geekery.of.all.sorts

I've decided to throw a grenade today. I think I've been taught for too long that the Cross is the whole point of God's plan. I’m taking a stand today and saying salvation by grace through faith is not THE BIG TRUTH of Christianity. That rumbling you hear is Luther and thousands of protestant church fathers rolling over in their graves. Now, before you go siccing Hank Hanegraaff on me for preaching a different gospel, I'm not disavowing the cross, or the gospel, or anything. Jesus died on the cross to save me. His blood paid for my sins. His work on the cross is finished, sufficient, and total. I am saved by grace through faith in the Son of God. Now, what am I trying to do by baiting you this way? The gospel isn't about reconciliation to God. It's natural to think that salvation is the center of God's world, since we're the ones getting saved...but salvation isn't the main thing on God's mind. The gospel is about the Kin...

…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. John 5:19-21 says that Jesus could do nothing by himself. I somehow learned that verse wrong. I’ve quoted it wrong countless times, saying ‘Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing, only said what he heard the Father saying’. What Jesus actually says there, and again in John 5:30, is that he COULD NOT DO ANYTHING ON HIS OWN. Does that strike you as odd? The word used here is ‘ Dunamai ’: to be able, have power whether by virtue of one's own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom to be able to do something to be capable, strong and powerful Jesus says he’s not capable. Unless the Father does it. ‘Only did’ and ‘could not do’ are totally different to me. This connects well to Philippians 2:5-11. Jesus did not grasp equality with the Father. It seems to indicate that his choice to humble himself and take the form of a servant wasn’t a m...