PART 3: THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT OF LIFE
15. THE AMERICAN RELIGION
I would
guess that many people may have already put this essay down at this point. It is far too pessimistic and negative for
their tastes. They want something to pep
them up and keep them going. All this
talk of universal sinfulness and a broken relationship with God, all this about
The Law of Sin and Death—this sort of stuff just does not go down very
well. My experience of many Americans is
that they view life with considerable optimism and confidence. I would characterize their approach to life
in three ways: self-reliance, the
romance of progress, and striving for self-righteousness.
Self-reliance is a
great American characteristic. I have
spent a lot of time in western Kansas.
Many of the people of this area have worked the land for many years. Their parents or grandparents came to the
area and homesteaded. They lived in
“dugouts” –half-underground buildings—or in sod houses. They searched for water in this almost-desert
plain. They broke out the land with
teams of horses or mules or tiny tractors.
They lived through the Dust Bowl 1930’s.
They were tough, independent, resilient.
They continue to farm at a time that requires wisdom in high-tech farm
equipment, fertilizers, internet marketing techniques in a global market—all in
the face of falling commodity prices.
Life is not easy, but they have survived. The most attractive theology for such people
is something like: “God helps those who
help themselves.”
In
addition to the tough self-reliance of the pioneer spirit, most people hold
onto a romance of progress. During the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, science and technology triumphed over all obstacles. Libraries cannot contain the massive body of
knowledge in physics, chemistry, biology, geology, astronomy, and all their
associated sciences. These sciences have
led the way to applications in engineering, medicine, agronomy, computers, and
all the other applied arts and sciences.
We can split and fuse atoms and cells, control by computer the timing of
fuel injection into gasoline engines, monitor the yield of wheat on a field and
use that computer stored information to control the application of fertilizer
on the field (using satellite-guided locators), diagnose brain dysfunction
through blood-flow mapping, follow by ultrasound heart function in 3-D, control
moods and anxiety and depression with pills.
On and on we could continue with a listing of the miracles of the power
of science and technology.
Against
such a backdrop of success, people optimistically look to the future, certain
that it holds ever greater progress and breakthroughs. This is the unspoken religion of most
people. The only problem is that some
people have such high expectations that they become angry when science does not
immediately lead to success. Thus, when
the health professionals and sciences did not immediately cure AIDS, there were
implications that this was an intolerable failure that must have been because
the health community was prejudiced toward homosexuals. We have suffered recently from the
anthrax-by-mail crisis. The news media
imply that the health officials have made unforgivable mistakes and should have
already solved all of the problems and mysteries. Science can do anything and do it
immediately. If it does not perform as
expected, then something is wrong with those who are responsible.
This romance of progress is
a faith in the future, a faith in science and technology, and a faith that
somehow everything will eventually be OK.
To
self-reliance and the romance of progress, I must add self-righteousness.
“Self-righteousness” or “self-righteous” is a term that has more than
one connotation. The most common use is
as a pejorative term against someone who acts as though he or she is very
righteous and most other people are terrible sinners. We say something like: “self-righteous hypocrite.” But the meaning that I have in mind is not
with quite so much anger. I am simply
thinking of that person who is convinced that their chief aim is to live a life
of righteousness. For this person (and
there are many), “religion” or “Christianity” is defined essentially around the
idea of doing good and avoiding evil.
Church is one important component in this project. To this, one would add education, family
life, civic clubs, and charitable activities.
All of these are understood to be opportunities to channel one’s efforts
and guide one in proper directions of righteousness. There is a vague assumption that this good
life will be rewarded by God. Surely,
God would not fail to acknowledge the righteousness of a person who has been an
upstanding member of the community, good to his or her family, and generally a
really nice person.
This is
the American religion: self-reliance,
the romance of progress, and striving for self-righteousness. But that is not the religion of the
Bible. Certainly, all of these
characteristics have their place and should not be condemned. But the conclusion of the Bible is that the
human condition is in far worse shape than a little dose of positive thinking
will cure.
