Christian Existence: Human Reality and Divine Mystery
Darryl K. Williams
May 6, 2002
HT252 - Introduction to Theology
Introduction
Christians realize they cannot understand and usually don’t question
the miraculous work of grace God does in the hearts and minds and souls of
individuals to bring them to salvation from sin, death, and the devil. We accept that work of the Holy Spirit as a
divine mystery. We accept that God chose
us, and we give thanks for it. But it is
a mistake to focus on that choice as bearing only on our eternal destinies and
ignore what Scripture says about the responsibilities of Christian
existence.
Just as there are both divine
mystery and human reality of Christ, represented by His two natures, there are
both divine mystery and human reality of Christian existence. If we are “created in Christ Jesus for good
works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life,”[1] how are we to know
what those good works are, and how are we able to accomplish them? What is this
“way of life” intended for the Christian, and what is the role of the Church in
it? It is the purpose of this short
paper to give brief and superficial and incomplete, though hopefully not incorrect,
answers to these questions which have occupied the minds of great thinkers and
spawned volumes of brilliant writing through the centuries.
The Human Reality of Christian Existence
Salvation in the New Testament is both event and process,
and source of both assurance and hope. Jesus
certainly talked to His followers about final judgment, a place in His Father’s
house, paradise, and mansions, but He talked more about the reality of
challenges of the Christian life. He
restated and explained the application of the Old Testament law to the daily
life of the believer. He also carefully
taught the appropriate relationship between the believer and God in his
instructions on prayer and worship. For
Jesus, the point was not to just hang in there hoping for escape from
punishment and a great reward sometime in the future but to live an unselfish
life of love and worship and service to God and fellow mankind.
Also in support of salvation as both event and process, St.
Paul, in his epistles to the churches, wrote of believers having been saved[2], being saved[3], and hoping for
salvation.[4] Paul’s emphasis, like
that of Jesus, was on the Christian life in the Church beginning with its
starting point or initiation, baptism.
For both Jesus and Paul, Salvation begins “now,”[5]
not at the time of death. And with
salvation comes a tension because the person is, as Luther wrote, “… at one and
the same time righteous in Christ and sinful in his own flesh: simul justus et
peccator.”[6] That is a serious condition making the life
of the believer into a battlefield and putting the believer at odds with the
world. The battle that rages is probably
what Jesus referred to when He said:
Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s foes will be members of one’s own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.[7]
Jesus said that He had come that we might have life and “have
it abundantly,”[8] but He never promised
that it would be an easy life. His
demands for change are echoed in St. Paul’s words to the church at Rome; “Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your
minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and
acceptable and perfect.”[9] Certainly, the whole message of Jesus,
confirmed in the writings of St. Paul, was about transformation of lives in the
pattern of the change in the lives of His first followers from fishermen to
“fishers of men.”[10]
What did Jesus intend for the life of the believer? From His word and example we know that
Christians are to live lives of prayer and to love and serve and worship God
and to love and serve each other.[11] We are to subject ourselves to the discipline
of study of scripture and to the discipline we learn from Scripture.[12] Christians are to be the salt of the earth
and the light of the world.[13] Life should be better for all because we are
here. We are to tell the Gospel story
and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.[14] We are to avoid judging each other[15] and let the weeds
grow with the wheat until the time of harvest.[16] Based on the example of Christ, we should
associate with and witness and minister to the un-popular and the sinful and
the disreputable as He did with Samaritans and lepers and tax collectors. As
citizens of Heaven and Earth, we are instructed by Jesus to “Give therefore to the emperor
the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”[17]
To live such a life is a challenge faced by every believer
and a challenge that cannot be met under one’s own power. St. Paul left a very personal written
testimony about the human reality of Christian living, saying “I do not
understand my own actions. For I do not
do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate,” and concluding, “Who will
rescue me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” [18] Martin Luther described the human reality of
Christian life in his famous phrase from The Freedom of A Christian, “A
Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of
all, subject to all.”[19] Luther makes it clear that motivation is the
key and that the motivation for good works can never be for one’s own
benefit. “Man, however, needs none of
these things for his righteousness and salvation. Therefore he should be guided
in all his works by this thought and contemplate this one thing alone, that he
may serve and benefit others in all that he does, considering nothing except
the need and the advantage of his neighbor.”[20] In Life Together,[21]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer described the conflict that results from our desire for self
justification. That sinful desire leads
us to compare ourselves to others and results, because of our self
centeredness, in criticism of the others.
