On the Road to Emmaus » Paul

Why Greek Matters (Part 6) – Christ in Ya’ll, the Hope of Glory

Richard — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 01:41:14 +0000

I am not from Texas. I am not from anywhere remotely in the South. I am a Yankee to the core. Nevertheless, I believe one of the primary deficiencies of the formal English language is the lack of a word like “ya’ll.”

The Greek language (like many languages) has (at least) two forms of the word “you,” a singular form and a plural form (akin to ya’ll). However, you would never know this reading an English Bible. The following verses (plus scores others) all use a plural form of “you”, but from the standard English translation you would never have any idea:

Matt. 5:13 - You (ya’ll) are the salt of the earth…You (ya’ll) are the light of the world.

Matt. 7:2 – “For in the way you (ya’ll) judge, you (ya’ll) will be judged; and by your (ya’ll’s) standard of measure, it will be measured to you.

Rom. 12:2 – do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you (ya’ll) may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

1Cor. 1:4 I thank my God always concerning you (ya’ll) for the grace of God which was given you (ya’ll) in Christ Jesus…even as the testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in you (ya’ll), so that you (ya’ll) are not lacking in any gift…

1Cor. 3:16 Do you (ya’ll) not know that you are a (singular) temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?

This “plural you” has significant implications for how we interpret verses on almost every page of the Bible. For example, as in Romans 12, is Paul’s goal that each individual would be able to personally prove what is the will of God for their individual life? Or is this discernment process something that “ya’ll” do together in community? Are you individually the salt of the earth or the light of the world, or are the people of God collectively the salt and light?

Luke 17:21 is an oft quoted verse in which the KJV, NKJV and the NIV read, “the kingdom of God is within you.” This is frequently interpreted as the Amplified Bible has in its gloss “the Kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts]…” Is the Kingdom of God in our hearts? This was a strongly promoted idea in the nineteenth century as classical theological liberalism approached its height. It is precisely what Adolf von Harnack says in What is Christianity?:

“The kingdom of God comes by coming to the individual, by entering into his soul and laying hold of it. True, the kingdom of God is the rule of God; but it is the rule of the holy God in the hearts of individuals…From this point of view everything that is dramatic in the external and historical sense has vanished; and gone, too, are all the external hopes for the future.” [Adolf von Harnack, What is Christianity? Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1956, 56]

Ironically, when evangelical Christians talk about the Kingdom of God being “in their hearts,” they are in essence spouting off, not Christian orthodoxy, not something a first-century Jewish man credibly could have said, but word-for-word theological liberalism, the same theological liberalism which is ready to dispense with the deity of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, the second coming of Jesus, the new creation of all things, etc. In Harnack’s mind, the notion of the Kingdom being “internal” was very much related to the way he jettisoned “all the external hopes for the future,” i.e., the New Creation of Heaven and Earth.

Because the “you” is plural, Jesus’ saying would be better translated (as the NRSV, TNIV and NASB do), “the Kingdom of God is in your midst.” The Kingdom is not a “spiritual” principle, but the demonstrable intervention of God in time and space to restore and renew life on earth. Thus the purpose of the saying is not to describe an “internal” reality of the Kingdom, but rather, the demonstration and experience of the Kingdom of God in the shared life and experience of God’s people in the public world.

A related verse is Colossians 1:27, which is often translated, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” I’m sure it won’t surprise you to hear that the “you” in this verse is also plural, although you would never know it from your English Bible. Paul is not saying that “Christ-living-inside-of-you” is the hope of glory. While of course he would not deny the reality of Christ living inside of us, this is not the point of the verse. Rather, it is Christ in the midst of the Church, the experience of the Messiah in forming a redeemed and redemptive community of self-giving love, forgiveness, reconciliation, healing, restoration and renewal, that is the hope of glory, namely, the sign in the present that gives us expectation for the fresh work of grace God will accomplish when he makes all things new at the end. The presence of Christ in the community of the redeemed is even now the present experience and advance pledge of the restoration of all things which fills our hearts with confidence and eager expectation of its certain consummation.

Does Prayer Actually Do Anything??? (Part 1)

Richard — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:17:29 +0000

The often heard saying, “prayer doesn’t change God…it changes us” is an addage notoriously absent from the Bible.

As many of you may know, by occupation I am a full-time intercessor. This means my full-time job is primarily to pray as a staff member of the International House of Prayer of Kansas City (IHOP-KC). When I tell other Christians what I do with my life, I am frequently greeted with peculiar blinks, squints, head tilts, lip twitches and eyebrow crunches. I know, I know – who’s ever heard of someone whose main job is to pray? Unfortunately this response often betrays two facts:

1) Our historical and religious myopia – throughout history and even to the present day, many Christians have been employed as full-time intercessors. They were often called monks and nuns. Their central occupation was prayer, but they frequently also had additional tasks such as teaching, spiritual direction, evangelism, etc. (much like myself and other staff members at IHOP-KC). Granted, this is predominately part of the Roman Catholic tradition, though Eastern Orthodox and Anglican traditions also have significant monastic movements.

2) Our disbelief in the efficacy of prayer. Don’t be afraid to admit this – its almost universal. The sooner we admit it, the sooner we can rectify it. We who give ourselves full-time to prayer, also often have a hard time believing it. It is one thing to confess that prayer is important. It is entirely different to believe it actually makes a real difference in the world. My goal in a series of posts is to address this subject.

There are some Christians who believe that the concept of a ministry like IHOP or people being full-time intercessors is inherently a bad thing. They often preface their statements with something like, “well…I’m not against prayer, but…” and then go on to say how we should do something better or more useful with our time. I would like to respond by saying it is almost entirely irrelevant whether you are “for” or “against” prayer. Do you actually do it? That is what matters. The Scripture never says “be in support of the idea of prayer,” but rather says “be devoted to prayer” (Col. 4:2), meaning – actually do it as a prioritized activity in your individual and communal life. Luke’s description of the apostolic church was not that they “held the concept of prayer in high esteem,” but that they “devoted themselves to the prayers” (Acts. 2:42). You will only do this to the extent that you believe prayer is in fact useful time spent.

In my opinion there are two extremely popular yet woefully unbiblical and inadequate understandings related to why one is to pray. It seems that both of these seriously curtail attempts to “be devoted to the prayers” after the model of the early apostolic church.

