Part Three: The Revolutionary Rescue
8 New Goal, New Humanity (144)
Jesus' Emmaus commentary of fulfilment (145); not from the world but for the world where justice and mercy would reign forever. The crucifixion and Resurrection force redefinition; Christians need to re-define away from heaven to earth, 2 Peter 3.13 (146). Two questions: What is the calling of humans in this promised new world; how are humans rescued to fulfil that calling? Common view that good people go to heaven on basis of moral achievement; but because we all fail we need Jesus' death. The three-layered mistake: platonisation; moralisation; paganisation (147). Recapitulation (148).
Zechariah cannot be wrong in Luke’s Benedictus (149) and Nunc Dimittis cannot be wrong; Luke 24.44-49 (150); the forgiveness of sins involves Jews turning back and an amnesty for pagan Gentiles (151); Acts 3.18-26 (152); this preaching of Jesus encompasses the large idea and the personal idea of the forgiveness of sins; the specific charge in Acts 30-32 and the renewal of vocation, extended to Gentiles in Acts 10 (153); Acts 13.38 opens out into 13.46-47 (54); the goal of going to heaven is never mentioned in Acts which assumes: God's Kingdom has been established through Jesus' death and Resurrection (1.6; 8.12; 19.8; 20.25; 28.23,31); this Kingdom will be truly established when Jesus returns (1.11; 3.21); and in this final new world all God's people will be raised to new bodily life (4.2; 24.15,21; 26.23). The only going to heaven is the not-dead Jesus to commence his reign. "The purpose of forgiving sin ... is to enable people to become fully functioning, fully image-bearing human beings within God's world, already now, completely in the age to come." Act does not say that sin separates man from God and grace restores; they did not propose that God through Jesus had established a mechanism for forgiveness of sins and restoration; early Christians would not have denied the truth of this but did not put it this way (155). All such meanings are included in the larger cosmic meaning, 2 Corinthians 5.19; the Kingdom of God coming on earth as in Heaven (156); forgiveness of sins as Passover, new Exodus or new Covenant or Creation, Ephesians 1.10, Revelation 21-22, 1 Corinthians 15, Romans 8 (157-58). Platonised salvation leads to the distortion that moral behaviour is a qualification for heaven; moral behaviour only a component of royal priesthood.
The Cross-Shaped Kingdom. Acts describes the realisation of Jewish Messianic hopes: freedom from paganism; God's world rule; God come to dwell with his people (160). Our reading too narrow (161). Acts' interest in temples (162); Acts 4.24-31, 7.56-60, priestly scenes; a new state of being (163); 12.24: Herod died but God's Word prospered; paradoxical relationship between Paul and the "powers" (164); witness, worship and hope (165); none of this possible without the Cross (166).
9 Jesus's Special Passover (168)
What changed and how on Good Friday (169)? Mark 10.45 and the rarity of referring to Jesus; the link of Crucifixion and Passover rarely mentioned (170). Assume Gospel historicity; theologians of the atonement have largely ignored what Jesus said and the Evangelists wrote; this because the texts say little about the Platonised version (171); irrelevance of Gnostic Gospels (172).
Resurrection (173). No atonement theology that Good Friday (174); "Resurrection" in ancient context means new bodily life after bodily death, nothing to do with the soul; God's new age had somehow begun (175); with the Resurrection begins the interpretation of the Crucifixion; no explanation in Gospels or Acts (even though it was written after Paul's letters) except Luke 24.26 (176), but this does not explain why; it looks as though the connection between "died for our sins" and raised to new life had not been connected (177).
