The Gospel: The Good News of Redemptive Relationships

The Gospel:  The Good News of Redemptive Relationships

#RedemptiveRelationships

 ? Stephen H. Farra, PhD, LP, 1980, 2019.

           Has the Gospel of Jesus Christ become obsolete? Many think it has in this progressive and digital age. This paper will discuss why many thoughtful persons now turn away from the Gospel, and consider the era for organized religion (particularly Traditional Christianity), to be long since "past." This paper will also attempt to show how and why this conclusion is incorrect and should be reconsidered.

         So often persons are led to believe they are about to hear a presentation of the Gospel, only to hear someone rehearse with them their favorite take on eschatology, or have someone attempt to "prove" to them some denominational distinctive, or some other procedural or theological premise. Or, they hear someone implore them to give more money, so the cur-rent project will not fail.  Or, they hear someone instruct them to adhere more closely to the expected lifestyle spelled out in the Charter, Pledge, or Constitution. 

         It is no wonder very many thoughtful persons turn away. From professing Christians and their institutions, these persons have heard very little which touches everyday life, which meets them where they are.  It is not that they do not have “ears to hear.”  From their human (“life on the ground”) perspective, nothing of much importance has been said.

       Persons live in relationship. All of life both flows from and manifests itself in a few basic life relationships. Any message that is genuinely good news – genuinely “gospel” - will address itself to the basic relationships all human beings have with God, with other persons, with themselves, and with the Natural Creation.

       Fortunately, this is what we have in the Christian scrip-tures - a frank analysis of how our basic life relationships break down, become fouled and wounded, and clear directions concerning how they can and should be redeemed and healed.

       From the stories of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel onward, the scriptures claim we human beings have a strong natural tendency to violate and void personal relationships for personal gain and/or immediate gratification.  Sadly, even casual observation will reveal this to be true.  Children are born with manipulative and possessive orientations. Only gradually do we as individuals learn to share, respect others, to be flexible, to sacrifice, and use our creativity for the sake of another.  And, many individuals never develop these character-istics to any appreciable degree.  As human beings, we naturally attempt to use who and what we can, while we have the chance. Unless someone or something intervenes in a powerful way, we end up being both deceptive and vicious in our struggles for security, pleasure, and supremacy - subtly vicious when we can be, openly vicious when we feel we have to be.

       Our natural viciousness extends not only to other persons. It extends also to God, to the Natural Creation, and even to ourselves. 

     We try to use God. We want God to be “the Butler”, delivering to us what we want, when we want it.  Or, if we’re a bit more mature, we may want God to be our new Best Friend Forever, our "Buddy” - until we discover He actually wants us to lay aside our burning desires and selfish ambitions, and humbly serve others. When we realize this, we decide never to get too close to God again, and tend to approach Him only when we are desperate.

        We would not have an ecological crisis if we were not so mean-spirited and short-sighted in our relationship to the Natural Creation. Most manufacturing and business corporations do not deeply care for the needs of the Biosphere, they care mostly (or only) about investor satisfaction and personal profits, while we (as individual “consumers”) are driven by our own desires for something bigger, faster, flashier, cheaper, and more disposable - until trash blows in the streets, the plants wither, the fish die, and we start coughing to death. 

         Incredibly, our viciousness extends even to our own personalities. We tend to become very demanding, judgmental, unforgiving in our relationships with ourselves, until we come to hate our own responses and needs, and our personalities begin to wither and disinte-grate. Apparently, we are born with a strong tendency to bring “the hand of hell” to ourselves and everything / everyone we touch.

         Deep inside our beings we sense things should and need not be this way.   In fact, we are quite surprised that our relationships are going so badly.  We wonder why our affections and creativity seem to be inappropriately bent inward. Our own intense and short-sighted selfishness surprises us - even as it does its very destructive work. 

         In the world’s mythic literatures, we read of beautiful worlds where men and women live lives of harmony with God, one another, themselves, and the Natural Creation.  At first, our hearts are filled with longing.  But then the inner longing turns to bitterness and cynicism as we look again at the sorry state of our present world, and reluctantly realize that the poison which is fouling the world is not all coming from “them” – some of it is seeping out of our own personalities.  We come to see that if a powerful cleansing and healing agent does not quickly intervene, we are destined for everlasting, meaningless misery.

         Mercifully, something does intervene - the redemptive Grace of God. It flows to us continuously, persistently, and meets us where we do not expect to find it.   It flows to us directly from God, through other personalities, through our subconscious selves, through the sunlight, flowers, and sparkling water of the Natural Creation. It strengthens us, heals us, and brings us peace.  It flows to us no matter what our social class, no matter what others think of us, no matter what our intelligence score is, no matter what particular point-of-view we adopt. Because the Grace of God inspires us and makes us more secure, we become noticeably less vicious, we become more serene and humble. Kindness emerges. Our hearts open, and we begin to give ourselves away.

       While the Grace of God flows to all persons, it flows par-ticularly to those who pray in Jesus’ name. For, through prayer, we become more fully aware of the Grace that God revealed to us in the Person of Jesus Christ, and are able to consciously respond to it.

        The Gospel of Jesus Christ is precisely the good news that in this troubled and broken world, redemptive relationships are possible. Through Jesus, God tries to establish with us now (as He did with persons in the first century) a special, powerfully redemptive relationship. As we wholeheartedly respond to this relationship, we are "saved” (healed and delivered). The New Testament verb for "save" (sozo) literally means "to heal" and "to deliver."  Jesus acts redemptively in everyday life, directly and indirectly, to heal us deeply and deliver us from the destruc-tive mechanisms we find within ourselves.

       The Grace of God is “Gospel” - Good News - indeed!   It heals persons and their life relationships.  As the warmth and healing flow into our lives, our perceptions and values straighten out.  We calm down inside.  Everyone notices, and many genuinely appreciate the change.

        The Christian scriptures fortunately do not stop with an analysis of why our basic life relationships tend to break down. They go on to tell us about this Grace of God, and to present a lovely and compelling portrait of a new world where God’s creative energy continually makes all things new.

        Christian disciples, because of the movement of the Grace of God in their own hearts, are those who (like their Master), act redemptively within the world.  They seek and enjoy the company of others who, like themselves, have been touched by the Grace of God.  In their presence they feel affirmed.  With them, they bring nourishment to others, and sacrifice many aspects of themselves that these other persons might experience healing and deliverance. They find themselves carrying on the special work which Jesus (the Redeemer) began in Cana of Galilee a long time ago.

The Gospel is the Good News of redemptive relationships.