fruitful faith » salvation

full gospel

Dale — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 04:23:32 +0000

Some presentations and presenters of Christianity are, in my view, overly obsessed with the Death of Jesus such that they over-emphasise it, and end up marginalising the Incarnation of Jesus, the Ministry of Jesus, the Resurrection of Jesus, the Ascension of Jesus and the giving of the Spirit of Jesus. It probably wouldn’t be fair to use any label for the flavour of Christianity I inherited in my early years as a Christian. Whatever label is used, this version of Christianity is too prevalent.

In this version I inherited, the only reason Jesus was born was to die for our sins. His ministry seemed like just some time-filling activity before he died. The Resurrection is like icing on the cake after the ‘main event’, his Atoning death. The Ascension is basically ignored altogether. And the gift of the Spirit is basically about empowering people to tell others that Jesus died for their sins. The New Testament, and the study and explanation of it over Church History, however, contains a Gospel that is much fuller than this version I inherited (and which most of our modern and quite a few of our older worship songs tend to focus on).

The Incarnation of Jesus is not a mere stepping stone to the Cross (though it is not less than that). It is the Creator entering and uniting to the Creation in general, and human nature in particular. This, the Eastern Orthodox rightly emphasise, is itself a saving act. All creation participates in the salvation that Christ effects.

The Ministry of Jesus does not merely fill time until the Cross. Jesus life and ministry is an enactment and fulfillment of genuine humanness. Everything that humans were meant to be and do, which was focused in the call of Abraham and his people ‘Israel’, Jesus achieved and demonstrated in his life. He finishes the race we could not. This is a saving act.

The Resurrection of Jesus is not a mere happy ending to the Cross. Whereas the Cross entails Jesus taking Death (and Evil and Sin) onto himself and extinguishing it, the bodily transformation and translation of Jesus, the Resurrection, enacts and achieves the defeat of Death (and Evil and Sin). It also achieves a kind of ‘beachhead’ (or ‘first-fruits’) into New Creation, the ultimate destiny and intended goal for all Creation. This is a saving act – for all creation – including humans.

The Ascension of Jesus is not an undoing of the Incarnation (which would be a huge heresy), where the Son of God strips off his humanity and reports back to the Father that the atoning death was accomplished (and thus the body no longer needed!). It is about the enthronement of Jesus to the place of ultimate authority – which among other things, entails a denial of any other entities claiming such ultimate authority. This is a saving act, saving us from false authorities.

The Giving of the Spirit of Jesus is not simply a bit of personal motivation to tell people about Jesus dying for us (though it is not less than that!). It is the gift of the ongoing personal spiritual presence of Jesus, enabling us, correcting us, leading us, empowering us, shaping us to become more like Jesus. It’s not just about ‘evangelism’ (or exciting private experiences), but about becoming more human – more like the true human, Jesus. The Spirit of the true human, Jesus, makes us truly human. This ‘humanisation’ (or ‘re-humanisation’) is a saving act; it’s what salvation is all about.

And that’s the “full gospel” that the New Testament communicates.

scandalous particularity

Dale — Sun, 09 May 2010 00:58:49 +0000

God was (for most of our western egalitarian sensitivities) scandalously ‘narrow’ or ‘choosy’ or ‘particular’ in his way of saving his creation. He saves his creation by uniting to and thus transforming it. He did not unite to all created nature in general (this or that star, or planet, or soil or rocks, trees, etc.: the sun would have been perhaps a good marketing move, as many humans have seen the sun as divine anyway), but to human nature in particular. He did not unite to all humans of all traditions, all races, all places, all times, all genders, all vocations, etc., but to a Jewish, male, bearded, 1^st century Palestinian carpenter. Lewis says it best: “The world which would not know Him as being everywhere was saved by His becoming local.” (Somewhere in his book, Miracles, and probably less-than-exactly quoted)

In and through the birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and Spirit of this scandalously particular Man, God is (paradoxically) available to and for humans of all traditions, races, places, times, genders, and vocations in general.

freedom

Dale — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 06:38:56 +0000

I’m really appreciating how significant the theme of freedom is in the Bible.

Freedom is opposed to compulsion, captivity or slavery.

Utterly free of compulsion, God freely acts to create and sustain a free creation, particularly free and dangerous human beings, which constantly, continually and consistently become enslaved, manipulated, captive or otherwise enslaved to and by various kinds of anti-freedom things (aptly summarised as sin and evil).

The work of Creation is a risky yet grace-filled work of giving freedom to that which is created. But then there’s the work of Redemption.

Utterly free of compulsion, God freely acts in many ways to lead his creation, particularly humans, out of bondage, captivity and slavery and into freedom. The Israelites are freed from slavery in Egypt, and are given a Law which instructs them how to be free – the anti-enslavement people, the counter-compulsion people, the bondage-breaking people.

Paul, writing in the 1st century to a community at Rome, writes, however, that this freedom-oriented Law Code was unable to make them truly free, and that it had actually served to make their enslavement all the more obvious. For human beings to be truly and fully free, their hearts and minds must be freed first. For Paul, this freedom – a liberation which the whole creation waits eagerly for - happens by way of a wholly new kind of Law, which he calls the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.

Christians are to be freed from all that enslaves them, and to stand firm in that freedom and not be held by any possible thing that could enslave them. Sin itself and the various schemes at managing, decreasing, hiding or otherwise ‘fixing’ sin (in short: ‘religion’, Jewish or otherwise) both drive humans deeper and deeper into bondage, self-un-control, frustration, un-peace and slavery. With brotherly yet passionate (and often stern!) affection, Paul continually guarded his loved ones to not be enslaved to anything – food, sex, ideas or religion to name a few.

The vocation (note: a freely given and freely received vocation!) for these freed people is to be God’s vessels of freedom-bringing in God’s world. To be used by God to release those who are held captive by any and all things that enslave them.

* * *

As I spend Christmas, New Year’s Day and my wife’s birthday in my home country of the United States, I am struck by an irony. Many (not all!) American Christians are worried about whether or not United States Law will reflect their beliefs.

The irony is not that I disagree with the desired outcomes. The irony is the methods by which they imagine them to be realised. Sermons, Books, Websites, Newsletters and Radio Programmes all across the country warn Christians not only of the demise of the nation, but also of the means of rescue – political muscle.

I am not advising withdrawal from the political realm (quite the contrary, actually), but merely am calling to remembrance Paul’s conviction that true freedom does not come by way of any Law or any sin-’fixing’ schemes, no matter what country or race they are attached to.

I am persuaded to believe that for Paul, the worst news would not be that abortions happened to be legal or even government funded (or that same-sex couples had the same state tax status as male/female couples). I think Paul might well be more saddened by the failure of the Church to trust God to bring true and complete freedom to the world – the kind of freedom that cannot come through Law (religious or national).

Is this a pro-abortion stance (or pro-homosexuality for that matter)?? Absolutely not. It is merely an attempt to remember that true Freedom comes not through sin-’fixing’ systems. I don’t think American Christians need to choose between democratic process and spiritual transformation – I’m definitely a ‘both/and’ kind of person. But at the end of the day, a Christian puts their ‘eggs’ in the ‘basket’ of the freedom-bringing Gospel of Christ. A law can be changed easily enough –especially in the States!– if enough Christians persuade each other to vote the same way on a given issue. But changing a heart – freeing a human being… now that takes something else.