Just got back from an awesome afternoon with Jo! British India had a wonderful Rogan Josh!! The fish was not bad either, a nice balance to the fragrant mutton!
Today's reading was just awesome. It reminded me of so many things, and I can relate to much more of it from Classics 1003 :)
11-15Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It's not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws. No, you're already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin. If it's an initiation ritual you're after, you've already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ. When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ! Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ's cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets.
I love this passage! It opens with grace, and closes with grace! Opens with the fact that the fullness of Christ is not gained by right or achievement. Neither is it by some secretive initiation like the Dionysian or Mythrastic cult. It's not some exclusive thing, it's free grace. And just to prove a point, something that the Roman people of the day would understand, Paul uses an "initiation ceremony" to explain that through Christ, the old has passed away, and this is a brand new day! Of course the "outsiders" thought that baptism was some ritualistic thing that you needed to do in order to become a Christian, but no, Paul clearly states that it's by what Christ has already done, not what we need to do! And then the message of grace continues, that while we were still in our sins, Christ died for us, wiped us clean, and prepared a new identity for us, while we were still committing "crimes". And now when we walk in Him, His grace empowers us because of what He has done, namely stripping all the sham authorities in the world, parading them naked on Christ very own "Roman victory procession". And we can all join in the celebration, cuz the enemy has been defeated, death couldn't hold You down, we're gonna lift our voice in victory, we're gonna make Your praises loud!!