see you later.

I’m posting to say I won’t be posting in a while. See y’all soon! =)

Chinese History

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My 80 word summary of Romans 1-11

The Gospel. We are all sinners. We deserve wrath. However, God showed us clemency to Jews and Gentiles through Jesus Christ sent by the Father. We were saved in eternity past, saved in our present condition, and one day we will be saved and brought to completion at the day of Jesus Christ. And all this is for the glory of God.

My hope then rests in the glory of God for there is hope in the glory of God.

Calvin’s thoughts on Rom 11:25-26

Romans 11:25-26

25 Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

26 And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,
“The Deliverer will come from Zion,
he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”

From Calvin’s Commentary on the Book of Acts and Romans

And the fullness of the Gentiles to be taken for a great number: for it was not to be, as before, when a few proselytes connected themselves with the Jews; but such was to be the change, that the Gentiles would form almost the entire body of the Church.

And so all Israel, &c. Many understand this of the Jewish people, as though Paul had said, that religion would again be restored among them as before: but I extend the word Israel to all the people of God, according to this meaning, – ” When the Gentiles shall come in, the Jews also shall return from their defection to the obedience of faith, and thus shall be completed the salvation of the whole Israel of God, which must be gathered from both; and yet in such a way that the Jews shall obtain the first place, being as it were the first-born in God’s family.” This interpretation seems to me the most suitable, because Paul intended here to set forth the completion of the kingdom of Christ, which is by no means to be confined to the Jews, but is to include the whole world. The same manner of speaking we find in Gal 5:16. The Israel of God is what he calls the Church, gathered alike from Jews and Gentiles; and he sets the people, thus collected from their dispersion, in opposition to the carnal children of Abraham, who had departed from his faith.

My first thought when I read that first paragraph was a “Calvin would say that” thought. However I was surprised to read the second paragraph, which affirmed a lot of my thoughts about the role of the people of Israel (ethnic Jews). I’m not going to explain much in this post, but the bolded portion of the excerpt might give you a hint.

Besides the theological stance impositions that arise from the quoted excerpt, what stuck out to me from Calvin’s commentary on Romans 11:26 is that he thought Paul’s intention here was to set forth the completion of the kingdom of Christ, which includes the whole world. I think I mentioned it before in my posts, but upon reading about the kingdom of Christ I immediately recalled Nathan Busenitz sermon when I visited Grace Community Church a couple of months ago, where he said that the reason we are sitting on the pews of the Church that day was because God delayed the coming of Christ.

When I reflect on my Christian life, my thoughts on the second coming of Christ went through a couple of stages of testing. Firstly, I was ignorant of the second coming, not in the sense that I didn’t think it was ever going to happen, just that it wasn’t going to happen in my lifetime. So basically I could live however I felt like as long as I had one foot in Christendom. Secondly, I began to think, man~ it can actually happen during this lifetime, I just hope it will happen after college and after law school, maybe even after finding a job, oh yeah for sure after I get married, actually I want to see my kid, but I want to see him (it’s going to be a him… jk sorta) grow up, and I can’t just leave without seeing the course of my parents’ lives can I? This would go on and on and I would be back at stage one. I was willing to accept his coming in this lifetime as long as I was comfortable with it. The third stage had a somewhat of a more dramatic effect, whereas I actually wanted Christ’s 2nd coming to happen really soon, so I can transform to a glorified state and enjoy a heavenly earth and live happily and dandily in that light. However I think even a thought like that is dangerous because I desired the 2nd coming out of selfish desire and ambition from being “sick” of this world. The stage I am right now (or I think I am) is a state of waiting for the 2nd coming of Christ, however to wait with purpose. This “purpose” is not merely to be transformed into a glorified body (which I don’t think it is necessarily bad to think about) and live in a physical kingdom where Christ reigns, but I do think that the purpose for the reflection of the 2nd coming of Christ in our physical lives here on earth deals with knowing God and to letting God be known (sorry if that sounded cliched). Part of letting God be known is evangelism and I do think successful evangelism somehow always ends up needing a local Church that may continue to feed the new believer and follow up on those seeking salvation which occured solely through the grace of God in His work of softening hearts.

Well, at least I know why I am sitting on the chairs of my church in this day. Ultimately, I know my being in a church is not because of any merit, endurance and perseverance, rather it is because God has shown me clemency from my depravity, delayed his wrath, and convicted me of my sins and of Christ who has saved me from these sins. The realization of this progression did not come from the agent of my mind, but I am sure of this that it came from the Church, which Christ has established and carried forth through his disciples (Matt 16:18).

To wrap things up, I want to say I can’t wait until the Kingdom of Christ is established, but I know that it won’t happen until the fullness of the Gentiles come in. When will that happen? I’m not too sure, but one thing I know, Christ gave us a commission before he ascended.

A “Pre” Observation

Romans 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.