Reflection: Sin, grace, salvation and our attitude toward others

Just a few thoughts.

Perhaps our reluctance to say sorry to others (for big and small matters alike) is a reflection of our lack of understanding of our own sinfulness - the very human condition that shows us how much we need God's grace.

Perhaps our tendency to see the faults, shortcomings and sins of others (rather than the good in them) is a reflection of our lack of understanding of God's sheer grace in rescuing us from the bondage of sin and death through Christ Jesus our Lord.

For if we realise how sinful we are we would not claim that we are always right, or more righteous than others. Likewise, if we truly realise how sinful we are and hence how amazing God's grace is for us, we would see our fellow human beings as fellow sinners who need God's grace (rather than "them as sinners" and "us as righteous people").

All these come back to how much we truly understand "salvation by grace", or, more precisely, "salvation by the costly grace" of the Crucified Christ and Risen Lord.

And as I wrote the above, I wonder how much I have fallen short of God's glory, and how thankful I am to God who has poured out his grace on me, a sinner.

The resurrection as missional paradigm - An Indian perspective

From Michael Gorman's blog he points us to something an Indian New Testament scholar says about the resurrection being a paradigm for mission.

Here is what he says,

"The significance of the resurrection of Jesus in my Indian context is multi-faceted. When I’m talking about the resurrection of Jesus in our multi-religious, multi-cultural and pluralistic culture of India, I have to re-interpret the significance of Christ’s resurrection for our diverse communities. The salvific significance of Christ’s work on the cross, and his resurrection should first and foremost be taught and proclaimed, as the good news of salvation for the various religious and ethnic communities. As a second order to this, when I am witnessing Christ for instance to the Dalits, Tribals and the Adivasis (the poor and marginalized, also called the dust of the dust), I use Christ’s resurrection as a model for liberation out of the clutches of oppression and dehumanization. As Christ was humiliated on the cross, and was raised by the Father from the grave, so also, Christian mission should focus on the upliftment of the oppressed out of the bondages of poverty, casteism, sin and injustice."

Click here for Gorman's post.

Scot McKnight on the atoning death of Christ

Looking for something to reflect on at Easter?

Click here for Scot McKnight's post on the atoning death of Christ.

Social justice and salvation (Centre for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE), Ridley College)

Last year Dr Tim Foster (Ridley College), Merrill Kitchen (former principal of Churches of Christ Theological College) and I spoke at a theological forum run by World Vision Australia. The topic was Social Justice and Salvation.

Short versions of the papers presented at the forum are now published by the Centre for Applied Christian Ethics (CACE) at Ridley College, Melbourne. There is an additional article written by Nils von Kalm in response to the speakers at the forum.

The full articles can be found here.

Below are the excerpts from the articles (one from each author).

"If Jesus’ death effectively dealt with evil, if his resurrection was bodily and real, and if Jesus now reigns as Lord, we cannot for a moment see salvation as something that lies in the future, but something that is both present and future. This is the whole basis for Pauline ethics. So in Colossians 2 & 3, Paul states that we have died with Christ and we have already been raised with Christ, so we ought to live the resurrection life now. Salvation is about the present and the future. Salvation is not something we wait for, but something we can enjoy here and now, genuinely anticipating what happens in the future." (Foster)

"It must be acknowledged, also, that there is a strong apocalyptic element in the Hebrew understanding of salvation. The religious, social and political control entities constantly challenged the values of justice and equality valued by the Israelites, with the threat of annihilation constantly around the corner. But it is not an understanding of triumph over others as much as a ‘rescue from attacking nations’ (Zech. 12:7) and the ‘gathering of the dispersed’ (Is. 43:5ff) that will have a final conclusion in God’s timing. Salvation is described in Isaiah as a ‘well’ (Is. 12:3), in which ‘all the world can share its salvation.’ The promises of salvation in these Biblical documents were nearly always corporate in their focus. It was not just about the privilege of Israel over and against others but it brought good news for all humanity." (Kitchen)

"People in Rome were familiar with socioeconomic, political and religious oppression. The early Christians in Rome were not exempt from this, experiencing all sorts of injustices. In light of this, Romans 12:9-21 would have made good sense to Paul’s audience. They are called to be patient in affliction (thlipsis) and joyful in hope (12:12). They are to “love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honour,” and “associate with the lowly” (12:10, 16; NRSV). The society in ancient Rome was highly hierarchical. Slaves did not enjoy mutual affection from free people. Those in relatively high positions on the social ladder did not normally give honour to those in the lower classes. Hence Paul astonishingly envisages a huge status-reversal taking place." (myself)

"The great hope of the Christian message is that God is in the process of putting the world to rights, as N.T. Wright describes it. What we read in passages like Isaiah 65 and Revelation 21 is the wonderful story of the new heavens and the new earth, of heaven and earth coming together. It is about God coming here to live with His people. What we see is not us going ‘up’ to be in heaven, but heaven coming here. This is the transformation that we long for, and it is coming. It will be a transformation of not just society, but of the human heart as well. It will be a time when there will be no more tears and no more pain (Rev 21:4), a time of justice and peace for all. But note also that Jesus says in Revelation 22, ‘I have come to make all things new’. In the new creation, it will not be just humanity that is transformed, but the whole creation. Our hope is that ‘the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God’ (Rom 8:21)." (von Kalm)

Scot McKnight: A gospel-shaped theology

Here Scot McKnight aptly says what I have been trying to say in my teaching.

