More ideas about how our God is with us and leads us into life eternal - William Willimon.
God may be pro nobis, for us, but God is also extra nobis, outside us. Whether we know it , like it, response to it or not, something has occurred in Jesus Christ that is not determined by us nor limited by the boundaries of our imagination. We must not make the effectiveness of God's work on the cross and in the Resurrection contingent on human responsiveness. The reality of salvation by Christ precedes any human possibility of salvation in Christ. Redemption is an accomplished fact, pro nobis. But God's determination fully to have us and completely to love us makes this an event also in nobis. Though reconciliation with God is a gift of God, it has yet to be fully accomplished until God gets all that God wants - to have us, all of us, in communion. Salvation is the good news, "Become who, by the grace of God, you really are" rather than the bad news, "Try hard to be someone who, with enough strenuous spiritual effort, you might eventually be."
Last week I was sitting in the B.M.V. waiting to take a test for my scooter license. There was a twenty-something guy sitting next to me. He noticed that in the stack of papers I was holding was this book by Willimon (Who Will be Saved). He said, "The answer to that question is easy." I thought he was commenting about something in the room. I said, "What?" He said the title of that book. "Those who believe and bring their life into submission to God and leave behind their evil ways." He added another line, but it was filled with what we have to do in order to be saved." Rather than get into a discussion we could never finish before one of our numbers was called I simply said that wasn't what the book was saying so far. I am always amazed at how much "bad news" is out there circulating under the banner of God's Reign in Christ, Jesus. Unfortunately, it is not merely in other churches. There can be this kind of "we gotta get it right...get it better" right within the walls of mainline churches. We forget about the truly amazing part of grace. It is amazing because it needs nothing from us to make it complete. The gift that is continually being brought forth in new ways even today. "Become you!" Isn't that what is so beautiful about the story that reminds us that we are created in the image of God. It is done for us and all that needs to be done has been done. We need only go along with the adventure and be the gift God has given to the world through us. A liberating and powerful notion.
Connection: Become you! What does that mean for you in the middle of things today - take note.
You become for us, O God, the power to live within your Reign that is already moving down the road. Your spirit continues to breathe into our lives the reminder of your creative will that seeks to make us the gift we are in your eyes. Praise to you, O God. Amen.
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