I received a text today from a friend asking for my response to, “We live in a fallen world. It doesn’t get any better than this.”

I’ve wrestled with the idea of hope for about a year now. Hope is a word we use with little meaning. It seems little more than wishful thinking; perhaps not even worth genuine effort. Hope is looking to the future with a slight optimism, that perhaps, one day, things might, kind of, workout, maybe.

But I think this is unChristian. I believe it is unChristian to have this view of hope.

Let us first consider the nature of our world. The meta-narrative of scripture is a story of redemption. Redemption from all that is wrong and fallen. The Hebrew idea of death is less about physical death and more about brokenness. The man and woman did die after eating the fruit because their lives became broken. Life itself was contingent on the whole, unbroken relationships between God and humans, humans and one another, humans and the rest of creation, and humans among their inner selves. These relationships were severed at the fall. So the world is on a downward spiral.

Then enters the redemption process. God enacts a plan to bring order back to creation, to restore these broken relationships. God gives us Torah. (To the scholars reading this, I know the compilation date of Torah can be assessed rather late; however such an point seems rather futile since we are considering the theological meta-narrative of the Judeo-Christian tradition). Parts of Exodus and much of Deuteronomy are in the construct of a Suzerainty treaty (i.e., a treaty formed between a King and his vassals). Such a document was written to govern the relationships, to add order back to chaos. This is the overall aim of Torah; that is: revelation of God and God’s redemptive plan. Even creation was considered. Torah called for a Sabbatical Year, or Shmita. This was not only a chance for redemption among people, but also redemption of the earth. Even the earth was to have a rest from producing, a time of restoration (Cf. Exodus 23:10-11, Leviticus 25:4). Leaders enter the fold to guide Israel in this redemption process.

However, this does not accomplish full redemption for the earth. We still drift off course; we miss the mark.

Sometimes completely.

Prophets and judges enter. Kings enter. Sometimes bringing us back on course; other times failing. God is humanity choice. Consistently we chose to cause pain and suffering to one another. We are without hope in this. In the New Testament, Paul echos this, “As it is written, no one is righteous, not even one,” (Romans 3:10). We are broken, and we continually choose to remain broken.

So God sends Jesus, who speaks God’s voice to people once again (Cf. Matthew 21;37). And he is murdered. Redemption comes from the most vile crime our brokenness could bring about.

God’s redemption has been a process.

Plan A – perfect creation.
Plan B – Torah.
Plan C – Prophetic Word.
Plan D – Crucifixion of the Son of God.

Is is heretical to look at Jesus as “Plan D”? The fourth gospel and the Revelation seem to indicate that Christ death was predestined (Cf. John 1, Revelation 13:8). Perhaps, but then we run into the problem justifying the giving of the Torah and even the prophetic voices of the First Testament. This is another issue to be raised later.

For now, suffice it to say that God’s mission of redemption of humanity is extensive and exhaustive. God has gone to such great expense to ensure redemption of humanity at seemingly any and all costs. Why? Was it so allow us into a heaven in the afterlife? Was it so we could experience eternal bliss upon out deaths here? We it to give us an reprieve from the hell many have experienced while on earth?

No.

The problem with such a thinking is that is makes salvation too small. And it doesn’t remedy the problem of death (= brokenness) that our sinful condition has created. It only provides an escape. God’s redemptive act in Jesus’s death and resurrection is about so much more than afterlife. It is about redeeming what was lost at Eden. It’s about bringing us life and life in abundance. In other words, it’s about restoring the relationships of God and people and all of creation. We can’t minimalize the nature of what really happened at Golgotha.

This is why I say that is it unChristian to live with idle hope. We are to be agents of reconciliation (2 Corinthians 5:18-19). Our world is supposed to be getting better because we are in it. Because we live reconciled to God, to one another, to ourselves, and to creation. And we spread this message.

We are to make this world a better place; we are to see redemption take hold and change lives, healing brokenness.

I have to believe that the hope Christ offers is bigger than the problems of this world. If this is not the case, the cross really has no meaning and was a waste.

I will not deny that we live in a fallen world, but rescue is coming, and has already come. Our situation would be hopeless without the redemption of all things Christ offers. But we do have hope, and we are hope.

Not idle, wishful thinking. But strong knowledge that things will get better… that brokenness can and will be healed. We are called to make the world a better place; we bring heaven here. We bring the Kingdom of God.

It is not a lost cause. We have sure, certain knowledge that Christ’s redemptive work on the cross was about redeeming all of creation. It was about true life, back-to-Eden kind of life. Abundance life starts now.

Hope is a noun we embrace.

Our world can’t afford for us to do anything less.

Grace and peace.

I haven’t posted much lately. Last week was crazy busy. And lately I’ve spend much of my thought time away from my laptop and blog.

But here’s some ideas on sin…

First, I don’t believe that sin is mainly actions. I believe that sin is a condition with which we are afflicted, and ’sinful’ actions are but a symptom of that condition. Sin is a sickness that plagues humanity. It is not what we do, but rather who we are, a depraved state. Our world reflects who we are in this fallen nature, this ‘condition.’ This sinful condition can be defined as our wills taking priority over God’s – that is, us taking God’s place.  It is an attitude, a mindset with which we are possessed.

But I do not necessarily believe that our sinful condition should go untreated. The Holy Spirit can be the remedy. Yes, I do hold to a kind of sanctification doctrine, but then again, I’m very Methodist.

