cross

Cross
God Saves More than People

Session 10
Homework
 homework: practicing the way of the cross
1. Read the following quote and reflect on it. Do you agree? W hat are
specific ways that you as individual could put the insight from this quote
into practice this week? What are specific ways that you could get your
church to put the insights from this quote into practice? Share with other
members of the group one specific way in which you will put the insights
from this quote into practice this week. Be prepared to share with them
how you did during next week’s session.

“In our ministry as churches we often have focused too much on individuals
rather than the whole cosmos. Because the church has defined sin
individualistically – the naughty things we individually do – the church has
then had to construct a theology of salvation that was individual and a theology
of mission of the church that was individual, thus missing the far more
comprehensive picture of what God has actually done to make this world fully
the world he created it to be. Salvation, as we have seen in these passages,
however, is individual, corporate and systemic; vertical and horizontal. Jesus
pleads us that we need to make a relationship between preaching, advocating
justice and ministering to the poor, by defining redemption “as restoring the
elements of creation to fulfill the purposes for which God created them”. is
understanding of redemption provides a rational for Christians to pray for and
work for the transformation of our societies here on earth. Did Jesus ask us to
pray that we might go to heaven, or that the kingdom of heaven might come on
this earth? e latter of course! erefore the church must be focused on more
than people! It needs to be focused on individuals but also on the restoration and
transformation of the political, religious, economic and social systems of its
nations, including all the domains worldwide.” 1

—Rev. Robert Linthicum, author and Executive Director of Partners in Urban

Transformation

2. Read the article “e Purpose of the Church”, answer the reflection
questions in the article, and come prepared to share your findings with
other members of your group.

3. Read the article “e Historical Meaning of the Cross” to review the
material we studied today. If you feel like it, you can also read the article
“e Resurrection of Christ – e Historical Evidence” for your own
enjoyment.

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 application journal:

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 article: the purpose of the church: why does your
church exist?
Introduction: What Drives Your Church?2
In many Churches there are multiple driving forces competing for
attention. is results in conflict and a Church that is trying to head in
several different directions at the same time.3 If you look up the word
‘drive’ in a dictionary, you’d find this definition: “to guide, control, or
direct”. When you drive a car, it means you guide, control, and direct it
down the street.

Every Church is driven by something. ere is a guiding force, a

controlling assumption, a directing conviction behind everything that
happens. It may be unspoken. It may be unknown to many. Most likely
it’s never been officially voted on. But it’s there, influencing every aspect
of the Church’s life. What is the driving force behind your Church?

Churches Driven by Personality

In this Church the most important question is, “What does the leader –
the pastor – want?” If the pastor has served the
Church for a long time, he is most likely the
driving personality. But if the Church has a
history of changing pastors every few years, a
key layperson is likely to be the driving force.
One obvious problem of a personality-driven
Church is that its agenda is determined more
by the background, needs, talents, and
insecurities of the leader than by God’s will or
the needs of the people or surrounding
community. Church members simply do things, because the “pastor or
leader” said so, often without really understanding the purpose and/or
meaning of their actions. Accordingly, they give their allegiance to the
pastor or leader in a way that hinders their own spiritual maturing process.
Another problem is that the personality-driven Church comes to a
standstill when its driving personality leaves or dies.

Churches Driven by Programs

e Sunday school, the women’s program, the
choir or worship band, and the youth group
are examples of programs that are often
driving forces in Churches. In program-
driven Churches, all the energy is focused on
maintaining and sustaining the programs of
the Church. Often, the program-driven

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 Church’s goal subtly shifts from developing and equipping people to just
filling positions. e leading question no longer is: “In what ways is God
desiring to develop you to contribute to advancing his Kingdom and how
can we equip you in this process?” but rather “We need someone to teach
Sunday school and you can do it as well as any other person. So could you
join the Sunday school staff?” If results from a program diminish, the
people involved blame themselves for not working hard enough. No one
ever questions and evaluates if a program still works.

Churches Driven by Events

If you look at the calendar of an event-driven Church, you might get the
impression that the goal of the Church is to keep people busy. Something
is going on every night of the week, whether it’s a prayer meeting, a Bible
Study, small group meetings, a committee meeting, worship practice, a
Church-sponsored outreach event etc. As
soon as one big event is completed, work
begins on the next one. Some event-driven
Churches live from one conference or concert
by a well-known worship leader to another;
from one event by a famous speaker/preacher
to another. ere is a lot of activity in
Churches like this, but not necessarily
productivity. A Church may be busy without having a clear purpose for
what it does. Someone needs to ask, “What is the purpose behind each of
our activities?” In the event-driven Church, attendance in the various
activities of the Church becomes the sole measurement of faithfulness and
maturity. We must be wary of the tendency to allow attendance at
meetings to replace ministry and service as the primary activity of
believers.4

Churches Driven by Tradition

In the tradition-driven Church the favorite phrase is “We’ve always done
it this way.” e goal of a tradition-driven Church is to simply perpetuate
the past. Change is almost always seen as negative, and stagnation is
interpreted as “stability”. Older Churches tend to
be bound together by rules, regulations, and rituals,
while younger Churches tend to be bound together
by a sense of purpose and mission. In some
Churches, tradition can be such a driving force
that everything else, even God’s will, becomes
secondary. Ralph Neighbour says the seven last
words of the Church are, “We’ve never done it that
way before.”

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 Churches Driven by Finances
e question at the forefront of everyone’s mind in a finance-driven
Church is, “How much will it cost?” Nothing else ever seems quite as
important as finances. e most heated debate
in a finance-driven Church is always over the
budget. While good stewardship and cash
flow are essential for a healthy Church,
finances must never be the controlling issue.
e greater issue should be what God wants
the Church to do. Churches do not exist to
make a profit. e bottom line in any Church
should not be “How much did we save?” but “Who was saved?” I’ve
noticed that many Churches are driven by faith in their early years and
driven by finances in later years.

Churches Driven by Buildings

e former British Prime Minister, Winston
Churchill, once said, “ We shape our
buildings, and then they shape us.” Too often
a congregation is so anxious to have a nice
building that the members spend more than
they can afford. Paying for and maintaining
the building becomes the biggest budget
item. Funds needed to operate ministries
must be diverted to pay for the building, and the actual ministry of the
Church suffers. e tail ends up wagging the dog. In other situations,
Churches allow the smallness of their buildings to set the limit for future
growth.

