The Gospel Saves and Changes:

Something To Think About Salvation and Change:

I’ve been working my way through a book by a couple of really smart guys.  D. A. Carson & Douglas J. Moo take as their goal to capture the flow of the books of the New Testament and of each individual book.  They do a good job of not only writing what it means, but what it feels like.  Note the word, “passionately” in the following quote.  If you read 1 and 2 Corinthians, or just 2 Corinthians 7 and 10-13, you’ll see the passion.  It wasn’t an athletic event or winning an argument that generated such emotion in the writing of the Apostle.  He was concerned for the spiritual lives of those in whom he had invested his life “ . . . Paul passionately develops a theology of the cross that shapes Christian ethics, Christian priorities, and Christian attitudes, the apostle directly confronts all approaches to Christianity that happily seek to integrate a generally orthodox confession with pagan values of self-promotion. The cross not only justifies, it teaches us how to live and die, how to lead and follow, how to love and serve. . . . The problem was not so much that they were relapsing into paganism, as that their Christian faith, however sincere, had not yet transformed the worldview they had adopted from the surrounding culture. They had not grasped how the theology of the cross not only constitutes the basis of our salvation but also and inevitably teaches us how to live and serve.”  Everything in opposition to the Gospel “must be overthrown:”  (Carson, D. A.; Carson, D. A.; Moo, Douglas  J.; Moo, Douglas  J. (2009-05-26). An Introduction to the New Testament.Zondervan. Kindle Edition.) As Paul said in another place,   “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” I can understand the Apostle’s passion.  It has been a life-long battle personally, and at the heart of my life’s work.  It’s not as eloquent as the Apostle’s words, but the three words are loaded down with Passion. Live for Jesus! It’s STTA.