If Christ Is The Answer, What Is The Question?
Bible Study
Questions Of Faith For Inquiring Believers
We live in a very secular age. Consequently, multitudes know little or nothing about the teaching of the Church of Jesus Christ. As a minister I am reluctant to utter religious terms like "sin," "salvation," or "atonement" without defining the meanings. When I mention Jacob and Esau, the Prodigal Son, or the Love Chapter, I must also reference them. I am reminded of a colleague who claims that he was teaching a new members class concerning the last week of the earthly ministry of Jesus. A man in his middle thirties, who was obviously new to Bible study, interrupted him. "You keep mentioning 'Pontius Pilate,' " the man said. "Well, I know what a pilot is, but what in the world is a 'Pontius Pilate'?"
We live in a time when the basic teachings of the Christian faith remain a mystery to multitudes. That has not always been true. Once the vast majority of the American people knew Bible stories because they were taught in school. The country was once so steeped in religious understandings that Christian theology could be absorbed by osmosis from the environment.
That time is no more. Today upon hearing that "Jesus saves," many want to ask, "Saves what?" Upon hearing that "Christ is the answer," many query further, "What is the question to which Christ is the answer?" To say, "Jesus saves," or "Christ is the answer" is to make claims that go to the heart of the Christian message. What do these terms mean?
It helps to begin with something that happened near the headwaters of the Jordan River, high in the Golan Heights, at a place called Caesarea Philippi. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, we are told that Jesus went there with his disciples. As they walked the dusty road, he asked them, "Who do people say that I am?" He must have meant, "What are people saying? What is the word on the street?" One after another his followers responded, "Some say you are John the Baptist, but others say Elijah and still others contend you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
The Master then focused the issue. "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah (or the Christ), the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:13-16). Peter meant that Jesus was the long-expected Promised One from God. Hundreds of years earlier, the Israelites began to speak of a Messiah that God was to raise up. This person was to restore Israel to the greatness it had known under the reign of great King David. Eventually this understanding evolved into the teaching that this one sent from God was to restore wholeness to human community. By his confession, Peter claimed that Jesus was the One. "You are the Christ. You are the Messiah."1
Down through the centuries, the Church has insisted that Jesus the Christ was both fully God and fully a human being. Modern minds stumble over this notion. It is also a concept that has puzzled every generation. "How can anyone be God and human at the same time?"
Personally, I find it easiest to understand this way: If you want to know what God is like, take a look at Jesus. The story is told of a little girl being put to bed. "Oh, Mommy," she pleads, "stay with me. I am afraid." Her mother says, "Don't be frightened. Remember God is with you." "I know that," she says, "but I want someone to stay with me who has a face."
God responded to this recurrent plea. When humankind pleaded, "I want someone to be with me who has a face," God responded. Sure enough, the human face of God was that of Jesus. The Master illustrated God living as a human being. Consequently, we know that God is kind, loving, forgiving, and understanding. To say that God is like Jesus means that God is approachable -- even for the smallest child. It means God never gives up on sinners -- like you and me. It means there is a special place in the heart of God for those society finds unloved and unlovable, unaccepted and unacceptable. In simplest terms, to say Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is to say that Jesus is God living in human form. To say Jesus is the Christ is to claim that the One from Galilee was the human face of God pressed against the windowpane of history.
Now, let us turn our attention to the issue of what we mean by Jesus as Savior. To understand, remember the Christian faith assumes human beings need saving. To claim that "Christ is the answer" is to insist that Jesus Christ is God's medicine for what is wrong with us. The word "salvation" and the word "salve" share the same root. It comes from the medical understanding "to heal." Salve is an ointment that heals wounds. A salve returns wholeness. To say, "Jesus saves," is to claim that in Christ, God heals us. God in Christ Jesus answers our deepest cry of distress with the promise of faith, hope, and love. Note well, however, that this presumes human beings and human community need healing.
From a different perspective, the need for a savior indicates human beings do not live up to potential. We can do better than we do. For instance, we have the capacity to live in peace and harmony. Instead, we hate, fight wars, gossip, and continually stir up trouble. The world has no shortage of food, but people still go hungry. We don't even always treat the ones we love the most with the care and respect of which we are capable. We need someone to make us whole. We need something to help us live up to our potential. We need a savior.