Churches Driven by Seekers

In an honest attempt to reach unbelievers for
Christ and be relevant in today’s culture, some
Churches allow the needs of the unbelievers to
become their driving force. e primary
question asked is, “What do the unchurched
want?” While we must be sensitive to the needs,
hurts, and interests of seekers, and while it is
wise to design evangelistic services that target their
needs, we cannot allow seekers to drive the total agenda of the Church.
God’s purposes for his Church include evangelism – but not to the
exclusion of his other purposes. Attracting seekers is the first step in the
process of making disciples, but it should not be the driving force of the
Church. While it is fine for a business to be market-driven (give the
customer whatever s/he wants), a Church has a higher calling. e
Church should be seeker-sensitive but it must not be seeker-driven. We

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 must adapt our communication style to our culture without adopting the
sinful elements of it or abdicating to it.

reflection questions
Before reading on, take a moment to reflect on the following questions and write
your answers to the questions into your Application Journal. Come prepared to
share your answers with other members of your group in the next class session:

• Why does your Church exist? Does your Church know its purpose
and mission?
• What drives your Church? Do any of the driving forces described
above characterize your Church?
• What activities does your Church spend most time doing? Is there
anything you think needs to change?

application journal:

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 article: the theological meaning of the cross: the
restoration of shalom
Introduction
e New Testament focuses on the
theological meaning of the cross (i.e. Jesus
as the Savior from sin and evil), far more
than it focuses on the immediate historical
meaning of the cross (i.e. Jesus as the
troublemaker and rebel). One of the
reasons for this is that the historical
meaning of the cross was obvious to the
contemporaries of the New Testament
writers – it’s like saying today that Jesus died as a political prisoner on the
electrical chair – whereas the theological meaning needed exposition,
defense and practical application.5

So what happened on the cross? What did Jesus accomplish? What was
the purpose of the cross, apart from the historical meaning we already
looked at? What kind of salvation did he bring about? How could his
death and subsequent resurrection bring salvation and restoration to the
world?

Explaining the theological meaning of the cross may be like trying to see
the whole beautiful, majestic sky from one of the windows of your house.
You can see part of the sky through your window, and you can go to the
other rooms of your house and look through other windows too. But even
after looking out all of the windows, you aren’t seeing the whole sky – you
aren’t seeing to the end of the sky, which is infinite through each window,
and is more than even all the windows can show you. It’s the same in
theology. Trying to explain the meaning of the cross is like looking
through different windows in your house. ere are different theological
explanations or theories. Each of these is like looking through one of the
windows of your house, granted some may be larger than others! Yet, not
even one of these theories can give you the whole sky, as none of your
windows can. Our best formulations thus don’t give us the whole sky, just
a window in it. Nonetheless, even though we know we may not grasp the
whole sky, having a theory is better than staring at a blank wall or even a
picture hanging on the wall, or even tapping in the dark, since there are no
windows.6

In what follows we will seek to look through six different windows in our
house onto the theological meaning of the cross. In doing so we will see
that the cross was God’s primary way to deal with the powers of evil and
destroy those forces that oppose his divine intentions on earth. e cross

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 was God’s way to set the stage for the renewal of his creation to once more
reflect his divine intentions: Shalom on earth as it is in heaven!

God Saves More an People

In this first section of the article, we’re going to seek to explain how and in
what ways God saves more than people! We will seek to explain the
theological meaning of the cross by looking through three different
windows of our house.

Window 1: rough Jesus’ Death God Defeated the Evil Powers

Colossians 2:13-15: e extremely vivid image Paul is using here, of course,

is the triumphal procession after a Roman victory. When a Roman
general conquered an enemy, he would make a triumphal procession into
Rome, marching though the city streets not only his conquering army, but
also his foe’s defeated troops, the hostages and booty taken, and, finally, the
vanquished general or king. ey would proceed down the Via Appia to
the Roman Senate. Once they arrived at the steps of the Roman Senate,
the general would lead the king of the conquered nation by a chain up the
stairs where the Emperor was waiting. At the top of the stairs he would
give the chain to the Emperor and force the king to fall prostrate before
the Emperor who then put his foot and the defeated king’s neck. It was,
for any Roman general, the supreme moment of his career when he was
granted the right to such a triumphal procession.7 Using this extremely
vivid picture of a conqueror’s triumphal procession Paul states that God
defeated and disarmed the evil powers of their authority. In other words,
Jesus’ journey to the cross was a march to victory, characteristic of a
military leader who had triumphed over his enemies. e people watching
Christ limp to Golgotha witnessed the political equivalent of a victorious
Roman general entering Rome, parading the defeated and vanquished
principalities and powers through the city they once sought to rule,
disarming his enemies, and making a public spectacle of them.8

In making a public spectacle of them, Jesus exposed to the universe the

evil powers’ utter helplessness, leading them ‘in him’ in his triumphal
procession so that all the world might see the greatness of his victory. On
his cross, he made a mockery of the powers and authorities by disarming
them, i.e. by making their weapon – the cross – redundant. So how exactly
did Christ defeat the principalities and powers of the world’s cities and
empires? Paul tells us that on the cross Christ “cancelled the written
code” (i.e. the system or mosaic of religious, cultural, political and
economic rules and regulations which ordered all life throughout both
Judaism and the Roman Empire).9 He forgave our sins, freed us from the
authority of the city’s and empire’s systems over our lives, and granted us
freedom in Christ. By such redemptive action, the power of the systems

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 and their principalities (both earthly and demonic) has been broken, both
over the church and over all society.10 In other words, the work of Christ
is defeating and redeeming God’s enemies, which can be spiritual beings
or such things as the social, economic, and political structures that
comprise the elements of the kosmos and estrange both people and
societies from God.

e forgiveness of which Colossians 2:13-15 speaks, then, is forgiveness

for complicity in our own oppression and in that of others. Forgiveness,
for complicity in the oppressive, exploitative and controlling systems. Our
alienation is not solely the result of our rebellion against God. It is also
the way we have been socialized by alienating rules and requirements. We
do not freely surrender our authenticity; it is stolen from us by the
powers11

