Richard Campeau, at the Boar's Head Tavern, gives
his answer to a question on another weblog (I'm afraid I can't track down a link to the original question):
"If you only had five words to sum up your faith, what would they be?"
Richard's answer was
Creation;
Fall;
Incarnation;
Redemption;
Re-Creation.
And what about me? I have two answers; one takes the form of a list, and the other doesn't. I shall deal with the list here, and shall post the other answer sometime in the not-too-distant-future. Now, for the list, Richard Campeau's is brilliant, and all I would do is modify it slightly.
Having the Fall there is important, but, given I would really want more than five words, something's gotta give. I shall take the Fall as necessary to understanding Redemption and therefore omit it, so as to insert the Resurrection. It's a tough call, and obviously five words are so few it's really not sufficient. I also took Return rather than Re-Creation, which both describe the same point in history, but focus on different things. Richard's choice is better in the context of his list; I think mine is better in the context of mine.
Thus, my five words are
Creator, Incarnate, Redeemer, Resurrected, Returning.
Read the extended comment for a (very long) explanation.
So what's it all about? Well, let's start with the Creator. There is a universe, and this is a profound mystery. Why should there be something, instead of nothing? The question has occupied human minds for millennia, but I believe the question has been settled by the self-revelation of the Creator. It's really the only way the question could ever be settled, if you think about it.But what kind of Creator? The answer is not found in a Creator who is, in the words of the philosophers, simply transcendent; that is, beyond the universe. Nor is the answer found in a Creator who is, additionally, immanent; that is, present in the universe. No, the answer is to be found in the Creator who is transcendent, immanent and incarnate. The Creator takes on human nature, a human body, and lives a human life. In the words of a seveneenth-century hymn,
Behold the great Creator makes
himself a house of clay;
a robe of human flesh he takes
which he shall wear for aye.
Or, in answer to Joan Osbourne's song, If God was one of us, where she asksWhat if God was one us?
Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus,
trying to make his way home?
I don't know about a slob, and Jesus' life wasn't contemporaneous with the automobile, but Christians have an answer to the basic question: in Jesus, God became one of us. Ask no more, look no further. The Word has become flesh, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory: the glory of the Only-Begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.So what? So the Creator came to Earth and lived among us. Did he, er, do anything?
Well, he did. He died. He died the death of an outcast, a rebel, and a criminal; a dreadful, painful death.
This Incarnate Creator came in identification with ordinary people. He could have come as a conquering general, a brilliant philosopher, or a powerful king, but he chose to come as an ordinary man. He came like one of us, like you and me. He came in human flesh, he came in identification with us. And in his death, he identified with our plight. We are all, by nature, lost, enslaved and hopeless. That's not how we were made by him, that's how we are now as a result of rebellion against him. And his death, as an outcast, a rebel and a criminal, is indicative of our state. We rebels against God are excluded from his presence and counted as law-breakers by our rebellion.
But that's not all. If Jesus only died in identification with us, that would be no use at all. Imagine a man who, on seeing someone stuck in a pit, says "It's all right, I'll come down there and identify with your situation." The chap in the pit would think his would-be rescuer a fool, and rightly so. No, Jesus achieved a great work, Redemption, by his death. Redemption is a word which has its roots in slavery and indebtedness. Redemption occurs when a slave's freedom is bought, or when a creditor receives the debt he was owed. We, slaves to our rebellion and debtors to God on its account, can have this rebellion absolved by Jesus, our slavery revoked and our debt paid. All by his death on the cross, the death by which he is made our Redeemer.
His next great work was the Resurrection. Nowadays, "resurrections" are quite common. People frequently die, clinically, and are then brought back by skilled doctors and clever machines like defibrillators. But one day, they're going to die, and stay dead. Jesus, however, didn't stay dead after he died on that cross. Three days later (three days! we can't bring people back after three hours!) Jesus was seen again, talking with his disciples and meeting with up to five hundred people, we are told, at once.
He was brought back to life in a body that will never die, a body which is gloriously different and yet also the same. And that, too, is the hope of the Christian. I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he shall stand at the Last Day, and yes, though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I shall see God!
And it is to this Last Day that I must look as the final word in the list. Because Jesus, one day, will complete his final great work, by Returning. Not to a lowly cattle-shed this time, nor will only a few bow the knee. No, the one who came last time as an ordinary guy born in a normal family will, this time, come as that conquering General, an all-seeing Judge, and an all-wise Ruler. And every knee will bow.
Some will bow in love and adoration, others will bow with fear for what is to follow. Some will be taken to be with him forever in a renewed creation with every trace of rebellion removed, enjoying his presence and his company; others will be cast outside his presence forever, with even what they knew of his goodness in this life taken from them. His return, then: to eternal peace, joy and bliss, or eternal desolation.
So, that's a list. But with the judicious insertion of a definite article, I can make my list a narrative, a story, complete with beginning, middle and end.
The Creator, Incarnate: Redeemer, Resurrected, Returning.
That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it.
