Category: theology

Election for the Sake of All

~ Alex Poulos ~ Leave a comment

I was listening to a podcast the other day (godpod from HTB in London), and came across a fascinating interpretation of election, or God’s choice of people to be saved.  It’s a tough doctrine to think about.  Some say that God chooses (elects) only particular persons to be saved.  The logical implication of this is that God chooses some to be damned, if only implicitly.  I’ve always found that hard to reconcile with the love of God, and it’s perhaps the biggest reason I’m not a Calvinist.  The proposal I came across concerning election turned the doctrine on its head.  Basically, instead of election being for the sake of the elect, it is for the sake of all.  Instead of God choosing the chosen people for the sake of the chosen people, it is for the sake of all.

The group discussing it traced lightly over Adam, Abraham, and Israel.  God’s choice runs through the whole Old Testament as a major theme.  God chooses Adam to exercise Godly dominion and care for his creation separate from all the other created beings.  God chooses Noah to preserve a remnant to repopulate the earth.  God chooses Abraham to bless the whole world.  He chooses Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and all the children of Israel to bear his message.  He chooses the kings and the prophets.  In no case was the election for the sake of the elect;  rather it was for the sake of those who the elect would serve.  Adam’s election was not for Adam; it was for the whole creation.  Abraham’s election was for the good of the whole earth.  “The scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham, ‘all nations will be blessed through you.’”  (Galatians 3:8)

Tracing the idea further, God’s choice of Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph must be seen as actions to create and sustain the promise to Abraham.  God’s choice of Moses was not for Moses.  It was for Israel, and in turn all those whom Israel was called to bless.  The same with the judges, the kings, and the prophets.  Ultimately we arrive at Jesus, who is the ultimate Elect one.  He is God’s chosen vessel to redeem humanity.  All of God’s choices and actions prior to him come to climax in him.  All election after Jesus stands in the shadow (or light perhaps) of his life, death, and resurrection.  But even Jesus’ election was not for him, but because God loved the world, and longed to get the whole creation project back on track, to redeem and restore it.

This has huge implications for how we understand God’s choice of us.  We are not chosen to sit on a pew and “sit, soak and sour,” as my pastor used to say.  We are instead God’s chosen vessel to bring redemption and restoration to the whole world.  Our election is rooted not only in God’s love for us, but it must go forward into our vocation to “bless all nations.”  This idea is much more challenging.  It compels us to always look beyond ourselves, to look to a creation which is “groaning in the pains of childbirth,” eagerly yearning for the “revelation of the children of God.”  God chooses us that he may “choose” others.  Our faithfulness to this call matters.

Reflections on Justification, Part 3

~ Alex Poulos ~ 4 Comments

I’ve ruminated on Justification in two previous posts: here and here.

I took the scenic route in the last post, veering away from the topic of justification, going through my own development and growth.  I looked especially at eschatology: the study of the last things.  I discussed the now/not-yet tension we live in, and how understanding this has been tremendously helpful as I try to make sense of the New Testament.  Now, I’ll try to apply this to justification, mostly rehashing what Wright says in his book.

Justification has usually been understood in Protestantism as more or less synonymous with salvation.  It’s something which takes place when you place your faith in Christ’s death and resurrection.  At this time, God declares us innocent from the charges of sin which have been made against us on the basis of Christ’s sacrifice for us.  I’m not familiar with any “not-yet”  aspect of justification in traditional Protestant thought.

What Wright argues is that justification has two parts: one part happens in the present, more or less as I’ve described in the last paragraph.  (He takes issue with some of the specifics, mainly the Reformed notion of “imputation,” but leaves most of it intact)  However, this is not the complete picture.  Paul also speaks of a final justification in Romans 2, where those “by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he [God] will give eternal life” This “not-yet” justification will take place on the last day, and looks quite a bit like justification according to works.  How does this fit in with the justification by faith Paul discusses later in Romans?

As mentioned previously, justification occurs in two parts.  The first justification is by faith; this takes place in the present.  This justification takes place when we trust in Christ for our ultimate vindication.  When this happens, the Holy Spirit comes into our lives and empowers us to live lives in anticipation of the last day.  He empowers us to persist in doing good, to seek glory, honor, and immortality, and to not do the evil things which incur judgment.  Our justification by faith in the present anticipates the judgment on the final day; it is the “assurance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen” as the letter to the Hebrews states.

