Previously

So far we’ve found that the two main ways of seeing the world are inadequate: the triumphalist position promises too much, and the defeatist focuses on too little.

We explored the main metaphors God uses to describe us in relation to the world: that we are Christ’s witnesses, pointing people to Jesus; that we are to reflect Christ as being made in God’s image and his light; that we are salt, to share the flavour of godliness to others; and that we are Christ’s ambassadors, representing Jesus by doing what he did.

This article looks at the big picture of Jesus’ accomplishments.

Finding coherence…

…through insisting that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection are all important

Whether you think NT Wright is right or wrong about ‘the New Perspective on Paul’, his clarion call to remember Jesus’ resurrection in the book ‘The Day the Revolution Began’ is spot on.

Wright argues that Jesus did not give people a ticket to heaven for when they die, but that he began a revolution at his death on the cross with immediate relevancy (“the kingdom of heaven is at hand” Matthew 3:2; Mark 1:15). This was an overthrow of dark powers, achieving a victory such as the Gospels show in exorcisms, which the Apostles live out in Acts. But it was also a fulfilment of all Israel’s covenant, and thus Jesus acted as a substitutionary representative to take Israel’s curse on himself, so that they could finally be a blessing to the nations.

What I took from this is that it’s not just Jesus’ death that’s important to stand in our stead, but it’s his resurrection too, in becoming the firstfruits of victory over death, sin, the curse, the devil and the demonic.Technically, Wright differentiates himself by arguing for a ‘representative substitution’ rather than a ‘penal substitution’. A representative substitution is where Jesus stands in for Israel’s lack by fulfilling Abraham’s covenant, renewing it to enable worldwide blessing and inheritance. He still argues for a penal aspect, but that it is against the force of sin in Jesus’ flesh, but not against Jesus himself. We need not accept that to accept his main thesis.

We see clues that something is not quite right when the traditional message seems to bizarrely change at Pentecost from “the kingdom” to “the gospel” (even right up to the point of Pentecost, Acts 1:3). Instead, Wright masterfully connects the cross and the kingdom as Jesus did, praying for God’s will to be done on earth (Matthew 6:10), that the kingdom of heaven has come near with healings, resurrections and exorcisms (Matthew 10:5-8), reminding his disciples that this was to come about in their lifetime (Matthew 16:28).

Wright’s key to finding the way forward is to reframe the problem from a simple individual one (our personal sin) to an individual and collective problem. The goal of redemption was not narrowly “to go to heaven”, or “be with God forever” (only), but live as God’s image-bearers in a new creation, which would start now and be fully realised in the age to come.Wright, The Day The Revolution Began: Reconsidering the Meaning of Jesus’s Crucifixion, Ch 8, 11. This involves speaking the truth (of an entirely new way of living) to power—whether official such as governmental, or unofficial such as backstreet bullies (I’d argue, why only to ‘power’? The truth needs to be heard by everyone).

It appears that non-charismatics miss this aspect of Jesus’ mission because they overlook the relevance of the spiritual battle within their de-spiritualised modernistic bias. For an example of a conservative missing the spiritual, see G. A. Cole, God the Peacemaker: How Atonement Brings Shalom (New Studies in Biblical Theology 25; Nottingham, England/Downers Grove: Apollos/InterVarsity Press, 2009), 107-108.

Individually, the different camps bring the following understanding:

If each of these strands of Christianity were allowed to come to the same table and passionately argue, in love for each other and love for the truth, I believe we would come up with something like the following:

The Christian mission is about Jesus' life, death and resurrection:

a life to shine as God’s witness and image-bearer;

a death to identify in, daily dying to self to be godly (salty) in righteousness, purity and nearness to God; and,

a resurrection to live born again in the power of the Spirit, representing Jesus to others

Next

If this is true, we ought to see it throughout the Bible. A trip through the whole biblical timeline is in order to help with confirming this view.