1) Prayer as self-help – this can be epitomized in the cliche quoted above, “prayer does not change God (or any circumstances for that matter), prayer changes us.” This perspective is rooted in a certain understanding of God’s sovereignty in which every detail of every event of all time has been perfectly pre-planned by God in an inviolable blueprint. Thus it would be ridiculous to suggest that we could alter that blueprint through our intercessory prayers. If then, asking for circumstances to change (intercessory prayer) does not actually change those circumstances, we must somehow account for the Biblical insistence on such types of prayers. The answer becomes that these prayers in fact, over time, change our desires and conform them to God’s will, so that we want what God already had planned to do.

2) Prayer as obedience – once one comes to the conclusion that praying about people and circumstances does not actually change them, but merely change us, one then often asks, why are these prayers necessary? Why are they so frequent in the Bible (say in the Psalms), why was the early church (Book of Acts) so eager in making them, and why does the New Testament regularly exhort us to make such prayer? The answer to these questions becomes “because God has commanded such.” The reason to pray (even though it doesn’t actually do or change anything that corresponds to what we are actually requesting) is because God said so and we as his servants are to be obedient.

I think almost every phrase of every sentence in the previous two paragraphs could be questioned and challenged from Biblical and theological perspectives. Instead of performing such a painful dissection, I have opted today merely to look at a few verses in which Paul talks about prayer (subsequently, I will look at other sections of Scripture as well). I want to make simple observations related to what he says and ask if they correspond to the two reasons to pray given above.

Romans 15:30-32 - Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me, 31 that I may be rescued from those who are disobedient in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may prove acceptable to the saints; 32 so that I may come to you in joy by the will of God and find refreshing rest in your company.

1) First we might note that Paul urges the Romans to pray for him. There is a sense of urgency and gravity to this request.

2) Paul considers that when believers pray for him, they are joining with him in the apostolic labor. Prayer is not merely a “duty” or a “nice thought” but is in fact “striving together” with him. He believes the saints to be working and struggling with him as they pray for him.

3) Three purposes or outcomes of the prayers are listed, indicated by the term “that” or “so that:” (a) being rescued from people in Judea; (b) his service proving acceptable to the saints; and (c) being able to visit the Romans and find refreshing and rest with them. Describing these three as purposes or outcomes of the prayers shows that Paul does not consider their occurrence to be inevitable apart from the Roman’s prayers. In other words, the prayers of the Romans will in some manner make it possible for these three desired outcomes to come into fruition.

2 Corinthians 1:10-11 – He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on him we have set our hope that he will rescue us again, 11 as you also join in helping us by your prayers, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.

1) Paul considers his rescue to be conditional upon the Corinthian’s prayers – “he will rescue us again, as you also, join…”

2) Paul considers the prayers of the Corinthians to actually be helping him and his apostolic company. His concern was not that the prayers would help the pray-ers, but that the prayers of others would actually help him.

3) The phrase “so that” indicates that Paul sees the “blessing” to be either the purpose or result of the prayers.

4) He sees the blessing of rescue being “granted through the prayers.” In other words, the prayer was not to be a self-help mental technique, but was the actually means by which the deliverance would be granted to Paul.

5) The blessing is granted through the prayers of many. The prayers of many different people combine to contribute towards Paul’s deliverance.

Ephesians 6:18-19 – And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, 19 and pray on my behalf, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel…

1) The primary observation I would like to make here is the frequency of the word “all:” all prayer and petition, pray at all times, all perseverance, for all the saints. The urgency with which such an extravagant request is made gives an indication as to how Paul felt about prayer. It is difficult to conceive that such enormous amounts of prayer were needed and with such incessancy if the prayers were not in fact effecting something that would not be the same without the prayers.

2) Of additional note is that the call for this extraordinary quantity of prayer is in the midst of an extended warfare metaphor. Its seems as though this praying at all times is part of the “sword of the Spirit.” If prayer is part of a “spiritual sword,” then it seems self-evident that prayers do change actual circumstances and play a role in the defeat of the powers of darkness (cf. Eph. 6:12).

3) Paul asks the believers to pray so that he might preach with boldness. He sees that the purpose or outcome of the prayers is that something might be different than it would have been otherwise.

Philippians 1:18-19 – Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that this will turn out for my deliverance through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ…

1) Paul expects his deliverance to happen through (by means of) the prayers of the saints.

2) There is a co-operation between the prayers and the “provision of the Spirit.” If the provision of the Spirit would have effected deliverance on its own, its seems unnecessary to have mentioned the “prayers.”

My apologies if this has been repetitive and pedantic. It may seem that these observations are a little obvious or asinine. Yet it is remarkable how easy it is as a Christian to come to the conclusion that prayer doesn’t actually do anything and then defend the notion theologically.

My hope is that intercessors will be emboldened and strengthened with the simple notion that prayer actually does something and that such an idea is profoundly biblical.. Paul seems to express over and over again his expectation that when the people of God pray, circumstances will in fact be different than if they had not. Whether you can spend 5 minutes or 5 hours a day devoted to prayer, know that every minute is time well spent. Be assured that every 15 second prayer whispered throughout your day is mysteriously causing the future to unfold differently than it otherwise might have. In fellowship with the God of Hope, the God who envisions possibilities beyond all we could ask or imagine, we truly have the privilege, pleasure and glory of shaping the future of life on planet earth.

Ascension Day???

Richard — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:27:40 +0000

After a lengthy google search, I managed to discover one Protestant church in the greater Kansas City area was having an Ascension Day service last Thursday. Overjoyed at finding my quarry, I happily drove the 20+ minutes to attend this service. Including myself and the other person who came with me, there were five people in attendance, including one person who arrived half way through. I guess this means that in Kansas City, approximately 4.5 Protestants celebrated Ascension Day this year. I wonder if this is an all time record low since the founding of Kansas City. Suffice to say, celebrating the Ascension of Jesus is not high on the priority list, let alone on the radar screen of the Protestant Church at large.

But why should it? The Ascension is one of those topics that seems to have slipped off the general theological grid in contemporary Christianity (nevermind the Presentation or Transfiguration). Both the ascension and session (“being seated at the right hand of the Father”) of Jesus are given prominent places in both the Apostles’ and Nicene Creed (indeed, considering what is NOT said in the creeds, being mentioned at all is a place of prominence). The early church apparently considered the Ascension to be a critical component of true Christian faith. However, perusing through one of the most popular evangelical systematic theology books in print at present, the Ascension is squashed into the end of the chapter on the resurrection. In fact, the topics of providence, miracles, angels, satan and demons, the di/trichotomy of human nature, election and reprobation and the intermediate state EACH receive more coverage than the resurrection and ascension combined, though the early church didn’t perceive any of those topics to be crucial enough to be included in the creeds.

