The
Orthodox Christian lives in a strange tension. While the death, resurrection
and ascension of Christ makes all things right and under his authoritative kingdom,
the creation still longs for this final consummation.[1] The
prolepsis within the Christian tradition has often made it difficult for the
Church to know how to understand, share, and live out the Gospel. How do we
declare that the world is being made new when all around us we see endless violence,
sadness, and death? What does the fully sufficient and complete work of the
Cross have to do with us living lives of peace and justice?
We know from
scripture that all the work of salvation has been completed by Christ on the
Cross; what is our calling as those who live within this promise?[2] Is
our declaration of salvation one of escape from this evil world?[3] Or
is it a call to bring the kingdom of God to our world, to build it up, and to
establish the New Jerusalem here on earth?
Christ’s promise of
salvation for all people and creatures is neither an escape from this sinful
world, nor is it a call for the church to build his kingdom; rather as God’s
image bearers and vice-regents of this earth we are called to reflect a
creation that is being redeemed, made right, and will ultimately be consummated
radically different and new in Christ alone.
The
first foundational principle within this understanding of salvation is that
creation was formed in order for God to share his goodness and for us to
represent that goodness.[4]
This is the purpose of creation being originally designed as good, and humanity
being created in God’s image.[5] The
point of the fall is not that man has become so estranged from their original
blue-print that we are no longer in any way connected to that original design,
but that “evil is a deficiency” from that original good.[6] We
were created good and therefore despite our sinful distortion of that good
everything we do comes from that original place, no matter how it is perverted
or altered into sin. This perspective on sin is important for me as I have been
raised within a particular Lutheran worldview which often wants to say that our
nature has been so altered by sin that it is in no way connected to that
original design. Salvation then is in one sense a restoration of that original
goodness.
Through Christ we are being brought back into that
original communion, and we know from Romans 8 that all creation gets to be a
part of and longs for this restoration as they have been “groaning in labor
pains” for this future “freedom of glory.”[7]
Yet it is also important that we temper this understanding with the final
consummation as an apocalyptic reality where the very nature of things will be
altered in the ultimate peace-making of all things.[8]
Isaiah 11 uses imagery of a wolf living with a lamb, a calf and a lion eating
together, and young children playing near the home of deadly snakes.[9]
While this imagery seems to speak in contrast to the very nature of creation,
the continuity within these types of eschatological images says that unity in
Christ declares that no longer will we “hurt or destroy” and that every tear
will be wiped from our eyes.[10]
Another continuity within this imagery is that earth matters and is our home,
even as God enters into it and alters it. Isaiah 11 declares that it is the
earth where the “knowledge of the Lord” resides, while revelation 21 further
affirms that earth is where God makes his home “among mortals.”[11] A
limited automobile metaphor could be used here in the sense that while
salvation is rebuilding the car from the original blue-print, it is also
altering the original design of the car from a fuel-efficient and powerful
diesel engine to an improved electric engine, even while much of the original
blue-print remains the same. Further biblical support for the continuity and
discontinuity of our current and future selves could be made in the sense that
when Jesus is raised from the dead his form is so altered that he is hardly
recognizable, yet the scars from his previous life still remain.[12]
Balancing creation’s continuity and discontinuity between this life and the
next is foundational in correcting our modern fallacies of soteriological
escapism and Kingdom ideology. Salvation is not escaping from this horrible
earth to heaven, nor is salvation a matter of us bringing the Kingdom of God to
world. All the work needed for bringing heaven to earth was completed on the
cross; this is entirely the responsibility of God.
Our role then as restored image bearers of God is both to
emphasize how we are distinct from the wholly other creator, while remaining
accountable to the earth as his reflection and the earth’s vice-regents. God
desires his wise, creative, and loving power to be reflected through his
creatures. Through the work of Christ and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit we
are equipped for this task, not as builders of the Kingdom, but as signposts
for the now but not yet future world; even as its future radical
differentiation remains a mystery to us. This task is as diverse as creation
itself. If Christ’s signature is on all things as scripture suggests, than the
task of imaging God can enter into almost anything. The sacramental nature of
creation enters into the music we create, the sports we play, and the building
we design. As Christ’s disciples, musicians, athletes, and architects are all
called to question and examine their duties and work in light of the Kingdom of
God. Paul tells us that what we do in Christ is “not in vain” and this is how
we should look at every act of love and mercy.[13]
When microloans and community gardens take us further away from economic and
ecological injustice, this is not simply something good for us to do on top of centrally
declaring soteriological escapism, but is a mysterious and incomplete reflection
of the future world God is bringing us into; it is a declaration of the Gospel.
While Jesus is so transformed at the resurrection that Mary Magdalene mistakes
him for the gardener, there is also an implicit reaffirmation that his
resurrection renews the goodness of creation declared in the first garden. The original declaration of creation being
created good and humanity “very good” means that the redemption of this good
creation is all encompassing and is not to be thrown away as the Lutheran community
I was raised in would want to declare.[14]
We must not go so far with the fall of man that the theology of our original
design is negated, but we can declare along with the prophet Jeremiah that in
light of the fall the “heart is deceitful above all else.”[15]
This is most centrally the warning of the prophets and
the warning behind thinking that we can build God’s kingdom. It would seem that
throughout scripture and the rest of human history humanity there is a tendency
toward the idolatry of self and wanting to declare that we will be the God of
ourselves, or more implicitly that we can control God’s very will. The tower of
Babel, the insistent desire to establish an earthly Kingdom in 1 Samuel 8, the
great fall of David, and the greed of Solomon all seem to speak to the danger
that comes with blurring the line of God’s kingdom and our own. Jesus’ own
disciples fall into this very trap of being preoccupied with who will be on his
left and who will be on his right hand in glory.[16] Paul
seems to want to continually insist this way of thinking is the thinking of
Rome’s Lord, and our existence as citizens of heaven lives in stark contrast to
the empire.[17]
The power of Christ’s death and resurrection then does
not lie in the promise of escape to heaven or threat of eternal damnation, nor
does lie in building God’s kingdom which will inevitably lead to our own idolatry.
However insufficiently, we are called to reflect and show our hope in the newness
of life given to us through the death and resurrection of Christ. In a world
that is filled with suffering it is sometimes hard to live into our declaration
that Christ has defeated death, is Lord of all, and God’s new world has begun.
But through the gift of faith we are called to seek out God’s love, justice,
and mercy both globally and on a local level. Where goodness is found we are
called to celebrate it and continue to examine where God’s rescue plan is
taking form. New creation is happening all around us and it is our calling to
announce and bring to light the healing of our broken now but not yet world.
[1] 1
Colossians 15:20; Romans 8:18-21
[2]
Romans 3-5; Ephesians 2
[3]
John 18:36
[4]
Yeago Chapter 9 p. 10
[5]
Genesis 1:9-28
[6]
Yeago Chapter 9 p. 31
[7]
Romans 8:21-22
[8]
Isaiah 11:9
[9]
Isaiah 11:6-8
[10]
Isaiah 11:9; Revelation 21:4
[11]
Isaiah 11:9; Revelation 21:3
[12]
John 20:15-27
[13] 1
Corinthians 15:58
[14]
Genesis 1:31
[15]
Jeremiah 17:9
[16]
Mark 10:35-37
[17]
Philippians 3:17-21
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