The Surprising God

We are saddened to learn that Professor Ray Anderson died on Father's Day (June 21). As a trinitarian-incarnational minister, theologian and professor, Anderson made many important contributions to our understanding of the life and love of our triune God into which we are adopted in Jesus. To read an obituary on the Faith and Theology blog, click here . To view a tribute video, click here . To listen to two "You're Included" interviews with Anderson click here for interview #1 and here for interview #2.

In Rom. 8:9, Paul writes: "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ." How does this statement square with many biblical statements that testify to the present inclusion of ALL humanity in God's love and life through the representative - substitutionary (vicarious) humanity of Jesus? Also, what does Paul mean by "have" the Spirit? And, can a person be included in Jesus, yet not "have the Spirit"? The reality presented in Scripture (and I am indebted here to helpful comments from Dr. Joseph Tkach and Dr. Gary Deddo), is that the Spirit is always working with everyone (believers and non-believers alike). However, it is believers who are both aware of and receptive to the Spirit's work. While all people have been reconciled to the Father through Jesus' vicarious humanity, not all believe - and thus not all actively participate in God's new creation of humanity in Jesus. Thus there is a difference be...

In about A.D. 180, Irenaeus (pictured at right) wrote the statement below concerning the triune nature of God. Here we find the basic elements of the doctrine of the Trinity. Note, in particular, the distinct role of each member of the Godhead and its relationship to all of humanity. This is the rule of our faith, the foundation of the building, and what gives support to our behavior. God the Father uncreated, who is uncontained , invisible, one God, creator of the universe; this is the first article of our faith. And the second is: The Word of God , the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared to the prophets according to their way of prophesying and according to the dispensation of the Father. Through h im all things were created. Furthermore, in the fullness of time, in order to gather all things to himself , he became a human being amongst human beings, capable of being seen and touched, to destroy death, bring life, and restore fellowship between God an...

Sadly, some theologies present a Godhead that is divided in mind and heart. On the one hand, Jesus is presented as the "friend of sinners." But on the other, God the Father is presented as angry with sinners - so "holy" in fact, that he refuses to be in their presence. But trinitarian, Christ-centered theology declares the gospel to be the truly  good news that it is  for both believers and non-believers. This good news is  grounded in the truth that the Father, Son and Spirit are of one mind and heart in their unconditional love for all humanity.  I think it was TF Torrance who wrote, "There is no other God behind the back of Jesus."  The point is that there is not another God who is unlike Jesus. God the Father, just like Jesus, loves and embraces all humanity, having acted in love (in and through Jesus' incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension), to include us all in his life. Sadly, many people (non-Christians and Christia...

In The Call to Discipleship , trinitarian theologian Karl Barth (pictured at left) addresses the topic of Christian discipleship. In doing so, he interacts with Scripture (particularly Jesus' Sermon on the Mount) and related views set forth by his friend and colleague Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Bonhoeffer's classic book, The Cost of Discipleship  (published originally as Discipleship ). Following are selected quotes from Barth's short, but helpful book (Fortress Press edition, 2003). 'Follow me' is [Jesus' call] to discipleship... Easily the best that has been written on this subject is to be found in Discipleship , by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. (pp. 1-2) Following [Jesus] as [his first disciples] practiced it... had both an inward and an outward limit... They [accompanied] him wholeheartedly and constantly, sharing his life and destiny at the expense of all other engagements and commitments, attaching themselves to him, placing themselves in his service, ...

Though often minimized, the doctrine of Jesus' bodily ascension is of great importance. It proclaims that the ascended Jesus remains fully God and fully human (now glorified human). When Jesus ascended, he did not shed his humanity, but ascended bodily into heaven (where he remains until he returns bodily at the end of the age).  In his ongoing humanity, Jesus continues to be our representative and substitute (the One for the many; the many in the One). Thus Paul can declare that when Jesus ascended, all humanity ascended with and in him: " It is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus..." (Eph. 2:5b-6).  You may be asking, Where does Scripture say that Jesus remains human? Note the following verses: "For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (1Tim. 2:5, emphasis added). "For he has set a day when he will judge the ...