1. Corinthians 15:54b-57; Galatians 1:4; 1 John 3:8; Hebrews 2:14-17: 1.

John 3:8 maintains that the purpose of Christ’s coming is to enervate the
devil, to eliminate his power, to destroy his effectiveness. If the world is
the battleground between God and Satan, this passage reminds us that
Christ came to the world to die in order to undo all that Satan has done in
the world among its people, systems, and principalities.12 Galatians 1:4
states along similar lines that Christ came to rescue us from this present
evil age, in the here and now. e writer to the Hebrews makes it clear
once more that one of the primary purposes of Jesus’ incarnation and
death was to nullify the power of the devil and thereby free those held in
bondage by this evil tyrant. “Since the children have flesh and blood, he
too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him
who holds the power of death – that is the devil – and free those who all
their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.” (Hebrews 2: 14-15).
Hebrews indicates that the devil continues to hold people in slavery
because of their fear of death. e devil does not possess control over
death inherently, but gained his power when he seduced humankind and
its systems to rebel against God. So how does the kingdom of Satan
survive? It survives by entrapping people in fear; the fear of being shamed;
the fear of “loosing out”, the fear of physical suffering; and most
supremely, the fear of death – the ultimate weapon of the kingdom of
Satan. If you threaten the rule of injustice and oppression in a social
system, the maximum it can do to protect itself is to eliminate you.13

What’s, then, the only thing that can undermine this reign of fear? e
cross! It takes the weapon of the kingdom of Satan, and turns it against
Satan. 1. Corinthians 15:54b-57 summarizes it well: e death of Jesus
effectively dealt with this problem because “he made atonement for the
sins of the people” through his death. He conquered death! We can be
released from Satan’s power and freed from fear of death to serve God by

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 the forgiveness and cleansing made possible by Jesus’ death. By his death
and resurrection Jesus has destroyed Satan’s final weapon.14

As we see in these passages, a number of NT writers see the primary role

of Jesus as conqueror of evil because the central problem of our cities and
nations is the power of evil, whether seen in demonic beings, corrupt social
structures, or death itself. e work of Christ is seen as defeating God’s
enemies, which can be spiritual beings or such things as the social,
economic, and political structures that comprise the elements of the
cosmos and estrange both people and societies from God. e cross, then,
is a message of hope for those who live in fear of death, evil, supernatural
powers and oppressive systems. Christ died in order to rescue us from the
present evil age in the here and now. ere is no slightest indication that
the New Testament writers projected this rescue solely into the heavenly
realm. To the contrary!

e Christus Victor motif, established in these verses, gets beyond an

exclusively individualistic understanding of sin and salvation and hints to
the social and cosmic aspects of salvation. René Padilla underlines the
importance of this model: “e church today urgently needs to experience
the cross as far more than the cultic symbol of a privatized faith. It needs
to experience it as God’s victory over the powers of darkness and therefore
as a basis to challenge every dehumanizing power that is destroying life in
the modern world, be it militarism or consumerism, statism or
materialism, individualism or hedonism.” is understanding of Christ’s
death provides a rational for Christians to believe that Christ can
transform culture, since it recognizes that Christ is Lord over natural and
supernatural powers, over systems and structures as well as over persons;
his Kingdom is cosmic in scope.

Unfortunately, the contemporary Western exposition of the cross fails to

notice that the cross does more than delivering us from our individual sin
and its consequences and giving us a ticket into heaven. Jesus died and
rose again so that, “by his death he might destroy him who holds the
power of death – that is, the devil – and free those who all their lives were
held in slavery by their fear of death.” Many people around the world
(including Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist leaders) find the Western Gospel to
be obnoxiously cheap, because its beginning and end appears to be that
Jesus died so that Christians can get a free ride to heaven.15

Window 2: rough Jesus’ Death the Cosmos and the Principalities and
Powers are Saved from Self-destruction

John 3:16-17: John 3:16-17 is perhaps too well known for us to be

analytical toward it. We recite it without much thought, our minds
shaped by it primary use – as the Scripture passage used to introduce an

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 individual to Christ. In the light of such popularity, it is important to
assert that the Greek word John uses which is frequently interpreted
individualistically (“God so loved Juan Garcia that he gave…”) is not an
individualistic word. It is the word ‘kosmos’ – the entire created order. It
does not mean the physical earth; the word ‘oikoumene’ was used for the
inhabited world. Nor does it mean people; the word ‘laos’ would be used if
referring only to humans. e word ‘kosmos’ was used in Scripture to refer
to the universe, the heavens, and the earth and all its inhabitants (both
human and non-human), the scene and systems of human activity; the
order of things. It is an all-encompassing word and means “the totality of
existence”.16 To capture the power and implications of what John was
writing in this passage, let us translate it this way:17

“For God so loved the cosmos that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his
Son into the cosmos to condemn the cosmos, but to save the cosmos through him”
or “God so loved the entire created order – including people, systems, structures,
celestial beings – that he gave his one and only son,… so that the entire created
order might not perish but might have eternal life.”

It is crucial to understand that John chose to use the word ‘kosmos’ in this
passage. Perhaps the most precise of all biblical writers in his use of
Greek, John would not have used the word if he had not meant ‘kosmos’.
If he had simply meant ‘people’, he would have said so. In short, this
passage is not written to deal simply with the redemption of human
beings (although it includes them). It is referring to the redemption of the
universe, the geophysical world, the social systems, and structures of
humanity, and the entire human enterprise. In other words – the entire
created order. It is the ‘cosmos’ that God does not want to condemn and
have perish, but which he wants to save and for which he has provided a
way of salvation through his one and only Son.18 Christ’s death and
resurrection, then, is giving remedy for the downward cycle of society.
God, through Jesus Christ, has made a way to restore the ‘kosmos’ – the
created order including people, systems, structures, celestial beings – to its
original purpose. Jesus’ death IS God’s way to redeem all things
unredeemed, and bring under the Lordship of Christ all things in
rebellion to him.19 ose who have been redeemed by him, are then called
to work with God in the redemption of all things not yet redeemed and
bring under the Lordship of Christ all things in rebellion to him!