By so doing, according to Bonhoeffer, we justify ourselves. If only we realize that we already have the
gift of justification by grace, we no longer have to justify ourselves by
comparing ourselves with others and can accept others as creatures of God. Only then, Bonhoeffer wrote, can we minister
to them without judging. Only then are
we free to do what we want to do rather than what we hate. Only then are we free to be “servant of all,
subject to all,” as Luther taught. These
similar testimonies of St. Paul, Martin Luther, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer show
that their common rescuer was the Holy Spirit whose ongoing presence is the divine
mystery of Christian existence which enables all Christians to be victorious in
the human reality of Christian existence.
The Divine Mystery of Christian Existence
There are two aspects to the divine mystery of Christian
existence. First is the spiritual awakening, symbolized by baptism, which comes
as a gift through the Holy Spirit. The
second aspect is the ongoing spiritual sustenance that comes through the
Eucharist and enables the believer to live in a manner that is pleasing to
God.
The first divine mystery of Christian existence is the work
of the Holy Spirit in awakening the sinner to a realization of what God has
done and of the justification that is a gift of God to the sinner. St. Augustine came to that realization in a
garden after reading a verse of scripture, St. Paul had to be struck blind on
the road to Damascus, Luther had his “tower experience,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
suddenly realized he had not been a Christian is spite of being a theologian,
and John Wesley had a strange “warming” of the heart. All these theologians and Church leaders and
others who have joined them through the centuries realized, through the power
of the Holy Spirit, what God had done for them.
They were justified! They had not
made a ‘decision for Christ.” God had
made a decision for them. But they did
decide, as every person who realizes what God has done for them through the
divine mystery of justification by grace must, whether, in thankfulness and through the power of the
Holy Spirit, to let the promised power of God flow through their lives or to
deny that power and continue living in frustration and doubt. Scripture leaves no doubt that believers are
to claim that promise and accept union with Christ through the indwelling of
the Holy Spirit. St. Paul wrote to the
Romans “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and
acceptable and perfect.”[22] He had a more positive statement to the
Corinthians, saying “…all of us…are being transformed into the same image from
one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit.”[23] So, according to St. Paul, it is possible,
through the divine mystery of the presence of the Holy Spirit, for Christians to
please God.
The second divine mystery, ongoing spiritual sustenance,
comes through the Church which is the vehicle which God has provided for the transformation
of the Christian life. It is easy, from a worldly viewpoint, to misunderstand
the Church, seeing it, at its best, as a super civic club, growing, raising and
spending money, doing good, and helping people, or, at its worst, as an
exclusive private club or clique with strange practices and little interest in
reaching beyond its doors or in inviting more people inside. The New Testament is the story of the founding
and early development and worship and practices of the Church, Heaven’s embassy
in the world.[24] From the founding of the Church by Christ in
Matthew 16, with a dozen charter members, to the first Holy Communion prior to
his crucifixion, to the promised coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and the
resulting expansion of the Church, to the worship symbolism in Revelation, the
Church is the focus of the New Testament.
The Church is not a super civic club, nor is it an exclusive private
club. It is the body of Christ, of which
Christ is the head, and is the location of the communion of saints.
Because the Church is the body of Christ, the life that is
pleasing to God is life in the Church through which the grace of God and the
power for Christian living are received in baptism which is cleansing from sin
and Eucharist which is spiritual nourishment.[25] Christ is the head of the Church, and
Christians are the body of Christ.[26] That means Christians are in union with
Christ. The job of the Church, in union
with Christ, is to continue the work that Jesus began in the first century in
Palestine, loving God and neighbor and delivering the Gospel message. Being a Christian means being a member of the
Church.
