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I talk on occasion in the book

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Case for Character about the

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Creedal frame and maybe that

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sounds a little more heavy or

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more regimented than

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it actually is.

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The idea of the Creedal frame is

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simply learning to see the whole

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idea of the Christian life

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within the context of the Creed.

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And what I mean by that is

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recognizing that the Creed

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itself and I'm talking about the

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Apollos'creed or the Nicene

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Creed or even the Athenasian

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Creed the key in part of it,

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especially that.

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Is simply telling a story.

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It's actually an outline,

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if you think about it,

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of the economy of salvation.

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God who creates man, who rebels,

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and then Christ,

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who is sent to redeem and

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restore the creation.

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Then the Holy Spirit who is at

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work to accomplish and bring to

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fruition all that the Son had

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accomplished and finally bring

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to consummation all of

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God's beautiful plan.

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So the creed from the first

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article through the second

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and ending in the third,

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is simply telling the story of

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God's love for his creation

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of God's economy,

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this plan of salvation.

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That's what the creed is.

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So when we talk about

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a creedal frame,

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what I'm saying is we need to

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learn to see our lives and our

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stories in the context

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of God's story,

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which is a very much virtue

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ethics way of talking,

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this whole idea of the narrative

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of God being normative.

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And then we see our it was our

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little life stories in

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God's larger story.

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This is really important for the

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church to get this figured out,

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because instead of the

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church trying to

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fit into the many stories of

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people's lives and trying to

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figure out how to be relevant to

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their important life stories.

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Instead,

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the Church says we are the place

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where we are telling

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God's story.

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We are living God's story.

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And we're inviting you,

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the individual people,

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to come and participate

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in God's story.

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And instead of the story of God

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fitting into your life,

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you fit into God's story and you

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realize where your life makes

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sense and how it all comes

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together. Living in God's story.

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That's what I mean by

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the creedal frame.

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It's a realization that Christ

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actually comes for the sake

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of the entire world.

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Christ actually comes not just

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to rescue us out of a

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broken dying world,

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but to restore and fix the

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broken dying world.

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And he does the same for us.

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So we are restored to

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being fully human,

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everything God created us to be.

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And when God is done restoring

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us, what does he do?

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Does he whisk us away from this

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material world to some other

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spiritual realm? Not at all

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He returns us to the world,

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sends us back into the material

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world to do what we were

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created to do,

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to accomplish what he's

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given us to do.

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And at the eschatological

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fulfillment

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when Christ comes again and all

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things are caught up in the end,

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the eschaton,

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when all of that finally

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comes to fruition,

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what will we be doing?

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What God always created

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us to do.

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Accomplishing what humans do.

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Serving the nation,

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caring for one another,

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serving and pleasing God simply

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by being fully human.

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So what do we do now in

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our Christian lives?

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We rejoice in the gospel that

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gives us forgiveness.

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We rejoice in the gospel that

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makes us fully human,

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everything that we're

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supposed to be.

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And then we are driven out into

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the world to do what

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God gives us to do.

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That's the credal frame.

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So in a sense,

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you realize that you

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are justified,

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made right with God so that you

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can go out and do your vocations

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in the world.

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You're justified to

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accomplish what God

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has given you to do that's what

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it means to be human.

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So the credal frame is simply an

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awareness of the wide push of

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God's plan and your part in it

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and a willingness to embrace the

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goodness of that material plan

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and the rightness of actually

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living God's story in your own

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life and living into

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God's story.

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It's really a beautiful picture

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when you see it in a holistic

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way like that.