We thought it was about time we had a fresh look at the central symbol of our faith, the cross. So we headed off to Tom Wright’s house to asked him how the cross launched Jesus’s revolution, and why after 2000 year does it often look like the revolution is struggling to transform the world.
Interview starts at 6m 23s
Image provided by University of St Andrews Used with permission.
BOOKS
The Day the Revolution Began: Rethinking The Meaning Of Jesus’ Crucifixion
QUOTES
“Humans worship these powers because they give you a cheap thrill. That’s what idolatry does, it enables you to get a sudden rush, of whatever it is you want, without paying the price of actually being obedient to the creator God. Result is these powers, these forces say thank you very much, I’m now in charge now and you’re going to do what I tell you to do.”
“The image of the cross is not an image of God Himself doing violence, it’s an image of violence doing it’s worst against God, it’s of God coming to the very epicentre of human horror and taking the worst that the world can do onto himself.”
To be in Christ is to obey him, to obey him requires faith in him. But to have faithful obedience is to commit suicide, that is an ego death, a self empting, a detachment from the desires in our bodies. This may mean we allow others to kill us for Christ’s sake as Stephen demonstrated. It may require a literal interpretation of gouging out our eyes, cutting off our hands, or our stones. Truly a faithful obedience, unlike the faith taught be what we see today. We do have a helper , if only we would remember to pray for his assistance when temptation becomes strong, deceiving us. That deception can be very powerful, so it truly does require practice, and for some, it may require extreme faithful measures, whom we ought to commend, not mock or criticize, as is the cultural norm today.
Rom. 7:11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
So, when we are in Christ (faithful obedience), we kill the sin in us, and when that sin is dead, we become alive in Christ. To be alive in Christ is a present moment state, that has to constantly be within our Awareness and Attention. Allow weight lifting as an analogy, we are given enough weight (temptation) just beyond our ability to lift, but Christ has given us a spotter, the Holy Spirit, who helps us just enough, to get that weight off our chest, as we practice, with help we become stronger. We also need each other’s help.
That is why I believe Christ had to die for us, so that the spirit in him would be poured out to help us all. The two goats are one, the slaughtered goat is the “death to self” the goat made to wander, with sin is the devil, death, sin that lives within us as long as we are alive in our current bodies, but dead to sin in Christ. We are as Christ was on the cross, outside the camp accursed until our current bodies dies, or Christ, our head, returns.
Reread Romans 6,7,&8.
Bought the new David Benjamin Blower Album and I love it.
Wright and Alastair McIntosh play their parts superbly. And David’s work definitely helps open my imagination to experience the New Creation.
Brilliant! Really glad you like it. I’ll let David know, he’ll be very encouraged! Tim