Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification are not just theological propositions – they are part of what it means to know Christ and be found in him.
But while these things are ours in Christ Jesus – our understanding of them is only ‘in part' in this life – and when I say our ‘understanding' – I am using the word in Paul's sense, not merely as a matter of external “knowledge” but as including both knowledge and experience.
We, in the modern world, have divorced knowledge and experience. We have wrongly separated “thinking” and “feeling.”
I wonder. When I talk about “knowing” – “doctrine” – “thinking” – what do you hear?
I have come to think in terms of Paul's holistic conception of knowledge, and so I tend to speak the same way. But what do you hear?
Please listen carefully: when I say that we should not separate thinking and feeling, I am not saying that we should get rid of feeling! What I am saying is that we should not pit them against each other! I will not be a rationalist – and I will not be a mystic! You cannot have doctrine disconnected from experience – and you cannot have experience disconnected from doctrine!
Paul's language of “thinking” throughout Philippians involves the whole person.
Our thinking – this common “mind” that we are to share – is nothing less than the mind of Christ – the cruciform way of life that puts the needs of others ahead of our own.
And therefore, no one could accuse Paul's conception of “thinking” as being devoid of action! Thinking, for Paul, includes both our experience of our union with Christ, as well as our action in being conformed to the image of Christ.
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