I haven’t worked out the details.  I’m not sure how the Holy Spirit’s work within us interacts with the work of Jesus on the cross (I’m thinking the latter enables the former). I’m not sure how this outline of justification affects the perseverance of the saints (can we, or can we not lose our salvation?).  I do, however, think that Wright offers a compelling view of justification.  It’s deeply rooted in scripture, and has helped me make much more sense of both my experience and the scriptures.  If you’re still curious, there’s plenty on his website to read, or you can just read the book.  It’s quite good :-)

~alex

Further Reflections on Justification

~ Alex Poulos ~ Leave a comment

The book discussed here is N.T. Wright’s Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision.

I’ve had this book finished for a little while now, trying to figure out what to say about it.  Frankly, I’ll need to read it at least once more to get the message Wright presents.  I followed the argument easily when he was discussing letters I was familiar with (especially Galatians).  However, I’m not nearly well versed enough in Romans to follow his argument there, and it’s on Romans that the thrust of his argument lies.  Once I do some in depth study of Romans, especially some memorization, this book will make much more sense to me.

My own thinking has grown a lot through reading Wright.  I grew up with a fairly typical baptist/pentecostal/protestant understanding of salvation.  I was taught that we were saved through believing in Jesus, and not by doing good deeds. This happened by saying a prayer where I confessed my sins and stated that I believed in Jesus’ sacrificial death on the cross and in his resurrection.  In believing this, I was saved from the just penalty of sin, namely eternal suffering in hell.  Later on, I learned a bit more.  There was a difference between positional righteousness and actual/practical righteousness.  We were positionally righteous because the Father looks at us and sees Jesus living in us, yet we still had to struggle with our flesh.  I had a hard time understanding this issue.  Luther’s simul justus et peccator (at the same time righteous and sinful) didn’t make much sense to me.  I didn’t understand justification very well.  How do we reconcile the fact that we’re “new creations” (2 Cor 5:17) with the fact that Christians very clearly can still sin?  After justification was sanctification, the process of becoming more like God, more holy and righteous.  This wasn’t necessary for final salvation, but was expected by God (which also didn’t make much sense).  I didn’t have any real concept of glorification.

What has been most helpful as I waded through this theological milieu has been a firmer understanding of eschatology.  More specifically, it was understanding the now/not-yet tension of Christianity.  Eschatology is the study of the last things.  Basically, I came to see that all of these big theological words (justification, salvation, sanctification, glorification) all need to be understood with the now/not-yet tension with which they’re discussed in the New Testament.  For instance, sanctification is usually thought of as a process which follows justification, not an event.  We are continually formed into Christ’s image as we pray, serve others, read scripture, etc.  However, Paul writes to the Corinthians with these words: “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy…”  Here sanctification is an event which had already happened.  We see the same tension with salvation.  In Ephesians 2:8, we have been saved by faith.  In Philippians 3:20-21 we are eagerly awaiting a savior from heaven, the Lord Jesus Christ.  Romans tells us that those he justified, he also glorified.  The same verses in Philippians tell us that he will transform our lowly bodies and make them like his glorious one.

This brings us to what, in long terms, might be expressed as the eschatological tension of Christianity.  We live the uncomfortable tension between what God has done in Jesus (the dramatic defeat of sin and death and the inauguration of the New Creation),  and the final consummation (when God will finally be all in all, when he’ll wipe every tear from our eyes, and where sin and death will be judged finally and banished forever).  By faith, we eagerly wait and hope for that day.  This hope transforms how we live.  We still suffer in the flesh.  We long for the “putting of of our earthly tents” and for our “heavenly home” as Paul expresses in II Corinthians 5.  We feel the groanings of the present age.  We still see sin and death working hard around us, even in us.  However, as those who are presently seated with Christ in Heavenly places (Ephesians 2:6) we pray as Jesus taught us, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  We watch as God graciously gives us “down payments” on the age to come.  We see him transform lives, heal bodies, and restore communities.  We see him ease suffering, and do basically what Jesus did 2000 years ago in Palestine.

This post left its origins in justification and became much broader.  In a future post, I’ll bring it back to justification.  I’ll talk about how this eschatological tension affect the two justifications mentioned in Romans: the justification by faith and the justification according to works (Romans 2:6-11 and  Romans 3:28).

