being "saved"...do we get it?
"Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." (John 3:8 NLT)
Once again I read a few days ago something that stood out to me about the nature of our culture and our need to master everything. Here Jesus is teaching Nicodemus about salvation and about being born again. When Nicodemus gets confused about the idea of being born again, Jesus responds to him by saying, well, you need to be born by the Spirit and don't try and figure it out, because you can't.
Being born of the Spirit, being "saved" is a bit of a mystery, a total miracle and something that the Spirit causes. We can have a part in it, we can ourselves experience it, but to fully understand it, now that is not the point.
Oh to enjoy and embrace the mystery, the wonder of it all is what I challenge us all to do. To take a mystery, a miracle and pound it down into a formula, a measurable quantity is a bit silly (but I understand why we do it), if that be necessary, let it be so, but not at the expense of being in awe of the fact that we both are born of the Spirit and can somehow play a part in the salvation of others, a glorious and mysterious miracle that we should never get bored of or take for granted.
Once again I read a few days ago something that stood out to me about the nature of our culture and our need to master everything. Here Jesus is teaching Nicodemus about salvation and about being born again. When Nicodemus gets confused about the idea of being born again, Jesus responds to him by saying, well, you need to be born by the Spirit and don't try and figure it out, because you can't.
Being born of the Spirit, being "saved" is a bit of a mystery, a total miracle and something that the Spirit causes. We can have a part in it, we can ourselves experience it, but to fully understand it, now that is not the point.
Oh to enjoy and embrace the mystery, the wonder of it all is what I challenge us all to do. To take a mystery, a miracle and pound it down into a formula, a measurable quantity is a bit silly (but I understand why we do it), if that be necessary, let it be so, but not at the expense of being in awe of the fact that we both are born of the Spirit and can somehow play a part in the salvation of others, a glorious and mysterious miracle that we should never get bored of or take for granted.
posted by Ken | 9:41 PM
1 Comments:
I agree Ken that there is more mystery in salvation than we are ready to accept in our intellectual culture. But here's a thought: I think the place where we should accept and be comfortable with mystery is where the Scripture places the mystery. For instance, we SHOULD always teach people that you are ONLY saved by grace, through faith in Christ. There is really no mystery there in the Word. In this case we should seek with all our might to understand grace and the nature of faith that we may tell people what it really means to believe in Christ and not give people false hope.
However, there is mystery into things like this, like how the Holy Spirit opens the eyes of blind people and saves us. Or take Ephesians 1, which talks about God choosing us before the world was ever formed! Now there is some mystery! Or thinking upon how God's sovereign choice works with our responsibility (both very much taught in Scripture). I think that is where they mystery should be embraced.
So what do you think? Does that make sense? I am just saying we should seek to fully understand as much as we can, and embrace mystery where Scripture places the mystery.
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