I am gathering that Ascension Day has come to such a low place of recognition because in the average evangelical consciousness, the possible meaning for the ascension is rather opaque. Perhaps, if at all, it is endowed with a negative meaning - Jesus is no longer with us in person. We are alone to do what he told us to do until he finally comes back. I hope in the following to merely in outline, amend this theological lacuna, which turns out to be significantly more practical and pastoral than one at first might imagine.

1) The Ascension means Jesus is the world’s true Lord.

The grand prayer in Ephesians 1 culminates with the statement that after God raised Jesus from the dead, he “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.” To be in heaven is not to be “out-of-sight out-of-mind.” Rather, heaven in the Bible is thought of as the “control center” for the earth (cf. the parallelism in 2 Chr. 20:6; Job 38:33; Ps. 103:19). For Jesus to be seated in heaven, means that he is the world’s true lord and king over all.

2) The Ascension means heaven and earth are not as far apart as we might have thought.

It is funny how the way we think is often opposite to the way reality works. When we think of the ascension, we think of Jesus going away and not being with us. The exact opposite is expressed in Matthew 28. While this passage does not explicitly mention the ascension, it bears several features in common with the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts including Jesus taking his disciples to a mountain, teaching them and commissioning them to spread the gospel. It is not a stretch to think that they were the same event (though it technically doesn’t matter for what I am about to say). It is precisely here that he gives the promise, “I am with you always even to the end of the age.” How can Jesus ascend to heaven and be with us always? It is commonly assumed that this promise refers to the Holy Spirit. But what about the 10 days in between the ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit? Where those days exempted from “always.” The only way this can be true is if Jesus can be “in heaven” and with us at the same time. My sense is that this promise implies something that we as contemporary Christians often fail to grasp – that early Judaism conceived of heaven and earth, not as discrete locations a long way off from each other – but as two overlapping and interlocking dimensions of God’s created world. Think about this one the next time you are shouting at God “up in heaven.”

3) The Ascension means that the restoration of the full destiny of humanity and the entire earth is not as far off as we might have thought.

Hebrews 2 quotes Psalm 8 in saying “What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them. You have made them a little lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet.” The Psalmist’s awe at God’s consideration of humankind has less to do with “feeling good about yourself” as much as it does with the role and destiny God gave human beings of ruling the earth (cf. Gen. 1). It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that if humans are ruling the world, they are doing a terrible job, but more so it seems like the world is completely out of the control of humans. Lots of people seem desirous to do things right, whether in personal, familial, local, national or global contexts, be we can never seem to get it right, and often make matters worse either by our incompetence or intention.

The author to the Hebrews agrees with this in quite an understatement – “As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them (meaning humans).” He goes on to say, “but we do see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death so that by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.” How precisely is this an answer to the problem that God gave humans rulership over the earth, and as of yet it is completely out of control, full of death, decay and despair? Because, Jesus as a human has been exalted to the heavens, he now sits in a place of rulership over the earth. Though we do not yet see the earth under the gracious rulership of humans intended by God, there is one human who has gone before the rest and is currently, as a token, fulfilling the destiny of the human race – Jesus the Messiah. The ascension of Jesus tells us that the restoration of humanity’s destiny — wherein our propensity towards destroying the creation would be healed and we exercise co-regency with God in establishing a gracious reign of justice, peace and life on earth — has begun in Jesus.

4) The Ascension means that we are to exercise this authority NOW

“But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” (Ephesians 2:3-6)

Apparently heaven and earth are not that far apart considering we can be in both places at once! I won’t try to explain exactly what I think this means now, but the immediate meaning is apparent – the authority that Jesus has at the right hand of the Father, we partake with him in the present. Jesus’ rule over the universe is something he already is sharing with those who are “in the Messiah.” The justice, peace, life and joy of the age to come is not something we are simply to wait for – it is something we have both the authority and responsibility to implement now. So much for the easy Christian life – we’ve got work to do!

Almighty God, who did raise your beloved Son from the dead and seated him at your right hand, so now restore your people from the mire of Death’s hold and the darkness of Sin’s night, that the light of his gracious rule might shine through our lives, growing brighter and brighter until the fullness of day, through Jesus the Messiah our Lord…

Why Greek Matters (Part 2) – New Creation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Richard — Sat, 23 May 2009 10:21:36 +0000

Today I am continuing in a series of brief snippets explaining why I find understanding the Greek text behind our English versions of the New Testament helpful. It is my hope to encourage some people who are either in the midst of or are considering learning Greek – that it really is worth doing.

If you don’t fall into that category, just consider this one of those “insights from the Greek.”

One of the funny phenomena of Greek grammar is that sometimes the verb in a sentence is omitted and you have to figure out what it is in context. Sometimes it is implied from earlier in the passage (often the last verb is meant to be repeated) or just a form of the verb “to be” is meant. An example of this is in 2 Corinthians 5:17, which most modern English translations render as something like, “if anyone is in the Messiah, he is a new creation.” However the Greek leaves out the verb “is” and the subject “he.” It simply reads, “If anyone is in the Messiah — New Creation!” Under the ordinary translation, the subject of the verb is the “anyone,” the individual who has been incorporated into the Messiah. Thus it would mean that the individual now has an opportunity to start their life over and to re-prioritize their life according to God’s ways, to re-channel their energies in obedience and holiness rather than sin. Of course this is all good, but is that what the verse is getting at?

Another option is that the subject of the verb is “new creation, giving us a translation like, “If anyone is in the Messiah, there is a new creation” (NRSV) or “if anyone is in the messiah, the new creation has come!” (TNIV). Supporting this interpretation is the observation that when Paul uses the term “creation,” he generally uses it in terms of the whole creation, not a part of it, or one individual within it.

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities–his eternal power and divine nature–have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:20

“¹⁹The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. ²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Romans 8:19-22

“…neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:39

“He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.” Col. 1:15

What does this mean then? If this latter translation is correct – then “being in the Messiah” is not simply an opportunity for a fresh start or a new chance to get things right (as great as that is). Being in the Messiah means that one is a participant in the eschatological life of the restored and renewed heavens and earth even now. Some way and some how, through the Messiah, God’s future for the world, where peace, justice, life and joy reigns, has come forward and burst forth in the present time. This is not a “spiritualization” of eschatology. Rather, understanding the radicality of New Testament thought is grasping that the apostles believed this time of literal, cosmic, physical, eschatological fulfillment, the full restoration of heaven and earth, though yet remaining future, has nevertheless dawned in “the now.” This restoration is already tasted by those who are “in the Messiah.”

