Human Situations
Steve works full time as a salesperson at Home Depot in windows and doors. He says that the fundamental component of his ministry is integrity and trustworthiness. When asked about the effects of sin and human brokenness he says, “I see it in death and dying.” His boss had three significant losses within a few days. “I took his hand between mine and assured him God was with us in all our pain. I could tell he appreciated that. Steve does minister to his boss, only for some reason he doesn’t call it ministry. “I also see human brokenness in my customers—especially the elderly ones. One will come into the store and seem bewildered by the size of the place. Even if she isn’t looking for a window or a door, I make sure she finds what she’s looking for.”
In being asked where he might see God’s grace at his workplace Steve responds, “I haven’t broken the rules at Home Depot and so I haven’t experienced God’s grace there.” Even though Steve shows God’s grace and love to broken people, for him grace is synonymous with forgiveness of certain sins, so he doesn’t think he is experiencing it except when he feels condemned for something.
Sarah is a special education teacher in an elementary school. She works with nearly twenty different children during a typical day, each with his or her unique challenges. She has a good understanding of how the church defines vocation as God’s call to ministry in our everyday lives; however, she didn’t apply it to herself. Instead she cites the sense of joy and accomplishment she receives when she sees a child make progress. She has a ministry of care and advocacy for the children but is not able to connect this verbally to “care for the least of these” in the New Testament or the biblical concepts of the ministry of advocacy.
Bob’s ministry, on the other hand, deals with power. “My biggest worry is that we’re heading down the tracks at 60mph and there is a car stopped on a crossing ahead.” Bob is a railroad conductor. The key for him is “staying vigilant.” While he has a significant amount of responsibility in his vocation, he sees it more as a job, but one he really enjoys. He would benefit from an understanding of how the God of power works, not only in the world as a whole, but in relation to Bob and his vocation.
Jackie is an assistant manager at a sporting goods store in a mall. She was trained as a graphic designer, but those jobs these days are hard to come by. She doesn’t see her present position as a calling even though she often goes out of her way to help a customer beyond expectations. She hasn’t been to church recently. Her own self-worth has been challenged since she came out as a lesbian a few years ago. She has a strong sense of justice related to equality for all people. For her, evil is “judging people” and hypocrisy.
Marie works at an auto glass repair center. She believes “hospitality and service” are the most important parts of her job. Those are watchwords throughout her life in working with the Boy Scouts, coordinating meals for funeral gatherings at church, and in being a Stephen minister. She has struggled with cancer. When asked who ministered to her in her illness, she looked surprised and said, “I never thought about that. I guess the people I go and see.” She has about 5% chance of beating cancer this time with perhaps six months to live. She said, “I know it is ok for me to be mad at God. I don’t like it. I have so many things I want to do. I’m not going to stop. There’s Scout camp this summer.” She spoke of God’s presence with her in good and bad times, saying “when I die, I hope they have potluck in heaven. If not, I’ll just have to start one.”
Ruth is convinced she is “completely boring” but actually does a lot to help her elderly neighbors each day, after morning devotions and reading from self-help books. She has a sense of duty about caring for herself and others, almost like being a faithful steward. A few years back her congregation was boiling in controversy and on the verge of splitting. During this time Ruth’s mother and father died and she struggled with cancer. She received a prayer shawl from the congregation and, a knitter herself, gradually started a prayer shawl ministry. “Now this ministry is thriving,” she says, and adds, “We are knitting the congregation back together after the controversy.” Ephesians 4 could be of great help to Ruth in imaging God’s work in the body of Christ; however, she verbalizes what she is doing through the language of her self-help books. Her devotional books seem to be a commentary on the self-help reading material. When told that in all she does she is proclaiming the good news of the steadiness of God in an unsteady world, she said she had never thought of that.
John raises feeder pigs. In the early eighties, although he was current on his payments, the bank called in his loans, forcing him and his wife into bankruptcy. Twenty-some years later there is still anger in his voice about how he was treated by some people in the community. He said he hit “rock bottom,” but he and his wife read the Bible and pray together every day. Two years ago John fell from his tractor and injured his neck. In agony with constant pain, following a misdiagnosis of what was really a broken neck, he even thought of suicide. Since finding a new doctor and being treated properly he feels restored to life as he once knew it, and to God.[1]
These members of the Laos carry out their ministries faithfully, sometimes in the midst of struggle, but often the full meaning of the Gospel in their lives doesn’t seem to fit unless it is in guilt/forgiveness language. What images would relate to the ministries in daily life of these Christians? Brokenness/wholeness; bewilderment/enlightenment; challenge/care; weakness/strength; judgment/mercy; uselessness/gifts; death/life; division/unity; shame and pain/restoration. Readers are invited to think of people among whom they live and work. What are their “working” theologies? What is their holy writ? (Self-help books?) In what ministries in daily life are they already engaged? Are they able to connect biblical and theological concepts with these ministries?
Vocatio Rooted in the Forgiveness of Sins
If our calling (our vocatio) is rooted in the forgiveness of sins, what does that mean for the real ways people live? What does forgiveness mean? How are we freed for ministry? These are core questions for living out our transformation in the Spirit. Each of the baptized who are members together of the priesthood of all believers needs to hear the Gospel of God’s grace in terms of their own specific situation. [2]Theologian Letty Russell wrote that Jesus did not say to the blind person, “You can walk,” nor to the person who could not walk, “You can see.”[3] Christ met people on the road in the midst of their lives and asked, “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus cared about people, the societal problems related to human need, and God’s saving justice in the world in which they lived.
We who have been transformed by the power of the Spirit each meet Jesus in our own need, and in the midst of society’s need. If the human problem is brokenness, the good news is that Jesus makes us whole. If the human problem is alienation, the good news is God reconciles and restores relationships. If the human problem is guilt, the good news is that God through Jesus Christ forgives. If the human problem is being lost, the good news is that the Good Shepherd looks for and finds the lost. If the human problem is death, Jesus Christ has brought new life. If the human problem is judgment, the good news in Jesus Christ is unconditional acceptance. If the human problem is bondage, the good news is that Jesus brings freedom.[4]
Soteriology
There are many more images of the human predicament, just as there are many more images of Christ’s work for human beings. I, as a Christian, am exploring the theology of salvation, soteriology, by which I mean God’s agency in the salvation of humanity through the incarnation, ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christ. As we expand our range of soteriological concepts, we can meet people in the many diverse manifestations of the human predicament. There are more images in the epistles than I will have described here. Likewise, images cannot limit. God’s work in Christ is beyond any images. Any attempts to limit God or to put concepts in boxes, or to debate them, misses the purpose. In this paper I do not talk about “ New Perspectives on Paul,” nor the literature which critiques or uphold such perspectives; rather I will explore multiple perspectives on soteriology in the Pauline Epistles.
We can start from either direction: the stories of human lives and people hungering for the grace of God, or with Scriptural images.[5] If we begin with the human situations, we cannot simply look for an “answer” in Scripture, matching up our need to a specific verse, in a proof-testing way. Nor do we use a passage to prove God, or prove the cross. Likewise, we cannot take one passage out of an epistle to describe precisely what the human life is or what the Christian life should look like. Nor should we take one of the images of soteriology that follow in this chapter and project it on someone as though it were a sort of personality test, e.g. “Joe is alienation/belonging; Melinda is darkness/light.” The goal is to look at and listen to people as we meet them on the road in daily life, learning their stories, and to convey in words—more so in action—the good news of Jesus Christ in its many and varied expressions. To begin where people are is to engage in a ministry of accompaniment. Such ministry requires deep listening. Together we discover the human predicament, and, by God’s grace, together we discern God’s Good News in Jesus Christ.
