Higher and Deeper

Today I'm going to feature a nice long quotation from Dennis E. Johnson's book Him We Proclaim:

God's plan to bring everything under Christ's headship has the particular shape that it does because human sin has introduced rebellion, disruption, opposition, decay, and death into history. The presences of these ugly realities is acknowledged in Ephesians 1: for those chosen by God to be holy and blameless in his sight, adopted as his sons, bringing praise to his glory, there must be "redemption through the blood" of God's Beloved One, "the forgiveness of trespasses" (v. 7). Therefore, we could rightly describe the cosmic plan of God for history, revealed in Scripture, as an agenda for erasing sin and its effects--and in fact through grace carrying us (and creation with us) even higher and deeper into knowing and glorifying him than would have been possible in an unfallen world. (p. 243-4)

Mull that one over for a little while, why don't you? "Higher and deeper than would have been possible in an unfallen world." There are not enough exclamations points to show how incredible is that thought. And now check this out:

The Bible is the instrument of the Holy Spirit to announce and to apply what god has done to reverse sin's dire results, for it is through this Word, God's personal communication to his people, that the Spirit liberates us from self-trust and creature-worship so that we trust and serve the Creator who alone deserves our absolute allegiance. (p.244-5)

That's all for now. I hope it blesses you!