The Cross Of Redemption

From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century—a collection of essays, articles, reviews, and interviews that have never before been gathered in a single volume. “An absorbing portrait of Baldwin’s time—and of him.” —New York Review of Books James Baldwin was an American literary master, renowned for his fierce engagement with issues haunting our common history. In The Cross of Redemption we have Baldwin discoursing on, among other subjects, the possibility of an African-American president and what it might mean; the hypocrisy of American religious fundamentalism; the black church in America; the trials and tribulations of black nationalism; anti-Semitism; the blues and boxing; Russian literary masters; and the role of the writer in our society. Prophetic and bracing, The Cross of Redemption is a welcome and important addition to the works of a cosmopolitan and canonical American writer who still has much to teach us about race, democracy, and personal and national identity. As Michael Ondaatje has remarked, “If van Gogh was our nineteenth-century artist-saint, Baldwin [was] our twentieth-century one.”

Even as theologians and others have become more critical of classic theories of atonement, Brondos maintains, biblical scholars have continued to understand Paul's soteriology based on the language and categories of a thousand years later. In this vital volume he draws the theological consequences of the "new perspective" on Paul for our understanding of the meaning and efficacy of Jesus'' death. Paul, says Brondos, understood Jesus' death primarily as the consequence of his mission of serving as God's instrument to bring about the awaited redemption of Israel, in which Gentiles throughout the world would also be included. For Paul, Jesus' death is salvific, not because it satisfies some necessary condition for human salvation as most doctrines of the atonement have traditionally maintained, nor because it effects some change in the situation of human beings or the world in general, but because God responded to Jesus' faithfulness unto death by raising him, ensuring that all the divine promises of salvation would be fulfilled through him. Jesus' death forms part of an overarching story culminating in the redemption of Israel and the world; it is this story, and in particular what precedes and follows Jesus' death on the cross, which makes that death redemptive for Paul.

This story-oriented recovery book unfolds the back-story of redemption in Exodus to show how Jesus redeems us from the slavery of abuse and addiction and restores us to our created purpose, the worship of God.

Bill Watts leads readers on a tour through his checkered life, starting with his stormy upbringing and his tumultuous years at the University of Oklahoma and culminating in a reawakened spirituality that snatched him back from the brink of destruction. The legendary pro wrestler talks frankly and fearlessly about his ugly encounters with the top names in the ring and his uglier encounters with the life and world surrounding the sport.

How to receive all goodness and salvation from Him alone. A set of daily devotionals on self-sacrifice and salvation. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction Prayer Day 1 - The Redemption of the Cross Day 2 - The Fellowship of the Cross Day 3 - Crucified with Christ Day 4 - Crucified to the World Day 5 - The Flesh Crucified Day 6 - Bearing the Cross Day 7 - Self-Denial Day 8 - He cannot be My Disciple Day 9 - Follow Me Day 10 - A Grain of Wheat Day 11 - Thy Will be Done Day 12 - The Love of the Cross Day 13 - The Sacrifice of the Cross Day 14 - The Death of the Cross Day 15 - It is Finished Day 16 - Dead to Sin Day 17 - The Righteousness of God Day 18 - Dead with Christ Day 19 - Dead to the Law Day 20 - The Flesh Condemned on the Cross Day 21 - Jesus Christ and Him Crucified Day 22 - Temperate in all things Day 23 - The Dying of the Lord Jesus Day 24 - The Cross and the Spirit Day 25 - The Veil of the Flesh Day 26 - Looking unto Jesus Day 27 - Outside the Gate Day 28 - Alive unto Righteousness Day 29 - Followers of the Cross Day 30 - Following the Lamb Day 31 - To Him be the Glory Day 32 - The Blessing of the Cross "The question often arises how it is, with so much church-going, Bible-reading, and prayer, that the Christian fails to live the life of complete victory over sin and lacks the love and joy of the Lord. One of the most important answers, undoubtedly, is that he does not know what it is to die to himself and to the world. Yet without this, God's love and holiness cannot have their dwelling-place in his heart. He has repented of some sins, but knows not what it is to turn, not only from sin, but from his old nature and self-will. "Yet this is what the Lord Jesus taught. He said to the disciples that if any man would come after Him, he must hate and lose his own life. He taught them to take up the cross. That meant they were to consider their life as sinful and under sentence of death. They must give up themselves, their own will and power, and any goodness of their own. When their Lord had died on the cross, they would learn what it was to die to themselves and the world, and to live their life in the fullness of God. "Let us pray fervently for each other that God may teach us what it is to die with Christ -- a death to ourselves and to the world; a life in Christ Jesus." -Andrew Murray

Over twenty-two months in 1979 and 1981 nearly two dozen children were unspeakably murdered in Atlanta despite national attention and outcry; they were all Black. James Baldwin investigated these murders, the Black administration in Atlanta, and Wayne Williams, the Black man tried for the crimes. Because there was only evidence to convict Williams for the murders of two men, the children's cases were closed, offering no justice to the families or the country. Baldwin's incisive analysis implicates the failures of integration as the guilt party, arguing, "There could be no more devastating proof of this assault than the slaughter of the children." As Stacey Abrams writes in her foreword, "The humanity of black children, of black men and women, of black lives, has ever been a conundrum for America. Forty years on, Baldwin's writing reminds us that we have never resolved the core query: Do black lives matter? Unequivocally, the moral answer is yes, but James Baldwin refuses such rhetorical comfort." In this, his last book, by excavating American race relations Baldwin exposes the hard-to-face ingrained issues and demands that we all reckon with them.

If I were to ask you about the history of redemption, you would most likely begin by thinking back to the cross and what was accomplished there by Christ From there, you would then move forward. However, in God's mind or from His perspective it began before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4 says, "...even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love..." Before Genesis 1, God had the plan of redemption already formulated. This means that God planned this in eternity past. Before "in the beginning," God existed and planned our redemption. So when God was all that there was, the history of redemption began. That may be hard for us to fathom because we cannot think in terms of eternity. Unlike God, we are constrained by time. The fact remains that God planned our redemption through His Son Jesus Christ before the world was even created. It was not a second option; it was the original plan from the start. We may not understand it all, but we can gain glimpses of it throughout the revealed Word of God, which is itself a "story of redemption that spans from creation to re-creation" (i.e., Genesis 1-2 to Revelation 21-22). Some of you may already be jumping ahead of me and asking, "Why would God create the world if He knew that one day He would have to redeem it? Could He not foresee what would go wrong and prevent that from happening so that creation would remain 'good' and not need to be redeemed?" Those questions are very important. In our study of the history of redemption, these questions will only be dealt with briefly, and they will have to wait until later. There is no need to get ahead of ourselves just yet. But to satisfy the question for the time being, I will give you the main reason, which will be the only reason addressed in this particular study, that God chose to create a world that He knew would fall into sin and need to be redeemed from it. It is for His glory, and I hope as we progress in our study that you will see how that statement is definitely true. The study of the history of redemption has interested me for a long time now. I have preached on the subject as an overview and taught on it in detail. But I wanted more. I wanted to go even more in depth on this subject, and that is what I intend to do here. Before we begin, I want to explain what we will be doing. We are not going to cover every aspect of redemption in Scripture, because that would cover the whole Bible. For instance, the Book of Hosea is full of rich illustrations of redemption, but we will not cover it in this study. So this is not an all-inclusive look at redemption; it is a study of the highlights. It would take a volume much larger than this, probably multiple volumes, to truly give the history of redemption the study it deserves. We will start with the creation account. Since God's plan came to fruition before the foundation of the world, then it makes sense that we start at the creation event in our study of the history of redemption. We will end with Christ, who is the completion of God's plan for redemption. I hope you enjoy this study, and I pray that God uses it to draw you closer to Him.