Army of Priests

(From Emerging Grace)

“There are two freedoms – the false, where a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where he is free to do what he ought.” - Charles Kingsley

There is a common idea in Christianity that God respects our freedom so much that He is willing to allow our mistakes to lead us to eternal torture in hell. According to this view we consciously choose to say no to God and God responds by leaving us to our own devices. After we die He judges us and sends us to hell for the choices He allowed us to make. The consequences are our fault and are just. God is not required to intervene on our behalf whilst maintaining the moral high ground. Freedom from sin is understood as forgiveness from sin and it’s consequence of hell (i.e. freedom from sin = a ticket into heaven). Much of this is true but it misses the point.

The Nature of Sin

No one in their right mind chooses to sin. When we sin we should think of ourselves as being mentally disabled. If we truly know the consequences and exact details of what we are doing we would never choose to do it. If we knew truth we would always choose God. Always. Sin relies on deception to strike and thus eliminates free will in order to cause you to stumble (i.e. you have to lose your freedom before you sin; it is not something you lose after you sin when you are subject to the consequences you can no longer avoid).

Take Adam and Eve. When they ate the apple they were choosing to “become like God”. They were presented with a choice for something that looked really good. Instead they got misery. Who in their right mind would eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil if they fully knew (and believed) the consequences? Adam and Eve got something different to what they choose – their freedom was overruled. Imagine if you walked to a bakery and ordered a sausage roll but always got a meat pie. You would not really be choosing. Freedom only exists when we get what we choose. Adam and Eve did not get what they choose. They did not have freedom (although they are still guilty for their lack of belief and self-centred thinking).

Sin always works this way. It works by polluting our vision, confusing the data, and making a bad choice look like a good one. When you sin you almost always justify it in your mind thinking it would satisfy you in some way – but in fact you have been fooled by a lie! The results are never as good as righteousness and the only reason you ever “chose” it is because you were deceived into thinking it was the better choice. You did not get what you choose. Between a choice of A and B you chose B but got C. You never asked for C, you wanted B (because it genuinely looked better than A), but C was forced upon you against your free will.

Sin is not a wrong choice between good and bad. Rather it is a choice between good and bad masquerading as “better”. Sin itself is a symptom of the evil in this world. Evil can be understood as a disease transmitted by sin (like flu is transmitted by its symptom of sneezing). We are born into this world filled with this disease, someone inevitably wrongs us, and this sin against us tarnishes what was supposed to be a perfect creation. In our ruined state we place ourselves before God, becoming or “catching” evil ourselves, and soon begin to spread it to others with our selfish sins against them. The end result is a world full of ruined people who, because they are ruined, strike out against one another ruining each other even further.

This is hardly what you would call freedom, and a God who sat back and allowed it all to happen whilst this trap forced us into hell (which we didn’t want) would not be respecting our free will. Sin is hardly what you would call a “choice” although our ability to choose is what allows it. If God truly respects our free will he would be compelled to intervene in this cycle, not dispassionately sit back and allow it to continue.

Justice

It’s a sad thing to see a Christian who stuffs up and then cowers as they expect God to begin punishing them for their mistake. Such a view is based on a western understanding of Justice. Justice as executed in our court systems is punishment for doing something wrong. It is directly opposed to mercy which holds back punishment. Thus God is perceived as a being whose senses of Justice and Mercy contradict each other. The end result is a God who appears to have unconditional wrath (everyone is sent to hell) except where mitigated by his conditional love (based on our faith).

Biblical justice is closer to what we would call reconciliation (Isaiah 1:17, 30:18, Jeremiah 21:12, Zechariah 7:9, Matthew 12:18-21, Luke 4:18-19). It is correcting a wrong not via punishment but through the healing power of grace. It is about undoing the damage done by evil in this world. Violence cannot do this. It only inflicts more damage where damage has already been done. Two wrongs never make a right. Redemptive violence is a myth.

Now there are places in the bible where God displays his wrath and punishes people. This however is a preventative measure, not a redemptive one. When a child breaks something and his parents punish him it is not so that what he has broken can be repaired, rather it is so that he does not do it again. God’s wrath works the same way. It is the desperate attempt of a father to teach his children not to run onto the road during peak hour. It is conditional and it is disciplinary (not redemptive). After a child has been hit by a car and is in a coma there is little point in punishing him for it, the time for healing has come.

