This "Aha!" moment came up in our Bible Study on Luke 4.1-13 this morning. After his first two attempts to trap Jesus were repelled by Jesus quoting scripture, the devil had a go at this himself, quoting Psalm 91 to get Jesus to jump off the Temple tower:-
"For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone" (Psalm 91.11-12).
He stopped short of quoting the very next verse:-
"You will tread on the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent" (Psalm 91.13).
Which reminds us of Genesis 3.15 and of the fact that the life, death and resurrection of Jesus are all about God coming in Christ to defeat evil and set all people and the whole creation free. Amen!!
If you are intrigued or surprised by this last idea, you could get hold of a copy of Gustaf Aulen's classic book "Christus Victor", recently reprinted by SPCK and available online from Church House Bookshop. Or join the Routes2 Course which has just started at St George's Barcelona.
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I haven't found out how to put a general comment yet, but have you read a book on universalism by Tom Greggs from Chester?
ReplyDeleteNo, have't come across that but would be interested to see what it is about!
ReplyDeleteIt's so funny seeing you guys mention Tom!
ReplyDeleteHe's a very intelligent chappie. his staff profile is here:
http://www.chester.ac.uk/departments/trs/staff/greggs
His book on universalism is here:
Tom Greggs, Barth, Origen, and Universal Salvation: Restoring Particularity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), xxiv + 272pp., ISBN: 978-0-199-56048-6.
Who won you ask and I guess we all do and often find it hard to answer ourselves and even harder to those who reject the answer. But maybe here is one more clue that helps - Christ's healing of the sick and later that of the Apostles and their disciples under the power of the Holy Spirit. Lepers, the blind, the deaf, the mentally ill - He showed these cld be cured. It took God's children 2000 years to work it out -but he showed it was possible, and it is today! Christ won. He also taught love and forgiveness, peace, goodwill. 2000 years on God's children have yet to learn. It's just taking a little longer to work out how, but Christ will win in the end. It just takes time - time to fulfill Isaiah's prohecy when the lamb will lie with the tiger...and the world will be as full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the seas are full of water!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Michael. Amen to that! Thanks also Paddy/Ashley. Apparently we can read Prof Tom's book online, now Bills has access to Oxford Uni Library. Several other books on the go at the moment though.
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