Dodd: meeting the Father

Sunday, September 24, 2017
Meditation:
    For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
    —Romans 5:6-8 (KJV)
Quotation:
    [Continued from yesterday]
    What knowledge of Jesus Christ and His teaching lay behind the flash of enlightenment it is now impossible for us to say: but it is clear that the God whom Paul met was the “Father” of Jesus’ own Gospel parables, the Shepherd who goes after the one sheep until He finds it. It was the God, in fact, whom the whole of the life of Jesus set forth, to the astonishment of those among whom He moved. Loving still, He brought God to men in the same unmistakable way. The divine love that through Jesus had found Zacchaeus the publican had now through the risen Jesus found Paul the Pharisee. Henceforward the central facts of life for Paul were that while he was yet a sinner God had found and forgiven him, and that this was the work of Jesus Christ in whose love the love of God had become plain.
    ... C. Harold Dodd (1884-1973), The Meaning of Paul for Today, London: Swarthmore, 1920, reprint, Fount Paperbacks, 1978, p. 75 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 5:6-8; Luke 15:4-6; 19:2-9; Rom. 8:35-39; 2 Cor. 5:14-15,18-19; Col. 1:13-15; Eph. 1:4-7; 2:4-10; 3:18-19; 5:1-2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You came for me, a sinner. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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