Theologians have worked out a system of concepts to help people understand a whole Bible full of teaching, outlined in a brief summary. In describing the results of believing in Jesus for salvation from sin, they give us words like Justification, Sanctification, Redemption, Adoption, Regeneration, Reconciliation, and Forgiveness.
Ordinary, real people look at the vocabulary and ask, “Why all these abstract terms? Can’t you describe it in concrete ways? How does this relate to real life?”
Theologians answer (with some embarrassment), “Well, we apologize for complicating things by using Greek and Latin words. But these are not abstract ideas; they come from ordinary life and serve as pictures of the various aspects of the gospel. But the confusion is not all our fault.”
The pictures from real life that the Bible uses as concrete illustrations come from ordinary life in the ancient times of the Bible. As we move from culture to culture and time period to time period, some of the customs change. Courts of law, banking practices, citizenship, laundry, manufacturing, and agriculture are not the same everywhere.
But, if you have a few minutes a couple of days each week, theology can explain the concepts for you. Just as believing in Jesus changes everything in our lives, so every part of life can illustrate how God makes us new.
Like Parables
Think of theological words in this way, "The Work of Christ is kinda like when . . ."
We can understand invisible, spiritual truth in relationship to known, observable stories and comparisons. God wants us to start with things we know and grasp. Our customs and practices can then explain theological reality. We can anticipate the changes God is working into us.
None of these theological terms by itself tells the whole story of salvation. It is impossible for a finite custom among people to fully convey the infinite plan of God to restore sinners to himself.
By offering dozens of snapshots from society that come close to illustrating the gospel, the Bible unfolds to us an expanding realization of the truth. Like a bulletin board or artistic collage, we can present an educational tool of spiritual things. We can grow in our understanding of the beauty of God’s transformation.
A few ground rules
None of the salvation concepts is a picture of how God needs to fix anything in his original creation. He made it good at the beginning. The gospel of salvation is given to fix the damage our sin has made in us and in the rest of creation. That is why the pictures of salvation start with someone guilty or in debt and filthy dirty or messed up or an enemy.
The pictures tell us how God restores us. None of them is a temporary boost in how we feel. No stick-on bandage is a true picture of the gospel. Our sin is taken away, as far as the east is from the west. We are not on probation. So, as we consider the ‘parables’ of the work of Christ, what we see in society and earthly relationships will fall short of the reality.
None of the pictures is the complete gospel by itself. They are not even complete explanations about the aspect of the gospel for which they are a parable. But together they fill in the details of salvation in ways we can relate. We build a magnificent picture of God’s love and grace.
Some pictures can be paired up, Purification is not the same as Cleansing, but they have related ideas. The same for Forgiveness and Pardon. The same for Redemption and Deliverance.
The core of the gospel really has no parallel in human society. Our union with Christ by faith is based on the three-in-oneness of God himself. We are invited into the ultimate reality. The closest picture we can find in finite terms is humanity as a race of people; genetic connection is not even close to the reality of what God saves us to. So, we want to apprehend the gospel by its pictures, but not to limit our salvation to two-dimensional concepts.
Join me around the photo album
In the next few episodes, we will try to define and understand the customs in our society that point us to Christ.
Thanks for this, Jerry. I have often felt that theologians overcomplicate things. Sometimes, they have to. But a lot of time they are carried away. A parable is always grounded and to the point like Anderson's tales.