Edgework

16c. Condemnation/Depravity: The Fall, the third line depicted in the Greco-Roman narrative, landed all of humanity on a damning plain in which history trudged along in a state on which God had turned his back. Because humankind had fallen from a state of perfection, God could not look its way because a perfect God cannot look on sin and remain perfect. We all were locked in a material, dark, platonic cave far away from anything that resembled spirit, light, goodness and perfection. How could God look on such sin? So Augustine in the fourth century, followed by Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and many others found it appropriate to speak of “total depravity” to describe this human condition. This meant that all humans were devoid of any redeemable qualities; not even a tiny flame of dignity that could be fanned into godlikeness – only darkness, hopelessness and damnation prevailed. Until something major would happen to appease God’s wrath there literally was no hope for anyone. And once God would be able to look upon the whole mess of humanity because of this apocalyptic intervention, he would choose to save his “elect,” some retroactively as well as others who would be born in the future. For all others eternal condemnation remained.

Once theologians put on such philosophical blinders it was relatively easy to ignore the biblical narrative which tells a much different story. In reality it is a story of God appearing on the scene again and again to find his erring children who continually keep choosing to walk away from him. While their sins troubled him deeply and at times he declares he will destroy the whole lot, he regularly “repents” of this attitude and acts to save and bless his children. In spite of this repeated pattern of human folly and divine fidelity, God calls Abraham from a pagan nation and declares that he will bless all nations through his seed. Joseph is spared from death to become the savior of Abraham’s family in Egypt. Moses is empowered to lead his people to freedom. David is blessed in spite of his sinfulness. Indeed it is a story of human foolishness and God’s faithfulness. It is a story of goodness being created and recreated.

This is the narrative into which Jesus steps when he begins his ministry. He does not come to assuage an angry God whose back remains turned on a damned world, as the Greco-Roman narrative would have it. He comes in the spirit and power of the God who has been hounding his children from the dawn of time, cajoling them in every way imaginable to trust in his goodness and follow in his way. He comes with healing in his wings and compassion in his heart. In fact “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not counting men’s sins against them” (2 Corinthians 5:19).

16d: Salvation/Redemption: It is important to take note that ever since the time of Augustine in the fourth century A.D., most theological writing and debate about atonement have it situated on the fourth line of the Greco-Roman biblical narrative. According to that perspective, the world was wrapped in darkness, depravity sin – thus making it impossible for God to even look upon it, let alone forgive human sinfulness. God was subject to a quid-pro-quo principle which mandated that any offense against a deity had to be punished before forgiveness and restored relationships could happen. That is why most of the “theories of atonement” that emerged in the Western Church had God the Father sending God the Son (Jesus) to earth to be punished on behalf of sinful humanity. In order to be the perfect substitute to be punished, Jesus had to become human in order to take on the human condition, but he also had to be sinless in order to be the perfect sacrifice for sin. So as the story unfolds in the Greco-Roman telling of it, Jesus came to earth basically to suffer and die for sinful humanity in order for God to be able to forgive sin. Some theories have God the Father turning his face away from the suffering Christ on the cross so he could taste “hell” on our behalf. Some theories don’t go that far but do insist that Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross was at least orchestrated by God the Father, perhaps even in collaboration with the Spirit and the Son, as a means by which humans could be forgiven for their sins and restored to their original state of perfection once experienced in the Garden of Eden.

The irony is that if one begins with this background narrative, rooted though it is in platonic philosophy; it is not hard to find individual biblical references which would seem to support this storyline and thus give legitimacy to the various atonement theories that emerged. But the references used in this process must be wrested from the biblical narrative, which is at great odds with the Greco-Roman narrative, and transferred to that alien storyline without careful attention to the contexts in which they are written.

However, when the biblical narrative is read in a straight forward manner with the assumption that Jesus came to reveal more distinctly the “Hound of Heaven” who had been pursuing his people throughout the Old Testament story we are forced to rethink atonement theories developed within the Greco-Roman landscape. We find it astonishing, for example, that Jesus was known to be “a friend of sinners,” not averse to eating and drinking with them. He touched “unclean” people, allowing even a former prostitute to wash his feet. He pronounced forgiveness of sin without people even asking for it, as in the case of the paralytic lowered before him through the roof of a house. He healed the sick, gave sight to the blind and cast out demons that were enslaving God’s people. In representing the Kingdom of God, Jesus was faithful even unto death. But even in that death God was still in Christ reconciling the world to himself.