So what do we call this human situation? The human condition? People hungering for the grace of God? I refer to this as the “human predicament” which relates both to the human relationship with God and people’s relationship with one another. It is “sin” in the broadest and deepest sense. And this problem is active, not just passive, e.g. “It happened to me.” This is another way of talking about “Law and Gospel,” in a functional, not content sense. And just as we cannot really hear the Law unless and until we are surrounded by the love of the God of covenant faithfulness, so we need to be surrounded by God’s unconditional love in Jesus Christ through the Body of Christ in order to begin to deal with the radical ramifications of the human predicament. Otherwise we hide and blame. With eyes wide open, the radical grace of God is always a surprise, and life-changing.
The Good News is for human beings in the plural; not just “me and Jesus.” The Epistle images which I have explored make it clear that “forgiveness,” “life,” “reconciliation,” “freedom,” and more, are plural concepts meant for communal life in Christ. This new life together is unachievable, unattainable on our own. Gospel is gift.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew the dangers of being the church in a dangerous world. He also wrote about the great loneliness in community. We make demands on one another. We fail to hear the others’ cries of pain. As the love of God restores communion between God and humans in Christ, so too, the human community is transformed into a living reality of love. The Holy Spirit makes us aware of the ways in which we are estranged from one another so that we know we need Christ. The Spirit places us within the divine community so that members of the community no longer see one another as claim (demand) but as gift.[6]
Images of the Church and Images of Soteriology
Paul S. Minear, as the result of a work assigned to him by the commission, “Theological Communion on Christ and the Church” established by the Faith and Order Department of the World Council of Churches in 1954, wrote Images of the Church in the New Testament which was published in 1960.[7] His work has long inspired my own. My current task is different than Minear’s. I am using the Epistles, not the Gospels, and, for the purposes of the theme of this book, just the 13 Pauline Epistles, the seven where authorship by Paul is clear, and the six where it is questionable or clearly doubtful. In the near future work I intend to explore all of the Epistles. For example, Hebrews and James are rich with varied images of soteriology.
I echo some of Minear’s statements about scope and method and have some additional thoughts pertaining to my particular subject.
* The New Testament is full of images of the work of Christ beyond sin/guilt and forgiveness.
* In my venture I am not pursuing the history of these images toward their origins in the ancient world.
* Nor am I carrying these images forward pursuing their use in subsequent centuries in the church.
* I am not exploring the topic of whether there is unity of perspective within the New Testament, nor even within the Pauline Epistles, given the varied locations and times of writing. Each community had its own challenges and each letter its own integrity.
* I am very aware there are huge differences in the thought world of the first-century church and the twenty-first century church, as well as significant global, cultural, and language differences within this twenty-first century church.[8]
* I use the term “image” to refer also to metaphor and figurative expressions. In distinction from Minear’s work, some of my “images” are descriptions of actual human situations, needing no metaphor.
* Soteriological images of the human predicament and gospel action often are inseparable from the new life of the Christian. Although I looked specifically at soteriology, when images of the new life these were organically connected, I included them.
How many images are there? Minear conservatively estimates there are more than eighty images of the church in the New Testament, the number easily being increased to one hundred if the various Greek words were counted separately.[9] Since I am using only the Pauline Epistles, I hesitate to estimate the number of images of soteriology. Giving a definitive number would be misleading. Simply counting is not the objective.
My Goal
My goal is to expand our concepts, to open up the many ways we can speak about God’s work in Jesus Christ that meets us in our human predicament. Minear, at the conclusion of his work, questioned the division between major and minor issues, even though he had arranged his book that way. A minor image, one used less frequently, may give no less an authentic expression. “Nor can we measure significance or authenticity by the number of appearances of the image or by the number of authors who use it.”[10]
Although I have been interested in the possibility of exploring the Epistles in this way for some time, this is exploratory work and far from comprehensive or complete. I invite participation in the process by readers from diverse theological disciplines, backgrounds and contexts, which, in turn, produces cross-disciplinary dialog.
Did I discover some surprises? Well, yes, and no; not completely! Some images were more prominent than I thought and some less so. Some images I have often used, but they were not as prominent in the Pauline as in the larger corpus of Epistles. I disciplined myself to not begin with Romans, simply to push beyond the most familiar; I often included it last also in the write-up. The Church has often used the “legal” image (forensic justification), and, as I thought, it is not a major image at all. Death/ Life and Captive/Free are much larger. This is significant to the ministry of which I speak that begins with people seeking Gospel in their daily lives, today, and in every age.
One could say that the word “soteriology,” salvation, is an image itself; I use it, however, as a way to talk about all images. Justification by grace through faith is central to Lutherans. My goal is not to replace it, but to expand upon it, particularly when simply saying “you are forgiven” does not connect with the particular human predicament. Even though we have read and studied them so frequently, there is so much more in the Pauline epistles than we can ever know. It is the freedom of God to go beyond images.
Intertwined Images
I am searching for distinct expressions of God’s saving work in Christ Jesus. However, they are not neatly laid out for us; the images are sometimes intertwined. For example in Colossians 1:13 we have God’s rescue, the image of darkness, the action of transfer, and the terms redemption and forgiveness of sins. All pertain; Christ’s work is comprehensive. However, this may make our point ever more strongly, for at any one time in a given person’s life, one of those images may speak more powerfully than another.
The Image of Christ and the Work of Christ
Another challenge: How does one separate the work of Christ from the image of Christ? Of course, one doesn’t, even though in this research I am concentrating on images of Christ’s saving action. In Colossians 1:15-20 we have the following descriptions of Christ’s person. In parenthesis I have placed a corresponding inference of the human predicament and God’s grace for us in Christ.
Image of the invisible God (Invisibility or Distant God)
Firstborn of all creation (Disconnection from creation)
All things holding together in Christ (Things/lives coming apart)
Head of the body, the church (Human headship)
Firstborn from the dead (Death/eternal death)
The indwelling of the fullness of God (Emptiness)
In addition to descriptions of Christ’s person are two actions: In Christ God was pleased to reconcile (alienation) to Godself all things by making peace (war, chaos) through the blood of his cross.
Captivity / Freedom
I proceed with the images, beginning with one frequently found: “captivity/freedom.” One could isolate this image to past societal sins of slavery; however, that would be to ignore the fact that there may be more people enslaved today, e.g. sex trafficking, than at any time in history. In addition, there are many kinds of captivity in the human experience. The image of captive/ free is found frequently in the Pauline epistles. In Ephesians 4:8, grace is expressed as Christ, when he ascended, making “captivity itself captive.” (Ps. 68:18)
Certainly there are many references to the actual imprisonment of Paul and others. (Phil. 1:12ff), often telling how they see their imprisonment as actually helping to spread the Gospel. (v. 12) But the image also is deeply connected to the work of Christ: “Before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law…”[11] (Gal. 3:23) We were, “enslaved to the elemental spirits of the world.” (Gal. 4:3)
Being freed in Christ changes our lives and relationships, to God and to human beings in both private and public ways. Examples: “You are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child, then also an heir, through God.” (Gal. 4:7) “As many of you as were baptized into Christ….there is no longer slave or free…” (Gal. 3:28) “We ourselves were once…slaves to various passions and pleasures…” (Titus 3:3) “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.” (Col. 2:8)
The letter of Paul to Philemon is about the change in relationship that comes to us through Christ. Onesimus is not only a slave, but has apparently wronged Philemon in some way. Onesimus has become a Christian; Paul sends him back but “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother.” (vs. 16)
In Galatians (4:21-31) life under the law and in freedom is compared to Abraham having two sons, one “the child of a slave” and the other the child of a “free woman.”
