My favorite person to talk to about spiritual matters is Marshall Derks. He has no qualms with laying into what he perceives as inerrancies, and always brings a hearty, sincere perspective to the inspection of matters of faith. Recently he pointed out something in Paul's work that he felt was inconsistent, and this was my reply.
I really hope Marshall comes to know Christ as I know him. I love him as a friend and would love, even more, to have him as a Brother.
He's getting married, by the way! "Congradulations", if you ever read this, man!
So, this was my part of the discussion:
Well, that's an interesting highlight of an errancy in Paul's work... it does sound contradictory, on a certain level, that Jesus forgives people's sins before He has been ressurected, whereas Paul says very bluntly that without the ressurecion that there is no forgiveness... but I think that what Paul was saying is that no one can be forgiven at any point in history withouth Christ's act of atonement, but because He came in the middle of time, men at all times can receive forgiveness because God delayed judgement in the days before the Messiah through forebearance (that is from Isaiah). Then after Christ, He can impart the righteousness that His Son earned by absorbing sin into Himself and destroying it in the grave. Then, we, the lucky few who live after these wondrous things, are able to receive the Holy Spirit Himself. Because Christ has finished the work of canceling sin, He can even come upon men and women and the human heart becomes the very tabernacle of God, and this very presence of the Holy Spirit is, in fact, the life of God returning into man. What happens on the day that Christ returns-- when the dead are raised and both the living and the dead in Christ are clothed in new and glorious flesh, is merely the more complete work of what the Holy Spirit is already doing.
And, yes, I agree about the prosititute who bathes Christ's feet with spikenard. She is forgiven because of her love. And I think this is the answer to the question of faith vs. action. Do you remember the passage in 2 Corinthians where Paul says that prophecy, knowledge, even faith will pass away? I think that what he means there is that all things in this world are in a transitory state. We are commanded to DO many things... but only for a time. NOW, it is important to have faith, because it is the hour of darkness when man still lives under the cloudy veil of the flesh, though no longer under the veil of the old Law which condemned. That was, quite literally, sundered by the Messiah at the hour of crufixion. We are commanded to prophecy and to do acts of service unto widows and orphans, edifying one another and spreading the good news that God is Love and in Him is Light that can purge the darkness of the world and our own hearts... but again, even this will pass away, because God Himself will BE our light once every knee bows and every tongue confesses. There will be no more need for Prophecy, because Christ will make all things clear. We will no longer need to comfort the sorrowful, because Christ will wipe away every tear. No one will be sick, none will hunger, there will be a tree whose leaves will be the therapy of the very nations... and yes I do believe that. If not absolutely literally then I do at least believe that something that litereally executes this metaphorical role will be in the new Zion when God comes down to earth and reforges it as His dwelling place among men.
So, the answer to the debate between faith and action is this. Neither. Its love. Love believes all, AND bears all. You must love Him, or you will have faith in an idea. You don't need an idea to save you. You need a real Messiah... more real than you, because your sin has effaced your very personhood. Its hard to swallow, but without forgiveness and purification, you are not even worthy of being treated as a person according to Paul. You are an object of wrath.
So, which is more important, to perform or to believe. Both, if they are healthy, are the doings of love. They are like breathing and circulation. It does you no good to do one without the other. In a way they are the same thing- the cycling of oxygen and carbon dioxide through your body. Carbon Dioxide is by no means a bad thing. You woud die without it. Its just that you need to take one of these in consistently, and you need to send one out consistently. You need to believe within the bounds of your own heart... in the world of your will... at the seat of your desires, but you also need to transcend your consciousness and puncture the very walls of your heart... be pierced at heart with love... so that the faith that was poured into by God can be poured back out before His throne and upon His children. Its a beautiful cycle. More beautiful than Krebbs or Photosynthesis or meiosis or mitosis or the water cycle or even ocean waves. It is THE cycle. Worship. It is what the world does when it does as it should. It worships. Even the rocks cry out.
What do you think?
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