16. CHANGING THE LITTLE PICTURE
To make this case I shall digress and return to my theme of
The Big Picture. In Part One, I tried to
emphasize that we often focus on a very small slice of life and desire that God
change that little picture. The other
side of that coin is that we don’t want God to change The Big Picture. If we are immersed in a culture of
optimism—self-reliance, romance of progress, and self-righteousness—then we
certainly don’t want someone to come along and change all the rules. The truth is, we like our lives in many
ways. It’s just this one horrible
calamity that seems so out of place.
However,
such an understanding of life is really quite distorted. If we were able to survey a panorama of time
and geography, seeing at once all the peoples of the world today as well as all
people throughout history, we might not see things with quite the optimism that
seems instinctual in prosperous America.
The horror of September 11, 2001, momentarily knocked Americans into a sense
of vulnerability. As of this writing,
America is back up and swinging. I do
not regret that, but I am saying that the American culture of optimism is not
quite the full picture of life.
The
little picture view is that we would like God to turn the clock back to 9/10/01
and then take us through the next day without that horror. But, do you see that such a philosophy is
really saying:
OK, God, just take away the horror of 9/11/01. We can handle the rest. We are a can-do people who really have a great
economy, a great government, a great society.
We are on our way to making things just perfect. We still have our nut-cases and our troubled
underclass. We have third-world
countries that are going to have to get their act together. All this will take time. But, just take that one thing out of the
picture, and this is a great world to live in.
However,
that is really not the case. Yes,
America has had some very good years recently.
The truth, though, is that we quickly forget the horrors and sadness of
yesterday. We have forgotten the
destruction of the federal office building in Oklahoma City, the AIDS crisis,
the inflation and recessions of the 1970’s and early 1980’s, the Vietnam War,
the assassinations of the 1960’s, the millions of people strung out on dope
from the 1960’s to the present, the Cold War crises from the late 1940’s to
about 1990, the Korean War, the poverty of the inner cities, the alarming
increase in spousal and child abuse, the huge increase in divorce since the
mid-twentieth century. On and on we
could go enumerating our many troubles in the last fifty years or so.
Is there one “little picture” that can be removed so that
life can become bearable and we can rebound with self-reliance, romance of
progress, and striving for self-righteousness?
Are there not a million “little pictures” that need changing? Is not this American religion really a
self-deception? Is self-reliance, the
romance of progress, and self-righteousness really saving us?
Do not misunderstand me.
There are times when we need a healthy dose of optimism. When our nation experienced the ugly
terrorism of 9/11/01, we needed to hear our President speak in confident terms
and we needed to see our leaders demonstrate competence and resolve in dealing
with the foreign and domestic crisis at hand.
That was not the time for us to deal with philosophy and theology.
But, we also must recognize that the acts of terrorism are a
part of a much bigger picture, and, when we turn to God, we are turning to One
Who deals with that big picture. To have
a conversation with God, so to speak, about these matters, means we are going
to have to ask just how God intends to deal with The Big Picture. And to hear His answer, we may have to be
willing to let go of a shallow optimism in order to grasp a much greater
future.
17. THE INABILITY TO ESCAPE
THE LAW OF SIN AND
DEATH
I am through with my digression now, and I hope I have made
some progress in convincing you that the human condition is in need of
something more than self-reliance, romance of progress, and
self-righteousness. The Apostle Paul in
the book of Romans hammered at this point.
In the first three chapters, he surveys all of humanity and finds that
“all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). He includes in this indictment his own people
the Jews. The Jews were followers of
Moses and his Law. However, Paul
concludes that
…no one will be declared righteous in his [God’s] sight by
observing the [Mosaic] law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.
Romans
3:21
He examines this thesis in more detail in chapter 7. I quote below a series of extracts from that
chapter:
Is the law sin?
Certainly not! Indeed I would not
have known what sin was except through the law.
For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not
said, “Do not covet.” But sin, seizing
the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of
covetous desire…I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring
life actually brought death….So then, the law is holy, and the commandment is
holy, righteous and good…But in order that sin might be recognized as sin, it
produced death in me through what was good, so that through the commandment sin
might become utterly sinful. We know
that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin…So I
find this law at work: When I want to do
good, evil is right there with me. For
in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the
members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a
prisoner of the law of sin.