But how does that savior get the job done? In Christian theology, this question engages us in the doctrine of the atonement, meaning the at-one-ment. Over the centuries, Christians have espoused three major understandings of how God in Christ Jesus heals our estrangement from God and one another. Although historians and theologians may disagree, I find all three doctrines of atonement reasonable, meaningful, and applicable. Without burying you under the details, let me summarize.2
The most widely accepted understanding of atonement contends that Jesus died for our sins. The price for every shortcoming and every bad judgment, the punishment for every dirty rotten deed of every person in every age was paid off on the Cross of Christ.
This is called the "objective" understanding of atonement. It presumes that God is so offended by our sinful behavior that God demands some price to satisfy the need for justice.
There is nothing, however, that mere mortals have to offer that can satisfy God. Only Jesus, God made flesh, could pay the price. And when Jesus paid the price with his life on the cross, God was reconciled through the satisfaction of God's justice. Consequently, we are healed. Jesus as the Christ paid the price for our sinfulness.
This understanding of atonement raises some important questions. How can something that happened 2,000 years ago have any bearing on the present? How could the death of the Christ satisfy God's call for the punishment of the sins of the world? Some contend this notion of blood sacrifice and having to pay a price comes out of ancient religious practice and needs left in the past.
Others wonder why God would want to punish people rather than simply to offer them forgiveness. When our children offend us, we don't demand they pay a price. If they repent and ask to be forgiven, we forgive them. Why would God demand satisfaction?
While acknowledging those concerns, I contend this objective doctrine of atonement is still an incredibly important teaching. I frequently encounter people buried under the weight of guilt. They feel terrible about past behavior. More than anything they need the healing power of God's forgiveness. They will not simply accept that forgiveness. They believe their behavior has been so reprehensible that they need to be punished.
How good it is to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness for every sin in our past and every sin we commit into our future is ours for the accepting. The price for our forgiveness, our healing, was paid by the Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Oh, how liberating is that promise. It is called the objective understanding of the atonement because by what happened to Jesus, God was changed. The Cross satisfied God's demand for justice.
A second historic understanding of atonement holds that Jesus as the Christ did something to change people. Stated most succinctly, this "subjective" atonement holds that by his life Jesus set an example of proper living. The Christ heals us by being our role model. This is the WWJD doctrine of atonement. In any perplexing circumstance, ask yourself, "What Would Jesus Do?" Then do it. The subjective doctrine of atonement is so popular it is written on bumper stickers.
At one level, this makes a great deal of sense. The world would be a far better place if every Christian made every decision on the basis of simply following the example of Jesus. Do what Jesus would do!
Unfortunately, two problems quickly surface. First, we don't always know what Jesus would do. Questions of right and wrong can be very complicated. Second, and more significant, just knowing what Jesus would do does not mean we can do it. Having a good role model does not mean we will be good role model followers. Just knowing what to do never ensures doing it. All of us have done things we knew were wrong, but we did them anyway.
The third understanding, called the "dramatic," presents atonement as the result of Divine conflict and victory. Jesus the Christ came into the world to do battle with the evil forces that enslave human beings. The Christ even faced the greatest destructive force of all. By his resurrection, he destroyed the power of the grave. Consequently, we need not fear even death because it cannot destroy us.
This is not as alien to modern thinking as it first seems. To the person who does not have a problem with alcohol, it makes no sense to talk about "demon rum." That term makes a great deal of sense to the alcoholic. When it becomes a problem, it has what seems no less than a demonic hold on life. In that same way, sex, money, ego, and a host of other issues assume a suffocating power by becoming the most important pursuit in life.
Jesus faced every one of our fears and problems. He broke their power. God promises in Christ Jesus that whatever the force of evil we confront, whatever the fear that enslaves us, it can be defeated. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Let me pull these loose strands together this way: When a bride and groom stand before the congregation on their wedding day, they pledge themselves before God, family, and friends to do whatever is necessary to forge a loving relationship. In that same way, God in Christ Jesus pledged himself forever to the human race and to each of us. God promised for better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health to do whatever is necessary to make it possible for us to live victoriously. Whatever we need in this journey, God will supply.
If you are burdened by guilt, know that Christ died for your sins. If you struggle knowing right from wrong, understand that Jesus the Christ served as your role model. If you are in bondage to fear or habit, know that God has broken the power of evil and that you can do it too. God will provide the strength you need. God in Christ Jesus has made a covenant with humankind. It is an agreement of God's faithfulness. It is God's promise never to give up on us.
