God the Son, Student Workbook, SW10

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G O D T H E S O N

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? 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 and violence of Calvary is neither spiritually helpful nor psychologically healthy. It is clear, however, that the apostles’ challenged believers in the early Church to model their attitudes and conduct on the basis of the sufferings of Christ and his death (e.g., Phil. 2.5-11; 1 Pet. 2.21ff; Gal. 2.20). Still, many tend to focus on the abundance, prosperity, health, and riches of the Christian experience rather than the fellowship of his sufferings in order to be conformed to his death (Phil. 3.10). What is the relationship between emphasizing the resurrection of our Lord and his sufferings as it relates to a true communication of the Christian faith? The Resurrection, Not the Passion

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