Today’s Scripture Reading (May 29,
2014): Ezekiel 36
Christianity,
at best, started as a small provincial belief system. Best guess is that at the
time of the death of Jesus Christ, the one who the religion is patterned after,
there were at best maybe 500 true believers of the faith. And there was no
obvious people group at whom the belief system was directed. For the Jews, the
target audience for the faith is obvious. Judaism is directed at the children
of Abraham, through Isaac and Jacob (the latter of the two would be renamed Israel.)
For Islam, the other sister faith of Christianity, the main audience of the
faith are the children of Abraham, through Ishmael. But for Christianity the
audience, at least according to the Apostle Paul, are the children of Abraham
through faith (Galatians 3). In other words, the directed audience of
Christianity is the world, or at least the portion of the world that wishes to
claim to be the descendants of Abraham in Spirit, whether or not they are
physically linked to the patriarch.
Paul
actually finds an echo of the Old Testament belief in Abraham in the Gospel
that is put forth in the Christian Testament. Paul writes “Understand, then,
that those who have faith [in Jesus Christ] are children of Abraham. Scripture
forsaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel
in advance to Abraham: “All nations will be blessed through you” (Galatians
3:7-8).
So, starting
with Paul, this small provincial faith with no real target audience has seen
itself as the realization of God’s promise to Abraham – and to Israel. It is a
promise that somehow through them they would bless the world. Admittedly, the
church has often failed at the task. Yet, somehow at the same time, the world
has often been blessed by God through the church.
And there is
an echo of this same idea in the words of Ezekiel. God says that he will show
the nations the holiness of his name, and that then the world will know. The
holiness of his name was summed up in the love that sent God to a cross to die
for the sins, not of the descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Ishmael, nor of
the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, but of the children of Abraham by
faith – the children of Abraham because they have chosen to be just that.
With Jesus
Christ lifted up on the cross, the world has seen the holiness of God. And
those who are willing to see that sacrifice made on their behalf also know that
the holiness of God truly has been proved in front of their eyes.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Ezekiel
37
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