Colossians 1:15-20: Seven times, this passage reminds us that God’s

agenda is as big as “all creation”. Paul was making a point! Jesus’ blood was
shed for the restoration of “all things”. Why? “All things” were broken
when sin entered our world.20 Because of the fall, creation can no longer
support life, including that of plants, animals, and humans, as effectively as
God intended. is inability introduced suffering into creation, such as

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 hunger, sickness, and social and cultural disintegration, as well as other
problems.21 God loves his creation, however, and he wants “all things”
reconciled to himself.22 Reconciliation, as it is used in this passage, then,
has the sense of restoration. It assumes creation’s fall and God’s
commitment to its restoration, so that it can fulfill its purposes.

ese verses, then, are among Paul’s most illuminating statements about
Christ and the meaning of his death. Paul presents Jesus here as the
cosmic Christ. He is co-eternal with God (“He is before all things”… and
the “firstborn over all creation”). He is co-Creator of the universe and
everything that is in it; everything material and everything spiritual. He is
even the ruler over the competing power networks of the world, since he is
the creator of thrones, powers, rulers, and authorities along with “all things
in heaven and earth, visible and invisible,” they were created “in”, “through”
and “for” him. at is, Christ is the creator and sustainer of both demonic/
angelic possessors of power, as well as the political, economic, religious,
and social systems, structures, and personalities of power. ey were
created, Paul contends, as an integral part of the universe God had
planned.23 is doesn’t mean that Christ created the Roman state or the
capitalist economic system. is would make him responsible for all of
these systems’ failures. No, what Paul is specifically referring to is that
both the socio-political structures of society and the spiritual forces behind
and within those structures were created by Christ. ese created “powers
are both heavenly and earthly, divine and human, spiritual and political,
invisible and structural”. ey are the “inner and outer aspects of any
given manifestation of power”, according to theologian Walter Wink.

Paul goes on to say that the powers and systems were originally a divine
creation and were to find their goal in Christ. ey were created for only
one purpose: “To glorify God and to enjoy him forever” – in other words,
to be centered on God and the service of God’s creation.24 However,
when the principalities and powers fell, and turned against him in
rebellion, God sent Jesus as God’s representative to reconcile all things to
him and transform and redeem the systems and powers. Jesus, then, is not
only co-creator with God of all the structures and powers of the cosmos.
He is also their redeemer. rough his redemptive work on the cross, Jesus
Christ has reconciled the entire cosmos (whether things on earth or things
in heaven”) to God. Who is reconciled? Everyone. Everything. Not just
people, but “thrones… powers… rulers… authorities” (or as it says in other
translations “thrones… dominions… principalities… powers): the heavenly
order (the angelic and demonic forces) and the earthly order (the systems
and structures, the material world, all human beings). Everything and
everyone! Indeed, through his death and resurrection Jesus was the first to
conquer death, “so that in everything he might have the supremacy” (v.
18).25 To believe that God plans a cosmic salvation in which eventually all
things will be reconciled to God doesn’t mean that ultimately all people

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 and powers will be redeemed as universalist theology may want to assert.
Rather it means that all parts of the created order – persons, human
civilization and even the non-human creation – will participate in God’s
ultimate salvation.26 Every person, system and power still has a choice to
reject God’s invitation to reconciliation.

Nonetheless, Jesus’ death and resurrection demonstrates that it is possible

to overcome the worst evil – death; that unredeemed people, systems and
powers can be redeemed and brought under the Lordship of Christ, if they
so choose. Jesus’ death and resurrection furthermore demonstrates that
ultimately no people, systems or powers will be able to oppose God’s will
and vision. So, once again, all things can reach fulfillment through Christ
– whether things visible or invisible, whether thrones, dominions and
powers.27

Most of the evangelical church tends to interpret visible and invisible as

physical and spiritual, which limits Christian ministries to the spiritual
realm and prevents them from grasping the comprehensive ethical nature
of managing cultural change. A proper interpretation of this passage
includes God’s reconciling work, which embraces the restoration of social,
cultural, political and economic structures. Paul, in these verses, thus,
offers Jesus as the Lord of the public sphere whose death enables him to
transcend individual needs to deal with global concerns. Christ is at work
globally, using his people to transform societies and their systems, confront
principalities and powers, and work for public justice and human rights.28
Wonderful things happen, thus, when churches respond to God’s larger
agenda! However, far too few churches equip their people to restore “all
things”. Some concentrate on spiritual salvation, where restoration begins.
Others concentrate on social and physical reform, to the neglect of
spiritual regeneration. But the church must equip its people to represent
God’s whole agenda, to bring “all creation” under the Lordship of Christ.29

2. Corinthians 5:17-20: ese verses contain Paul’s great declaration of the

reconciling work of God. e phrase that leaps out from this passage is,
“All this is from God.” is is where the focus must lie. Both the work of
reconciliation and the use of his people as agents of reconciliation are
motivated, instituted, and implemented by God. e Lord does the work –
sometimes through us, sometimes in spite of us – but it is he who does the
salvific work. at is how the world is to be transformed from a world at
enmity with God to a world at one with God: through the work of God in
Christ. e work God did and is doing through Christ is the work of
reconciliation. And it is not just individuals or humanity he is reconciling;
it is the whole world:30 all of creation, nations, people groups, systems,
individual persons, powers, and whatever else is alienated from God will
be reconciled through Christ. Reconciliation makes the most
comprehensive renewal possible. Everything – including the world –

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 becomes new in an ongoing process. Christ has opened the door for the
entire world to be reconciled to him.31 We might employ Paul’s
declaration in 2. Corinthians 5:19 (alternating two words) to show the
essential contents of the Old Testament…: “God was in Israel, seeking to
reconcile the world unto himself.” “In Israel” God did not succeed in
redeeming the world. It remained for him to act “in Christ” in order
finally to draw all unto himself.32 Despite the finality of Christ’s work,
those who have been redeemed through faith in his atoning work, those
who are “a new creation,” are called to a “ministry of reconciliation”.33
How does this look like and what exactly does this “ministry of
reconciliation” involve?

