Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
BONUS | Every Woman a Theologian Preview | Chapter 5
219 Plays2 years ago
Get your copy of Every Woman a Theologian today!
Every Woman A Theologian book: https://everywomanatheologian.com
Recommended
Transcript
Bonus Episode Introduction
00:00:02
Speaker
Hi, friends. You're listening to a bonus episode of Verity Podcast. This episode is an excerpt from the audio version of Every Woman a Theologian, which launched into the world on February 28th. If you'd like to listen to the entire book, you can grab it in Audible, or you can get it anywhere you like your audiobooks.
Personal Story: Speed Trap & Legal Language
00:00:23
Speaker
Chapter Five. So to your eulogy, no longer a slave, the doctrine of salvation.
00:00:32
Speaker
There was no escaping. The whir of red and blue, the shrill scream behind me. My anxious eyes glanced at the dashboard. Too late. It was too late. Only a few weeks after moving to Virginia, I was stopped by a police officer between Appomattox and Lynchburg on my way to work, caught in the sneaky bait and switch of a speed trap.
00:00:54
Speaker
Perhaps it wasn't so sneaky. I was flying through the 45 mile per hour zone at a breakneck 70. The officer waited for people like me, college girls and cheap red cars. He pulled me over, wrote me a ticket and told me I could appeal it in court to have the significant points on my license taken off.
Guilt, Judgment, and Biblical Parallels
00:01:14
Speaker
I had never been to court before. The pretty brick building gleamed in the April sun, innocently peering between dogwood blooms. The only innocent thing present, I thought. Clicking through the hall in my work heels, I slipped into the back of the court. Finally, they called my name, and I took my place before the judge and the officer who had pulled me over.
00:01:34
Speaker
All I felt were eyes, the eyes of the others in court, the eyes of the officer, the eyes of the judge, boring holes into me, the one who always had to rush, the one who was always late.
00:01:46
Speaker
Others had told me what to expect and what to do. When you go in, they'll call your name. The judge will ask the officer what happened when he pulled you over. He'll ask you how you plead. You'll say guilty. I'd agreed to all of it, willing to do anything to keep the points off my license. So there I stood, prim in my work skirt, staring up at the judge. How do you plead? He asked. Guilty.
Salvation and Legal Terminology
00:02:10
Speaker
guilty. It's a difficult word to acknowledge. You're probably a better driver than I am and have a lot fewer speeding tickets. It's not hard to do. I hope you've never had to show up in court for reckless driving. It's not fun. However, the experience of standing before a judge granted me a new perspective on the biblical analogies to civil law in the first century.
00:02:30
Speaker
The Bible frequently uses legal language to describe our salvation and the process by which Jesus bridged the gap between us and God. The Bible's teaching on salvation is described theologically as soteriology. Scripture uses legal language, guilt, payment, freedom, and judgment to tell us what salvation does.
Roman Ceremony and Jesus' Liberation Role
00:02:52
Speaker
Legal terminology is used in 1 and 2 Timothy, Galatians, 1 and 2 Corinthians, and Romans to describe how the gap between us and God is closed. God is a judge. Through Christ, we are justified before God. When we see legal language in the New Testament, we often imagine a criminal act like my speeding. But Paul may have been speaking to a different legal situation, the freeing of a slave.
00:03:18
Speaker
Manumisio Vendicta was a simple Roman ceremony Paul was undoubtedly familiar with. He referenced similar themes in 1 Corinthians. In Vendicta, the master and slave would appear before a Roman official, accompanied by a Roman citizen.
00:03:33
Speaker
The Roman citizen would touch the slave's head with a staff and declare him free. The master, who until now was holding the slave, turned the slave around and let him go with the words, hunk hominem liberum volo, meaning, I want this man to be free.
00:03:50
Speaker
The fall of humanity in Genesis 3 enslaved humanity to evil. Ever since evil was chosen by Adam, we've experienced the pain of a fallen world. We've been separated from God's perfection, unable to dwell with him the way he intended.