"Pick up your standard textbook-ish systematic theology and you are most likely to get an exhaustive study of a one topic after another. The order of those topics matters immensely, and it just so happens that many theologians write theologies that are shaped by salvation (soteriology). Thus, the God, Man/Sin, Christ, Salvation, Spirit and Eschatology, often prefaced with Scripture, is essentially an ordering of topics through the doctrine of salvation.

Dig a bit further and you will learn in many of these books that “salvation” means the same thing as “gospel” so that a theology of salvation is a theology of the gospel. Which it isn’t, and the order of the above topics proves my point. They are salvation-shaped and not gospel-shaped, else they’d have other topics more prominent.

What we are most in need of is a thoroughgoing sketch of theology through the lens of gospel. Those topics above would come up but they would be framed within the orbit of other ideas.

Questions: How gospel-shaped is your theology? What questions would you ask to see if a theology is gospel-shaped? What are the major indicators of a gospel-shaped theology?

I see two questions that can be asked and those questions will indicate gospel-shaped: How central of a role does Israel’s Story/history play in the theology? How central is the resurrection? Everyone will have the Cross, but does the theology have resurrection as a central theme? Everyone will have christology, but does being Messiah and Lord make its way to the front? "

Click here for Scot McKnight's post (from which the above citation can be found).

"Rapture" and "left behind" according to Capes, Reeves and Richards

In their book Rediscovering Paul, David B Capes, Rodney Reeves and E Randolph Richards talks about the misunderstanding among some Christians today about the end times. Here is what they say (in relation to the teaching in 1 Thessalonians):

"The term rapture (from the Latin word raptus) is used [by some people] for the teaching that God will snatch up the living and dead to meet the Lord in the air. Unfortunately, some have distorted Paul's teaching by suggesting that 'the rapture' refers to some secret snatching of believers prior to the parousia [commonly known as the 'second coming of Jesus'] ... but it is not the stuff of biblical teaching on the end times. There is no evidence Paul believed in a secret rapture; there is no biblical basis to suggest the church will avoid the great tribulation. In fact, tribulation and suffering with Christ is the atmosphere in which the church lives out its entire existence — a very unpopular (and perhaps inconceivable) view among American Christians. Yet many Asian and African Christians would argue they are already experiencing great tribulation... Indeed, the parousia, according to Paul, will be the unexpected (like a thief in the night') but very public arrival of the crucified and risen Jesus to the earth he died to redeem. The 'second coming' of Christ will be an event of such cosmic proportions that no one, not even the dead, could miss it. The language Paul uses to describe this event is wonderfully poetic, powerful and political." (page 133)

"Jesus talked about 'two men in the field'; one was taken away and the other left behind. But which one was saved'? ... Yet Jesus' story (Mt 24:37-41) compares the end times to the days of Noah when Noah entered the ark. The biblical echo is deliberate: the outsiders were 'taken away' by the flood, but Noah and his family were 'left behind.'" (page 134)

Reflection: One of my most important faith experiences

I have slowly come to understand that the Christian faith can be understood quite differently in different cultures. I have been living in Australia for over 20 years, and I find that most of my (Aussie) Christian friends have grown up with largely Aussie Christians, or at least their non-Aussie friends have tried to relate to them according to Australian cultural values and social assumptions. But I spent my childhood and young adult years in Asia where it was a multi-faith society. I grew up in an era where our traditional faith and culture collided with that of the Western world.

In Australia, Christians are learning to live in a multi-faith and multi-cutlural society. Some think that Christians converted from another faiths and cultures should adopt a Western lifestyle and Western church culture. This way of thinking is of course problematic, because Christians in the New Testament (e.g. the apostle Paul) did not live a Western lifestyle, nor did their churches look like a Western church.

There are other Christians in Australia who think that all other cultures and faiths are just fine. As long as they love God and do what God wants, what they actually believe in is not that important.

Instead of going into a theological debate, I will share my own faith experience here.

I used to worship traditional gods in our culture, which was a mixture of Buddhism, ancestral worship and other pantheistic faiths. (I think we had about six household gods in our apartment.) Within this belief system it is also believed that there is a supreme god somewhere who rules over everything. Traditionally, we are a people with a high moral standard - not that we live up to it at all, but it's embedded in our mindset.

In my search for identity and reality, the most important part of my faith is the realisation that I am a sinner. I know that no matter how I try to live up to our moral ideals, I fail.

It is in this realisation that I learn to know the love of God in sending his own Son to die for me. It is because of this that I want to give my whole life to Jesus and to serve him wholeheartedly. It is in the resurrection of Christ that we find true hope in all the sufferings and trials in this life. It is because of this that we seek to love God with all our heart, and love the people around us.

