God “Sovereignly Elects” Human Faith as the Means for Our Receiving Shares of Christ’s Award for His Obedience

God regards our own human trust in Jesus, His Son and Israel’s Messiah as well as our Lord, to be righteousness not on account of ‘Christ’s own righteousness being imputed to us’, but solely on account of His “sovereign” and gracious choice of trust as the means of our receiving Christ’s just award for his own faithfulness and obedience, namely, the Holy Spirit of life and immortality that brought our Lord Jesus Christ back from the dead.  You want something good and “sovereign”?  Well, here it is.  [10/3/09]

“[God] spared not His own Son…” (Romans 8:32) from what?  From His own wrath?  That hardly seems plausible.  Rather, from the assaults of Satan and sinners, resulting in abuse and death…from which only God could save him!  [10/12/09]

Orthodox Evangelical theologians are CAMEL SWALLOWERS!  It’s a special gift, a talent.  And it is learned.  [10/23/09]

PENAL AVENGING vs. PREMIAL AVENGING (Psalm 94:1-2, 14-15)

Avenging (ekdik-), per se,  is indifferent with respect to polarity–whether penal (punitive) or premial (rewarding).  However, in English, it is uniformly biased in the penal direction.  This is perhaps largely due to the disposition of our entire Western criminal justice establishment, where “the state” intervenes between the offender and victim and disregards the premial justice due to the victim, but instead speaks of the offender’s “debt to society” and other such abstractions.  The right to an overcompensating reward is simply overlooked in criminal cases.  And the common abuses of civil reparations give the very idea a bad name.  [10/24/09]

Amending the so-called “doctrine of Atonement,” whatever the adjustment may entail, is no small feat, because it requires an adjustment of the “operating system.”  Any tweaking at the OS level can be a complicated and arduous procedure.  For any alleged improvement to be properly installed and fully integrated, the whole theological system needs to be shut down and every component examined for compatibility.  Few theologians are inclined to subject “every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5) as if they might possibly have been deceived along the way (which, to be sure, does seem rather inconceivable).  The heavy weight of tradition militates against any “new, improved” understandings at this very basic level of operating assumptions.  Change agents beware.  [10/25/09]