I don’t think we can ever be cured in this life, but I do believe that the Holy Spirit can work in us to make us more Christ-like, more Godly… to see the others as God sees them… with unfailing love… is that not after all the message of the Gospel?

So, I been doing a lot of reading lately.  And I’ve come to a very recent discovery:  I’m not a heretic after all!

Isn’t that great news??!!… for me at least.

Yes, as it turns out, I’m not a heretic, instead I am Arminian (not to be confused with Armenian).  Of course in some circles, namely Calvinism circles, Arminian and Heretic are synonymous labels.

This is the deal:  I believe in a form of synergism (that is, we humans participate in the salvation process).  Now this does not mean that I believe that can save ourselves – absolutely not!  But I do believe that salvation does require something on our part – that the salvation act is from God, but we must choose to take part – in accepting Jesus as Savior and taking up our crosses.

I believe that salvation cannot happen without our participation.  As I’ve said before – the cross did not just demand the crucifixion of Christ, but it demans our crucifixion as well.

We must respond.  True, salvation is a gift of God’s grace alone.  Salvation is not something we can attain by works, either.  But our participating in God’s grace is not the same as attaining it.  Rather, particpating means accepting.

The gift is offered, but it requires action on our part to ’seal the deal’ so to speak.

I’ve often been told that this ’synergism’ is heretical; often equated with Pelagianism or semi-Pelagianism.  But it is not either of those.  Salvation cannot be earned or merited.  But I believe it does require action on our part.

So, turns out I’m not a heretic… I’m Arminian.

I’m at the Hispanic (not Her-panic) Evangelism conference in Houston, TX. I’m recruiting for Truett Seminary. I attended one of the sessions for the youth (mainly because it’s in English). And a question dawned on me…

What does it mean to live for Christ?

Seriously.

What does it mean to live for Christ?

Youth are always told to, “live for Christ.” And I think rightly so. But what does that mean? It was never explained to me. And it wasn’t clearly explained tonight either.

I think by not explaining ‘live for Christ’ we perhaps give the wrong impression of what that means. And that wrong impression is then believed and passed on to other Christians, especially youth. And we end up with Christians with the idea that ‘living for Christ’ is about some kind of moral uprightness.

But I think living for Christ has much less to do with moral uprightness, than we would like to think. I think it has a lot more to do with Christ-likeness than we’d like to think.

Now, you’re probably asking… wasn’t Jesus morally upright?

Well, that depends on what morally upright means. Jesus drank… real alcoholic beverages. He hung out with the biggest “sinners” of his day. Yet He healed the sick, raised the dead, showed respect to the disrespected… and died for those He loved.

Could it be that living for Christ is less about living our idea of righteousness… and instead living His?

Could it be that what we think matters about Christianity… is not at all what mattered to Jesus?

Could it be that instead of being “Christians” in our services with our songs, we should actually be healing and feeding and clothing?

Because it doesn’t matter if we lift our arms up in worship, if we don’t
extend those arms to others when we walk out our doors.

WHY MINISTERS BECOME ATHEISTS

(HT: SG)

After reading this, some of you may detect a major shift in my soteriology, and it may be that – I haven’t made any conclusions yet, but I am FREELY asking the question. I’m working on a book right now that I want to finish by the end of the year The Offense of the Cross: Living the Crucifixion of Christ. And my research has uncovered some stuff, mainly from the Bible.

SO, HERE’S THE QUESTION:
What do we need to do in order to have eternal life?

Traditionally, Baptists have answered with John 3:16. “Whoever believes in [Jesus] will not perish but have eternal life.”

BUT, that’s not the only answer given in the New Testament.

The New Testament clearly has people asking Jesus what they must do in order to have eternal life. And “believing in me” was only one answer. Here are some others:

Mark 10:17-21. In this passage, what is required is that we give up all that we have for the poor, and follow Jesus (discipleship). Now the Rich, young man clearly believed Jesus had the answer. And yet believing in Jesus was not enough. Coming to Jesus is not enough (or so it would seem), the man had to give up everything. After all, we can’t be poor in spirit (Matthew 5:3) if we rely on our own selves and wealth to sustain us.

Luke 10:25-28. Here it says nothing about believing in Jesus, but it is implied as above. What is required here is: love of God and love of neighbor.

So, from these examples we must believe in Jesus (John 3:16), sell all we have / hold onto nothing we posses (Mark 10:21), and love God and love neighbor (Luke 25:27).

How do we reconcile these things? If we just claim John 3:16 as evangelicals traditionally have, then we are ignoring the rest of the New Testament. Evangelicals, who pride themselves in a literal reading of the Bible, have ignored what it says about salvation is all parts but one… at least from my reading of the scriptures.

But then, of course, salvation would mean that we must do something for it, in which case it’s not just a free gift from God. But as I stated earlier, I’m not a Calvinist. I believe that we must indeed make choices regarding our salvation. We have the free will to do so.

The best way I can reconcile all of this is to say that: All of these are encompassed in Discipleship of Christ. Grace is not free, it costs us everything. Being Disciples of Jesus becomes our lives. Salvation is not something we ‘pick up’ and walked away with; salvation is who we become through our discipleship of Jesus.

If you can reconcile these verses, and still justify only using John 3:16 as a salvation verse, let me know… I’m just trying to work this out.