To mark Good Friday, an excerpt from Gene Edwards’ “Christian fiction,” The Divine Romance. Readers will find many details to quibble with (as I did) but for didactic purposes, this meditation on the crucifixion is unique and breathtaking.
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“Saul is in your bloodstream, in the marrow of your bones. He makes up the very flesh and muscle of your heart. He is mixed into your soul. He inhabits the nuclei of your atoms.”
No one who reads this blog has ever suffered at the hands of self-righteous, authoritarian church leaders, I’m sure.
[I find this one very hard to post. It gets a bit too close to the bone for me. But there is something here for all of us.]
From The Inward Journey, by Gene Edwards. [1]
Chris,
I’ll give you a riddle and if you can answer the question for me fully let me know. I have been ministering the Lord for three decades now. It has been a ministry within the walls of church life and a ministry which I hope—and believe—has been centred in the Lord Jesus Christ. But here is my mystery: There are some Christians who have come among us who are greatly flawed: they come, listen to the messages, take notes and never miss a meeting; they arrive at every 6 a.m. prayer meeting, read all the good books, do everything exactly as recommended for those who are young in Christ; they pray, sing, testify, wait patiently before the Lord, do everything that Scripture itself admonishes them to do. Yet, they do not change. Why is this? I do not know. But I have noticed something. On a few occasions, I have seen such deeply flawed brothers and sisters, after many years of going on unchanged, and sometimes getting away with near murder, I might add, confronted at last.
The Eternal Son came to earth and lived the Christian life . . . visibly. But pause for a moment. The Eternal Son is the second member of the Godhead (the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit). Did it ever occur to you that your Lord . . . the Lord Jesus Christ . . . stated publicly that he could not live the Christian life? Of himself, he could not live the Christian life (John 5:30). Isn’t that amazing! (So, if you’re having a hard time, just consider John 5:30.) Now let us inquire of him, “How did you live the Christian life?”
Was the mainstay of his Christian life prayer and Bible study? He did pray, but was prayer the central pillar of his secret to living the Christian life? That just does not seem to fit, does it? The Son depending on prayer and Bible study to make it through the day?
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