"The whole thing was accomplished before it started." -Robert Farrar Capon

The following is taken from an Interview with Robert Farrar Capon (RC).

Interviewer: Tim Brassell (TB)

Published in: Christian Odyssey

This is a portion taken from say the middleish ha:

"......TB: Does this tie in, would you say, with Romans, where Paul says, "Nothing separates us from the love of God?"

RC: Of course. It’s very hard for the human race to accept that cold: "Nothing separates us from the love of God." We think there must be some breaking point where God would give up on us. "Well, what about if we…?"

Sin is not a problem with God. God solved all his problems with sin before the foundation of the world, in the beginning—and it’s done. The iceberg that lies under the surface of history is the Son of God; redemption is the mystery behind all history. Sin is a permanent irrelevancy. And God is the one to say, "Look, I have taken away the handwriting that was against you."

I like the translation in Matthew, "forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors." What do we do when we don’t forgive somebody else’s debts, or literally, their sins? We carp on what they owe us. We look at the chits that we have saved. This is what you owe me and you haven’t given it to me. There is an IOU I hold against you, and I gotta have this…. Well, it’s not that way with God. With God, it’s done—there is no handwriting against us. It’s done. He’s not holding IOUs.

TB: So why do we have such a love affair with legalism?

RC: It’s something that’s afflicted the church from the start. Humans have a hard time believing that God doesn’t hold IOUs. But Paul says the law cannot save. He says, "He has made him to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him."

TB: Have you found an effective way to present the gospel to a legalist?

RC: No (laughter). The reason I say no is because all that you’re going to do is present it and shock them. If you try to do it in a winsome way, which I always do, and try to do it to show them the freedom of it, then you’ve got a chance. A small chance, not a big one, but you’ve got a chance—because, when it happens—people go, "Wow!"

I was made visiting professor of something or other in religion at the University of Tulsa for the fall term back in the ’80s or ’90s. I had two classes. One was a 39-week beginning course. I taught the parables, and I had, I would say, everybody against me. All these youngsters were against me because what I was saying was against everything they had ever heard. I pounded and pounded and pounded for 39 weeks. I went through every parable.

One young lady came up to me at the end and said: "You know, when I first came here I didn’t like anything you said, because it contradicted everything I knew. But, you have done something. For the first time in my life I see that it really is good news" (laughter). They thought the gospel was bad news! That’s what legalism does to people."

Find the whole interview here: Robert F. Capon Interview

Life of the party: keep the feast

Luke 5: 33 They asked him, "John's disciples are well-known for keeping fasts and saying prayers. Also the Pharisees. But you seem to spend most of your time at parties. Why?"
34 Jesus said, "When you're celebrating a wedding, you don't skimp on the cake and wine. You feast.- Message

A letter to the loved.

Gift, gift, gift: everything about real life is a gift. Salvation and holiness are a gift that was given before the foundation of the world. Signed, sealed, delivered and the expression of the perfection physically, was when Christ stepped into time as a man. Love-filled, Jesus perfectly completed the work as us, hanging on a tree saying "It is finished"(This to me speaks of the total removal of all our badness for His goodness. "...The first Adam received life..." Jesus "the Last Adam  is a life-giving Spirit....a final completion coming out of heaven.." 1Cor 15: 45, 47 Message translation). "In God's economy, Christ represents us; what man could never achieve through personal discipline and willpower as taught in every religion, God's faith accomplished in Christ." notes on 1Cor 2:12 Mirror "even though I know of nothing against my conscience, I am not thereby acquitted. The point is not how we judge ourselves or one another; the Lord's judgment is the only valid reference to our innocence. Any judgment prior to the Lord's coming is out of context. (The days of performance based judgment are over!) His coming illuminates all the hidden mysteries (concerning man's inclusion in Christ. 1 Cor.2:7,8)..." 1Cor 4: 4-5 Mirror

"The gospel is centred in God's Son and tells of a new existence given graciously to all who believe and trust in its power" Rom, 1:3 Phillips translation

Here is an interesting quote from C.S Lewis which may be almost what you guys are saying " Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong , but too weak. We are half hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea"

Or maybe you are trying to put across a message similar to this from Benjamin Dunn: "All of us who are believers are lifted from the pit (the slum)of sinfulness and self-possession into the glorious and heavenly perfections of Christ......The gift is given freely to all, without reservation. That all-inclusive satisfying gift is Christ!…Sometimes what happens, is we try to tier our salvation experience like a frequent flyer program. the longer we fly, the more ladders we climb; the more religious dues we pay, the more upgrades we get………Sanctification, HOLINEsS, and every other good thing, though being works of Christ, available freely…then become progressive works based not on the efforts of Christ but ours; on how long and how hard we've worked for them. What we literally have then, is some people that are "Holier than thou"" (Brackets mine).

So I think  what I am picking up in what some of you are saying is that we have to go after holiness? Am I wrong? If so do we ever get it in time? To put it another way: Tonight Kate (My wife) has gone to a girls-only-birthday-party of a friend of ours. She has taken her a card as a GIFT. Now is Kate going to say to our friend: "Here is your gift but I am going to dangle it in-front of you and you have to pursue it?" "Now you are going to get it based on your performance of pursuing, or you may never get it at all before you die." Not sure I have ever given a gift that way. Have you?