Romans
7:7-23 (paragraphing altered)
Paul is concluding that there is something so profoundly
wrong with him that the Mosaic Law is unable to bring about complete
righteousness within him. Therefore, he
cannot be made righteous within himself, by his own efforts. In chapters 9 and 10, he discusses the Jews,
his own people:
…Israel [the Jews], who pursued a law of righteousness, has
not attained it. Why not? Because they
pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works [that is, good deeds]…For I
testify about them that they are zealous for God, but their zeal is not based
on knowledge. Since they did not know
the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own…
Romans
9:31-10:3
Paul’s
point, which I have already quoted, is that no one can become righteous through
observing the Mosaic Law. Since, I think
most would agree, the Mosaic Law is the greatest of all statements of human
righteousness, we could conclude that no program of human righteousness—that
is, self-righteousness—will result in
full and complete human righteousness, righteousness good enough to be pleasing
to God. The reason for this is not with
the program, but with the material it works on.
I have already made the case that humanity is sinful by nature. A program of righteousness, such as the
Mosaic Law, appeals to human nature, which is incapable of responding
adequately.
Thus,
the Biblical approach to life is contrary to the religion of American
optimism. Self-reliance, the romance of
progress, and self-righteousness have accomplished many great things, but they have not changed the reality of the
human condition. As great as they
are and as helpful as they have been to create a fairly happy life for many
people, we still must reject this culture of optimism and recognize that God
needs to do something much more profound for the human race than the American
culture, or any other human culture, can offer.
With
this dose of realism under our belts, we are ready to learn what God has done
for us that has totally changed The Big Picture. To learn about that, we shall study the life
and work of Jesus Christ.
18. THE PERSON AND WORK OF JESUS CHRIST
I
recognize that some of you are very familiar with Jesus and some are not. So, I shall review the story of Jesus
sufficiently so that we are all “on the same page.”
The
first understanding that we have of Jesus is that He had a miraculous
conception. I use the term “conception”
rather than birth because His birth took place through the ordinary physiology
by which all babies are born. But the
Bible teaches us that He was conceived in a miraculous way. This is told about in two places in
Scripture. First, we have the encounter
that Mary had with an angel:
…God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,
to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph…. The virgin’s name was Mary…. “Do not be
afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.
You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him
the name Jesus. He well be great and
will be called the Son of the Most High….”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will
come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the
Son of God.”
Luke
2:26-35
Then, we have the response of Mary’s fiancee, Joseph, and
his visitation:
This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to
Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through
the Holy Spirit….[An] angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said,
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because
what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit….
Matthew
1:18-21
Thus,
Jesus was conceived in Mary through the work of the Holy Spirit. That brings up all sorts of questions, none
of which can be answered, because Scripture gives us no answers. For example, was this baby “haploid”—having
only half the complement of chromosomes?
If this be so, then, did He lack the Y, or male, chromosome? We have no idea, but my own thought is that
He had a full set of chromosomes, including and X and Y, as with any other
male. Was this conception a result of
(excuse the crude language) God copulating with a woman? The Scripture does not imply that and the
church has never understood that to be the case. This simply is a miracle, totally without
explanation.
What is
the significance of the birth? The New
Testament and the church has understood it to mean that Jesus was unique among
all humans. He was human, with all the
characteristics of a created human being.
But He was also God.
In the full development of the New Testament, an
understanding of the Trinity develops.
The Trinity is another mystery that is beyond the scope of human
language to understand. The following is
a brief summary of the understanding of the Trinity:
·
First, the teaching of the Trinity comes from
reading the New Testament. It is
impossible to read the New Testament in a rational way without an understanding
of the Trinity.
·
God is understood to be One. There are not multiple gods that we worship.
·
Yet, it is also true that there are three
persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
·
These persons each function fully as a
person: with will, interest, the
capacity to love and to act.
