Bonhoeffer: salvation in the story of Jesus

Saturday, February 19, 2022
Meditation:
    But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
    —1 Corinthians 15:12-14 (NIV)
Quotation:
    The fact that Jesus Christ died is more important than the fact that I will die. And the fact that Jesus Christ rose from the dead is the sole ground of my hope that I, too, shall be raised on the day of judgment. Our salvation is “from outside ourselves”. I find salvation not in my life story, but only in the story of Jesus Christ.
    ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), Life Together [1954], tr. Daniel W. Bloesch & James H. Burtness, Fortress Press, 2004, p. 62 (see the book)
    See also 1 Cor. 15:12-14; Rom. 5:17; 8:10-11; 10:8-9
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, because of Your faithfulness, I have hope. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Donne: the quality of rejoicing

Friday, February 18, 2022
Meditation:
For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her righteousness shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
    —Isaiah 62:1 (NIV)
Quotation:
    Joy is peace for having done that which we ought to have done: and therefore it is well expressed... To have something to do, to do it, and then to rejoice in having done it, to embrace a calling, to perform the duties of that calling, to joy and rest in the peaceful testimony of having done so; this is christianly done, Christ did it; angelically done, angels do it; godly done, God does it.
    ... John Donne (1573-1631), Works of John Donne, vol. V, London: John W. Parker, 1839, Sermon CXXXI, p. 346 (see the book)
    See also Isa. 62:1; Zeph. 3:17; Matt. 7:24; Mark 3:35; Luke 10:21; 15:10; John 4:34; 6:38-40; Rom. 12:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, lead my heart to desire Your will. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Origen: outward sign, inward grace

Thursday, February 17, 2022
    Feast of Janani Luwum, Archbishop of Uganda, Martyr, 1977
Meditation:
    It is not as though God’s word had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.
    —Romans 9:6 (NIV)
Quotation:
    “For not all those are Israelites who are of Israel” nor are all those straightway washed with the Holy Spirit who are washed with water; just as, conversely, those who are numbered among the catechumens are not all deprived and bereft of the Holy Spirit. For I find in the divine Scriptures several catechumens who were held worthy of the Holy Spirit and that others after receiving baptism were unworthy of the grace of the Holy Spirit. Cornelius was a catechumens and before he came to the water he desired to receive the Holy Spirit. Simon [Magus] had received baptism but he was refused the gift of the Holy Spirit because he approached the grace with hypocrisy.
    ... Origen (185?-254?), from Hom. in Numeros, iii.1, in The Early Christian Fathers, Henry Scowcroft Bettenson, London: Oxford University Press, 1969, p. 342 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 9:6; Num. 3:5-39; Acts 8:9-24; 10:1-3,44-48
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, correct me whenever I use the Gospel instead of permitting the Gospel to use me. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Ryle: hating sin

Wednesday, February 16, 2022
Meditation:
    Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.
    —Romans 12:9 (NIV)
Quotation:
    How much we ought to hate sin! Instead of loving it, cleaving to it, dallying with it, excusing it, playing with it, we ought to hate it with a deadly hatred. Sin is the great murderer, and thief, and pestilence, and nuisance of this world. Let us make no peace with it. Let us wage a ceaseless warfare against it. It is “the abominable thing which God hateth.” Happy is he who is of one mind with God, and can say, I “abhor that which is evil.”
    ... J. C. Ryle (1816-1900), Expository thoughts on the Gospels, with the text complete, St. Luke, v. I, Ipswitch: William Hunt, 1858, p. 209 (see the book)
    See also Rom. 12:9; Jer. 44:4; Luke 7:11-17; Rom. 5:12
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, help me to hate my sin. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Faber: Thou hadst no youth, great God

Tuesday, February 15, 2022
    Commemoration of Thomas Bray, Priest, Founder of SPCK, 1730
Meditation:
You, O LORD, reign forever;
    your throne endures from generation to generation.
    —Lamentations 5:19 (NIV)
Quotation:
            Thou hadst no youth, great God,
        An Unbeginning End Thou art;
            Thy glory in itself abode,
        And still abides in its own tranquil heart:
    No age can heap its outward years on Thee:
Dear God! Thou art Thyself Thine own eternity!
    ... Frederick William Faber (1814-1863), Hymns, New York: E. P. Dutton, 1877, p. 18-19 (see the book)
    See also Lam. 5:19; Hab. 1:12; Rom. 1:20; 1 Tim. 6:15-16; 2 Pet. 3:8
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, You reign supreme forever. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Owen: the secret of communion with God

Monday, February 14, 2022
    Feast of Cyril & Methodius, Missionaries to the Slavs, 869 & 885
    Commemoration of Valentine, Martyr at Rome, c.269
Meditation:
    Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous? Why are you silent while the wicked swallow up those more righteous than themselves?
    —Habakkuk 1:13 (NIV)
Quotation:
    I come now to declare what it is wherein peculiarly and eminently the saints have communion with the Father; and this is LOVE,—free, undeserved, and eternal love. This the Father peculiarly fixes upon the saints; this they are immediately to eye in him, to receive of him, and to make such returns thereof as he is delighted withal. This is the great discovery of the gospel: for whereas the Father, as the fountain of the Deity, is not known any other way but as full of wrath, anger, and indignation against sin, nor can the sons of men have any other thoughts of him,—here he is now revealed peculiarly as love, as full of it unto us; the manifestation whereof is the peculiar work of the gospel.
    ... John Owen (1616-1683), Of Communion with God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost [1657], in Works of John Owen, v. II, London: Johnson & Hunter, 1851, p. 19 (see the book)
    See also Hab. 1:13; Ps. 5:4-6; Isa. 33:13-14; Rom. 1:18; Eph. 2:3-4; Tit. 3:4
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, fill my heart with Your love. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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Rees: the Spirit acts on humanity

Sunday, February 13, 2022
Meditation:
    The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
    —Luke 1:35 (NIV)
Quotation:
    One notable limitation of the sphere assigned to the Holy Spirit in the New Testament, as compared with Hebrew and Jewish literature, is that it is nowhere described as the agent of creation or as a cosmic principle. It does not act upon external nature, and it stands in no causal relation to the physical universe. God made the world and all things therein (Acts 17:24; Rom. 1:20); and both Paul and John conceive Christ or the Logos as the medium of creation and as the reason and end of the universe (1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; John 1:3; cf. Heb. 1:2). But in their teaching, as in the rest of the New Testament, the Holy Spirit acts only upon humanity. In one instance only was it conceived as acting in any way in the physical sphere, where it mediated the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ (Matt. 1:18; Luke 1:35), and that act lay within the sphere of human life. Otherwise its operations lay entirely within the field of conscious experience. The Christian C hurch realised the fact of the Spirit first as a living, present, overpowering, unique, and exalted experience.
    ... Thomas Rees (1869-1926), The Holy Spirit in Thought and Experience, New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1915, p. 84 (see the book)
    See also Luke 1:35; Matt. 1:18; John 1:3; Acts 17:24; Rom. 1:20; 1 Cor. 8:6; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2
Quiet time reflection:
    Lord, Your Spirit animates the whole church. CQOD    Blog    email    RSS
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