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	<title>The Forward Look &#187; The Gospel</title>
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		<title>The Hidden-ness of Christ</title>
		<link>http://www.theforwardlook.com/2009/08/the-hidden-ness-of-christ/</link>
		<comments>http://www.theforwardlook.com/2009/08/the-hidden-ness-of-christ/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:53:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Taylor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Doctrine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Gospel]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.theforwardlook.com/?p=703</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I am loving the gospels more and more every day. My good friend Paul Hartung has advised me to be always and consistently reading the Gospels and the Psalms; I think he is right&#8230;.  (Mark 1:34)
Jesus so often commanded both demons and those who were healed by him of demons and other sicknesses and maladies to not speak a word about who he was or what he did.
I read today this about the “hidden-ness” of Christ: That which changes the human heart and ultimately compels one to recognize and follow ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I am loving the gospels more and more every day. My good friend Paul Hartung has advised me to be always and consistently reading the Gospels and the Psalms; I think he is right&#8230;.  (Mark 1:34)</p>
<p>Jesus so often commanded both demons and those who were healed by him of demons and other sicknesses and maladies to not speak a word about who he was or what he did.<br />
I read today this about the “hidden-ness” of Christ: T<em>hat which changes the human heart and ultimately compels one to recognize and follow Jesus can never come from coercion or a display of miraculous power. Jesus will have no allegiance exacted by amazement and astonishment. The faith of his disciples must be evoked through humility and ultimately through suffering. If one will not receive Jesus in this form, one will not receive Jesus in all his power and majesty… Until the consumption of Jesus’ work on the cross all speculations about him are premature. Only on the cross can Jesus be rightly known. </em>James Edwards,  PNTC Mark<br />
Thank Him that our King’s throne was a cross! Only in it do we see His majesty.. What wondrous love is this…. Oh what free and magnificent grace!</p>
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		<title>The Two Thieves of the Gospel&#8230; Tim Keller</title>
		<link>http://www.theforwardlook.com/2009/02/the-two-thieves-of-the-gospel-tim-keller/</link>
		<comments>http://www.theforwardlook.com/2009/02/the-two-thieves-of-the-gospel-tim-keller/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 21 Feb 2009 20:38:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Chris Taylor</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Doctrine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dr. Timothy Keller]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Gospel]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[The key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual re-discovery of the gospel.
I have read and reread the article by Dr.Timothy Keller on The Centrality of the Gospel.   I hope this excerpt challenges you as it does me every time I read it&#8230;
Since Paul uses a metaphor for being “in line” with the gospel, we can consider that gospel renewal occurs when we keep from walking “off-line” either to the right or to the left. The key for thinking out the implications of the gospel is ...]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<h2><img class="alignleft size-full wp-image-605" title="celtic-cross" src="http://www.theforwardlook.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/celtic-cross.jpg" alt="celtic-cross" width="207" height="311" />The key to continual and deeper spiritual renewal and revival is the continual <em>re-discovery</em> of the gospel.</h2>
<p>I have read and reread the article by <a href="http://www.redeemer.com/">Dr.Timothy Kelle</a>r on <a href="http://www.redeemer2.com/resources/papers/centrality.pdf">The Centrality of the Gospel</a>.   I hope this excerpt challenges you as it does me every time I read it&#8230;</p>
<p><strong><em>Since Paul uses a metaphor for being “in line” with the gospel, we can consider that gospel renewal occurs when we keep from walking “off-line” either to the right or to the left. The key for thinking out the implications of the gospel is to consider the gospel a “third” way between two mistaken opposites. However, before we start <span style="color: #0000ff;">we must realize that the gospel is not a half-way compromise between the two poles&#8211;it does not produce “something in the middle”, but something different from both. The gospel critiques both religion and irreligion </span>(Matt.21:31; 22:10).<br />
Tertullian said, &#8220;Just as Christ was crucified between two thieves, so this doctrine of justification is ever crucified between two opposite errors.&#8221; Tertullian meant that there were two basic false ways of thinking, each of which &#8220;steals&#8221; the power and the distinctiveness of the gospel from us by pulling us “off the gospel line” to one side or the other. These two errors are very powerful, because they represent the natural tendency of the human heart and mind. (The gospel is “revealed” by God (Rom.1:17)&#8211; the unaided human mind cannot conceive it.) These “thieves” can be called moralism or legalism on the one hand, and hedonism or relativism on the other hand. Another way to put it is: the gospel opposes both religion and irreligion. On the one hand, &#8220;moralism/religion&#8221; stresses truth without grace, for it says that we must obey the truth in order to be saved. On the other hand, relativists/irreligion&#8221; stresses grace without truth, for they say that we are all accepted by God (if there is a God) and we have to decide what is true for us. But &#8220;truth&#8221; without grace is not really truth, and &#8220;grace&#8221; without truth is not really grace. Jesus was &#8220;full of grace and truth&#8221;. Any religion or philosophy of life that de-emphasizes or lose one or the other of these truths, falls into legalism or into license and either way, the joy and power and &#8220;release&#8221; of the gospel is stolen by one thief or the other.</em></strong></p>
<h4><strong><em> <span style="color: #0000ff;">&#8220;I am more sinful and flawed than I ever dared believe&#8221; (vs. antinomianism)</span></em></strong></h4>
<h4><span style="color: #0000ff;"><strong><em> &#8220;I am more accepted and loved than I ever dared hope&#8221; (vs. legalism)</em></strong></span></h4>
<p>Keller continues later in his article:</p>
<h3>A whole new way of seeing God.</h3>
<p><strong><em>But Christians are those who have adopted a whole new system of approach to God.  They may have had both religious phases and irreligious phases in their lives. But they have come to see that their entire reason for both their irreligion and their religion was essentially the same and essentially wrong! Christians come to see that both their sins and their best deeds have all really been ways of avoiding Jesus as savior. They come to see that Christianity is not  fundamentally an invitation to get more religious. A Christian comes to say: &#8220;though I have often failed to obey the moral law, the deeper problem was why I was trying to obey it! Even my efforts to obey it has been just a way of seeking to be my own savior. In that mindset, even if I obey or ask for forgiveness, I am really resisting the gospel and setting myself up as Savior.  To &#8220;get the gospel&#8221; is to turn from self-justification and rely on Jesus&#8217; record for a relationship with God. The irreligious don&#8217;t repent at all, and the religious only repent of sins. <span style="color: #0000ff;">B</span><span style="color: #0000ff;">ut Christians also repent of their righteousness. That is the distinction between the three groups&#8211;Christian, moralists (religious), and pragmatists (irreligious).</span></em></strong></p>
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