I have had interest in pursuing fasting as a spiritual discipline ever since reading Richard J Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth , 3rd ed. (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988). and having met a friend of mine in the Coptic Orthodox (Oriental Orthodox) tradition. It isn’t a topic that comes up much in my theological circles; fasting is largely associated with the feast days of Anglicanism and the RCC and EO.

The idea of God accepting us “just as we are” holds only a half-truth in it. First, accepting is a bad term to be used, even if it is readily accessible. What is communicated by accepting is not what is communicated on the cross. Jesus’s death and resurrection was not an acceptance of sin, but a continuing declaration of war that dealt a decisive victory against sin. Second, we are not accepted for who we are, but we are accepted based upon no prior criteria as God chose us before the foundation of the world, before we existed, before we had done any works or had willed anything; God chose according to his own mercy and grace and love, not according to anything within us; God does not accept us.