Being captive is broadened if one includes other words, e.g. being “trapped” by “many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” (1 Tim.: 6:9) There could be many more if one pursues that quest more broadly, all of which would have meaning for the Laos.
This new liberty is a gift and is to be used in service. “Take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. (1 Cor. 8:9) Paul, in chapter 9, talks about himself in asking rhetorically, “Am I not free?” (v.1) Do we not have rights? What are those rights resulting in being free in Christ? “Though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.” (v. 19) He does all for the sake of the Gospel. (v. 23) The Gospel is the measure of how to use this freedom.
In Romans the captive / free image is prominent. “We know that our old self was crucified with him so the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.” (Rom. 6:6) This concept is expanded in 6:17-23. It is repeated: “having once been slaves of sin…” (v. 17); “having been set free from sin, [you] have become slaves of righteousness” (v. 18) So, too, “you once presented your members as slaves to impurity”… “so now present your members as slaves to righteousness for sanctification.” (v. 19) We are now “dead to that which held us captive, so that we are slaves not under the old written code, but in the new life of the Spirit.” (Notice the mixing of images of “dead” and “captive.) (Rom. 7:6). Paul says he was “sold into slavery under sin.” (Rom. 7:14) And although the freedom one has in Christ is now certain, the struggle goes on. “I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.” (Rom. 7:23) The good news for all these kinds of captivity is that, “the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” (Rom. 8:2)
Death / Life
“You were dead through trespasses and sins in which you once lived…” (Eph. 2:1) “But God, who is rich in mercy out of great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised up with Christ…” (Eph. 2:4-6ff)[12] Dying and rising with Christ are central soteriological themes, not unrelated to sin and grace, but deeply connected. And this new life is plural. Christians are made alive together
This image relates to actual death of the body, such as in 1 Thess.: 4:13-14. We are not to grieve as others who have no hope because since “we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.” And “whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. (5:10)
This image appears, even more frequently, in regard to being dead in trespasses: Col. 2:13, which is similar to Ephesians 2. We are being made alive together with him. Christians were “buried with Christ in baptism” and “raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead.” (Col. 2:12). This death is deep, e.g. dying to the elemental spirits of the universe (Col. 2:20). Christians are asked why they “live as if you still belonged to the world?” and instructed, “If you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above.” (Col. 3:1) This death means one’s life is “hidden with Christ in God” and when Christ “who is your life” is revealed, then Christians will also be revealed with him in glory.” (Col 3:4)
In Philippians Paul struggles with, “For to me, living is Christ and dying is gain.” (Phil. 1:21), but more powerful is the Phil. 3:l0 passage, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…” We “become like him in his death” attaining the resurrection from the dead. (v.10-11) We also have the powerful Phil. 2:1-11 passage which one can see in connection with the soteriological images of “Ignorance / Understanding” (mind of Christ) or, “Captive / free” (taking the form of a slave), and certainly here: Christ emptied himself and humbled himself, becoming “obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross” (v.8), then was exalted by God. (v. 9) The image of death and life is a comprehensive image.
We “take hold of the life that really is life.” (1 Tim. 6:19) Jesus Christ “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Tim. 1:10) “Jesus Christ raised from the dead” is “my gospel.” (2 Tim. 2:8) Then that central passage, “The saying is sure: ‘If we have died with him, we will also live with him…” (2:11)
In 1 Cor. 15:12ff we find the long discourse on the question of the resurrection. “If Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. (v. 14) Without Christ having been raised, “you are still in your sins.”(v. 17) Although this certainly refers to the resurrection of the dead, Paul also says he “dies every day.” (v. 31), broadening the death / life image to include the deathly experiences in this life. To have new life in Christ now is to live with a new kind of hope beyond merely human hopes. (v. 32)
The death and resurrection of Christ has consequences for life now, as we see in 2 Cor. 5:15: “And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” Once again the reference is plural and the new life is for the sake of other people and Christ himself.
Romans 4:25 says Jesus was, “handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.” “For the wages of sin is death.” (Rom. 6:23) “Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24) In 5:10 we find the image of “enemies” being “reconciled to God through the death of his Son” with the addition, “much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life.” God “gave life to the dead.” (Rom. 4:17) And in Rom. 5:12-17 is the longer discourse on how death came through sin and exercised dominion. “If the many died through the one man’s trespass [Adam], much more surely have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded for the many. (v. 15) Death exercised dominion, but now the free gift of righteousness exercises dominion in life through Jesus Christ. (vs. 17) Romans 7:7-13 is the long discourse on how apart from the law sin lies dead. When sin revived, “I died.” (v. 10a) “Sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.” (v. 11)
Now that we are alive, “Should we continue in sin in order that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin go on living in it?” (Rom. 6:2) And, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized in Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For, if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” (Rom. 6:3-5) This continues in verses 8-11: “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
Christians, as they live and as they die, are united with Christ in service to others:
“We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Rom. 14:7-9)
The image of death and life is central and permeates the Pauline epistles. Surely it is core to being joined with Christ in a resurrection like his. It also pertains to the death-like experiences of daily struggle and the good news that death no longer has dominion.
Darkness / Light
“You yourselves used to be in the darkness,” resonates with those whose lives, for any reason, seem dark and full of despair. “Darkness” also describes the human condition of not knowing the truth about God’s grace in Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 5:8-9 Christians are extolled to “live like people who belong to the light, for it is the light that brings a rich harvest of every kind of goodness, righteousness and truth.” This is not mere advice to try to avoid immorality, indecency, but proclamation that “since you have become the Lord’s people, you are in the light.” Jesus Christ changes people from being in darkness to being in the light.
Not only are Christians now in the light, but belong to the light—belong to the day. Likewise, “We are not of the night or of the darkness.” (1 Thess. 5:4-5) These verses refer to the Lord’s coming, when “we should not be sleeping like the others.” Night—darkness—describes the time not only when people sleep, but “get drunk.” “We belong to the day…” (1 Thess. 5:8) through the work of Christ so that we “possess salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that we might live…” (v. 9)
This God has, “rescued us from the power of darkness,” and “made you fit to have your share” of what God has reserved for God’s people “in the kingdom of light.” (Col. 1:12-13) Through the Son, “by whom we are set free, that is, our sins are forgiven.” (v. 14)
Although these references are in different contexts, there is consistency in that being in and belonging to the darkness is associated with old ways of living. Christ is the source of light.[13] The work of Christ on the cross (when there was darkness at noon), transforms lives from darkness to light, now and in the kingdom for which Christians wait.
Ignorance / Understanding
In 1 Corinthians we find the image of ignorance / understanding prominently used. The cross is central. It is “foolishness to those who are perishing,” but power and wisdom to those who are being saved. (1 Cor. 1:18) Christ crucified is a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. (v. 23) But “God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.” (v. 25) Christ is the power and wisdom of God.
