Jesus, the Divine Son, must go and must suffer and must be killed and must be raised? What could it possibly mean that God “must” do something? Is He compelled by some other person or force? Not likely, considering His supreme position in the universe. Has He trapped Himself into it by willing it? No, I think there’s a better answer.
. . .
A couple of years ago Christianity Today did a series titled “Is Our Gospel Too Small?” That question has been on my mind often lately as I’ve considered this rich and exhaustless science of salvation. I’m afraid that perhaps our good ol’ evangelical pragmatism has duped us into shrinking the Gospel down to one (important) part of the problem and one (very important) part of the solution. It is good and necessary to be able to explain the Gospel simply and there are some helpful tools out there for doing just that, but if we think that three select texts from Romans on a pocket-sized pamphlet does justice to the sin problem or to the Savior solution, then indeed our Gospel is far too small.
The sin problem is bigger than only my personal wrong choices—it is a problem in my nature, it is a social problem too; in fact, it is a complex cosmic problem! And the solution is bigger than the death of Jesus on the cross. To solve the big, complex, personal-social-cosmic problem, God made a big, complex, personal-social-cosmic solution which includes the cross event, but is not limited to it. The solution requires His deity, His incarnation, His perfect life, His resurrection, His inaugeration, His ascension, the sending of His Spirit, the revelation of His will, His intercession, His judgment, the cleansing by His fire, His return—and even more!
Our sharp focus on the cross—to the neglect of the manger and the empty tomb and the heavenly sanctuary and the new earth—has diminshed our appreciation for the whole work of God. It has narrowed our vision to the gift of justification and left us with teeny tiny predestinations and sanctifications and glorifications. What a joy it is to be forgiven! Yet there are more joys beside, joys that are stuffed on every page of every Bible, waiting for some perceptive soul to take them up and enjoy them.
Recently an important insight was forged in my mind about salvation: Everything that God has done, is doing, and will do is necessary for our salvation. No piece of the plan is superfluous, no action has been unnecessary, no part is an appendix. I was initially startled to read that Christ “was raised to life for our justification” (Rom. 4:25) because I thought that justification was completely secured on the cross, but I thought wrongly. My justification requires not only the cross but the resurrection, and indeed every aspect of Christ’s ministry. I could no more be saved without His kingly inaugeration than I could without His sacrificial death. Sounds almost heretical, doesn’t it?
But now that I understand God’s salvation economy, I perceive the significance of Matthew 16:21. Who or what makes it necessary that Christ go and suffer and die and live again? By His own free will the Lord has chosen to enact a glorious plan of salvation, and if we are to be saved then Christ must go and must suffer and must die and must be raised again. Christ journeyed to Jerusalem because He wanted to save me, and that meant enduring the cross. Christ still wants to save me, and now that means not a cross but the tunic of the High Priest, soon it will mean returning in the clouds, and someday it will mean recreating the heavens and the earth---and all for love of us!
5 comments:
This idea has been on my heart and mind recently as well. Thank you for sharing this, Kessia!
I wish we lived in the same place.
Interesting. For some reason this also made me think about how God also makes all things work together in our lives for our salvation, and how nothing is wasted. I hadn't thought as much about it on His side though, but that makes sense. Every part of the story is necessary.
Would it be along the same lines to say that the work of the Holy Spirit is an ongoing process of bringing us into alignment with God? When we look at a single significant turning point in our own lives as the whole kit-and-kabootle we do a disservice to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we are allowing God to prune and change dangerous portions of our lives that is as much the part of His Salvivic work as is baptism? Does it diminish it too much to say that the high points in our lives are just quick tabs to help us remember the journey up the whole mountain? They are important because of what we accomplished but are just symbols of the entire journey. What Jesus did on the cross is a quick tab to demonstrate an eternity of dedication, love, and foresight. The work on the cross was important but only as the closing of the chapter where he spent a short lived life in complete dedication to God. The winning portion took 33.5 years but all that is represented in the cross.
In regards to the bible, then every portion of that book is important and necessary to the work that Christ did in the new testament. All of it reveals a different facet of the work that God wants to do in our lives. We should be using the quick tabs to help us create succinct symbols of our salvation but remember that they are just symbols of an incredible journey.
I read this through the glasses of learning what it means to witness. My current view of the word is trying to boil everything you described above to bite size chunks so that when those small opportunities come you can attempt to toss one down their throat for the few seconds their mouth is open. But then they are missing context and without it are more likely to vomit the small chunk because it tastes so weird.
I wonder where the middle ground is between "letting your life be a witness" and verbalizing your beliefs into "fun sized" bites.
I agree: Sin, Salvation, Supreme Love, Eternal Life, Justice, Mercy...all things that take more than a human lifetime to begin to comprehend...and to pick any one to focus solely on will distort the larger image...so how to effectively plant the seeds within the time we are given?
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