Cornerstone Curriculum, Official Certification Edition

LESSON 3 | GOD THE SON: JESUS, THE MESSIAH AND LORD OF ALL – HE DIED / 237

dealing constantly with the violent and tortuous themes of death and sacrifice is ineffective in winning others. Churches that are growing deal with “real” issues, address people’s concrete personal anxieties and worries, and concentrate on the quality of life issues that most mainstream Westerners worry about day to day. Our entree into their lives will not begin, it is argued, with tough teachings on the shed blood of Christ but more ground-floor issues like work, family, and self development. At what point ought we to introduce to genuine seekers of God the teaching surrounding the cross of Christ? Is it the ground floor or the end game of Christian witness? Explain your answer. Politically Incorrect Theories In a world that is fragmented by political strife, many evangelical preachers have determined not to use the military metaphors of the NT to communicate the faith. Although much of Jesus’ and the apostles’ language uses military symbolism to make sense of Jesus’ life and mission, including his death on the cross, few teachers seek to follow their example today. Some have gone so far as to suggest that using these pictures to communicate the nature of Christian faith would be a mistake at a time like this, where religious bigotry, jihads, and intolerance and violence is taking place in the name of gods and religion. The image of war is a horrible reality, and one that we ought not use without genuine caution. Others would argue that these images are divinely inspired , given in order to enable us to understand the core meaning of redemption in Christ . In other words, the image of war was selected because it communicates better than any other way the true nature of spirituality; Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3.8). The universe is at war , and no amount of squeamishness will change this fact. Is using the image of war as a theory of atonement valid for us today? The Resurrection, Not the Passion It is clear that the NT focuses on the nature of the resurrection as the central teaching of the Christian faith. First Corinthians chapter fifteen is the Magna Carta of Christian doctrine: apart from the resurrection Christianity would be a futile and false affirmation that changes nothing practically or spiritually for those deluded enough to embrace it. Some have argued that our focus should be upon the triumph of the resurrection and the victory of our Lord’s work, rather than on the death of Jesus and the humiliation and violence associated with it. Easter , not Good Friday , is the defining event of Christian witness, these would argue, and would further state that a kind of obsession with the death

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T heology and E th i c s

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