·
God is three in one way—with regard to
personhood—but is one in another way—with regard to being God.
·
The second person of the Trinity is referred to
as the Son and also as the Word (Greek Logos).
·
Jesus is understood to be the Son of God or the
Word of God who was among us as a man, the son of Mary.
In John, we have a brief statement about the Word of God:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. He was with God in
the beginning. Through him all things
were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light
of men. The light shines in the
darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
John
1:1-5
Then, a little further in the chapter, John says: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling
among us.” (John 1:14)
Thus,
we have this remarkable event: God has joined the human race. He did not join us at our best. He lived among us in obscurity in a troubled
little corner of the Roman Empire. Very
little is told us of His maturation.
There is a brief incident that is related when Jesus was 12 years old,
and then we meet him at about 30 years of age.
At that time, He entered a public ministry. That ministry consisted mostly of teaching
and healing. He was able to heal people
instantly. There are numerous individual
healings that are mentioned in Scripture, as well as indications that at times
whole crowds of sick people were healed.
He also cast demons out of people, and on a few occasions He brought
people back to life. He did a few other
supernatural feats. He walked on water
once, and He calmed a storm on the sea instantly.
Though
He possessed supernatural power, Jesus also is depicted as a man. He ate and slept, had friends, walked from
place to place, and generally lived as a finite human being. He also developed enemies. The religious establishment of the Jews were
angry with Him because of His popularity among the common people and because He
criticized their leadership. Eventually,
they plotted to kill Him. They would use
the Romans, who occupied the country.
Late
one night, Jesus took His disciples to a garden on a large hill east of
Jerusalem. He often went there to
pray. While He was praying, a group of
Jewish Temple guards came and arrested Him.
He went through a trial with the Jewish leaders and with the Roman
governor Pilate. He then was taken
outside the city and crucified.
Crucifixion was an especially cruel form of death by which the person is
nailed to the cross and allowed to die by hemorrhage and suffocation from the weariness
of supporting the torso.
So, not
only did God join the human race. He died our death. The witness of Jesus is that He died for
us. For example, on the night of His
arrest, at the supper which we call the Last Supper, when Jesus passed the wine
around, He said:
Drink from it, all of you.
This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the
forgiveness of sins.
Matthew
26:27
The witness of the entire New Testament is consistent with
this idea, that Jesus’ death was not a martyr’s death, but rather, a death on
behalf of the sinful human race. For
example, Peter states
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God.
I
Peter 3:18
In the book of Romans, Paul refers to Jesus’ death as “a
sacrifice of atonement.” (Romans
3:25) John the Baptist, a prophet who
ministered just prior to Jesus’ own ministry, called Jesus the “Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29; the author of John is the
Apostle John, not the same as John the Baptist.)
This term, “Lamb of
God,” refers to the Old Testament Jewish sacrifices, in which animals, such as
sheep or cattle, were slaughtered as sacrifices to God. In the Old Testament book of Leviticus, the
understanding of the blood sacrifice is stated:
“Any [God is being quoted] Israelite or any alien living
among them who eats any blood—I will set my face against that person who eats
blood and will cut him off from his people.
For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you
to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes
atonement for one’s life.”
Leviticus
17:10-11
Hence, Jesus’ death on the cross is understood by Scripture
to be a sacrificial death for our sins.
I quoted extensively in the previous section from Romans 7 to
demonstrate the profound helplessness of the human condition. In the next chapter, Paul addresses how Jesus
has come to our aid through His death:
For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened
by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
man to be a sin offering. And so he
condemned sin in sinful man[i], in
order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who
do not live according to the sinful nature [flesh] but according to the Spirit.
Romans
8:3-4
After
Jesus died, His body was taken from the cross and laid in a tomb. It was sealed and guarded. That was on Friday. On Sunday morning, Jesus rose from the
dead. This is documented in several
places in the New Testament. Each of the
four gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—describe how people went to His tomb
and found it empty. They also describe
various appearances of Jesus to His disciples and friends. The book of Acts also describes how Jesus
kept appearing to people for 40 days after His death and rising. Paul, in I Corinthians 15:5-8, lists five
separate appearances of the risen Lord during that period. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus went back to
heaven (the Ascension), as witnessed by a group of His disciples (Acts
1:11). After the Ascension, there are
several reports of how people saw Jesus, including a special visitation to Paul
(I Corinthians 15:8 and elsewhere).
