The Significance of the Cross and The Significance of the Cross and Resurrection for a Missional ChurchResurrection for a Missional Church

Michael Goheen

Geneva Society,

Vancouver, B.C.

Starting PointsStarting Points

Taking our stand on things of first importance: 1 Cor. 15:1-8

Centrality of death and resurrection

What is truth? Ideas that correspond to reality? Events that give meaning to a

cosmic story?

Three ProblemsThree Problems

Atonement read in systematic or topical context Importance of context

It’s going to rainIt’s going to rain

Story Provides ContextStory Provides Context

The day of our picnic Plague of drought Prediction of rain few days

ago Elijah on Mt. Carmel

Three ProblemsThree Problems

Atonement read in systematic or topical context Importance of context Evangelistic and systematic

theological context

Evangelistic topical context: Evangelistic topical context: Romans RoadRomans Road

All are sinners: Rom. 3:23: For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God

Consequences for sin: Romans 6:23: For the wages of sin is death . . .

Work of Jesus: 5.8: But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Our response: 10.9: . . . if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved

Salvation: 5.1: Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Systematic Theological Context: Systematic Theological Context: Louis BerkhofLouis Berkhof

The Doctrine of God The Doctrine of Man in Relation to

God The Doctrine of the Person and

Work of Christ (including cross and resurrection)

The Doctrine of the Application of the Work of Redemption (primarily benefits for individuals)

The Doctrine of the Church and the Means of Grace

The Doctrine of Last Things

Newbigin and Systematic OrderNewbigin and Systematic Order

Reformed tradition: Christ, individual, church.

Christ, church, individual

“I found that the experience of missionary work compelled me to it. I saw that the kind of Protestantism in which I had been nourished belonged to a ‘Christendom’ context. In a missionary situation the Church had to have a different logical place”

Three ProblemsThree Problems

Atonement (and resurrection) read in systematic or topical context

Atonement (and resurrection) individualised

“personalized atonement” . . . “much nineteenth- and twentieth-century Christian thought has accepted the framework offered by the Enlightenment, in which the Christian faith has the role of rescuing people from the evil world, ensuring them forgiveness in the present and heaven hereafter.” (NT Wright)

When atonement is individualised . . .When atonement is individualised . . .

Shorn of eschatological context Shorn of cosmic breadth

Need to recover atonement “not merely as the source for

individual salvation, but as the place wherein begins the renewal of the creation —the new heavens and the new earth that God has promised and that the messianic community

anticipates.” (Rene Padilla)

When atonement is individualised . . .When atonement is individualised . . . Shorn of eschatological context Shorn of cosmic breadth Shorn of communal significance

Western Christianity “has concentrated on the salvation of the individual

soul but has frequently disregarded God’s purpose to create a new humanity by sacrificial love and justice for the poor.” Thus “in classical theories of the atonement, the work of Christ was unrelated to God’s intention to create a new humanity.” (Rene Padilla)

Three ProblemsThree Problems

Atonement (and resurrection) read in systematic or topical context

Atonement (and resurrection) individualised

Atonement (and resurrection) loses transforming power

Atonement Loses Transforming Atonement Loses Transforming PowerPower

Issues in justified individual rather than transformed community

Deals with guilt of sin not its power

Atonement becomes “saving transaction which allows sinful and violent people and fallen structures to remain substantially unchanged.” (John Driver)

Guilt Guilt andand power power

Augustus Toplady’s 18th century hymn Rock of Ages: “. . . be of sin the double cure; cleanse me from its guilt and power.”

Frank Bottome’s 19th century hymn Full Salvation: “Full salvation! Full salvation! From the guilt and power of sin.”

Different questions we can askDifferent questions we can ask

“How can I as an individual person be forgiven and obtain eternal life even if I am a sinner and deserve to be punished?”

“How can God renew the entirety of the creation and the whole of human life from the pollution of human sin?”

“How can God create a new community which already anticipates and embodies the life of the coming kingdom of God?”

