Thursday, March 22, 2007

Good, Bad or Different?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
-2 Corinthians 5:17

Christians, along with the rest of humanity, are under the delusion that people, things, churches, worship styles, etc., can be broken up into two main groups: good and bad.

How often do we think of our own actions and lives as Christians as either being good or bad? How often to we think of the actions and lives as others as either being good or bad? Now, in truth, there most certainly are things that can be determined and rightly judged from the rule and norm of Scripture as being either good or bad, but can a Christian be good or bad when compared with other Christians or non-Christians?

I would argue that a Christian is neither good or bad in comparison to the world at large. A Christian is something wholly other. A Christian is DIFFERENT. Not different in the way that has come to be embraced by the secular religion of tolerance and blind, vehement inclusionism. Christians are different in that we are not wholly good or wholly bad. We are both and neither, we are totally different from anything else on this earth. We are different creatures in Christ. We live in Christ and have our identity in Him alone. And in losing our identity in His cross and the Holy Waters, we find our true identity in His glorious Resurrection.

Elohim Creating Adam by William Blake

How can this mystery, this holy wonder be perceived as anything but different, even more than different…other-worldly? We truly are new creatures in Christ, even while the old creature clings to us. This is a DIFFERENT thing. This is the beauty of the one true faith. This is life in Christ!

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