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From: russ
Date: Fri Jan 13 10:37:32 EST 2012 Subject: ATP 1: Preface

A Theological Primer
Snippet 1: Preface
(read all snippets)

God is amazing. Huge and beyond comprehension, He lives a joyful life of His own internal community, the three persons of the Trinity enjoying love without reservation and partaking in eternal mutual delight. Needing nothing more than Himself, God chose to create beings outside Himself. Deserving of nothing less than eternal joy and worship, he gave His creations the power to betray Him. He even placed His own Image on some of them, knowing that they would unforgettably1 tarnish it. Finding Himself betrayed, God gave up His right for retribution and instead moved into the lives of His betrayers, enticing them back to Himself. When they found themselves unable to turn to Him, He came, became one of them, and died a terrible death on their behalf. He now indwells some of them, living every moment with them, groaning2 under the terrible mix of good and evil which characterizes not only their world but also their very souls. And He promises a final day, when all that is wrong is set right, and His people enter into a resurrection of His eternal joy.

This is a book about that God. I write it to my friends on the edge of the Christian community: those who love God but perhaps know little about Him. In this book, I hope that you will find two truths: that God is Other – something beyond us – and that God is Love – continually in motion to sacrifice Himself for others. The basic nature of God is to be foreign to us, and unapproachable. The continual project3 of God is to bridge that gap: to make Himself knowable to His creations, to love them, to offer them power to affect Himself, to forgive their betrayal, and finally4 to save them from the destruction they have created.

As you read this book, look for four themes: vulnerability, providence, wrath, and forgiveness. Vulnerability is God's continual action to put Himself at risk – to put terrible power into the hands of undeserving creations. Providence is God's sovereign design to put bounds on the power of His creations, guiding and limiting them so as to ensure that His good purposes will be finally achieved. Wrath is God's righteous action against evil – fighting it, punishing it, destroying it, and consoling its victims. Forgiveness is God's amazing devotion to enticing (sometimes dragging!) His beloved people from their own delusions and self-destruction, and bringing them into relationship with Himself.

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