The
nature of Jesus after He rose from the dead is quite different from how He
lived as a man during His earthly ministry.
He could appear and disappear at will.
He could pass through locked doors.
He was recognizable, usually, but could prevent Himself from being
recognized. He could ascend back to
heaven. He is understood no
longer to be subject
to death, and to live in a new condition or new order of existence. That is, He is no longer subject to THE
PRESENT ORDER OF EXISTENCE OR THE WAY THINGS ARE. We call this new orde[ii]r
of existence the Resurrection.
In
short, Jesus has won a victory over the
human condition. The Law of Sin and
Death cannot control Him. His death satisfied the sentence of death. Hence, He was resurrected to enter into
the full victory that He had won by His death.
Now, I shall develop this next statement in the next section, but I want
to make the statement now in order to complete the story of what Jesus has
accomplished. So, not only has Jesus
been resurrected into His full victory, but it is possible for us also to enter
in that victory. Jesus rose into our resurrection.
That is, He rose and entered into a new order of existence that is
of the same nature that we can enjoy in the future. Below, I have brought together the full work
of Jesus.
THE WORK OF JESUS
CHRIST FOR US
·
He joined
the human race.
·
He died
our death.
·
He won a
victory over the human condition.
·
He rose
into our resurrection.
To
understand the last point, I must develop the concept of faith in Christ as the
means of entering into Christ’s victory.
19. RECEIVING CHRIST’S VICTORY
So far, in this part, I have
developed two concepts. First, the
ultimate issues of life are not gained through our own efforts. To put it in straightforward terms, I should
say that we cannot earn our way to heaven.
Second, Jesus Christ has won a great victory over the human
condition. Jesus has won a victory for
me that I could not win myself.
To receive that victory, I must believe in
Jesus. That is as simple a way of
stating the matter as I can think of. I
could modify it and go into great detail (and I shall embellish it), but I
really won’t improve on that statement.
The following are some Scriptures that emphasize the need to believe
(that is, have faith) in order to receive what God has for us:
Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his
name, he gave the right to become children of God.
John
1:12
For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only
Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
John
3:16
But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
John
20:31
They replied, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be
saved—you and your household.
Acts
16:31
This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus
Christ to all who believe.
Romans
3:21
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans
5:1
That if you confess with your mouth “Jesus is Lord,” and
believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans
10:9
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and
this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one
can boast.
Ephesians
2:8-9
The
immediate reaction of many to this idea, that we receive Jesus’ victory by
believing in Him, is that it is too easy.
Nothing in life is easy. We have
to work for—even fight and scratch for—everything that is good in this
life. But now someone comes along and
says that the greatest thing in all of life is available simply by
believing. How can this be?
The
most straightforward answer from Scripture is that Christ’s victory is from God and not from ourselves. Throughout Scripture is the theme that God
does things that are impossible for people.
And to do those things, God chooses unlikely persons and unlikely
circumstances.
The
best example of this is the case of Abraham.
Abraham was chosen by God to be the patriarch of a great nation, the
Hebrews. Yet, when God first chose
Abraham (described in Genesis 12:1-3; he was then known as Abram), he was 75
years old and his wife, Sarah (then known as Sarai), was barren. Moreover, she remained barren for the next 24
years. During this time, God kept
telling Abraham that he was going to be the Father of a great nation and that
he would have a son. Finally, Sarah conceived
after 24 years and, then, after 25 years, she bore a son, Isaac. One of Isaac’s sons was Jacob, and Jacob
(later known as Israel) became the father of twelve sons who headed up the
twelve tribes of Israel. So, when
Abraham and Sarah were far too old to have children, God gave them a son
through whom God’s promises were fulfilled.