Some Christians may find the above a bit boring, for they hear this every Sunday. For others, this may be a new thing, for their churches don't talk about sin that much.

But I thought I might share my own experince because it is so important. Despite all my talk (in this blog) on justice, mercy and the grace of God, deep in my heart the most important faith experience is the realisation that I am a sinner and that God wants us to give our whole life to him and love him with all our heart. It's more than a doctrine or theology. It is an experience (from the Spirit of God, I believe) that is based on the Bible. It is an experience that finds its roots in the faithfulness or God.

For those who have grown up in a Christian community and have never lived in a strongly multi-faith environment, I hope my experience above can be helpful as you try to understand the emerging culture in Australia.

Want to serve God in Asia?

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For video resources for yourself and your church, just click on the following links.

OMF Overview: Love Asia
OMF Media
A call from the international general director

Love Asia

Victory over powers of oppression

Hans Boersma (Professor of Theology at Regent College, Vancouver) has written a book called Violence, Hospitality, and the Cross. It is not an easy book to read unless one has had theological training. But the following is a good quote about the place of the church in speaking up against injustice.

"The Christus Victor theme of the atonement is in a real sense the most significant model of the atonement. The result of Christ's work of recapitulation is victory over the powers of oppression. In other words, God's hospitality aims at the freedom of humanity and all creation. The whole creation is waiting to 'be freed from its slavery to corruption and brought into the same glorious freedom as the children of God' (Rom. 8:21). This freedom no doubt includes freedom from social and political bondage. The concrete language with which the Old Testament prophets describe the peace and justice of the coming kingdom of God precludes all spiritualizing that seals off salvation from our concrete historical contexts... The Church must of necessity be careful in asserting its authoritative voice in the particularities of social and political issues. Nonetheless, there are situations of egregious evil and injustice where the Church must speak as Church in order to effect redemptive liberation. What is more, even when the Church cannot speak as Church on specific issues, it nonetheless directs the religious and moral lives of the believers, who cannot but make social, economic, and political judgments that ultimately stem from faith commitments that speak of redemption and liberation." (p. 248)

Coming a child's mouth

I am "studying" 1 Corinthians with my son, who is in Grade 3. Tonight we looked at the Lord's supper in chapter 11. We talked about the fact that the death and resurrection of Jesus was the most important event in history, and that it's not just for "me" as if "I" am the centre of the universe ... and, in a real sense Christ's work has finished but at the same time the full realisation of God's kingdom is still to happen. (I didn't use those exact words.) Here is the analogy my son came up with (my paraphrase):

"It's like baking something in the oven. You have done everything you have to do, and then you put it in the oven. When the time is right, you take the food out and the job is now fully done."

I think it's not a bad analogy.

(Well, one can argue that much more has to be said - e.g. God does want us to live out the values of God's kingdom now through the empowerment of the Spirit. But let's not expect more in a bedtime conversation with a child.)

"We are not the centre of the universe." (Tom Wright)

I just started reading Tom Wright's new book Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision. Here are a number of interesting quotes.

"Discovering that God is gracious, rather than a distant bureaucrat or a dangerous tyrant, is the good news that constantly surprises and refreshes us. But we are not the centre of the universe. .. It may look, from our point of view, as though 'me and my salvation' are the be-all and end-all of Christianity. Sadly, many people - many devout Christians! - have preached that way and lived that way." (p.7)

"God made humans for a purpose: not simply for themselves, not simply so that they could be in relationship with him, but so that through them, as his image-bearers, he could bring his wise, glad, fruitful order to the world." (p.7)

"God is rescuing us from the shipwreck of the world, not so that we can sit back and put our feet up in his company, but so that we can be part of his plan to remake the world." (p.8)

"The reason I am writing this book is because the present battles are symptoms of some much larger issues that face the church at the start of the twenty-first century, and because the danger signs, particularly the failure to read scripture for all its worth, ..., are all around us... I am suggesting that the theology of St Paul, the whole theology of St Paul rather than the truncated and self-centred readings which have become endemic in Western thought,..., is urgently needed as the church faces the tasks of mission in tomorrow's dangerous world, and is not well served by the inward-looking soteriologies that tangle themselves up in a web of detached texts and secondary theories..." (p. 9)

I was in Hong Kong when I became a Christian. I always understood that the Christian faith is not about "me and my salvation". But now, after twenty years living in Australia, I have to admit that in some ways Tom Wright's observation is right - ie. often we think that we are the centre of the universe. But the Christian faith has to be much more than my salvation. Instead, it is first and foremost about God, and what he has done - and continues to do - in us, for us, in the world and for the world.

I think this new book by Tom Wright would be a good reading for pastors and Christian leaders.

(Not all will agree with Tom Wright, obviously. I, for example, don't expect myself to agree with everything in this book. This book is, however, recommended by Scot McKnight, I Howard Marshall, Rob Bell, Micahel Gorman, Richard Hays, Brian McLaren, Darrell Bock, and others. I am sure it will be an interesting read.)