Are you saved? Are you born again? What is salvation? Have these questions bothered you? It has been with me and more often than not I found the question a threat more than a concern. I always blocked myself from such questions and felt that it was waste of time. But as I kept meeting people in the church, I realised that such questions of salvation were very pertinent to them. I would ignore it at my own peril. But I strongly felt that the commonly held understanding of Salvation emphasizes more on the sinfulness and the fallen state of man, rather than on God and His magnanimity wrought in Jesus through incarnation, life, death and resurrection. This question was at back of my mind and with this disturbing curiosity I asked the seminary principal, Rev Dr Abraham Kuruvilla. His answer was excellent which is the base of this article. His answer made me search deeper and wider for the question. This is my conviction that in consonance with Sacramental living, Salvation has to be connected with the Creator, Creation and the Creative purpose.
Three Historic Centers-
There are many accounts of understanding and interpreting the Creation. As a reformed Church we are tempted to assume that we do not need to look into teachers of early faith. I salute and internalize the emphasis given to bible but it is important to remember that every reading of the bible is an interpretation. The Church Fathers read the bible and interpreted it in a particular way. We will have to consider three Centers in Early Christian Church history and the representative Church fathers. For this I am using the division made by Church Historian Justo S. Gonzales in his book Christian Thought Revisited.
a) Carthage- Carthage was an important Center in theological formulations which was situated in the north coast of Africa, which is now found in the city of Tunis. Latin was the language used here for discourses. We cannot go into the details of the history of this place but it is commonly held that Christian faith was brought from Rome. This place produced a great theologian in Tertullian who is considered to be the founder of Western Christian Theology. Tertullian was a lawyer by profession, and therefore his theology was influenced by the concepts of legality. So as a lawyer, law is the one overarching word that characterizes Tertullian’s basic theological concerns. He saw Christianity as superior to any human philosophy, since in it one receives the revelation of the ultimate law of the universe, the law of God. Gospel was the Second and superior law, and God was a legal God who had to be appeased. Saw the interpretation in this school of theology is that the Bible is law. We cannot go into the details beyond this.
b) Alexandria- While Carthage was the most Latin of the cities, Alexandria was the most Hellenistic. This city got its name after Alexander the great and this was a prime philosophical center situated in Egypt. It was in Alexandria, that centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ, the Hebrew Bible was translated into Greek- the Septuagint. This center was known for its Philosophical heritage and therefore the theology that was formulated out here was ‘Christianity as True Philosophy’. Clement of Alexandria is the most famous of the theologians here. But Origen is the one who set the foundations of this school. If Tertullian based his theology on law, then Origen we can say based his arguments on Truth as that was the search of Philosophy. Truth for him is transcendent, immutable, ineffable and eternal. Truth is not dependent on time or transition. So Jesus was this truth revealed and gospel was universal truth. So the emphasis was very cognitive and elite.
c) Antioch- The final place here in our deliberation is Antioch. Antioch was one of the most important cities in Roman Empire. Antioch was never razed by Romans like Carthage, so the ancient traditions were intact and therefore it was less Romanized and Hellenized. The Acts of the Apostles says that it was in the city of Antioch that the followers of Christ were called Christians. Ignatius and Polycarp represent the Christianity found in Antioch. But the chief exponent of the theology of Antioch is Irenaeus of Lyon. In comparison to other representatives we have considered above, only Iranaeus was the Shepherd of a Congregation as he was also a Bishop. So his theological formulations were based on the interest of his flock. The Church was his emphasis. His theology was eminently pastoral. He saw God as a Great Shepherd who leads the flock towards divine purposes. As Tertullian’s main emphasis was Law, Origen’s Truth, so we can say that Irenaeus’s emphasis was History. Here History has to be understood as the events that take place within time as being guided towards God’s future. At creation, God had certain goals which were to be fulfilled through the process of History. In spite of sin, those goals have not been abandoned, and right now God, the Great Shepherd, still continues to lead History towards them.
Understanding the Theological Concepts of Irenaeus of Lyons
Of the above representative theology of the Beacons of the three schools, I find the interpretation of Church father Irenaues as the most Sacramental, and as one inviting us for a sacramental living. In this regard I would use his theology as an anchor to understand Salvation in a sacramental framework. Before understanding Salvation, it is imperative to comprehend the very understanding of God, Creation and Sin to which I shall turn to.
a) God - As we have seen above that God understood by Irenaeus is that of the image of a Good Shepherd who engages in history. Irenaeus attributes to God not only intellect and Spirit but also sight and hearing. His main concern in depiction of God is to see that it is accurate with the scripture. Irenaeus’ doctrine of Trinity is very unique. For him God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the image he uses to refer to Son and Holy Spirit is “the hands of God”. He uses this to show that God relates directly with world. This is not meant to be anthropomorphic but symbolic that God uses his very hands (Son and Holy Spirit) by entering into the world in the work of creation and in the leading of History.