There could be no doubt to anyone observing the situation that this was
something that God did and not what Abraham had done.
Yet,
through the story of Abraham, the Scripture emphasizes that Abraham believed
that God was going to do what He said. Oh, there were some weak moments, but, as
Abraham received a word from God, he believed and trusted that God would
perform His word. This is the way the
book of Hebrews describes Abraham’s faith:
By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself
was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful
who had made the promise. And so from
this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars
in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.
Hebrews
11:11-12
Notice that it is by
faith that Abraham was enabled to become a father. God was the one who promised, and God was the
one who did the miracle, but it was Abraham (and Sarah) who responded to God’s
promises, believing that God was able and willing to do what He said that He
would do.
When we
believe, we reverse the brokenness of the relationship between God and
people. The broken relationship is one
that does not believe that God is good, but, instead believes that God is out to
get us. When we believe in Jesus, we
believe that God loves us and will bring us into Christ’s victory. We believe in the goodness of God.
The object of our faith or belief is Jesus. Our faith is in Jesus Christ. We do not simply “believe in God.” We do not “believe that dreams or wishes come
true.” We do not “believe in the power
of belief.” Our faith is quite specific
in a very specific person, Jesus of Nazareth, the One described in the
Bible.
Our
initial faith may not be conscious of any of what I have said to this
point. Most people who come to faith
have heard something about Jesus. They
may have heard the basics of His death on the cross. They have also probably have had their need
for God’s salvation (a term that I shall explain) explained to them. Then, they have been told of the necessity of
belief in Jesus. Their response is to
affirm their belief (for example, by walking to the front of a sanctuary). They have believed, and that brings them into
Christ’s victory. The intellectual
content of their belief may be limited, but they have believed and that is
sufficient.
Very
likely, a person will grow in their understanding of faith as he or she
continues in the Christian walk. But the
faith response, not an in-depth intellectual response, is what is called for.
When we believe in Jesus, we acknowledge
our own inadequacy. We may not be
conscious of that understanding, but it is implied when we believe in
Jesus. We are acknowledging that
self-reliance or self-righteousness is not sufficient to resolve our human
condition. Many people tell a story of
coming to faith in which they first come to the end of themselves. They tell how they made all sorts of attempts
to find happiness and power and none worked.
Then, when they had “bottomed out” and were totally without help, they
heard the story of Jesus and trusted in Him and their life was
transformed. They reached a point of
acknowledging their own inadequacy (and the inadequacy of all human solutions)
and turned to faith in Christ.
I have
summarized what I have said about belief in Jesus below.
RECEIVING CHRIST’S
VICTORY
·
To
receive that victory, I must believe in Jesus.
·
Christ’s
victory is from God and not from myself.
·
The
object of my faith or belief is Jesus.
·
When I
believe in Jesus, I acknowledge my own inadequacy.
In the
next section, I shall expand what Christ’s victory means for us, now and in the
future.
20. THE BENEFITS OF THE LAW OF THE SPIRIT:
WHAT
SALVATION MEANS FOR US
So far, I have made three major
points:
1.
The human condition is defined by the Law of Sin and Death.
2.
Christ has won a victory over the Law of Sin and Death.
3.
We enter into Christ’s victory by believing in Jesus.
In
this section, I shall expand what that victory means for us. In order to use more “Christian” language, I
shall refer to that victory for us as salvation.
Salvation has two major
components—future and present. And each
of those components has negative and positive aspects.
The future component of salvation:
The negative aspect of our future salvation is that we shall not be
punished in the future judgment. I
have quoted the description of the future judgment previously. Some that description follows:
Then
I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it….And I saw the dead, great
and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of
life. The dead were judged according to
what they had done as recorded in the books. …The lake of fire is the second
death. If anyone’s name was not found
written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation
20:11-15
The
key point to notice is the book of life.
The most important basis for judgment and punishment in the lake of fire
is whether one’s name is in the book of life.
From the full testimony of Scripture, one’s name is written in the book
of life when one believes in Jesus. The
most famous verse in the Bible, John 3:16, makes the point that if anyone
believes in Jesus, that person will not perish,
which is understood to mean that the person will not suffer eternal
judgment. Salvation is salvation from
future punishment.
