In my first post in this series, I addressed the common Christian cliche that "God has a wonderful plan for your life." As is the case with most faulty Christian cliches, I suggested there is an element of truth to the statement, though the context in which it is used generally does not fit the biblical pattern. In this post I would like to address a second, very common Christian cliche. But before we get there, I'd also like to remind that my intent with this series is not belittlement or mockery, but edification and instruction. With that said, the second faulty
2 Comments
I've been wanting for sometime to do this series and decided to finally just jump into it. Hopefully I can address these with some consistency over the next few weeks. There are certainly more cliches than I will touch on (if you have some that you'd like to get my take on, feel free to send them my way), but these are fairly prevalent in most Christian circles.
The death and resurrection of Jesus extends far beyond our individual eternal fates. It brings the defeat of all the evil powers which plague the world. As we see the ever-presence of evil in our world, we should be reminded of the story of Scripture which sets evil in proper perspective.
New Testament scholars frequently speak of the “powers” in the writings of the apostle Paul. By the powers, we refer to those spiritual forces which are invisibly at work in the world, holding sway over those who do not share in the victory of the Messiah. Probably the most well-known examples of the powers in Paul are Sin and Death, which Paul personifies, particularly in Romans 5-8. Sin and Death are not just consequences or ideas, they are active forces waging war upon the cosmos. Through human disobedience (Adam in particular), Sin enters |
Archives
October 2016
Categories
All
|