(Spiritual) Bankruptcy

So, what is the new currency? Hardly some other human capacity or some inherent token of worth, but “faith in Christ” — the acknowledgement that the only thing of value is Christ himself. Faith is not an alternative human achievement nor a refined human spirituality, but a declaration of bankruptcy, a radical and shattering recognition that the only capital in God’s economy is the gift of Christ crucified and risen. Faith directed to, and centered on, Christ recognizes, under the impact of the good news, that there is no element of value locatable in the human being. It invests everything in the only capital that counts: Christ.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 383–84

Jesus is all the world to me (hymn)

97 Jesus is all the world to me

1 Jesus is all the world to me,
   My life, my joy, my all;
   He is my strength from day to day,
   Without Him I would fall:
   When I am sad, to Him I go,
   No other one can cheer me so;
   When I am sad, He makes me glad,
   He's my friend.

2 Jesus is all the world to me,
   My friend in trials sore;
   I go to Him for blessings, and
   He gives them o'er and o'er:
   He sends the sunshine and the rain,
   He sends the harvest's golden grain;
   Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain,
   He's my friend.

3 Jesus is all the world to me,
   And true to Him I'll be;
   Oh, how could I this friend deny,
   When He's so true to me?
   Following Him I know I'm right,
   He watches o'er me day and night;
   Following Him by day and night,
   He's my friend.

4 Jesus is all the world to me,
   I want no better friend;
   I trust Him now, I'll trust Him when
   Life's fleeting days shall end:
   Beautiful life with such a friend,
   Beautiful life that has no end;
   Eternal life, eternal joy,
   He's my friend.
                         Will L. Thompson
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1964 edition

<idle musing>
The author of this hymn, which occurs in a few more than 300 hymnals, also wrote "Softly and Tenderly, Jesus Is Calling," which was his most popular hymn by far. Take a moment to read his biography.
</idle musing>

A bit of data for the pistis Christou debate

The relevant genitival phrases in Galatians are all accompanied by verbs that unambiguously speak of human “believing” (2:16; 3:6, 22), while nowhere in this letter is the verb πιστεύειν or the adjective πιστός used of Christ.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 381

The self-gift of Christ

What Paul is discussing in [Galatians] 2:16 are not complete soteriological systems, but the evidential basis on which God can consider someone “righteous” (or worthy) in his sight. “Christ-faith” (or “faith in Christ”) is the sign of a prior, transformative event: it is the mode of life generated by the self-gift of Christ (2:20).—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 380

It's really that simple

We do not have to imagine here a “transfer” of “the righteousness of Christ,” effected through a believer’s union with Christ. It is enough to say that God recognizes as “righteous” those who indicate, by faith in Christ, that the Christ-event has become the ground of their being.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 379

But the Greek doesn't say that!

Two interpretative misjudgments lead to this erroneous reading: (1) that δικαιοῦσθαι means “to be made righteous” (a causative meaning impossible to justify from Greek usage, Jewish or non-Jewish, pace Martyn, Galatians, p. 265); and (2) that “to be righteous” means in itself to be saved. In combination, on this reading, Paul is denying that a person can get oneself saved by keeping the Law.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 377 n. 71

Righteous!

But it is important to note that acquittal here means that one is shown to be in the right, not that one is forgiven or absolved of guilt. The verb [δικαιόω] thus has, as Ziesler insists, “declaratory force” (Meaning of Righteousness, p. 48). If there is forgiveness or absolution involved, it is described in other terms.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 376 n. 67

Tozer for Tuesday

It is my opinion—I believe it is more than an opinion, it is insight—that evangelical Christianity as we know it is almost as far from God as liberalism. Its nominal creed is biblical, but its orientation is worldly. The modern evangelicals, the Holiness people, the Pentecostal people, the Bible loving people—we who claim to be evangelical and traditional in our Christian faith— have an orientation toward the big businessman. You know, Jesus never got along with any of the businessmen in His day. But we use them as our model.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 154

Torah and gospel

Paul uses the Antioch incident to speak about Torah-observance in general: the issue is the validity of the Torah in grounding and defining “righteousness.” When read in this context, it becomes clear that the issue is not the subjective value of “works” as a misconstrued means of eliciting God’s favor (Luther), nor “human enterprise” that depends on human rather than divine initiative (Martyn), but the practice of the Torah as though it were the authoritative cultural frame of the good news. The qualifier νόμου (which generally in this letter means the Jewish Torah) gives ἔργα in Galatians their problematic connotations (cf. 3:2, 5, 10), because the Torah is no longer the definitive measurement of “righteousness” (value) that counts before God.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 374 (emphasis original)

We would see Jesus (Park version)

90 We would see Jesus

1. We would see Jesus; lo! his star is shining
   above the stable while the angels sing;
   there in a manger on the hay reclining;
   haste, let us lay our gifts before the King.