~alex

Reflections on Tom Wright’s Justification

~ Alex Poulos ~ 1 Comment

I wanted to record a few little bits as I go along reading N.T. Wright’s book on Justification. More will be coming as I continue to read through the book. Hopefully I’ll get to write a review of the whole book once I finish.

I just finished up his bit of exegesis on Corinthians. His reading of 2 Corinthians 5 I found challenging, as I often do when I read Wright. I think he’s correct in his exegesis, but it does fly in the face of how I’ve heard that passage read and read it myself for years. However, it makes much more sense of the text. As I recall, the argument is basically that the end of 2 Cor 5 (especially the "that we might become the righteousness of God" part) is the climax to the 3 chapter long expose on the nature of his apostleship. The we here functions first to refer to the apostles. The point of becoming the righteousness of God is not so much we’re not going to hell, or we’re pardoned from sin, or that we’re going to heaven but that through the apostles (and in turn the whole church) God is making his plea of reconciliation to the world, God is displaying his covenant faithfulness in us (faithfulness to the covenant is Wright’s definition of righteousness as understood in second temple Judaism and early Christianity). We have made the primary focus of this passage what Paul has made the implicit, underlying assumption. Paul is not talking primarily about what happens to us when we become Christians, he’s rather discussing his apostolic calling, and indeed the call of the entire church. By dying and rising with Christ, by the washing of baptism and the seal of the Holy Spirit, in the power and wisdom of the Spirit we call out to the world: "be reconciled to God!" As usual, Wright’s reading of the text, though not always agreeing with the Protestant tradition which I’ve grown up in, does give me the "Aha!"’ moment. Scripture makes much more sense than it did before.

His comments on Ephesians, too were interesting. In our Protestant zeal to divorce soteriology (how we get saved) from ecclesiology (our beliefs about the church), we’ve lost the New Testament’s very high ecclesiology. Frankly, it’s hard for me to reconcile Paul’s picture of a glorified church with our rather spotty track record over the past 2,000 years. I suppose that’s another part of learning to live with the eschatological tension, the tension which groans in the present because we’ve experience a down payment of what’s to come. I do find it comforting that the primitive church was far less perfect than we sometimes imagine it. Paul too, as he wrote Ephesians, knew that the church was not perfect. He knew that racial tensions were rampant, and that false prophets and teachers abounded. His letters to the Corinthians showed how "colorful" the church could be. Yet he still paints the broad, view of a jew+gentile church, one which is seated in heavenly places with Christ, which is, indeed, the bride of Christ. It’s a fascinating picture which Paul paints for us, and understanding the jew+gentile tension certainly helps it resonate more deeply within me.

Thanks for reading!

The Holy Spirit and the Family of God (From Galatians)

~ Alex Poulos ~ Leave a comment

[This was composed for and originally posted on my campus ministry’s website: http://xa-ncsu.com/blog/post/38 on August 26, 2009]

A few words are in order before I dive into the text. First, welcome! I’m hoping that this blog will be, among other things, a delightful record of our study of God. More than that, I’m hoping that it will be a challenging record of God’s study of us. As we gaze upon God, we are hopefully challenged, inspired, amazed, and humbled. We feel love and love; receive grace, and give it. What I hope to highlight in this post, primarily through the letter of Galatians, is the familial aspects of the Trinity. More specifically, I want to examine the role the Holy Spirit plays in God’s family. Hopefully this will help us as a group relate better to the person of the Holy Spirit, and better understand his role as a member of the Trinity.

Because I’m drawing mostly from Galatians, a little bit of context for the letter is due. This is one of Paul’s first letters, written to a young and budding group of believers in Galatia, a church which Paul himself had founded. The church was budding, but also had problems. While the church was predominately Gentile (non Jewish), a group of people, presumably Jews, were throwing young Christians into confusion. These people were insisting that faith in Jesus was not enough, that what truly marked God’s family was the Jewish law, especially circumcision. This was causing all sorts of dissension within the church, creating division rather than unity. Paul spent most of his effort addressing this problem.

Paul responds by first establishing his authority. Although he formerly persecuted the church, he had had an experience with the risen Jesus that was separate from those of the 12 apostles. He had received revelation directly from Jesus; he hadn’t made up the gospel or gotten it from someone else. Nevertheless, he was in agreement with the other apostles. He had stayed with them on several occasions.

