Critical reading of God's Word is critical
to understanding God's Word. Now
'critical' can be argumentative, disapproving or even unfavorable. That's not what I am talking about. When I use the word 'critical' in this sense,
I mean that we should be analytical, observant or even evaluative. For example, let me share with you a
well-known passage (I preached on this last Sunday):
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” (Romans 1:16, AV)
Notice that I used the Authorized
Version. Other versions support this
translation. For example in Romans 1:16
(NIV), we read: "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the
power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew,
then to the Gentile." The Greek New Testament follows exactly the
same order of wording:
Οὐ γὰρ ἐπαισχύνομαι τὸ ⸀εὐαγγέλιον,
δύναμις γὰρ θεοῦ ἐστιν εἰς σωτηρίαν παντὶ τῷ πιστεύοντι, Ἰουδαίῳ τε πρῶτον καὶ Ἕλληνι·
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Literally, the Greek is: For I am not ashamed of the glad tidings of the Christ for power of God
it is unto salvation to every one that believes both to Jew first and to Greek.
Now why be critical?
Please note the verse carefully.
The way most evangelical churches "read into" this verse is
this way"
I am not ashamed of the Gospel for when I believe in Christ it results
in salvation
with the help of God's power.
Modern evangelicalism makes "believing" the
consequent cause of salvation. But the
verse, in all translations makes the power of God the consequent cause of
salvation; and the secondary cause being our faith. What am I saying? I'm saying that our belief in Christ is
necessary to salvation, but it is not the prime mover. God must initiate with His power or we will
never believe. My paraphrase of verse 16 goes like this:
I am confident in the Gospel for in it is the power of God that results in salvation to those who put their trust in Christ.
Sounds a lot like the original :-)
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