Why Did Jesus Choose Passover? Jesus as King (178). Jesus announced God's kingdom and died as a would-be Messiah, which Jesus recognised and integrated in his life and prayer, vocationally; Jesus chose Passover (179), as in Isaiah 52.7-12; Jesus paralleling (180); Passover said freedom now and kingdom now! A unique Exodus moment; when we put Mark 11.12-18 into Passover context, reminds us of Moses and Pharaoh; Mark 13.1-31 and the fall of the Temple, with Babylon (181); Exodus 3.12,18; 4.23; 5.1-3; 7.16; 8.1,20; 9.1,13; 10.3,24-26 are all about the need to worship; Exodus ends with the Temple not the Law; there is evidence that Jesus made these connections; a special kind of Passover meal looking forward not back (182); Luke 22.18, Matthew 26.209; Jesus understood the link between Exodus and the establishment of God's kingdom; Jesus believed that through his death the world would be liberated: ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven (183); Jesus chose Feast of Passover not Atonement; the end of exile meant dealing with sin (184); The combination goes back to the interpretative grid of the Last Supper, so we do not find a wrathful or murderous God but the Covenant-keeper God who takes the full force of sin on himself (185). Jesus' words over the bread: the New Passover is about to happen and those who share this meal thereafter will be constituted as the people for whom it had happened and through whom it will happen in the wider world (186); Jesus insisted that this Passover would bring freedom through the undoing of exile through the forgiveness of sins; Jeremiah 31 and Exodus 24.3-8 (187); Jesus directly links Covenant renewal with his own death.
How would death affect forgiveness of sins? Messianic woes (188) and redemption through suffering through a small group or even (Isaiah 52.13-53.12) an individual, this last critical to Jesus' self-understanding; Luke 13.32; Luke 23.31 (18); Luke 22.40; John 18.8 (190); Jesus as a man of powerful compassion, or compassionate power (191); John 13.1, Galatians 2.20. Jesus announces God's Kingdom coming on earth as in heaven, choosing Passover for victory over the dark powers, leading to Covenant renewal (192); it is astonishing how the Gospels have been under-used in atonement theory (193). In summary, God was reconciling the world to himself in the Messiah 92. Corinthians 5.19) (194).
10 The Story of the Rescue
Ignoring the Gospels in atonement theory (195-98); superficially the kingdom and the Cross look contradictory but in Gospels they explain each other; the Kingdom comes through Jesus' work culminating in his shameful death; the Cross is the Cross of the King of the Jews (199).
Listening to the Evangelists. Israel's God returning at last; the living embodiment of the Creator God; the bookends of Matthew and Luke Nativity narratives and end summations (200); treading the dangerous line between affirming and reforming; Jesus not sent by an angry father but embodying that Father's love (201); must be OT context: Mark 1; Luke 1-2; Matthew 1; Luke 3; and John 1 (202) in OT evil never very far away; in the life of Jesus there are storm clouds from the start (203). Jesus, evil and exorcism (204); victory over evil emerges in Gospel narratives (205-06); Satan as the ruler of the world (207); The narrative is not a background to abstract readings of Paul &c; the story is the meaning; the light IS shining in the darkness; Passover victory over evil by taking away sin (209); kingdom and cross.
Representative Substitution (210). Jesus dies, innocently, bearing punishment for the Jews as a whole; death as vocation (211) extended to the world (212); Barabbas and the brigands in Luke (213); paradise an interim state prior to Resurrection (214); why deny Luke's theological understanding of the Cross (215)? The one bore the sins of the many in historical and theological terms (216); then comes into his glory; the Kingdom is the Beatitudes (217-18); Matthew 5-7 Jesus' vocation (219). Mark 10.45 nothing to do with escaping from the world mark 10.45 death of one for many in Isaiah 53 (222); abstracted atonement (223); works contract rather than covenant of vocation (224); dereliction in Matthew 27.46, Mark 15.34 (226).
11 Paul and the Cross (Apart from Romans)
Many images in Paul (227); the goal of redemption (228) through dying for sins. 1 Corinthians 15.1 (229); Israel in exile; 1 Thessalonians 5.10, Romans 14.8-9, 1 Corinthians 8.11, Galatians 1.4 (320), 1 Corinthians 1.18-25, 1 Corinthians 2.6-8, Colossians 2.15 (231). "If we refuse to see Paul's Jesus as Israel's Messiah we shall never understand what Paul understands to have taken place in his death" (232). Romans 15.8-9, unity in worship (233).