Our task, in this ministry of reconciliation, is not the reconciliation itself;

only God can do that, particularly at the systemic and cosmic levels. Our
task as people of God is to proclaim what God has already done. It is to
witness to that reconciliation by first being reconciled to God ourselves.34
If anyone is “in the Messiah”, what they have and are is… new creation.
Your own human self, your personality, your body, is being reclaimed, so
that instead of being simply part of the old creation, a place of sorrow and
injustice and ultimately the shame of death itself, you can be both part of
the new creation in advance and someone through whom it begins to
happen here and now.35 Second, it is to witness to that reconciliation by
becoming agents or ambassadors of that reconciliation to others; sharing
with the world (including those systems and structures which are no
longer living within their God-given purpose and in rebellion against
God) the Good News that they are already reconciled and can receive
God’s salvation if they so choose.36 Indeed, God uses humankind to work
out the full implications of his redemption. As the Redeemer’s
ambassadors, Christians are called to work for the redemption of the
creation in its entirety—family, the marketplace, the arts … and, of course,
politics. us, in the same way that humankind was commissioned to
work out the full implications of the original creation, believers are called
to work out the full implications of the redemption as it extends to all
things. Politics, then, along with art and business and science and
motherhood and mechanics and cooking—the list is as long as creation is
broad—are all in need of the redemption Christ provides and which is
administered through “Christ’s ambassadors”. Although harmony
between God and his creation is restored de jure in Christ’s work on the
cross, it is the business of each and every believer to engage the world,
using the unique capacities with which each has been gifted, to restore the
harmony of creation de facto.37

Window 3: rough Jesus’ Death the Created Order is Restored to its

Original Purpose

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 Romans 8:18-25: is is a most amazing and truly mind-expanding
passage. In verse 20, Paul’s starting point is the fact that the creation had
been “subjected to frustration”. He is contending that creation – the
world, the cosmos, the universe – is enslaved to decadence and sin as much
as are human beings. Most certainly Paul is referring to Genesis 3, which
says that human sin also caused disruption and evil in nature. e material
world shares humanity’s destiny. “It was cursed for man’s sin … and is
therefore now deformed: impotent and decadent (Gen. 3:17, 19-22).38
Indeed, “the whole creation has been groaning as in the pain of childbirth
right up to the present time” (v. 22). “It waits with eager longing for the
revealing of the children of God” (v. 19; literally, “waiting for the revelation
of the sons of God”). It waits for its delivery from sin and longs for its
own salvation, as much as humanity yearns for wholeness.39 Paul
recognized that the world is delightful as well as disastrous; orderly as well
as chaotic. Sin is so prevalent and so destructive that the whole creation is
affected. Sin is not just individual, it’s global. It’s infused in the
bloodstream of the whole world, where sinful people create systems and
cultures that promote and protect evil, as well as good.40

e good news is that God’s salvation through Jesus’ death is equally

universal in its availability and effect. Creation is as capable of being saved
by Christ as are we!41 Indeed, one day all creation will be rescued from
slavery, from the corruption, decay and death which deface its beauty,
destroy its relationships, remove the sense of God’s presence from it, and
make it a place of injustice, violence, and brutality. at is the message of
rescue, of “salvation”, at the heart of one of the greatest chapters Paul ever
wrote.42 e whole of creation has been created and now redeemed by
Christ. Not just humans! e whole created order will be made new!
Creation will enjoy the same benefits of salvation as will humans, and to
the same degree, for “creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to
decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God” (v.
21).43 In other words, Paul basically says that through Jesus’ death the
present material universe is being transformed to fulfill the purpose for
which God created it.44 Reflecting on these verses, the noted evangelical
scholar F.F. Bruce concludes: “If words mean anything, these words of Paul
denote not the annihilation of the present material universe on the day of
revelation, to be replaced by a universe completely new but the
transformation of the present universe so that it will fulfill the purpose for
which God created it.”45 Romans 8, thus, affirms that creation is so good
that God intends to purge it from evil and bring it to perfection.46 It is
the deepest New Testament answer to the problem of evil, to the question
of God’s justice.47 Notwithstanding, this liberation of creation will be
partial and imperfect until Christ returns to redeem it personally. Only at
the end of time, when Jesus returns, will it be fully restored.48

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 In the meantime, until Jesus’ return, the passage affirms, we humans have a
mandate to work with God in creation’s restoration. Christ calls his
followers to participate in the world’s systems, to promote his values and
love as we have opportunity; to participate with him in the first skirmishes
of the liberation of his creation. Christ’s saving grace starts its work inside
us, but simultaneously works its way out through our influence. God’s
power and purposes begin to penetrate our values, worldview,
relationships, career choices and community involvements. As God’s
managers of the earth, we then begin to reclaim the devil’s territory, as it
were, by redirecting social systems and cultural values so that people and
places benefit instead of being exploited. What begins as personal
conversion must result in societal change as God’s people impact their
families, coworkers, churches, market places, communities, culture, and the
environment!49 If it doesn’t, the conversion was not full!

God Saves Humankind

In this second section of our article, we’re going to seek to explain how
through the cross, God saves humankind and in what ways. We will seek
to seek to explain some other theological meanings of the cross by looking
through three more windows of our house.

Window 4: rough Jesus’ Death Human Communities and Societies are

Restored to their Original Purpose

1. Corinthians 10:16-22, 11:23-26; Galatians 3:26-29; Ephesians 2:14-22;

1 John 3:10-18: Jesus’ death tore down dividing walls by calling people
from divergent backgrounds to give up their differences and concentrate
instead on the generousness of Christ’s sacrifice. Christ’s death enables
people to live in koinonia (community/fellowship), as they become
partakers in the Salvation brought about by Jesus. eir koinonia with
Jesus must manifest itself in koinonia that crosses barriers with other
believers, which is best seen in the Lord’s Supper. e Lord’s Supper is
not a religious remembrance ritual, but instead a call to “life together”, to
forgiveness, to sharing, to intentional community. Only in remembrance
of the cross, koinonia can deepen and mature, because it involves the
crucifying of one’s own self-justice, egocentrism, and selfishness – openly
admitting one’s own dark sides. e result is a preparedness to be honest
and in open communion with other Christians, showing oneself
vulnerable.

