And yet, this atonement is no "get out of jail free" card as the moral rupture persists and deepens if we fail to "look to the cross." Before we were born we had already been forgiven. But if our will remains violent, depraved, vain, and selfish we continue to wallow in the mud like the prodigal son in a far country. Nothing changes about God's love for us in the cross. God's love has simply become visible to us within history. And yet, everything changes for us when we turn toward the cross. Everything changes when I, as the prodigal child, rise from the mud in "coming to my senses" and take my first step back toward home. The Father's love is our only hope. Our hearts will remain restless until they rest in Him.
Phrased more traditionally, confession, repentance, and conversion are absolutely critical. We must be transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. This is the flame of evangelism, to call all prodigals home. The church is a lighthouse on the shore of a raging, stormy sea. The vocation of Israel was to call all nations to the worship of God. As Gentile late-comers to Israel's story, we step into that vocation and mission. The church is called to make the love of God visible in history and to fulfill the Great Commission:
Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Beyond the moral rupture, there is also creation's ontological predicament, its ontological drop into contingency. Beyond forgiveness there remains the "last enemy" of death. As described in the last post, through the Incarnation God re-connects created being with Uncreated Being. This is the Christological mystery of the hypostatic union as described by Chalcedon:
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.
Famously, in the Chalcedon definition of Christ's "two natures" there are four negatives: without confusion, without change, without division, and without separation. I expect some of you might be getting lost in the metaphysical weeds here, so let me spell out the simple but critical point: In his person Christ unites two qualitatively different sources of being, the created and the Uncreated, without one replacing or mixing with the other. A unity that maintains an ontological difference is established. This "ontological bridge," as I described it in the last post, is called "the hypostatic union."
The establishment of this ontological connection is how Christmas saves us, how the Incarnation itself is salvific. The success and victory of the hypostatic union is demonstrated at Christ's resurrection. In Christ we see how created being survived death. In the resurrection we see how the ontological drop was and can be overcome. As it says in Romans 6: "We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him." With this ontological bridge established between created, contingent being, vulnerable as it is to death and decay, to God's Uncreated Being, we can now follow the ontological path trail-blazed by the resurrection. Resurrection overcomes the ontological drop. Romans 8:
You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Through the Holy Spirit our created being is connected God's Uncreated Being, giving us the same power to overcome death that was demonstrated in Christ's own resurrection. This is why Jesus says that we must be "born again" by the Spirit:
Jesus replied to Nicodemus, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
To overcome death the creature must consent to being "born again." We must walk across the ontological bridge. Connecting our flesh to Christ's Spirit is the only way to overcome our ontological contingency.
Here again we face the flame of evangelism. You must consent to your second birth. You must walk the ontological bridge that is Christ. You must be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You must step away from the shadow of non-being and into the Light.
Let me state this even more simply, given the theology I've been working out.
Human life exists between two poles, Being (creation ex Deo, "from God") and non-being (creation ex nihilo, "from nothing"). You are always moving toward one pole or the other, toward either Being or non-being. Morally, we describe this movement as toward either darkness or Light. Ontologically, we describe this movement as toward either death or Life. If you are walking toward non-being--into darkness and death--you must turn around. We call this turn metanoia, translated as "repentance" in our Bibles, but which literally means "to turn around." Anyone walking into non-being must "turn around" toward Being, Light and Life. Morally, this "turning around" means looking to the cross, confessionally confronting your sin in embracing the mercy of God. Ontologically, this turning around means "being born again" in the Spirit. Evangelism, therefore, in my "theology of everything," along with prophetic speech, has a simple, singular goal: Persuading people to turn around. From darkness to Light. From death to Life.
One way I think about the task of evangelism is that it seeks to overcome the despair of the creature by pointing toward Christ.
First, the guilty creature will despair. The shame-crippled creature will stumble. Consequently, we point the sinner toward the cross. The evangelist makes the love of God visible. Provision has been made. Believe. Confess. Repent. Rise from the mud and come back home.
Second, the creature shadowed by death will also despair. Life is haunted by contingency. All around, the creature beholds and suffers disease, decline, damage, and decay. Being fades into non-being. We walk through a vale of tears. The creature weeps, mourns, and suffers existential despair. Consequently, we point the creature toward the resurrection. Death has been defeated. Contingent being can be overcome by walking the ontological bridge that is Christ. But you must be filled with the Spirit that resurrected Jesus from the dead. Flesh, shadowed by non-being, cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Your corruptible and contingent being must be clothed in the pneumatic incorruptibility of the Spirit.
As Jesus said, you must be born again.
