Trinitarian Essence is Love

From here: http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/2012/06/28/the-page-that-changed-my-life-owen-strachan/


Jonathan Edwards:
God's Trinitarian essence is love. God's purpose in creating a universe in which sin is permitted must be to communicate that love to creatures. The highest or most beautiful love is sacrificial love for the undeserving. Those---ultimately the vast majority of humans---who are given eyes to see that ineffable beauty will be enthralled by it. They will see the beauty of a universe in which unsentimental love triumphs over real evil. They will not be able to view Christ's love dispassionately but rather will respond to it with their deepest affections. Truly seeing such good they will have no choice but to love it. Glimpsing such love, they will be drawn away from their preoccupations with the gratifications of their most immediate sensations. They will be drawn from their self-centered universes. Seeing the beauty of the redemptive love of Christ is the true center of reality, they will love God and all that he has created.

Article VII - Of the Old Testament (39 Articles)

Once, when I was talking to an Anglican minister about Jesus in the Old Testament, and called this the 'Blackham view', I was rebuked and told to stop calling this the 'Blackham view'. This debate in about faith in Jesus in the Old Testament or faith in the promises of God is not a recent, but old one. Perhaps surprisingly, those who came up with the 39 Articles saw this debate to be so crucial that they sought to address it alongside the papist errors of Rome: "The Old Testament is not contrary to the New: for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting life is offered to Mankind by Christ, who is the only Mediator between God and Man, being both God and Man. Wherefore they are not to be heard, which feign that the old Fathers did look only for transitory promises." Those who maintain that the OT saints knew and trusted in Jesus for salvation, are simply following what has always been believed by the Church throughout history, and should be believed by all, not least by Anglicans, since we claim to hold on to the 39 Articles. Article 7 on the OT is strongly worded, especially in the application when faced with those who deny that the OT believers trusted in Jesus. But what do you reckon? Should we stop listening to those who falsely claim that the OT saints trusted only the promises and not in Christ Himself? Should we warn our congregations to stop listening to those who have departed from that which is maintained by the above Article, just as we might warn people against the errors of Rome?

Judgement and Salvation

Great set of talks here

http://christthetruth.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/five-talks-on-isaiah/

Glen - perhaps you can clarify for me:

in salvation there is the embrace of judgement
perhaps we could say that the church faces judgement in loving voluntary rehabilitation (which can be strict)
rather than in forced incarceration?

So in the body of Christ, healing still involves pain? - like severe reconstructive surgery
(as light purges the darkness from our bones)