Depends on the questions you askDepends on the questions you ask

Different answers Different images

E.g., How can individual be justified?

Substitutionary atonement

“. . . these and other possible questions and answers are not mutually exclusive.” (NT Wright)

“. . . to avoid a reductionist view of the atonement, we must affirm all the biblical images of the cross, and must confess the whole of its manifold significance—individual, communal, and cosmic.” (Goheen)

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection4. Conclusion: Eschatological

context, cosmic scope, transformative power, communal significance, missional implications of cross and resurrection

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

Context of gospel narratives Gospels in context of bigger

biblical story God’s mission: Cosmic

salvation

God’s MissionGod’s Mission Battle against evil to restore

creation Gospels: Climactic battle

between ‘kingdoms’ Jesus confronts evil in all

manifestations in word, deed, actions, practices

The cross “is the price paid for a victorious challenge to the powers of evil.” (Newbigin)

Victory in defeatVictory in defeat

“[Jesus’] calling is to the way of suffering, rejection, and death—to the way of the cross. He bears witness to the presence of the reign of God not by overpowering the forces of evil, but by taking their full weight upon himself. Yet it is in that seeming defeat that the victory is won.” (Newbigin)

Cross—Cosmic and EschatologicalCross—Cosmic and Eschatological

Death of Jesus gains for God’s kingdom the decisive victory over evil and sin

Accomplishes the goal of redemptive history: Restoration of creation

Cross has cosmic and eschatological significance

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

Context of gospel narratives Gospels in context of bigger

biblical story God’s mission: Cosmic

salvation Mission of God’s people: God’s

plan for Israel

Israel’s storyIsrael’s story Abraham chosen to sort out Adam Failure to ‘sort it out’ Judgment continued now under

Rome Israel’s sin had to be dealt with Israel’s “suffering and punishment

would . . . hasten the moment when Israel’s tribulation would be complete, when she would finally have been purified from her sin so that her exile could be undone at last.” (NT Wright)

Payment for Israel’s sinPayment for Israel’s sin

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for,that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins (Isa. 40:1-2).

Judgment path to new creationJudgment path to new creation

Israel’s suffering “not merely a state from which she would . . . be redeemed” but “part of the means by which that redemption would be effected.” (NT Wright)

Judgment to redemption, punishment to salvation, death to resurrection, labour pains to the birth of a new people and a new creation

One person to take Israel’s sin on their behalf to liberate them

Jesus takes judgment of IsraelJesus takes judgment of Israel Jesus portrayed as the one to take Israel’s

punishment to liberate them “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the

prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look your house is left to you desolate” (Matt. 23:37-38).

“The picture is of a farmyard fire; the hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and, when the fire has run its course, there will be found a dead hen, scorched and blackened, but with live chicks under her wing. Jesus seemed to be indicating his hope that he would take upon himself the judgement that was hanging over the nation and city.” (Wright)

Communal and missional Communal and missional significance of crosssignificance of cross

Communal significance: Jesus takes the punishment for his people

Missional significance: Liberate and restore them to their original calling

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

Affirm all biblical images

We are speaking about a happening, an event that can never be fully grasped by our intellectual powers and translated into a theory or doctrine. We are in the presence of a reality full of mystery, which challenges but exceeds our grasp. . . . Down the centuries, from the first witness until today, the church has sought and used innumerable symbols to express the inexpressible mystery of the event that is the center, the crisis of all cosmic history, the hinge upon which all happenings turn. Christ the sacrifice offered for our sin, Christ the substitute standing in our place,

Christ the ransom paid for our redemption, Christ the

conqueror casting out the prince of the world—these and other symbols have been used to point to the heart of the mystery. None can fully express it. It is that happening in which the reign of God is present (Newbigin).

