Walking through Corinth

2 Corinthians 1:1-2

    The letters of Paul most always follow the normal greeting found in the letters of his day.  This greeting consisted of 1) the name of the sender 2) the name of the recipient or recipients, and 3) a greeting or blessing. 
    This example can be found in many Greco-Roman letters such as the one composed in Acts 15 by the apostles.
   
    Paul does modify the greetings to his letter by adding his title (apostle), by mentioning Timothy and by substituting the word “grace” for greetings.  He keeps the Hebrew greeting shalom which is in Greek irene and translates as “peace.  This peace is that which is from God.

    Some scholars encourage readers not to be too caught up in the greeting of a letter, or to read to much into its details.  But there are many things here which the believer should notice.  The first is that Paul is not apostle by “choice” but apostle by “calling.”

    Apostles were those who had seen the risen Christ.  We are not apostles, or at least I am not, for I have not seen my risen Lord.  Whenever Paul thought of himself being called he was always no doubt brought to that startling moment when all that he had believed about himself, the world, and about God was proven to be false.
   
    The calling of Christ was none of Paul’s doing.  And as believers today, it is not to our own merit that we follow Christ, but rather to His glory.  The Christian should never think to his or herself, “I am saved, how wonderful am I!” but instead, “He saved me, he gave me even the faith to believe, how wonderful is He.”
   
    It is only by daily reminding of one's salvation that one can truly be humbled.  And it is only by humility, that one can be magnified through Christ.  We see our model of humbling and magnification in the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. And this humble promotion through the blood of Christ by “grace” grants the believer true “peace.” Who can take away the peace which God gives, or can give peace that abides in the “One who was, and is, and is to come.” (Rev. 1:4)?


 
God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. - C. S. Lewis

Defending the Validity of Scripture

Science Can Not Explain Everything

Polkinghorne on Science and God.......

I am not a scientist. But most scientists are not theologians, either.  Fortunately, in John Polkinghorne God has provided His kingdom with both!

In his book Quarks, Chaos, & Christianity Polkinghorne discusses the relationship between God and science.  Of course, from his perspective they are intricately interwoven.

Polkinghorne states that "The need to mix fact and interpretation, to survey the world from a chosen point of view, makes science more daring, and more precarious, than people often realize."

Later on he writes that he believes science "never succeeds in telling us the whole truth about the physical world - there are some new things to find out - but, surely, it tells us some of the truth."

To illustrate this Polkinghorne uses the example of a road map.  Scientifically, the map is merely a collection of atoms and molecules that make ink and paper.  But a map is more than than merely molecules and atoms.

In the same way, science can tell us that our bodies are made of quarks and gluons, but it can not tell us more than our physical properties or how they arrived.

Some modern atheists such as Dawkins, Hitchens, and others say that evolution has disproved God entirely.  These arguments should not even cause a moment's hesitation for the Christian.  Not only because evolution might not be the best possible explanation found by scientists in the future, but because this claim can not be postulated by science at all.

 The claim that "God does not exist" must be made on the basis of one's interpretation of the facts of science.  And this interpretation is subject to the criticisms of philosophy, theology, sociology, and other methods of knowing.

One can not look at a cake and say, "Ha, I have discovered the ingredients and formula for mixing the ingredients, therefore a baker never existed!"  You can not observe your cake, and lay theological claim to it as well.

Forgiveness: Is It About Us?

Everybody desires forgiveness.  Forgiveness is necessary for maintaining relationships.  Even those who do not know or desire the forgiveness of God through Christ view forgiveness as necessary in their friendships, dating relationships, family relationships, and other areas of life.

But were we made to forgive or were we made to be forgiven?  If one holds that God is the Creator of the individual, then it seems that God creates the individual for his purposes.  And if God's greatest purpose in creating the individual is that the individual might know Him, then we must have been created to experience forgiveness. 

In the Old Testament we find that the Psalmist asks to be forgiven not for the sake of his self, but "for your name's sake", or for the sake of the Lord (Ps. 25.2; 79,9).  This theme is repeated in the prophets.

You see, when we follow the commands for Christ it is not out of a vain pursuit for our own holiness but for His.  It is love for Christ that motivates the believer to right living.   He says, "If you love me, you will obey what I command" (Jn. 14.15). 

That is how we know those who are in Christ.  They show love for Him and so they follow his desires and not their own for again, "No one who lives in Him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either known him or seen him" (1 Jn. 3.6).

If our motivation for not failing Christ is out of love for Christ or Christ Himself, then is our motivation for forgiveness the same?  Do we ask forgiveness to appease our conscience or to ease or guilt, or in order that God might be glorified?  True forgiveness is for "his name's sake."

Jonathan

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
--C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity