![\"IMG_0034_5_6\"](\"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/IMG_0034_5_6-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhat might it mean to think a thought whole?<\/p>\n
This weekend is most significant\u00a0in the Christian calendar. Christians celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
When we Christians look at the crucifixion, it\u2019s not difficult for us to believe that Jesus\u2019 death reveals the uncontrolling love of God. In his letter to the church in Rome, the Apostle Paul put it\u00a0this way: \u201cGod demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his letter to Christians in Philippi, Paul says Jesus \u201ctook the form of a servant\u201d and \u201chumbled himself\u201d in his \u201cdeath on the cross.\u201d Jesus\u2019\u00a0kenosis\u00a0<\/em>tells us something true about the self-giving, others-empowering, and therefore uncontrolling love of God.<\/p>\n But what\u00a0about uncontrolling love at\u00a0the resurrection?<\/p>\n When \u201cGod raised this Jesus to life,\u201d as the Apostle Peter put it, did God set aside love and use overpowering coercion? Can we believe Jesus\u2019 resurrection was also accomplished through the self-giving, others-empowering and uncontrolling love of God?<\/p>\nCan we believe Jesus\u2019 resurrection was accomplished by the uncontrolling love of God? <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n In my 2010 book,\u00a0The Nature of Love<\/em>, I proposed a way in which God could resurrect\u00a0Jesus through uncontrolling love rather than coercive control. This way\u00a0involves the cooperation of Jesus’ body and spirit.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been thinking more about these issues as I await Easter morning.\u00a0A new insight about God\u2019s love and the resurrection emerged while I was reading Paul\u2019s letter to the church in Ephesus. Paul writes these words:<\/p>\n \u201cBecause of his great love for us,\u00a0God, who is rich in mercy,\u00a0made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions\u2014it is by grace you have been saved\u201d (Eph. 2:4-5).<\/p>\n This passage says God\u2019s love makes believers alive. We who were once dead in sin can be brought to life in Christ. God\u2019s grace can save us, and we\u00a0can be resurrected with Christ!<\/p>\n Like John Wesley, I think salvation is initiated by God but requires our cooperation. \u201cGod will not save us without ourselves,\u201d as Wesley put it. \u00a0We must respond freely to God\u2019s gracious gift. In short, God awaits our \u201cyes\u201d before we are\u00a0resurrected.<\/p>\n Perhaps just as our resurrection from death in sin requires cooperating with God\u2019s work, so also Jesus\u2019 resurrection from death involved his cooperating with God\u2019s work.<\/p>\nJust as our resurrection requires our cooperation, so Jesus\u2019 resurrection requires his cooperation. <\/a><\/span>Share on X<\/a><\/span>\n If so, we might be able to think the thought whole. That is, we can believe that God\u00a0never\u00a0<\/em>controls and always loves. Instead of expressing uncontrolling love only in Jesus\u2019 death, God also expresses such love when resurrecting Jesus. The whole of God’s activity is love that does not control.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what I\u2019m thinking as I await Easter morning!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What might it mean to think a thought whole? This weekend is most significant\u00a0in the Christian calendar. Christians celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we Christians look at the crucifixion, it\u2019s not difficult for us to believe that Jesus\u2019 death reveals the uncontrolling love of God. In his letter to the church […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[7303,7302,7034,701,699],"yst_prominent_words":[4724,4733,4732,4731,4730,4729,4728,4727,4726,4725,4723,4722,4721,4377,2930,1259,1151,1080,1070,1021],"class_list":["post-3425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-john_wesley_holiness_and_the_church_of_the_nazarene","tag-resurrect","tag-resurrection-of-the-dead","tag-god-raised-jesus","tag-jesus-resurrection","tag-resurrection"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3425"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thomasjayoord.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}