The topic of family relations is vital in life (including Christian ministry). Our calling in the Spirit is to think and act out of the truth of the gospel, which is that all humanity is united to God (and one another) in the person of the incarnate, crucified, risen and ascended God-man Jesus. To inform our thinking along these lines, I recommend the following biblically-based resources: Gary Deddo on trinitarian family relations ( click here ) Gary Deddo on why we're gendered beings ( click here ) Gary Deddo on sexual identity ( click here ) Tom Smail on "Perichoretic Parenting" ( click here ) Andrew Root on "Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry" ( click here )

Sadly, salvation is often viewed as a mere transaction by which w e exchange our repentance and faith for God's gift of salvation. Though bearing some truth, this truncated view of salvation is quite incomplete and thus full of potential for error.  Rather than a transaction , Scripture presents salvation as re-creation .  In Jesus, who is fully God and fully human (and in his humanity the representative and substitute for all humanity), ALL humanity is re-created—reconciled, redeemed, justified and saved because Jesus has included ALL humanity in who he is and what he has done through his incarnation, life, death, resurrection and ascension.  Jesus did all this FOR us and TO us by doing it WITH us and IN us (as one of us). Jesus is the One for the many—the many in the One.  Thus, we understand from Scripture that… When Jesus died, all humanity died with him When Jesus rose, all humanity rose to new life with him When Jesus ascended, all humanity...

A question I'm frequently asked concerning trinitarian theology goes something like this: If all humanity is reconciled to God through Jesus, then why is there a final judgment and hell? To answer this question, we must begin with the biblical answer to the question that takes us to the foundation of all truth, namely, Who is Jesus ?   Scripture declares Jesus to be fully God and fully human. As the unique God-man he is both the Judge and the one in whom all are judged; the Savior and the one in whom all are saved. Through his vicarious (representative and substitutionary ) humanity, Jesus stood in, and still stands in for us all. When Jesus, who bore all our sin, was judged, we were all judged. When he died to pay for all our sin, we all died. When he rose victorious from death, we all rose. And when he ascended to the Father's side, we all ascended with him and in him (2Cor. 5:14, Eph . 2:4-10). In his dual role as both our Savior and our Judge, Jesus does no...

Ministries grounded in a theology of separation tend to conceptualize ministry as a means to influence people toward a particular goal. For example, youth ministry is seen as developing relationships with teens in order to influence them toward Jesus and his lifestyle. Ministry strategies and programs are means to develop and leverage such relationships. Thus youth ministry is often referred to as "relational youth ministry." The same can be said about all sorts of ministries. While I applaud the move to ministries that are more relational than the ones they replaced, I suggest that there is a better way - ministry that is grounded in and flows from a trinitarian theology of incarnation. Call it incarnational ministry .  At first blush, this may seem no different than relational ministry (isn't the incarnation about relationship?). But if we look deeper, we see that the relational ministry model is about using relationships as means to other ends.  In contr...

You may find interesting two recent posts from Tony Jones on The N ew Christians  blog (at Beliefnet).  Tony presents a trinitarian perspective on Jesus' death ( click here ) and resurrection ( click here ). This perspective is presented in contrast to a view of these events seen through the the lens of the "penal substitution" theory of the atonement.  I think Jones' arguments are worth considering.

On its website, Grace Communion International addresses the topic of creation and evolution . The article explores alternative ways for harmonizing the Biblical creation accounts with the evidence of science. The primary option addressed in the article is  theistic evolution . It notes that Scripture (as we understand it) allows for the idea that God created the cosmos a very long time ago, and thus does not demand a young earth - young universe view of creation.  Moreover, it notes that Scripture does not specify the  method  by which God created, and thus allows that God may have used evolutionary processes as a "tool" in his creating. The article also notes that there is a big difference between evolution as a worldview/philosophy and evolution as a scientific explanation of the development of life as we know it. For many years, GCI has noted these things in its literature. These are not new ideas to us, though they are helpfully articula...