In the case of humanity that healing comes through love, and not just any love, but the unconditional, infinite love only found in a relationship with God. It is through this love that our ruined state can be repaired, and the symptoms of it will begin to desist. This is why relationship must be made central to Christian theology: God does not need to forgive us of our sins so that we can have a relationship with Him; rather it is through our relationship with Him that we are cleansed of our sins. Jesus did not need people to be clean to eat with them. The idea that we are cleansed of our sins and can thus get into heaven at salvation and then after this, we can begin to have a relationship with Christ makes the relationship optional (we can get into heaven before we have the relationship). If we understand the cleansing of our sins as something that happens through that relationship it becomes vital for salvation.

Salvation

Viewing salvation as a mere key to heaven however greatly minimises it. He we are trapped in a cage: broken, ruined, diseased humans. God, whose love stirs in him a longing for justice, longs for our freedom, our repairing, our healing, and our curing. He cannot sit back and let sin ensnare and drag his creation into hell. So He sent His own son to die for us. Did he need Jesus to die in order to declare us righteous? Did he need a scapegoat to satisfy his wrath or some law he was bound by? No, but we needed Him to die. We needed to know that we were loved enough for Him to die. We needed to know that we were beautiful under all our scars. We needed to know that in our discussing state someone cared so much to go through so much pain. And so as Jesus was struck by a blow designed to put His message of love out of action what really happened is that God turned this own blow against the devil, amplifying this message of love a hundred fold, and defeating evil once and for all (or put differently: whilst on earth Jesus teaches a message of love, the devil tries to stop it, but by Jesus’ death He pays our ‘ransom’ and makes the greatest statement of love of all).

That message – that we are loved – changes us. It begins the healing process. It acts as a cure. But Jesus work is not done yet. In his resurrection we find hope. We find hope that a dead man (like we are) can find life. We have hope that a man wrapped in our chains of sin can find freedom. That a man locked in hell can escape – just as we are trapped in hell even whilst alive. We know we no longer need to try to escape these chains on our own because someone is coming to us with the key. That key is grace, and that grace is experienced the only way it can be – in our relationship with Him.

The gospel is not the story of God giving us a choice to avoid punishment in hell whilst He sits back and hopes we make it. The gospel is the story of God coming to us whilst we are bound in chains we cannot escape and tearing them from us before it is too late. It is the story of God giving us freedom, not expecting us to act with a “free will” that we do not have. As God woos us we fall in love with Him. As we fall in love with Him we begin to place Him first – the criteria upon which we base judgements begin to change. As that criterion becomes love filled we begin to sin less (because sin no longer looks like a good choice). As we sin less we contribute less to the mess this world is in and instead begin to get to work helping God to save it.

That is freedom – not choosing something that we want to do based on criteria ruined by our selfishness, but choosing what we ought to do based upon love found in Christ. Freedom is a good thing, not something that causes us to sin, but something that causes us to be righteous. Something found in relationship. The result of redemption. The purpose of salvation.

(Disclaimer: I am aware that the thoughts in this post are not complete and need some refining. It is a base upon which to think about a relational theology and not the final product. I encourage you to build upon this base just as I have built upon the base built at The Rebel God and by authors such as Donald Miller and even John Eldredge. As my fellow blogger says, “Theology is something that should be done in community.”)

The following seven suppositions briefly outline what I believe about Church. There is a lot of (potentially controversial) material in the following points:

1. The Church (which is Christians) exists to present itself as a complete, pure, and humble bride before God.

I propose that the Church (which is merely the plural form of “Christian”) is better understood as an organism (similar to a colony of ants) then an organisation. I believe that this organism is destined to become a perfect community as its members become perfect. I believe that the gospel is one not only of salvation but also of transformation and that this transformation from sinner to saint of individual Christians is central to the purpose of Church as a whole. In essence I believe Church exists to help Christians be transformed, and not merely saved. I believe that the end result of this transformation is a perfect new creation similar to what existed before the fall.

2. Radical Christians are self reproducing.

“Radical Christian” is the term I use to describe a Christian who puts God’s purposes before their own. (That is, they live to serve God and are not just a Christian for the sake of their salvation. In essence, a Radical Christian makes sacrifice a part of their walk with God and is a Christian who is being transformed.) I propose that Radical Christians are self reproducing without the aid of programs in that: 1) A Radical Christian will seek to spread the gospel with or without help from an organisation and 2) A Radical Christian will seek to grow and support other Christians. Not only are Radical Christians at the core of my vision for Church change, they are also the goal of it.

3. Radical Christians seek strong relationships. Strong relationships produce radical Christians.

I believe that Radical Christians will naturally seek out strong relationships. Not all personalities are conductive to truly intimate relationships, but I do believe that Radical Christians will place authenticity with others above acceptance by others. In fact, I propose that this type of relationship is essential for the growth of Radical Christians. These types of relationships encompass the idea of a “shared Christian walk” (growing in faith together).

