What Does “Saved By Grace Through Faith” Mean To Underground Christians? A Final Excerpt From Living in the Underground Church

Posted on October 24, 2017 by Pastor Foley

We have now reached the end of our proposed methodology for taking up the Bible in a way that takes us underground. What may we conclude on the basis of this proposed liturgy for life in the underground church?

Specifically, this: That we are saved by grace through faith.

That phrase is typically used as an introduction to the Christian life. And yet, what our proposed methodology enables us to see is that it is also the conclusion of the Christian life, along with its midpoint, length, breadth, and moment-by-moment unfolding. Salvation is more than a juridical pronouncement of the Triune God. It is the lived, daily experience through which the church is constituted and by which it is defined. The church, in other words, is the assembly of those who are being saved by grace through faith.

Grace is not the pronouncement of God, the love of God, the forgiveness of God, or some orientation of God toward us. In the words of Karl Rahner, grace is God’s “self-communication”: the fullness of God’s own self, given to us. George Vandervelde, elaborating on Rahner’s definition, writes,

In grace God does not merely do something, effect something, outside the divine being. Rather God bestows God’s very self to human beings. God gives God’s self as God, i.e. as infinite being. God gives the very reality, the inner, divine, Trinitarian life. God bestows the internal essence of divine being upon human beings. In keeping with this conception of grace as the communication of God’s own being, Rahner insists that God’s self communication is an ontological process.[1]

To say it is an ontological process is to say that it is something that actually happens in us (i.e., God enters us) rather than simply something that happens about us (i.e., God pronounces us righteous). As Jesus says in Revelation 3:20, he comes to make his home in us. Or as Jesus says in John 15:4, “Abide in me, and I in you.”[2]

His home in us, his abiding in us, unites us with all those of all time and all places in whom he abides. The communion of saints is his living temple.[3] This is why Scripture does not say that in consummation of all things God will be the all in each but rather the all in all.[4] In this we do not lose our individuality, as if we were subsumed into some universal collective. Instead, as Rahner notes, we only become fully human and fully ourselves when he self-communicates to us, i.e., when he abides in us. Only then are we able to give ourselves fully to him and to each other.[5]

Faith is our trust that God will be, in us, who he has always and everywhere been, that he will do, in us, what he has always and everywhere done. Faith cannot be that God will in the end forgive us for living in a constant posture of mistrust toward him. As Jesus notes in the parable of the talents, if you believe God to be a hard master, then you had better at least live like it and do your best to ameliorate the punishment you are expecting. Such a one can expect punishment, not forgiveness.[6]

Salvation by grace through faith is thus anything but an assurance that thanks to Jesus, no matter what you think of God and others and no matter how you act toward God and others, everything in the end will turn out alright for you. Instead, salvation by grace through faith is a whole life offering of the kind described in Chapter 6: humanly incomprehensible and desperately, dangerously incomplete in and of itself, requiring God to do what he has promised to do in order for any part of it—any part of it—to endure to eternal life. Salvation by grace through faith means that every aspect of our life relies upon the Triune God to act as the Triune God always has, only this time inside of us; and it means that our fate is now eternally conjoined with those in every age and place who are completely reliant on that same thing.

In 1 Corinthians 11:1, the Apostle Paul says, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”[7] This sometimes makes us uncomfortable because it sounds like anything except salvation by grace. But this is only because we are not careful students of Scripture. Christ’s defining characteristic is his absolute dependence on his father. In John 5:19, Jesus says, “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.”

Jesus does not strive to be perfect, or personally complete. He simply trusts his father. He acts in the faith that his father will be who his father says he is, and that his father will act as his father has said he will act. Thus, when we say we are saved by grace through faith, we are indeed called to follow Christ in this, and Paul, and the entire “great cloud of witnesses” in Hebrews 11. What all these have in common is the incomprehensibility and incompleteness of their actions from a human perspective. Or as the writer of Hebrews puts it in the great chapter on faith, Hebrews 11:

All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.[8]

As we follow Christ, and as we follow Paul following Christ, we become, with the great cloud of witnesses, foreigners and strangers on earth. This is not because Christ is leading us out of and away from the places where we live, though he may do that. Instead, it is because he is leading us into a way of life that makes us foreigners and strangers, often even in our homes. As Psalm 69:8 says, “I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children.”[9] Yet Jesus adds in Matthew 12:50 that those of every age and place who live in absolute dependence on the Father have become his mothers and brothers, and thus ours as well. This is the life of the underground Christian. It is how taking up the Bible leads us underground, in the way we have been using the term in these three volumes; namely, not into hiding but rather into non-reliance on the systems and structures from which we have, by Christ, been made strangers.

