This is the blog of Jack Kilcrease and the home of all new posts on theological topics.
Our Sabbath Rest and Vocations in Christ
Throwback Post
In the Genesis 1, the pinnacle of creation occurred on the sixth day when God made humanity in his own image. Then on the seventh day God remained present with his very good creation and rested. God’s sixth-day creation and seventh-day rest pointed toward and paralleled the Son’s Incarnation as the ultimate gift of divine presence and rest. The Incarnation prefigures the destiny of the whole creation. At the end of Revelation, St. John writes that the whole creation has become a Tabernacle of the divine presence (Rev. 21:3, 21:22). This correlates well with Daniel’s promise that the Temple mount (i.e., the locus of the presence of the divine kavod) would permeate the whole of creation (Dan. 2:35).1
The promise of God’s communicative presence and divine rest are inexorably tied up with the promise of grace found in the gospel. The gospel is a unilateral gift and, as such, is an act of self-donation. To make an unconditional promise entails surrendering one’s being to the other. The one making the unconditional promise ceases to makes any conditions (i.e., the works of the law). As we have already seen, unconditional promise is also manifest in the covenantal imagery of marriage and its consummation (established in Genesis 1). This is why the Bible uses the image of the nuptial feast for the eschaton (Lk. 14:7-14, Rev. 19:6-9).
Continue reading “Our Sabbath Rest and Vocations in Christ”Post-Nicaea Rejection of Onto-Theology: Part I
The Council of Nicaea repudiated the ontotheological trajectory of the Ante-Nicene tradition. There are a number of theories about the origins and aims of the Arian heresy.1 But perhaps the most cogent way of reading it is simply as the Subordinationist heresy taken to its logical conclusion. Origen, and others within the Ante-Nicene tradition, thought more in terms of the Hellenistic concept of being and degrees of being. As a result, Greek philosophy supplanted the biblical paradigm of creator/creature and then removed God from the system of being. The Greek paradigm also deemphasized the doctrine of creation ex nihilo. Without the strict division of creator/creature, Hellenized Ante-Nicene theologians fit the Second Person of the Trinity into a continuum of degrees of being, with the Father at the top and nothingness at the bottom.
Arianism and Its Rejection
Based on indirect evidence regarding the nature of the Arian heresy, it can be said that much to his credit Arius recognized the importance of the biblical distinction between creator/creature more seriously than his Origenist predecessors in the Church of Alexandria.2 Nevertheless, like Origen, Arius saw the second person of the Trinity as part of the hierarchy of being. If God as creator is outside the hierarchy of being (in that he is ingenerate), then it logically followed that as generated Christ must be part of the hierarchy of being. Consequently, Arius reasoned that Christ must be on the creaturely side of the creator/creature division.3
Continue reading “Post-Nicaea Rejection of Onto-Theology: Part I”Our Great Hope: Christ’s Return as Judge
The little apocalypses of the Synoptics, St. Paul’s letters, and Revelation affirm that at the Second Coming of Christ the dead will rise and final universal judgment will commence. Believers should experience “bold confidence” (Eph. 3:12) regarding Christ’s Second Coming because he has already proleptically judged us righteous through the promise of the gospel present in Word and Sacrament. As the Son of Man, Jesus shared his verdict with his hearers ahead of time. Believers today, in the interim between the first and second coming, do not need to wonder what Christ’s final judgement on them will be. The presence of the risen Jesus in Word and Sacrament (Matt. 18:20) proleptically delivers his “forgiven and justified” verdict to the contemporary Church.
Are We Judged According to Works?
The clearest passages of Scripture interpret other passages. Therefore, sections of Scripture that speak of judgment according to works must be read in harmony with the clear passages affirming the unconditionality of justification. Thus, the good works upon which Christ judges believers provide evidence of genuine faith (Matt 25). As we have seen, true faith necessarily gives rise to the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-26). Paul very clearly teaches both that saving faith inevitably results in good works and the unconditional nature of the promise of the gospel (Rom. 3:28).
Although Luther sadly misinterpreted it, the Epistle of James makes precisely the same point. When St. James speaks of believers being “justified by works” in addition to faith (Jam. 2:24), he refers to the way works manifest saving faith. In a similar vein, in Romans 2, Paul speaks of the final judgment according to works (Rom. 2:6-11). However, he is speaking of a hypothetical situation apart from the intervening grace of Christ. In the next chapter, he is quick to affirm that no one can stand before God because of humans’ total lack of righteousness (Rom. 3:9-20).
Thus, Christ will not render his positive judgment at the Second Coming on the basis of one’s works. However, a tree is known by its fruit. Only those with saving faith can actually perform good works in God’s sight. These fruits will reveal otherwise hidden faith at the Last Judgement.
Continue reading “Our Great Hope: Christ’s Return as Judge”The Royal Priesthood and the Authority of the Church
The justification of believers within the Church through the means of grace effects a happy exchange between Christ and believers. Christ possesses all things and shares them with believers through the union brought about by forensic justification and faith. This means that believers share in Christ’s offices of king, priest, and prophet (Dn. 7:27, Rom. 8:17, 8:32, Eph. 2:6, 1 Pt. 2:9, Rev. 1:6, 5:10). Being conformed to Christ’s image begins the restoration of the image of God in humans. This restored image enables believers to assume the protological roles of king, priest, and prophet that find their ultimate fulfillment in the eschaton.
As we have previously seen, Luther develops this point strongly in Freedom of a Christian (1520). As kings, believers are no longer subject to the law coram Deo because the law has been fulfilled in them through reception of justification and sanctification in Christ. Coram mundo, believers become priests because possessing all things in Christ. As priests, they sacrifice themselves for one another through their individual vocations.1 Scripture also teaches that believers are now Spirit-anointed prophets empowered to proclaim the Word of God to all nations (Acts 2:16-21). As prophet, believers also test all teachers by the standard of harmony with the biblical witness centered in Christ (1 Thess. 5:21, 1 Cor. 2:15, 1 Jn. 4:1-6).
Continue reading “The Royal Priesthood and the Authority of the Church “The Word and Revelation of the Triune God
In the primal state and through the history of salvation, God’s Word created different channels and masks as mediums of law and grace. God reveals to his creatures the actions he will take through a given created medium. In so doing, he bids humans to flee by faith from his masks of wrath to his masks of grace. In Eden, God established the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil through his word of command and promise. Here, the new humans found his judgment, hiddenness, and wrath (Gen. 2:17). By contrast, God attached his promise of grace to the Tree of Life and all the other trees in the garden (Gen. 2:16).
Later in the history of salvation, God designated Mt. Sinai as the location of judgment. From Sinai, God spoke forth his law and barred his people from ascending the mountain lest they be destroyed by his wrath (Exod. 19-20). Nevertheless, God established first the Tabernacle and then the Temple as the places where Israel could receive the grace of atonement and participate in divine holiness (Lev. 16-17).
Finally, in the era of the New Testament, Jesus designated the Temple and its old law as a place of divine judgment that would soon be destroyed (Mk. 13, Mt. 24, Lk 21). Now, his own cross is the new site of grace and atonement. On Easter Sunday, the women fled from the empty tomb, which seemed merely a place of death. Yet the atonement given via the cross and justification given via the tomb became the font of grace. The angels instructed the women to tell the disciples what they had experienced. This is significant, because the apostles’ Word and Sacrament ministry became the medium of the presence of the risen Jesus (Mt. 18:20, 28:20).
Continue reading “The Word and Revelation of the Triune God”