The Relationship of Christianity to Other Religions

Richard — Sun, 03 May 2009 00:34:08 +0000

Any discussion of how Christianity relates to other religions must first begin with a clear and concrete articulation of what Christianity is centrally about. Much discussion on religious pluralism assumes or posits a universal notion of what is “central” to religions (a norm to which Christianity conforms) or that the content of Christianity is flexible (that which does not conform to the “center” is shed). For example, Paul Knitter explains that, “Every religion, it would seem, seeks to place its followers in contact with a Reality, or to provide them with an exercise, whereby they can break the bonds of ego-clinging in order to embrace and be part of and so be transformed by that which is other.”[1] John Hick, similarly, would locate this soteriological locus “as an actual change in men and women from natural self-centredness to, in theistic terms, God-centredness, or in more general terms, a new orientation centered in the Ultimate, the Real.”[2] Hick also points to the universality of something akin to the “Golden Rule” amongst the major traditions as indicative of this shared soteriological emphasis.[3] Once this center has been determined, Hick believes it is possible (indeed, necessary) to postulate a Christianity without a trinity of unique persons, a de facto incarnation of God in the flesh, or a substitutionary atonement (of any kind).[4] Perhaps if one is seeking to arrive at a general theory of religion, such abstract and vague generalizing is a necessary starting place. However, to address the relationship of Christianity to the other world religions, one must first begin with an adequate expression of what Christianity is, in its own right, before determining potential areas of coherence and/or incoherence with the other great traditions.

The Biblical text begins (Genesis 1-2) with an account of God creating the world (which is oddly enough, a polemic against the leading, and of course the non-leading, accounts of cosmology and theology in the surrounding cultural milieu). This confession of God as creator finds expression repeatedly throughout the Bible.[5] The fact that Yhwh was recognized as the sole creator of the cosmos, means that at least four other religious options cannot be true: (1) henotheism (confession of Yhwh as creator affirms God’s ontological, not merely practical, superiority over the so-called “gods” of the nations); (2) pantheism (confession of Yhwh as creator affirms that God is ontologically distinct from the creation, having an existence both separate and prior); (3) deism (confession of Yhwh as the creator-God was frequently the basis for Israel’s belief that God would intervene in history, not that God was untouchable beyond it); and (4) Gnosticism (the world is the good creation of the one true God, not the bad creation of a foolish lower demiurge).[6] Chapters 3-11 recount the devastating downward spiral the creation takes directly on account of human decisions and behavior. In the opening chapters of the Bible themes are established which are maintained and serve as foundational throughout the rest of the corpus of Scripture: (1) Yhwh is the one true God; (2) the world is affirmed as the good creation of the creator God; (3) the pristine (though not necessarily perfect) created order is corrupted by human sin; and (4) human action repeatedly and progressively destroys the created order. As for this final point, David Clines aptly summarizes Genesis 1-11 in saying, “Humankind tends to destroy what God has made good. Even when God forgives human sin and mitigates the punishment, sin continues to spread, to the point where the world suffers uncreation. And even when God makes a fresh start, turning his back on uncreation forever, humanity’s tendency to sin immediately becomes manifest.”[7]

In chapter twelve of Genesis, God makes a covenant with Abraham and his descendents. They are to be the people through whom the blessing originally granted in Genesis 1, deconstructed in chapters three through eleven, would be mediated to the entire earth. “Abraham emerges within the structure of Genesis as the answer to the plight of all humankind…Abraham and his progeny inherit the role of Adam and Eve…[they] are to be the means of undoing primeval sin and its consequences.”[8] They will be God’s agents in restoring the corrupted and decaying earth.

Thus the nation of Israel is born. Nearly immediately however, and such becomes a recurrent theme throughout the Old Testament, the covenant people themselves are in peril, either through unelected circumstances (the barrenness of the matriarchs, oppression in Egypt, captivity in Babylon, etc.), interpersonal strife, or national sin which elicits God’s judgment. However, the calling to be the mediator of God’s blessing to the earth and the means by which the problem of sin would be dealt with was not rescinded. Even in the midst of the Babylonian captivity, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah calls Israel, “my servant [who] will bring forth justice to the nations” (Isa. 42:1), the “light to the nations” (Isa. 42:6), those by whom Yhwh’s “salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isa. 49:6), and those who are appointed to “restore the earth” (49:8).

To the prophets, who stood in the theological, emotional, intellectual and pastoral chasm between the unabashed calling of Israel to be God’s means of dealing with the sin of the world and the ever-precarious status of that same covenant people, it became understood that Israel’s calling would only be fulfilled by a dramatic intervention of God in history. Indeed, it would be history’s climactic moment, in which God would “bare his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God” (Isa. 52:9). This redemptive, restorative justice-effecting salvation would be a decisive act of God, through his people within the world, yet very much so from beyond the world. Within the Old Testmanent itself (Isa. 25:6-8; Daniel 12) but increasingly so in the intertestimental period, this expectation became understood in terms of resurrection, the post-mortem revivification of bodily life.[9]

It was as these expectations for God’s justice to break in upon the world reached, in many quarters, a feverish pitch, that Jesus, the one hailed Messiah, entered the world scene, announcing the Reign of God. This kingdom was understood by his Jewish followers to be in direct continuity with kingdom expectations flowing from the Jewish prophetic writings about God’s justice and salvation coming to earth.[10] Though this has been the subject of numerous entire monographs, the life, message, ministry and actions of Jesus were meant, by him, to be understood in continuity with these messianic expectations. Of particular note are his actions at the temple (Mt. 21:12ff; Mk 11:15ff.; Lk. 19:45ff.) where he announced that it would be torn down and he would rebuild it, therein declaring himself to be Israel’s (and the world’s) messiah and king; and the Last Supper (Mt. 26:20ff; Mark 14:12ff.; Lk. 22:7ff.), where he interprets his impending death through the lens of the Passover, in which God will work to effect a New Exodus of freedom and liberation in fulfillment of his covenant with Abraham.[11] Jesus’ announcement of the nearness of the Kingdom, in conjunction with these “prophetic parables” indicate his belief that the long awaited time when God would decisively act to deal with the problem of sin and restore the entire creation in God’s salvific justice was happening through him. This great restoration was in fact inaugurated when God raised Jesus bodily from the dead as the firstfruits of the resurrection of the entire creation (cf. 1 Cor. 15:20). After his resurrection, he affirms that “all authority in heaven and on earth” had been given to him as the world’s true Lord and that the apostles were to go, in the spirit of Psalm 96 and Isaiah 52, announcing to all nations that God was bringing salvation, righteousness and wholeness near, putting the world to rights, and was simultaneously demanding their allegiance to Jesus as Lord and their submission to his kingdom proclamations (teachings).

