Seeking Jesus First

In trying to understand how faith and works are connected, I've found it useful to divide Christianity into two parts: Eternal Christianity (EC) and Temporal Christianity (TC). EC starts with an act of salvation, given freely by grace.   It is the kingdom of God begun in us.  It is the beginning of heaven.  It is the beginning of growth and eternal life. EC triumphs over this fallen world.  All the things about victorious living in the Bible are talking about Eternal Christianity.  It is a relationship with God, not a religion.  It is unique and the only way to have eternal life. At best, TC is the projection of EC into a fallen world.  It is what we see "through a glass darkly".  It is practical, helpful, comforting, and makes everything around it better.  Unlike EC it is not perfect and it's easy to see failures and cracks.  Not because of the EC that is its source, but because of the fallen world it is projected into.  Yes, ...

We get the idea that Paul immediately became the writer of 1/2 the new testament, the vanguard of Christ to the gentiles, the man who "pressed on to win the prize ...". It's possible, but it reassures me to think it wasn't. He spent 14 years in Arabia before his memorable ministry started. Paul is an example, not a goal. We each have our own path to maturity. I have this personally relatable, extra-biblical narrative in my mind that starts with a naive, dogmatic Christian who has discovered the answer to his life-long dissatisfaction with religion. Like Apollos, he finds his Aquilla and Priscilla who help settle him. This gradual maturity leads him to help in the local church with a God-given thirst to share Christ to the world. He butts heads with some leadership that is determined to maintain the Jewish status quo. He finds himself ostracized for his views on circumcision. He searches himself, agonizing over disagreeing with people he loves and respects. ...