Reading on Contemplative Prayer

I'm finding this an exciting and challenging book to read. Quite outside my tradition within the Church and so good to read a well respected and recommended author.

The following quote is from early in the book where Von Balthasar is discussion the role of the Father in contemplative prayer:

'"... this comprehensive work of salvation originates with the Father as Creator. He has established human nature, and it is he who defines and bestows its ultimate goal. It is out of love that he has done this, not out of necessity or mere justice, as if the greatness and dignity of created spiritual nature "demanded" it. He committed and "gave" (Jn 3:16) his only Son to this most sublime and free task of love; he took the raptus, mere nature's dizzy flight toward its heavenly goal, and focussed it in the Person of the incarnate Son who binds together God and man, heaven and earth, whom he sent "in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin" and in whose flesh he condemned sin( Rom 8:3)' (pages 42-43)

What a great deal we lose here if God is not Creator. Our salvation is not a small work undertaken by us, or by some 'contained within creation deity', our salvation is the ultimate goal of the purposes of God the Father who is the Creator of all things.

How hard it must be to understand and relate to a passage like this in Von Balthasar unless one submits to a form of atonement by the Son, which is both in the will of God and offered towards God as the object of that atonement.

And then to ponder that this God has opened a way for us that we might contemplate him, as he is in himself, and through which he draws us ever more closely to himself as the outcome of his purposes of salvation.

The Jewel: The way of the cross (Matthew 16:21-28)

An example
Children are copycats. Unfortunately when we grow up we stop copying those wiser than ourselves and start make our own mistakes. And then we copy ourselves, repeating our mistakes. Almost always these are mistakes others have made before us and we could have avoided, but we’re such copycats.
The Lord Jesus is our example as he tells us in John chapter 13:15 in relation to feet washing, but surely he is an example to us in many other ways also. He is an example for us in his work on the cross.

The way Christ walked
The Lord Jesus kept his eyes fixed upon the cross. He taught his disciples that his way was the way of the cross.
Knowing what lies before him the Lord Jesus lives in obedience to his Father’s will. This is what he must do; this is what he does.
In all that he suffered he was personally innocent and suffered unjustly. And yet he endured patiently this unjust suffering. He could have escaped and avoided this suffering, but he did not.
He really was crucified, dead and buried. There is no greater self-denial than dying for another. He gave up everything for us.
This is the way of Christ that he calls us to follow.

The way we follow
In Matthew 16:24 the Lord Jesus takes each of these three examples and directs them to his disciples.
Disciples don’t lead, they follow. This is self-denial. Serving others first is the way we must follow our Servant King.
Disciples patiently endure unjust suffering, there is no plotting revenge, no exploding with rage. ‘Father forgive them’ is the prayer of the disciple following the Servant King.
Disciples obey their Lord and master. Learning what the Lord Jesus says disciples commit themselves to obedience, to learning the way of the Servant King.

The way of the cross
This is the example Christ has set us, this is the only way anyone can follow as his disciple. Will you follow him today?

The Jewel: Christ our Substitute (Galatians 3:1-13)

Substitutes
We all know what a substitute is. With the amount of sport on TV it would be difficult not to be aware of substitutes. In one of our Easter hymns we sing together, ‘Bearing shame and scoffing rude, In my place condemned he stood.’ The Lord Jesus is our substitute.

A legal picture
The only way to understand Jesus being our substitute is to realise this is a legal picture. The law which God has given us is conditional: if you keep the law you live, if you disobey you will not live. Our human condition is that no one can keep God’s law. We need a substitute; someone who will take our place and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

Christ our substitute
Christ, who does not deserve to be cursed, becomes a curse for us (Gal 3:13). We deserve the punishment which falls upon him. This is why the word penal can be used when referring to Christ's work as our substitute.
But we must remember Christ is innocent; he is perfectly obedient doing all his Father’s will. He is obedient for those who cannot obey: you and me.

The benefits of Christ’s substitution
All that we need to do to be right with God Christ has done for us. By faith we swop places with Jesus. Now that Christ has paid our penalty God will not demand a second payment from us. All that we need to be right with God is found in Christ, and is ours by faith in Christ, as we are united with him.

A great jewel
What will you do with such a precious jewel?
When you look at it remember that you have God’s promise. God promises to make you right with him in Christ, because of all that Christ has done for you.
Do you remember, gazing upon this jewel, that God loves you, loves you so much that Jesus came and died for you. God loves you this much, Jesus took your place.Will you keep this jewel to yourself? Will you not rather show it off to all whom you meet, telling them how much God loves you, and if you, how much he loves them? What a gracious and loving God we have. ‘Hallelujah, what a Saviour!’

The Jewel: Christ the obedient second Adam (Romans 5:12-21)

Adam and Christ
Decisions once made can be unmade. Mistakes can be corrected. As the light catches another face of that jewel, which is the cross work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we see reflected Christ the obedient second Adam.
Adam is a pattern, a foreshadow, of the Lord Jesus Christ. As the climax of God’s creation Adam was to have dominion over creation. God gives great promises to Adam. When he falls Adam falls from a great height; when he falls, we all fall with him.

Repeats in reverse
Where Adam disobeyed in every way Christ obeys. But in reverse. Christ works over the story of Adam, repeating Adam’s fall in reverse. All that Adam should have been, but wasn’t, Christ is.

Restoration
As he works over Adam’s story the Lord Jesus restores all that Adam has lost. And this not only for himself, but for us all. In place of death Christ works for us life. In place of condemnation, justification. In place of alienation from God, now there is a renewed fellowship with God.

Realisation
The Adam story is told using the language of covenant; God has made promises to Adam. What would have become true for Adam had he not fallen this is made true for us in Christ. The promises, the blessing are for now through Christ Jesus for those found in him.

Cash it in
No, it isn’t ungrateful to speak of a cash value for these things. What we believe, what God has done for us in Christ Jesus is for our lives today. The free gift of God is beyond price, our greatest treasure and our joy. Where Adam fell before enemies he could not defeat: sin, the devil, death, Christ triumphed and united with Christ we share his victory over every enemy.

The Jewel: God’s Free Love (1 John 4:7-12)

I wanted to post this week on the theme of the Cross of our Lord Jesus, which I often speak and think of as a great Jewel of unsurpassed beauty and worth which we can find in the pages of Scripture.

The Jewel
Diamonds are a girls best friend. There is a great jewel of unsurpassed worth lying before us in our New Testaments. Each year, every Easter we remember the cross of our Lord Jesus and yet few appreciate how precious and wonderful this work of Christ is.

Where do we begin?
To survey the wondrous cross, where do we begin? At the first Easter week? In Bethlehem’s stable? In the garden where Adam sinned? No, before this. “God so loved the world that he gave ...” (John 3:16)
The beginning of the formation of this great jewel is the free love of God for all peoples.

God’s free love
This free love of God is one of the themes of the passage, 1 John 4:7-21. God is love, but we ask, “Show me your love.”
Verses 9 and 10 – 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (ESV)
God displays his love in the cross of the Lord Jesus.
God’s love is free because there is no necessity compelling God to love us, to give his Son for us. He is free to love and to give.

Love one another
Knowing of the cross of the Lord Jesus we are to know that God loves us.
Knowing of God’s love for us, we are to tell others, for God also loves them.
Knowing God’s love we do not live in fear of the future, or the final judgment of God, because the Lord Jesus has died for us nothing can separate us from his love.Knowing God’s love for us we should love one another, sharing and displaying in our lives his great love for all peoples.