The other New Testament writings, of Paul in particular, continue to implement the message and work of Jesus, in continuity with the story of Israel’s history.[12] They herald both the dawning new day of God’s kingdom of salvific justice upon the world,[13] yet at the same time acknowledging the lingering realities of the “present evil age,” including evil (Rom. 8:35-36), sickness (Phil. 2:26-27), suffering (1 Cor. 12:26), death (Rom. 8:10), decay (Rom. 8:20-21), and demonic powers (Eph. 6:12). Though God had decisively acted in and through Jesus, and makes his people agents of restoration, the earth still awaits a future moment of final salvation which will be brought by God to the earth (Rom. 8:18ff; 1 Cor. 15:23ff; Phil 3:20-21; 1 Thess. 4:13ff; 2 Thess. 1:6-8; 2:7-8; Rev. 21-22). This salvation, both its present downpayment and future fulfillment, is the possession of those who participate in the death and resurrection of the Messiah (1 Cor. 6:15, 10:16; 12:27; 2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 6:3-11; 8:1; 12:4-6; Gal. 2:19f; 5:24; 6:14; Phil 3:8f; Eph. 2:5; Col. 2:20; 3:1-4). Those who have given their allegiance to Jesus as Lord will participate in the full life of the Age to Come, while those who are not “in the Messiah” will perish (1 Cor. 1:18; 6:9ff; 2 Cor. 2:15; 4:3; Phil. 3:19). [14]

This articulation of Christian faith is, albeit, extremely abbreviated. What it hopefully makes clear is that Biblical Christianity, when expressed in concrete terms, cannot accept the soteriological proposals made by Hick and others. Of note is that the preceding articulation of Christianity did not even mention the common stumbling blocks of Trinity, Incarnation and Substitutionary Atonement, but focused on the Biblical framework in which a historically situated understanding of Christian salvation emerges. Christian salvation is not about a personalistic and moralistic attempt to move from “ego-centeredness” to “reality-centeredness.” Rather, Christianity affirms that existent reality is itself in need of salvation, both the constituent members and the greater whole. Although this salvation will certainly affect the internal orientation of individuals, its paramount feature is that it comes from God to the entire cosmos, for those who are of the faithfulness of Jesus (Rom. 3:26), those who have given believing allegiance to the world’s true Lord, Jesus (Rom. 1:5; 16:26). Christianity is thus incompatible with the major world religions, not because of certain distinctive doctrines, but because if its concepts of God, humanity, the earth and its salvation are true, then by nature, it does not allow for the truth claims of other religions in as much as they conflict with its own.

[1] Paul Knitter, “Christian Theology of Liberation and Interfaith Dialogue,” in Christianity and Other Religions, ed. John HIck (Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2001), 151-2.

[2] John Hick, “The Theological Challenge of Religious Pluralism,” ibid, 164.

[3] ibid.

[4] John Hick, “The Non-Absoluteness of Christianity” in The Myth of Christian Uniqueness: Towards a Pluralistic Theology of Religions, ed. John Hick and Paul Knitter (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1987), 30-33.

[5] Genesis 1:1-28, 31; 2:1-25; 5:1, 2; 9:6; Exodus 20:11; 1 Samuel 2:8; 2 Kings 19:15; 1 Chronicles 16:26; Nehemiah 9:6; Job 9:8, 9; 10:3, 8; 12:7-9; 26:7-13; 28:23-26; 37:16, 18; 38:4-38; Psalm 8:3; 19:1, 4; 24:1, 2; 33:6, 7, 9; 65:6; 74:16, 17; 78:69; 89:11, 12, 47; 90:2; 95:4, 5; 96:5; 102:25; 103:22; 104:2, 3, 5, 6, 24, 30, 31; 119:90, 91; 121:2; 124:8; 136:5-9; 146:5, 6; 148:5, 6; Proverbs 3:19; 8:26-29; 16:4; 22:2; 26:10; 30:4; Ecclesiastes 3:11; 7:29; 11:5; Isaiah 17:7; 37:16; 40:12, 26, 28; 42:5; 44:24; 45:7, 12, 18; 48:13; 51:13, 16; 66:2; Jeremiah 5:22; 10:12, 13, 16; 27:5; 31:35; 32:17; 33:2; 51:15, 16, 19; Amos 4:13; 5:8; 9:6; Jonah 1:9; Zechariah 12:1; Mark 10:6; 13:19; Acts 4:24; 7:50; 14:15; 17:24-26; Romans 1:20; 11:36; 1 Corinthians 8:6; 11:12; 2 Corinthians 4:6; 5:5, 18; Ephesians 3:9; 1 Timothy 6:13; Hebrews 1:1, 2; 2:10; 3:4; 11:3; Revelation 4:11; 10:6; 14:7

[6] Nicholas Thomas Wright, New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 249.

[7] David J.A. Clines, The Theme of the Pentatuech (Sheffield: The University of Sheffield Press, 1978), 76.

[8] Nicholas Thomas Wright, New Testament and the People of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992), 252, 262-3.

[9] Nicholas Thomas Wright, The Resurrection of the Son of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003), 146-206.

[10] Nicholas Thomas Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1996), 202ff.

[11] Ibid, 406-428; 554-563.

[12] cf. Romans 1:2; 3:21; 16:26

[13] Acts 2:16-17; 26:16-18; Rom. 3:21; 14:17; 1 Cor. 4:19-20; 10:11; 2 Cor. 5:16-17; 6:1-2; Col. 1:12-14; 4:11; Heb. 1:1-2; 6:4-5; 9:25-26; 12:28; 1 Pet. 1:18-20; 1 John 2:7-8; Rev. 1:9.

[14] E.P. Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1977), 453ff., 473.

New Creation…Starting Now

Richard — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 10:03:37 +0000

When Jesus burst out of the tomb, what happened? What does it mean for us?

This past month, believers of all kinds, in their own ways, celebrated the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah. The question I’d like to ask today, is what exactly happened when Jesus came out of the tomb alive? By saying this, I don’t even mostly mean what happened to Jesus himself, because as the Biblical authors attest, whatever happened, had reverberations that made the world a different place.

In 1 Corinthians 15:20, Paul tells us that, “the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.” In other places, Jesus is called “the firstborn from among the dead” (Col. 1:18; Rev. 1:5; cf. Rom. 8:29, Rev. 3:14). “First fruits” is an agricultural image, depicting the initial produce of a larger, single harvest. “Firstborn” is a family image, concerning the first child born, the eldest sibling of a larger, single family.