We began this volume, in Chapter 1, with the recognition that the sacrament of baptism initiates our journey as strangers to the world. We conclude this volume with the recognition that the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper feeds us on that journey underground. There is much more to note about the Lord’s Supper than the present subject permits, but we do well to note at least this: Just as Israel ate the bread of haste in its departure from Egypt,[10] so also we are given the bread of Christ’s body to sustain us in our exodus. Good Christians disagree on how and in what way his body is given to us in the Supper. But what is clear from Scripture is that we cannot be sustained in the moment-by-moment life of salvation by grace through faith simply by means of the juridical pronouncement of God, or by the love of God, or by the forgiveness of God, or by some orientation of God toward us, or by anything God might do outside himself and outside of us. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood,” says Christ in John 6:53, “you have no life in you.”

You cannot, in other words, receive only his love or his forgiveness or his juridical pronouncement. You must receive all of him. When you receive him, he continues to act as he has always acted, only now inside of you, with you joined together with those of every age and place who have longed for this very thing, in accordance with the Scriptures.

 

[1] G. Vandervelde, 1998, “The Grammar of Grace: Karl Rahner as a Watershed in Contemporary Theology,” Theological Studies, 49(8):445-459, p. 446.

[2] John 15:4, ESV.

[3] Cf. 1 Corinthians 6:19, Ephesians 2:21-22, 1 Timothy 3:15, Hebrews 3:6.

[4] Cf. 1 Corinthians 15:28.

[5] G. Vandervelde, 1998, p. 447.

[6] Cf. Matthew 25:24-30.

[7] 1 Corinthians 11:1, NIV.

[8] Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV.

[9] Psalm 69:8, NIV.

[10] Cf. Deuteronomy 16:3.

Posted in Living in the Underground Church, Lord's Supper | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why Did Jesus Love the Prostitutes and the Tax Collectors?

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Editor

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Matthew 21:23-32

You’ve done it again.

After an intense bout with temptation, you’ve surrendered. You’ve eaten that extra slice of cake. You’ve stretched your budget to buy that new phone. You’ve responded to your spouse out of anger rather than understanding.

Now you’re caught in the throes of guilt—what do you do?

Often, our tendency is to repent with a promise: “I’ll try harder this time!” However, our well-intended promises are rarely strong enough to overcome the harsh cycle of sin and repentance. Within a few months, days, or even hours, we find ourselves doing the very same thing again—why?

Matthew 21:23-32 sheds light on this phenomenon.

The scripture begins with the chief priests and elders posing a question to Jesus: “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” (Matthew 21:25)

This question is so abstract and theoretical that it is easy to lose interest in it altogether. After all, we know that Christ’s authority comes from his Father. What we don’t know, however, is how this passage could possibly tie into our lives. And so we often glaze over this scripture, choosing instead to engage with the parable that comes soon after. By doing so, however, we are overlooking the common theme which not only weaves both passages into each other, but also into the entirety of scripture.

At the heart of this exchange is not a masterfully woven theoretical argument, but a practical castigation which Christ comes back to time and time again: “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes enter the kingdom of God before you” (Matthew 21:31).

Throughout scripture, Jesus shows kindness and favor to tax collectors and prostitutes. He is merciful to the adulteress from John 8:1-11, reclines with Levi in Mark 2:13-17, and, in Luke 19:1-10, inspires Zaccheus to give half his goods to the poor. This kindness, however, is interpreted as a weakness (or even a transgression) by the religious leaders. When a prostitute comes to anoint Jesus’ feet with perfume, for example, the religious leaders sneer, “If this man truly were a prophet, he would know that the woman touching him was a sinner” (Luke 7:39).

When met with their scorn, Jesus responds by reminding them of their place—behind the prostitutes and tax collectors. This is not to say that there is something inherently redemptive about prostitution or tax collecting—both “vocations” are, by definition, antithetical to Christ’s message—but it is to say that there is a deeper reasoning behind Christ’s claim.

During Christ’s time, prostitutes and tax collectors were considered to be the most sinful of sinners. A prostitute capitalized on the basest and most primitive of human desires—lust—to make a living. Not only did prostitutes immerse themselves in sin, but, some thought, that their very presence allured others along this dark path as well. (Obviously, this was a simplistic and incorrect take on things—prostitution is closely tied to poverty and oppression—but it was also the prevailing opinion of the time.)

Tax collectors were also thought to have exchanged their morals for money. True to their name, these were individuals that were responsible for collecting taxes for the government. However, tax collectors were not paid by the government. Everyone understood that a tax collector was to earn his living by overcharging citizens for their taxes. Tax collectors, then, were thought to be liars and thieves, caring more about money than righteousness, justice, or their fellow human beings.