4. It is my personal responsibility as a priest to build up the people around me.

I propose that people with direct access to God (aka Christians) have a responsibility to be a priest to the people around them. I do not believe that the work of building up Christians in the faith is the work of the clergy. I do believe that every Christian has a personal responsibility to care for, carry the burdens of, and nurture each other. I believe that this can take a variety of different forms that aren’t all (or cannot be) covered by traditional Church programs.

5. Everything I do affects the people that know me.

I propose that my every action has an influence on the people that know me. I believe that as an example of the transforming power of the gospel (which every Christian should be) that my life becomes the good news and not just the bearer of it. I believe I am responsible for what I do or do not do. I suggest that my personal walk with God (personal prayer, reading the bible, etc) will affect the people I know as it builds me in the faith.

6. God will use the ordinary to do the extraordinary through his unique gifts.

I propose that God has given the potential to “make a difference” to every Christian. I suggest that there is no such thing as a “super Christian” (i.e. I suggest that a pastor, for instance, has no more potential then a layman). I also suggest that most traditional Churches prevent Christians from reaching their potential by 1) allowing people to be lost in the congregation, 2) making a distinction between Clergy and Laity, and 3) not building relationships that nurture their members.

7. Love is the only eternal structure.

I propose that love becomes a form of Church structure as it influences the interactions of Christians. I propose that Church buildings, organisations, programs, sermons, and music are temporary, but that this “structure” of love is fundamental to the Church as an organism and will remain forever. Therefore, I believe that love between Christians (and to non-Christians) is far more important then buildings, organisations, programs, sermons, and music. I believe that our focus on programs can interfere with our love for each other. I also believe that love shown by God and Christians is the driving force of the transforming power of the gospel and hence a core part of the purpose of Church.

I wrote this email to a friend of mine:

Subject: Been thinking about faith versus action

I have some more thoughts if you are interested. When you’ve looked through all this stuff in the bible you’ll have to let me know what you’ve found as it is one of the bigger mysteries of the gospel.

Faith is like belief except it goes beyond in that as it is an initiator for action. Basically you have an action, and there is a risk involved in taking that action. Faith is a strong belief that enables you to take that risk and do the action. It is closer to trust really. The action itself does not save us, which is good because we might not do the action right, but the trust required to do the action is what saves us. Think of giving your life to God. The action here is surrendering all your counterfeit efforts to make a purpose out of your life, to make yourself “like God” (from Genesis). This is a risk as you’ll be trusting someone else to give you purpose other than yourself. The trust required to do that action (surrender) is faith.

It is also possible to have faith without belief, and belief without faith. There are plenty of bits in the bible that my academic nature can’t quite bring myself to believe. But I have faith in it regardless because I trust it even thought part of me doubts it. In fact any faith in the bible must be like this because we cannot prove that the bible is inerrant and there are some wacky things in there. As such there will always be some room for doubt, but we trust it anyway. That is a risk (trusting a book over our mind) and faith is required to take that risk.

Alternatively, today one woman went up [at Church] and prayed about her family situation with young twins and an autistic child causing trouble. The church prayed for her an believed that God would intervene. However, I doubt anyone will get their hands dirty and actually help her. Helping her would be a risk (the effort might not help but could be wasted when it could have been used on something else (a sacrifice is always risky)) and as such that risk would require faith. Faith that God would not let that effort be in vain. Now when the church prayer for her they had belief, but none of us were taking a risk, and thus none of us were really required to have faith.

What really makes me wonder though is what is required for salvation. As I said to you a lot of people “place God first” to the extent that they are saved. This is really placing themselves and their eternity first. Placing God first is about taking risks, and making sacrifices for his glory and not our own. My question is can you get into heaven if you fall into the first category of placing yourself first. Surrender suggests placing God first. Placing God first suggests works. It suggests ruthlessly eliminating sin, spreading the word, giving up your money and time. Now those actions will never be responsible for salvation, but perhaps those actions are the side-effects of a saved life. If that is the case then a lot of people with belief, but without risk (putting themselves first), are going to find themselves in trouble. On the other end of the spectrum I must remember the proverb where people were casting out demons and healing the sick and Jesus said he never knew them. This is the single greatest remaining question I have: Is calling yourself a Christian enough to be one? Can belief without action save you? I wish James had answered that rhetorical question of his in Chapter 2.

These are really just musings, I imagine the theology of it can get quite meaty. It lends itself naturally into a discussion on the new creation. Can someone get into heaven without being a “new creation” and what is a “new creation” anyway (the second part of that is one I have thought over in depth during the last few weeks)? Most Christians I know are indistinguishable from non-Christians. Are they saved? Do I even have the right to ask that question?