Paul writes that he decided to know nothing among the Corinthians except Jesus Christ crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). Then follows a long passage about speaking God’s wisdom, “not a wisdom of the age,” secret and hidden, but part of God’s wisdom decreed before the ages. (1 Cor. 2:6-7). The passage goes on to say that none of the rulers of the present age understood this or they would not have crucified Jesus. (v. 8) No one could have conceived of what God had prepared. (v. 9)
It is the Spirit who reveals these things. “No one truly comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God.” (l Cor. 2:11) This is not the spirit of the world, but God’s Spirit which enables us to receive and understand and teach and interpret the gifts, the grace of God. (1 Cor. 2:10-14) Without the work of the Spirit the gift of grace is foolishness. Those who have received this gift are “subject to no one else’s scrutiny.” (v. 15) This long passage culminates with the final words “We have the mind of Christ”. (v. 16)
Chapter 3:18-20 repeats the theme: The “wisdom of the world is foolishness with
“extra” but central to soteriology. This is repeated in v. 19, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God.”
The citizenship image appears in such passages as Philippians 3:20: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Although I am not following that stream further, one could think how useful that might be in considering how “illegal aliens” are estranged.
This belonging includes being “heirs.” Ephesians 3:6 makes clear what is a radical concept in Acts and the Epistles that Gentiles now become fellow heirs, members of the same body and “sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.” Once again inclusivity is directly rooted in the Gospel itself.
One could explore “heirs” further, such as in the first chapter of Ephesians: “In Christ we have obtained an inheritance” (v. 11) and it is connected once again to hope and “the Gospel of salvation” (v. 13) Also in Eph. 1:18 we have the phrase, “the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints.” Likewise Titus 3:6-7 shows becoming “heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” And this is not a prosperity Gospel, but “justification by grace” which the Spirit “poured out on us richly through Jesus our Savior.”
In Galatians 3:29, which follows the profound, “There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (v. 28), “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.” “Heir” and “promise” are central, and belonging is always “in Christ Jesus.” Salvation is belonging to Christ and that always comes with belonging to one another; and that “other” shares the inheritance, the promise. Those “others” are the ones from whom we may be the most alienated: the stranger by the world’s calculation.
The image of belonging and being an heir leads to a further image of being “adopted.” Galatians 4:1-7 entwines heir, adoption and enslavement. The comparison from that first century world is that heirs who are minors are “no better than slaves, though they are owners of all the property” for they need a guardian. In the fullness of
time, Jesus was “born of a woman born under the law in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” (v. 4-5) And so, the comparison goes, “you are no longer a slave, but a child and if a child then also an heir, through God.” (v. 7) Belonging in 21st century terms might be spelled out in different ways. But, once again, Christ and his incarnation are central to bringing about belonging.
To go another direction, Paul in 1 Corinthians 4:14-16, refers to our guardianship in Christ to make his further claim that he is a “father” to them and therefore has a right to admonish them as “beloved children” and wants them to be “imitators of him.” One could see this as positive or as a dangerous precedent. Our belonging to one another in Christ and then to each other has the potential of setting up helpful guiding relationships and also has been misused throughout the history of the church. We do not see the image of “family” prominent here. Congregations that refer to themselves as a “family” church may be unintentionally alienating people. Belonging in Christ as alienated strangers is more radical and more deep. One could see this in the radical request to Philemon to receive back Onesimus, who had been “separated from you for a while,” no longer as a slave but as a beloved brother. (v. 15)
In Romans we see the adoption imagery in a number of ways. In 8:23 we “wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” In Rom 9:3-5, Paul’s anguish and love for “his own people” who have not accepted Christ leads him to say that he wishes he could be “cut off from Christ” for the sake of his own people. “They are Israelites and to them belongs the adoption, the glory…the promises….” And this could lead us to explore the question of whether God rejects people. (Rom. 11:1) “By no means.” All of this raises the question of mission to those who have previously been insiders as well as to those who had not previously been included. There is always the possibility of those who have separated themselves being included once again. For this we have another image of separation and return to belonging: “And even those of Israel, if they do not persist in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God had the power to graft them in again. For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree.” (Roman 11:23-24)
These various images within an image say consistent things: The Christ event is about becoming and belonging in Christ. And this is not for the purpose of individualism. Each of us has been and can be alienated, estranged. In Christ we belong. Therefore, it is appropriate to conclude with Romans 15:7: “Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
Division / Unity
Closely associated with the image of Alienation / Belonging is the basic image of Christ’s incarnation, death, and resurrection changing our situation of living in divisions and uniting us in Christ. The three passages on the image of the Body of Christ in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4 are central. However, let us start with others.
In Ephesians 2:11-14 we see the division between Jews and Gentles, the circumcised and uncircumcised. As noted in the previous section, there is the image of alien and stranger. Now those who were once far off have been brought near though Christ. “He is our peace; in his flesh he had broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us.” (v. 14) and Christ “came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.” (v. 17) Christ brings peace to both groups and peace between groups.
In 1 Cor: 1:10ff there is the appeal that all be in agreement and that “there be no God,” and God knows the futility of the thoughts of the wise. In receiving Christ one becomes a fool in order to become wise. And once more in 1 Cor 4:10: “We are fools for the sake of Christ, but you are wise in Christ.” (Notice the change in person.)
This use of foolishness / wisdom is used beyond 1 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 1:12 contrasts earthly wisdom with the grace of God. Titus 3:3 describes the writer’s previous human predicament as being, “foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasure, passing our days in malice and envy, despicable, hating one another.” The characteristics of the human predicament are connected.
Ignorance and understanding are used another way, as in 1 Timothy 1:12-13, indicating that the writer received mercy because he had acted ignorantly in unbelief in persecuting Christians.
Being saved means coming to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4). One could say that is not the saving act of Christ, simply knowing about it. But Scripture is consistent that to be saved is not simply receiving information. And “knowledge” in the Epistles is most often not used simply in that sense. Rather one is saved from another kind of knowledge which is the human predicament, for example, 1 Tim. 6:20, “Avoid the profane chatter and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge.” Likewise in 1 Tim. 1:6-7 where the writer warns against being pulled into deviations of the faith, “meaningless talk” without “understanding either what they are saying of the things about which they make assertions.”
The human predicament is being without Christ, living in the futility of one’s mind (Eph. 4:17 when speaking about the Gentiles). They are “darkened in their understanding,” and alienated from the life of God because of “ignorance” and “hardness of heart.” (v. 18) Being wise is a descriptor of being in Christ: not unwise people, but wise (Eph. 5:15). One is changed from foolishness to wisdom and also admonished not to be foolish but to understand “what the will of the Lord is.” (v. 17) The new life in Christ means being filled with “knowledge and full insight.” (Col. 1:9)
And this is not just personal knowledge: “I want their hearts to be encouraged and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Col. 2:2-3) This is not simply rational logic, but being filled with Christ himself, so as not to be deceived by “plausible arguments.” (v. 4)
Paul is astonished that young Christians so quickly turn to a “different Gospel,” contrary to the true Gospel (Gal. 1:6) They are being confused. (v. 9) The true Gospel is “not of human origin” but a revelation, a gift from outside one’s own knowing. (v.11)
In Romans ignorance is being weak, not understanding how to pray. God searches and knows the heart and the Spirit intercedes, “with sighs too deep for words.” (Rom. 8:26-27). And so we come to that often misused one verse, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” (v. 28) Having explored the broad and deep uses of “knowing” and “understanding” that we see rooted in the very saving act of Christ and being in Christ, that verse, when bantered about is simplistic and often unhelpful.
