" I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations. . . to be God to you and to your offspring after you." Genesis 17:7
What a wonderful gift! God has promised us his gift of Grace, and not only is it just our gift of grace but it is for all of those who come after us as well. Plantinga discusses in this Chapter that we have received a "Double Grace" this is justification and sanctification. We are justified in that our sins are forgiven and removed from us, then we are sanctified by acting Christ-like. We are to be like a child trying on a grown-ups clothes. We are not Christ, but we are trying to be like him.
"Christians are people who dress up like Christ, not because we want to deceive people into thinking we are better than we are, but because the only way we can become better than we are is by trying on our grownup clothes." Like Martin Luther says our good works are not the cause of righteousness, but because we have been given that gift by God we are able to go out and do good things.
Another thing that just blew me away reading this chapter was that we can be "liberated and flourish." by obeying the 10 commandments. I would have never before reading this book thought that this was true. I have always thought that because I am a Christian and I want to be Christ like that I need to say no and deny myself. However Plantinga paints this beautiful picture of what life would be like if just for one day everyone obeyed the 10 commandments.
"Imagine what the world would be like if for even one day everybody lived in complete obedience to the Ten Commandments:. . . no murder; no stealing; no adultery that breaks up families. . . for one day all would tell the truth, give to those in need, protect their neighbors from harm, honor their parents, worship God with an appetite, and thus express love to God and to neighbor in a long undertow of joy."
This quote makes my heart soar, if everyone just worked a little harder to live and be like Christ, we would no longer dread turning on the evening news because it would not be smothered with stories of despair, but of joyous expressions of humanity.
We were made to be good, and I think that we sometimes forget that because we have been redeemed we need to commit our lives to living for Him.
I love the illustration that we, Christians, are like children trying to fit into grownup clothes, except our the clothes we are trying to fit into are those of God. We are called to live as little Christs, or as translated into greek it is called Christos. And the quote by Martin Luther is excellent as well. Luther makes sure to remind Christians that it is not our works that get us into heaven. We should be examples of Christ and strive to be like him as good witnesses and for God's reputation among humans. I could go on and on. Really enjoyed your post.
ReplyDeleteI like that you included the quote about what the world could be like if we all tried to act more Christ-like. It is so true, and I think we as Christians must be the ones be lead the charge in behaving this way and showing others the freedom and joy that comes from living this way. That is definitely a challenge, especially since it is typical, as you said, to see the Ten Commandments in a restricting rather than a freeing way. But I believe it is part of our calling to try to live this out.
ReplyDeleteThe last statement is a good point. The problem is, most non-Christians just say that it's fine to be who they are, because they were made to be good. It's too bad...
ReplyDeleteYou are SO right!
ReplyDeleteNow let's never forget that there are only 10 needed to avert evil (if we remember Sodom and Gomorrah)...
Adriana
I agree with you on that last point. Sometimes we focus too much on the bad things and forget that we were created by Goodness itself.
ReplyDeleteI think it's amazing that God would save the world even for not 10, but one man and his family in the case of both Noah and Abraham. That's the kind of loving God that I'm proud to believe in.
ReplyDelete