A Humble Proposition

    What if I proposed that the goal of Christ’s mission was not the forgiveness of sins?  What would you say if I said that forgiveness was the means by which God the Son reconciled humanity to God the Father in order that God the Holy Spirit might gather them into the Kingdom of God?

    Same thing, you say?

    We might use those two concepts interchangeably the way we use republic and democracy interchangeably.  (Guess which the USA is...) But just like democracies and republics are similar concepts that function entirely differently so too are the two potential missions of Christ.

    If the forgiveness of humanity was the goal, then the church ought to behave one way.  If accomplishing the will of the Father to be united with his beloved children, on His terms, was the goal then the church must behave in an entirely different way.  If the one way, then the only real question for the church is “how can we uplift humanity to receive the gift of forgiveness?”  If the other way, then the only real question for the church is “how are we called to be the Kingdom of God, which we have been grafted into, in this place and at this time?”  Proclaiming forgiveness may be (and certainly is) one way, but only as we understand it as a means to serve the will of God the Father, in God the Son, through God the Holy Spirit....and that is a republic of a different color.