For Paul in Romans being “ignorant” of the righteousness that comes from God is serious. And without the knowledge that is Christ, human beings seek to establish their own. (Rom. 10:3) This ignorance hardens into claiming one is wiser than one is. (Rom. 11: 25) “To set the mind on” could be another form of ignorance “for to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” (Rom. 8:6) This section of Romans concludes with 11:33-36: “O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” We cannot know the mind of God. But having the mind of God in Christ Jesus, foolish as it is, is grace and a totally new way of being in God and in the world.
Alienation / Belonging
In Ephesians we have the haunting words, “Remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 2:12) Being without Christ is to be alienated from community and estranged from covenant…to be without hope in the world. Now one could challenge the assumption that to be outside the community of Christ is to have no community—all religions have a community of believers. But from the viewpoint of belonging to a Christian community, this is the reality. And in today’s world people do experience all kinds of estrangement and alienation. “Belonging” is an essential element of being in Christ. Alienation brings loneliness, loss of hope in one’s life. The Christian claim is inclusion, as one reads: “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” (v. 13) The phrase, “by the blood of Christ” helps us see that belonging is not an divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” Throughout the centuries church divisions have plagued the church. Paul makes clear that we cannot say, “I belong to Cephas” or “I belong to Apollos,” because Christ cannot be divided (v. 13). Chapter 3 of 1 Corinthians, as well as many other parts of the epistles, describe the divisions, often according to leaders. It is clear that these divisions are not to be, and we cannot save ourselves through or from such division. We all belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God. Being together in Christ is a central soteriological theme.
Christ unites, even across generations. The reference in 1 Cor. 10:1-5 is to the Israelites passing through the sea. “They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.” (v. 4) The letter goes on to say that God was not pleased with most of them; however, Christ being central is noteworthy.
Because being united is a gift, Christians are called to live this out in daily relationships. For example 1 Cor.10:23-33 concludes with “So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God. Give no offense to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in everything I do, not seeking my own advantage, but that of many so that they may be saved.” (vs. 31-33)
Some church bodies have taken 2 Cor. 6:14 ff as a proof text for keeping themselves divided from others who do not believe precisely as they do: “Do not be mismatched with unbelievers.”
On the other hand, five chapters of the Pauline epistles provide a strong basis for the unity Christians have in Christ: Rom. 8 and 12; 1 Cor. 11 and 12, and Eph. 4:
Romans 8:31-39 God did not withhold God’s own Son, but “gave him up for all of us.” (v. 32) God justifies. Christ died and was raised. “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or sword….I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, or things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (v. 38-39) The cross and resurrection are about never again being separated from God, and, since these verses are persistently plural, from one another. This unity is grace.
1 Corinthians 11:17-34 God will not let anything keep us divided, but human beings will find ways to perpetuate divisions. “For, to begin with, when you come together as a church, I hear that there are divisions among you; and to some extent I believe it.” (v. 18) These “factions” (v. 19) are particularly grievous at the Lord’s supper. “Each of you goes ahead with your own supper, and one goes hungry and another becomes drunk” (v.21) Then we have the passage which is used to this day globally for the institution of the Lord’s Supper: “This is my body that is for you….” (vs. 23-26)
The verses following immediately have been quoted by church bodies who wish to keep Christians not of their “body” away from their table, and to keep their own members away if they are not worthy through specific “examination”: “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup.” (vs. 27-28). The trump card is played with the following verse: “For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves.” (v.29)
With this one verse people have been kept from or keep themselves from union with the body of Christ at the table through fear, e.g., “Maybe I don’t feel guilty enough,” “Maybe I have not memorized enough Bible passages,” “Maybe I don’t have the correct interpretation of the meaning of the Lord’s supper.” But where are these words in 1 Cor. 11? “Not discerning the body” clearly relates to factions, among rich and poor, and whatever other division Christians cause among themselves. The passage began with, and ends with this message. “So then, my brothers and sisters, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. If you are hungry, eat at home, so that when you come together, it will not be for your condemnation.” To be, to cause, to remain in division is the opposite of the gift Christians are to receive at the table: union with Christ in his body and within the body, among all Christians
Romans 12 The center verses, 4-8, are often pulled out to show the different gifts in the body of Christ, and, at times, to make a case for hierarchical leadership. But here, as in 1 Cor. 12 and Eph. 4, the lists are open and not ranked. The body of Christ, the church, is the gift; not the “package,” not extraneous, but grace itself. God transforms and renews lest anyone think themselves more significant than another. (vs. 3) In the one body are many members, each with their own function. As in the human body, no member functions when it is divided from the others. (vs. 4-8) The remainder of the chapter describes how love needs to be genuine and what that love will look like.
1 Cor. 12:1-31 Again, the naming of individual gifts and activities could be (has been) used to cause divisions in the church. Clarity of roles is important, but there is one united community in Christ. One’s identity is in Christ, not in one’s role (e.g. ordained pastoral ministry). The gift of union in Christ is core: the same Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God. (vs.4-6) “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit, we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one spirit.” (vs.12-13)
As important as the first 13 verses of the chapter are, the following may be more so. The gift of grace in Christ is the union in the body. People, in their self-doubt, may think they are not needed, but that does not keep God from the work of uniting. “If the foot would say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” (v. 15) It is repeated, lest one miss the point, “And if the ear would say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.” (v. 16)
Human beings may thoughtlessly or purposely try to divide the body, but uniting in Christ’s body is God’s work and cannot be undone. “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’” (v. 20)[14] The weaker are indispensable. The less honorable are clothed.[15] (vs. 22-23) If one suffers, all suffer; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (vs. 26)
Then, but only then, follows the appointments in the church, prefaced by, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.” (vs. 27-30) which leads right into v.31 and Chapter 13 on love.
Ephesians 4:1-16 Christians are called to make every effort to maintain that which is already a gift: the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. (v. 3) Once again we see there is one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. (vs. 4-6) We see the gifts and hear the call. The various gifts are given not for division into rankings, but “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ.” (v. 12)
The members must no longer be children tossed to and fro, blown by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, craftiness in deceitful scheming, all of which are ways human beings would divide themselves once more. (v. 14) But “speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.” (vs. 16-17)
The Body of Christ passages are such a central soteriological image…Christ incarnate, Christ’s body on the cross, Christ’s resurrected body and Christ’s body given in the Eucharist.
Meaninglessness / Call
In Galatians 1:13-24 Paul gives his personal call story. Not only was he neutral, but “violently persecuting the church of God” and “trying to destroy it.” (v. 13) He advanced in Judaism because of his zeal. “But when God, who had set me apart before I was born and called me through his grace, was pleased to reveal his Son to me, so that I might proclaim among the Gentiles…” (v.15-16a), he did not “confer” with human beings. The call was distinctly from God, and, in this case, contrary to not only reason, but his former best interests. Other Epistles begin similarly, e.g. 1 Cor. 1:1, “Paul, called to be an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God…”
In a 21st century world—I’m speaking from the global north—where people have freedom of choice, almost a bondage of choices, about their lives, there is a hungering for purpose, for a life of meaning. Most do not look for that in the church. This, too, is a human predicament. In the Pauline epistles, “call” is not just that which happens after one is “saved”; call is good news for a person without meaning or purpose, for one following other gods to give them meaning and purpose.
