This series has looked at the ways in which people of faith — and the witness they left behind in the stories included in the Scriptures — understood their experiences of God changed over the course of the Bible. So far, all of this has been in (and after) what we Christians call the Old Testament. We saw that Abraham’s personal but parochial land covenant with one God among many had transformed into a relationship with God that encompassed a whole people, spread around the world; and the people’s conceptions of YHWH evolved from a youthful warrior god into a wise ruling king, into the one-and-only creator and ruler of the universe, beyond conception. By the turn of the Common Era, Judaism was a diverse phenomenon, but united in their belief that their God was the only true god, who was, despite all appearances, on their side, and would ultimately vindicate them. This is the context into which Christianity was born. Today, we’ll look at how the New Testament talks about the implications the coming, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus had on how the new faith understood God and their relationship to God and each other.
The reason why we spent so much time on Apocalyptic last time is that, while after the tragedy of the Roman-Jewish Wars, apocalypticism was pushed into Judaism’s esoteric margins, it was front-and-centre in early Christianity. Simply put, the first Christians believed that Jesus was God’s final, once-and-for-all self-revelation and intervention in the world. Here are a few important (though far from the only) examples:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. … The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1.1-5, 14)
Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:
Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you may now dismiss your servant in peace.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.” (Luke 2.25-32)
With all wisdom and understanding, he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ. (Ephesians 1.8-10)
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful Word. (Hebrews 1.1-3)
As convinced as these first Christians were that Jesus was Israel’s saviour and God’s final, apocalyptic intervention in human affairs, it was not lost on them that little had actually changed ‘on the ground’. They were still a conquered and marginalized people, and the fundamentally unjust power of Empire was still rampant in the world. And this to my mind is the most interesting thing about these Christians: rather than let go of the apparently failed apocalyptic narrative and just consider Jesus to be an important prophet and sign of hope, they flipped the script on what Apocalyptic meant. The great apocalyptic Truth revealed in Jesus, they maintained, was that any theology based on retribution, violence, and earthly glory was not of God, and that God was instead revealed in forgiveness, nonviolent peacemaking, and earthly weakness. They were still insistent that God would ultimately restore things on earth, but held that the new age of God’s Kingdom had been inaugurated in the coming of Jesus. And by following in his ways, even to the point of taking up our own crosses, we can experience the life of God’s Kingdom even while stuck within the harsh realities of the kingdoms of this world.
This idea of flipping old religious narratives on their head is central to the Christian message. We also see it in Jesus’ teaching on the Law, for example. Rather than a legalistic adherence to the Law, Jesus taught that we had to look beyond the letter of the Law to understand the emotional, psychological, and spiritual state behind it: So it was no longer ‘good enough’ not to murder or not to commit adultery; provided one still harboured anger or lust in one’s heart, one was still a sinner in need of forgiveness (Matthew 5.17-48). This invalidates any kind of hierarchy of sanctity or purity culture, so that everyone — irrespective of personal piety, sex, legal status, or (as the early Church’s wrangling eventually realized) ethnicity or religious heritage — is in the same position before God: All there are in the world are finite persons who miss the mark in our relationships, standing in need of forgiveness and grace (e.g., Mark 7.14-23; Romans 1-3). Fortunately for all of us, that forgiveness and grace is abundant; the only limit is the one we place on it: We receive grace and forgiveness inasmuch as we pay it forward, offering it with the same generosity as we receive it from God (Matthew 7.1-5, 18.21-35; Ephesians 2.-10). To aid us on this difficult journey, the Apostles believed, God had poured out the Holy Spirit on anyone who truly had faith in this new vision of humanity.
Aside from the Trinitarian implications of all this (see here, here, and here for discussions of the development of Trinitarianism in early Christianity), this reveals an interesting relationship to the previous development of ideas about God and our relationship with God. While it upholds the Law of Moses, it also redefines what adherence to it looks like, and rejects any idea that our relationship with God is dependent on following it. Rather, hearkening back to Abraham, our relationship with God is based on faith, the intention to follow God (as now revealed in Jesus), with the dedication-oriented ritual of circumcision being replaced by the rebirth-oriented ritual of baptism as the sign and seal of that covenant relationship. Moreover, the Apostles claimed, the ultimate fruition of God’s promises to Abraham — that all the world’s peoples would be blessed by his descendants — had now been realized, to the extent that status as one of ‘God’s people’ was no longer limited to those who were or who became Jewish. While this practically undid the whole Deuteronomistic perspective, it pushed forward the prophetic critique, especially by Isaiah. (I’ve heard it said only somewhat jokingly that the entire New Testament is a commentary on Isaiah.) For where the prophets insisted that righteousness must involve concern and care for the poor and justice for the oppressed and marginalized, Christianity went even further, teaching that it was precisely among the poor, oppressed, marginalized, and crucified where God was most fully revealed. How far the YHWH-tradition had come! Far from the ‘my god can beat up your god’ mentality of the Twelve Tribes and the kingdoms, in which God’s faithfulness was revealed in earthly power, wealth, and military success, here we have in the New Testament the complete opposite: God’s power is truly revealed only in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Once again, there is no room for a theology of glory here, at least on this side of Paradise.
But, as the last two thousand years of Christian history have demonstrated, this lofty, new, power-turned-on-head idea of God has proven to be difficult to trust and live into. The old ways of conceiving God are always easier and tempting. Next time, we’ll see some of the ways in which Christians have muddied the story and often missed the point of what our Christ revealed about God.
Matthew Root 