When the shadow of the Cross falls across the entrance of the Open Tomb, it has gone too far. It must be ruled offsides, out of order. In Western theology a cruciform moon has eclipsed the resurrected sun. It is worn as an amulet, a spiritualized talisman, a fetish. Sadly, such practices actually obscure the irruptive dazzle of the henceforth ever-living Son! [1/25/02]
Is evangelical rhetoric about ‘vicarious’ ‘substitution’ itself a substitute for the authentic apostolic emphasis on Messiah’s resurrestion (rather than His crucifixion) being the locus of God’s righteousness/justice as the saving event of history?
The doctrine of a ‘Divine exchange’ is entailed in the Protestant emphasis on ‘substitution’ in the manner it is usually expounded. ‘Christ’s righteousness‘ (not a Pauline—not even a Biblical—expression at all!) is ‘imputed’ to the sinner while the latter’s sin is ‘imputed’ to Christ. This (partly early-17th century) formulation of the Protestant Reformation’s doctrine of ‘Christ’s imputed righteousness‘ goes beyond the Pauline explanation that faith itself is counted or “imputed” as righteousness/justness by God precisely because it is not an activity at all but simply a firm acceptance and avowal of God’s Proclamation as being true and trustworthy.
To be sure, Messiah “carried/bore“ sins in his body onto the cross (Isaiah 53:11,12; Heb. 9:28; 1 Peter 2:24). The Mosaic ordinances of sacrifice give depth of shading to this image.
But since we now know that the actual locus of God’s display of His answer to the human injustice of the crucifixion was Messiah’s resurrection—for notice how Peter significantly integrates Christ’s expectancy toward “Him Who is judging justly“ (1 Peter 2:23)—how must this realization alter the traditional Protestant insistence on ‘substitution alone’? [4/27/02]
The friction of continual resistance to the Explanation of the Proclamation concerning God’s Kingdom causes a callus to build up around the core (the heart) of a stubborn personality. This results in a darkening of one’s apprehension (-νο-) and understanding (συνιε-) and a dulling of perception and powers of observation (Isaiah 6:9-10; Matt. 13:10-17; John 12:37-43; Acts 28:23-29).
Resistance to the power of the Proclamation, and to the corroboration of God’s Spirit along with it, is triggered by an alternative love in opposition to the love of God made clear in God’s Proclamation. That counter-love is a love of darkness as a cover up to vicious acts and bad practices—businesses, corporations, nay, entire industries included! (John 3:19-21; 12:35-50; 1 John 2:8-17). This amounts to a love of the culture/world, characterized by cravings of the flesh, cravings of the eyes, and the ostentation of livelihoods (1 John 2:16). These all have the power to snatch away or snare or stifle the good Seed of God’s Explanation, which, when implanted and rooted properly (Matt. 13:3-23)—i.e., “blended together with faith in those who hear” (Heb. 4:2)—has the power to save a human existence.
God has ‘sovereignly’ set things up this way so as not to nullify His own image and likeness in human nature. We were created to reflect His own ‘sovereignty’ via our self-determination (αυτεξουσιοτης—auto-authorization). When God gave humankind the so-called ‘cultural mandate’ of Genesis 1:28, He included this authority over ourselves within it. Logical!
The power of Christ’s resurrection, with signs and miracles following, has no worthy competition from the waning and ultimately mortal powers within our nature. But we can still put up a fuss with whatever we have remaining and then make a big stink against God’s kingdom of favor. God has sent out, nonetheless, an open invitation for all to trust Jesus, His Son. Our choice.
Through the public events of Messiah’s crucifixion/resurrection, and in light of Jesus’ brilliant career of liberation, God extends a free ticket, at His own expense, to every human being to hop aboard the passenger train destined for the capital of His Kingdom, where we have been “begotten above (anothen)” and thereby qualify as naturalized citizens of the New Jerusalem (Psalm 87), which is destined at length to descend upon the New Earth.
From our vantage point in the darkness of sin and evils, where we all have perilously walked, we can track the bright lights shining from the windows of the coming train. Out of our present danger of hazards lurking in the dark, we can board this train to safety and walk in the Light. If we stay on the train, believing that, regardless of its twists and turns and adventitious storms, it will take us to the Announced destination, we shall surely arrive in the promised peace of that glorious Realm. For all who stay on the train are ipso facto chosen for safekeeping and ultimate sonship, plus a vast inheritance that accords with it. We’ve got a ticket to ride! [5/02/02]
Jesus taught that no one could come to him or trust him unless the Father drew and gave them to him (John 6:37-48). He also taught the flip side—that the Father was about to provide the means to make it possible for all to come to the Son: the exaltation of His own beloved Son upon a cross to die and be buried and get raised from the dead (John 12:26-33). Simple. In other words—how could Jesus have made it any clearer?—none of us can come to Jesus, or ever would have come to him (after all, even his disciples left him before the crucifixion!) except via the Fatherly power and justice exhibited in reversing the evil of Messiah’s crucifixion by the ensuing resurrection.
Whenever Jesus would start informing his learners about his future death by execution, many of them would leave him—the very same reaction they had to his telling them that no one could come to him without his Father’s drawing power. His Explanation in John 12:26-33 was meant to clarify matters, but…
until the events actually were fulfilled historically, virtually all the people who ever heard his Explanations were offended by such teaching and turned away from Teacher and Teaching alike, his own Twelve included! Not until God Himself acted with power from on high to prove and accredit Jesus as His Son, the Messiah, the Master of all, by resurrection, did anyone make their way back to the fold of safety! [5/8/02]
The Premial Atonement 