Saturday, January 25, 2025

Christ and the Fullness of Time

By the Incarnation, Christ has united divinity with humanity, God with humankind, heaven with earth — and eternity with time, in such a way that time is transfigured. It is not so much what happens in time as it is what happens to time. 

Our Lord Jesus Christ did not merely come in the fullness of time. Rather, he is the fullness of time, the fulfillment of time. He is the end of time, the reason for which time was created. All of creation, including time, consists and coheres in him.

When the fullness of time had come, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. (Galatians 4:4-5)

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end! (Revelation 22:13).

Christ is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8), and we are chosen in him from before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). He is the starting point and the ending point. He is at once the Origination and the Conclusion, the Purpose and the Fulfillment of time, and of all things.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will — to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. (Ephesians 1:3-6)

God made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment — to bring unity to all in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1:9-10)

He has saved us and called us to a holy life — not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (2 Timothy 1:9-10)

Christ is the singularity of time and space and all creation. Though we experience time in linear fashion, there is no temporal sequence in eternity, no before or after. There is, then, no pre-Incarnate Christ; there is simply Christ the Eternally Incarnate One. 

The First and the Last,
The Beginning and the End,
The Fullness of All,
Ever the Same.

Monday, January 20, 2025

The Authority of Church and Scripture

Holy Scripture cannot be separated from its interpretation. Without the proper interpretation, the inspiration of Scripture is incomplete. The Scriptures must be unveiled for us, and our understanding of them must be opened by our Lord Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit. As St. Paul said:

The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:14-16)

We are not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing the end of what was passing away. But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. (2 Corinthians 3:13-14)

And in Luke 24, we see Christ precisely that with the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and then latter in the Upper Room with other disciples: 

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27)

They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?” (Luke 24:32)

He said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. (Luke 24:44-45)
It is to the Church and through the Church that Christ reveals himself, and it as the Church that we receive that revelation. For the Church is the only body commissioned and authorized by Christ to preach the gospel, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that our Lord Jesus has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). It is the only body empowered by the Holy Spirit for that purpose (Acts 1:8). It is the  only body given the promise of our Lord Jesus that the Holy Spirit would lead it into all truth (John 16:13). And it is the only body identified in Scripture as the Pillar and Foundation of the Truth (1 Timothy 3:15).

Scripture cannot be separated from interpretation, for without interpretation, it has no meaning. Without meaning, it has no authority. That being so, the authority of Scripture can be no greater than its interpretation. The question then becomes whether there is a normative, authoritative interpretation of Scripture — and whether such an interpretation can be separated from the authority of the Church. 

It cannot, for our Lord has uniquely authorized the Church to teach all that pertains to himself and the gospel. Further, because Scripture has no meaning apart from interpretation, and therefore no authority apart from interpretation, then it can have no authority greater or more normative than that of its interpretation — or of only Body that is authorized to interpret it. 

What we have been given is Scripture, which requires interpretation, and the Church, which is authorized to preach and teach the gospel, so is authorized to interpret Scripture and tell what it means, and what is normative for Christian faith and life.