![]() The beauty of our faith is that it is realistic in the deepest sense, setting forth its truth paradoxically in a world of paradox. ![]() Therefore, I can read Exodus 34:6 and 7 and accept that the God of both the Old and New Testaments is a God of law and grace. It is not afraid to state its truth in paradoxes, It dares to say the thing that contradicts reason, because So, in exploring the seeming inconsistencies between sin and grace, foolishness and wisdom, judgment and forgiveness, gentleness and austerity, humility and assurance, etc., Kennedy concludes: “Christianity dares to go beyond logic, because life does. Chesterton also wrote about paradoxes and said that the world is “almost reasonable, but not quite.” No one I know – particularly myself – can be fully explained by reason. Seemingly self-contradictory or absurd, but in reality,īut why is much of our faith expressed in paradoxes? Because life itself is full of paradoxes. Sixty years ago I would have ground to a screeching halt at the fifth comma, finding it difficult to grasp how God could be merciful and gracious, abounding in steadfast love, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin – and at the same time – failing to clear the guilty and extending the iniquity of parents to their children and grandchildren.īut Bishop Kennedy helped me to see this and other “inconsistencies” in a new light – as a paradox, which my dictionary defines as “a statement or proposition Guilty, but visiting the iniquity of the parents upon the ![]() Love for the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquityĪnd transgression and sin, yet by no means clearing the I thought of this book earlier today when I began to study our assigned scripture, Exodus 34:1-10, especially verses 6 and 7: “The Lord, the Lord, a God mercifulĪnd gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast I had reached a point where I was encountering what I thought were glaring inconsistencies of the faith. Sixty years ago I paid $2.50 for my new hardback copy of that book that has been an enduring influence on my Christian journey. This morning I found that today online there are 26 available copies of The Lion and the Lamb: Paradoxes ofīy Gerald Kennedy*.
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