Identity Change in Salvation Theology
00:04:04
Speaker
As discussed in our last chapter on Christology, Jesus' life, death, and resurrection were God's rescue plan. Like the slave before the Roman judge, we stand captive to evil, longing for freedom.
00:04:18
Speaker
And like the advocate, the Roman citizen, Jesus stands with staff in hand to appeal for that freedom and release us. To be saved is to be set free.
00:04:29
Speaker
Soteriology contains three vital elements, justification, a change of identity from sinner to saint, sanctification, the process by which we become like Jesus, and glorification, the final result of Christian life. Christian thought is incredibly diverse, offering multiple perspectives on each of these elements. Salvation theology combines what we've learned about the nature of Scripture, God, the universe, and sin to explain God's ultimate goal, restoring people to
Faith vs. Works in Righteousness
00:04:59
Speaker
himself.
00:04:59
Speaker
In the next few pages, we will explore how Christ's Atonement grants us a change of identity, how the cross frees us from sin eternally and presently, how we can walk out our new identity with increasing holiness and our hope for future glory. Justified by Faith.
00:05:19
Speaker
The book of Romans, Paul's great theological treatise, discusses the process of justification at length, but he sums it up succinctly in chapter 4. To the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness. Verse 5.
00:05:36
Speaker
It's clear from this verse and its context that Jesus' atoning sacrifice saves us not by any work of our own. Our lack of perfection prevents us from reaching God on our own strength. Our faith in Christ, our shift in allegiance, as scholar Matthew Bates puts it, grants us a righteousness we could not earn with all the good deeds in the world.
Justification as Heirs of God's Kingdom
00:05:56
Speaker
In other words, we don't work for salvation. We trust for it.
00:06:01
Speaker
Some Christians believe God chooses ahead of time who will trust in Him by regenerating their hearts and enabling them to respond. Others believe God sovereignly grants His people the ability to respond to His initiative of their own accord. Either way, this trust results in righteousness, and that process is called justification.
00:06:23
Speaker
But what does justification mean exactly? I love how 19th century Anglican bishop Hanley Mole described it. To be justified, he said, is more than being forgiven by God. It means being received by him as if we had not grieved him.
00:06:41
Speaker
Christ is the catalyst to a complete identity transformation. Jesus' death on the cross was effectual for all who put their faith in Him. The grace imparted through faith removes our past life and identity. God takes us into His arms as children, as if we had never broken His heart through sin. The righteousness of Christ completely absorbs who we were before we met Him.
00:07:05
Speaker
This transformative experience of God's justice is not just a release from bondage. As Mole went on to say, we need more than forgiveness. We need more than an escape route from sin. We need the voice which says not merely, you may go, you are let off your penalty, but you may come. You are welcomed into my presence and fellowship. Justification is both the clang of freedom's bell and a shout of welcome home.
00:07:35
Speaker
The atoning sacrifice of Christ gives a final verdict. Those in Christ are part of a new family, released from sin and gathered to God's arms. Paul described this power in his letter to young Pastor Titus. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of His mercy.
00:07:56
Speaker
He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. Titus 3, 4-7.
00:08:13
Speaker
Salvation, Paul wrote, is not something we receive because we're good enough or wise enough or fast enough or flashy enough. Righteousness is by faith and grace, and through the justification of God we receive eternal life.
Transformation and New Identity
00:08:26
Speaker
Here Paul employed another strong image, that of an heir to a great inheritance.
00:08:32
Speaker
I'm a bit of a period drama guru. I eat up those masterpiece classics like North and South, Mansfield Park, and Little Dorit. In so many of these movies and the books upon which they are based, the future of a main character depends on an inheritance. If you don't get an inheritance, you need to marry someone who does. If you do the wrong thing, you can be disinherited. How many times is a female character passed over for the girl with a bigger inheritance? Too many.
00:09:02
Speaker
In these dramas and in Paul's day, an inheritance was protected with certain laws and regulations to make sure the correct person received the estate. Sometimes it required a coming of age. Other times it was dependent upon their career choice. If the person fulfilled the requirements of the law, they could receive their inheritance.