Despite their differences, prostitutes and tax collectors had one thing in common: they could not hide the fact that they were sinners. Everyone would notice the callers moving to and from a prostitute’s house. Everyone would have taxes taken from them by a tax collector at another point. Due to the nature of their job, prostitutes and tax collectors could not hide their true nature from others or, more importantly, from themselves.

This, Jesus explains, is the wonderful thing about tax collectors and prostitutes.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, “for theirs is the kingdom of God” (Matthew 5:3). In other words: Blessed are the people who know they are not good, who know they have done wrong, and who cannot hide either of these facts from others and themselves. It is these people who will inherit the kingdom of God.

Knowing you’re a sinner and being fine with it, however, is a different situation altogether. Note that the prostitutes and tax collectors that Jesus interacts with are either actively seeking him (Luke 15:1) or overjoyed by his presence (Luke 19:5-6). These are not people who are satisfied with their lot in life, but who see through Jesus, and John before him, a way to become something more than themselves. This is perhaps best evidenced through Zaccheus’ act of repentance: “Look Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount” (Luke 19:8). Even the adulteress saved by Christ’s word is freed with the instruction to “go and sin no more” (John 8:11). These are not sinners who are content with their sin.

The religious leaders—and the religious individuals—who confront Jesus, on the other hand, are sinners who are content with their sins.  By and large, this contentment is caused by a refusal to acknowledge a sinful nature in the first place (Matthew 21:31-33).

Religious people (whether it be the Jews of Christ’s day or the Christians of our own) are keenly aware of sin—often, this is what drives us to religion in the first place—but we often have a nasty habit of seeing sin more clearly in others than in ourselves. We heap curses and hellfire upon the prostitutes and tax collectors of our time, without giving serious consideration to the prostitutes and tax collectors of our own hearts.

When we do consider our own sins, it is often in the light of willpower: “I’ve done some terrible things, but I’ll work harder to fix them; there’s no reason to tell anyone else what I’ve done.” Unfortunately, according to Jesus, this is the worst place to be in. If we are working at overcoming our sins—the very same sins that Christ died to wash clean—then we are showing that we trust ourselves instead of Christ, and he can give us nothing but the space to enact our own rituals and acts of limited might.

This is why our well-intended promises can only guide us back to sin’s doorstep.

In order to enter the Kingdom of God, we must become people who do not deny, hide, or desire our evil nature. These are not attitudes that we can bestow upon ourselves, but are gifts given by God. We must come before him in prayer and ask that he make us more like prostitutes and tax collectors, and less like religious leaders. Once we humble ourselves, realizing that we are worms and not men (Psalm 22:6), we will be blessed, and the Kingdom of God will be given to us.

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How Do Christians Resolve Conflict?

Posted on October 1, 2017 by Editor

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Matthew 18:15-20

How do human beings deal with conflict?

From the way we act, you might conclude that human beings don’t actually deal with conflict.

Whenever a conflict rears its head, we respond in one of two ways:

(1) Fight We insist on being the wronged party and we demand restitution.

For example: Person A hears that Person B was gossiping about them to others. They become rightfully upset. Person B, however, says that they’re just telling others the truth about Person A—who does break many of God’s commandments. Both Person A and Person B are in the right and in the wrong, but neither will admit to their own fault. Eventually, Person A and Person B refuse to speak with one another because neither “will listen to common sense.”

(2) Flight We pretend not to be hurt or upset by an action to avoid conflict.

Example: Person B says something that Person A thinks is offensive. Rather than talk to Person B, Person A decides to “be the bigger man” and not tell Person B they were offended. Later, however, Person A makes several off-hand comments about Person B to other people, and asks their pastor for prayer. They never tell Person B about the problem.

Note that neither of these responses address or resolve a conflict—both are equally ineffective! How, then, do we resolve conflict?

As Christians, our immediate thought should be of Matthew 18:15-20, where Christ spells out the process of reconciliation. We should take care when we read this passage. Our natural tendency is to translate this passage into the following list of commands:

☐ “Tell [your brother] his fault” (Matthew 18:15)

☐ “Take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses” (Matthew 18:16)

☐ “Tell the church” (Matthew 18:17)

☐ “Let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector” (Matthew 18:17)

There is nothing wrong with the list (each of its commands are taken directly from the scripture). What is wrong, however, is when we hurriedly check each box after a half-hearted attempt to do the step. For example, if Person A approaches Person B, tells them what they did wrong, leaves when Person B disagrees with them, and marks the box complete, then Person A fundamentally misunderstands the scripture.

This is probably because person A is asking questions such as, “How does this scripture relate to my situation?”, “What does this scripture say about my life?” and “What does this scripture command me to do?” By asking these questions, Person A overlooks not only the context of this passage but also its purpose: revealing the character of God.