In 1 Thess. 1:4-5, the entire church of Thessalonica is called. God “has chosen you, because our message of the gospel came to you not in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction…” One is called to Christ and that call cannot be separated from the call to discipleship. In 2 Thess. 2:13-14 the people are called to give thanks because, “God chose us” for “salvation by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” They were no longer purposeless; they were called for a purpose (vs. 14) through the “proclamation of the good news” in order to “obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.” The Christians are called to “pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, gentleness” and “take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.” (1 Tim. 6:11-12). This calling is for a new life and the result is plural, a call to new life together.
This new life may bring one suffering and shame—there is no mention of reward or prosperity on this earth. On the contrary, one is invited to share in shame and suffering “for the Gospel, relying on the power of God, who saved and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace” (v. 8-9) which is directly connected to Christ Jesus the Savior who “abolished death and brought life and immortality to life through the gospel.” (2 Tim. 1:10) After call, and closely associated with it, comes appointment as a “herald and an apostle and a teacher.” (v. 11) We need to be careful that not only those who go to seminary are considered to have “call stories.” Call is central to salvation; all Christians have been called by and to the gospel through the power of the Spirit.
One may be called to faithful living, but mostly it is God who is faithful in the call: “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:9) This image could be explored much further in the epistles.
Romans 8:28-30 raises the issues, long debated throughout church history, about predestination. The “all things work together for good” (so misused) is the prelude to “for those whom he foreknew he also predestined….those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.” I will not go into the question here except to caution one not to take the “all things work together for good” as a simplistic response to tragic loss by assigning it to God’s purpose, but also to not try to figure God’s timetable by these verses.
God’s grace is to call human beings to Jesus Christ and through that call to call them into God’s service…all Christians. 1 Cor. 7:17-24 raises further issues. “Let each of you lead the life that the Lord has assigned, to which God called you.” (v. 17) The point is that the call need not change everything about one’s former “condition” “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing; but obeying the commandments of God is everything. Let each of you remain in the condition in which you were called.” (v. 19-20) The problem comes when people have used v. 21 through the centuries to justify not dealing with the injustices of slavery: “Were you a slave when called? Do not be concerned about it…” However, the passage does not say that we should not deal with human suffering, abuse, slavery, but rather, “In whatever condition you were called, brothers and sisters, there remain with God.” (v. 24)
Uselessness / Gifts
In 1 Corinthians 1:4-9 we see God’s faithful calling (vs.9). That section begins with giving thanks to God always because of the “grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus,” and that grace transforms one from feeling useless to someone whose gifts are useful. The passage goes on, “for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind…so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
God is “at work in you” (Phil 2:13) “both to will and to work” for God’s good pleasure. This giftedness and usefulness is part of the transformation from the body of our “humiliation.” (Phil 3:21)
The case Paul made for returning Onesimus to Philemon is that “formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful both to you and to me.” (Commentaries have assumed that meant he was not a good slave…but one could perhaps also make the case that being useful is a gift closely associated with new life in Christ.) Jesus Christ and being joined to him takes away any basis for telling another person they are useless, e.g. Gal. 3:28 in regard to Jew/Greek, slave/free or male/female and Col 3:11: “In that renewal” there is “no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free: but Christ is all in all!”
Boastfulness / Grace
Gifts are used for works. Christians are not saved by their works. “He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. (Titus 3:5) Likewise in Phil. 3:12 ff. we see that we do not make it on our own. Romans makes it clear that we cannot boast in the law or the works of the law. (Rom. 2:17, 23; 4:2 and 11:18) The works we do we should not do from selfish ambition or conceit (Phil 2:3); however works do flow from faith. That cannot be disputed in the Pauline epistles or any of the epistles.
The problem is not in the works, but in boasting about the works; in other words, idolatry. (1 Cor. 1:29) Ephesians 2:8: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast.” Christ is the source of life: “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.” (1 Cor. 1:31) In 2 Corinthians “boasting” is found at least 18 times. Paul boasts about the eagerness of their ministry and about the apostle’s own behavior in the world which is frank and godly and sincere, not by earthly wisdom but “by the grace of God.” (2 Cor. 1:12) One is not to boast “beyond limits” (10: 15) nor according to “human standards” (11:18) but the writer also justifies boasting on behalf of bold ministry and mission. (Chapters 11 and 12.)
The following four images have similarities, but are also distinct:
Sin / Forgiveness
This image is, of course, the most familiar and perhaps most widely used soteriological image; however, the number of passages that use it is not that vast. In Ephesians we have “redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (1:7) and “redemption as God’s own people.” (1:14) Note the use of the plural. Forgiveness is not simply about personal salvation. In 1 Tim. 2:3-4 we see that God, our Savior, “desires everyone to be saved.” Titus and others show the sinful condition of human kind, e.g. Titus 3:1-3. In Colossians 1:14 we have [the beloved Son] “in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” And 1 Tim. 1:15: “The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am foremost.”
In 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 Christ’s work is described, “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day.” This work is once and for all, and also ongoing. It is the good news, “through which also you are being saved.” (1 Cor. 15:2) This forgiveness is not simply a pronouncement for personal salvation in heaven. In 2 Cor. 2:5-10, young Christians are urged to forgive when someone has caused pain. “Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ.” (v. 10)
In 2 Cor. 5:18-21 we read that this forgiveness results in reconciliation. And God, in Christ, has entrusted us with the ministry of reconciliation: “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
Romans, of course, has the most verses using this image: 2:12 “All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law; and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” And sin is not just bad actions. Both Jews and Greeks are under the power of sin (3:9), but blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven. (4:7) Then we have the core verses of Rom 5 “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (v. 1) and “while we still were sinners Christ died for us.” (v. 8) We see again the power of dominion of sin at the end of the chapter: “trespass multiplied” when the law “came in” (v. 20) and where sin exercised dominion in death. (5:21). But even more so, “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.” And grace exercised “dominion through justification leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (v. 21). Therefore we are to let sin exercise no more dominion (6:12) “for sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law but under grace. (v. 14) We are not to judge others through our own lens.
Sin is a significant image and particularly because of the power (dominion) it can have. Jesus Christ has brought forgiveness and with it given us the ministry of reconciliation.
Judgment / Mercy
We have evidence of God’s righteous judgment. It is complex, however. In chapter l of 2 Thessalonians the writer says it is indeed just of God to repay with affliction those who persecute the Christian community. God condemns those who take pleasure in unrighteousness (2 Thess. 2:12). Central, however, is the good news that people, not having a righteousness that can come from the law, have gained it through faith in Christ, “the righteousness from God based on faith,” which is through the power of his resurrection. (Phil. 3:9-11)
In 1 Tim 1:12-17 we see the writer grateful to Christ Jesus for having received mercy and being judged faithful and appointed to service. His having received mercy can serve as an example for others who would come to believe in Christ for eternal life.
The image of judgment is graphically portrayed in 1 Cor. 4:1-5. Paul is making the case for not being judged by human beings, and not even judging himself because, “It is the Lord who judges me.” (v. 4b) Judgment belongs to the Lord and will come when things now hidden are brought to light. (vs. 5). Christians are not to sue each other because only God judges. (1 Cor. 6:1-6) This same admonition is in Roman 14:10-13, where Christians are told not to judge one another, “Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.” (vs. 13)
In 1 Cor. 6:11b the image of justification is used (in connection with other images) to refer to the work of Christ “But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.”
