As I scan over the current events in the world, the posting on Facebook, Parley and Twitter – others of which I have no time to even check – I’m confronted with a very broken world that is very divided. The hopes and aspirations of mankind’s progression going back to the turn of the 20th century are truly in disarray, if not completely dashed.
Division ought to be expected because, thanks to postmodernism, there is no longer any fixed truth. There is little to no agreement in one standard. All you have is relativism. You don’t have to think too hard about what the result of that is going to be. If there is no one standard, then you will have people competing to have their “truth” established either as the norm or on an equal level with everyone else. But that cannot happen because some of these different “truths” are diametrically opposed to one other.
Black lives matter as opposed to all lives matter; gay rights versus the right of a child to a biological mother and father; black versus white versus red versus who knows what else – so the conflict goes on ad infinitum. There is not a lot of hope out there in the world at the moment and there won’t be while you have different “truths” vying for top billing.
The Bible is always relevant and speaks to this very thing.
The apostle Paul in the Book of Romans chapter 5 says that mankind is under a “head”. That head is Adam. The point of this is that as is Adam so is his progeny. As he defies God, so do his descendants. Adam is representative of current humanity. He is a terrible template but history shows that his nature is very much with us. There is hatred, wars and some terrible things done in the name of one’s ideology/religion. There is corruption, lies, cheating, stealing and the list goes on. Forgiveness is not something this world practises nor receives. Likewise, death is received by those who are born into “Adam”.
In contrast to this, Paul speaks of another “head” appearing. That head is Christ. God has seen the mess mankind has put himself in and has done something about it. He has created a new order open for all and this order appeared 2000 years ago. At the head of this new humanity is Christ.
The first thing we find is that being part of this new order means recognising that we have turned away from God. We defied him for our own agendas.
Secondly, this new order allows us access to the grace and forgiveness of God. He freely forgives us as we come to Him through our new head, Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, in coming to Christ, we accept what God decrees. We accept our head’s values and “truth”. In coming to this head, we find that race and biology are not bases for judgement and power struggles.
Finally, joy of joys, in coming to this new head, we inherit his legacy of a bodily resurrection. In weighing up the two “heads”, I know to which I would rather be joined!
Two Peoples, Two Heads
As I scan over the current events in the world, the posting on Facebook, Parley and Twitter – others of which I have no time to even check – I’m confronted with a very broken world that is very divided. The hopes and aspirations of mankind’s progression going back to the turn of the 20th century are truly in disarray, if not completely dashed.
Division ought to be expected because, thanks to postmodernism, there is no longer any fixed truth. There is little to no agreement in one standard. All you have is relativism. You don’t have to think too hard about what the result of that is going to be. If there is no one standard, then you will have people competing to have their “truth” established either as the norm or on an equal level with everyone else. But that cannot happen because some of these different “truths” are diametrically opposed to one other.
Black lives matter as opposed to all lives matter; gay rights versus the right of a child to a biological mother and father; black versus white versus red versus who knows what else – so the conflict goes on ad infinitum. There is not a lot of hope out there in the world at the moment and there won’t be while you have different “truths” vying for top billing.
The Bible is always relevant and speaks to this very thing.
The apostle Paul in the Book of Romans chapter 5 says that mankind is under a “head”. That head is Adam. The point of this is that as is Adam so is his progeny. As he defies God, so do his descendants. Adam is representative of current humanity. He is a terrible template but history shows that his nature is very much with us. There is hatred, wars and some terrible things done in the name of one’s ideology/religion. There is corruption, lies, cheating, stealing and the list goes on. Forgiveness is not something this world practises nor receives. Likewise, death is received by those who are born into “Adam”.
In contrast to this, Paul speaks of another “head” appearing. That head is Christ. God has seen the mess mankind has put himself in and has done something about it. He has created a new order open for all and this order appeared 2000 years ago. At the head of this new humanity is Christ.
The first thing we find is that being part of this new order means recognising that we have turned away from God. We defied him for our own agendas.
Secondly, this new order allows us access to the grace and forgiveness of God. He freely forgives us as we come to Him through our new head, Jesus Christ.
Thirdly, in coming to Christ, we accept what God decrees. We accept our head’s values and “truth”. In coming to this head, we find that race and biology are not bases for judgement and power struggles.
Finally, joy of joys, in coming to this new head, we inherit his legacy of a bodily resurrection. In weighing up the two “heads”, I know to which I would rather be joined!
Pastor David McAllan
Echuca Community Church