No, I don’t think it is too big for us to handle. I think Wright does an excellent job of explaining it to his readers. The next quote that I put up from his book will show just that.

I think we have the minds to work it out and understand it (with however much fear and trembling is required of us). The problem, as with so many things, is that we do not want to abandon whatever power structures we have erected with the gospel to insulate ourselves from God’s ever present and helping Spirit.

This is the problem I have had. I thought I had God all figured out one day. Then I woke up. Then I read a book by Eugene Peterson. Then one by David Wells. Then one by God. Then I knew I had it all figured out.

Then I woke up. Then I started blogging.

We are not too small minded to grasp at it. Rather, God keeps pouring into us more and more and more through his Spirit and His Word.

It’s terrifically beautiful. Wake up o Sleeper said someone. I wake up each day to new mercies and I can’t get enough.

I must agree with Wright when he mentions, as have I, that justification by faith is sacrce in the gospels, and in fact, there are many sections that seem project works salvation.

*Rob Bell was not mentioned in this comment.

God must grant you repentance. Salvation, in all of its parts, is a gift of God. He grants us repentance, faith, grace, etc. So that we can be justified, reconciled, regenerated, sanctified, and glorified.

This is because he foreknew, chose, and predestined us…to be made into the image of His Son.

*Rob Bell was not mentioned in this comment.

I, personally, enjoy parsing the nuances of God even if it goes beyond the comprehension of a 16 year old or the simple faith of Zacheus.

Exactly. If it were a matter of pure simplicity, than I don’t think Paul would have written nearly as much as he did. Obviously, there was some room for misunderstanding, and there were people who had gotten things wrong even within less than 40 years from Christ’s resurrection.

So why should we be surprised that we haven’t gotten some things wrong as well living 2000 years from that event in a country on the other side of the globe?

Simple – Get on the vehicle and believe it can save you.

As you and I both have… but why must you complain if others of us wish to discuss the physics involved?

I, personally, enjoy parsing the nuances of God even if it goes beyond the comprehension of a 16 year old or the simple faith of Zacheus.

And many of these new teachers explain things that make them sound clearly like universalists, and then they say they are not. So aside from all the language fog, are they saying they believe that a sinner must believ on Christ before they can be saved?

Well, I don’t know what all of you’re experiences are in Evangelical churches, but my experiences have shown that years of telling people that the Gospel is all about them has produced the expected results. We have produced narcissists who treat God like a cosmic Santa Claus, and act like Jesus is something they add to their life.

Only by situating the Gospel in its proper narrative context – the story of what God has , is doing, and will do – will we start to remedy the situation. So our salvation is more a matter of us joining with what God is doing than Him doing something personally and privately for us.

Simple – Get on the vehicle and believe it can save you.

Rick – to use your metaphor – when you got on the vehicle, you were – at some level – making a statement of belief in its ability to save you.

To go to Phil’s point (I believe) – this is not something linear (believe and then repent and then be saved), but rather an interconnected/parallel process – when you begin to believe, you have already begun to repent and you have begun to be saved.