Καλά Χριστούγεννα σε όλους τους αναγνώστες. Μιας και τα Χριστούγεννα πλησιάζουν, σκεφτήκαμε να ανεβάσουμε ένα ενδιαφέρον χωρίο από το έργο ενός γνωστού δογματολόγου, του Thomas F. Torrance, περί της έλευσης του Χριστού, που βρήκαμε στο διαδίκτυο.
Ο Χριστός δεν ήρθε με δύναμη και δόξα στον κόσμο ως άλλος πολιτικός κοσμικός ηγέτης, αλλά ταπεινωμένος και αδύναμος νικάει πάντα μέσω του Σταυρού και προσκαλεί όλα τα όντα να τον ακολουθήσουν, ει θέλουν, μέχρι την δεύτερη του έλευση, την δεύτερή του παρουσία επί της γης.
"In his first Advent Jesus came not with glory and power but in grace and
humiliation. He came in such a way to enter into our guilty human life
and to heal it from within by His suffering and death on the
Cross. God could have destroyed all evil by a single stroke of his hand,
but far from saving or healing man that would have destroyed mankind
altogether along with sin and evil. Therefore God took a different
course altogether. In His infinite mercy and patience He stooped down in
Jesus Christ, and entered into our sinful human life with all its proud
self-sufficiency and incurable self-will, and when in enmity against
God and in proud rebellion against His grace man crucified Jesus on the
Cross, God took that Cross and made it the instrument for the healing of
the nations. And so it is by the same Cross preached among all nations
that God in Christ patiently seeks and saves the lost. It is because He
wants all men to be saved that Christ has planted His Cross in the midst
of history and through His Cross is still at work in the midst of
history, so that in a very real sense all history is gathered into the
passion of Christ. He has postponed His coming in power and glory
because He wants to rule over the hearts of men from His Cross; He wants
first to meet with every man at His Cross, there to release him from
his sin and guilt, there to ask of him the love of his heart, and there
to remake him as God’s dear child. But this time which God has given for
the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, time for repentance and
decision, does not go on for ever. It will have an end, for Jesus Christ
will return in power to fulfill what He has promised, to undo the past,
and to make all things new".
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