Tim Mackie

Yeah.

So here we come into...

I think the point of the gospel narratives and the claims that they make is that Jesus is the model and example of the true human, fulfilling all the wisdom of God, and so the model for us.

And then he actually is the first one to be that and do that on our behalf, or as Paul will say, for us.

To be the person who can fulfill the law through love.

That's right, yeah.

And I...

We'll have a complicated history of living up to that value, often compromising it, often fulfilling it.

Depends on the day, on the week.

And what gives me hope for my own moral maturity or the world's or humanity's as a whole?

And it's certainly not our track record.

But yeah, I think that's also what it means to be a Christian, but to say there is one who was the ultimate wise, loving human who lived in union with the commands and wisdom of God, and that is God become human on our behalf.

And we actually will find true life and wisdom by joining our lives to his.

And how does one do that?

Well, it begins in the New Testament with baptism.

An entry into the body of Jesus' people, and through the Holy Spirit, a personal connection to the life of Jesus, so that it becomes hard to tell my life from his life.

It's the life of the Messiah living in me, Paul says.

And then through the Lord's Supper, around a table, taking the bread and the cup together with a group of people that I'm committed to living out this wisdom with.

You can make it a lot more complicated, but in the New Testament, that's kind of the core right there.

Should we add on then, though, the Scripture?