Numerous Biblical ImagesNumerous Biblical Images John Driver: Ten clusters of images

that interpret the significance of the cross in terms of their significance for the mission of the church

Conflict-victory-liberation motif; vicarious suffering motif; archetypal images; martyr motif; sacrifice motif; expiation and the wrath of God; redemption-purchase motif; reconciliation image; justification image; and adoption-family images.

Joel Green: Kaleidoscope theory

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

Affirm all biblical images Focus on archetypal cluster of

images

Archetypal imageArchetypal image

Hebrew notion of ‘corporate personality’

One person represents all and bears the destiny of whole nation

Jesus represents whole creation and bears destiny of world

Rom. 5.12 - Rom. 6.14

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set cross and resurrection in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection Beginning of age to come

Resurrection “was thought of as the great event that YHWH would accomplish at the very end of ‘the present age’, the event which would constitute the ‘age to come.’” (Wright)

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set cross and resurrection in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection

Beginning of age to come Jesus, church, cosmos

Resurrection in Three StagesResurrection in Three Stages

First: Jesus—Dawning of new creation (Mk. 16.1-8)

Resurrection of Jesus: Resurrection of Jesus: Dawning of New CreationDawning of New Creation

Firstborn from the dead (Rev. 1.5) Firstfruits (1 Cor. 15.20) Pioneer or beginning (Col. 1.18; Heb. 2.10)

English word “beginning” does not get at the significance of what Paul has in mind.

“For what is intended is not merely that Christ was the First or formed a beginning in terms of chronological order; he was rather the Pioneer, the Inaugurator, who opened up the way. With him the great Resurrection became reality.” (Herman Ridderbos)

Resurrection in Three StagesResurrection in Three Stages

First: Jesus—Dawning of new creation (Mk. 16.1-8)

Second: Church—Resurrection life in foretaste (Rom. 6.1-14)

Third: Cosmos—Renewal of all things and all of human life (1 Cor. 15.12-28; Rom. 8.18-25)

Participation in resurrection life of Participation in resurrection life of new creation—already!new creation—already!

“. . . if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here” (2 Cor. 5:17).

“. . . if any man is in Christ, he belongs to the new creation.” (Herman Ridderbos)

“. . . have become part of God’s new creation” (David Bosch)

“The Church is a living demonstration of the power of, and of faith in, the resurrection, or it is not the Church of God.” (Markus Barth)

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set cross and resurrection in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection Beginning of age to come Jesus, church, cosmos Death and resurrection of

Jesus: Hinge of universal history

“. . . our faith is that this historic event is decisive for all history. . . . At the centre of history, which is both the history of man and the history of nature, stands the pivotal, critical, once-for-all event of the death and resurrection of Jesus. By

this event the human

situation is irreversibly

changed.” (Newbigin)

Spirit MessiahSpirit Messiah

SinDeathEvil

Satan

Knowledgeof GodLoveJoy

Justice

AGE TO COME

Prophetic ExpectationProphetic Expectation

OLD AGE

Powers of sin death evil Satan

Power of Spirit’s renewingwork

AGE TO COMEOLD AGE

New Testament FulfillmentNew Testament Fulfillment

Death end of old

Resurrection beginning of new

OLD NEW

death

resurrection

Romans 6.1-14Romans 6.1-14

Jesus’ death brings an ‘end’ to the old age and ruling power of sin

Jesus’ resurrection brings beginning to the age to come and new life

Church is community or people that participates and shares in what Jesus accomplished

Baptism incorporates us into that community

Baptism into his death: No longer under power of sin rules old age

Baptism into his resurrection: Enjoy now new life of age to come

Today’s reader of the Pauline letters is at first inclined to read the frequently recurring “in Christ” in an individual sense. This is frequently referred to as a “personal relationship to Christ” . . . Their reference is ecclesiological: those who are “in Christ” live within the realm of Christ’s Spirit, poured out since Easter, in which sin and death are no longer ruling powers. Thus “being in Christ” does not mean a purely individual relationship between Christ and the believer. It means belonging to the realm within which Christ rules,

and that realm is his body, the community. This is the

basis on which every individual is wholly bound to Christ and to her or his fellow Christians.

