"The Day the Revolution Began" - Wright or wrong? (7)

Chapter 5

Now this is much better! I was wondering if I was going to be writing critical stuff all the way along, something I had no interest in doing. Thankfully that is not going to be the case.

In this chapter Wright does several things, most importantly is to look at the cross in the light of all of the Old Testament, and looking at the Old Testament (and beyond) as part of a single story. He points out that the Old Testament is in one sense frustratingly incomplete. It contains many great promises, but they are never really fulfilled. Looking at the whole we are left hanging at the end of Malachi, or 2 Chronicles if the Hebrew Bible order is used. In the Pentateuch Deuteronomy end not with Israel in the Promised Land, but on the verge of going in. He also points out that man was created with a great purpose, that Israel was formed with a great purpose, and that the cross is about enabling us to be the royal priesthood that God always intended us to be. With all this I wholeheartedly agree, and we all (meaning me, you and every other Christian) need to have a much greater appreciation of the greatness of the purpose for which God created us, and for which He has saved us. And that purpose starts now.

Wright also talks about sin and idolatry again, but does so from what, in my opinion, is a much more useful stand point. He rightly says that sin is much more than just doing, or not doing, certain things, and links idolatry and sin much more closely. This is excellent and true. He also makes a very valuable point when he says that if we talk to the world about “sin” they really don’t know what we are talking about. Saying Jesus died for our sins (as indeed He did) is true, but means so little, or may even mean the wrong thing altogether, to much of the world. This is indeed a problem, and one that we as the church need to grapple with.

So a much more enjoyable chapter, both to read and to write about.

Let me make a couple of observations on the topics. I come from the charismatic tradition. Yes there are loonies in the charismatic stream of the church, but most are actually normal people! One of the theological strengths of the charismatic stream is that it definitely sees God’s kingdom as having an impact now. This is perhaps part of the reason why the first four chapters of this book frustrated me so much, with me thinking “I may have many problems, but the one you keep going on about isn’t one of them!”. Secondly, the problem of how we communicate the (biblical) meaning of sin to the world. Perhaps we need to focus so much more on the wonderful purpose for which God has created us.