rough Christ’s death, then, reconciliation between classes, races and

genders is possible. To be ‘justified’ is to be ‘set right’ in one’s relationships;
it is a ‘making peace’, a breaking down of the wall of hostility between Jew
and Gentile: the relationship between divine justification and the
reconciliation of humans to one another is not a sequential relationship.50
Christian fellowship that neglects the commandment of reconciliation and

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 doesn’t bridge gaps between rich and poor, “Jew and Greek”, man and
woman, therefore, falls short of God’s vision for his church. Indeed, the
Christian’s calling is to show to a divided world that separation, alienation
and barriers of all kinds can be overcome through the reconciling power of
Christ. rough Christ’s death new societies can emerge. John explains
the community-creating power of the cross: “is is how we know who
the children of Children of God are and who the children of the devil are:
Any one who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is
anyone who does not love his brothers. . . . is is how we know what love
is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our
lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his
brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in
him? Dear Children let us not love with words or tongue but with actions
and in truth.” (1 John 3: 10-18)

Window 5: rough Jesus’ Death Individuals are Liberated from the

Enslaving Power of Shame

Luke 22:63-65, 23: 11:35-39; Hebrews 12:2-3, 13:12-13: A reliance on

Western theology has limited the breadth of understanding Jesus’ death.
One of these limitations is that, because the West has not as many
problems with shame, Westerners neither remember, nor teach, how the
cross liberated Christians from the oppressive culture of shame. Although
the Western exposition of the cross often sees it as Jesus taking our guilt
upon him, the Gospel story says more. Here is how Luke explains how
the cross was as much about shame as about sin: e cross is the ultimate
expression of an Asian culture using shame to coerce one its members to
fall in line, to conform to its code.51 What crucifixion meant to the
Romans is expressed in Cicero’s words, ‘Far be the very name of the cross,
not only from the body, but even from the thought, the eyes, the ears of
Roman citizens’.52 For Jews, it was clear that everyone who died on a
“tree” was cursed and brought utter shame on his/her family.

In effect, what the New Testament is saying, then, is that in enduring the
cross, Jesus turned his culture’s weapon of shame against his culture, he
“scorned” or “despised” its shame. (Hebrews 12:2). He refused to be
ashamed of what they wanted him to be ashamed of. Instead, he made
them ashamed of what they ought to have been ashamed of. e cross
calls us to step out of the culture that uses shame to make us conform. We
are to follow Jesus: “Who also suffered outside the city gate to make the
people holy through his own blood. Let us then go to him outside the
camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.” (Hebrews 13:12-13)53

Window 6: rough Jesus’ Death Individuals are Saved from Self-

destruction and Enabled to Enter into new Communion with God

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 Romans 1:18-23, 28-32; 3:21-26, 5:7-11, 6:23; Matthew 1:21; 1. Tim. 1:15:
roughout Scripture, we observe that humans exercised the option of
choosing to distrust and disobey God’s calling on their lives, to sin against
his Shalom ethic, and to alienate themselves from their Creator. e
choice to sin meant believing something false, allowing oneself to be
deceived, and submitting to Satan’s kingdom. By their choice they went
from light into darkness. eir mind was darkened; their heart was
hardened; and their conscience became increasingly insensitive to truth.
e spiritual life of humankind was dead. ey ceased to have fellowship
with God and subsequently ceased to have up-building relationships with
those ‘other’ than them. ey grew to love the darkness of evil. ey
became slaves to sin, for, increasing compromise with sin means decreasing
freedom and power to choose what is right. Sin bred poverty, corruption,
oppression, exploitation, violence and destruction. As sinners against
God’s vision of Shalom, humans are guilty – worthy not of respect but of
punishment, of destruction and eternal separation from God who is
Shalom. e basic argument of Romans 1-6 is that all people are sinners
standing under God’s holy condemnation. “All have sinned and fall short
of the Glory of God” (3:23). ere is a clear consistent warning. e
Holy Creator hates sin, though he loves sinners. All who sin and don’t
repent stand under God’s wrath and condemnation. A day of judgment is
coming, where God’s wrath will be fully unleashed. ose who don’t
repent and refuse to have their sins forgiven must at that day face God’s
terrible wrath: eternal separation from the source of all love, justice and
goodness. is could mean eternal separation by means of annihilation or
eternal separation by means of conscious banishment from the source of
all good. In any case, “e wages of sin is death”, whether death by
annihilation or death by loss of God’s image in us. (Romans 6:23). It is
important to state here that God’s wrath is not active punishment,
according to Paul. It is precisely the opposite: It is withdrawal of God’s
protection; it is letting people experience head-on the evilness of their own
doings, it is allowing people to reap the consequences of their own actions,
without averting the evil, intervening on peoples’ behalf and protecting
those who have turned against God and his vision of Shalom.54

So what remedy is there? Paul explains that through Jesus’ death, Christ
took our sins upon himself to turn aside God’s deserved wrath and
punishment of sinners. To avert that, God would no longer intervene on
humanity’s behalf and let their own wrongdoings fall on their head. As
Jesus hung on the cross of Calvary, it was literally the sin of the world that
was hanging there at that moment of history. Jesus became the sin of the
world. Yet, it was not Jesus who was judged on that cross, but the sin of
humankind that was judged and condemned. What follows is absolutely
central to the gospel’s portrayal of salvation: God loved humans so much
to send Jesus to take humans’ sin upon himself on the cross. Jesus became
sin for us. He took our punishment. He bore vicariously the wrath of God

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 upon sin. He died on the cross as our substitute. Because of him – the
only sinless human – God will not withdraw himself from humanity and
abandon us to our own evil and the evil of the perverted principalities and
powers. Since Jesus loved sinners so much and became the sin of the
world Himself on the cross, humans can find forgiveness for their sin
through faith in the death of Christ, as the final and complete sin-
offering; they can have a renewed relationship with God and life eternal
rather than eternal separation from God in the claws of evil. In other
words, Jesus’ death allows a sinner, who has broken God’s commandments
and sinned against his Shalom ethics, to own responsibility for oneself and
to repent; to ask forgiveness; to get right with God; to be born again; to
get out of the slavery of Satan and begin a life of obedience to God
through repentance and faith. No matter how sinful and broken, no
matter how poor, oppressed and malnourished, we can repent of our sins,
receive divine forgiveness and enter into a personal living relationship with
the holy Creator that will last eternally. We are saved, when we repent of
our sin, believe in Christ and submit to the reign of Christ and his vision
of Shalom in our lives.55

us, Jesus’ death on the cross brings together God’s wrath and God’s
mercy. It saves individuals from self-destruction and eternal separation
from God and his Shalom. It saves humans from having God eternally
withdraw from humanity and give them over to the clutches of evil and
everything that stands in opposition to God’s empire of Shalom.

