bobby just figured I would drop by….I am reading Incarnation right now….It is been really refreshing reading…I love it! He begins and ends with Jesus Christ….I will have to come back later to discuss….I really have sensed the nearness of the Lord Jesus as I have been reading and even now as I am typing…To know Christ is everything!
Hey Chris,
Great to hear from you! That is really awesome, that’s what I appreciate about “Incarnation” too. IN fact I am going to re-read it through this Christmas season.
Glad to hear from you, Chris!
In this work of Incarnation Torrance really exposes the ultimate failure of both Classic Calvinism and Arminianism. He does so by beginning with the person of Jesus Christ and emphasizing the hypostatic union of God and man in the one person of Jesus Christ. All knowledge of God can only be known in the Jesus the Son, and only as Jesus the Son, clothed with His own gospel, impresses Himself upon us through the Spirit. Yes in the Son the work of salvation is finished, but there must be a response by faith to share in that union with Him through the Spirit, hence the importance of both anhypostasis and enhypostasis (perhaps you can blog or cultivate this). God has actively decided for us through the incarnation of the Son and His life of obedience and love for the Father, all from within our alienation, culminating at the cross, and His decision for us is the foundation for our response of faith to Him. So as Christians we live from His faith and righteousness and share in His obedience. Everything that Jesus did was both act of God and act of man. In Jesus Christ we have both God’s yes to man and man’s yes to God worked out from within our alienation culminating in His substitutionary death at Calvary. Hmm…there is more coming. This post is helping me think and work through and digest what I am reading.
Ah, good, Chris; you’re seeing why appreciate Torrance so much. You can rest assured I’ll be blogging on Torrance further, in the days to come, esp. π
By the way off topic…How do you change the logo by your posts….I want to change the pink logo by my posts..Can you help?
What’s wrong, Chris, a little insecure with your masculinity π π ?
Seriously, I have no control over the color of the logos or avatars; they are automatically generated. What you can do is go to gravatar.com create an account (which is easy), and then put a personal picture or some image of your choice; and when you comment it will automatically show up next to your name on at least all wordpress hosted blogs.
Thanks for the help…No I am insecure about the pink :-P….But I would rather have a picture or something…
I was just messin’ π .
Cool, now I have a mug to go with your name!
Yay praise God it worked! I don’t know if you know who Steve McVey is but I have read some of his material and listened to some of his teaching…I have really have been blessed by it…Well I was just recently at his blog (within the past couple of hours) and he was sharing how he has converted from a classical Calvinist to a Trinitarian (EC) in his theology….Just thought I would share that encouragement with you in case that you didn’t know already….He said he has come to where he is at in his theology over the past several years from nothing else but studying the Scripture…Hmmm….:-)
By the way here is his blog address in case you are interested in reading…..http://www.gracewalkministries.blogspot.com/ ……I believe that God has really been confirming what I have been reading and studying…..Thanks Bobby
Chris,
Very cool! I’ll have to check out Steve McVey, I didn’t know about him before; so thanks for the heads up.
I am really excited that you are so excited about our God who is worthy of getting excited over; I’m sure that He’s excited about you being excited about Him, in fact if He wasn’t excited about you first, you wouldn’t be excited about Him to begin with π !!
Jesus is truly amazing! π
Amen, Chris . . . I love Him!!!
Hey Bobby
Hope all is well with you.
Gods love letter to us………..I like it!
Gav
Hey Gav,
It is really really good to hear from you, brother!!! I’m doing well, thank you for all the prayers!
I like the idea of this being God’s love letter to us too; that thought never left me since I heard it so long ago!