b) Creation- Irenaeus single most emphasis is that the entire world is created by God. Normally it is held that Creation was perfect and salvation is seen as returning to that perfect state, which assumes to be cyclical. Irenaeus refers to the Genesis narrative of Creation as “the beginning of History”. What God made at that point of time was only the beginning, which was expected to develop later through a historical process. God’s purpose was the human creature should grow in such a way as to enable it to enjoy an-ever increasing fellowship with the divine. It is within this framework that “the image of God” should be understood. According to Colossians 1:15, the image of God is none other than Jesus Christ. Therefore, being made after the “image of God” means that humankind has been created with Jesus Christ as a model. God did not make human beings and then decide to take human form in the incarnation, but rather, from the very beginning, God meant to become incarnate, and therefore used the incarnate Word as a model for creating humans. So the human beings were created good- not in the sense that they were finished, but in the sense that they were made from the model of the Incarnate Word. They had the capacity to grow to further resemble the Word and therefore would come to the point of being able to enjoy close communion with the Creator. So the goal of Creation is to have communion with the Trinity.
c) Sin- For Irenaeus laws established by God was to help humans in its own process of growth and development toward closer communion with God. The Creator placed man and woman in the garden so that they could grow in wisdom and be closer to their Creator. The law that ruled life in paradise was not to glorify God, but its function was to train Adam and Eve in the knowledge of God. The prohibition of not eating the fruit was not intended to be permanent. God eventually intended that humans would acquire the knowledge of good and evil, live eternally in communion with God. So the Sin here was that, being tempted by the serpent, Adam and Eve short circuited God’s purpose and plan for them. Death was a curse but not a final verdict, as Jesus would die to defeat death, and in him all will live again so as to have closer communion with God. The result of the sin is that human beings became subject to evil represented in Satan. In refusing to obey God, Adam and Eve became servants of Satan. And since they were the entirety of Humankind or “Head” of humanity- in them all were made subject to that evil power. This is what we mean when Paul says “In Adam we have all sinned.” So he emphasizes on our collective bondage to Sin.
Development of a Doctrine of Salvation Based on Sacramental Living-
On the basis of the above premises it will be possible to understand Salvation. Our main theological category would be History in this regard. The commonly held view when it comes to salvation is that we owe a debt to God because we are sinners and therefore Jesus died on the Cross for our Salvation. But then what kind of a God are we portraying, a despot or an angry God who needs to be paid so that our damnation can be averted? The human predicament is not that we owe a debt because of sin but that we are slaves of the satanic forces. Since humankind stands in solidarity, in Adam’s sin we all have sinned, and jointly with him we all have been made slaves of Satan. What we need is liberation from our slavery, and to be guided to have greater communion with the Creator. Jesus is the one who liberates us. This he accomplished by turning himself to the powers of Satan and coming out as conqueror. What took place in incarnation was what God had intended from the beginning, that is the divine and human were bound into one. Because of sin incarnation has a redemptive dimension. As Paul says Jesus is the New Adam, the beginning of a new humanity that is not subject to Satan. He broke the slavery of humanity and he submitted himself as a slave. When the life of Jesus led to the cross and the powers of evil believed that they had conquered him, He rose again, thus destroying the powers of death and slavery in Resurrection. Just as we all are sinners because we are members of a body of humanity whose head was the first Adam, so our liberation from the powers of evil is due to our being part of a new creation, a new body whose head is Christ. Through His incarnation (birth, life, death and resurrection), Christ has become the New Adam, as he is the image after which Adam was modeled after. The idea of the Church as the body of Christ is Sacramental. In Jesus a new humanity has been inaugurated, so those who are in Christ are a “new creation.” In Jesus, the New Adam, the new creation is victorious over the powers of evil. Incarnation is the culmination of divine purposes. That is the work of Christ, of which the union of the divine and the human is at the centre, consists in overcoming the powers of evil and liberating us from their sway and joining us to the new head by making us members of the body of the new creation. This signifies the meaning of Baptism. Baptism is the means by which we are united to Christ. Baptism is a grafting which makes us branches of the True Vine and also the members of the Body of Christ. Through baptism, we are members of the Body of Christ- both at the beginning of our Christian life and through its duration. Because of the union with Christ, we are now part takers of his victory and therefore freed from the power of sin and from the subjection of the old creation. If baptism is a grafting that makes us the members of the body of Christ, Holy Communion is the means God gives us to be nourished as members of that body. A grafted or baptized member lives by the blood and nourishment it receives from the body. In this nourishment we are strengthened, and therefore our participation of Christ’s victory is renewed. As we have seen that humans were modeled after the Word (Jesus Christ) in Creation, so the Goal of Creation is to be in communion with Creator revealed in the Word. This process consists of being children of God and increasingly resembling our Creator. The gift of eternity is part of this process. The vision here is of a new reality and a new order, a ‘Kingdom without end’, a kingdom in which all shall be coheirs of God and continue to exist and grow in Freedom, justice and communion with God.
Conclusion
My main understanding is that the prevalent understanding of Salvation portrayed in popular spirituality calls for an ‘other worldly’ existence and a disengagement with the world. This is damaging for our witness. The above said understanding of Salvation is the worldview of our Bible and Worship (liturgy). This takes the world and creation very seriously. God intervenes in history and therefore has a purpose for everyone. Salvation is not just by the ‘Blood of Christ’ but by the entire Incarnation (Birth, Baptism, Public Ministry, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension and Second coming of Jesus Christ). The entire Created order is included in this Salvation. Salvation is the Goal of Creation. Salvation is growing in the image of God and having close communion with the Creator and Created order, through the Incarnated Son by the Holy Spirit.
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