____________
1. The Bible uses the words Messiah and Christ interchangeably. Christ is Greek; Messiah, Hebrew.
2. I rely heavily in this discussion on Gustav Aulen's Christus Victor.
For Further Reflection And/Or Discussion
With which doctrine of atonement do you most agree? Why?
What does "salvation" mean to you?
We live in a time when the basic teachings of the Christian faith remain a mystery to multitudes. That has not always been true. Once the vast majority of the American people knew Bible stories because they were taught in school. The country was once so steeped in religious understandings that Christian theology could be absorbed by osmosis from the environment.
That time is no more. Today upon hearing that "Jesus saves," many want to ask, "Saves what?" Upon hearing that "Christ is the answer," many query further, "What is the question to which Christ is the answer?" To say, "Jesus saves," or "Christ is the answer" is to make claims that go to the heart of the Christian message. What do these terms mean?
It helps to begin with something that happened near the headwaters of the Jordan River, high in the Golan Heights, at a place called Caesarea Philippi. In the sixteenth chapter of Matthew, we are told that Jesus went there with his disciples. As they walked the dusty road, he asked them, "Who do people say that I am?" He must have meant, "What are people saying? What is the word on the street?" One after another his followers responded, "Some say you are John the Baptist, but others say Elijah and still others contend you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
The Master then focused the issue. "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Messiah (or the Christ), the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:13-16). Peter meant that Jesus was the long-expected Promised One from God. Hundreds of years earlier, the Israelites began to speak of a Messiah that God was to raise up. This person was to restore Israel to the greatness it had known under the reign of great King David. Eventually this understanding evolved into the teaching that this one sent from God was to restore wholeness to human community. By his confession, Peter claimed that Jesus was the One. "You are the Christ. You are the Messiah."1
Down through the centuries, the Church has insisted that Jesus the Christ was both fully God and fully a human being. Modern minds stumble over this notion. It is also a concept that has puzzled every generation. "How can anyone be God and human at the same time?"
Personally, I find it easiest to understand this way: If you want to know what God is like, take a look at Jesus. The story is told of a little girl being put to bed. "Oh, Mommy," she pleads, "stay with me. I am afraid." Her mother says, "Don't be frightened. Remember God is with you." "I know that," she says, "but I want someone to stay with me who has a face."
God responded to this recurrent plea. When humankind pleaded, "I want someone to be with me who has a face," God responded. Sure enough, the human face of God was that of Jesus. The Master illustrated God living as a human being. Consequently, we know that God is kind, loving, forgiving, and understanding. To say that God is like Jesus means that God is approachable -- even for the smallest child. It means God never gives up on sinners -- like you and me. It means there is a special place in the heart of God for those society finds unloved and unlovable, unaccepted and unacceptable. In simplest terms, to say Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is to say that Jesus is God living in human form. To say Jesus is the Christ is to claim that the One from Galilee was the human face of God pressed against the windowpane of history.
Now, let us turn our attention to the issue of what we mean by Jesus as Savior. To understand, remember the Christian faith assumes human beings need saving. To claim that "Christ is the answer" is to insist that Jesus Christ is God's medicine for what is wrong with us. The word "salvation" and the word "salve" share the same root. It comes from the medical understanding "to heal." Salve is an ointment that heals wounds. A salve returns wholeness. To say, "Jesus saves," is to claim that in Christ, God heals us. God in Christ Jesus answers our deepest cry of distress with the promise of faith, hope, and love. Note well, however, that this presumes human beings and human community need healing.
From a different perspective, the need for a savior indicates human beings do not live up to potential. We can do better than we do. For instance, we have the capacity to live in peace and harmony. Instead, we hate, fight wars, gossip, and continually stir up trouble. The world has no shortage of food, but people still go hungry. We don't even always treat the ones we love the most with the care and respect of which we are capable. We need someone to make us whole. We need something to help us live up to our potential. We need a savior.
But how does that savior get the job done? In Christian theology, this question engages us in the doctrine of the atonement, meaning the at-one-ment. Over the centuries, Christians have espoused three major understandings of how God in Christ Jesus heals our estrangement from God and one another. Although historians and theologians may disagree, I find all three doctrines of atonement reasonable, meaningful, and applicable. Without burying you under the details, let me summarize.2
The most widely accepted understanding of atonement contends that Jesus died for our sins. The price for every shortcoming and every bad judgment, the punishment for every dirty rotten deed of every person in every age was paid off on the Cross of Christ.
