“For if Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one
died for all, and therefore, all died. And he died for all, that those who live
should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was
raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).
I had the great privilege of chatting
with Laurence Singlehurst, a seasoned British missiologist who has thought
deeply about the language we use to share the Good News in our postmodern era.
He’s addressed the problem of our lingo for years, in such books as The
Gospel Message Today: Language That Connects in Communicating the Gospel.
What follows are my notes and reflections
on what I heard him saying on that topic, in which I will propose employing the language
of self-will and surrender for postmodern gospeling.
Singlehurst began by addressing
the difficulties of sharing the gospel in terms of forgiveness of sin to a
generation that finds it hard to believe they’ve done anything wrong. For those
of us who were crushed by guilt (often inflicted by religion itself), yes, forgiveness of sin is good news indeed.
But the majority of the world
(especially in the East) relates more closely to the problem of shame. For those of us who suffer the shame of who
we [think we] are or what we’ve done, the good news is that Christ can cleanse our
shame and even wash away the stains of being shamed by others. As so we think
of having our hearts sprinkled clean
by the blood of Christ or our bodies washed
with pure water (Hebrews 10:22).
And of course, Christ is also good
news to the problem of alienation—the
cross reveals how God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. From
this point of view, those who have known the pain of rejection, abandonment or estrangement
find reconciliation in the open arms of the cruciform God.
These are but three vantage points
of the cross and its benefits. Singlehurst shared a fourth that I had seen
indirectly, but which became obvious when he pointed it out. In 2 Corinthians
5:14, Paul tells us how the love of Christ compels him to share because it has
convinced him of something. What has he seen?
First, he has seen the Christ
died for all. Let us continue to press this point. Faithful gospel
preaching sees how the human condition—death, ultimately—impacts everyone. No
one is exempt. The death rate is 100%. But then, why isn’t it that Christ’s
death also extends to everyone? Indeed, in Romans 5, Paul will boast,
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned
through that one man, how much more
will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of
righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
18 Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in
condemnation for all people, so also
one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
“How much more…” “… for all people!” Wundebar! The power of Christ’s
life has exceeded the destruction of Adam’s death. None are outside the breadth
of his reach. All humanity is included within the span of the two nail-scarred
hands of the cross.
Second, in this text Paul
addresses another predicament—another problem alongside and behind sin or shame
or alienation—an issue perfectly evident to postmoderns. Namely, self-will, self-centeredness or
selfishness. Some say that this generation (those alive today) is the most
self-centered in history. The self-serving ego is a black hole that cannot be
filled, a craver that cannot be quenched, and it is the dominant god of our
era. Self-will is the essence of the Fall in Eden … desiring to be autonomous,
independent of God, our own autonomous gods. That was the birth of sin, guilt,
shame and alienation—the root of our collective cosmic bus crash. People may
not get ‘sin’ or admit ‘guilt’ or feel ‘shame’ … some may even scratch their
heads at alienation. But most will understand the deep-seated tendencies of
self-will … including the desire to generate goodness ourselves. Hence, ‘self-righteousness’
is its own sin precisely because it’s rooted in and serves the ego.
When we ask, “Why did Jesus die?” I had never thought to word it as Paul does:
Jesus died so that we should no longer live for ourselves! He died to set us
free from self-centeredness or self-will or selfishness. Grace releases us from self-righteousness, relieves us
of self-hatred, beckons us out of self-pity and unmasks self-importance. In
other words, we are no longer slaves to the demands of the ego—free from the
endless striving that is self-serving.
According to Christ, the one who
wishes to save the old/false/ego Self is withering up and dying on the installment
plan. But those who die to the Self and its tyranny find themselves truly alive
(Matthew 16:25).
In this model, we are called to repent, but the language we use and
that works well for postmoderns is surrender.
This preaches well in language relevant to our culture. I first heard this
gospel from my friends in addiction recovery. To summarize:
1.
We come to face and admit the impossibility and
self-destruction of a lives driven by self-will. The self-centered life is
ultimately unmanageable and, honestly, it’s killing us.
2.
When we ‘bottom out’ on self-will, at some point
we move from being willful to willing—willing to turn to God who can
and will set us free from the insanity of self-will.
3.
When we’ve had enough, we ‘come to the cross’—a symbolic phrase/image that combines
a. hitting rock
bottom (death to self-will),
b. encountering
God’s self-giving love, and
c. surrendering
to God’s care.
To summarize: those who have despaired of self-will come to the cross;
they are freed from the demands of
the ego, they surrender to God’s
love; and they enter the new life of living
for the Risen One!
Reading the gospel in this way
(among others) describes well what we see happening again and again in the New
Testament Gospels. And it speaks in language that addresses the acute needs of
postmoderns in crisis. The two contexts align perfectly in their call look
beyond ourselves to the self-giving One, and thus this angle commends itself to
us as a relevant and powerful call to Christ.
