On Palm Sunday, Jesus was welcomed by the Jews as their Messiah, the Anointed One foretold in Scripture to be the one who would usher in a new kingdom that would liberate them from the clutches of the Roman Empire which has ruled the Jewish nation for many decades. That’s what the Jews had in mind. But Jesus did not come as a political Messiah. After just a few days on Good Friday, the Jews crucified him because he was not what they wanted him to be — a political Messiah. So they chose Barabbas instead, the fake Messiah.

Jesus is the real Messiah, the Anointed One, the Savior of all mankind. Here’s an interesting quote from theologian Thomas F. Torrance which I find helpful in understanding this issue:

Jesus Refused to be a Political Messiah

“Jesus’ calling conflicted sharply with the role that contemporary Judaism wished to push upon him. Jesus was crucified by the political theology of his day. And Jesus continues to be crucified when we politicize his role because that is not the way he came, by the power structures of this world, to reconcile man to God, but through the weakness of the cross, to incarnational penetration into the depths of our guilty being, to lay hold upon us from below, where we are at enmity to God, the source of all violence, to conquer and destroy it by atoning sacrifice.”

We are loved, included and reconciled. Thanks be to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our Messiah, the Anointed One. Praise be unto him!

I am once again inspired by the thoughts of Thomas F. Torrance, a great theologian whom I consider a genius and a man blessed by God with so much wisdom and understanding about the Triune God and science. Here are some quotes I got from him recently:

“I sometimes argue that you can be a good scientist or a good mathematician without being a morally upright person. An immoral person can be a good mathematician but you cannot be a theologian without being a good person.

Theology Transforms

“It is relatively true that in mathematics where you are concerned with impersonal or abstract truth, your personal being is relatively unaffected. But that is not possible in our relations with one another, when you know other human beings. You cannot engage in that kind of knowledge without being affected by it. In fact, you are able to know another only in so far as you enter into such a reciprocal relation with the other that you are affected by the other. And it’s certainly not possible in our relation with God.

Knowing God and Holiness Belong Together

“If it is an ultimate scientific principle, that you can only know something in accordance with its nature, you know it only as you allow its nature to dictate to you the mode in which you must know it, and therefore determine for you the way in which you must behave toward it, then it is certainly true that in knowing God in accordance with his nature as he discloses himself to you, you need to be adapted to the nature of God.

“Knowing God and being reconciled to him, knowing God and being called to holiness, belong together. It is the pure in heart that see God.

“To know and to be holy, to know God and to worship him and to commit yourself to him in utter dedication and consecration, they go together.

Cognitive Union, Radical Transformation

“So here then we have this principle that genuine knowledge involves cognitive union with God and genuine knowledge of God which is in accordance with his nature as holy love cannot but involve radical transformation of our being and reconciliation to God in our estrangement.

“Knowledge of God and holiness then are locked together in an intense interrelationship.”

Knowing Involves Being and Doing

Clearly, knowing, being and doing go together. Or we can also say, that the head, heart and hand ought to go together. We have the tendency sometimes to dissect and dichotomize because maybe of the influence of Western thinking.

Knowing Affects Our Personal Being

When one studies about God, when he learns more and more about God in accordance with his nature as holy love, he cannot but be transformed by his relation with God. Yes, theology transforms a person. It’s not just mere head knowledge. Knowing God who is love does affect our very being.

Last Sunday, February 24, I had the unexpected privilege of spending some time during lunch with Dr. Greg Williams, the new president of Grace Communion International (GCI) who came to visit us. The invitation was something unplanned. After our morning worship service, the national director invited me for lunch with them along with my wife and daughter. It was really nice to have talked to Dr. Greg Williams on his first to the Philippines as the new GCI president.

First Visit: Seminar on Healthy Church

Two years ago last February 2017, when he was still the vice president, Dr. Greg Williams spoke to our pastors and leaders about the importance of having healthy churches. That was my first time to meet him in person in Tagaytay City. Although we haven’t met yet but he told me he knew me already. He said that his inbox usually had lots of emails coming from me. I used to send weekly email news and updates from GCI Philippines since the year 2001. I have now assigned this task to someone else.

Second Visit: Sermon on Healthy Church

During last Sunday’s morning worship service, Dr. Greg Williams spoke again about what a healthy church looks like. He gave three main points to explain what he meant. First, the church is a unified family that is mutually caring for one another. Secondly, each church member is actively participating with Jesus in the way that he has shaped us and called us. Thirdly, the Church is working together in its assigned tasks from Jesus, the Head of the Church, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit.

Getting to Know the GCI President

Talking with him over lunch was a great opportunity for me to get to know our new GCI president as a person, his mind and his heart. It was good to see and understand where he is leading us as a denomination under the Head of the Church, our Lord Jesus Christ.

It was great to have known our new GCI president a little bit more. My family had fun to have been blessed with such a rare opportunity.