Galatians. Unlike Romans, Galatians has nothing to do with salvation but deals with unity between Jews and Gentiles (234-35). Resurrection and new creation (236); a compressed Passover narrative (237); Passover and redemption from Exile (238); Deuteronomy 27 and the whole people which derails the whole world's promise (239) to realise the promise to Abraham; this penal substitution is about the whole people not the individual who has sinned and is all right because God punished Jesus. The Covenant of Jewish Vocation (240-41). Paul and Peter (242); summary of Galatians (243); Galatians 5 on proper behaviour in the new dispensation (244); unity, holiness and suffering (245).
Corinthians. Exodus (246-47). 2 Corinthians (248) living the life of the Messiah (249); the apostolic life of suffering and shame (250); "Precisely because the Messiah's crucifixion unveiled the very nature of God himself at work in generous self-giving love to overthrow all power structures by dealing with the sin that had given them their power, that same divine nature would now be at work through the ministry of the gospel not only through what was said, but through the character and the circumstances of the people who were saying it ... the victory that was won through the cross has to be implemented through the cross - in particular, through the cruciform life and ministry of the apostles"; this letter concerns Apostleship; Revelation 1, 5, 20 (251). 2 Corinthians 5.14-6.2, the cross and discipleship: "... this Messiah-shaped, cruciform, covenant-fulfilling ministry" (252). 2 Corinthians 5.21a close to Galatians 3.13; the victory of love (253); the one died for many in love, in the new Exodus, end of exile; "The Messiah's love makes us press on."
Philippians (254) 2.6-11: the story of the cross is the story of humanity and Israel, creation; the cross is victory (255); the cross establishes the kingdom of God through Jesus; shared life of the community (256); the poem establishes that: Jesus' death established the kingdom; this came about through Jesus' sharing death and sin; which he did because he was God. However the story is told it is always self-giving divine love (257); the self-expression of the love that made the world.
Colossians 2.13-15 (257) the defeat of the rulers and powers on Good Friday (259); "the new Exodus was accomplished through the forgiveness of sins, and forgiveness of sins was accomplished by the Messiah as the living and dying embodiment of the one true God, standing in the place of sinners and taking the full weight of their plight upon himself" (260-62).
12 The Death of Jesus in Paul's Letter to the Romans (The New Exodus) (263)
4.24-25; 5.8; 7.4; 8.1-4; 8.31-32,38-39 (264). The Romans Road and the works contract (265).
The Puzzles of Romans: a subtle composition in which 1-4, 5-8, 9-11, 12-16 work together like the movements of a symphony; suffered from being considered as systematic theology (263) whereby ideas are imposed or ignored (267); the new creation is overlooked. Romans 1.18 a failure of worship not behaviour; ungodliness produces out-of-jointedness, injustice; 3.23 sin is not just doing what is forbidden but not following our priestly vocation (268); priestly prayers in 9-11, continuing priestly function in 12 and his own priesthood in 15.16 (269).
Romans 5-8 and the New Exodus. The argument in 4 about universal salvation is closed in 15.8-9 (270); 3.21-6 a compressed statement about redemption realised not through our faith but God's faithfulness "the word redemption is almost a technical term for Exodus" 5-8 and the new Exodus (271); the logic of hope from death through Resurrection (272); re 1.18 many people assume 3.24-26 transfers God's wrath to Jesus but this is contradicted in 5.9 (273); Adam and the Law (274-75).