Judgment is again used in a negative sense in regard to Christians who are eating the Lord’s supper without caring about the others in the community in 1 Cor. 11 (commented upon at length in the “Divided / United” section above.) They will “drink judgment against themselves” (v. 29) “If we judged ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
Romans, of course, has the most use of this image of judgment and mercy. In 2:1-2 Paul says people have no excuse for passing judgment on others for thereby they judge themselves for doing the same things. We will not escape God’s judgment. (v. 3) In 3:9-10 one reads no one is righteous, neither Jews of Greeks, because all are under the power of sin (See previous section.) and no human being will be justified by deeds prescribed by the law. (3:20) All have sinned and are now justified by grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. (3:23) Jesus was “handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.” (4:24-25). Therefore “since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Rom. 5:1) “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Rom. 8:1) Likewise, “it is God who justifies”; therefore, who is to condemn? (v. 33-34)
Surely the image of our being justified by faith is central for Christians. But the Pauline Epistles use the image of judgment even more often in telling Christians not to judge one another. Having received God’s mercy, the act of judging, which always belonged to God, now gives way to living together in grace and mercy.
Disobedience / Salvation
Ephesians 2:2 shows us people, “following the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work among those who are disobedient.” This image in intertwined with other images of “death” and “sin.” (v. 1) The core verse for this image is perhaps Eph. 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith,”… (This verse also goes on with the image of not boasting in works.) In 2 Cor. 6: we have “now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” Eph. 1:13 has “the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.” We are then to take the “helmet of salvation.” (Eph 6:17)
Titus 2:11: “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” It is interesting that salvation “appears.” Salvation is “training us to renounce” things which one could describe as disobedience: impiety, worldly passions, etc. (v. 10) In 1 Timothy 4:10 “we have our hope set on that the living God who is the Savior of all people, especially of those who believe.” This could lead us to more questions about the intended recipients of salvation….beyond believers.
“Disobedience” appears in 2 Corinthians 10:6 “We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete.” The context is the question of who belongs to Christ and about destroying arguments raised against the knowledge of God. In Philippians 1:28 the Christians are in no way to be intimidated by opponents because “this is evidence of their destruction, but of your salvation.” Philippians 2:12 is that thought-provoking verse, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.”
Romans in 5:12 says that “by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” One might find more, but “disobedience” and “salvation” are used relatively little, given how frequently we use that image in preaching and teaching.
Wrath / Rescue
In Ephesians 2:3 we have, “we were by nature children of wrath, like everyone else.” God, in God’s rich mercy in Jesus Christ, has now created us for good works. (vs. 4-10) The rescue is for something. The image includes “curse” as well as wrath. All who rely on the works of the law “are under a curse.” (Gal. 3:10) “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us….” (Gal. 3:13)
“Destruction” will come at the end times, like a thief in the night. (1 Thess. 5:1-11) “When they say, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them, as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and there will be no escape.” (vs. 2-3). But for the children of day[16] “God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (v. 9) People have real questions—and fear–concerning this, particularly because wrath is used so much in some types of Christian preaching.
In 2 Thess. 1:8ff we see the image of God, “in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.” (vs. 8-9) We are to pray “asking that our God will make you worthy of his call and will fulfill by his power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (vs. 11-12)
The “lawless” one is destined for destruction. (2 Thess. 2) It is this one who exalts himself. Satan deceives and so people perish because they refuse to love the truth and be saved. (vs. 9-10) In contrast God “chose you for first fruits for salvation though sanctification by the Spirit and through belief in the truth.” (vs. 13-14). “The Lord is faithful” and “will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one.” (2 Thess. 3:3) In 2 Tim. 4:17, we have the same image of strengthening: “But the Lord stood by me and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.”
In Romans we have “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth.” (Rom. 1:18) The cause of effects of this wrath are described in the remainder of chapter l. In Romans 2:5 we read, “But by your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath.” For those who “are self-seeking” and “obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil but “glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good” (Rom. 2:8-10) and in this God “shows no partiality.” (vs. 11)
The law brings wrath, but where there is not law, neither is there violation. (Rom. 4:15) And then come the words of relief: “Much more surely then, now that we have been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from the wrath of God.” (Rom. 5:9) This wrath is real; it is past and it was dealt with on the cross, and yet it still exits through the power of Satan’s evil. “The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” (Rom. 16:20)
Persecution, Suffering / Patience, Consolation, Joy
In 1 Thess. 1:6 Paul said that “in spite of persecution you received the word with joy inspired by the Holy Spirit. The “suffering” mentioned in the next chapter (1 Thess. 2:14) is, as in chapter 1, is connected with being “imitators.” Persecution and suffering connect us. No matter the difference in severity or even cause, “persecution” and “suffering” are associated with communal pain. The result, being connected to Christ’s unjust suffering, produces courage (1 Thess. 2:2). Suffering, persecution, mistreatment and shame can be taken to the cross, and are core to the gospel proclamation
One could ask if all suffering is connected to Jesus Christ. What are the causes of suffering? In the midst of the questions is the soteriological reality that “Jesus Christ, raised from the dead…is my gospel, for which I suffer hardship…” (2 Tim.2:8-9) “Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, so that they may also obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory. The saying is sure: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him…” (vs. 10-12)
Patience in suffering is an important word. And the strength to endure comes “from his glorious power.” This strength to endure is accompanied by joy. (Col. 1:11)
Philippians goes further: “For if he [God] has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well—since you are having the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.” (Phil 1:29-30)
God is a God of consolation (2 Cor. 1:4) who “consoles us in our affliction that we may be able to console those who are in any affliction with the consolation with which we ourselves are consoled by God.” We are connected with Christ in affliction; grace empowers us to console others. This consolation is not just an add-on to being saved, but central. The passage goes on, “For just as the sufferings of Christ are abundant for us, so also our consolation is abundant through Christ. If we are being afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation; if we are being consoled, it is for your consolation which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we are also suffering. Our hope for you is unshaken; for we know that as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our consolation.” (2 Cor. 1:5-7)
This same image we find again in 2 Cor. 7:6 and 9. God “consoles the downcast” by the arrival of Titus, and likewise he was consoled “about you.” Suffering is part of the human predicament in every age. In Christ’s suffering we experience the consolation of God.
No Value / Bought
In the 21st century the value of someone is of great concern. Do we have value? And in whose eyes? In 1 Corinthians 6:20 we have the familiar “For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” This verse concludes the section on how to live, given that the Christian’s body is a member of Christ.
One could look at the images of the word “redeem” such as “He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2: 14) Here Christ “gave” not bought. But redeem has this connotation. And this redemption is for the purpose of people’s lives being changed for zeal for good deeds, surely the opposite of having no value.
Atonement / Blood sacrifice
Romans 3:25 presents us with the image of atonement through blood; Christ Jesus, “whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood effective though faith. It goes on, “In his divine forbearance he had passed over the sins previously committed;” This image, so prevalent in the Hebrew Scriptures, is scarcely used in the Pauline epistles.
