Just had a really refreshing and encouraging conversation with a guy in ministry. We spoke about being trinitarian and being biblical and how the bible guys and the trinity guys don't always seem to be in the same camp. And then there's the Spirit dudes who fall into these and other camps.
I went away from the conversation thinking - "Be a Jesus guy."
Don't be a trinity guy. Don't be a bible guy. Don't be a Spirit guy. Be a Jesus guy. To be sure you must be trinitarian and Scripture soaked and Spirit filled to be a Jesus guy - and self-consciously so. But not first and foremost.
I don't want to be known for trinitarianism. I don't want to be labelled a trinity guy. I want to be a Jesus guy. He's the Centre.
.
Everything can become sectarian: 1 Cor 1:12 :)
:) True. In the midst of sectarian squabbles nothing causes quite as much strife as the phrase, "I don't know about you guys, I just love Jesus."
Glen, provocative as ever -- and tremendous.
To crowd out, relegate or supplant CHRIST --
even with the most cherished and *accurate* "Christian" doctrines and practices --
is to miss Him entirely,
leaving us with dreary, vacuous, fraudulent -- Satanic -- religion.
"God"!
"The bible"!
"The Spirit"!
"The Trinity"!
Without JESUS, these are mere lifeless labels and concepts
which bring death.
JESUS CHRIST is the Spirit-Anointed and Spirit-Bestowing Revelation of the Trinitarian God.
JESUS CHRIST is the Reason for and Content of the Scriptures.
The treasures of wisdom and knowledge will forever be concealed from us; we will always be ignorant of them until
the One in Whom They Are Hidden
makes our acquaintance and fills our consciousness.
Let's each be a Jesus guy!
I guess you'll be glad to know that I actually call you "the Jesus guy" in conversation. :)
Verily! Jesus is the center, who, by His crucifixion and resurrection has joined His church to Himself in one person — the total Christ. We can't know the Trinity apart from Christ; nor can we know who Jesus is apart from the Trinity. Christ is the center, as well as God's end and purpose in history.
If Jesus is separated from the Trinity and His church, he becomes a gnostic ahistorical abstraction. "Jesus only" is a religion of mysticism and pietism. Even today there are some churches who practice baptism in the name of Jesus alone.
(Mark 10:9) What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.
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Thanks Andrew and John.
And Missy - humbled to be known as the Jesus guy. I don't deserve it, but I'll take it!!