(Gerhard Lohfink)

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection4. Conclusion:

Eschatological context, cosmic scope, transformative power, communal significance of cross and resurrection

Death and Resurrection of JesusDeath and Resurrection of Jesus

Eschatological context: Death effectively ‘ends’ old age and resurrection begins age to come

Cosmic scope: Renewal of all creation and all of human life

Transformative power: Powers of the age to come/kingdom flow into history

Communal significance: Church is community that shares in powers of age to come

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection4. Conclusion:

Eschatological context, cosmic scope, transformative power, communal significance of cross and resurrection

Relate eschatological/cosmic, communal, and individual

Well, what about individual Well, what about individual benefits?benefits?

Newbigin critical of those who individualise “this mighty work of grace and talk as if the whole cosmic drama of salvation culminates in the words ‘For me; for me.’”

Soteriological self-centredness (Berkouwer)

Need for Copernican revolution Events:

First: cosmic and eschatological—new creation

Second: community shares in what events accomplished

Third: individuals participate in new creation and community that embodies it by faith and repentance

Newbigin’s Bible StudiesNewbigin’s Bible Studies

Dying and rising of Christ Dying and rising of the church Dying and rising of the world Dying and rising of the individual

Christian

“The theme of these studies is the pattern of cross and resurrection, the pattern of dying and rising, in the life of our Lord himself, of the Church, of the world, and of the believer.”

Recovering Cross and Resurrection Recovering Cross and Resurrection for a Missional Churchfor a Missional Church

1. Set atonement in narrative context

2. Numerous biblical images of atonement

3. Significance of resurrection4. Conclusion:

Eschatological context, cosmic scope, transformative power, communal significance of cross and resurrection

Relate eschatological/cosmic, communal, and individual

Missional implications

Missional ImplicationsMissional Implications

Placing events in narrative and eschatological framework

Israel called to participate in God’s mission to restore creation (Gen. 12.2-3; Ex. 19.3-6)

Chosen by God for the sake of the world

Embody God’s purpose before nations: Backward, forward, outward

Failure and prophets

ProphetsProphets In last days . . .

God will gather and renew Israel (Ezek. 36.24-27)

So that they can again play role in God’s story

Gathering and renewal associated with Messiah (eschatological shepherd) and Spirit

Then Gentile nations can participate in God’s salvation (Zech. 8.23)

Israel first, then nationsIsrael first, then nations

“We have to do with two successive events, first the call to Israel, and subsequently the redemptive incorporation of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God.” (Joachim Jeremias)

End first of all “a matter of winning Israel for the Gospel; and then Israel, believing, would become a light to the nations.” Jesus’ “apparent particularism is an expression of his universalism—it is because his mission concerns the whole world that he comes to Israel.” (Johannes Munck)

Gathering and restorationGathering and restoration Jesus as eschatological

shepherd begins gathering lost sheep of Israel (Matt.15.24)

“. . . the only significance of the whole of Jesus’ activity is to gather the eschatological people of God.” (Jeremias)

In Jesus we see God’s “eschatological action” to “restore or even re-establish his people, in order to carry out definitively and irrevocably his plan of having a holy people in the midst of the nations.” (Lohfink)

Gathering and restorationGathering and restoration

Jesus as eschatological shepherd begins gathering lost sheep of Israel (Matt.15.24)

Restore to missional calling (e.g., Matt.5-7)

In death and resurrection salvation of kingdom accomplished

God’s people restored to their God’s people restored to their missional rolemissional role

Takes punishment of failed people

Brings an end to old and ushers in new

Opens gates for power of age to come to flow into present

Renews and empowers God’s people to be what they’re meant to be

End held off: gathering in nations

Mission in last daysMission in last days

New direction: Sent to live amidst the nations

New form: Non-ethnic, non-geographical people

Renewed mission Foretaste of age to come/

resurrection life Preview of age to come/

resurrection life