Today we moves to a section of "Who Will be Saved?" called The Gospel of Salvation - by William Willimon.
What is the gospel? Karl Barth says that when we say "gospel," good news, we are talking about salvation, about the mighty acts that god has worked 'pro nobis."
Barth says what the gospel is not - not religious experience, not moral platitudes, not an attempt to straighten out the world, not a deeper appreciation of nature, not something personal and subjective, not ancient history - in order to say that salvation is "the mighty acts of God in history for the liberation of the cosmos."
God is acting to bring about a life that is always becoming a part of the image of God's fullness. Our humanity is the medium that is used to bring this image into the day. In that way, we must be ready for whatever will take place that seeks the liberation of the cosmos in this day. For me that means that I am to keep my eyes open and my ears open and for the places in which God is still bringing about liberation even if I do not think those things and people need to be liberated. God's action is beyond my understanding and yet it is all quite part of a pattern of wholeness that serves to bring us all into the same liberating presence of God who does not let anyone be chained to the oppressiveness of a world separated from God.
Connection: We do not have to look in strange and distant places to see God's liberating action for God is setting free all of us to live new lives even as we are reading this today
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