Thursday 15 October 2009

Background

After Jesus' encounter with the rich young man (Mark 10:17-31) hesaid "how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!" In response tothe disciples' question, "Then who can be saved?" Jesus said that"with God all things are possible". Jesus didn't say any more, butPaul here was exploring the same key question: how can anyonebecome part of 'the redeemed community' if no-one is goodenough?

Paul's answer was that it depends, not on our goodness, but onGod's - God's righteousness. To be justified - literally 'maderighteous' - is a gift that only a righteous god can give.Justified is a religious word that is often argued about, but forPaul it simply meant 'forgiven and transformed' by the goodness ofGod. And this, said Paul, applied equally to Jews and Gentiles(non-Jews).

Paul explained this central part of his theology by using threeimages that would be familiar to his readers: the law court, theslave market and the Temple. 'Justified' was a common legal term -here it meant receiving a verdict of not guilty from a kind andgenerous judge. 'Redemption' referred to the act of releasing aperson from slavery - something that slaves could not do forthemselves. "A sacrifice of atonement" is an awkward translationfrom a Greek word that referred to the mercy seat - the place inthe Holy of Holies in the Jerusalem Temple where the High Priest,on behalf of the people, received God's forgiveness when the bloodof the sacrifice had been shed.

This passage has given rise to all kinds of theories about how weare saved and, in particular, to ideas about how the death of Jesusworks. But that is to miss Paul's central and simple point: Godtreated all people the same - Jews and Gentiles. God judged themall in the same way and loved them all in the same way. God forgaveand transformed them all in the same way. Belonging to the redeemedcommunity was not a matter of following Jewish Law, but offollowing Christ.

To Ponder

How comfortable are you with the suggestion thatGod loves all people equally?

Paul's images (or salvation metaphors) may havemeant a lot to his first readers, but they might not mean much tous today. Should we still try to use such 'old' metaphors, or do weneed new ones? What might these new ones be?

One familiar theory, based on an unfortunatemistranslation of mercy seat, is that Jesus' death was a sacrificeto propitiate (avert the wrath) of an angry god. Do you find thattheory helpful? Why?