Note: After I finished writing this post, I realized how much I'm indebted to Michael Gorman and his idea of "cruciformity" that he develops in his book Cruciformity and subsequent books of his that build on the essential foundation laid in that work. Specifically, Gorman argues convincingly from Scripture that the obedience of Jesus to the point of death on a cross (Philippians 2:8) is the ultimate demonstration of faith in/faithfulness to God, which then becomes the pattern of all human faith in/faithfulness to God. To say it another way, it has always been God's intention from the beginning that the cruciform shape of Christ's story would become the cruciform shape of the story of all who follow Him. When He shall come with trumpet sound, Oh, may I then in him be found, Dressed in his righteousness alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. In the final stanza of this beloved evangelical hymn written by Edward Mote, a song that multitudes hold precious and...
As the people of God, we must hold to apostolic tradition (2 Thessalonians 2:15, 3:6) but reject human tradition (Colossians 2:8). Jesus criticized the religious leaders of His day for making void the word of God for the sake of their tradition (Matthew 15:6). And He said they did this in many ways (Mark 7:13b). We are not immune to this error today. This blog exists to test (1 Thessalonians 5:21) our modern Christian traditions against Scripture to discern where we might have done the same.