Summary
e story we find ourselves in has been hijacked by sin and evil. All of us
are, to some degree, passive participants or even coconspirators in this
hijacking.56 e common view, therefore, asserts that Jesus came to save
us from this evil world which has been hijacked by sin, in order to give
those who accept him as their Lord and Savior tickets into his realm –
heaven. Indeed, many evangelical theories of atonement (i.e. ransom and
substitution theories) concentrate on the individual person’s salvation. In
doing so, they separate salvation from ethics and give Christians little or
no reason to participate in the conquest of evil or to transform the
structures of the cosmos that are governed by these powers.57 e result is
the scandal of worshiping churches, who exercise no transforming impact
on their surrounding communities and nations; of professing Christians
whose sexual practices, business dealings, and political attitudes are no
different from those of non-Christians.58

In contrast to most evangelical theories of atonement, however, the writers

of the Gospels and the epistles understood that the sinfulness in our world
is simultaneously political, economic, social, religious, and moral.59 In
their understanding Jesus didn’t come to save us only from private, moral,
and religious imperfections.60 As much as that was part of his aim, he also

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 came to save us from oppressive political, social, or economic sins in the
here and now.61 ere is no slightest indication that the New Testament
writers projected God’s redemptive action solely into the heavenly and
spiritual realm. To them, the rejection of Jesus is part of a much larger,
sinful world that consists of sinful imperial, social, economic, and religious
structures and practices that benefit the elite, burden the rest, violate God’s
will and sovereignty, and resist God’s empire of Shalom. From this
present world and its evil powers people are to be saved.62

e New Testament understanding of Jesus’ death on the cross, then, goes

beyond the individual’s salvation; it emphasizes that biblical salvation is
much broader than the individual’s redemption from sin, his reconciliation
with God, and his receiving the gift of eternal life. It emphasizes that
instead of withdrawing and abandoning us to our sin and evil, God
stepped into our story and absorbed an unfathomable infliction of pain, so
we won’t suffer it ourselves, so our story won’t have a tragic end.63 In
doing so, God saved this entire created order from the evil principalities
and powers, as well as the oppressive structures and systems, which
continuously enslave humankind and oppose God’s vision of Shalom. e
result: God’s redemptive work on the cross enables people who repent of
their old ways and submit to God’s Lordship, to become reconciling
agents, who can help God restore his creation, its systems and structures,
to its original purpose: Shalom.

e cross, then, is a message of hope. Christ died in order to rescue us

from the present evil age in the here and now. is understanding of
Christ’s death provides a rationale for Christians to believe that Christ can
indeed transform culture in the here and now. It provides a rationale to
become involved in this endeavor ourselves, since it recognizes that Christ,
the Lord over natural and supernatural powers, over systems and
structures and persons, has invited us to join him in his mission to bring
his Kingdom of Shalom on earth as it is in heaven! While his Kingdom
will only be established fully upon his return, already now we can help
advance it by becoming his ambassadors of reconciliation to people,
creation, systems, structures, and all things visible as well as invisible!

reflection questions: your reactions to the theological

meaning of the cross
Summarize and explore the breadth of the concept of salvation exposed in this
article as you reflect upon the following questions and write your answers into
your Application Journal:

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 • In light of scripture exposition presented in this article – why did
Jesus have to die? What insights/conclusions can you draw from the
afore-cited scriptures?
• What difference would it make in our ministry and practice of our
faith for us to believe that God saves more than people? at God is
actively at work seeking to redeem the structures, the systems of the
city or nation – or even the city or nation itself?
• Holding to a doctrine of salvation as outlined in this article, what
would you suspect Christ would call the church to be and do in your
city and nation?
• Why do you think so many churches have been so reluctant to accept
the centrality of restoring Shalom on earth in the Gospel?

application journal:

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 endnotes
1 Based on classnotes from course by Robert Linthicum, Building a People of Power
2 is entire section is adapted from Rick Warren, e Purpose-Driven Church, 76-80
3 In like manner, Churches are started for different reasons. Sometimes those reasons are

inadequate: competition, denominational pride, the need for recognition by a leader,

conflict and break-away from another church, or some other unworthy motivation. (Rick
Warren, e Purpose-Driven Church, 82-83)
4 Unfortunately, very little actual ministry takes place in many churches. Instead, much of

the time is taken up by meetings. Faithfulness is often defined in terms of attendance

rather than service, and members just sit, soak, and sour. (Rick Warren, e Purpose-
Driven Church, 104)
5 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 24
6 Brian McLaren, e Story We Find Ourselves In, 102
7 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 132
8 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 132
9 It is debated among scholars whether Paul is referring solely to the Jewish legal and

regulatory system or whether he is making reference to the entire “written code” that
regulated all life – both Jewish and Gentile – in the Roman Empire. is study has taken
it to mean the latter, but holding the former would not detract in any way from the
argument presented regarding this Scripture passage.
10 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 132
11 Walter Wink, e Powers at Be, 90
12 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 123
13 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 126
14 Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Social Reform, 126
15 Vishal Mangalwadi, Corruption and the Culture of the Cross, 37)
16 e Greek word for world—kosmos—can be employed either broadly or narrowly. In