We learn at least two things from the images Paul uses here.
1) Whatever happened to Jesus, it was the first time it had happened. This clues us in that Jesus was not simply resuscitated. His body did not simply come back to life, in the same way that had Lazarus (John 11) and Jairus’s daughter (Mark 5), amongst others. Jesus resurrection was the beginning of something that had never happened before.
2) Whatever happened to Jesus, it is understood as a part of a larger whole, the first fruits of the entire harvest; the firstborn of the entire family. Something began in the event of Jesus’ resurrection that had broader implications than simply Jesus himself.

What is this larger whole that has been set into motion by Jesus resurrection? In Jewish thought, which forms the background and foundation for the entire New Testament, the resurrection was thought to occur 1) at one time, 2) to everyone at once, and 3) at the “capital-e” End. It was a single, all-inclusive event at the beginning of God’s ultimate future for the world, at the transition between this age and the age to come. This is how Isaiah describes it:

Isa. 25:6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples
a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines,
of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.
(7) And he will destroy on this mountain
the shroud that is cast over all peoples,
the sheet that is spread over all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
(8) Then the Lord GOD will wipe away the tears from all faces,
and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth,
for the LORD has spoken.

Feasting, food, and wine in abundance. Death, disgrace and tears annihilated. Resurrection takes place in context to a full scale restoration of humanity in their community with God and each other and the future of life on the earth. Resurrection happens as God unleashes the final stages of his plan to undo the effects of the fall and restore the earth. The apostle John puts it this way:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. (2) And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. (3) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. (4) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” (5) And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.”

Resurrection, seen in this way, is like the title page for a entire book, whose content is the restoration of all things, the complete transformation of life on the earth, the renewal of life the way God meant for it to be: a life full of joy, love and peace, with no mourning, crying, pain or death. God’s “making all things new” is the harvest of which Jesus is the first fruits. Humanity renewed and restored in right relationship with God, each other, and the entire creation is the family to whom the resurrected Lord is the “firstborn.” When Jesus rose from the dead, the harvest began. When the Son of God was restored from the darkness of death, the new family was forged. When God breathed immortality into the broken body of the Messiah, the new creation was inaugurated, like a seed planted in the ground, whose hidden life slowly but surely emerges in all its grandeur. The resurrection of Jesus does not simply mean that Jesus is alive. For the entire creation, mired by death and decay, to the eyes of many suffused with a hopeless gloom, even yet “there lives the dearest freshness deep down things (Gerard Manley Hopkins).” The burgeoning spring-time of creation has come at last. God’s new creation has begun – and we are a part of it. The life of the new creation flows within our veins. The implications of this is at once expansive and exhilarating, and to this I will turn in the near future.

** The Title for this post is graciously lifted from the title of a chapter in Simply Christian by Tom Wright.

Spirit and Flesh – Part 1

Richard — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:59:34 +0000

The Biblical discussion of the concepts of “flesh” and “spirit” are highly problematic for several reasons. “Flesh” is one of the grand enemies of the Christian, along with the “world” (another problematic term) and the “devil” (yet another problematic term…). Hence the Christian must “war against the flesh.” As long as this remains theoretical, no problems will surface. Difficulties appear, however, as soon as one seeks to locate this “flesh” and fight against it. What does Paul mean by “flesh?” The simplest answer is a vague approximation between “flesh” and either materiality or bodily existence. I once had someone, when explaining what “flesh” was, dramatically pinch and pull the skin on his arm to make explicitly concrete this vile affiliation with the body. Another thorny interpretation of “flesh” is to call it the “sinful nature” (as unfortunately the NIV and alas the TNIV translate the greek word sarx, literally “flesh”). The Bible NEVER explicitly speaks of a “sinful nature” (except in the NIV…). Nature means what is inherent and essential. If sin is thus inherent or essential to human existence, that would invalidate an original state of innocence (thus excluding a concept of a “fall”) and make an existence without sin in the age to come impossible. Sin is never part of the central, inviolable identity of human beings. As long as humans live on earth the stranglehold of sin can be broken and exposed as the alien obtrusion that it is. Albiet, I understand what people mean when they say “sinful nature” and would not deny the depraved state of humanity. Nevertheless, “sinful nature” IS NOT a biblical term and I believe it is not the best way to express the brokenness of humanity. This however, is well beside the point…

The crux of the issue is that the interpretation of flesh in correlation with bodily or essential human existence opens the door for quasi-gnosticism. Gnosticism in a nut shell is the ancient (and heretical) belief that (for simplicity’s sake) matter is inherently evil (has an evil/sinful nature) and spirit is good. The good spirits of people are trapped in wicked bodies and need to be released by an enlightened spirit messenger and by the acquisition of a higher knowledge (gnosis). Gnosticism was the PRIMARY heresy that the early church combated, precisely because from the beginning of the church it was the most destructive idea to authentic apostolic Christianity. This idea subtly continues in the church when we ascribe a bad or inferior status to the material world or specifically our bodies. This belief slowly, yet thoroughly deconstructs the meaning and power of apostolic doctrine in its belief of the goodness of God’s role as creator, his creation, the value of the life of the body and the renewal of the earth (check the tags “Gnosticism” and “new creation” for more on this).

This problem stems from a common approach to interpreting Paul, and the gospel in general, to first outline the “problem” for only then can the solution be understood. Rudolf Bultmann epitomized this view when he said, “after man-under-the-Law has been made to see his situation under it as that of the ‘miserable wretch’ groaning for deliverance from the ‘body of death’, he can then see the salvation-occurrence as salvation-bringing.” Thus we look first at the problem – the problem is the flesh – and then discern the solution – opposing, eliminating or escaping the flesh.

E.P. Sanders has suggested that for Paul, the dilemma is not self-evident, but the solution provided in the Gospel illuminates the dilemma. This line of thought can be fruitful for understanding the flesh-Spirit conflict. “Flesh” is not primarily seen as negative in itself. It is only in light of the solution provided in the gospel that “flesh” is then seen as negative.

Flesh in the Old Testament speaks of corporate humanity in their weakness and fragility. This was not seen as evil, but was understood as an inevitable reality of existence. All living beings came from the dust and to the dust they will return (Gen. 18:27; Ps 103:14; Eccles 12:7; cf. 1 Cor. 15:47). However, in the NT, particularly in Paul, “flesh” takes on an unprecedented and unequivocal negative meaning. Here it is not because of any kind of inherent evil nature of literal flesh, but rather because of a dramatic alteration in the situation previously described. Whereas formerly “flesh” described the negative but inevitable weakness that characterized human solidarity, the resurrection of Jesus has introduced a radical newness. The “inevitability” of the corruption and death of flesh is no longer such. Its overcoming has not only been envisaged but has in fact been actualized in and through the resurrection of Jesus. As resurrection and the Spirit functioned as synecdoches (a figure of speech in which a part is made to represent the whole or vice versa) for God’s entire eschatological restoration program, so “flesh” becomes a synecdoche for all that God is renewing, restoring and replacing. “Flesh” is the dangling vestage of all that is contrary to God’s future for the world. Thus, the “mindset of the flesh” is not an “attachment to earthly-things.” How could one not be attached to earthly things? Humans are quite literally “earthlings” (the word for human in Hebrew is derived from the word for earth/ground). The mindset-of-the-flesh is rather that motivational force which seeks to maintain the status quo of sin, death, disorder, estrangement, alienation, suffering, injustice and unrighteousness over and against God’s work of new creation.

