In Your light we see light.”
(Psalm 36:9)
“The True Light,
Who gives Light to everyone,
was coming into the world.”
(John 1:9)
“Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:12-14)
“In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins.” (Colossians 1:11-13)
One thing I especially like about this version of the Icon of the Baptism is that, at the bottom, Lord Jesus stands on the same broken gates we find in the Icon of the Resurrection. They are the gates of Hades, of Death, trampled under the feet of Lord Jesus.
“To say that there are ‘many human beings’ is a common abuse of language. Granted there is a plurality of those who share in the same human nature ... but in all of them, humanity is one.” — Gregory of Nyssa, That There Are Not Three Gods
Through the Incarnation,
Christ has defined what
It means to be human,
Revealed most fully in
The Cross and Resurrection.
In the first eleven chapters of Romans, the apostle Paul makes a long argument concerning the inclusiveness of the gospel. Along the way, he shows the inclusiveness of the gospel.
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (Romans 3:23-24)The experience of mortality and sin is universal, but so to the rectification and life Christ has secured for us through his faithfulness. And at the end of Paul's extensive argument, this is the conclusion he comes to:
Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. (Romans 5:18)
God has bound everyone over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all. (Romans 11:32)At this amazing declaration of universal mercy, Paul leaps into doxological wonder.
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! “Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay them?” For from him and through him and for him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen. (Romans 11:33-36)