So I've been meandering around the subject of holiness for the last couple of posts. If I had my choice, it would be the prime subject of discussion among Christians, and the great hunger and thirst of Christians for righteousness would be something remarkable to behold.
But this is not the case. The subject of holiness has in fact been so long avoided among us that to bring it up now seems strangely old-fashioned. And to speak of holiness is, of course, to speak also of sin. Jesus spent a lot of time talking about just that. Paul couldn't stop talking about it. Peter, too. James, well, he was downright fixated on issue. And John, also, couldn't let the subject alone. Oh, but we can. And we do.
If you could somehow excise from the Scriptures all of the passages that deal with the fundamental human predicament known as sin, you would have a pallid and paltry volume indeed. How can it be that we have turned the Bible into a collection of encouraging sayings for every occasion rather than the great (and supremely encouraging) story of how God chose to face up to the problem of our sin? Mine. Yours.
Well, I realize this is no thoughtful essay on the matter, composed in tranquility by a great mind that has lingered long and fruitfully on the subject. No, it's just me, blogging. It's just that I've been wondering about these things.
In the last post I spoke of Christianity as "crisis management." My sense is, if we don't see the relationship of our crises, whatever they may be, to our sin, then we doom ourselves to an unending cycle of more crises. That's what I think. It's a guess, and I may have to amend this thought after more careful consideration, but for now that's what I've got. Your thoughts?
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