00:09:22
Speaker
not so with God. The inheritance we did not deserve and could never earn became ours through Christ. It's as if he, the true heir, drapes his royal robes over our shoulders and says, she is one of mine, she is a co-heir. The Greek word dikalu means to declare righteous, and this is exactly what Christ does for us.
00:09:44
Speaker
All the rewards of perfect righteousness, peace with God, insurmountable joy, security in God's love, reconciliation, forgiveness of sin are accessible to us through our new identity as heirs in Christ. Let's skip back to the Roman ceremony of Manumisio Vindicta. Can you picture it? The master holds the slave, a staff touches the bowed head, and there come the words of Liberty, I want you to be free.
00:10:11
Speaker
with one turnaround, the slave is a free man. Keep this image in your mind as you read Paul's words to the Galatian Church.
00:10:19
Speaker
In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father!
00:10:43
Speaker
So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4, 3-7. We are left to conclude what the apostles affirmed. To be a Christian is to embrace a new identity. We are completely forgiven, granted a rich inheritance, and invited into Edenic fellowship with God.
Theological Perspectives on Salvation
00:11:06
Speaker
We've been changed, and this changes everything.
00:11:12
Speaker
Branches of Salvation Theology. Reimagine your faith family tree, strong and ancient, with a rising trunk and branches reaching to the sky. I can almost hear the birds gathering in the branches, singing the praises of God and the people who knew him. Your Christian family tree is rich with history.
00:11:32
Speaker
But your Christian family tree involves more than you and more than your family. It includes the entirety of the church, every believer from past, present, and future. As you may have noticed, many of those believers belong to different types of churches than you, what are sometimes called denominations.
00:11:50
Speaker
How should we understand these groups and subgroups within the church? Think of Christianity itself as the trunk. Each denomination, which just means out of the name, a subgroup within Christianity, is a branch on that tree. These groups did not develop because of petty fights or the church carpet or debates about hymns. Most denominations were born because of theological differences over important doctrines like salvation.
00:12:16
Speaker
The creeds sum up Christian fundamentals, the trunk of our family tree. The branches are formed when intelligent Christians ask, how? How does baptism work? How did God save His people? How does the Holy Spirit grant spiritual gifts?
00:12:33
Speaker
All Christians agree that salvation, baptism, and the Holy Spirit are essentials of our faith. But we differ on how those essentials function. When it comes to salvation, people have theorized about its process for the entire 2,000 years of church history. These debates never threatened the trunk of the tree. They just grew more branches. And as long as Christians unite around the core truths, our branches can intertwine and mingle peacefully.
00:13:00
Speaker
Sadly, many Christians do not expose themselves to other branches.
Unity through Diverse Beliefs
00:13:04
Speaker
They don't read material outside of their denominational comfort zone. And because they don't understand how the other branches arrive at their biblical conclusions, they fight. They argue. They condescend. They lose their love.
00:13:17
Speaker
We can change this. By understanding the soteriological perspectives of other Christians, we equip ourselves to have productive conversations and even better relationships. Following our four perspectives on salvation from your brothers and sisters in the faith, the people walking with you on this road to Christ.
00:13:36
Speaker
These are not specific denominations, they are views of how salvation works, and they may be found in any number of denominations around the world, with the exception of Roman Catholicism, whose theology and church are bound together as one. By including these, I am not endorsing every single teaching of these denominational groups. Rather, I am encouraging you to begin a lifelong journey of understanding what other Christians believe.
00:14:03
Speaker
Thank you for listening to this excerpt of Every Woman a Theologian. Know what you believe
00:14:08
Speaker
live it confidently, communicate it graciously. You can listen to our two previous excerpts right here on the podcast, and to listen to the entire book, you can grab it in Audible or your favorite audiobook source. You can also read the hardcover or Kindle version on Amazon, or you can grab it at Christian Book, Barnes and Noble, or your local indie bookstore. Thank you so much for being part of getting every woman a theologian into the world.