The positive aspect of our future salvation is that we shall enjoy the
resurrection forever. The positive
aspect is complex in that it involves a great number of blessings. I consider that resurrection is the best term to encompass all of our future
blessings. In the following discussion,
I shall not debate the details of God’s future program, for indeed theologians
debate constantly those details.
Instead, I want to list a few important points about our future.
1.
We shall be raised from the dead into a body that is like
Jesus’ body. This is detailed in two
places, I Corinthians 15:50-58 and I Thessalonians 4:13-18. When Christ returns, our buried bodies will
come out of their graves. They will be
transformed into bodies no longer subject to the present order of existence.
2.
We shall be forever with the Lord. The best description of this eternal state is
found in chapters 21 and 22 of Revelation.
Jesus will be present for our eyes to see. And, somehow, we shall even have a vision of
the Father. We shall enjoy an intimate
relationship with the triune God forever, full of acceptance and joy.
3.
We shall enjoy a life of bliss. We shall have good food and housing. We shall never die or be sick or experience
grief.
4.
God shall reverse our sadness. We are told that God will “wipe every tear
from their eyes.” I would understand
that to mean that God will somehow heal all of our sadness and heartache.
The present component of our salvation:
The negative aspects are that we are forgiven of our sins and that we
are delivered from certain consequences of the Law of Sin and Death.
We are
forgiven of our sins. There are two ways
that the Bible looks at this. One is
that God simply acts as if the sin never happened. There is a picture of this in the book of
Luke in the story that we call The Prodigal Son. This is a story about a young man who takes
his inheritance early and runs off to a foreign country. There he squanders his money on pleasures and
ends up in poverty. He comes back to his
father, acknowledging his fault and requesting only to be a servant in his father’s
house:
The
son said to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
But
the father said to his servants, “Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on
him. Put a ring on his finger and
sandals on his feet. Bring the
fatted calf and kill it. Let’s feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive
again; he was lost and is found.”
Luke
15:21-24
The other way that the Bible
looks at forgiveness is through the word “justification.” By this is meant that God considers us to be
righteous, not because we have been righteous, but simply because we believe in
Jesus. I shall give two quotes from
Romans that mention this process. I have
added the italics in the following quotations:
This
righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who
believe. There is no difference, for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus.
Romans
3:22-24
What
then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before
God. What does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Now when a man works, his wages are not
credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However to the man who does not work but
trusts God who justifies the wicked, his
faith is credited as righteousness.
Romans
4:1-5
We are delivered from certain
aspects of The Law of Sin and Death. For
one thing, we are relieved from a load of guilt. Much of modern psychology has emphasized the
negative consequences of guilt. I shall
not try to distinguish shame and guilt in my discussion. Guilt is not necessarily a bad thing. It is necessary that we be honest about our
wrongdoing and take responsibility for our sins. However, guilt in the absence of the hope of
forgiveness is destructive. It can
create perfectionism, antisocial behaviors, or controlling personalities. When our guilt is washed away, a great load
is lifted off our shoulders. We feel
clean, relieved, and look to the future with optimism.
Another consequence is the loss
of the fear of death. Some people who
have not experienced salvation can face death with courage. However, they are displaying courage in the
face of danger. That is, they have not
lost the fear, they are coping with it.
That is noble, but God offers to us a genuine deliverance from the fear
of death. This is not a loss of our
instinct for self-preservation. That is
something that God gives all persons (except when mental illness or severe
cultural conditioning erases or damages it).
But, when we receive Christ’s victory, we no longer have the fear that
we shall face the terror of the wrath of God.
This new attitude toward life brings us security and confidence that
enables us to live more positively than before.
The present component of our salvation:
The positive aspects of this include the work of the Holy Spirit in our
lives, our life in the church, and the avenue of prayer.
