| From
the Church on the Hill
by D. Eric Williams Pastor, Cottonwood Community Church pastor@CottonwoodCommunityChurch.org What exactly are we saying if we claim that Christianity is more about corporate narrative than salvation for the individual? Or, better yet, what are we not saying? To begin with, we are not saying that God has no interest in saving individuals from hell. We are not saying we can ignore repentance of sin and reliance upon Jesus Christ for salvation. We are not saying Church membership (or baptism or participation in the Lord's supper or whatever) is sufficient for saving one's soul. Nonetheless, when we claim Christianity is more about corporate narrative than salvation of the individual we are saying the individual is saved for a purpose far greater than himself. You see, when God created the world he did so for a reason. That reason was to bring glory to himself. Furthermore, he determined he would be glorified through the agency of human beings. It is not as if Yahweh required mankind for the job, it is that he desired this to be so. In other words, God entrusted the purpose of God glorifying care and cultivation of creation to human beings for his own purpose and – yes – for his glory. The problem is, mankind rejected that privilege and rebelled against the Creator. This does not mean God had to come up with “plan B.” Indeed it had always been in the mind of the Father that the eternal son would be the man through whom proper dominion of creation would take place. It had always been the purpose of God for the eternal son to take upon himself human flesh and, as the eschaton Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45-49), to inaugurate the rule of God. Thus, we who are found in Christ (individually saved from our sins through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus) are called to take dominion over creation. We do this as guests in the house of the Creator not as “robber barons” who strip the land of his riches and move on. Moreover, followers of Jesus Christ are not exiles in a hostile world awaiting rescue but are called to play a vital role in the larger purpose of creation. For too long the Church has adopted a Gnostic and existential view, For too long the Church has believed that this creation is damaged beyond repair and that the only way it will recall the original Edenic state is to be destroyed and remade. This is not what the Bible teaches. Just as we have been made new in the resurrection power of Jesus Christ, likewise, creation is made new as believers live in resurrection power bringing our life and arena of activity under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. In his letter to the church in Galatia Paul said, But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and upon the Israel of God (Galatians 6:14-16). As N.T. Wright says concerning this passage, “it is the cosmos that has been crucified, not merely Paul's perception of the cosmos. ...a new reality has been brought into being that determines the destiny of the whole creation. That is why Paul can go on at once to speak of 'new creation'” (Paul And The Faithfulness of God, pg. 478). In other words, For God so loved the world [cosmos] that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16, explanatory brackets added). Yes, our Father in heaven is interested in individual souls saved from hell but his interest in those souls concerns their participation in the eternally intended Grand Adventure. |
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