All I know is that for me, God comes first and I will take the risks he wants me to take. I can’t possibly give an answer to these questions by which I can measure other people. But I can glorify him with my own life. As far as I am concerned he is worth it, even if it is not necessary for me to be saved. It’s not about me anyway. I imagine God desires my salvation even more than I do. So I’ll just get to work on fulfilling his will.

Let me know what God shows you.

The bible’s picture of a New Creation seems far removed from what exists in Church’s today. The primary mission of this blog is to inspire people to turn from “born again lazy” into “samurai”. It is time western Christianity got itself into gear and started going all out for God. This is difficult, for we have taught ourselves a gospel that isn’t as good as the Good News should be. In light of all that we have studied so far, let us examine in this final post where we go wrong.

Saved by Works

In the past people feared that if they sinned after they were baptised they were doomed. Sin was condemnation. Consider: “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23), “He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves” (Job 34:11), “The dead were judged according to what they had done” (Revelation 20:12), “God ‘will give to each person according to what he has done.’ To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honour and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger” (Romans 2:6-8), “Those who obey the law who will be declared righteous” (Romans 2:13).

The bible makes one thing clear: actions are important. As such the majority of Christianity over the last two millenniums has focused on us eliminating our sin. There is one problem – it doesn’t work! I cannot go a day reaching God’s standard. This is old covenant ideology. Yet we see much condemnation being poured onto sinners by so called Christians. Perhaps they have the wrong idea of what saves them – or worse, maybe their frauds interested only in appearance!

The idea here is that we make ourselves as righteous as possible to get into heaven.

Saved by Faith

There is another idea that faith in God is what it takes to save us. We can’t do it on our own, but if we believe in God he’ll get us into heaven. Consider: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8), “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 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).

Thank God! We can’t save ourselves so he helps us out. We need only believe in him. Unfortunately, James gives us a wake up call: “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? … You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our ancestor Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?” (James 2:14, 20-21). And then there are the verses in the section above.

The bible suddenly appears contradictory. What saves us – faith or works? In the mean time millions of Christians blissfully go through life confident that they are “saved by faith”. This ideology produces a dead Christianity.

The idea here is that we have faith and God removes our sins to get us into heaven.

Saved by God

Fortunately for us there is a much grander gospel which most Christians miss. According to Kenny Luck, mercy is when we don’t get what we do deserve and grace is when we get what we don’t deserve (Risk, pg 45). Consider this verse: “To the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness” (Romans 4:5). God justifies the wicked (mercy) and credits us with righteousness (grace). He saves us from hell (mercy), but then does more (grace). What is this more?

Let us return to the beginning. We were made perfect. We stuffed up. Consider part 4, that God makes us New Creations. God doesn’t just plan to get rid of our sin. He doesn’t even just plan to get us into heaven. He plans to return us to intimacy with him. This is the good news! It’s not about heaven, it is about restoration. We can be perfect again!

Because we cannot defeat sin on our own, God places part of Himself in us. He begins the process of restoring us to intimacy with Him simply by being intimate with us. In this way he changes us from the inside out. Rather then enforce external rules we find that through faith God begins to change us. He makes us a new creation. Rather then fight that sinful nature God wants to slowly get rid of it all together!

He does this by walking with us. When we stumble, and we will, we are not condemned to hell. God would never condemn us for our sins. He’ll discipline us for them, but only in his loving pursuit of making us perfect again. Our part is not passive rather our salvation is a partnership. God works with us to remove our sin. Not just the record of them, but our actual doing of them.

This is the New Creation – a person who walks with God; a person who passionately seeks Him as He seeks us. The more we go after God, the more we find that we don’t want to sin. The more we become a new person.

It is an awesome privilege, and great news. I don’t need to struggle constantly against sin in my life only to fail again and again and again. Nor do I live as some born again lazy Christian relying on my belief in some 2000 year old dead guy. God is making me good and I want a part of that. My job is to follow him, and give him permission, as he does his work in my life. He is the potter and I am the clay.

Salvation comes neither by works, nor by faith. It comes from faith, expressed only by action, that a living God can change you. This is the resurrection. We haven’t just died to sin; we have been raised in new life! This is good news. We are New Creations. This is better than can be imagined. It’s not just about heaven; it is about becoming whole again. It is about redemption, not survival.

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This concludes this series. I have barely brushed on this topic and missed much. But I challenge you to seek God as he changes you. Don’t try to change yourself. Don’t sit back and keep living your sinful life. Seek God. Let him credit righteousness to you. Become a New Creation.