Academia
I was browsing blog articles today, looking for an audio file or a podcast of a particular speaker, and I stumbled onto the blog of this guy. He had a link to an MP3 I was looking for, which was nice, so in return I decided to have a quick read of his blog...
It was a discussion on sin, and more precisely, does God forgive sin? Or does He forgive the sinner? I was halfway through the discussion, mildly interested, when I hit a wall. My wall was "Who cares?". The irrelevance of this argument started to annoy me. Irrelevant because - we know that God forgives and that we have forgiveness through Christ and the work He did on the cross and by His ressurection. If I was sharing the gospel with someone and they asked me "does God forgive my sin?" I wouldn't say "Well no, He forgives you OF your sin, but Your sin must be punished" - this is confusing and irrelevant.
Big picture - In my experience, especially when I was a student and now to a lesser degree in the "real world", Christians are more worried about whether or not their ideas and thinking are right than just getting out into the world and BEING Jesus where they are at. We are called to be immitators of Christ - to go and make diciples of all nations - not to sit around in coffee shops arguing over more peripheral issues.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I include myself in the above catagory of over-thinkers and under-doers. I get so frustrated with myself for being all high-ideals and little action. I also believe that our theology is always in transition, as we read God's word and He reveals to us it's meaning we have to regularly change our view to be more like His. This is a good thing, theology is a good thing, let's try and be more balance people of both good, evolving, revelationary theology and doers of God's commands and His work.
Rant over.
It was a discussion on sin, and more precisely, does God forgive sin? Or does He forgive the sinner? I was halfway through the discussion, mildly interested, when I hit a wall. My wall was "Who cares?". The irrelevance of this argument started to annoy me. Irrelevant because - we know that God forgives and that we have forgiveness through Christ and the work He did on the cross and by His ressurection. If I was sharing the gospel with someone and they asked me "does God forgive my sin?" I wouldn't say "Well no, He forgives you OF your sin, but Your sin must be punished" - this is confusing and irrelevant.
Big picture - In my experience, especially when I was a student and now to a lesser degree in the "real world", Christians are more worried about whether or not their ideas and thinking are right than just getting out into the world and BEING Jesus where they are at. We are called to be immitators of Christ - to go and make diciples of all nations - not to sit around in coffee shops arguing over more peripheral issues.
I want to make it absolutely clear that I include myself in the above catagory of over-thinkers and under-doers. I get so frustrated with myself for being all high-ideals and little action. I also believe that our theology is always in transition, as we read God's word and He reveals to us it's meaning we have to regularly change our view to be more like His. This is a good thing, theology is a good thing, let's try and be more balance people of both good, evolving, revelationary theology and doers of God's commands and His work.
Rant over.
posted by Andy Ashworth at 1:33 PM
2 comments