One way to think of the divine mystery of Christian
existence is that there is a total disconnect between the benefits we derive
from it and our ability to invest anything in it. The student studies long hours and does well
on an exam and gets a good grade. The
farmer toils in the fields and reaps a bountiful harvest. The Christian, through the grace of God,
receives a free gift of faith which results in justification. With that justification comes sanctification,
motivation and resources to do God’s good works. A fundamental problem for many
Christians is that it is easier and more human to work hard on our own to do
all the things we think Christ would have us do, as the student works for good
grades or the farmer works for bountiful crops, than to open ourselves
spiritually to the Holy Spirit and depend on the mystery of the divine guidance
that is available from that source.
Simply striving to do better on our own, admirable from a human
viewpoint, is “works righteousness” and displeasing to God.
It is also difficult for Christians to come to grips with a
new concept of progress when thinking of Christian living. It’s in our human nature to want to
accomplish things and to be better. One
thing we cannot do in this life, even though enabled by the Holy Spirit, is
make progress in reducing the infinite gap that exists between our worldly
righteousness or good works and the divine perfection that is God. The good works we do in the power of the Holy
Spirit do move us forward, but just as, mathematically, an infinite distance
minus 10,000 miles is still an infinite distance, we still have the same gap
between what we do and what God would ultimately have us do.
Summary
Without the salvation that comes from God, life is either
blissful ignorance or hopeless wallowing in sin and despair, both ending in
death. With that salvation from death,
sin, and the devil, we enter into the human reality and divine mystery of Christian
existence.
The human reality of that Christian existence is that we are
at odds with the world, and the divine mystery is that we are able to win the
ensuing struggle only through giving up our own egos and efforts and opening
ourselves completely to the power of the Holy Spirit.
Thanks be to God for that power! May He give us the strength and wisdom to
rely on it.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND OTHER SOURCES
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Life Together: A Discussion of Christian
Fellowship, Translated by John W. Doberstein. San Francisco:
HarperSanFrancisco, 1954.
[1]Luther, M. 1999, c1957. Luther's
works, vol. 31 : Career of the Reformer I (J. J. Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H.
T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Vol. 31 (Vol. 31, Page 344). Fortress Press:
Philadelphia
Tappert, T. G. 2000, c1959. The book of concord : The
confessions of the evangelical Lutheran church: Philadelphia, PA: Fortress
Press: Philadelphia
Yeago, David S. 2001. The Faith of the Christian Church: A
Catholic and Evangelical Introduction to Theology. Columbia, SC.: Lutheran
Theological Southern Seminary.
Yeago, David S. 2001. Classroom Lectures for HT 252,
Introduction To Theology. Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary, Columbia, SC.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible. 1994. New York, NY.: Oxford
University Press.
[1]
Ephesians 2:10
[2] Romans
8:24
[3] 1
Corinthians 1:18. It seems that Paul is
writing only to those already in the church and saying that they, along with
him, are in a process of “being saved.”
[4] 1 Thessalonians
5:8.
[5] 2
Corinthians 6:2
[6]Luther, M.
1999, c1960. Luther's works, vol. 35 : Word and Sacrament I (J. J.
Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Vol. 35 (Vol.
35). Fortress Press: Philadelphia
[7] Matthew
10:34-39
[8] John
10:10
[9] Romans
12:2
[10] Matthew
4:19. An example of language update gone
amuck is revision of the KJV’s, ‘I will
make you fishers of men” to “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”
[11] Mark
12:29-31
[12] See
Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy
3:16-17
[13] Matthew
5:13-16
[14] Matthew
28:19
[15] Matthew
7:1
[16] Matthew
13:25-30
[17] Matthew
22:21
[18] Romans
7:14-25
[19]Luther, M.
1999, c1957. Luther's works, vol. 31 : Career of the Reformer I (J. J.
Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Vol. 31 (Vol.
31, Page 344). Fortress Press: Philadelphia
[20]Luther, M.
1999, c1957. Luther's works, vol. 31 : Career of the Reformer I (J. J.
Pelikan, H. C. Oswald & H. T. Lehmann, Ed.). Luther's Works. Vol. 31 (Vol.
31, Page 365). Fortress Press: Philadelphia
[21]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together,
trans. By John W. Doberstein (San
Francisco : HarperSanFrancisco, 1954.
[22] Romans
12:2
[23] 2
Corinthians 3:18
[24] I liked
this explanation Dr. Yeago gave in class of why it is inappropriate to fly
national flags in churches.
[25] John
6:54: So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you,
unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you.
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