Have finally got back in the harness so wanted to say thanks for your comments on my last blog entry.

I think you are absolutely right that we are so often left with religion but not the gospel and that we must be those who hear the good news before we can ever share it with others. The problem , of course, is that the only world we know is the world we have seen and so many have never seen grace, have never really experienced the freedom the gospel brings. Thus, even though we hear of these things and rejoice in them, we are left still unsure of what they mean and uncertain on how to actually respond to them. It is into this vaccuum that I think the yeast of legalism so easily creeps and quickly flourishes. Because it is hard to believe that God would offer us his love so unconditionally (who else has ever done that for most of us?), we like to both assure him that we deserve his gift and assure ourselves that we are worthy of it. Before we know it, we are living as if our response to God is the reason we have been offered his love and as if our continued response is the way to keep it.

Maybe, then, our greatest need is not just to preach the gospel to ourselves, but is to believe it, to receive it ourselves. I wonder if what we need to do is to focus more on responding to what Jesus has done for us on the cross than on understanding it? I think my son knew that I loved him long before he would have been able to articulate it. Maybe we, too, need to explore the reality before we worry too much about the theory. I’m pretty sure we can figure out our theology along the way!

K

Much classier presentation than I’ve seen before.