It is common to discuss the contrast of flesh and Spirit in terms of anthropology. However, this is not possible. First of all, “Spirit,” in the fullest Pauline sense, is not a fundamental component of human being, if it can be called a component of human being at all. Rather it is a person of the Godhead. To speak of Spirit in human anthropology would be to dangerously blur the distinction between God and humans. Furthermore, “flesh,” in Pauline terminology, cannot even be called a fundamental constituent of human nature either. Though often equated with the physical body, Paul’s discussion of the flesh shows us that this cannot be the case. In Romans 8:9 he tells the believers “you are not in the flesh if the Spirit of God dwells in you.” What could this sentence possibly mean if the word “flesh” means the body or even “the body with regard to its sinfulness?” To push the physicality of “flesh” renders Paul as ludicrous in this statement. Rather, “flesh” is a sphere that individuals can be “in” or “out” of, and thus cannot be part of the “nature” of humans. Nature refers to the essential characteristics of an entity. If humans can be outside the realm of “flesh,” then flesh cannot be essential to them. Hence it is not part of their nature.

Altogether, neither “flesh” nor “spirit” can be used to discuss human nature in a fundamental way. This illuminates that for Paul these terms do not function primarily anthropologically, but rather eschatologically. It is recognized by many biblical scholars today, that a fully Biblical understanding of the Spirit cannot be gained apart from the larger context of eschatology. A neat scholastic schematic that would appropriate “flesh” to the doctrine of anthropology, the Spirit as a component of soteriology and eschatology to a theological appendix (if not appendage) will never grasp the symphonic nature of Pauline thought concerning these terms. Passages like Isaiah 11:2; 42:1; 61:1 show how Jewish Messianic concepts were strongly linked to the concept of the Spirit. Passages like Isaiah 4; 32:15; 44:3; Joel 2:28ff and Ezekiel 36-37 link the Spirit to the eschatological restoration of the people of God and God’s world. The Spirit who played a critical role in creation (Gen. 1:2; Job 33:4; Ps. 33:6; 104:29) will be mightily operative to recreate God’s precious yet disfigured world.

The disparaging way Paul speaks of “flesh” is not remotely Gnostic. It does not make a gradation of “spiritual” over “natural” or “soul” over “body.” Rather the flesh is that which corresponds to the age of Adam and participates in its death-drives. It is that which is in allegiance with everything contrary to God’s kingdom, God’s future for the world, where there will be no more death, no more mourning, no more cry and no more pain. Wars will cease to the ends of the earth. The broken-heart will be bound up, the captive will be set free, the afflicted will be comforted. The entire created order will be renewed as righteousness, peace, joy and love flood the earth in the knowledge of God. To war against the flesh is to oppose, live in contradiction with and confront everything that seeks perpetuate that which God’s kingdom eradicates. It means to embody by the power of the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead, first in our own lives and relationships, that which will be true universally in the age of come. It means to appropriate now the “already” of the Kingdom and to refuse accommodation to the “not yet,” despite its persistence. Though sin reigned in death, grace now reigns through righteousness leading to eternal life in the Messiah Jesus. We have been united with Him in his death and resurrection and even now the life force of the spring-time of all creation lies resident within us. To war against the flesh is not to despise our bodily, physical, emotional, relational, and exceedingly conflicted existence. Rather in the midst of the great conflict between a dying world which is passing away and a new world which is coming to birth in the midst of it, we are called to wholeheartedly embrace and love life as agents of new creation, to be the sphere in which the power of regeneration is made operative – for through us God will send forth his spirit and renew the face of the earth (Ps 104:31).

Resurrection and Justification Part 2

Richard — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 08:29:30 +0000

An excerpt from “Saved By His Life” - a new paper I am working on:

Understanding of Paul’s soteriology (doctrine of salvation) has usually focused exclusively or almost exclusively on the crucifixion. In the early church, this was understood primarily in terms of the Messiah’s victory over the powers of darkness, as in Colossians 2:15. In the medieval period, the cross was understood as the satisfaction of the demands of justice, which in the Protestant tradition became the satisfaction of divine wrath. This satisfaction-substitution understanding of soteriology, which continues to be very prevalent in Evangelical Christianity to the present day, creates a strong emphasis on rebellion as humanity’s primary problem and on the forensic and economic metaphors of justification.

When these aspects of Pauline soteriology are emphasized at the expense of the richly multifaceted metaphorical world Paul uses to describe the work of God in The Messiah, the system is unable to deal with many of the Pauline “anomalies” discussed previously. Rather than simply forensic and economic, we see that Paul’s soteriology is cosmic, dramatic, eschatological, apocalyptic, relational and participatory. Theological categorizations (dare we say segregations) of “justification” as being declared righteous and “regeneration” as being made new, have perhaps been advantageous in laying out theological concepts systematically, but not necessarily in understanding a symphonic thinker like Paul. Helpful towards this end is Jurgen Moltmann’s suggestion that justification is regeneration. Furthermore, he suggests that this doctrine of justification must be “eschatologically oriented.” It is often thought that participation in God’s future happens on the basis of our justification when perhaps it is the reverse that is true. Our declaration of righteousness in the present tense is given on the basis of our participation in the eschatological age of righteousness in Christ by the Spirit of him who raised Christ Jesus from the dead. Particularly in the Letter to the Romans, Paul sees justification as, not only the result of the death of Jesus, which affects the individual believer’s experience; but also the result of the resurrection of Jesus, which inaugurates the new age of cosmic redemption, in which individuals, via union with the Messiah, participate in the setting right and making new of all things.