Click here  to watch a YouTube video on the relationship between music and theology from Jeremy Begbie, professor at Duke and Cambridge Universities. Begbie asserts that time is one component of the Gospel that is better understood through the arts in general and music specifically. Because music unfolds in time, it implicitly affirms the biblical understanding of time as good, which is contrary to philosophies that scorn time and activities that take time.

Gary Deddo put me on to the book The Renewal of Trinitarian Theology: Themes, Patterns & Explorations  by Roderick T. Leupp (IVP 2008).  It's a helpful compendium of ideas from various sources concerning trinitarian theology. Following are representative quotes (see the book for sources). Trinitarian theology "The Christian calling is not to ingenious speculation about how God can be three and yet one, one and yet three, but is rather a firm adherence to the truth of the incarnation, and a glad acceptance of the benefits of the Father's eternal Word appearing in flesh in Jesus Christ, and a sturdy resolve to transform the world in the power of the Holy Spirit" (p. 10). "The doctrine of the Trinity is that wherein all Christian teaching finds its reason to be" (p. 13). "If the whole of Christian theology can be likened to an archery target, round in shape with concentric rings drawing every-tighter circles toward the center, trinita...

I recently attended a workshop with theologian , Dr. Gary Deddo (see picture) .  He gave an overview of Trinitarian Theology and answered related questions. Following are excerpts from my notes. Jesus, the center As we study scripture we come to see that it has a center , which is not a What, a Why, or a How, but a Who, namely Jesus Christ. He is the central figure - person - message -truth of all scripture. If our view of scripture is eccentric (off centered) it “wobbles.” If everything organizes and emanates out of the true center, we get re-centered. True theology, which progresses in and out of this center, is necessarily  trinitarian because Jesus is the Son of the Father, who sends the Spirit. Jesus' ministry is to take us to the Father and to send the Spirit. What he does, is who he is. When you deal with Jesus, you deal with the whole Triune God. Jesus, God's supreme, self-revelation This Jesus is the self-revelation of God - God revealing ...

I recently had the pleasure to present a seminar on Trinitarian Theology to a group of pastors and ministry leaders gathered in Nashville, TN.  I've given this seminar several times to similar audiences with similar results: many expressions of joy, hope and even surprise; together with various questions. It is a great blessing and privilege to see people grow in their understanding of the life and the love that is theirs in union with the Father, Son and Spirit. A question that usually comes up is this: If all humanity is adopted already into God's family through the union of all humanity with Jesus, then why is there the need for Christian mission? The mission most have in mind is what has come to be known as the Great Commission to make disciples of Jesus in all the world, and then to baptize and teach those disciples. An understanding of Trinitarian Theology does not nullify this mission - quite the contrary, it establishes it. But perhaps it is establi...

I am doing research for my presentations at the upcoming 2009 WCG regional conferences ( click here for a list of dates and locations). My presentations will focus on family relations in light of the inclusion of all humanity in the life of the Father, Son and Spirit. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this topic. My research took me to the  Per Crucem ad Lucem  blog, which references the work of Gary Deddo ( click here  to view a WCG interview with Deddo). A recent blog post summarized Deddo's book, “Karl Barth’s Theology of Relations.” Deddo presents Barth's understanding of our humanity (a trinitarian anthropology) and then examines the implications of that anthropology for family relations.  Below is an edited version of this blog post.  I hope you, as have I, will find it helpful in thinking prayerfully about our participation in the Triune life and love in the context of our homes and churches. A TRINITARIAN ANTHROPOLOGY ...

In my last post I addressed questions concerning the continuing humanity of Jesus. People are often surprised to learn that Jesus remains permanently fully human, even as he remains permanently fully divine. The Bible does not discuss in comprehensive, systematic detail the specifics of Jesus dual nature when he was on earth, nor now as he is in heaven. What the Bible does is to make many statements that cause us to think deeply about the nature of Jesus, and thus come to an understanding that is faithful to Scripture and to the nature of Jesus as he is revealed to be.   The early church had many years of discussion (and even division) concerning Jesus nature, and concluded that Jesus was (and still is), fully God and fully human: one person with two inseparable (but not co-mingled or confused) natures ( click here  to read the first creed that addressed Jesus dual nature, and here to read an additional creed that added to that understanding).  P...