Liberation and Salvation

This probably doesn't go far enough and was just a beginning of the thought process. Some of my thoughts have perhaps changed since this was written:

Liberation and Salvation:

Dialogue Partner: “It has been said that what defines, or divides us, as Christians are the verses we choose to ignore.” True, we all have a canon within a canon. Evangelicals favour Paul over James for instance, or John' s gospel over the Synoptics. We make one the major and interpret the other in the light of it. It also matters how we put these verses together into a synthesis or meta-narrtaive. What is the big picture of the Bible about?

“...I do think that evangelicalism needs to embrace the holistic gospel, and I would affirm in some sense that all things are gospel. This obviously needs a little unpacking. The best way into this is to offer a meta-narrative of God's redemptive purposes in the Bible.”

Another key theme of Gutierrez is the understanding of the redemptive story of history through the lens of the Bible. This is the ‘big picture’ of the Bible. He analyses the Biblical stories of Creation, the Exodus, Christ and the Cross and the ultimate liberation of the end times.

“Creation of the world initiates history, the human struggle, and the salvific adventure of Yahweh.” (Gutierrez, 154) For example, Genesis 3:15 states, “ I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." Most commentators agree that this is a prophetic description of the struggle between Satanic forces and mankind and the ultimate victory and liberation from this struggle through Christ (Bible Knowledge Commentary). The Fall also led to a broken world: Evangelicals are very apt at answering some of the biggest questions about our broken society with, “It’s because we live in a fallen world...”

The salvific story that begins with a perfect relationship with our Creator being shattered is, as our dialogue partner explains, reflected in how all of life is affected by this tragedy, “Man rebelled and sin, death, destruction and decay entered the cosmos. God created everything, and now everything is broken. This is individual people, families, reason, arts, politics...” A ‘solution’ that mends our relationship with God thus needs to impact and include the other, traditionally less ‘spiritual’, aspects of this brokenness.

The Exodus is, as Gutierrez explains it, “a political liberation” (155) that was both historical and spiritual (157).  God saw, heard, took heed of the oppression of His people and acted radically (Exodus 3:7-10). The Passover is also considered as not only a historical liberation but as symbolic and, for some, almost synonymous with the liberating work of Christ. The blood of the Pesach lamb was a sign that God would save and spare the Israelites death and thus, through the death of the Egyptian firstborn sons, liberate them from oppression (Exodus 12: 21-30). The blood of the perfect Lamb of God was shed on the cross as Jesus deals with our sin (John 1:29) and liberates us from death (1 Corinthians 15:54-57). God’s plan of liberation and salvation is continuous and finds its climax in the, “redemptive action of Christ, the foundation of all that exists.” (Gutierrez, 156) If this is salvation that is to mend the brokenness of the Fall then it should surely impact all realms of this?

The death of Christ is, as aforementioned, considered foundational to salvation by Gutierrez (149) yet his analysis of what the Cross achieved is somewhat different to current conservative evangelical thought. In discussion with our dialogue partner it was recognised that there is indeed a tension between individual transformation and as the Schema of Ariccia puts it, “the truth that redemption embraces the totality of creation.” (169) It is vital that we gain a Biblical perspective of this, though admittedly this perspective will be tinged with our own biases, in order to gain a true understanding of mission.

Gutierrez sees the work of Christ as part of the movement that began with creation and includes the Exodus (158). Paul, in Colossians, does indeed place Christ within this redemptive story. Did Christ die to liberate individuals from their sin or to redeem society and all it encompasses (151)? Gutierrez believes it is the latter and this, in part, has led to his (arguably tentative) adherence to Universalism. Gutierrez accepts, “with great difficulty” a universal salvation in order to, “expand the possibilities of achieving salvation.” (152) This seems a highly subjective reason and one that many would find difficult to accept. This would also have a tremendous impact on missions! If all of mankind is saved even if, “he is not clearly aware” (152) of opening up himself to God and others then missionaries can rest easy – their work is merely to quiet their own consciences and make themselves ‘feel better’. Gutierrez’s move from quantitative salvation to qualitative salvation does force us to consider the full impact of Christ’s transformational sacrifice yet it could be said, and is said by many, that it is a departure from Biblical truth.

The Bible emphasises the need for a discovery of sin in the light of God’s holiness (1 John 1) and the need for active faith in Christ that will reconcile us to God (2 Corinthians 5). Those that are in Christ are new creations. There is, within Scripture, a focus on an individual’s need to be reconciled to God and for the broken relationship with Him, that was perfect in Creation, to be restored. Paul and the Apostles urgency to ‘persuade men’ to repent in order to be liberated from death and sin through faith in Christ Jesus. The whole premise of Acts, acting upon the command of Jesus in Matthew 28:16-20 and passages such as those found in Romans 10 surely point to the fact that we also should do this. Yet it is interesting to note that in 2 Corinthians 5 Paul does write that, “All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation”

My personal view in regards to this lies in the command of the risen Lord Jesus to, “go into all the world and make disciples” (Matthew 28:19) Mission does not end with the ‘conversion’ or liberation of man from his sins through Christ, but this is merely the beginning. To be God’s tools in reconciling the world, liberating it from the consequences of the Fall and thus following in the footsteps of Moses, is to be committed to ensuring that the inward transformation of man impacts all realms of society. To make disciples that, as a body, seek to share the ministry of reconciliation and liberation in all aspects: political, cultural, racial and so on. For me, the central point is an individual’s trust in the saving work of Christ but the outward display of this seeks to glorify God through, “body and spirit, individual and society, person and cosmos, time and eternity.” (152) There is intentionality in the use of ‘central’ rather than ‘starting’ point in that we work through these areas to seek individual liberation/salvation and encourage the outward impact of these by individuals. This then creates a true holistic and all-encompassing gospel. For example:

Many more facets of Gutierrez’s argument warrant analysis, yet to do so lies outside the limits of this paper. Suffice to say, when taken in conjunction with the meta-narrative and messages of God’s world, he gives the Evangelical world much to deliberate upon.