Foolish Sages and Wimpy Brutes – Part 3
For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God [1 Corinthians 1:22-24].
Jesus’ death and resurrection provide us with the means to be a Christian. Too often a Christian is deemed to be anyone who says the name Jesus, or anyone who goes to church, or anyone whose parents go to church. As we just explained the Biblical definition of a Christian, the everyday identification of a Christian is faulty to the core.
Because of this some Christians sometimes distinguish themselves from religious folks by adopting the moniker “born again Christian”. I see two things wrong with this approach though. For one, the moniker is a tautology. Any real “Christian” is “born again”.
For another thing there is only one type of Christian. No one can truly be a Christian apart from being born again. Being born again is the way a Christian comes into existence. Accordingly those folks who skip the born again part and go straight to the head of the class by attending church and claiming to be Christians—the Bible defines them as non-Christians.
It matters not whether they have good intentions, or whether they are evil impostors who slither into the church to corrupt it, or anything in between. They are not really Christians because they are not born again.
They are born only once (cf., Revelation 20:11-15), and that in the way all men are born, viz., through the instrumentation of sinful parents. This makes them sinners also because God created each species to reproduce after itself. Sinners cannot give birth to saints. They can only give birth to other sinners.
In summation, Jews demand to see miracles as proof of God. Gentiles insist on reasoning out all the facts about God. Logic is king to them, not God. In contrast to those two, Christians preach Christ crucified.
The crucifixion of Christ displays both the wisdom of God and the power of God. The two phrases are crucial because one is God’s answer to the Jews, the other His answer to the Gentiles. The Jews elevate God’s visible works (i.e., miracles) to the throne of God. They identify God by His actions, while relegating His Person to the back burner.
God’s response to this is to show Himself visibly in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Jews pushed God’s works to the front. In response God pushed His Person to the front. Jesus is “the power of God”.
The Gentiles elevate man’s intelligence to the throne of God. They eat at the kogae tree and draw conclusions based on what seems right in their own eyes. Their conclusions are formed from their reasoning and their experiences.
God’s response to this is to explain deity and eternity through the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus went about preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching man the wisdom of God. The culmination of God’s wisdom came at the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. The Gentiles pushed man’s intelligence to the front. God countered by pushing His intelligence to the front. Jesus is “the wisdom of God”.
Let me be quite frank and pointed, dear friends. If you were born of Jewish parents, then you are a Jew. If you were born of non-Jewish parents, then you are a Gentile. But none of this is relevant to God because we aren’t responsible for who our parents are!
We are responsible, however, for how we respond to God. He holds out His hand and offers us a pardon, paid for by the blood of Jesus on the cross. If we receive it, then we are born again. If we reject it, then we are only born once. We indeed are responsible for that decision!
So step up to the cross and receive your pardon. Don’t just be born. Be born again. Give glory to God and confess your sins to Jesus.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
Jesus’ death and resurrection provide us with the means to be a Christian. Too often a Christian is deemed to be anyone who says the name Jesus, or anyone who goes to church, or anyone whose parents go to church. As we just explained the Biblical definition of a Christian, the everyday identification of a Christian is faulty to the core.
Because of this some Christians sometimes distinguish themselves from religious folks by adopting the moniker “born again Christian”. I see two things wrong with this approach though. For one, the moniker is a tautology. Any real “Christian” is “born again”.
For another thing there is only one type of Christian. No one can truly be a Christian apart from being born again. Being born again is the way a Christian comes into existence. Accordingly those folks who skip the born again part and go straight to the head of the class by attending church and claiming to be Christians—the Bible defines them as non-Christians.
It matters not whether they have good intentions, or whether they are evil impostors who slither into the church to corrupt it, or anything in between. They are not really Christians because they are not born again.
They are born only once (cf., Revelation 20:11-15), and that in the way all men are born, viz., through the instrumentation of sinful parents. This makes them sinners also because God created each species to reproduce after itself. Sinners cannot give birth to saints. They can only give birth to other sinners.
In summation, Jews demand to see miracles as proof of God. Gentiles insist on reasoning out all the facts about God. Logic is king to them, not God. In contrast to those two, Christians preach Christ crucified.
The crucifixion of Christ displays both the wisdom of God and the power of God. The two phrases are crucial because one is God’s answer to the Jews, the other His answer to the Gentiles. The Jews elevate God’s visible works (i.e., miracles) to the throne of God. They identify God by His actions, while relegating His Person to the back burner.
God’s response to this is to show Himself visibly in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Jews pushed God’s works to the front. In response God pushed His Person to the front. Jesus is “the power of God”.
The Gentiles elevate man’s intelligence to the throne of God. They eat at the kogae tree and draw conclusions based on what seems right in their own eyes. Their conclusions are formed from their reasoning and their experiences.
God’s response to this is to explain deity and eternity through the Person of Jesus Christ. Jesus went about preaching the Kingdom of God and teaching man the wisdom of God. The culmination of God’s wisdom came at the cross of Christ and the empty tomb. The Gentiles pushed man’s intelligence to the front. God countered by pushing His intelligence to the front. Jesus is “the wisdom of God”.
Let me be quite frank and pointed, dear friends. If you were born of Jewish parents, then you are a Jew. If you were born of non-Jewish parents, then you are a Gentile. But none of this is relevant to God because we aren’t responsible for who our parents are!
We are responsible, however, for how we respond to God. He holds out His hand and offers us a pardon, paid for by the blood of Jesus on the cross. If we receive it, then we are born again. If we reject it, then we are only born once. We indeed are responsible for that decision!
So step up to the cross and receive your pardon. Don’t just be born. Be born again. Give glory to God and confess your sins to Jesus.
To further research this issue, I direct you to my book Exodus: Volume 2 of Heavenly Citizens in Earthly Shoes. To purchase my books please go to:
http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005PJ761C
https://sites.google.com/site/heavenl...
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