" And because of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30, ESV)
He is your sanctification. Any system that tries to draw your attention away from the person of Christ and onto your own efforts is Antichrist in nature. Your union with God is not an incomplete relationship that comes progressively. Time is not the magic formula that makes you holy. Jesus' sacrifice made you holy. Christ's work was enough to purify you, spirit, soul and body.
Often, when intellectuals cannot explain something adequately, they use the element of "time" as a magic ingredient to cover up their lack of understanding....." John Crowder- Mystical Union

‎"(If righteousness had anything to do with personal merit or performance, then only the good enough amongst us would qualify)(The word, lanchano, to be measured out beforehand, to be allocated something by allotment, emphasizes the fact that nothing we did or determined to achieve had any influence upon God to qualify us." Portion from 2Peter 1:1 notes by Francois Du Toit

"God’s rest celebrates His finished work; whoever enters into God’s rest immediately abandons his own efforts to complement what God has already perfected. (The language of the law is “do”; the language of grace is “done.”)"- Hebrews 4:10 Mirror Translation

I want to encourage you with this because if you think you are going to get holier based on what you do: Christ died in vain. Jesus died to make us totally right, right now. He was right in making us right. We are right because He is right. We are One: total happy union.

Now as far as this free 'right' goes, we are lived through by Christ to do good and not bad. In other words we do not use this Freedom to do bad things to one another. But we are thankful, satisfied and celebrating the truth that we are loved and Love effortlessly flows out of us as a river of life towards others.

"There never was such a thing as a created selfhood that could operate by itself....So now I am joyfully free from that wearisome lie of self-management (which in fact never was), and love every new interest and enticing adventure of my True Owner." Norman Grubb

Galatians 2:20: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Or in the Distilled Bible translation:
" I consider myself as having died and now I am enjoying a second existence which is simply Jesus using my body."
Or verse 19 and 20 in the Mirror translation:
" My co-crucifixion with Christ is valid! I am not making this up; in his death I died to the old system of trying to please God with my own good behavior! God made me alive together with Christ (in his resurrection! Hos.6:2, Eph.2:5.) How can any human effort improve on this!The terms, co-crucified and co-alive defines me now. Christ in me and I in him! (John 14:20) His sacrificial love is evidence of his persuasion of my righteousness! (He believes in my innocence; it would be offensive to the cross to continue to seek to be justified by personal effort!)"

"Jesus has not only sanctified you or made you holy, He has perfected you forever!"- Joseph Prince

So Christ not only has given salvation and holiness but also maintains it. He is the goodness in us towards other people. He is the love. Jesus is the one healing and raising the dead through us. Jesus is our perfection.

"Christ has opened all His treasuries and given you all your breakthroughs in one fell swoop on the cross!.........your old sinful nature was completely, once and for all circumcised away.....but .... the yeast of Judaic religion still holds strong. For instance, people still pray and beg for holiness. They plead to be "purged." This alone is a telltale sign of absolute unbelief in the finished work of the cross. Religion wants you to kill yourself to earn holiness. There is a straining and a striving that is not suggestive of true faith. Jesus died to give you what you could never gain on your own. Religion gives us reams of books, keys and formulas for trying to get something that we already have as a free gift."- John Crowder: Seven Spirits burning pg55

"Grace has already done it; Law requires something to be done.
Grace has given man no boast but Jesus. Christ is Grace; Christ is love; Christ and God are one. Jesus is our salvation/righteousness/holiness/perfection/goodness.  Jesus is: God and us as One: reconciled. One big happy One" -Jarah McNamara

"God saves us single-handedly............The word of the gospel- after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps- suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home free before they started." -Robert Farrar Capon

So I could go on and on cos this stuff excites me: all of the huge happy tidings (Gospel).
And also just so you know I like Paul (Romans 6) do not endorse sin.
………..Big love and bliss all yours

J

Good Grace

"Grace has already done it; Law requires something to be done.

Grace has given man no boast but Jesus. Christ is Grace; Christ is love; Christ and God are one. Jesus is our salvation/righteousness/holiness/perfection/goodness.  Jesus is: God and us as One: reconciled. One big happy One" -Jarah McNamara

"God saves us single-handedly............The word of the gospel- after all those centuries of trying to lift yourself into heaven by worrying about the perfection of your bootstraps- suddenly turned out to be a flat announcement that the saved were home free before they started." -Robert Farrar Capon

Dancing Daddy

God rejoices over you with gladness, he renews you in his love; he exults over you with loud singing and spins around in joyful dancing! Zeph 3:17

"God's faith sees everyone equally justified in Jesus Christ"

‎"(If righteousness had anything to do with personal merit or performance, then only the good enough amongst us would qualify)(The word, lanchano, to be measured out beforehand, to be allocated something by allotment, emphasizes the fact that nothing we did or determined to achieve had any influence upon God to qualify us." Portion from 2Peter 1:1 notes by Francois Du Toit

Already perfect

4:10 God’s rest celebrates His finished work; whoever enters into God’s rest immediately abandons his own efforts to complement what God has already perfected. (The language of the law is “do”; the language of grace is “done.”)- Mirror

Perfected forever party!

"Jesus has not only sanctified you or made you holy, He has perfected you forever!"- Joseph Prince

Oh the joy!

"O, the joy of being overwhelmed by a truth much larger than our ability to capture and categorise it!"-Andre Rabe

Lie of self-management

"There never was such a thing as a created selfhood that could operate by itself....So now I am joyfully free from that wearisome lie of self-management (which in fact never was), and love every new interest and enticing adventure of my True Owner." Norman Grubb