Legal Record / Erasure
I identified one passage referring to soteriology in legal terms, and that one is connected to the larger image of death and life together: Colossians 2:13-14: “And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses, erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands.” In so doing he “disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of the, triumphing over them in it.” (v. 15)
Old Yeast / Unleavened Bread
The image of Christ, the paschal lamb, being the sacrifice is found in 1 Cor. 5:6-8. The old yeast is “malice and evil.” (v. 8) The new unleavened bread is sincerity and truth. The old batch is cleaned out so that we may be a “new batch.” (v. 7)
Inertia / Standing, Walking
Romans 8:4 describes the Christ event as energizing Christians to walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. It goes on to say that those who live according to the Spirit set their mindson the things of the Spirit. The significant Romans 5:1 begins with the important “Therefore” and continues “since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand.” (v. 2-3) Although a minor image, “standing,” or “walking” could be important images of soteriology for 21st century Christians, particularly young people who seek action in their life’s journey. These images give a sense of purpose and direction for individuals stuck in inertia and congregations mired in apathy.
One could pursue this further by exploring images of stumbling; however, that would take one in another direction.
Decay / Fruit
A lesserimage, the one of decay/ fruit is helpful. One could pose “barren” against fruitful, as it is so often used in the Hebrew Bible, but here being barren is not portrayed as the human predicament. The problem is “decay.” The good news is the fruit and being able to be fruit-bearing and fruitful. In 2 Thess. 2:13 we see that “God chose you as first fruits,” (First fruits are grown, but here the verb is chosen. One could connect this with “call.”)
In Phil. 1:11 the Christians are described as “having produced the harvest of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ for the glory and praise of God.” Paul in the first chapter of Romans wishes to come to them “in order that I may reap some harvest among you as I have among the rest of the Gentiles.” (Rom. 1:13) This
could be growth in the new life in Christ and also growth in the Christian community, the number of those who have become Christians. He uses the images of “dead to the law” and “slaves to that which held us captive” along side the images of bearing “fruit for death.” (Rom.7:5) In Rom. 7:4 we see the image of having died to the law through the body of Christ, “so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.”
In Romans 8:19-23 we have the profound passage about the whole creation, in bondage to decay (v. 21), groaning in labor pains (another image we have not pursued here), and “not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for the adoption (another image), the redemption of our bodies.”
There are similar images one could pursue such as being the “fragrance” that comes from knowing Christ. (2 Cor. 2:14). That passage goes on to say “we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing to the one fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” (2 Cor. 2:15-16)
The fruitfulness in juxtaposition to death and decay image is put forth clearly in 1 Cor. 15:20-23: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruit of those who have died. …each in his own order: Christ the first fruit, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.”
Unclothed / Clothed
“As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ.” (Gal. 3:27) Putting a white garment on the newly baptized is a symbol. But it is not just symbolic. It is an image of soteriology of what Christ actually does. In our nakedness, shame, poverty, lack of identity, lack of being, Christ put himself on us. We are clothed in Christ.
Being clothed is more than an image: “to the present hour we are hungry and thirsty, we are poorly clothed and beaten and homeless, and we grow weary from the work of our own hands. When reviled, we bless, when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we speak kindly.” (1 Cor. 4:11-13a) We cannot glibly speak mere good news words to someone who is suffering, saying, “All of fine.” However, through the centuries it is true that thousands of Christians who have been “unclothed” with all that may mean, have taken comfort in being “clothed” in Christ.
Weakness / Strength
Dorothee Soelle wrote in her book, The Strength of the Weak, that Christ did not want to be strong except through the solidarity of the weak.[17] In 2 Cor. 13:3-4 we read, “he is not weak in dealing with you, but is powerful in you. For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we will live with him by the power of God.” In addition we have verse 9, “for we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong…” In Romans 5:6 we read, “for while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.”
There are numerous verses speaking of God’s power in the saving action of Christ. Rom. 1:4 shows the Son of God declared with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. The gospel is the “power of God for salvation to everything who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” (Rom. 1:16)
Christians continue to deal with being weak, e.g. “the spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that the very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.” In Rom. 14:1 we are to welcome those who are weak in faith…but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. In the faith community the strong ought to put up with the failures of the weak.
Christ understands weakness and was crucified in weakness so that we might be strong by the power of the Spirit, and so that we might welcome the weak.
Poor / Rich
In 2 Corinthians 8:9 we see the soteriological image of the “generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.” In an age of “prosperity” gospel, one could consider the irony that this image is not more prevalent. On the other hand, it is a helpful image in thinking about people living in poverty and the generosity of God in Christ Jesus. The ramification of this image for ministry today could be explored by looking at the entire chapter, or, for that matter, the entire epistle.
Final Word
I have refrained from summarizing this work and from drawing final conclusions. I do believe this work has the potential for expanding our ways of thinking about soteriology and particularly for ministry among the Laos. More than an academic exercise, such expansion needs to be a communal encounter with Scripture as people in a congregation together open the book of faith. Likewise we need each other to listen each other into speech, using the languages of our daily lives, the vernacular, as we deal with the facets of our human predicament that are sometimes beyond words. I would love to engage Steve, Sarah, Bob, Jackie, Marie, Ruth and John and many other laity in this discovery process and to help them connect the saving work of Christ to their daily lives, as together in the communion of the Church we seek to serve in the world.
[1] I would like to acknowledge the students in my Leaders in Mission class, Spring 2009, who made walks with lay people and made their own discoveries of images of soteriology in the Epistles: Adam Barnhart, Jeffery Davis, Allison deForest, Christopher deForest, Amanda Esping, Robert Garton, James (Marv) Havard, Christopher Heller, Bre Johnson, Jeffrey Nicla, Suzanne Orlopp, MichonWeingartner, and Tobi White. [2] In Norma Cook Everist and Nelvin Vos, Where in the World Are you? Connecting Faith and Daily Life (Bethesda, Maryland: The Alban Institute, 1996), Everist and Vos explore the human questions of “Longing for Commitment,” “Doubting Our Worth,” “Feeling the Pressure,” And Struggling with Power,” and provide diverse strategies for congregations to help people keep connected with the work of the Triune God in their lives, including the visits to peoples’ places of vocation. [3] Letter M. Russell, Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective: A Theology (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1974) 53. [4] Norma Cook Everist and Craig L. Nessan, editors, Forming an Evangelizing People (Dubuque, Iowa: Wartburg Theological Seminary, 2005) 20. [5] See Norma Cook Everist, “Transformed for Daily Life: Ministry of the Baptized” in Everist and Craig Nessan, Transforming Leadership: New Vision for a Church in Mission (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2008), 198-212; and Norma Cook Everist, “Learn to Share Christ in the Languages of People’s Daily Lives” In Everist, ed, Christian Education as Evangelism (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2007), 122-133. [6] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Communion of Saints, trans. James Schaef (New York: Harper and Row, 1960) 106-120. [7] Paul S. Minear, Images of the Church in the New Testament (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1960) 11. [8] Ibid, 14-18. [9] Ibid, 28 [10] Minear, Images of the Church in the New Testament, 252. [11] All Bible passages directly quoted are the English translation as found in the New Revised Standard Version. [12] Although it is the author’s practice in teaching and preaching to use inclusive language for God, the “he” is retained in this text and throughout this chapter for consistency in preserving the NRSV translation. [13] Although this work does not utilize Gospel images, one cannot help but think of John 4-9 and other references to Christ being the light of the world. [14] Note that although Christ is the “head of the body” in most body of Christ images, here the head is simply one of the members. It’s as if this discourse is more important at the moment. [15] Note the “unclothed” and “clothed” minor image of soteriology later in this paper. [16] See the section on darkness and light [17] Dorothy Soelle, The Strength of the Weak, trans. Robert and Rita Kimber (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1084), 30