A Theological Clarification
On the relational implications of my last post, "Shut the Barn Door"
As a wordy person, I have this funny habit of not only fantasising about future conversations, but also replaying past ones. This tendency applies to my writing as well. Last week, I published my last post, “Shut the Barn Door,” after 1am. And around 2am, I updated my original post because upon further reflection I realized a few turns of phrase were both sloppy and — more importantly — theologically incorrect. Unfortunately, you only received the first version of the Barn Door post. So I wanted to clarify a few things regarding how I view the nature of a person’s relationship with God and reassure the readers from my church that I am not kicking the doctrine of eternal security to the curb.
In my most recent post, I said if we forget the basics of relationships (i.e. how to interact positively) we can break relationships. This is true of most relationships, but not for all. Take the relationship between a parent and child, for example. If I wrote off my parents from this day forward and never spoke to them again, they would not cease to be my parents. If I contested I had no choice in the matter of becoming their offspring and therefore had zero responsibility for my parents, I would not cease to be their daughter. Our personal interactions would be pretty dismal, but the DNA would still be undeniable. It wouldn’t matter if I changed my name or moved to the ends of the earth; my very biology would define me as the daughter of my parents. The relationship is unbreakable even if I’m not personally relating very well because ultimately, the parent-child relationship is based on something more than personal desire or input.
The same unbreakable relational bond also holds true for God and His child. How does an imperfect person get adopted by a perfect God? God takes the judgment for His child’s disobedience on Himself so He can justify the unjust. He reaches down to mankind to fix the relationship through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus rather than demand mankind work its way up to Him. According to the Bible, God is fiercely loyal to His children, and we are too small to jump out of His hands. The reason for such relational confidence has nothing to do with personal performance, but rather God Himself acting on our behalf to fix the relationship we broke through our stubborn selfishness.
So I’d like to retract my earlier comment that if we forget the basics of our relationship with God, that we can break it. Strain it, sure. But lose it altogether? This is not what the Bible teaches. How can we lose what we did not earn?
One of the reasons I love story so much is because I’ve been soaking in the story of Scripture for most of my thirty-eight years.
If I could give a brief summary of the entire Biblical narrative (crediting such folks as Craig G. Bartholomew, Michael W. Goheen, N. T. Wright, Brian Walsh, Richard Middleton, and my pastors over the years for their help in summarizing the metanarrative of scripture), it would go something like this:
God is perfectly loving, just, holy, powerful, and wise. He made everything in the universe and made mankind to take care of His creation, enjoy friendship with Him, and mirror His goodness to the world.
Mankind chose to live on his/her own terms instead of listening to God, thus rupturing the relationship between God and mankind. The fallout from this break in relationship led to death and futility for all creation. Because sin gets incinerated in the presence of absolute perfection and holiness, mankind could no longer be close to God as he/she had been before their disobedience.
Rather than giving up on people altogether, God promised to heal the breach and bring mankind back into good relationship with Himself. God is loving. And He is also just, so the sin problem could not be ignored. He promised to send a solution for that problem in the future birth of a Messiah who would pay the price for sin and also destroy the people-destroyer, Satan.
God chose the man, Abraham, to start building a people for Himself — a people through whom the Messiah would one day come. God rescued Abraham’s ethnic family, the Jews, from slavery in Egypt and gave them the Ten Commandments (plus about 600 more) to show them His ways. He also instituted a religious animal sacrificial system (in contrast to pagan human sacrificial systems of ancient times). The Law showed God’s people where they fell short of God’s perfection, and the animal sacrifice highlighted their need for someone to take their blame away. All this pointed to the ultimate need for an ultimate Savior — someone whose blood would remove their guilt for good and restore the relationship between God and mankind.
Fast forward a few thousand years through multiple Jewish kings, exhiles, returns to Israel, eventually to the Roman Empire, and Jesus arrives on the scene. During His life, he fulfills numerous Old Testament passages regarding the promised Messiah (see the book of Matthew and Hebrews in the New Testament for details). He teaches not that people should work harder to be good, but rather that people could never be good enough to fix their own relationship with God. He calls people not to trust in themselves or religious traditions, but rather in God Himself and the Messiah He sent to be the ultimate sacrifice for all sin. Like a baby incapable of cleaning their own poopy mess, God’s people must trust in a good heavenly Father to clean their mess for them — a truth both glorious and humbling at the same time.
Although not guilty of any personal crime, Jesus — also called the Lamb of God Who takes away the sin of the world — dies like a criminal for all the sins of his beloved people. Then in fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, happy ending! He doesn’t stay dead but rises from the grave three days later. The perfectly human Messiah proved Himself to be the Son of God through this resurrection — in Him both God and man meet. And His perfect life and sacrifice covers the sins of every believer so they need not fear God’s wrath but enjoy renewed and restored relationship with Him. The Bible describes new believers as adopted children of God, and their relationship is as unbreakable as the biology between a parent and child. It’s also guaranteed by His Holy Spirit who enables God’s children to live according to God’s good ways.
After Jesus returns to heaven, the group of His followers begins to grow across all nations, cultures, and socio-economic groups. God gives His Holy Spirit to everyone who trusts in Jesus’ death and resurrection and charges these believers (a.k.a. His church) to share the good news of God’s free offer of restored relationship to their neighbors. He also charges them to love their neighbors (and even enemies) as themselves and to live in purity and holiness. When believers mess up, they don’t have to sacrifice an animal, but rather confess their sins, turn from their evil, rely on Jesus’ sacrifice being enough, and walk in renewed obedience through the help of God’s Spirit, Word (Bible), and people (church).
The final chapters of Scripture talk of the end times when all people will appear before God. Those who follow Him get to enjoy new life free from death and pain and toil and loss. Those who follow their own hearts apart from God are promised wrath and eternal torment. The story then continues in a completely renewed and restored creation free from any tinge of evil. God wins. And so do those who trust in Him.
So …
Just wanted to clear up that theological misrepresentation from my earlier post and own my Biblical bias. Thanks for reading!
P.S. While we’re clarifying things, I also want to assure you I adore my parents and have no desire to write them off or move to the ends of the earth.