I shall not have adequate space
to enumerate each of these positive aspects of salvation. In brief, it is important to realize that God has equipped us with all that is
necessary to live out Christ’s victory in this present order of existence. Thus, although we live in a “fallen world”—a
world that is governed by both the Creation of God and The Law of Sin and
Death, we can enjoy the victory of Christ in the here and now. We should recognize that we shall experience
limitations, even failures. We also must
understand that suffering is going to come our way (see the chart on the causes
of suffering in Part One), but we can experience God’s victory despite
suffering and the destructive forces of this present order.
First of all, God the Holy
Spirit ministers to us. This ministry is
multifaceted. I shall do my best to list
some of the ministries of the Spirit, but I cannot be complete in this discussion. First, the Holy Spirit is the agent who brings us to faith in Christ. When we experience faith, we do not
merely come to an intellectual awareness and make a decision. First of all, the Holy Spirit makes the
gospel fit our own personalities and life histories. Somehow, the gospel of Jesus Christ makes
sense and becomes personal for me. Then
(or simultaneous with the previous work), the Holy Spirit convicts us of sin
and our need for a Savior. Again, this
is personal, so that each person has a consciousness of need that is real and
very consistent with his or her own internal consciousness. Finally, somehow the conscious faith-decision
is overseen by the Holy Spirit.
Second, the Holy Spirit accomplishes in us the spiritual realities of
salvation. By this I mean that
certain things happen when we are saved that cannot be accomplished “in the
natural.” For example, we are born
again,[iii]
we are baptized into the body of Christ,[iv]
we
are washed clean by the blood of Jesus.[v] We cannot observe any of these
activities. There is no church rite that
can accomplish them. They are done by
the Holy Spirit.
Third, the Holy Spirit applies the spiritual realities of salvation to
our own personalities.[vi] For example, we experience an assurance
that God accepts and loves us as a child.[vii] Over time, we grow in our awareness, both
intellectually and emotionally, of our spiritual identity. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Fourth, the Holy Spirit provides guidance for our lives. Fifth, the Holy Spirit enables us to pray so
that our prayers are heard by the Father.
I shall discuss these ministries in more detail later, along with
the next ministry. Sixth, Jesus can baptize us in the Holy Spirit so that we can function
in a more powerful manner under the leading of the Holy Spirit.
The
second broad category of the positive aspects of salvation at this present time
is our membership in the church. Again,
I shall expand this concept later.
Briefly, the church provides for us God-ordained leadership. It provides a structure for our
discipleship. It gives us opportunity
for service. It surrounds us with human
companionship and fellowship. It fulfills
God’s vision for us that we be social people, not isolated individuals. It is essential for our walk with God.
The third broad category of the
positive aspects of salvation is the avenue of prayer. Although this is really a work of the Holy
Spirit, it is such an important part of our Christian life that it stands on
its own. Again, I shall comment on this
later, but shall make a few comments now.
Prayer is the principle mechanism of our relationship with God. Just as physical intimacy is an essential of
the marital relationship (thus, it “consummates” the marriage), so prayer is an
essential in our relationship with God.
Through prayer we nurture our relationship. Prayer also is our means of communicating our
needs and, thus, by prayer we articulate our faith in the goodness of God. That is, by asking God for specifics in our
lives, we are saying that we believe God loves us and wants the best for
us. Prayer also is important to our
psychological well-being. When we are
distressed, worried, or angry, we can pray and reach a point of
equilibrium.
In summary, we have, in the gift
of salvation, a future in which Christ’s great victory will be ours
forever. We have also blessings that we
enjoy in the present that bless us and enable us to live in the present order
of existence. I have reviewed this
description in the accompanying outline.
THE BENEFITS OF THE LAW OF THE
SPIRIT: WHAT SALVATION MEANS FOR US
The
future component:
The
negative aspect: not punished in the
judgment
The
positive aspect: the resurrection, which
means…
A
body like Jesus’ body
Forever
with the Lord
A
life of bliss
Reversal of all
sadness
The
present component:
The
negative aspects:
Forgiveness
of sins
Release
from the consequences of sin and death
The
positive aspects:
The
work of the Holy Spirit
The
church
Prayer
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