6-8 is the new Exodus, unpacking 3.24 (276); 5.12-21 Sin with a capital S is more than individual sin, it is the "slave maker, the jailer, the Pharaoh" from which we are freed by coming through the water (277-78); the "defeat of the present evil age", Exodus, Kingdom language. In 5 move from "sins" to "sin" (279); sin and Sin (idolatry) go together (280-81). Sin "heaped up" by the Torah was dealt with in the cross so 7 really means the Messiah died for our sins in accordance with the Bible; 7.13 (282-85). Sin is gathered in the chosen people so that it could be condemned; Romans 8.1-4 (286). God did not punish Jesus, he punished sin in the flesh of Jesus; this is penal and substitutionary but not in the sense of the "works contract" but in terms of Israel's vocation; rescued to be glorified (287); having told the sad story to Deuteronomy 28, a new start in 30 cited in Romans 10; the cross embedded in Israel's narrative; you cannot separate the cross from creation (288); "... for the death of Jesus to be an expression ... of divine love, ... we would need to say ... that in the sending of the son the creator and covenant God is sending his own very self"; the proto-Trinitarian versus the quasi-pagan (290). The work of the cross is not to rescue humans from creation but for it (290). Israel's God spoken of as "there" and "here" simultaneously, particularly in the Temple (291); a hint of Trinitarianism in the OT in the pillar of cloud and fire (292). Jesus' cry of dereliction not to God but of God (293).
13 The Death of Jesus in Paul's Letter to the Romans: Passover and Atonement (294)
Romans 3.21-6 critical (295); the passage widely characteristic of first generation belief; sheds light on whole of 1-4 (296); misinterpreted as: humans sin, God punishes Jesus, humans are let off. Covenant and cult (297); forgiveness of sins, return from exile, Messiah (298).
The Usual Reading of Romans 3 and its Problems. The works contract; the "righteousness of God" transferred through the death of Jesus to humanity; NIV makes it difficult to understand the text otherwise in 3.17,18, 3.21-6 and 2 Corinthians 5.21 (299). Hilasterion in 25; through "propitiation" those who trust in what Jesus did on the cross are in the right; reckoning of righteousness "justification" (300).
Problems: leaves vv27-31 stranded; 4 undervalued; ignores plain meaning of 2.17-29, which isolates 3.1-9 (301); 1.18-23 and 3.23 deal with idolatry not sin. Paul never mentions "going to heaven" in Romans; the mistake that divine wrath and how it is dealt with (Hilasterion) (302); God's righteousness is not a matter of morals but of covenant faithfulness (303) which involves punishment in its terms, ref Daniel 9. Romans 2.17-3.9 concerns Israel's global mission, failure and the 'problem' this raises for God, resolved in 4 (304); thus righteousness in 3.21 must mean covenant faithfulness enacted through the Messiah: "... God's covenant justice comes into operation through the faithfulness of Jesus the Messiah" - NTW (305); 3.25-6 uncontroversially about God's faithfulness (306).
1.18-3.20 assumed only to concern is that all are sinners but this ignores: Temple theme in 3.23b, ref 1.21-23 (307); again, sin is not breaking God's rules but idolatry. 3.24-26 the place of fresh meaning between Creator and created. How does 3.21-26 fit with 2.17-24 (307)? 2.17-3.9 is not just about Jews also being sinners but about the Covenant of Vocation not the Works Contract; Paul supports the claim that those who honour the Torah are the solution, 2.17-18 (309), then, 2.19-20; but the problem is that Israel went wrong; paul building in a history of "critique from within" (310); 2.25-9 bringing in Gentiles (311); the conventional reading pushes Israel to one side; incarnation does not cancel election because the incarnate son is Israel's Messiah; 3.4, 32b-4a; "God has not given up on his plan to bring light to the world through Israel" (messianic eschatology) (312); 3.5. By end of 3.20, problem: how to square dealing with sin and idolatry with the Covenant promise? Romans 4 and Genesis 15 (313) in the light of Psalms 2, 72. Thus 3.21-26 flanked by evidence of the conundrum.
NTW: "God covenanted with Abraham to give him a worldwide family of forgiven sinners turned faithful worshippers, and the death of Jesus is the means by which this happens" (314). Shallow conventional reading out-flanked: "Neither Romans 18.1-3.20 nor Romans 4 is simply concerned with 'sin' and 'justification' as in the normal reading. They are indeed concerned with both, but they frame both within the question of cult and question of covenant."
