For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. (Titus 2:11)
The word in Greek that is translated as ‘salvation’ is σωτηρία sótéria (Strong’s 4991). In Titus, Paul uses the adjectival form, and the sense is of deliverance; this begs the preposition, ‘from’. From what is anyone delivered or saved? God offers through Christ, His grace personified, to save individuals from a terrible judgment and ultimate expulsion from His communion.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. (2 Peter 1:10)
God is faithful and keeps his promises – even when humankind cannot. To save his creation, he had to make a covenant and populate both sides of the agreement. Jesus was God made flesh to ensure God the Father had no cause for default, but the cost was the separation, expressed in the Cry of Dereliction. To understand this process, it best to look to the previous biblical covenants, only then will the radical design of the ‘New Covenant’ emerge.
Is life a mere accident? Does human life have meaning, if so how and through whom? Science has answered many questions about the ‘how’ but not the ‘why’. But as beings that seek identity and purpose, failing to answer why there is life is more than unsatisfactory, for it leaves humankind in an existential vacuum that few can bear. Attempts to fill that vacuum include the accumulation of wealth or experiences, frenetic activity or developing addictive, destructive lifestyles. But nothing ultimately works – the gaping hole remains a chasm at our very core.
In this post, I attempt to explain that only when we face the fact that we are creatures and we have a creator, and moreover, wish to restore the relationship with our creator that life has meaning.
While warrior cultures like that of the Vikings sought a heroic death, today death is feared or ignored. Western medicine is given over to the pursuit of protracting life, even at the expense of its quality. For humankind, however, death was not and is not God’s intention but is the result of men and women’s rebellion.
Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds…(James 1:2)
The Greek word translated here is χαρά chara (Strong’s 5479) and it means gladness, delight and extreme joyousness.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. (2 Corinthians 5:1)
The last post concerned why any Christian should be God-fearing…this then is why, because through revelation, s/he realises the danger of being an ‘object of wrath’.
Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them. (John 3:36)
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom… (Proverbs 9:10)
Often in the modern church, ‘fear’ is said to be ‘respect’, ‘awe’ or ‘reverence’. Indeed, fear is thought to be incompatible with love. How could any fear a god which, through grace, offers salvation and eternal life? How could anyone keep the first commandment to love God, and yet fear Him at the same time? The answer lies in the rest of the verse from Proverbs:
….and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
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