Tag: Concrete

Death, just like life, in the secular and pagan realm, but even in the Christian realm, insofar as the latter mirrors the former—and it does at ubiquitous levels—is thought of in abstract and wondrous terms; indeed, in fearful terms. But for the Christian all things have been resurrected; including our dead bodies. We are now of the ‘firstborn from the dead,’ Jesus Christ. But this is to the point: when we contemplate our own mortality, which most of us attempt to hideaway from, most of us conjure some type of ethereal somethingness “out there,” that doesn’t seem real to us….

Faith as understood in a biblical frame, as Calvin, for example, understood so well, isn’t an abstract secular imaginary, but instead it is a living knowledge of God grounded in the faith of Christ for us. For the secularist faith is as subjective as the center of their own in-turned navel; a wishful thing that they can only hope might be the case. This is not the Christian ground for thinking faith. Faith isn’t a magic wand waved in order to bring nothing into something of our own fantastical imaginations. Faith is what the vicarious Man, Jesus Christ, has for…

An abstract notion of saving faith, based on an abstract, or even undefined doctrine of election, always must attempt to make itself concrete. It must seek a way to fill in the gap created by a notion of faith wherein the believer believes out of an idea of faith that is seemingly inherent to them, or individually gifted to THEM. The antidote to this abstract notion of faith is to come to understand that people believe or trust out of Christ’s vicarious faith for us. It is by His poverty for us that we have become rich; that we can…