Atonement: Michael J. Gorman’s The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant: A (Not So) New Model of the Atonement, Part 1

deathofthemessiahandthebirthofthenewcovenantLong-time readers know that I’m a fan of the writings of Michael J. Gorman. I consider his Inhabiting the Cruciform God: Kenosis, Justification, and Theosis in Paul’s Narrative Soteriology life defining — one of the most important books I’ve read. I did a series on it back in 2010. It’s up there with Mere Christianity as a book all church leaders should read.

The problems with most atonement theories

In The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant: A (Not So) New Model of the Atonement, Gorman now seeks to rework the church’s view of the atonement — no small task. And he does so in a way that should dramatically change how we think about the gospel and our salvation.

Atonement theology deals with the question of how we are saved. What is it about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that saves us?

He also notes that many denominations and many congregations focus on atonement theology to  the near exclusion of all else. How can the atonement be so disconnected from the rest of Christianity? Continue reading

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Additional Reviews of Muscle & a Shovel

muscleshovelMuscle and a Shovel by Michael Shank is a self-published book relating the story of his conversion from being a Baptist to a member of the Churches of Christ.

It’s gained immense popularity among the more conservative Church of Christ congregations. Some churches are buying copies by the box and distributing to their members. It’s a popular Bible class study.

I posted a series of articles reviewing the book beginning last year. In just the last few days, a number of further reviews have been published.

John Mark Hicks has published a 64-page review in the form of a short book, available at Amazon as a $2.99 Kindle ebook. He has also posted his review at his blog as a free .pdf download. As is true of everything he writes, this is well worth your time. Continue reading

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1 Corinthians 9:1-10 (an apostle’s rights; how to read Torah through Jesus)

corinth-anc-temp-apollo-acro-beyondChapter 9 appears at first to be an off-subject interruption between the discussions of meat sacrificed to idols in chapters 8 and 10, but Paul is actually making a point regarding Christians and the exercise of their rights at the expense of others.

Mathematicians would call this a “lemma,” or a proof made in order to prove a larger theorem. (“Lemma” is Greek for something received.)

To show the Corinthians how to live in love toward their weaker brothers, Paul gives himself as an example. Continue reading

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1 Corinthians 8:4-13 (meat sacrificed to idols)

corinth-anc-temp-apollo-acro-beyondPaul now gets to the issue at hand: meat offered to idols. As the Pulpit Commentary explains,

But Gentiles had always been accustomed to buy meat in the markets. Now, much of this meat consisted of remnants of animals slain as sacrifices, after the priests had had their share. … 

Theophrastus, in his ‘Moral Sketches,’ defines the close-handed man as one who, at his daughter’s wedding feast, sells all the victims offered except the sacred parts; and the shameless person as one who, after offering a sacrifice, salts the victim for future use, and goes out to dine with someone else. The market was therefore stocked with meat which had been connected with idol sacrifices.

The Christian could never be sure about any meat which he bought if he held it wrong to partake of these offerings. Further than this, he would — especially if he were poor — feel it a great privation to be entirely cut off from the public feasts (sussitia), which perhaps were often his only chance of eating meat at all; and also to be forbidden to take a social meal with any of his Gentile neighbours or relatives. 

Continue reading

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1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (Oh, to be known by God)

corinth-anc-temp-apollo-acro-beyondIn chapter 8, Paul begins a three-chapter discussion of food offered to idols. And that seems about as irrelevant to modern church life as can be.

Except this is, in fact, a passage the speaks immediately and importantly to the 21st Century church — especially the Church of Christ, because Paul is dealing with the “weak” and the “strong” and how they should get along in a single church.

You see, in the early church, separate congregations didnt exist for every slight difference on divorce and remarriage or whether instruments may be used in a wedding. There was one congregation per town, under one eldership, meeting in multiple houses — meeting all together by a river or the like, except when a synagogue or pagan official might look the other way and let them gather in a large enough building. Continue reading

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1 Corinthians 7:36-40 (remarrying in the Lord)

corinth-anc-temp-apollo-acro-beyond

(1Co 7:36-8:1 ESV)  36 If anyone thinks that he is not behaving properly toward his betrothed [or virgin], if his passions are strong, and it has to be, let him do as he wishes: let them marry — it is no sin.  37 But whoever is firmly established in his heart, being under no necessity but having his desire under control, and has determined this in his heart, to keep her as his betrothed, he will do well.  38 So then he who marries his betrothed does well, and he who refrains from marriage will do even better.  

The translation of this passage is difficult and controversial. Continue reading

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1 Corinthians 7:29-35 (living as though Jesus will return tomorrow)

corinth-anc-temp-apollo-acro-beyondWe are continuing to work our way through 1 Corinthians after having been interrupted by a couple of surgeries and a much needed vacation.

(1Co 7:29-31 ESV) 29 This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none,  30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no goods,  31 and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it. For the present form of this world is passing away.

Some commentators take these words to mean that Paul anticipates a Second Coming within his lifetime. That’s very unlikely. After all, a reading of the Apostolic Fathers (First and Second Century materials written by uninspired Christians) reveals no surprise or disappointment that Jesus had not yet already come. Continue reading

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Words from Phyllis Trible: Jacob Wrestles with God

jacobwrestlesIn the September/October issue of the Biblical Archaeology Review, Phyllis Trible, a professor of sacred literature at Union Theological Seminary, discusses the strange account of Jacob wrestling with the God (or a man or an angel — it’s not so clear).

(Gen 32:24-31 ESV) 24 And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 And he said to him, “What is your name?”

And he said, “Jacob.”

28 Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”

29 Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.”

But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him.

30 So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel [the face of God], saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.

Trible is a feminist and writes about her struggles reconciling the Old Testament with her feministic perspective. She concludes,

Moving this haunting story to my predicament at the boundary of faith and feminism, I pluck from it two memorable lines, one from Jacob and one from the storyteller. First, Jacob’s defiant words to the stranger I take as a challenge to the Bible itself: “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” I will not let go of the book unless it blesses me. I will struggle with it. I will not turn it over to my enemies that it curse me. Neither will I turn over to friends who wish to curse it. No, over against the cursing from either Bible-thumpers or Bible-bashers, I shall hold fast for blessing. But I am under no illusion that blessing, if it comes, will be  on my terms — that I will not be changed in the process. Indeed, the second line I pluck from the story undercuts that illusion: The storyteller reports: “The sun rose upon him [Jacob] … limping because of his hip.” Through this ancient story, appropriated anew, Biblical studies, faith and feminism converge for me. Wrestling with the words, to the light I limp.

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Brady Toops: “O For Grace”

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I finished N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God! Part 5

FaithfulnessofGodWe are continuing to reflect on N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God.

The impact of Wright’s teaching on the Churches of Christ and the church in America, regardless of denomination, should be simple and yet profound.

Like many American Protestant denominations, our preaching has been heavily weighted toward soteriology (salvation theology). That is, we preach the Five Steps of Salvation on Sunday night to a crowd all of whom have already been saved.

We are very focused on atonement theology (how salvation happens) and ecclesiology (how to do church, that is, worship and organization).

We have a very weak eschatology (theology of the Second Coming and afterlife) and our ethics (how to live as Christians) are heavily ruled based, with little connection between ethics and salvation or the afterlife. In fact, we sometimes seem to think that doctrinal purity makes up for any shortcoming in how we live. You see, there are just these rules about going to church, giving weekly, and being good moral people without tattoos or mixed bathing (what we called swimming in a pool or the Gulf of Mexico with the opposite sex). Continue reading

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