I am currently serving as an evaluator for an accreditation association, reviewing the self-study reports of three institutions. While I can’t say reading college catalogs, self-study reports, and other similar material is particularly exciting, I can say that it is informative!
One of the places I found myself stopping and re-reading a couple of times was one college’s policy on “transfer of credit.” There is no way a prospective student, wanting to transfer credit from another college to this particular one, would ever gain the slightest idea of how credits transferred from one college to another. I hope their registrar has a law degree of some type to aid in the interpretation of language.
It dawned on me that it was at least a possibility that this college wasn’t the only place in the world that makes “transfer” so complicated. But also got me to thinking about whether or not we have the “transfer” conversations we ought to in the church. And I’m not talking about “transfer of membership” from Church A to Church B.
In one of those wonderful lines for Colossians, Paul puts “transfer” in the Christian vocabulary. Here’s what he says, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” (Colossians 1:13, 14 NASB)
One can hardly read Scripture without thinking the God is a “rescuing God.” The word rescue in this verse surely harkens to the story of the Exodus, the paradigm story for God and His relationship to His people. We tell the story of “rescue” pretty well. “Come to Jesus and get saved from your sins.” “Become a Christian and escape the punishment of hell.” You can hear that kind of sentiment in lots of what passes for “the Christian witness” in our culture.
But I’m not sure Paul would be pleased that we tend to stop there. Both of these verbs, “rescue” and “transferred” describe something God has done in Christ. They inseparably describe something God has made potentially true for all humans. When we take advantage of the “rescue” and the “transfer” – we “are having redemption, the forgiveness of our sins.” Taking advantage of what God has already done makes it possible for us to make “redemption” the daily story of our lives.
But it isn’t just a rescue operation, it is also a “transfer.” From the domain of darkness to the kingdom of His beloved son kind of transfer. Jerry Sumney, in his commentary on Colossians, summarizes the implication of these words by saying, “One’s allegiance must shift to the king of a new realm. This requires the believer to relativize all other allegiances and commitments. Allegiances to family, city, nation, empire, and all aspects of life must now be evaluated through the values of the kingdom in which that believer has now been made a citizen. This is a dramatic shift in identity, a shift that brings blessings and that grounds the responsibilities to live worthily.” (New Testament Library: Colossians, page 58)
But, despite what seems to be so obvious in this (and many other) text, we seem to talk about Jesus in rescue mode only, forgetting that the rescue operations of God always have destinations in mind. After all, God didn’t call Moses to just get the children of Israel out of Egypt! They had a destination – and perhaps their reluctance to obey God in a way that would get them to the destination is a paradigm for us as well.
Gabe Lyons, in his book The Next Christians, speaks to this issue when he says, “the next Christians believe that Christ’s death and Resurrection were not only meant to save people from something. He wanted to save Christians to something. . . .redemption is the beginning of our participation in God’s work of restoration in our lives and in the world. Understanding that one idea literally changes everything.” (page 53)
It is more than amazing to realize that God is a God who rescues. Perhaps even more amazing that He wants me to be a part of “the kingdom of His beloved Son.” In the rescue and transfer, there is redemption!
Let’s talk the whole story!
No comments:
Post a Comment