Post Nine: Living as One

sublimity

Perhaps I need to dive more into the character of God for another day-- or twelve. One day and one chapter may not be enough. During this process, I am asking, When I say, thy will be done, do I mean it?

These are the dreams of my Partner:

I thought to myself, How wonderful it would be to treat you like children and give you a beautiful land, an inheritance unrivaled among the nations. And I thought, You will call me father, and you won't turn away from me.

This is His promise:

Return, unfaithful Israel, declares the Lord. I won't reject you, for I'm faithful, declares the Lord; I won't stay angry forever.

from Jeremiah 3

I encourage you to do this as well, to supplement what is given here.

Post Seven: As One

his love, stained on my hand

Yesterday, I asked the question: Why is it our human nature, amidst tragedy, to go first to feeling abandoned rather than redeemed? Kelly and Patrio added some beautiful thoughts to the discussion in the comments. Specifically, the Oswald Chambers' words:

We "begin to get the seal of 'damnation' when we realize Jesus Christ came to deliver us from sin, but refuse to let Him do so."

Is this what atonement is?

Honestly, whenever I see or hear the word anywhere, I immediately think of McEwan's book and make a mental-association definition. A young girl, who does something horribly wrong, strives her entire life to fix this wrong. This seems sort of at odds with what I have read in Scripture. Are we to strive to make up for our wrongs? Remember the Reformation?!?! Fine. Maybe my weak- foggy definition needs help. So now, I have to actually look up the word:

Atonement (n.): Theology- the doctrine concerning the reconciliation of God and humankind, especially as accomplished through the life, suffering, and death of Christ. 

That's more like it. Honestly, it sounds a bit like redemption to me. We still have the question: how do we allow Jesus to deliver us from sin? Recently, in a sermon or in a book or in a movie (I am trying to be better at citations, I promise!!!), I heard that atonement is being "at one" or "as one" together. The idea of atonement between ourselves and Christ was likened to marriage. In marriage, two people come together, laying aside their individual lives. They then live ONE LIFE together. Atonement is to be as one with Christ.

The choice seems to be ours...

Why does our human nature feel so abandoned? Because we have walked away from the ONE LIFE we are called to. We leave our Edenic-walk and allow sin to reign. We make gods of ourselves and forget the Dance.

I may go so far as to say we do not truly know our Partner...

Post Two: Redemption Defined

No Entry

We, as Christians, believe Christ redeemed our lives with His death on the Cross. We speak of the redeeming power of the blood of Christ, but do we know what this means? 

I suppose if I am going to do a blog series on Redemption, I should define the word. Besides, I am an editor of English reference books, so its in my nature to want to define things. Today's entry will be simple definitions:

Redemption means:

1. the state of being redeemed (yeah, need to define this further, so see below)

2. deliverance (this too!); rescue from sin 

3. salvation (protection from harm)

4. atonement for guilt

5. repurchase, as of something sold

Redeem means:

1. to pay off

2. to buy back

3. to exchange

Deliverance means:

1. salvation

2. liberation

3. a thought or judgment expressed; an authoritative pronouncement

A synonym for redemption is "ransom." I always think of the movies with the rich, heiress hostages and the cute police officers who negotiate a way to free the beautiful, smart hostage and capture the evil psychopathic kidnapper. Ransom is mostly used nowadays in a monetary sense. But the meaning is basically the same as redemption. Think of Christ's blood as the ransom to free us from sin's bondage. 

An antonym for redemption is "abandon." In difficult times, this is exactly what we think God has done, isn't it? 

But I am getting ahead of myself...