3.27-31: "The whole passage, from 2.17 to 4.25, is all about God's covenant with Israel and through Israel for the world and about the true worship at the heart of this covenant, the worship of the one true God, which replaces the idolatry of 1.18-23 and thus undoes the sin of 1.24-32" (315). We ought to assume that: God's faithfulness rescues the whole sinful world, restoring true worship instead of idolatry (316). 1.18-4.25 followed by the result in 5.1-2, further conclusion in 8.31-39.
Redemption Reimagined (317). In and through Jesus God has done what he promised (318-19). 3.22 It is the Messiah's faithfulness, not ours (320); the Messiah's death accomplishes what God himself planned to do and said he would do, Isaiah 53 (321).
Justification by faith: all who believe are part of Abraham's family and this believing family are in the right; the two points symbiotic not separate (322); Justification and incorporation compatible, 4.24-25. The resurrection does not cause the justification which takes place on the cross. "On the cross the real revolution took place and the resurrection is the first sign that it has happened. ... Justification takes its vital place and ... the idols ... have been overthrown' (323).
Apolytrosis and Hilasterion, 3.23-25a (324). The cross as a new Passover and exodus (325); the reimagining of Passover in Second Temple involved atonement or forgiveness, the positive to free Israel to worship the covenant God (326).
Exodus and the re-creation of Eden in the Ark (327); a place not of mercy but of meeting and cleaning in 3.24-26 (328); no mention of punishing (329); Hilasterion, God not punishing Jesus for the sins of Israel or the world; 3.21-26 describes a prerequisite in the present time for being spared wrath; also God had passed over former sins (330); punishment is what will happen later; sins have been passed over, re Acts 17.30, pushed to one side. The act of Jesus is not propitiatory (331) but God has put Jesus forth as the Hilasterion, 5.8, 8.3, 8323; 3.24, the re-establishment of the God/man meeting place; the answer to sin and idolatry is the fresh revelation of God, ref 1 Thessalonians 1-9.
The Jewish need between exile and Jesus to combine atonement with Exodus (332); God purifies the newer and worse idolaters through the blood of Jesus, for Covenant renewal for Jews and world; cleansing leads to meeting (333).
Isaiah 40-55, the promise of covenant faithfulness and liberation, anticipating a new Exodus, involving forgiveness through a strange figure who, at one level is Israel, at another the servant on whom alone the punishment falls (334): 52.10,15, 53.1, re Romans 4.24-25 (335). Vocation, temple and love in covenant justice; covenant the marriage of God and Israel, a marriage to which God has been faithful (336). God brought himself to take on Israel's and the world's idolatry; idolatry leads away from the meeting place and into exile and slavery (337-38); if the servant is YHWH and anticipates Jesus then the "sin" concerns Israel (339).
Jesus, the Hilasterion, as God's personal presence, he is the place where heaven and earth meet; this is where incarnation meets election (340).
4 Maccabees 17 appears to depend on 2 Maccabees (341); possibility: 2 Maccabees 7, the martyrs say their suffering will bring Israel's punishment to a close, may refer to Exodus (342); sin brought down the wrath of Syria and the victory of the Maccabees, re Isaiah 40-55; re-told in 4 Maccabees, examples to a pagan world of noble death (343), neither fully Scriptural nor pagan (344).
Blood and the Eucharist (345).
Conclusion: Redemption Accomplished, Revolution Launched. The Messiah accomplishes the purpose to which Israel had been called; 'Jesus, as Israel's Messiah, is the place where and the means by which God's covenant purposes and Israel's covenant faithfulness meet, merge, and achieve their original object" (346); Israel’s vocation to be a light to the Gentiles was fulfilled (347). Good Friday: rescue completed by God himself in covenant faithfulness (love) freeing Jew and Gentile alike, robbing "the powers". Not escape from the world (348) but as its redemption (349).
Beyond the Gospels and Paul. Hebrews and 1 Peter complement Gospels, Acts, Paul and Revelation (350). Jesus died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures and rose again (351-2).
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