This is called the "objective" understanding of atonement. It presumes that God is so offended by our sinful behavior that God demands some price to satisfy the need for justice.
There is nothing, however, that mere mortals have to offer that can satisfy God. Only Jesus, God made flesh, could pay the price. And when Jesus paid the price with his life on the cross, God was reconciled through the satisfaction of God's justice. Consequently, we are healed. Jesus as the Christ paid the price for our sinfulness.
This understanding of atonement raises some important questions. How can something that happened 2,000 years ago have any bearing on the present? How could the death of the Christ satisfy God's call for the punishment of the sins of the world? Some contend this notion of blood sacrifice and having to pay a price comes out of ancient religious practice and needs left in the past.
Others wonder why God would want to punish people rather than simply to offer them forgiveness. When our children offend us, we don't demand they pay a price. If they repent and ask to be forgiven, we forgive them. Why would God demand satisfaction?
While acknowledging those concerns, I contend this objective doctrine of atonement is still an incredibly important teaching. I frequently encounter people buried under the weight of guilt. They feel terrible about past behavior. More than anything they need the healing power of God's forgiveness. They will not simply accept that forgiveness. They believe their behavior has been so reprehensible that they need to be punished.
How good it is to share the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness for every sin in our past and every sin we commit into our future is ours for the accepting. The price for our forgiveness, our healing, was paid by the Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Oh, how liberating is that promise. It is called the objective understanding of the atonement because by what happened to Jesus, God was changed. The Cross satisfied God's demand for justice.
A second historic understanding of atonement holds that Jesus as the Christ did something to change people. Stated most succinctly, this "subjective" atonement holds that by his life Jesus set an example of proper living. The Christ heals us by being our role model. This is the WWJD doctrine of atonement. In any perplexing circumstance, ask yourself, "What Would Jesus Do?" Then do it. The subjective doctrine of atonement is so popular it is written on bumper stickers.
At one level, this makes a great deal of sense. The world would be a far better place if every Christian made every decision on the basis of simply following the example of Jesus. Do what Jesus would do!
Unfortunately, two problems quickly surface. First, we don't always know what Jesus would do. Questions of right and wrong can be very complicated. Second, and more significant, just knowing what Jesus would do does not mean we can do it. Having a good role model does not mean we will be good role model followers. Just knowing what to do never ensures doing it. All of us have done things we knew were wrong, but we did them anyway.
The third understanding, called the "dramatic," presents atonement as the result of Divine conflict and victory. Jesus the Christ came into the world to do battle with the evil forces that enslave human beings. The Christ even faced the greatest destructive force of all. By his resurrection, he destroyed the power of the grave. Consequently, we need not fear even death because it cannot destroy us.
This is not as alien to modern thinking as it first seems. To the person who does not have a problem with alcohol, it makes no sense to talk about "demon rum." That term makes a great deal of sense to the alcoholic. When it becomes a problem, it has what seems no less than a demonic hold on life. In that same way, sex, money, ego, and a host of other issues assume a suffocating power by becoming the most important pursuit in life.
Jesus faced every one of our fears and problems. He broke their power. God promises in Christ Jesus that whatever the force of evil we confront, whatever the fear that enslaves us, it can be defeated. There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.
Let me pull these loose strands together this way: When a bride and groom stand before the congregation on their wedding day, they pledge themselves before God, family, and friends to do whatever is necessary to forge a loving relationship. In that same way, God in Christ Jesus pledged himself forever to the human race and to each of us. God promised for better, for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health to do whatever is necessary to make it possible for us to live victoriously. Whatever we need in this journey, God will supply.
If you are burdened by guilt, know that Christ died for your sins. If you struggle knowing right from wrong, understand that Jesus the Christ served as your role model. If you are in bondage to fear or habit, know that God has broken the power of evil and that you can do it too. God will provide the strength you need. God in Christ Jesus has made a covenant with humankind. It is an agreement of God's faithfulness. It is God's promise never to give up on us.
____________
1. The Bible uses the words Messiah and Christ interchangeably. Christ is Greek; Messiah, Hebrew.
2. I rely heavily in this discussion on Gustav Aulen's Christus Victor.
For Further Reflection And/Or Discussion
With which doctrine of atonement do you most agree? Why?
What does "salvation" mean to you?
