joshuabgood wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 3:26 pm
If one views salvation as primarily involving personal absolution and the "finished work" (which by the way is not a biblical term) of Jesus by grace alone through faith...through the lever of penal substitutionary atonement, for an ultimate futuristic, eschatalogical salvation, then the views of Voddie logically follow. Racial reconciliation already happens by itself when people accept this salvation and personal absolution. There are no societal/cultural or moral next steps/obligations. It is a "free gift" that entails "no works" lest anyone should boast. James is a book of straw. The teachings, life and witness of Jesus are marginalized and literally ignored for the most part. The gospel becomes an ethicless judical deal that doesn't involve real, literal salvation on earth as also in heaven. This theology permits slavery, permits burning witches, permits warring against American Indians, etc etc . I don't find this view of salvation compelling as it doesn't fit with the message and person of Jesus Christ. (Since you have already stated your issue with Calvinism we can leave that for another thread.
I have already outlined in the other thread what I think is a more Christocentric (and in harmony with Jesus teachings) view of salvation and the good news. The real ethics and outworking of that perspective leads to entirely different outcome on race relations, church reconciliation, practical living like Jesus, etc. (Yes I know Anabaptists are repeatedly accused of being a works religion as a result - but that charge I don't think is defensible - but I won't take time to take that down here aside from mentioning the life boat analogy).
However, a simple thought experiment I think shows that in fact the real work of restitution and reconciliation is needed even for those "in Christ." For instance in our Anabaptist tradition, as you and I know, there have been many acrimonious splits between Christians. The work of Christ followers, in this instance, isn't to mystically claim that we are already reconciled "in Christ" and so no work needs to be done to reconcile painful church splits (or any other business or missions split or in marraiges). No...the real work of Kingdom building exists in bringing these parties back together, engaging in the real work of restitution and reconciliation. In our culture and society there is work that needs to be done to bring about racial reconciliation. And that work is part of building the Kingdom of God on earth as in heaven.
So, we have on the one hand a religion (1) which centers around salvation by grace and faith and is caricatured as a religion without works (which is a bit of a stretch). And on the other hand there is a religion (2) which centers around salvation by works, as prescribed by Jesus in his lifetime.
But then what's about his death? The most valiant adherents of this second religion tell us that Jesus' crucifixion was only a last and best demonstration to his followers about how to act - or perhaps it only was a kind of unfortunate accident? Or in reality he never was crucified but lived on, without much publicity? There are so many theologies and so many proposals ...
On the whole I would prefer a solution which connects the two religions.
When I read the gospels, I see two big central parts: (a) the Sermon on the mount resp. in the field, and (b) the story about Jesus' death. Can they be connected? Yes, they can. The sermon teaches us that all humans are sinners and the death teaches us that all sins are forgiven.
Why is forgiving important? Because our normal human reaction to sins is just the opposite: vengefulness.
So, "salvation" in the Gospels means, above all, getting the forgiving of sins.
So, we have obviously two different ways to get salvation/forgiving from other humans. With the pagans, we must try it by works and look, how far that "works". With the Christians,we can rely on the message that we are in a community of sinners whose sins are already forgiven by the master, so what other could we servants do? After the forgiving of course we have to discuss in a friendly way what acts drove our former enemies into a spirit of vengefulness and what we can do to avoid such acts.
I see a parallel in the "peace and justice" slogan which is often interpreted as "justice must come first" (no justice, no peace). But in reality we are far better off if we first have the peace of mind (all vengefulness laid down) and thereafter try to find a consensus about what would be just (e.g. what would be just reparations).
But if I accept those premises I also win another attitude to my non-Christian co-humans, too. I look around me and see so much people who have reasonable grudges and emotional hurts and feel that they have not been treated in the right way - and they all could take it out on me. But they don't do that. And I am grateful for that. So i am living in a "covenant of grace" my whole life long, even if I did not know it.