Matthew 18:15-20 fits snugly between Matthew 18:10-14 (The Parable of the Lost Sheep) and Matthew 18:21-35 (The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant) (two passages that are also frequently read out of context). When all three are read together, we see the image of a God who not only “[leaves] the ninety-nine [sheep] on the mountain to search for the one that went astray,” (Matthew 18:12-13) but who also requires us to do likewise (Matthew 18:32-33). When Jesus tells us that we are to go to our brothers in private, he does not mean to do so once and move on. He does not want us to go to our brother only seven times, “but seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:22)!

Essentially Jesus is saying: “If you have a conflict with someone, it is your responsibility to work through this conflict in private—until your brother refuses to work things through with you.” We must note two things here. First, Jesus does not present us with advice about conflict resolution; he is commanding us to follow these instructions. That means that these instructions should hold just as much weight as the Ten Commandments (or the command that encompasses all of them: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31)). Refusing to follow these instructions is a sin of which we must repent.

Second, the scripture does not say, “If you have a conflict, consult a spiritual counselor, spouse, or friend.” Jesus explicitly says to speak to the person with whom you have the conflict. By taking our conflict first to a counselor, spouse, or friend, we are showing God that we trust human advice more than we trust his Holy Spirit—even if we’re just asking our pastor to pray for us. If we attempt to work the conflict out in private, we are forced to rely on the Holy Spirit to work things through, and the Holy Spirit isn’t partial to any party. In fact, the Holy Spirit has a way of convicting both parties of sins before the conflict has been resolved.

One thing we often overlook when in this passage is that Jesus never says that we are “right” or we are owed an apology. Rather, he tells us, the more important thing is for us to privately bring our hurt to the brother and for them to listen or hear us out. Jesus goes on to say that, “if two of you on earth agree about anything, it shall be done for you by my Father in heaven” (Matthew 18:19). There is no power when Christians disagree, but when we agree, all of heaven is moved.

Remember, the most important thing is not to convince our brother that we are right. Ultimately, we are fallen human beings—if we know ourselves, we know that our own self-interest shades our thoughts of right and wrong more than a little. It is not our truth that we need to confront our brother with, but the Lord’s truth: the Nicene Creed, trusted creeds, and Scripture. This is why we are instructed to bring witnesses in when our brother refuses to listen to us: not to convince the brother of our truth, but of the Lord’s truth. After all, Christians are not held accountable for testifying to your character, but God’s character.

Furthermore, even if we are right, it is better for us to lose our pride and reputation than to lose our brother or sister. As Philippians 2:3-4 says, “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty pride, but in humility consider others more important than yourselves.” Why should you humble yourself on behalf of your brother? Because, much like the king humbled himself to take on the debts of his servant, Jesus “humbled himself by being obedient to death—even death on a cross” so that you might be won (Philippians 2:8)—and you are expected to do likewise.

The human mantra is: Wherever two or three are gathered, there is bound to be a conflict. God never denies this; rather he chooses to be present in these very situations—if you let him. The important thing to note here is that God isn’t just another person. There isn’t you, your enemy, and God. When you and your enemy come together, God chooses to be present through both you and your enemy. Despite the tears, the screams, and the insults, God promises to be present.

God’s promise (“if two of you on earth agree about anything, it shall be done for you”) is contingent upon the verse immediately after it (“where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am, also”) (Matthew 18:20). This means that God isn’t simply rewarding two people because they have managed to agree. People can agree on all sorts of ungodly things! When we have conflicts with one another over matters of our own personal hurt, our focusing on the character of God rather than our own gain or loss is what guarantees that heaven is moved. This is always why working through conflict is important.

If we are in a conflict and think, “This conflict is hopeless and unnecessary; it is better if we just terminate the relationship,” then we are breaking Christ’s body apart. We are destroying the image of Christ for our own sake. In a way, this action is just as bad as Paul’s persecution of Christians. Jesus could just as aptly say to us, “Why are you persecuting me?”

Furthermore, when we choose not to follow these commands, we are ignoring the fact that Christ did, and continues to do, all of these things for us. As fallen human beings, we continue to fall short of his commands. Every day, we do some wrong—and yet Jesus never breaks away from us. Instead, he died for us—despite having every right to abandon us or demand recompense.

In Matthew 5:9, Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” These peacemakers aren’t the people who “won arguments”, “held fast to ‘the truth’”, or “had no conflicts.” They are the people who continued to go back to their enemies in private, the people who considered their brother more important than their own pride, and who did all this knowing that Christ had done it all before them. Let us then be peacemakers, for it is the peacemakers who are “called children of God.”

Posted in Lectionary Year A | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments