We should read the Old Testament with a deep breath and anticipate the messiah. When the Incarnation occurs, we must allow ourselves to be blown away by the incredulity of the story.
All tagged Jesus Christ
Compartmentalization
We like to pretend that Jesus was some sort of spiritual guru who cared not for the cultural or political aspects of his day. But the reality was quite different. Everything Jesus said, even the things we deem to be merely devotion, was overlaid with intense cultural and political integration. This is why the religious, cultural and political leaders of His day were so threatened.
Whose Story is It?
Christians and Jews of the first-century did not view their religion as a formless set of beliefs. Rather, to believe in the God of Abraham meant to place oneself at a certain point in God's story.
I Am the Resurrection
As the body of Christ, the church should look to emulate Jesus' model. If Jesus is the resurrection and we are his body then we should look to see the ways in which we can expand the world of the resurrection in the worlds that we inhabit.
The pursuit of peace apart from Jesus (the Prince of Peace) or His gospel (the gospel of peace) is doomed to failure because it (the pursuit of peace apart from Christ), just like the Galatian Judiazers, is based on works of the law which cannot bring true peace.