Resurrection and Justification Part 1

Richard — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 08:32:55 +0000

An excerpt from “Saved By His Life” - a new paper I am working on:

Since the Protestant Reformation, “justification by faith” has been the articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiae—the article by which the church stands or falls. Stressing the significance of this doctrine, Martin Luther once said,

“[Justification is] the chief article of Christian doctrine. To him who understands how great its usefulness and majesty are, everything else will seem slight and turn to nothing. For what is Peter? What is Paul? What is an angel from heaven? What are all creatures in comparison with the article of justification? For if we know this article, we are in the clearest light; if we do not know it, we dwell in the densest darkness. Therefore if you see this article impugned or imperiled, do not hesitate to resist Peter or an angel from heaven; for it cannot be sufficiently extolled.”

Though a significant point of controversy between Catholic and Protestants since the 16th century, in recent years, the meaning of this “chief article” has been a matter of significant discussion even amongst Protestants. What does it mean to be justified? What is the problem that necessitates justification? How is justification achieved? How does it become effective in an individual’s life? What does it accomplish?

An oversimplified and clichéd response, but nevertheless moderately reflective of what a common evangelical believer would profess, might be as follows: The problem necessitating justification is that humans are in rebellion against God as expressed in sin. Because God is righteous, sin by nature provokes the wrath of God, before which, no human can stand. Justification is achieved by Jesus’ substitutionary death on the cross, whereby he bears the wrath of God for us and makes propitiation for us before God. This becomes effective in an individual’s life by repenting of and forsaking one’s rebellion and by believing in God. This accomplishes the forgiveness of one’s sin and acceptance before God, thus enabling one to go to heaven upon death and to spend eternity with God.

This summary, expressed in “gospel” presentations and systematic theologies, broadly and vaguely depicts what is with what is more precisely called the penal-substitutionary model of atonement. When this description of the “what” and “how” of justification is represented as the sole or primary understanding of justification, many peculiarities in Paul are “unearthed” which do not seem to correspond to this logic. Paul seems to have a broader understanding of the problem of the human condition than simply being “rebellion against the honor of God.” He talks about “futile thinking” and “foolish hearts” (Rom. 1:21), disordered passions (Rom. 1:24), lacking “knowledge of God” (Rom. 1:28), being “under a curse” (Gal. 3:10,13), being “in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world” (Gal. 4:3), being dead (Eph. 2:1), being “foreigners and strangers” (Eph. 2:19), and being under the “dominion of darkness” (Col. 1:13). He sees the work of God in the Messiah, not only in court-room images, but also in military, familial, relational, political, biological and architectural images. This work does not simply accomplish forgiveness for us, but through the cross we have been “delivered from the present evil age” (Gal. 1:4), rescued “from the dominion of darkness” and brought into “the kingdom of [God’s] beloved Son” (Col. 1:13). Furthermore, several cryptic yet explicit passages describe how Jesus was “raised for our justification” (Rom. 4:25) and that we are “saved by his life” (Rom. 5:10).

In such, we are not merely forgiven, but are given participation in a cosmic redemption, which is often the climax of Paul’s discussions of “individual salvation”. In Romans, the “righteousness of God” that is revealed in the gospel ultimately builds to the time when “the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom of the glory of the children of God” (Rom. 8:21). In 2 Corinthians 5, the non-reckoning of sin is intimately linked with the arrival of the New Creation. Paul’s discussion in Ephesians about being “chosen before the foundations of the world,” and “adopted to sonship” in Jesus by whom we have “redemption through his blood” all leads to the eternal purpose of God “to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under The Messiah” (Eph. 1:10). In Colossians 1, the purpose of the Messiah’s work on the cross is to “reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”

Heaven is Important…But it’s not the End of the World

Richard — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 08:35:43 +0000

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 The creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved…” Romans 8:18-24

As shocking as it may seem, Christianity is not primarily about moral teaching as if what the world needs is more advice concerning how to live a good life. Christianity is not mostly about Jesus being a premier example of how to live well in relation with God and humanity, as if what the world needs is more models to follow. Christianity is neither about a new way to get to heaven when we die. Heaven indeed is important, but is not the end of the world, literally. Over and over in the Scripture we are told that God’s renewed creation is the final future of humanity. In the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6), Jesus instructs us to pray, not that we would be able to leave earth and go to heaven, but rather that God’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven, that the earth would be transformed to embody heaven’s glory. In Revelation 21 and 22 our ultimate end is not heaven, but the new heavens and new earth. In Romans 8, our destiny is not escaping the fallen world to heaven, but the liberation of the world from its fallenness by the supernatural work of God. Throughout the New Testament, the Christian hope is not heaven (as great as it is!), but the resurrection of the dead in the renewed earth.

In the midst of this hope for the full restoration of life, justice, beauty and love, the shocking truth of Christianity is that this resurrection, this new creation that has been anticipated to come at the end of history, has now broken forth in the middle of history. Jesus is the firstborn from among the dead, the firstfruits of them that have fallen asleep. That end-time eschatological process of raising the dead and renewing all things has begun with the resurrection of Jesus. The Christian hope does not remove us from the earth, but attaches us more firmly and permanently to the earth calling us to experience and work for the renewal of the earth now, in all of its multifarious manifestations. So much could be (and will be) said about this subject but let me just give one passage from Isaiah and then a startling passage from Paul.

Isaiah 49:8-13 - “This is what the LORD says: “In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you; I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances, 9 to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’ “They will feed beside the roads and find pasture on every barren hill. 10 They will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat down on them. He who has compassion on them will guide the and lead them beside springs of water. 11 I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. 12 See, they will come from afar— some from the north, some from the west, some from the region of Aswan. ” 13 Shout for joy, you heavens; rejoice, you earth; burst into song, you mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

This passage from Isaiah describes the renewal of the people of Israel, a “new exodus” so to speak in which the community of God is restored and the captives are set free. This is God’s eschatological restoration, in which hunger and wearisome toil, desolation and darkness, captivity and estrangement are a thing of the past. Indeed verse 10 is quoted in Revelation 7 concerning the age to come. In 2 Corinthians 6, Paul makes a startling declaration:

“As God’s co–workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the time of God’s favor, behold, now is the day of salvation.”

In this passage, Paul directly quotes from Isaiah 49 and then with all the shock that requires a repeated “behold,” says “now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation.” For so long, we have made this verse an evangelistic appeal for people to convert to a belief in the existence of God that we have missed allowing the dynamic of new creation, new exodus and eschatological restoration to break forth in our hearts and lives. The promises of God’s future for the world are not only for “then”, but for NOW. Paul’s urgent call that the people not receive the grace of God in vain is not merely about coming short in moral behavior but about failing to recognize and live in the reality of the dramatic event that has taken place in the death and resurrection of the Messiah Jesus whereby the life and power of God’s future for the world has actually rushed forward into the present for those who are in the Messiah.

On the Road to Emmaus » Paul

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