2. We would see Jesus, Mary's son most holy,
   light of the village life from day to day;
   shining revealed through every task most lowly,
   the Christ of God, the life, the truth, the way.

3. We would see Jesus, on the mountain teaching,
   with all the listening people gathered round;
   while birds and flowers and sky above are preaching
   the blessedness which simple trust has found.

4. We would see Jesus, in his work of healing,
   at eventide before the sun was set;
   divine and human, in his deep revealing
   of God made flesh, in loving service met.

5. We would see Jesus, in the early morning,
   still as of old he calleth, "Follow me!"
   Let us arise, all meaner service scorning;
   Lord, we are thine, we give ourselves to thee.
                         J. Edgar Park
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Seems there are three (at least) hymns with this title. This one, by Park, is only in a few less than 70 hymnals. The most popular one, by Anna Bartlett Warner, appears in over 250 hymnals.
</idle musing>

O Guide to Every Child

84 O Guide to Every Child

1 O Guide to every child of thine,
   To untamed colt, the bridle
   To bird in flight, controlling wing,
   To periled sailor, rudder,
   We'll follow thee, a King's own flock,
   And praise in all simplicity
   The guiding Christ, our shepherd.

2 Thou manpursuing Fisherman,
   Who harmest not but savest,
   Draw thy protecting net around
   The catch of thine apostles.
   From sordid waves of worldly sea
   Preserve us, Lord, for life, thy gift
   To those whom thou dost capture.

3 Thou givest us that food unseen
   The world knows not nor treasures;
   Give milk or bread or solid food
   As fits my understanding.
   So thank we all the mighty Child
   Through whom we know thee, God of peace,
   And call thee heavenly Father.
                         Clement of Alexandria
                         The Methodist Hymnal 1964 edition

<idle musing>
According to Hymnary.org, this hymn only occurs in two hymnals—both of them United Methodist. It's one of two hymns by Clement in this hymnal. I blogged about the other one a few years ago.

By the way, I'm finding that about 2/3–3/4 of the hymns in this hymnal I've already blogged from the 1939 version, which is why there are gaps in the postings.
</idle musing>

The right hand of fellowship

It matters greatly to Paul that there is a successful mission to Jews. What he desires is not the formation of a Gentile church, independent of Jewish believers, but an interdependent fellowship of Jews and non-Jews in Christ. The “right hand of fellowship” ([Gal] 2:9) is the recognition that the “mission ” to Gentiles can proceed beyond the limits of the Jewish tradition but also that the Jewish mission can proceed within them. If Paul’s promise to “remember the poor” (2:10) relates specifically to “the poor” in Jerusalem, his commitment to Jewish believers, and to the Jewish mission, remains the final impression of the conference. Such a commitment, I shall suggest, finds an echo at the end of the letter [Galatians], in Paul’s prayer for mercy on “the Israel of God” (6:16; see below, 13.3.3), and is prominent in his hopes and prayers for Israel in Romans 9–11.—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 363–64 (emphasis original)

Paul's developing theology of grace/gift

It is unlikely that this interpretation of the Christ-gift came to Paul fully formed in his Damascus-experience: he reconstructs this connection after many years alongside Gentile converts, whom he found gifted with the Spirit despite their failure to observe the Torah (cf. Gal 3:2–5). Paul’s experience, scriptural re-reading, reflection on the story of Christ, and extended interaction with “un-judaized” believers combined to forge his theology of incongruous gift. It is hard to imagine how Paul’s theology could have taken this shape had his mission been limited to Jewish communities in the homeland or the Diaspora: his Gentile mission not only embodied but also shaped his thought. Theology and practice reinforced one another in a protracted dialectical relationship that made his apostolic calling to the Gentiles central to his version of the “good news.”—J. M. G. Barclay, Paul and the Gift, 361