We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.
Reading the Bible “by Faith”
The cruciform approach to reading the Bible—and specifically the culturally-conditioned and sin-stained portraits of God—requires faith on the part of the reader, which I argue in Crucifixion of the Warrior God. On one level we can discern by faith that often times God broke through the limitations and sin of the ancient authors, for we find divine portraits that, to one degree or another, reflect the character of God revealed in Christ. On another level we must discern by faith that God appropriated the limitations and sin of the authors God “breathed” through, for we find divine portraits that, to one degree or another, anticipate the ugliness of the sin-bearing, God-forsaken criminal on the cross. Of course, I am painting with broad brush strokes. In reality, most portraits in the Old Testament are Christ-like to a certain extent and reflect the culturally conditioned and sin-stained humanity of their authors to a certain extent.
To the extent that a divine portrait reflects the character of Christ, it may be regarded as a direct revelation of God’s character. For as with the teachings and actions of Christ, the content of this type of divine portrait directly reflects God’s true, Christ-like character. Conversely, to the extent that a divine portrait conflicts with the character of Christ, it must be regarded as an indirect revelation of God. This calls for a different kind of faith. For as with Christ when he bore our sins and took on the semblance of a guilty, God-forsaken criminal, the content of this type of divine portrait reflects the limitations and sin of God’s covenantal people more than it does his true character.
Along the same lines, as with the sin-bearing Christ on the cross, the indirect revelatory content of this type of divine portrait must be located not at the level of appearances, but in what happened behind these appearances, in what could be called the “meta-dimension” of these appearances. To put the matter in slightly different terms, we only discern the character of God on Calvary when, by faith, we look through the grotesque appearance of this guilty criminal and discern in the depth of this event the unfathomably merciful God stooping to this unthinkable level. We can discern the true character of God in OT divine portraits that look like standard ANE portraits of warrior deities when we, by faith, look through the barbaric appearances to discern the unfathomably merciful God stooping to this unthinkable level.
As such, to the extent that any OT portraits reflects the limited and sinful humanity of God’s people, and insofar as we discern the limited and sinful humanity of God’s people in any other aspect of Scripture, we may discern a harbinger and type of the cross. The same faith that enables us to discern the self-sacrificial God in the depth dimension of the limited and fallen “criminal” who hung on the cross is the faith that enables us to discern the self-sacrificial God in the depth dimension of Scripture’s violent portraits of Yahweh, as well as every other aspect of Scripture that reflects the limited and sinful humanity of its authors. And all of this, I submit, bears witness to the unfailing covenantal love of God.
Image: Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Ms-5211 réserve, fol. 69v.
Category: General
Tags: Bible, Cruciform Theology, Faith
Related Reading
The Ultimate Criteria for Theology
Theology is thinking (logos) about God (theos). It is a good and necessary discipline, but only so long as it is centered on Christ. All of our speculation and debate about such things as God’s character, power, and glory must be done with our focus on Jesus Christ—more specifically, on the decisive act by which…
The Problem with Christocentrism
As we’ve discussed in the previous posts, there has been a growing move toward a Christocentric orientation in theology since Barth, and especially over the last fifty years. I enthusiastically applaud this trend, for I’m persuaded it reflects the orientation of the NT itself, so far as it goes. The trouble is, it seems to…
Does Jesus’ Abandonment on the Cross Destroy the Trinity?
In my previous blog I argued that Jesus’ experience of God-forsakenness on the cross was genuine and that, as a matter of fact, there was a genuine abandonment of Jesus by the Father on the cross. In fact, I am convinced that a good deal of our theology hangs in the balance on our affirming…
When Free Will Meets Unfathomable Evil
In the face of tragedy Christians unfortunately tend to recite clichés that attempt to reassure people that, however terrible things seem, everything is unfolding according to God’s mysterious plan. We hear that “God has his reasons”; “God’s ways are not our ways”; “God is still on his throne”; “God doesn’t make mistakes,” and things of…
Divine Accommodation and the Cross: where Calvin was onto something
Over the last few posts, I’ve been arguing that the cross represents the thematic center of everything Jesus was about. Hence, rather than striving to have a “Christocentric” theology — which is so broad it means next to nothing—we ought to sharpen our focus by striving for a “cruciform” theology. I then offered some suggestions…
What Does Spiritual Warfare Have To Do with the Cross?
Last week, we covered a few posts on the nature of the Atonement and the Christus Victor view. The following continues this theme, specifically looking the motif of spiritual warfare and how it relates to Christ’s work on the cross. This is an adaptation from Greg’s article in The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views. …