the New Testament both uses occur. We can only understand which usage is correct by
reading a particular text in light of the overall message of scripture. When we consider
the command to hate the world, or when we seek to understand Christ’s words that his
followers are not of the world, we must understand kosmos narrowly to mean the effects
wrought on the creation by the Fall. us, we should hate the effects of the Fall, and as
children of God we are obliged to flee from sin and remain distinct from the fallen
world. If in these passages we read kosmos broadly—as if it meant all of creation—we are
faced with the problem of squaring hatred of the world, as well as separation from it, with
Christ’s command to be salt and light in a world that is sorely in need of both. If we
separate ourselves from the kosmos (broadly construed) because we are not part of the
world, we forfeit the possibility of engaging as salt and light, for being salt and light
requires active participation in the creation. Furthermore, if we take Christ’s use of
kosmos broadly and in so doing retreat from engaging the world, then this implies that
the command to oversee God’s creation, given to man in Genesis 1, has been rescinded.
But there is simply no biblical support for such a position. Christ came to fulfill the law,
not abolish it. Indeed, scripture tells us that, “God so loved the world (kosmos) that he
gave his only Son” ( John 3:16). Here it seems clear that kosmos is intended in the broad
sense—Christ died for all of creation. (Mark T. Mitchell, A eology of Engagement for
the ‘Newest Internationalists’, e Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs,
Spring 2003, 16)
17 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 120
18 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 120
19 It is important to note that if we take kosmos to mean all of creation, and at the same

time we take creation to be wholly evil due to the Fall (that is, if we deny creation’s on-
going structural goodness), then we have God loving evil and giving his Son for its

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 redemption. One only redeems that which is redeemable, and that which is redeemable is
necessarily good. Christ died for the totality of creation, which has been effaced by sin,
but the underlying structural goodness of creation remains intact. us the distinction
between sacred and secular is a false dichotomy. Instead, the creation, properly conceived,
should be seen in terms of two very different categories: redeemed vs. unredeemed—or
(and this is another way of saying the same thing), those under the Lordship of Christ vs.
those in rebellion. (Mark T. Mitchell, A eology of Engagement for the ‘Newest
Internationalists’, e Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs, Spring
2003, 16)
20 Bob Moffit, If Jesus Were Mayor, 61
21 Bruce Bradshaw, Change Across Cultures, 45
22 Bob Moffit, If Jesus Were Mayor, 61
23 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 119
24 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 119
25 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 119-120
26 Ronald Sider, One-Sided Christianity, 91
27 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

28 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

29 Bob Moffit, If Jesus Were Mayor, 62

Reconciliation focuses on the conviction that the most basic thing about humans is not
their sin but their restoration. Reconciliation consists in spirited actions, often very
ordinary everyday ones, against the anti-creational forces that violate creation’s integrity
and degrade and destroy (Bruce Bradshaw, Change Across Cultures, 45-46)
30 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 121
31 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

32 quoted in Arthur F. Glasser, Announcing the Kingdom, 17
33 Mark T. Mitchell, A eology of Engagement for the ‘Newest Internationalists’, e

Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs, Spring 2003, 17

34 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

35 N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, 126
36 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

37 Mark T. Mitchell, A eology of Engagement for the ‘Newest Internationalists’, e

Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs, Spring 2003, 17

38 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 118
39 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 118
40 e Word In Life Study Bible, 2038
41 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 118
42 N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, 126
43 Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan, 118

Since sin is not just personal, the whole creation needed to be saved. We see, then, that in
Romans Paul is teaching that there is no dichotomy between the individual and his
corporate environment (whether social or physical). It is all corrupted by sin. And God
has provided for the redemption of it all. (Robert Linthicum, City of God City of Satan,
118)
44 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

45 F.F. Bruce, e Epistle of Paul to the Romans: An Introduction and Commentary, 170
46 Bruce Bradshaw, Change Across Cultures, 46
47 N.T. Wright, Simply Christian, 126

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 Unless creation as a whole is put to rights, it might look as though God the Creator had
blundered or was weak and incapable, or was actually unjust. No, declares Paul: the
renewal of creation, the birth of the new world from the laboring womb of the old, will
demonstrate that God is in the right. (Ibid, 126)
48 Paragraph based in parts on personal notes taken during a course offered by Robert

Linthicum entitled “Building a People of Power”

49 Paragraph based in parts on e Word In Life Study Bible, 2038, as well as personal

notes taken during a course offered by Robert Linthicum entitled “Building a People of
Power”
50 Melba Padilla Maggay, Transforming Society, 25

It is not that ‘faith’ occurs first as an inner existential leap of the individual… and then
God operates a change in him which enables him to love his brethren… ese two
cannot be distinguished. In other words, conversion does not take place in two moves –
first, a conversion to Christ, and then a ‘second conversion’ from Christ to the world.
Both occur in one single act.
51 Vishal Mangalwadi, Corruption and the Culture of the Cross, 34
52 Carson, D. A. 1994. New Bible Commentary: 21st century edition. Rev. ed. of: e

new Bible commentary. 3rd ed. / edited by D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. 1970. (4th ed.) .
Inter-Varsity Press: Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA
53 Vishal Mangalwadi, Corruption and the Culture of the Cross, 35-36
54 ?
55 ?

But conversely, if a person does not personally accept the death of Christ as a means to
his salvation from sin, then s/he cannot be saved; s/he will have to take the full
consequences of sin before a perfectly Holy God. Many people find it hard to accept that
the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross is the only means of finding forgiveness for one’s sin.
But who else ever became sin for the world? In the whole of human history Jesus is the
only one who took human’s sin upon Himself. Indeed, we can ignore the theological
meaning of the cross only at eternal cost to ourselves. e New Testament, consequently,
affirms that the renewal of society begins with the renewal of individuals who pass from
death to life, from unrighteousness to righteousness. e true key to Shalom lies with the
quality of life the people lead. Holistic reform can only happen as a consequence of
repentance.
56 Brian McLaren, e Story We Find Ourselves In, 170
57 Bruce Bradshaw, Change Across Cultures, 122
58 If one reduces the atonement just to Jesus’ death for our sins, one abandons the New

Testament’s understanding of the Gospel of the Kingdom and severs the connection
between the cross and the purpose of Jesus’ disciple-based movement – to restore creation
to its original purpose.
59 Warren, Carter, Matthew and Empire, 79
60 Warren Carter, Matthew and Empire, 81-82
61 Warren, Carter, Matthew and Empire, 79
62 Warren Carter, Matthew and Empire, 81-82

e Roman imperial world does not manifest the gift and blessing of the gods. It
manifests Satan’s reign.
63 Brian McLaren, e Story We Find Ourselves In, 170

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