John 3:11-16
Yesterday, I sarcastically (me??) wrote about a song from The Book of Mormon called I believe. The sarcasm was the line 'I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people'. While we are free to choose what we believe and do not believe, I would argue that it is crucial that we believe in the redemptive power, saving graces and love of Jesus Christ.
I know there is a small bump in the road called the Reformation (again, sarcasm) and one of the many reasons it came about was the small difference of opinion as to whether works or faith alone can save you. Generalizing of course, the Protestant argument would be that we can be saved by faith alone. This is a crucial point. Must we do something, some act of repentance or perform some act of faith in order to be saved? Is the redemption and love afforded us through Jesus' incarnation (in it's broadest terms) sufficient enough if we simply believe.
Of course believing in our Heavenly Father, the Spirit and Jesus is not always that easy given that society often gives the opposite message. We must earn everything it would seem.
The inherent dignity and uniqueness of every being however argues for a love simply because we exist. Jesus may have said that he was here to fulfill the law and redeem the Hebrew people yet time after time he embraced and loved without specific reason all those that came to him in faith and were not Jewish. In fact, Jesus seemed to go out of his way to embrace the furthest examples of the not loved, the marginalized, the sinners and the not quite as equal as. Time after time Jesus would proclaim "your faith has healed you".
In this world that seems to indoctrinate us in 'something for something', and nothing if we don't feel you deserve it, we must learn to embrace our own dignity, our own heritage as children of God and the fact that we heirs to the throne, welcome and honored to receive eternal love and salvation. That is the power and the message of Jesus Christ. We are asked to embrace as he did following those simple tenets of the two great commandments. But still, in our imperfection we are loved and is by faith alone that we are saved no matter what anyone else says or tries to convince us of.
All the power hungry naysayers who wish people to believe that 'they' are saved and we are not by virtue of our race, sexual orientation, religion or whatever so called demeaning moniker 'they' choose to use, are patently wrong. We are all equal and all equally saved as long as we abide in our faith.
We must accept our own divinity within our own humanity as imagined, created and loved by God. By faith alone.
Yesterday, I sarcastically (me??) wrote about a song from The Book of Mormon called I believe. The sarcasm was the line 'I believe that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people'. While we are free to choose what we believe and do not believe, I would argue that it is crucial that we believe in the redemptive power, saving graces and love of Jesus Christ.
I know there is a small bump in the road called the Reformation (again, sarcasm) and one of the many reasons it came about was the small difference of opinion as to whether works or faith alone can save you. Generalizing of course, the Protestant argument would be that we can be saved by faith alone. This is a crucial point. Must we do something, some act of repentance or perform some act of faith in order to be saved? Is the redemption and love afforded us through Jesus' incarnation (in it's broadest terms) sufficient enough if we simply believe.
Of course believing in our Heavenly Father, the Spirit and Jesus is not always that easy given that society often gives the opposite message. We must earn everything it would seem.
The inherent dignity and uniqueness of every being however argues for a love simply because we exist. Jesus may have said that he was here to fulfill the law and redeem the Hebrew people yet time after time he embraced and loved without specific reason all those that came to him in faith and were not Jewish. In fact, Jesus seemed to go out of his way to embrace the furthest examples of the not loved, the marginalized, the sinners and the not quite as equal as. Time after time Jesus would proclaim "your faith has healed you".
In this world that seems to indoctrinate us in 'something for something', and nothing if we don't feel you deserve it, we must learn to embrace our own dignity, our own heritage as children of God and the fact that we heirs to the throne, welcome and honored to receive eternal love and salvation. That is the power and the message of Jesus Christ. We are asked to embrace as he did following those simple tenets of the two great commandments. But still, in our imperfection we are loved and is by faith alone that we are saved no matter what anyone else says or tries to convince us of.
All the power hungry naysayers who wish people to believe that 'they' are saved and we are not by virtue of our race, sexual orientation, religion or whatever so called demeaning moniker 'they' choose to use, are patently wrong. We are all equal and all equally saved as long as we abide in our faith.
We must accept our own divinity within our own humanity as imagined, created and loved by God. By faith alone.
‘Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
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