NO FIG-LEAF GRACE
24/11/24 08:00
We can, as part of our religious attitude, be uncomfortable with closeness to God. I have seen more than one person, when confronted with the presence of the Spirit, take refuge in a studied flicking through their Bible as if they are hiding there in words - because they are more comfortable with a Christ muffled in scriptures and debate than of a situation where the God who cannot be controlled and who is not captured by religion is confronting them with His Reality.
HIDING IN RELIGION
George Otis, in His book God’s Trademarks suggest people may use their entire Christianity as a kind of barrier with which to avoid the ‘horror’ of a too close God. What perturbs them is that this is a realm where they are not in control. ‘In the Spirit’ whether with the gifts or not, we are not ‘in our heads’. There was nothing normal about Jesus getting a coin from a fishes mouth to pay a tax. Nevertheless, the normal of the Spirit works as Christ come in our flesh. We are incarnated with God when there are no manifestation because this is our inheritance in Christ. Just live the eucharist as a life.
NOT COMFORTABLE WITH TOO MUCH GRACE
This is not the only reason why we may resist an intimate relationship with Christ. “The claim that the whole of humanity has its true being objectively realized in Christ is a contentious one.” Referring to the uproar and resistance caused by Martin Luther’s proclamation of justification by faith, T. F. [Torrence] considers, “I find this kind of disturbance again and again in the reaction not only of people outside the Church, but even of would-be evangelical people within the membership of Church, for their refusal to accept unconditional grace seems to be due to the fact that it cuts so deeply into the quick of their souls.” (1)
THREATENING – BUT WHY?
We can be addicted to the notion that there can be some degree of self-effort, however small that we can personally grasp to suggest our worthiness to God. This can be why we think we need to be a Martha rather than a Mary. Our work for others can be the result of our need to prove ourselves worthy of Christ which means ‘Martha-ism’ its more about us than about the needy.
To live in unlimited grace is to be free to be ourselves to live without artifice as a Christ imbued self. Grace is unlimited or it is not grace. Living in this freedom allows us to be us ad bless others out our true self rather than some variety of virtue signalling to ourselves and others. Living entirely in Christ our life allows us to love freely. To love ourselves and to love others with a pure heart.
(1)Radcliff, Alexandra S.. The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation and Sanctification in the Theology of T. F. and J. B. Torrance (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 222) (p. 4). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
HIDING IN RELIGION
George Otis, in His book God’s Trademarks suggest people may use their entire Christianity as a kind of barrier with which to avoid the ‘horror’ of a too close God. What perturbs them is that this is a realm where they are not in control. ‘In the Spirit’ whether with the gifts or not, we are not ‘in our heads’. There was nothing normal about Jesus getting a coin from a fishes mouth to pay a tax. Nevertheless, the normal of the Spirit works as Christ come in our flesh. We are incarnated with God when there are no manifestation because this is our inheritance in Christ. Just live the eucharist as a life.
NOT COMFORTABLE WITH TOO MUCH GRACE
This is not the only reason why we may resist an intimate relationship with Christ. “The claim that the whole of humanity has its true being objectively realized in Christ is a contentious one.” Referring to the uproar and resistance caused by Martin Luther’s proclamation of justification by faith, T. F. [Torrence] considers, “I find this kind of disturbance again and again in the reaction not only of people outside the Church, but even of would-be evangelical people within the membership of Church, for their refusal to accept unconditional grace seems to be due to the fact that it cuts so deeply into the quick of their souls.” (1)
THREATENING – BUT WHY?
We can be addicted to the notion that there can be some degree of self-effort, however small that we can personally grasp to suggest our worthiness to God. This can be why we think we need to be a Martha rather than a Mary. Our work for others can be the result of our need to prove ourselves worthy of Christ which means ‘Martha-ism’ its more about us than about the needy.
To live in unlimited grace is to be free to be ourselves to live without artifice as a Christ imbued self. Grace is unlimited or it is not grace. Living in this freedom allows us to be us ad bless others out our true self rather than some variety of virtue signalling to ourselves and others. Living entirely in Christ our life allows us to love freely. To love ourselves and to love others with a pure heart.
(1)Radcliff, Alexandra S.. The Claim of Humanity in Christ: Salvation and Sanctification in the Theology of T. F. and J. B. Torrance (Princeton Theological Monograph Series Book 222) (p. 4). Pickwick Publications, an Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers. Kindle Edition.
