This is no doubt off topic ….. but I am posting it anyway because I can ;-).
I couldn’t help being struck by the “already-not-yet” theme, or “fullfilled but not yet consummated” tension of biblical theology in our initial reading, and thinking of the deceased Elder DJ Ward. pastor of the Main Street Baptist Church in Lexingon, KY. If you don’t know Elder Ward, you should take a moment to learn a little about the man.
Incidentally, if memory serves, there just might be a couple in our reading group who made it the conference referenced here by John Piper
Elder Ward was masterful at the quip or memorable line. For example in this video in his memory after his death in a sermon titled “Because of God’s Choice”, Elder Ward coined such a phrase: “If it were not that God had chosen some, heaven would have none.”
At any rate, in a sermon speaking on election, in defining the “all” as in the “all shall be saved”, Elder Ward says, “does that all mean everybody but not everyone?”
This reminds me in a way (pardon the logic of my mind) of the “already-not-yet” theme in our initial reading. It’s this tension, as Bro. Hershael likes to say, that threads through the whole of scripture that compels the sojourner in their quest to grasp the complexities of the text to ultimately and always fall to their knees in praise for the glory of God in Christ in the scripture in order to be able to synthesize the fullness of this theological tension.
In the absence of words and human reason to explain and fully grasp the enormity of God’s Word, we are left with this glorious life-giving and life-freeing conclusion that we are mercifully not in control, that it isn’t about us, and that it is ALL about Him …. and that theology is good news (merciful may be another way to state it) for those of us who may at times struggle with the temptation to do things within our own power.
The pot is always the better for it if it but cease the struggle and cede authority over to the potter.
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rbrucescott 