To Think God as Love

If most Christian theologians have concerned themselves with what Jesus’ death means for humanity,  Jurgen Moltmann, nearly forty years ago, asked a different question: ‘What does the cross of Jesus mean for God himself?’ 1  I, as a Pentecostal, want to ask a more direct form of the question: What does Jesus’ suffering death mean for [...]

Erich Fromm, the social psychologist, wrote extensively about the nature and purpose of the conscience. In his Man for Himself he distinguishes between the “authoritarian” and the “humanistic” conscience. The former, he insists, in an evil because it dehumanizes man, invalidating his rightful freedom. On this score, Fromm strongly criticizes the Christian tradition for its [...]

ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοιςἐν Χριστῷ in the heavenlies in Christ As even a careless reader would notice, references to “the heavenlies” appear throughout this letter (1:3, 10, 20; 2:6; 3:10,15; 4:6, 8, 10; 6:9, 12). But what is the reality Paul is naming with this phrase (which by the way is peculiar to Ephesians)? According to [...]

πιστοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ the faithful in Christ Jesus… For Paul, the imperatives of the Christian life emerge from and depend upon the indicatives; the Should always already springs from the Is. This generative Is is no other than the person Jesus Christ: what is true of him is true also of those who are “in him.”  Only because he is faithful [...]

Παῦλος ἀπόστολος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ διὰ θελήματος θεοῦ Paul, Christ Jesus’ apostle by God’ will… This letter, like all Paul’s extant letters, opens with this identification. Apparently, it reflects Paul’s self-understanding, his knowledge of himself as one whose life was Christ-consumed. He was – at least he found himself to be - Christ’s Paul. “Paul… of Jesus Christ.” [...]

Many of us believe – no doubt because we’ve been told to believe – that to be saved is to be saved from God’s justice. Divine justice, so we’re told, requires eternal punishment for our sin(s), but mercifully we do not get what we deserve. Because of Christ’s substitutionary atoning death, God can now justly [...]