In chapter 3, Paul launches into a detailed examination of the Old Testament. His goal here is to show that everyone, whether Jew or Gentile, is to be part of God’s family. Nothing more is required. In fact, by going further, one is in danger of separating what God intended to be joined. Paul goes back to Abraham, arguing that the promise given to Abraham is not set aside by the Mosaic law. Rather, the law was “put in charge to lead us to Christ.” His entire is argument is beyond the scope of this post, but I believe his goal in chapter 3 is to get to verse 26: “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” He wants the Galatians to realize that they are already members of God’s family. Because of Christ’s work, all of those with faith in Christ Jesus are part of the family. Faith becomes the determining marker of God’s family. It’s not circumcision, gender, or social status: only faith.

Chapter 4 begins by noting that, not only are we children, but we have received an inheritance. This inheritance is the “spirit of his son … by which we call out ‘Daddy! Father!'” By the time he returns to Old Testament discussion in verse 21, he continues to discuss family. This time, he uses the story of Hagar and Sarah to illustrate the fact that they are children of the promise, not the children born into slavery. This in turn launches into a discussion of Christian liberty in chapter 5. Finally, in chapter 6 he exhorts them to keep running the race, to focus on the cross of Christ, to not give up or give in.

And where is the Holy Spirit in this? His activity pervades throughout Paul’s thinking and writing. The aspect I wish to bring light to is the Spirit’s activity in the family of God. For Paul, the Holy Spirit is intimately connected with the becoming a Christian, with becoming part of the family. In chapter 4, he declares that, just as Isaac was born by the power of the Spirit, so were we. Also, the Spirit does what the law cannot, impart life. What strikes me is not only how personal the Holy Spirit is, but how active he is in the family of God. The Eastern Orthodox churches, which have historically had a much fuller view of the Holy Spirit than the West, have sometimes caricatured the Western view of God as “two guys and a bird.” But we see the Holy Spirit birthing us as sons and daughters, imparting our very life in God, our breath in God. We see him bearing witness to this with miracles. We see this all on the basis of faith in the Jesus, and not our background. As we try to walk by the Spirit, may we not view him as a mysterious force, or as somehow less a person that the Father and the Son. Instead, may we walk with him as he is, a vivacious, active God who births, marks, and testifies to our membership in the family of God, who empowers us to overcome the sinful nature, and in whom we eagerly await the judgment day, the day where God will put the whole world to rights and fulfill new creation.

The Inaugural Post

~ Alex Poulos ~ Leave a comment

So this is my first post in the biblioblogging world. I look forward to joining a community, indeed a conversation, which I’ve immensely enjoyed following thus far. My hope here is to grow in faith as I wrestle with ideas. Writing forces me to think a bit more coherently than I would otherwise. My reflections will likely pertain to biblical studies, but will likely venture off that path at certain points. Hopefully, there will be plenty of exegesis. My hope is to dig into the biblical world(s) and hear the words as they were originally heard. I pray I’ll have ears to hear and eyes to see. To this end I’m studying koine Greek. I’m having a blast so far (and trying not to bug those around me ;-) )

I’ll also be reflecting on the books I read. I could sit in a bookstore for hours, and I give a fair amount of my paycheck to amazon. I’m rather blessed to have access to several university libraries (including the Duke Divinity one!), so I’m hoping this blog will spur on more, quality reading.  I’m hoping too my writing will improve! Being a computer science major means that I don’t have the outlet for the humanities I once had, so keeping my communication skills sharp will be quite helpful. I’ll finish this inaugural post off with a list of what I’m reading or studying:

  • Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision – N.T. Wright
  • Basics of Biblical Greek (and workbook) – Bill Mounce
  • My Utmost for His Highest – Oswald Chambers
  • ESV Study Bible (Strange because I’m thoroughly Arminian and probably more egalitarian than anything else; still a treat to have)

Some unfinished works:

  • Confessions – St Augustine. I’m working through these very slowly
  • Cost of Discipleship- Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Temporary hiatus.

Well, a prayer of dedication is in order. To you, triune God, I devote these writings. May I write as one having insight into the mystery of Christ, which you, O Father, have poured into us by the Holy Spirit. May I think and act as christian, as one who bears the image of the triune God, as one who has been forgiven, and as one who eagerly anticipates the renewal of all things, the parousia, the new creation. To you, blessed God, be all glory, all power, all honor, and all strength. Amen.