Tag: Apostle Paul

August 21, 2024

St.Paul, who wrote several letters to churches he planted and to young leaders he appointed to pastor them, had two key messages that have stood the test of time. The foremost of the two was his gospel (in four points):

  1. Christ died
  2. Christ was buried
  3. Christ rose from the dead
  4. He appeared to many witnesses.

His 15th chapter of the first letter of Corinthians stresses the resurrection, “if Christ be not risen our faith is in vain”. Indeed, Christian faith is rooted in history. The tomb is empty.

The second was his quotation from the Old Testament prophet Habakkuk 2:4, “the just shall live by faith”. Paul would have read this in the Hebrew as, “the just (or righteous) shall live by his faithfulness”. This is a powerful spiritual principle as well as a profound life lesson.

The word faithful in Hebrew is emunah. Like most Hebrew nouns it has an accompanying visual image which, in this case, denotes a strong male adult holding a helpless infant. He will not let the little one fall. So when the Bible refers to God as faithful that imagery provides hope and security.

And when “faithful” is applied to us it means we continually “show up for work” and stick to it regardless of how tired, bored, or discouraged we may be that day.

Faithfulness is the key building block for a life of meaning. It’s the one thing the Lord cannot resist. All He can do with faithfulness is bless it.

August 7, 2024

In a 1968 BBC interview with JRR Tolkien, the author of “The Lord of the Rings”, Tolkien stated that “human stories are ultimately about one thing-death”. He read a quote from Simone de Beauvoir where she writes about her mother’s hanging on to life in the last few days before she died.

“There’s no such thing as a natural death,” she writes. “Nothing that happens to a man is ever natural, since his presence calls the world into question. All men must die: but for every man his death is an accident and, even if he knows it and consents to it, an unjustifiable violation.”

“Well, you may agree with the words or not,” Tolkien said, “but those are the key-spring of The Lord of the Rings.”

I’ve read TLR many times through and have watched Peter Jackson’s amazing movie adaptation several times as well. It doesn’t surprise me that as the new millennium approached 25 years ago, TLR was touted by literary experts as the greatest novel of the 20th century.

Tolkien’s comment that his blockbuster fantasy novel was predicated on the ultimate reality of death reminded me of the Apostle Paul’s words that “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:26). But, Paul says, the resurrection of Christ has given mankind the profound hope that death ultimately has been defeated, “for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ” (22).

Therefore, Paul states, there is no reason to believe that death wins the battle. “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (vv.54c, 55).

Tolkien was adamant that TLR was not an allegory, so we must not suggest that it is. But, as a committed Christian, he was fully aware of the historic resurrection of Christ and the promise it has for all of us mortals. We must die, but in Christ “all will be made alive”.